view that the remains may be
rivers.'
swept
down
by
rain to the sacred
" The long-looked for rains set in at last in the middle of July, and the ryots were enabled to plough their fields. Tliey had lost their cattle and plough bullocks ; wherefore making small ploughs expressly for the purpose, they yoked themselves in in the grain as the place of their oxen, and women
dropped laboriously turned the furrow. Only one ploughing was given, and a few thorns in place of harrows were dragged over the furrows to scratch the earth over the grain. So precious men
camels and bullocks at this time for agricultural operaa day was the rate of hire for a camel ploughing, and Rs. 4 a day for a pair of bullocks. "A breadth of land, equal to lialf the usual was sown. were
tions, that Rs. 3
quantity, grain everywhere sprouted splendidly, and all reckoned famine had that the passed, when another scourge visited the country in the shape of locusts. They entered Marwar from Jeysulmere at the end of May, and laid their eggs in every direction. These hatched as the rains set in, and by the end of August the young locusts had spread over the whole famine tract, laying fresh eggs wherever there was sand. The broods from these eggs appeared early in September, and moving in dense masses backwards and forwards, destroyed every living thing in their way. Crops were eaten down, so that the ground had the appearance of never having been sown. By degrees the locusts got their wings, and flew hither and thither over the country, devouring the ripening grain winch the broods had spared. Each swarm, of which there must have been hundreds in Rajpootana, settled every night, covered every green plant The
RFMARKS ON DR. LYONS' "TREATISE ON RELAPSING OR FAMINE FEVER." Bv W. J. Moore, L.R C.P., Surgeon-Major, Rajpootana Political Agency, and Superintendent-General of Dispensaries and Vaccination, Rajpootana. '
[Continued from
of
page 171
)
The commencement of the second famine year, the occurrence cholera, the return of the emigrants, the late fall of rain, the
appearance of the locusts, and the visitation of fever, is thus graphically described by Colonel Brooke in his history of the famine in Rajpootana:? The hot season of 18G9 was unusually protracted. In 1868 an intercalary month had been added to the lunar year, by which the natives reckon the months, and the emigrants expected that the rains woidd consequently set. in early. They wished to be at their homes in time for ploughing operation-? after the first fall of rain. They consequently started for Marwar towards the end of May. When they crossed the borders, however, they found the hot winds still blowing furiously, and no the cloudless sky. In their depression appearance of rain in and they rushed back again to attacked were cholera, by they the countries which had given them shelter. Their bootless
area of 12 or 15 square miles, and left it bare as flew away in the morning. The loss to the country by the locusts was about 75 per cent, of the crop, which originally was only a half crop. " Usually locusts confine their ravages to Marwar and Bickaneer, but in 1869 they spread over Ajmere, Kishengurh, over an
they
"
march into selves
or
a
land where
there
their cattle inflicted
was a
no
Tonk, and the northern part of Meywar. The same complaint was everywhere heard, that the locusts had destroyed from one-quater to three-quarters of a splendid harvest, and that another year of to be endured.
loss both on them-
the favorable season to
border tribes did all
they could to prevent their crossing. At Jeysulmere they were supplied with food outside the city, and made to pass on. On the return of the emigrants to Malwa and Guzerat, they found that the rains had commenced. They conjectured the same of their own land, and made a second attempt to reach their homes. On crossing the Aravalli Mountains into Marwar, to their horror, the same state of things existed as when they had left it, and a second time they were forced to flee. Their sufferings were now most pitiable. Disappointed twice in their expectations, their cattle mostly dead, and their means exhausted, they lay down to die by the road
taking back but few of the cattle They brought down, numbers having died; and from all I can learn, though in such distress, they receive little commiseration from the native authorities, tolls being exacted from them. When going down, some complained to me that they were detained to on the salt they were taking with them for their pay a heavy tax cattle. Numbers of theeo people die by the way. Some are left to bo devoured by dogs, and others are buried a few inches below the surface of the ground, and always in nullah beds, in home.
lie said?'
