Its origin, or reappearance in 1817, is not in any respect essentially different from its earlier development on the Jacatra. The River Ganges, in India, like the Nile in Egypt, flows for a long distance through a low, level country, which it annually inundates. Dividing its waters about 200 miles from the sea, the Delta of the Ganges commences and continues its variegated and checkered surface, till, approaching the borders of the sea, it presents a peculiar aspect, being composed of a labyrinth of creeks and rivers, called "The Sunderbunds," with numerous islands, covered with the profuse and rank vegetation called "jungle," affording haunts to numerous tigers and other beasts of prey. This large river, "a Deity of the Hindoo," is subject to an annual freshet, often rising to the height of 32 feet in the month of July; when all the lower parts of the country adjoining the Ganges, as well as the Burrumpooter, are overflowed for a width of one hundred miles; nothing appearing but villages, trees, and sites of some places that have been deserted. Here in this vast pest-house, where every conceivable vegetable and animal substance is left upon the soil by the retiring inundation, exposed to the heat and dews of a tropical climate--where, too, noisome and infectious diseases have prevailed for centuries, the Epidemic Cholera is said to have arisen and acquired its strength and full development. A fit origin for a fatal and devastating pestilence. To this low, insalubrious, and festering locality, this vast pest-house, where so many noxious and noisome diseases are generated, and where so many epidemics have arisen and so often swept over the surrounding regions with most fatal and desolating effects, is ascribed the birthplace of the Epidemic Cholera of 1817. Here it is said to have first made its appearance at Jessore--a populous town in the centre of the Delta of the Ganges; whence attaining its growth and power, it has extended its influence as from a common centre, and marked its progress with hecatombs of victims in the direction of almost every point of the compass. Here we may remark, that it is not our intention to travel over the whole ground embraced by the subject under consideration; but, on the contrary, to present in this treatise only a cursory view of a few prominent features which may interest and aid in the important object of deducing from the pathology and the varied phenomena of the Cholera some general principle of practice. For this, and to this, our labor and our investigations are directed. Availing ourselves of every source of information within our reach, and relying in part on the observations and experience of others, we shall aim to present such facts and arguments as will shed light upon the subject, and aid in the accomplishment of this desirable object. However difficult this may appear, it is nevertheless believed to be within the province of science and unbiased reason. SECTION II.--PROGRESS AND FATALITY.