30
Pooña Cantonment.
15. The population of Poona Cantonment, according to the Census of 1891,
is 35,094 The area is 4 . 25 square miles and 8,257 persons per square mile repre-
sents the density of population. A statement of the daily plague attacks, plague
deaths and total mortality from 1st December 1896 to 20th May 1897 will hé
found in Appendix 44. The monthly mortality during the period of the epide-
mic is contrasted with the mortality in the corresponding months of previous
years in Appendix 45. Particulars of the extent to which the various castes and
nationalities were attacked is given in Appendix 46. The following summary
of Appendix 44 contains particulars of the plague and general mortality in each
month of the epidemic :—
Month.
December ...
January ...
February ...
March ...
April ...
May 1st— 20th
Total
...
...
PLAGuE ATTACKS.
Imported.
3
2
9
11
...
25
Local.
5
63
75
20
163
Total.
3
7
72
86
20
188
Plague
deaths.
...
4
44
64
18
130
Total
mortality.
36
57
67
97
107
47
411
16. In addition to the cases shown above one imported plague case occurred
on November 12th, and proved fatal. Including this case, the total recorded
plague mortality within cantonment limits was 131. No local case of plague
is known to have occurred before 9th February 1897, and it was only in the
month of March and April, after the adjoining parts of Poona City had become-
"badly affected, that the cantonment suffered at all severely from the epidemic.
The greater part of the Poona Cantonment is occupied by military lines and
bungalows where a filth disease like plague would not be expected to gain a
footing. The bazar portions of the cantonment are, however, thickly populated,
and it is there that the majority of the indigenous cases of plague occurred.
Death Registration Arrangements.
17. The registration of all deaths that occurred was a point to which the
Plague Committee attached the utmost importance. The subject was one which
had not received the attention it deserved in Poona City up to the time of the
appointment of the Plague Committee, and the bye-law relating to the giving
of information of deaths by the people had not been enforced by the Poona City
Municipality. In practice information of the occurrence of deaths used to be
collected by the road-sweepers who were paid a quarter of an anna for every
death reported at the Municipal Office. The Ward Mukadams and Inspectors
had orders to check the information so obtained, and Police Constables on duty
in the city had orders to collect information about domestic occurrences to
serve as a check on that collected by Municipal agency. During the five years
1891-92 to 1895-96 the registered mortality had been at the rate of 27 per mille
on the census population of 1891, and it is likely that about one quarter of the
deaths that occurred used to escape registration.
18. Nos. 17, 18 and 19 of the rules published in Government Notification
No. 1272/765P of 9th March 1897, gave the Plague Committee power to enforce more
accurate registration of deaths than had hitherto taken place. From the time
the military operations commenced, registration clerks were kept on duty from
6 A.M. to 10 P.M. daily within City Suburban and Cantonment limits to register
deaths of which information was given under rule 17 and to grant certificates
of registry. At the same time mukádams were posted at the principal burning
and burial grounds with orders to collect death registry certificates from funeral