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CHAPTER III.
115. EPIDEMIC MALARIA IN BOMBAY.—Before discussing epi-
demic malaria in Bombay it must be pointed out that there is no evidence to
shew that outbreaks of malaria on that island have ever been of so severe a
nature as the pandemics that occur in the Punjáb and other parts of India,
and the term "epidemic malaria" applied to conditions met with in Bombay
refers merely to an increase of the disease above the normal, due in the most
part to the occurrence of local outbreaks or epidemies.
The medical history of Bombay is so obscure that it is exceedingly difficult
to get any definite history of epidemic outbreaks of malaria in the past. In
1757 a severe epidemic of some sort occurred both among the labourers
employed upon the fortifications and the general population. It is not
certain that the disease was malaria, but in view of the nature of the work and
the locality (i. e., the fort which was surrounded by the moat and contained
many private and public wells), it is probable that the outbreak was of this
nature. An epidemic of malaria took place in Colaba about 1838-1841. This
outbreak appears to have occurred in association with the construction of the
Colaba Causeway. The work on the Colaba Causeway which began in 1835
involved the reclamation of a large area of low-lying land previovsly covered
by the sea at certain states of the tide. Colaba became comparatively healthy
again after the completion of the Causeway, a result which is in accord with the
general experience of such outbreaks.
116. There appears to have been an outbreak of fever in Bombay during
the period of extraordinary commercial activity between 1861-1866 which
followed upon the inflation of cotton prices as a result of the American War. A
large number of reclamation schemes were commenced in different parts of
the island at this time and they were probably responsible for an increase of
malaria. In particular the Back Bay Reclamation, which was begun and
then allowed to remain for some time uncompleted, appears to have given rise
to a considerable increase of malaria in the areas immediately adjoining it.
The increased prevalence of fever is shewn by the fact that during the four
years 1863-1866 the fever deaths recorded in the City averaged 12,577 a year,
or nearly double the mean of the previous five years, and in 1865 the recorded
fever mortality reached a maximum of 18,767.
117. Ten years later the proposal to construct the Prince's Dock occasioned
considerable alarm owing to the fear that it would affect the health of the City.
Work was begun in 1875 and the Dock was completed in 1880. In spite of
the fears expressed by many people before the commencement of the work, no
special outbreak of fever appears to have been associated with it. It is true
that in 1877-1878 fever became prevalent in Bombay, but this was due to the
influx of large numbers of famine-stricken people from the rural districts ; and
the fever prevalent then was shewn by Vandyke Carter, who investigated the
condition, to be "famine fever " or relapsing fever, a disease entirely distinct from
malaria. On several occasions local outbreaks of malaria appear to have occurred
at different times in connection with the construction of the water-works at
Malábár Hill and also in connection with similar work at Bhandárwáda
Hill, Mazagaon.
118. When the construction of the Victoria Dock and Merewether Dry
Dock was undertaken no outbreak of malaria appears to have occurred; neither
did the enlarging of the Duncan Dry Dock and construction of a Wet Basin
in the Government Dockyard, which was decided on in 1890, seem to give
rise to any great measure of unhealthiness. But this latter work was pushed
on very rapidly, 2,000 men being employed upon it, so that everything was
completed in two and a half years from the commencement, and it is possible
that a temporary increase of malaria may have been overlooked.
119. Between 1903 and 1907 there appears to have been a local increase
of malaria at Malábár Hill in the neighbourhood of the water-works co-incident