On the 15th my companion and myself rode to
Amara, and found that the 4th battalion had been
advanced to that post. Captain Green-Wilkinson,
with whom we passed the night, told us that the
cholera had reached Kosheh camp and that one
fatal case had occurred that morning at Amara. On
the following morning we returned to Kosheh. For



VIRULENT CHOLERA



nearly a fortnight this camp has been passing I
through the ordeal of a somewhat severe cholera 1
epidemic, now happily subsiding. The disease at 1
first assumed a virulent and rather unusual form, its |
course was extraordinarily rapid (a question, I be-
lieve, of minutes sometimes), and nearly every easel
proved fatal. In some cases the ordinary symptoms |
were absent ; a man lay down in good health at I
night to be found dead in the morning by those J
sleeping close to him, who had not heard him utter |
a sound. In one case I know of a man, apparently I
quite well a moment before, who fell suddenly to I
the ground, seized by such violent and horrible!
symptoms that his agony was over at once. TheJ
correspondents' little camp has had more than its 1
full share of the cholera. There are nine corre-
spondents here, and with servants, boatmen, and other I
followers, we number about fifty in all. In three (
days we had six cases among these men, of which
four cases proved fatal. Out of four Berberis whom
I had engaged to build my hut, two died of cholera-
One night while I was dining with a colleague, his ]
servant, who was about to wait on us, was attacked j
by the usual symptoms and died within a few hours.