A
were
so
bad
as
the
former,
had
"
selves and their herds. Those who returned to Scinde introduced cholera into that country, notwithstanding that the
side and on the banks of tanks and nullahs in every direction. Mnjor-General Montgomery wrote, that they would not remain at Neemuch, or accept of work, as they were bent on returning
not
Following famine, cholera and locusts came another visitation, still more fatal to human life than any of the others. A terrible fever struck down the entire population. It so prostrated the people, that grain, spared by the locusts, could with difficulty be housed, and advantage could not be taken of
sustenance for them-
frightful
famine, though
sow
the rulbee harvest in time.
All
sickly, the old men and half-starved children, debilitated by famine, were early carried off. In some cases, especially along the bank of streams, half the population died of fever, whilst the inland deserts enjoyed a comparative immunity. The bulk of the population, however, live near the was very great. course of streams, and hence the mortality The deaths by fever alone may be" put down at 20 per cent, of the weak and
the entire
,
population."
Here, then, is additional and undoubted evidence, that fever did prevail (as previously made apparent from my own report in Rajpootana on the medical institutions) during 1869. And, doubtless, Dr. Lyons woidd assert the fever to have been relapsing. But to this conclusion I must object. Colonel Brooke
expressly
states the fever
was
especially prevalent along
the banks of streams, while the inland semi-desert districts
a comparative immunity?facts altogether opposed to assumption that the disease was " relapsing fever," for the neighbourhood of streams were exactly the localities where food was more abundant; the other districts, the places where food was least abundant, and where therefore, if the epidemic were true famine fever, it should have been most severe. But the questiou of the disease beiug rolapsing fever, or
enjoyed the
THE INDIAN MEDICAL GAZETTE.
204
sight of professionally. Repeated inquiduring the very period into this subject, and the results showing a remarkable concordance may be stated in the following quotations from my report on the dispensaries of Rajpootana for the year 1869.?(Gazette of India, July 1S70 ) "Before leaving the subject of the influence of want or not lost
otherwise,
was
ries
made
were
famine
disease, I must remark
on
on
the entire absence of
relapsing fever, the hunger pest" of Europe. On this head I have made particular enquiries throughout the famine ; and accumulated experience is against the existence of this peculiar type of fever. famine
"
"
or
Thus Dr.
Compigne, Beaur, Dr.
famine fever
'
wrote:
Harvey, Bhurtpore
:
'
I
No
have case
seen
of
no
relaps-
fever has come under my notice Dr. Martin, Deesa: type of fever has always been typhoid, never relapsing Dr. Galloway, Oodeypoor: 'No cases of relapsing fever have ' I come under my observationDr. Eddowes, Erinpoorah : Dr. all at here have not seen any famine (relapsing) fever
ing '
The
Newman, Joudhpoor in its type to famine
:
'
or
I have heard of
relapsing fever;'
110
disease
Dr.
approaching
Miller,
Nusseera-
I have not met with any case of famine or relapsing fever.' The replies of the native doctors are also to the same effect. Colonel Brooke also mentions that in Marwar, where bad
'
:
more than ordinarily prevalent, it was not confined ill-fed, and that it was more severe along the line of the Loonee' River, thus evidencing its malarious character. In this locality one-fourth of the population are reported to have died. The above information regarding famine or relapsing fever appears tome of great importance. It corroborates the assertion of the greatest living authority 011 fevers (Murchison),that famine It also agrees with or relapsing fever does not occur in India. experience of former famines in this country, after which this form of fever has never been known to prevail. It also tends considerably towards negativing the opinions held by so many, that the contagious fever afllioting the prisons of the NorthWest and Punjaub, from 1SG0 to 1867, was simply a famine fever, due to defective diet. Lastly, it leaves a somewhat consolatory reflection, that in a country like India, where so many fatal epidemics are experienced, there is at last one of the most fatal not yet visiting the land. Regarding the subject from a more purely sanitary point of view, the absence of or famine fever is evidence that somo other agent relapsing than want of food is necessary to the development of the disease. Most certainly the amount of distress during the present scarcity has, in many places, been sufficient to establish famine fever, if the malady is caused by this condition alone. But no famine pest has so occurred. Hence, the conclusion that some other agent is necessary to its production. And holding in recollection the circumstances of life of dwellers in India and Europe, it would appear that overcrowding is essential to the excitation of relapsing fever. In the latter country, the climate induces the poor to congregate in ill ventilated dwellings. In India the inhabitants live more in the open air especially the majority of those suffering from scarcity, who, adopting a nomadic life, wander off to other localities, where they live pretty much sub-jove."
