Note on the epidemic connection of the cholera of Madras and Bombay with the cholera epidemics of the Bengal Presidency. / By James L. Bryden.

  • Bryden, James L. (James Lumsdaine), 1833-1880.
Date:
1871
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Note on the epidemic connection of the cholera of Madras and Bombay with the cholera epidemics of the Bengal Presidency. / By James L. Bryden. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

    7/38 (page 3)
    I showed how, as in many other epidemics, the epidemic leap of May 1859, dei'ived from the great endemic cholera of 1858, occupied all the districts south of the Jumna, entering- the Banda district on 7th May and the town on the 16th. Mr. Cornish takes up the narrative and tells us how in May 1859 the same cholera reached Bombay, and how in May 1859 a fresh invading cholera struck Hyderabad in the Deccan with exceeding force, the mortality being so appalling that to this day the cholera is remembered by the inhabitants as one of the severest visitations that ever afflicted them. All of this means that the one emanation of cholera from the endemic area had touched the eastern and western extremities of the great natural limit formed by influences from the north-west of India moving down to oppose those coming from the east at this date, which I have described (p. 96 of report) as Jameson's curved line of the spring cholera of 1818. As in May 1818 (see Scott's map), this May cholera of 1859 was universal to the south, the curved line forming the northern boundary of a natural area stretching far to the south and reaching from sea to sea. Mr. Cornish says— It is somewhat strange that a cholera map should have been drawn for 1859 so as to show a complete exemption of the western and southern tracts, the more especially as it is evident from the report that Dr. Bryden was acquainted with the fact of the invasion of Bombay in that year. The map in question is wholly misleading.'' I am quite ready to admit that the map in question shows only half the truth ; and Mr. Cornish satis- factorily explains the deficiency. It would seem probable, he says, that Dr. Bryden's data being too limited for the purpose, failed to inform him of the south-western progress of cholera in 1859. The sketch was designed for the Bengal Presidency only, and I could find no data on which to colour in the Central Provinces along with the valley of the Ganges. I wrote thus—As far as our records inform us, cholera did not invade Nagpore or any station of the Central Provinces in 1859, certainly as an epidemic cholera did not visibly cover these pi'ovinces before March 1860 in succession to the invasion of March 1856. This sentence was written in the first pages of my report (page 23). But while the work was passing through the press, I set myself to investigate further the facts which seemed to be deficient; and finally I had the satisfaction of recording the parallel which I wished to draw between 1859 and 1868. I appended to the map which Mr. Cornish has copied, the supplementary information required for its correction; and in copying the map Mr. Cornish ought to have alluded to the explanation attached to it. The following is my note (page Ixxiv of Appendix, facing the cholera map of 1859), which shows that I anticipated the very facts which Mr. Cornish has produced— The cases at Ajmere were indicative of the movement of the invading cholera of the year on the northern epidemic highway. The cases returned from the jails of Central India evidently mark the progress of the same invading cholera on the southern epidemic highway j and although our indices are so trifling, it is certain that this was the same cholera which reached Bombay in May (see Table, page 115), as in 1818,* and which was widely spread throughout the Bombay Presidency towards the end of 1859, as in 1868. The movement of May was universal from the east as far as to Humeerpore and Jaloun, and I find that premo- nitory cases were thrown out beyond this western limit into the Gwalior District, for two admissions and a death occurred at Gwalior on May 6th among the men of the Bombay Artillery. T/iis loas the norlheni margin of tlte tract occupied in the movement of Mai/, and we may infer that the cholera moving from the east in this month covered as an aura or in substance the entire epidemic tract between Chota Nagpore and Bombaij ; the very early appearance of cholera as far west as Nimar in the first days of March 1860 causes me to conclude that this cholera was revitalised from the cholera of December 1859, and was not a cholera primarily invading from the east in that month. I repeat that to a true theory every imperfection of record is a loss, not a gain; for not one iota of fact will be out of place in the general harmony provided we know where to place 9. One other observation calls for remark. In the description of the cholera of 1863 the following occurs (page 22)— Dr. Bryden holds that the The significance of the date at which invading cholera of the Central Provinces did not reach Bombay is inva<ied, a portion of the Bombay until December; but it must be remembered that this general inquiry, and of no consequence •> ' i • t i i when viewed standing alone. gentleman supports a theory that invading cholera cannot move against a monsoon wind, and this may explain, perhaps, why the month of December has been pitched upon as the month of a new invasion. The ascertained mortality in the town of Bombay certainly does not warrant the idea of a new invasion of Bombay in December 1863, but points rather to the certainty that the cholera influence was in power there much earlier in the year, at the period in fact when cholera appeared in the Central Provinces. If it be a fact that cholera can cross the peninsula of India * Meaning the May cliolera of Mhow, Western Malwa, and Guzerat. f We find this argument applied even to tlie beautifully perfect details which I have brought together regarding the epidemic of 1869. It is alleged that !:hese details may not be true, because the record for the general popuhitiou is imperfect. Scientifically viewed, the data for the general population of the invaded area of 1869 were complete; so complete, that no one with a knowledge of India and Indian cholera could doubt the fact of their being perfect so far as to admit of accurate ^nd scientific conclusions being drawn from them. Absolute completeness would have tended only to consolidate the truths plainly marked in the data as they stand. The task of the scientific inquirer becomes easy, not difficult, in proportion to the completeness of the data for elaboration afforded to him.