stop if possible, during the prevalence of the pestilence, the practice of carrying the bodies of those deceased of this or other diseases, with the caravans of living pilgrims.

It had been remarked, (says the Lancet of April 29, 1871,) for several years previous to 1870, that the recurring outbreaks in Teheran had almost invariably followed the arrival of pilgrims; and the annual exhumation of bodies for transportation to Meschid and Kerbela.

This quotation furnishes another proof, if any were wanted, that cholera had been in Teheran, which is only seventy miles south of the Caspian Sea, for several years previous to 1870, and we have already seen that it was there in 1865, '66, '67, '68, and '69. The epidemic at Teheran was very virulent. It commenced at the caravanserais near the principal gates of the city, as if coming with pilgrims and travelers; and rapidly extended into the town, in various directions. This outbreak was again attributed to the exhumation of bodies, preceding the annual pilgrimages to Kerbela and Meschid; for not less than three hundred were dug up at Teheran; the greater number of which had died of cholera during the previous autumn and winter. It was again regarded as proven that in Persia the routes of commerce and pilgrimages were also the highways of cholera; and after the disease had prevailed for six years in succession, viz, from 1865 to 1871, a quarantine was at last established below Bagdad, on vessels ascending the Tigris from Bassorah.

Thus it will be seen that Dr. Tholozan was very far from being justi fied in his positive and enthusiastic assumption that the numerous visitations of cholera in Persia were merely the outbursts of the smoldering embers of their predecessors. There are many flaws of great magnitude in his evidence, which go far to nullify the importance of his conclusions. The first is his ignorance or utter disregard of the numer ous importations of the disease from India, Arabia, Syria, Asia Minor, and Turkey; also possibly from Russia.

Drs. Bryden and Cunningham, the statistical officers of India, were guilty of still greater carelessness and positiveness, when they assumed that the cholera of 1869, in Persia, was blown over that country from India to Astrabad, on the Caspian Sea, in the course of a few days; when we have already seen that it marched over the border of India with the Hurdwar pilgrims, as early as April 1867, and reached Meschid and Teheran, to the west, in the fall of 1867; and persisted in 1868. Besides, according to Lieut. Col. Sir Alexander Burnes, (see Narrative of a Journey to and Residence in Cabul, p. 77)—

"The most extensive arrangements have long been made to convey pilgrims and merchandise, (and with them cholera,) to and from Northern India and Persia. The Lohanee Afghans are a migratory, commercial, and pastoral people, who proceed annually from the borders of Persia down into Hindostan, in order to purchase merchandise. At the end of October, as winter approaches, they leave. Khorassan, in Persia, and descend into India, (where they remain until after the great fair at Hurdwar.) They commence their return toward the end of April; and all reach Cabul and Kandahar by the middle of June; in time to dispatch their investments to Herat and Bokhara; and then pass on into Khorassan, in Persia, where they remain during the summer. They march in three great divisions; the first has twenty-four thousand camels; the second, nineteen thousand; the third, seven thousand." (See map.)

The arrangements for the conveyance of pilgrims, merchandise, travelers, and disease still farther west into Persia are equally complete, according to Sir James Connolly. Due west of Cabul and Herat lies

Meschid, the holy city of Northern Persia. For eight months in the year all the roads, to and from Meschid, are thronged with pilgrims. Nearly sixty thousand come up from India, Cabul, and Afghanistan; and as many more from Turkey in Asia, the Caucasus, and shores of the Black and Caspian Seas.

Cholera has followed this North Persian route very many times, and that of 1869 was at Cabul early in September. Next it was still farther west, at Herat; then, on September 21, 1869, the English political agent at Teheran writes: "It is now some time since the cholera appeared here, and there are from fifty to sixty cases a day."

And still farther west, the agent at Astrabad, in the southeast corner of the Caspian Sea, says: "The cholera made its appearance here on September 8, 1869. It first broke out among the soldiery and irregular cavalry; and these being dispersed, it spread into the town of Astrabad, where it is very virulent."

Here we have a continuous chain of the disease from India, due west. over the old caravan and pilgrim route, through Cabul, Herat, Meschid, and Astrabad, to the shores of the Caspian Sea. But, according to the Lancet of August 27, 1870, it had already been still farther west on the Caspian Sea, viz, at Reshd, the principal port on the south coast, where an outbreak occurred in August, 1869; and a little later it made its appearance at Astrabad, viz, early in September. Again, the Lancet of August 14, 1869, says: "Cholera was reported in the middle of July, 1869, as prevalent at Teheran, only eighty miles south of Reshd, and that there was some danger of it spreading along the shore of the Ca pian Sea to Russia and Turkey."

RUSSIA.

Thus cholera had been standing on the borders of Russia for years, when its presence was suddenly announced in one or more places, especially at the holy city of Kiev, on the river Dnieper; more than one hun dred miles above Odessa, at its mouth, in July, 1869.

This was regarded as a recrudescence from the great epidemic of 1865 and 1866, without the intervention of any new importation. But in the Times and Gazette of December 2, 1871, we read that Robert Lawson, inspector-general of hospitals, and president of the London Epidemiological Society for 1871, affirms: "There had been a severe outbreak in Persia to the south and east of the Caspian Sea in the autumn of 1868, which continued into 1869; and, in the course of that year it was to be expected in Southern Russia."-Ib., June 25, 1872.

The outbreak in 1869 in Russia corresponded with an exacerbation in Northern Persia, where the disease had been more or less prevalent from 1865 to 1866, as well as in 1867, 1868, and 1869. The Times and Gazette of August 9 says: "The presence of cholera in Persia in 1867 and 1868 converts the probability almost into the certainty that a fresh importation into Russia did occur.”

In the British Journal of August 26, 1871, we read: "At Constantinople the opinion is entertained, based upon documents, that the Rus sian cholera of 1869 and 1870 was due to importation from Persia. The disease is declared to have broken out at Nijni Novgorod, east of Moscow, at the time of the great fair in 1869, and with the arrival of Persian merchants."

According to Dr. Flauvel, one of the most competent French authori ties, it was early in 1870 that the alarm was given at Constantinople of an outbreak of cholera at Taganrog, at the head of the sea of Azof, and