188

Report on Kála-ázar.

the spread of the epidemic when it reached the laterite and
rocky soil of Midnapur and Western Beerbhoom, respectively.
The former remains to be illustrated by abstracts from the
accounts of the epidemic.

     In 1872, Dr. French, after recording it as his opinion
that the disease was an intense form of a malarial fever, which
local conditions were not sufficient to account for, writes—

     "There is one thing certain about the fever,—it progresses
steadily, although slowly; in some years it has come east and south-
east, regularly west and north-west; it has followed like a rolling
wave, the chief roads and lines of communication; and it is steadily
going on to the west and north-west."

And he compares it with the epidemic fever in the Mauritius
of 1866-67.

     In 1875, the Civil Surgeon of Serampore (in the Hooghly
district) writes—

     "There is no doubt that the fever seems to follow the tracks of
the main and branch roads of the district originating at Jehanabad, on
the other side of the Damuda; the disease can be distinctly traced
along the old Benares road, which ends at Sulkea above Howrah.
There is no doubt that the fever has been carried along this road
to Howrah."

     And he illustrates these remarks by a map. Dr. Barker,
of Beerbhoom, considers that—

     "the fever could not have been generated where it prevailed, but
must have been introduced from Bardwan either through intercourse
or the atmosphere."

     And again—

     "These insanitary conditions came about very gradually; and
as until recently the health of the people has been good, they cannot
be said to be the existing causes of the epidemic, although they may
be predisposing causes. It is hard to disassociate oneself from the
early teachings of science, but facts are stubborn things, and plainly
point to the fever being communicable."

     In Midnapore the Civil Surgeon, Dr. Mathews, did not
agree with Dr. Jackson that the fever is propagated by human
intercourse.

     "He instances the town of Midnapore, where hundreds of people