South Australian Register (Adelaide, SA : 1839 - 1900), Tuesday 15 October 1861, page 3


INDIA.

'We publish a few interesting items ot news from our files of the Friend of India to the 5th September :— « nnoLERA ix the North- W est.— For six

weeks have this terrible epidemic raged, till now it covers very nearly the area of the famine dUtriets, extending from Benares on the east to Dehra Ghazee Khan oa the west, a«d reaching south as far as Agra, Gwalior, and N uaserabad. It seems to be creeping up by Cabool into Central Asia, whence if it follows its former track it may find its way into Eurooe. It has numbered among its victims no*t leas than 500 English soldiers, chitfly in Delhi, iEeernt, and Lahore. It has produced its usual effect among large masses of men in causing intense mental depression approaching panic, in producing a state of mind and body which leads to collapse, and becomes its most powerful auxiliary. As a rule the disease ha3 hitherto spared the native, and attacked the European, especially in the neighbourhood of military stations. This is its fifth visitation of the North-Weslem Provinces during the last 20 years. In an instructive paper by Dr. Murray, of Agra, published in the last number of the' ' Indian Annals of Medical Science,' we have an account of the four previous attacks, with the main features of which the present epidemic corresponds. Flowing like a wave along the line of commerce, the ravages of cholera are always confined to the hot and rainy seasons. Iu 1812 it appeared at Cabool in a most virulent form under the name of * Black Death,' and marched south to Indore, which it reached in 1847, disappearing each cold season, till it crossed the Nerbudda, and spent its force in the Deccan. In IS 19, beginning at Indore, the wave again flowed back by exactly the same route, till it rested atUinballa iu 1851. In 1855, starting from its native lair in the low swamps of Bengal, tke third attack passed up the Gangetic valley by Benare3 and Allahabad, and along the base of the Himalaya? as well as by the great commercial route through Agra, Bhurtpore, and Ajmere, to Lahore. In I860 the last outbreak again began in the East, reached Allahabad in the hot season, and Gwalior soon after the first fill of rain, but confined itself to the Agra and Muttra Districts. Again the native troop3 and prisoners escaped, and the English soldiers suffered most. Where quinine ° was administered at an early stage to check the effect of the miasmatic atmosphere of the rainy season the case3 were generally favourable. Drunkenness on the part of the men, which has been more than once recommended in the present case, led to consequent prostration and left them more open to collapse. Cholera is a great and terrible mystery, and in enquiring into it we are everywhere met with inexplicable problems. In the present visitation, for instance, Meean-Metr has suffered most severely, und Anarkullee has been spared. Now the latter was the old cantonment of Lahore, described by medical men as 'a vile hole, a very nuisance upon the face of creation.' The troops were moved to Meean-Meer, where the site and barracks were unexceptionable, and yet the epidemic

has preferred it to Anarsuiiee. -uui it, is surelv impossible that cholera should continue mach longer to elude the search and defy the laws of science, any more than smallpox did. Government, it is said, has resolved to appoint a Commission of Medical and Engineer officers, but such filial efforts will do little good. We believe that several careful observers, stationary at the principal cities, Benares, Allahabad, Cawnpore, Lncknow, Agra, Meerut, Delhi, Umballa, and Lahore, could do more than any Committee moving from place to place. Such a chain of ohseivers, working together and communicating with each other, mfght do something in observing the temperature, the couroe of the wind, the quantity of ozone in the atmosphere, the direction in ?which the epidemic spreads, the rate at which it travels, the classes of people first attacked and the kind of dwellings, the state of their conservancy, ventilation, &c. in which the first cases appear. This is a want in India, and we should be glad to eee all the medical officers in the country combined in carrying out such a system

if observation for years to come, sstul, oil ibis has been done, to a certain extent, espenally in Europe, where they made out accurate maps of the spread of cholera, proved that it travels about as fast as an active pedestrian svould cross a country, and moves principally in the lines of the great rivers and main roads. Some observations on the state of the atmosphere in cholera epidemics have been made in this country. An east wind is especially dreaded when the wind ought to be westerly. In India, as everywhere else, the moat crowded, worst ventilated and drained, and, in all respects, least sanitary places are generally first invaded and suffer most. Except in investigating such questions as these, we know not what a Commission can do. A cordon of stationary observers would certainly effect more. But whatever may be the result of the present enquiry, we trust that henceforth it will be a recognised part of every Burgeon's duty to prepare and forward to head-quarters such observations. In the hands of one officer well qualified for the task the secret mieht be wrested at last from such.

