ABSTRACT
In the winter of 1818-1819, as the East India mails came in, the British Press began to take notice of a terrifying epidemic raging in Calcutta and the surrounding countryside. This ‘new’ disease, cholera morbus, had begun in Jessore in August 1817, and had already killed some 3,000 men out of the 10,000 strong army led by the Marquis of Hastings against the remains of the Marathi confederacy. Cholera had affected Calcutta in 1781-1782 and two years later killed 20,000 pilgrims at Hurdwar, the great holy place of north India. The most effectual means by which this disease may be prevented from extending, is to enable the poor, who are generally the first attacked, to oppose to its influence, as far as practicable by those ameliorations in diet, clothing, and lodging which public and private charity, will it is hoped not fail to produce.
