Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 26.djvu/771

Rh for each month of the year. This journal, extending over so many years, must give a good idea of the frequency of cholera in pilgrimage, even though the numbers be but small. The principal feasts, when the chariot of the deity is drawn over the breasts of the faithful, occur in the middle of March, but the period at which cholera is at its height is in June, when the number of pilgrims assembled is much smaller. Altogether there were three hundred and thirteen cases in March during twenty-five years, while the number was eleven hundred and fifty-five for June—or nearly four times as many admissions for cholera into the hospitals. Puri lies on the southwest border of the territory where cholera is endemic, and has the same rhythm so far as cholera is concerned as Madras. Hardwar lies in the northwest of India, where the chief feast occurs in April, the principal day being the 12th, and often hundreds of thousands of pilgrims, if not millions, stream together here; yet cholera only breaks out in an epidemic form when the regions are predisposed to it. It will be interesting to go further into detail on this question. Hardwar is situated about one thousand feet above the level of the sea, where the Ganges quits the Himalayas, and belongs to the holiest of places which the Hindoos worship. Cholera only occurs occasionally in an epidemic form. In the last century (1783) a severe epidemic was known to have occurred among the pilgrims at Hardwar. From 1858 to 1867 the feasts passed on without the occurrence of any epidemic of cholera, and this immunity was believed to be due to the soundness of the arrangements which were enforced by the Government. In 1867 the whole prophylactic armor was thrown aside. But already in November, 1866, an epidemic of cholera was approaching the neighborhood of Hardwar from Agra. The pilgrims began to arrive at Hardwar on April 1st. On April 3d the majority had assembled, although the stream of pilgrims continued to increase till the 12th. The whole number of pilgrims reached about three million. On April 9th the first case of cholera was detected by Dr. Kindall, and taken into hospital. Other cases soon followed. On April 12th, on holy-day, the pilgrims bathed from sunrise to sunset in the Ganges, in a holy fort which is separated from the torrent of the river by a rail, so that the people could not be drowned. Through this fort there was an incessant movement of men all day long. The water became thick and muddy, partly from the ashes of the dead which the pilgrims had brought with them to strew in the stream, and partly from the washing of the clothes and persons of the bathers. Every time a pilgrim entered the holy fort he dipped himself three times under, drinking the water and saying his prayers. The drinking of the water was never forgotten; if two or more members of a family bathed together, each one drank from the palm of another's hand. All these things happened every year for eight years without ill consequences. But in 1867 a violent epidemic broke out among the pilgrims. Macnamara, a believer in contagium