The Natural History of Hardwar Fair Cholera Outbreaks

Before 1892 observation had definitely associated the outbreak of cholera at Hard war with but one condition?the overcrowding at Kumbh fairs. The only two epidemics of the thirty-four, years 1858?91,1 had fallen on two of the three Kumbh years of that period, and these were the only two occasions on which the crush was especially remarkable.2 The estimated attendance of pilgrims in 18G7 was 1,250,000; in 1879, 500,000 or G00,000.3 At the third Kumbh Mela, 1891, the number of pilgrims, 269,345, was scarcely larger than at the Adh Kumbh of 1885, where it was 262,621. There can be little doubt that the holy water drunk at and carried away from these gatherings constitutes the only possible means of such immediate and general spread of the cholera poison as was seen in 1867 j1 for example, that is to say, the excessive crowding of bathers at the two greater Kumbh Mel as must be regarded as having in some way helped in rendering the water of the sacred pool or of the Bhim Ghora ta,nk, or of both, an efficient