5o
"The first case of plague occurred at D'iioiewál in Samrála Tahsíl on the 22nd
October 1.901. This village is about 36 miles
Brief history pf its invasion.
from the head-quarters and within the distance
of 4 miles- from the town of Bassi in the
Patiála Territory where plague had been going on for some time. The infection was brought
from this town through human intercourse. On the 29th October the villagers agreed to put
the sick in huts and to segregate the contacts. A few days after the infection was carried
to the village of Soháwi, a mile-and-half away, and these two villages formed the first focus
of the plague outbreak in the Samrála Tahsíl.
" On and about the 4th November a village called Salimpur, just adjacent to
Sidhwán, where plague had broken out in previous summer, became infected by a dhobi who
had been going to villages across the Sutlej in the Jullundur District. The other theory
with regard to the break-out of the disease in this village is that it was a recrudescence of
the plague from Sidhwán. This formed the second focus in the Jagraon Tahsíl of the
district.
" The third place infected was Nurpur in the Bet of the Ludhiána Tahsíl, and
this place got its infection through a Brahman boy, also from Jullundur District. This occur-
red on the 9th December, and by this time three focii had been established at three different
corners of the district in each tahsíl. The disease went on unchecked, extending round
each centre from "one village to the other, and by the end of December the number of villages
reached to 19 with ,873 cases, and 547 deaths.
" At about this time another independent centre in Bet came into existence, and it
.was the village of Borey Kalán. The infection originated from a village in the Jullundur
' District. From the above it would appear that the main wave of infection ran into the
district from Jullundur side and settled itself at three different points in the Bet, and it;
invaded the tahsils of Jagraon and Ludhiána. The tahsíl of Samrála had already been
overtaken from the Patiála Territory. Considering the time pf the year so favourable for
plague these four independent currents of infection were strong enough to overrun the
district and devastate it.
" Up to this time all the towns remained free, but among the villages the disease had
been spreading so fast that by the end of January the number of infected villages rose to 69
and cases and deaths to 3,757 and 2,495 respectively. The progress of the disease went on
rising every day, so much so that at the end of April the number of villages
swelled up to 588 with 60,646 cases and 44,8oo deaths. This was the termination of the
" climax " of the disease, and from this stage it began to dwindle down rapidly, and before
the end of June the infection was reduced to almost nil.
" The following table shows the progress by months :—
October 1901
November 1901
Pecember 1901
January 1902
February 1902
March 1902
April 1902
May 1902
June 1902
July 1902
August 1902
September 1902
Months,
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
Total
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
-
...
...
...
...
Villages.
1
4
14
50
99
205
215
63
2
3
9
665
Cases.
15
186
672
2,884
8,626
26,271
21,992
4,322
228
25
56
113
65,390
Deaths.
9
112
426
1,948
6,286
20,046
15,973
3,001
136
14
25
52
48,028
REMARKS.