222 Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. [Oct. 



to regard this as an impossibility, the more so because Dr. Macnamara 

 had actually succeeded, by most conscientious manipulation, in dis- 

 covering at one time of the year, 12 grains to the gallon in 

 the water at Cossipore. Dr. Smith observed that when he only 

 thought of all the possible and actual sources of impurity in this 

 river, the impossibility alluded to by Mr. Waldie vanished entire- 

 ly from his mind. We must remember, he said, the incalcula- 

 bly vast sources of vegetable and animal adulteration occurring in 

 the whole previous course of so large an Indian river. We must 

 think of all its tributaries, and of the thousands of nullahs that carried 

 into it pollution of every conceivable kind — dead and putrid animals, 

 decaying vegetation and waste matter from populations covering vast 

 areas. We must think of the contamination arising from the shipping 

 alone, at and near Calcutta. We must recall the fact of there being, 

 at the present moment, such things as floating Latrines for thousands 

 of our famine-stricken paupers who find shelter close to the river bank. 

 We must think of the twenty-two sewers that disgorge themselves into 

 the river between Chitpore and Hastings' Bridge, and this within a 

 tidal influence by which much of the impurity is kept in a state of 

 oscillation and not effectually carried away by the current. Besides 

 this, we must remember that very vast quantities of night-soil are de- 

 posited daily in the Hooghly, the quantity being 180 tons daily.* If 

 we think of all these impurities and couple them with the tropical condi- 

 tions of heat and moisture in which they are found, it appeared to Dr. 

 Smith not only not impossible, but even highly probable that there should 

 be as much as 5 grains of organic impurity in each gallon of the water. 

 Indeed the possibility might be said to resolve itself into a certainty, when 

 we remember that Dr. Macnamara actually succeeded in discovering 

 twelve grains to the gallon. Dr. Smith thought we were also justified 

 in holding to a belief in such possibilities by collateral knowledge. 

 He said it was well known that where organic impurities abound, 

 Diarrhoea, Dysentery, Epidemic Fever and Cholera likewise abound. 

 Here on the banks of the Hooghly they are rife ; and much careful 

 observation went to prove, beyond a doubt, that the excess of 

 sickness from the diseases named arose from the fact of excessive 



* In the actual discussion Dr. Smith had erroneously stated the amount 

 at 180,000 tons. Ilencc JJabu liajendra Lai Miter's remark see page 225. 



