Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924073057352).pdf/190

 182 RAE the malarious character of the country, included in the Rae Bareli district, is not established by the large figures of mortality exhibited under this heading. The nature of the soil of the district (which is sand and alluvium on kankar beds) does not favour the production of malaria by retention of moisture, and there exist only small and isolated patches of jungle lands which have not yet been cleared and brought under cultivation. The clevation of the district above the sea about 430 feet, and surface drainage is effected by channels leading to the river Ganges and to the Şai, Naiya, and Loni rivers. Water-bearing strata are reached at an average depth of about 30 feet below the ground level in hot and dry seasons, and at about 12 or 14 feet after wet seasons. Temporary and abundant sources of malaria are in existence annually while rice swamps in the district are drying after the rains, when periodic fevers prevail very generally for two or three months, and prove speedily fatal when of remittent type. During other periods of the year the suffering from such ailments is comparatively inconsiderable. Organic and constitutional derangements, resulting from recurring attacks of fever, come frequently under obscrvation at the dispensary, and often prove intractable. Cattle epidemics.—I learn from the people that extraordinary mortality from disease bas now and then within some years back occurred amongst berds of cattle in particular parganas of the Rae Bareli district. Agricul- turists are familiar with the symptoms of foot and mouth disease which thoy designate " khanj,", "kharha," and "ghurkba." They also speak of another and more formidable contagious ailment of very fatal character to which cattle have at times been subject. This latter disease is known by the nannes "hulka,"" dhumsa," " hijab," " bura-ázár," and is most probably identical in nature with rinderpest. It does not appear that cattle in the district have yet suffered from the extension of cultivation at the expense of the pasture lands. Fairs and religious gatherings.--Bathing fairs at Dalmau and Gokuna, both places with gháts on the banks of the Ganges, are held at every full moon. Usually three or four thousand people collect together on such occasions, but in November when the “Kártik ká nahán mela' is celebrated, about one hundred and fifty thousand people assemble at each of the two gháts. No commercial object is fulfilled by these gatherings. The stream of the Ganges is held sacred, and bathing therein with religious ceremonials the only object of the multitudes. No connection has yet been traced between these assemblages and epidemic attacks in the district. Native system of medical treatment. —The physicians of the country are ignorant of surgery. Their practice is founded on obsolete humoral doctrines of pathology. In the treatment of disease they employ remedies which produce effects that are opposite in nature to the symptoms.