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Cholera in the Bengal Province in 1880.
The total rainfall for the year is 7214 inches.
These diagrams and statements show that the seasons of greatest and
least prevalence of cholera in 1880 corresponded very nearly with its seasonal
distribution in the five years from 1875 to 1879 inclusive, in Bengal Proper,
Bihar, and Chota Nagpur, but not in Orissa, where the uniformity is marred
by marked differences, which are probably attributable to the presence or
absence of pilgrims in this division of the province. In 1880 cholera affected
less than half the area that was affected by the disease in 1879, and it pre-
vailed on the whole more extensively during the first half of the year than
during the second half, in which latter the abatement is most marked, whilst
the usual autumnal exacerbation of the disease commenced a month later
than is ordinarily the case, viz. in November instead of in October.
Excluding local epidemic outbreaks of cholera, the general incidence
of the disease in the province as a whole during 1880 may be thus summed up.
In Bengal Proper.-The declining epidemic of 1879 was continued into
the earlier part of 1880 in its eastern, southern, and western districts, with
the exception only of Noakhalli, and in the area covered by them cholera
continued to prevail with more or less severity up to June, after which
month the disease gradually subsided, and its autumnal revival was promi-
nently marked only in the southern districts of central Bengal, its prevalence
in the remaining districts being mild. In Bihar, contrary to the experience
of 1879, there was very little cholera in severe form, Champaran, Muzaffar-
pur, and Shahabad, where it prevailed from March to June, being the only
districts that show this tendency. In Orissa, as in the preceding year,
cholera prevailed in very severe form almost throughout the year in all the
three districts of the division. In Chota Nagpur, which suffered epidemically
in 1879, there was a marked immunity from cholera in 1880, the only
district in which the disease was severe being Singbhum, where it prevailed
during February to May.
In connection with the influence of rainfall on the prevalence and fatality
of cholera, it is to be observed that in 1880 the rainfall of the year (7214
inches) was not only excessive, but was also considerably larger in amount
than that of 1879 (6572 inches), as well as that which represents the average
of several preceding years (6498 inches), and further, that with this
excessive rainfall a correspondingly great abatement of cholera prevalence
and mortality has taken place as compared not only with 1879, but also