148

Report on Kála-ázar.

it is remembered that outbreaks of such diseases as
cholera and plague, which have an incubation of period of
only a few days, and which are so rapidly fatal as to
immediately attract attention, are yet not unfrequently
impossible to trace to their original source, it is not surprising
that it has been found difficult hitherto to conclusively prove
the communicability of Kála-ázar, although I have met
very few in Assam who were not perfectly convinced that
it is so.

     In the course of my earlier travels in Assam, I every now-
and-then met with instances in which the history of infection
seemed to be very clear, and which encouraged me to hope
that a systematic inquiry into this part of the subject would
produce interesting and very valuable results. A tour was
accordingly undertaken through certain parts of the Now-
gong, Mangaldai, and Tezpur districts, that is, those which
had most recently been attacked by the epidemic, in order
to test this point, and it may be said at once that I was much
astonished with the frequency with which a clear history of
the introduction of the disease by means of human intercourse
could be obtained, and still more by the remarkable way in
which the villagers very often recognised the first case, which
occurred amongst them, as something quite different from
anything they had previously experienced within the memory
of the oldest. In the great majority of villages, in which
either the headman or a relation of the first case of the
disease could be questioned, a clear history was obtained.
This will be best illustrated by the narration of a morning's
work, and then instances which illustrate the various ways in
which the disease is spread, and other points of importance,
will be given.

   A morning's iniquiries in
Some affected villages.

     In the course of a five hours' tramp around six villages
near Lunka, in the south-east corner
of the Nowgong district, the following
results were obtained. As far as possible, leading questions
were avoided, and it was generally only necessary, after