100
and hearty. Then on a Friday morning the committee of leading men of
this section of the populace, who have established the hospital and who largely
control it, would meet me at the hospital. The people to be discharged would
come up one by one and their circumstances be enquired into and the relief
required, if any, assessed by the whole committee sitting in a sort of darbar
the chairman presiding and I acting as secretary and general adviser, writing down
all particulars and handing the necessary money to the chairman for distribution
to each case as it was decided on. A large pile of blankets, several sacks of oranges
and trays of biscuits, &c., were conspicuous. In short, the whole affair was made
as gay and bright as possible, and the entire neighbourhood learnt of the patients
who had been discharged and of how much the Government had done for them.
Thus on March 17th, 38 persons were discharged and relieved in various ways at
this hospital.
Below are given a few examples of the cases dealt with on March 17th at the
Juki Hospital :—
Jumni (25), widow of Imam Ali, who died of plague last year. She had just
recovered from plague. She worked with the weavers, but was too weak to
earn anything for some time. Given Es. 5 and a blanket. Again another widow
Khamani had just lost her son in the hospital. She, too, worked with the
weavers, but was too weak owing to the strain of nursing her son to earn at
present. Given Rs. 3 and a blanket. Another woman Eechi was left a widow
with 3 small children and a baby, her husband having died of plague in the
hospital. She was very poor, so was given 2 blankets and Es. 8. Lastly, Lai
Mahomed, a very old man, who had lost seven relations in the hospital, was granted
a blanket and Rs. 5 for a new start.
Owing to their distance apart and the number of patients, it soon became
impossible to visit all the hospitals in a single morning. They were therefore
visited as follows. The Julai (Ripon Eoad), the Mahomedan General (North-
brook Gardens) and the Modikhána were visited on Mondays, Wednesdays and
Fridays, while the Maratha and Arthur Eoad were visited on Tuesdays, Thurs-
days and Saturdays, no patients being discharged except on these clays from the
respective hospitals, ín February, however, a young Brahmin gentleman of
independent means, a B.A., and a former pupil of mine at Elphinstone College,
V. N. Mandlik by name, volunteered to help me with the Arthur Road Hospital.
Mr. Mandlik has visited this hospital every Monday, Wednesday and Friday and
dealt with all cases maturing on these days.
We used the same book of particulars and so each was able to read on the
counterfoils what the other had done in the way of relief. Mr. Mandlik has
worked very hard and has made himself beloved by all the patients in the wards,
and he has set an example which might well be followed by some of the
young educated and wealthy citizens of Bombay, who are too prone to fly from
the city on the approach of danger. Mr. V. N. Mandlik's work is the more
praiseworthy as he is not protected by the racial peculiarities or habits which seem
to shield and to render a European comparatively immune.
During the period, January 1st to March 31st, as above stated, 5,583 patients
of all sorts have been received in the five principal hospitals visited. Out of
these, 622 separate cases—a case may include a large family or group of friends
or relatives—have been relieved pecuniarily in some of the abovementioned ways
at a cost of Rs. 3,543. This does not include the money expended on stocks of