Cholera epidemics in East Africa. An account of the several diffusions of the disease in that country from 1821 till 1872, with an outline of the geography, ethnography, and trade connections of the regions through which the epidemics passed / By James Christie.

  • Christie, James
Date:
1876
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Cholera epidemics in East Africa. An account of the several diffusions of the disease in that country from 1821 till 1872, with an outline of the geography, ethnography, and trade connections of the regions through which the epidemics passed / By James Christie. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    advance against a monsoon wind, is quite untenable, and opposed to the evidence afforded by the East African epidemics. The progress of the epidemic from Abyssinia, in 1865, to Zanzibar, in J 869, was irrespective of monsoon influence. Even in the Consular Report, quoted by Dr. Bryden, the following occurs:— Northwards, it [the epi- demic] makes slow progress against the strong monsoon, which set in early this year *' [1869]. During the epidemic of 1865, cholera advanced from the Jub as far south as Mombassa, in the very teeth of the south-west monsoon, in May and June. In 1869 it pursued the same course, in the same district, against the full force of the north- east monsoon, and reached Lamoo in January. In 1871 it advanced against the full force of the north-east mon- soon, and passed from Mozambique to Ibo. Dr. Bryden's prediction, previous to the appearance of epidemic cholera in East Africa, I shall again quote : —The great cholera now in progress in the Central Provinces, and which is also epidemic over Guzerat, is the exact counterpart of the cholera of 1864, following the invasion of 1863 ; and we shall wait to see whether or not it is destined at the close of this year or in the spring of 1870 to transgress the boundaries of Hindostan, and to make its appearance in Arabia, or Syria, or in Eastern Africa. I maintain that Dr. Bryden's prediction or anti- cipation was never fulfilled. That epidemic which, ac- cording to Dr. Bryden, moved out of the endemic area in April 1868, and was prevalent in Western India in 1869, never reached any part of East Africa. The epidemic which reached Zanzibar in October or November 1869 was the epidemic which entered the Gulf of Aden towards the close of 1864. One branch of it entered Africa at Berberah, passed along the Ugahden caravan route to the Jub ; from the Jub it advanced south as far as Mombassa, and north to the Somali ports. At the Somali coast, off Mukdeesha,