16
THE ASIATIC EPIDEMIC OP 1817-21,
there is no considerable town in the low and humid climate of Bengal that is at present entirely exempt from its operation. The obstruction to ventilation in native towns from rank and luxuriant vegetation powerfully aids the influence of the season, and as this cause may operate in a greater or less degree in different places, the prevalence and fatality of the epidemic will probably be increased or diminished.
"A great alarm seems to have spread itself among the natives of Jessore, which the suspension of public business by the magistrate would not be calculated to check, though there is no doubt, however, that apprehension may aid as well the diffusion as violence of an epidemic; yet it is probable that the consequences arising from that cause may in the present instance have been beneficial, correcting the influence of an overcrowded population."
I have quoted this letter at length, because it appears to me, not only an important document as bearing upon the history of cholera, but also gives us an idea of the recognised dews of the etiology of the disease held, by Indian medical authorities in 1817. It will be observed that the members of the board, who had probably served in this country some twenty years prior to the date of their letter, remark that the disease is the usual epidemic of the season ; we may conclude, therefore, that they were perfectly familiar with its phenomena; but throughout the original corre- spondence, neither the government, the medical board, nor Dr. Tytler mention the epidemic as cholera. Curiously enough, the first notice we have of this fact is in a letter from the magistrate of Calcutta forwarded to government on the 16th of September, 1817. He observes that "a disease is prevalent in
