'Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society, from September 1850 to June 1852. Edited by the Secretary. Volume X.' [‎256] (389/458)

REPORT ON THE HEAVY
province was equally great. We have no record beyond 1839, but the
oldest native inhabitant scarcely remembers such a fall; some few having
an indistinct recollection of something like it, about twenty years ago.
That the quantity has been very unusually great is proved by the face
of the country being broken up by water courses, where flat, even,
surfaces previously existed, and by the beds of nullahs being widened
and deepened much during the fall.
2nd.—It is a general opinion both amongst natives and Europeans,
that an unusually rainy season is generally followed by unusual sickness,
and 1843, and 1846 are quoted by the latter as examples ; hut I
believe that the time of the fall has more to do with the production of
sickness than the quantity ; for if it happens early in the season* as our
late fall did ; and, if it is followed by strong westerly winds, and
tolerably clear w eather, and the water is well drained off, and evapo
rated before the heat of October, my belief is, that there will be little
increase of sickness—4he sources of malaria not being much greater
than those operating every year on the subsidence of the Indus,
3rd.—As far as I can learn, the fall of this year has caused as yet no
unusual prevalence of fever (the disease chiefly to be expected), in the
town or bazaar of Kurrachee, and I have made every enquiry.
4th.—In the parts of the province far from the Indus, it would
undoubtedly be a great blessing for the towns and villages to have pro
perly constructed tanks, for preserving the water during the occasional
falls of rain, for domestic purposes ; but I think, the advantages of such
tanks at Kurrachee would be counterbalanced by these tanks affording
an additional source of malaria ; and I am inclined to this opinion
from the circumstance of the neighbourhood of the Kambaugh tank,
being notoriously unhealthy ; and it is more than suspected the Kuttun
tank, the only other one in our neighbourhood, is the source of un-
healthiness to the houses in its proximity; and whilst the supply of good
water from wells is so abundant, I think the policy of forming tanks must
be very doubtful, as, under any circumstances, they would afford an
additional source of zymitie disease. These observations of course apply
to the immediate neighbourhood of a large cantonment like Kurrachee;
—at some distance, and in a proper direction, with regard to the pre
vailing winds, tanks might be formed to afford many advantages#
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