fever has been to
the
?
I do not, of course, expect to convince Dr. Lvons. I simply facts, from which others are as able as myself to draw conclusions. I regard the malady prevailing in Rajpootana, during the second year of the famine, as so-called malarious fever, and so, it would appear, did all the other medical officers state
serving
in the
the fever moie
t.ie
as
province, the
virulent and
people
indirectly been the
it
caused same
who gave an opinion. And I regard autumnal fever, rendered infinitely
ordinary
deadly, from
attacked,
the debilitated condition of lhat much of the mortality was
by famine I allow; but that there would havo fever, had there not been the ordinary uialari-
ous
influences
(whatever they
[August 1, may
be)
in
operation,
I
1873.
altogether
question. Neither can Dr. Lyons' supposition, that the measures of relief carried out had the effect of preventing the degree of want necessary for the generation of the disease, be entertained. For, again quoting Colonel Brooke in 1869, "at Ajmere, Tonk, and elsewhere, many besides Mar war emigrants died of starvation. The famine was so fearful, and the distress so widespread, that the population of whole districts gave themselves over to despair, which was itself but a symptom of the disease of starvation. They would not leave their villages and families to seek relief, or left them so late, that they died by the way. To have supported a great country for months at the prices then prevailing, so as to have prevented very pinching distress to the majority, would have required an amount of grain, which was nowhere procurable, nor for which carriage was available." \ J
rivers.'
swept
down
by
rain to the sacred
" The long-looked for rains set in at last in the middle of July, and the ryots were enabled to plough their fields. Tliey had lost their cattle and plough bullocks ; wherefore making small ploughs expressly for the purpose, they yoked themselves in in the grain as the place of their oxen, and women
dropped laboriously turned the furrow. Only one ploughing was given, and a few thorns in place of harrows were dragged over the furrows to scratch the earth over the grain. So precious men
camels and bullocks at this time for agricultural operaa day was the rate of hire for a camel ploughing, and Rs. 4 a day for a pair of bullocks. "A breadth of land, equal to lialf the usual was sown. were
tions, that Rs. 3
quantity, grain everywhere sprouted splendidly, and all reckoned famine had that the passed, when another scourge visited the country in the shape of locusts. They entered Marwar from Jeysulmere at the end of May, and laid their eggs in every direction. These hatched as the rains set in, and by the end of August the young locusts had spread over the whole famine tract, laying fresh eggs wherever there was sand. The broods from these eggs appeared early in September, and moving in dense masses backwards and forwards, destroyed every living thing in their way. Crops were eaten down, so that the ground had the appearance of never having been sown. By degrees the locusts got their wings, and flew hither and thither over the country, devouring the ripening grain winch the broods had spared. Each swarm, of which there must have been hundreds in Rajpootana, settled every night, covered every green plant The
RFMARKS ON DR. LYONS' "TREATISE ON RELAPSING OR FAMINE FEVER." Bv W. J. Moore, L.R C.P., Surgeon-Major, Rajpootana Political Agency, and Superintendent-General of Dispensaries and Vaccination, Rajpootana. '
[Continued from
of
page 171
)
The commencement of the second famine year, the occurrence cholera, the return of the emigrants, the late fall of rain, the
appearance of the locusts, and the visitation of fever, is thus graphically described by Colonel Brooke in his history of the famine in Rajpootana:? The hot season of 18G9 was unusually protracted. In 1868 an intercalary month had been added to the lunar year, by which the natives reckon the months, and the emigrants expected that the rains woidd consequently set. in early. They wished to be at their homes in time for ploughing operation-? after the first fall of rain. They consequently started for Marwar towards the end of May. When they crossed the borders, however, they found the hot winds still blowing furiously, and no the cloudless sky. In their depression appearance of rain in and they rushed back again to attacked were cholera, by they the countries which had given them shelter. Their bootless
area of 12 or 15 square miles, and left it bare as flew away in the morning. The loss to the country by the locusts was about 75 per cent, of the crop, which originally was only a half crop. " Usually locusts confine their ravages to Marwar and Bickaneer, but in 1869 they spread over Ajmere, Kishengurh, over an
they
"
march into selves
or
a
land where
there
their cattle inflicted
was a
no
Tonk, and the northern part of Meywar. The same complaint was everywhere heard, that the locusts had destroyed from one-quater to three-quarters of a splendid harvest, and that another year of to be endured.
