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35
gained by the last visitation of cholera, and comparing
it with that of other visitations, we may
fairly ask if any general conclusions may be deduced
from the most prominent facts. It appears indeed:—
1. That cholera is not indigenous to this
country, or even to Europe. Its home is
the swampy and low-lying districts of India,
where, from the year 1817, it has been native
to the soil. No other tropical ground is persistently
occupied by it; for, although it may
visit other such localities, and for a time be
severely fatal, yet it never fixes itself endemically
in any place beyond the Indian Peninsula.
The Delta of the Nile seems, at first
sight, to be as congenial to it as the banks of
the Ganges and the Hooghly, but although
cholera visits it in its migrations, it never
permanently occupies it.
2. That in its journey from India it always
follows the lines of traffic, moving from port
to port along the coast, and passing inland
by the track of navigable rivers. Until the
last visitation, its course from India was
always the same, but the rapid advance of
commerce has changed its route, and made
it pass at once from the Eastern frontiers of
Asia to Southern and Western Europe.
c 2