Page 610 - PERSIAN 2B 1883_1890_Neat

16 ADMINISTRATION REPOET OP THE PERSIAN GULP POLITICAL

Tbe above History may be considered as that of the Persian Galf offshoot of the 1805-04
epidemio started from Bengal.
There was another and more important offshoot of the same epidemic, which burst into
life at Meoca and Medina in the end of May or beginning of June of this year, having been
carried to those places by pilgrims from India.
The outbreak was a severe one. Returning pilgrims carried tho disease with them.
Reyah, the capital of the Wahabi country, suffered heavily, as did Anoyza and other towns
there. The epidemio moved on by Jahr or Jaharah, and on the 25th or 28th August broke oat
nt Duaseh, on the right bank of the Sbat-el-Arab, some 40 miles below Bussorah. On the
8th September cholera appeared at Basra and soon became very severe; it was said 5 per
cent of the population died of it I
Koweit and its neighbourhood suffered severely about the same time as Bussorah.
The epidemic passed up the Euphrates through Syria to Aleppo and up the Tigris to
Diabekr and throughout Turkish Kurdistan.
This is precisely what occurred in (he epidemic of 1846.
In October the epidemic became dormant
1666.—The epidemio of last year which ceased in October, broke out in March of thi?
Entered by Unraua ind pn* year, and advanced over two routes. One extending over and
babiy aiao by Crivan: tin* w«j tbe Tig- across Europe, brought it to England in April from Rotter-
rU branch of Uit jrar’i cholera.
dm, and to America in May (or June). The other route
followed by the epidemic was fr t Turkish Kurdistan or from the Baghdad Provinces into
Persia near Urumia and beyond Tabriz. The country all round Tabriz suffered heavily, but the
disease passed no further in an easterly direction.
1867.—The cholera which became dormant in the Tabriz District in October or Novem­
ber last year broke out in the spring of this year and moved
AH Persia suffering.
steadily across Northern Persia through Tehran to Meshed.
This epidemic must have extended to Central and Southern Persia also, I think, though
I have no record of its having done so. Notice was sent to the Residency at Bushire from
Tehran that “ all Persia has been declared infected.”
The great “ Hurdwar epidemic” occurred on the 13th and 14th of April of this year and
from Hurdwar was carried by returning pilgrims far ood wide.
Entered moet probably by tbe Herat 1863.—In the spring of this year cholera appeared in
end Mcehcd route aa in 1829 nad 184S. various parts of Persia.
Up to the middle of 1868 cholera had moved across Persia in a direction from west to east,
Tbu wu probably the Hurdwar that is to say that from its entry in 1866 by Urumia and
cholera of 1867. beyond Tabriz it passed steadily across to Meshed. In July
m reverse movement set in: a body of pilgrims returning westward from Meshed in that
mouth carried the disease with them and it soon covered all Northern Persia and spread into
the Baghdad Pashalifc Cholera was at the some time prevalent in Northern and Western
India and in Afghanistan.
Faurel and some Russian writers hold that the reversed movement,—that from Meshed
westward above alluded to, was simply a carrying back by pilgrims of the cholera of-1866-67.
The far more probable theory is that this cholera moving from Meshed in July 1868 was
in foot a new invasion. The great outbreak at Hurd war, where 2 millions of pilgrims had.
oollected, occurred on the 12th to 15th April (really one might cay only on 15th and 14th)
1867; tho pilgrims scattered paoic-stricken on the 15th April and carried the disease with
them in-all directions (Bryden laughs this idea to scorn but, nevertheless, it is widely believed
i»).
They carried it into Afghanistan, where it raged, from July to September, and it
seems most likely it was the cholera becoming dormant in September 1867 which sprang
into life again in the spring of 1868 and following the usual route vid. Herat, appeared.at
Meshed in July.
Macnamara bolds, I think, that the.Tehran dbolera of 1867 was an offshoot of the Hurd­
war epidemic* but an examination of the dates and facts above given seem to-me to show ha­
il mistaken and that the story as above given is the tine one*.