loss both on them-
the favorable season to
border tribes did all
they could to prevent their crossing. At Jeysulmere they were supplied with food outside the city, and made to pass on. On the return of the emigrants to Malwa and Guzerat, they found that the rains had commenced. They conjectured the same of their own land, and made a second attempt to reach their homes. On crossing the Aravalli Mountains into Marwar, to their horror, the same state of things existed as when they had left it, and a second time they were forced to flee. Their sufferings were now most pitiable. Disappointed twice in their expectations, their cattle mostly dead, and their means exhausted, they lay down to die by the road
taking back but few of the cattle They brought down, numbers having died; and from all I can learn, though in such distress, they receive little commiseration from the native authorities, tolls being exacted from them. When going down, some complained to me that they were detained to on the salt they were taking with them for their pay a heavy tax cattle. Numbers of theeo people die by the way. Some are left to bo devoured by dogs, and others are buried a few inches below the surface of the ground, and always in nullah beds, in home.
lie said?'
A
were
so
bad
as
the
former,
had
"
selves and their herds. Those who returned to Scinde introduced cholera into that country, notwithstanding that the
side and on the banks of tanks and nullahs in every direction. Mnjor-General Montgomery wrote, that they would not remain at Neemuch, or accept of work, as they were bent on returning
not
Following famine, cholera and locusts came another visitation, still more fatal to human life than any of the others. A terrible fever struck down the entire population. It so prostrated the people, that grain, spared by the locusts, could with difficulty be housed, and advantage could not be taken of
sustenance for them-
frightful
famine, though
sow
the rulbee harvest in time.
All
sickly, the old men and half-starved children, debilitated by famine, were early carried off. In some cases, especially along the bank of streams, half the population died of fever, whilst the inland deserts enjoyed a comparative immunity. The bulk of the population, however, live near the was very great. course of streams, and hence the mortality The deaths by fever alone may be" put down at 20 per cent, of the weak and
the entire
,
population."
Here, then, is additional and undoubted evidence, that fever did prevail (as previously made apparent from my own report in Rajpootana on the medical institutions) during 1869. And, doubtless, Dr. Lyons woidd assert the fever to have been relapsing. But to this conclusion I must object. Colonel Brooke
expressly
states the fever
was
especially prevalent along
the banks of streams, while the inland semi-desert districts
a comparative immunity?facts altogether opposed to assumption that the disease was " relapsing fever," for the neighbourhood of streams were exactly the localities where food was more abundant; the other districts, the places where food was least abundant, and where therefore, if the epidemic were true famine fever, it should have been most severe. But the questiou of the disease beiug rolapsing fever, or
enjoyed the
THE INDIAN MEDICAL GAZETTE.
204
sight of professionally. Repeated inquiduring the very period into this subject, and the results showing a remarkable concordance may be stated in the following quotations from my report on the dispensaries of Rajpootana for the year 1869.?(Gazette of India, July 1S70 ) "Before leaving the subject of the influence of want or not lost
otherwise,
was
ries
made
were
famine
disease, I must remark
on
on
the entire absence of
relapsing fever, the hunger pest" of Europe. On this head I have made particular enquiries throughout the famine ; and accumulated experience is against the existence of this peculiar type of fever. famine
"
"
or
Thus Dr.