Teturne. 'The investiture of Sir Hugh Hoso with the insignia of the Star of India in Government House on Monday last did not, as a spectacle, come up to the expectations of the public. The ceremony should have taken place, like the last Durbar, in the Marble Hall, instead of in the confined Throne Koom, when the officials and residents of Calcutta who had been invited would have been able to see and hear in comfort We publish the official description of the 'scene. Tkough the brevity of the ceremonial was disappointing, and the want of all ?that heraldic display which in England would have been associated with such an investiture ?was felt, the sight was impressive. Lord Canning was more agitated, and hesitated more in delivering the few words of his address, than

lie has ever been known to ao in me many Durbars fee has held. It was xmfortunate that the sky-blue nlkand velvet robes which the Viceroy, as Grand Master, ought to have worn, and with which he should have invested the Commander-in-Chief, i ' had not arrived, being in the missiDg Galle * steamer. The most impressive part of the dia' play was thus wanting. The insignia of the Order, with which the Knight was u-ve9ted, and which the Viceroy himself wore as Grand Master, consist of a star, a badge, and a collar, the value of which i», as we have before stated, nearly £900. The star is of five points in diamonds resting on blue enamelled ground, -with the motto 'Heaven's light our guide' .circumscribed in brilliants, and the whole sur

rounded by rays ot gold, it is worn on the left breast of the coat. The badge is a cameo portrait of the Queen on a ruby ground, surrounded with a circle in which the motto is in?scribed in rubies. This is surmounted by a ?star of fire points in brilliants, and the whole as attached to a blue ribbon with white edgea to be worn over the right and under the left shoulder. The collar consists of the lotus flower alternating with crossed palm branches, set between two chains of gold, from the centre of which hang3 a badge as above, surmounted by a crown.— Friend of India, August 29. 'The Calcutta Famine Belief Committee have now closed their operations. A meeting of the Committee was held on the 22nd August, when a special vote of thanks was accorded to Mr. H. W- L. Wood for his unceasing exertions as Honorary Secretary ; and also to the Bengal Printing Company foi fttiWtWBly WCttting ftU tiW printing wor

required by the Committee, Tho total amount of subscriptions, both Indian and Home, is re. 9,41,673 of which rs. 689-13-7 consists of bills not yet realized. There ha3 been a sum of rs. 3,59,000 sent to Agra, and rs. 5,75,000 to Lahore. The charges for advertising, &c, amount to rs. 3,953-11-1, and there remains a balance of rs. 7,673-5-9. ' The total amount of donations from London, Liverpool, Manchester, Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Dublin to the Indian Famine Relief Fund is about £145,000. Of this London ha3 sent £106,500. The Rast Goftar, the best of the native journals in Western India, describes a some-what tragic case of resistance to the income tax. The Bhats are a class of strolling bards, beggars, and astrologers combined, who rejoice in the fact that from remotest antiquity they have been exempt from taxation of every kind. To this plea the inexorable Income-tax Assessor could not listen any more than to the better-founded representations of the selfdenying Basel missionaries. He assessed the Bhat village at rs. 450 in all, which fell on individuals at the rate of rs. 4 or 5 per annum. Two thousand men turned out to remonstrate with the Superintendent of Police who ap-peared on the scene. He remained firm, whereupon they cut themselves with knives, cursed the Assessors, bespattering them with their blood, and declared they would rather die than surrender their birthright. When several were apprehended, their wives began to hack their persons, and so severely that several have since died. Up to the last intelli-gence the Bhats still gloried in their refusal. Quiet distraint of their property and land will soon end the tragedy. ' The Kurrachee volunteers, under Captain Brunton, lecently held a rifle-shooting match. They mustered forty strong. At 300 yards, three rounds each, Private F. Jones made 6 points; Sergeant Littler, 4; and Private B. P. Jones, 3. The match was followed by a dinner, at which Major Goldsmid complimented the corps on their firing at short distances and urged the men to perseverance. 'A substitute for crinoline has been discovered, for which Iadie3 are indebted to ' the women of the savage Koo?,' a hill tribe of Arracan. It is described by the Arracan News as 'a very curious dress made of split cane,' and is to be sent to the Great Exhibition.'