Page:The Galaxy, Volume 6.djvu/402

372 marsh. Artificial irrigation and sewerage are deftly carried on by means of open sluices and drains; while the hospitals and barracks are not only conveniently placed near the largest and filthiest of these ditches, but also on very low ground, considerably beneath the bed of the sewers, so that there is a constant leakage and soakage of filthy fluids into the lower stories of these buildings.

This is the only route by which cholera escapes into Central Asia, ravages Persia and Independent Tartary, and reaches Russia.

Cabul is the first great town in Central Asia, over the border, and to the north-west of Hindostan. It is the grand centre of the trade between Persia, Central Asia, and Russia on the one side, and India on the other.

Although Cabul is called the "City of One Hundred Thousand Gardens," parts of it are exceedingly filthy; and cholera gathers fresh strength there, especially when brought by the Lohanee Afghans, who employ no less than 8,000 men, 10,000 oxen of transport, and 30,000 camels in the trade between Cabul and India. All of these reach Cabul early in June, in time to dispatch their investments to Balkh and Bokhara, in Central Asia, on the one hand, and to Herat and Persia on the other. Cholera is often brought up to Cabul from Hurdwar and other parts of India, by these great caravans; and from thence carried on to Persia, Central Asia, Independent Tartary, and to Russia. Thus the cholera of 1817, which commenced low down the Ganges, near Calcutta, in August, died out in Northern India in the fall. It recommenced there in the spring of 1818, and arrived in Afghanistan in the autumn, where it soon ceased, but broke out again in the spring of 1819, and reached Cabul. It traversed the northern part of Persia in 1820, and arrived at its capital, Teheran, about seventy miles below the foot of the Caspian Sea, in 1821. From Teheran it was forwarded up to Astrakhan in Russia, situated near the mouth of the Volga, where it debouches into the northern end of the Caspian, in 1823.

The epidemic of 1827 reached Cabul in the spring of 1828, and was carried on to Teheran in the fall of the same year. Its further western progress was arrested at Teheran by the approach of winter; but it reappeared there in the middle of June, 1829, and was again carried up to Astrakhan, both in July, 1829, and August, 1830.

A branch of the same epidemic also passed from Cabul to Balkh in the spring of 1828, and arrived at Bokhara in the fall of the same year. It broke out in Khiva in the spring of 1829, and was carried from thence to Orenburg, on the Ural River, in Russia, in August, 1829.

The great pandemic of 1844 reached Afghanistan from the north-western provinces of India, coming up from Hurdwar and Lahore, and again reached Cabul early in June. One column of the disease was carried to Herat in July, and to Mesched in September, where it died out in the fall and winter. It reappeared at Teheran and Asterabad almost simultaneously in May, 1845, from whence it was again carried up to Astrakhan in Russia. The other column was forwarded from Cabul to Balkh in August, 1844; reached Bokhara in September, and reappeared at Khiva in the spring of 1845, from whence it was again carried to Orenburg. The epidemic of 1851 reached Bokhara and Khiva in 1853. That of 1867 arrived at both places in the fall of the same year.