Compigne, Beaur, Dr.
famine fever
'
wrote:
Harvey, Bhurtpore
:
'
I
No
have case
seen
of
no
relaps-
fever has come under my notice Dr. Martin, Deesa: type of fever has always been typhoid, never relapsing Dr. Galloway, Oodeypoor: 'No cases of relapsing fever have ' I come under my observationDr. Eddowes, Erinpoorah : Dr. all at here have not seen any famine (relapsing) fever
ing '
The
Newman, Joudhpoor in its type to famine
:
'
or
I have heard of
relapsing fever;'
110
disease
Dr.
approaching
Miller,
Nusseera-
I have not met with any case of famine or relapsing fever.' The replies of the native doctors are also to the same effect. Colonel Brooke also mentions that in Marwar, where bad
'
:
more than ordinarily prevalent, it was not confined ill-fed, and that it was more severe along the line of the Loonee' River, thus evidencing its malarious character. In this locality one-fourth of the population are reported to have died. The above information regarding famine or relapsing fever appears tome of great importance. It corroborates the assertion of the greatest living authority 011 fevers (Murchison),that famine It also agrees with or relapsing fever does not occur in India. experience of former famines in this country, after which this form of fever has never been known to prevail. It also tends considerably towards negativing the opinions held by so many, that the contagious fever afllioting the prisons of the NorthWest and Punjaub, from 1SG0 to 1867, was simply a famine fever, due to defective diet. Lastly, it leaves a somewhat consolatory reflection, that in a country like India, where so many fatal epidemics are experienced, there is at last one of the most fatal not yet visiting the land. Regarding the subject from a more purely sanitary point of view, the absence of or famine fever is evidence that somo other agent relapsing than want of food is necessary to the development of the disease. Most certainly the amount of distress during the present scarcity has, in many places, been sufficient to establish famine fever, if the malady is caused by this condition alone. But no famine pest has so occurred. Hence, the conclusion that some other agent is necessary to its production. And holding in recollection the circumstances of life of dwellers in India and Europe, it would appear that overcrowding is essential to the excitation of relapsing fever. In the latter country, the climate induces the poor to congregate in ill ventilated dwellings. In India the inhabitants live more in the open air especially the majority of those suffering from scarcity, who, adopting a nomadic life, wander off to other localities, where they live pretty much sub-jove."
fever has been to
the
?
I do not, of course, expect to convince Dr. Lvons. I simply facts, from which others are as able as myself to draw conclusions. I regard the malady prevailing in Rajpootana, during the second year of the famine, as so-called malarious fever, and so, it would appear, did all the other medical officers state
serving
in the
the fever moie
t.ie
as
province, the
virulent and
people
indirectly been the
it
caused same
who gave an opinion. And I regard autumnal fever, rendered infinitely
ordinary
deadly, from
attacked,
the debilitated condition of lhat much of the mortality was
by famine I allow; but that there would havo fever, had there not been the ordinary uialari-
ous
influences
(whatever they
[August 1, may
be)
in
operation,
I
1873.
altogether
question. Neither can Dr. Lyons' supposition, that the measures of relief carried out had the effect of preventing the degree of want necessary for the generation of the disease, be entertained. For, again quoting Colonel Brooke in 1869, "at Ajmere, Tonk, and elsewhere, many besides Mar war emigrants died of starvation. The famine was so fearful, and the distress so widespread, that the population of whole districts gave themselves over to despair, which was itself but a symptom of the disease of starvation. They would not leave their villages and families to seek relief, or left them so late, that they died by the way. To have supported a great country for months at the prices then prevailing, so as to have prevented very pinching distress to the majority, would have required an amount of grain, which was nowhere procurable, nor for which carriage was available." \ J
