22
THE ASIATIC EPIDEMIC OF 1817-21.
its height in the town), encamping outside its walls about a mile to the west. They continued their march to the north-west on the 30th, and on the 31st the epidemic appeared among them. On the 6th of August they joined the force at Hansi, and almost 'immediately afterwards cholera broke out among the entire brigade, and accompanied them to Futtihabad, Rhauncea, and Sirseea. It was the general belief among the medical officers serving with this force that the troops from Delhi had brought the cholera with them, and propa- gated it through the general camp at Hansi.* Another case of a similar nature occurred among the troops composing the central division of this force. The army having crossed the Jumna on the 28th of October, left a body of troops to defend the bridge-of-boats. On the 29th cholera broke out among the men com- posing this guard. Oii the 9th of November the detachment joined the army at Terayt, and immediately afterwards the disease was first observed in camp ; and in further proof of the communicability of the virus, it is affirmed that the previously healthy villages around the camp became infected from the diseased army.f
Mr, Jameson traces the cholera on as far as Seha- runpore, where, he says, the " high ridge of mountains, which in other quarters proved hostile to its propaga- tion, here opposed its further progress, and saved the inhabitants of trhe hilly district from a scourge which, in their circumstances of poverty and nakedness, would probably have proved exceedingly fatal to them." This inference was of course drawn from the information at Mr. Jameson's command when he wrote his report; but it is to be observed that eighteen
- Jameson's ' Report on Cholera.'
t Idem, p. cxl,
