80
284. On the question of the period occupied by the incubation of cholera,
though precise information is rather wanting, there is sufficient evidence that
the period varies from a few hours to two days. It does not, however, neces-
sarily follow that because a person who has been exposed to the contagion of
cholera does not exhibit symptoms of the disease after a period of two days has
elapsed he is no longer capable of communicating the disease; the contagion,
though it may have no effect on the individual, may continue for a longer period
to cling to his person or clothes.
285. The proportion of deaths to cases according to the returns, was in
Seonee 66 per cent, in Jubbulpore 71.2. These figures probably approximate
the truth; the rate of mortality among persons attacked, however, varies greatly
in different villages. In many that I inspected two or three persons were pointed
out as the sole survivors of from 30 to 40 attacked; in others, as at Ghunsore
(para. 100), the large proportion that recovered had been noticed by the villagers
themselves.
286. The duration of the epidemic in different towns and villages varied
greatly. In the large towns, as in Jubbulpore and Saugor, though it never
assumed any great proportion, it continued to prevail for several months; in the
villages, however, the duration was comparatively short,- some appear to have
passed through the ordeal in from three or four days to a week, but the more
common periods ranged from a fortnight to three weeks.
The town of Mundla in the present year afforded a remarkable instance of
the occasionally rapid rise and decline of cholera. Here, in the first week of
the epidemic the deaths amounted to 13, and in the second week they rose to 80,
in the third the number declined again to 9.
287. In illustration of several of the points above adverted to, I may here
recount the circumstances of an out-break of cholera reported by the Deputy
Commissioner of Chindwara, and verified by him at the time :-
On the 23rd April a woman left the town of Saosur to go to the village of
Jhimillee, 17 miles distant. Cholera had appeared at Saosur previously, and it
is said that the woman herself had shown symptoms of the disease before she
left; at any rate she arrived at Jhilmillee shortly before sunset with the disease
fully developed. She did not enter the village, but lay down at a well 50 yards
outside, where she died. The Kotwal buried her that night, and the next day
he, his son, and his daughter were all seized and died in a few hours. On the
same and following days (24th and 25th) 29 persons were attacked, of whom 27
died on these dates. On the 26th a general flight from the village took place, and
it does not appear that any died subsequently. On the 27th the Malgoozar,
who lived in another village, hearing of the out-break, went to enquire, when he
found the village deserted, with the exception of two women who were ill, and
who died that night. He at once reported the matter to the Police. On the
30th the Circle Inspector, with a Native Doctor sent by the Deputy Commis-
sioner, arrived, and found that the people had returned; and no case had occurred
since their return. The Inspector described the village as in a very filthy state;
the only water which the villagers used was that of the well at which the women
leakage from a sink drain and the soil pipe of the water closet. The contamination of the well water was not of
recent date. Early in June the head of the family had consulted a medical practitioner in London, he was then
suffering from obstinate indigestion and irregularity of bowels, particularly a desire to go to stool immediately after
taking food, and his health had been disordered for months. As the wife and her mother were suffering from the
same symptoms, the medical practitioner suspected the water used by the family might be impure, and on a specimen
being subjected to chemical analysis this was found to be the case. Notwithstanding this discovery, the faith of
the family in the goodness of the water was not shaken, and they persisted in its use till the out-break of cholera.
On the recommendation of their medical adviser, the head of the family and his wife had visited Weymouth; it
would appear, however, from the former having suffered from an attack of bowel-complaint shortly before leaving
Weymouth, that the change had not been sufficiently continued to remove the effects of the long continued use of
impure water, and it would appear also that in consequence of the extreme susceptibility to cholera produced by
this cause, that the pair had become infected with the disease while passing through Southampton.