23
F and G
Wards.
In the last and the present epidemic, Parel Road and Clare Road
have remained singularly free of plague. In fact, those houses which
were tenanted by the well-to-do classes were exempt this year as they
were last year. But parts of Haines Road, Gilder Street and Chamar
Lane were badly infected, the people here being mostly poor and their
dwellings overcrowded.
Topawani's Chawl at the extreme end of Parel Road was again the
only spot there that was infected, its sanitary defects being well known.
Rats.—Rats were found but not to any great extent. Information
concerning them was received from the better classes of the people, and
in one case the District Officer has no doubt that infection was conveyed
by these creatures. It should be borne in mind that in the first epidemic
considerable numbers of rats used to be seen dead in the grain dealers
shops in Haines Road, De Lisle Road and Guzri Bazaar.
Communities Attacked.—The District Officer points out that in
some instances it would appear that the onus of the introduction
of plague lies in the habits of the people and cannot be attributed to their
dwellings. He cites a case in which a new house in Kala Chowki Road,
only partly occupied, had three cases in a fortnight in it, the tenants
being people of very dirty habits.
Beggars.—There was no great influx of famine refugees into this
district, probably owing to the fact that there was not much money to be
collected. The Hindoos here are mostly of the poorest classes.
The course of the epidemic in F and G Wards is traced by Captain
Boileau as follows:—
Course of the Epidemic.—This district may again be said to have never been free from
Plague. The last epidemic left us in May with Dharavi still affected, and 7 cases occurred
in Dharavi during the month as also 4 Plague cases in Mahim Bazaar. In July 2 Plague
cases were imported into Mahim from Bombay—one from Dhobi Talao and one from a contact
from Arthur Road Hospital.
In Sion and Sewri in June there were 4 cases which were no doubt connected with the
lingering remains of the last epidemic and nothing more occurred there until September.
In Parel (G Ward, Parel) there were 25 cases, all the remnants of the last epidemic
which did not die out until June 25th. From that date onwards there were practically no
cases in July or August, but in September Plague broke out again in 478, DeLisle Road,
when between the 12th and 15th there were 7 cases. I disinfected this chawl thoroughly
in the old style, cleaned the compound and tile-turned the place. There has been no further
case of plague in the chawl. The infection was brought by rats. After that no further cases
occurred in any numbers until in November when between the 29th and 7th December
7 cases occurred in various parts of the District. Dadar, Mahim Bazaar, Lalwadi, Sion and
Gopi Tank in Mahim showing how irregular was the course of the disease.
Like last year the course of the epidemic could be traced by dying rats this year.
The rats seem to have come from the South and stayed in the district, and in the same way
as last year they have been chiefly instrumental in disseminating plague for the reason that
wherever a crop of cases has occurred on any particular site, there dead rats have invariably
been discovered and I shall, I think, be able to prove that rat infection is by far the most
dangerous.