208
[CHAP. VIII.
from then till 18th June 1897, 37 cases were detected, of which only 17 proved fatal.
From the 18th June till 3rd September 1897 only one more case (fatal) was detected.
Hospital Assistant Námdeo Hari, who was first in charge at Bhusával, died of plague
contracted in the discharge of his duty. To him, and to Assistant Surgeon Newing,
who succeeded him, much credit is due for the efficiency of the inspection arrangements.
Plague in Jalgaon.
Population 14,672.
While the inspection of all passengers from Bombay was being carried on at Bhusá-
val, local arrangements were made for the inspection of
passengers leaving the train at Chálisgaon, Páchora and
Jalgaon ; and to guard against infection from Surat, similar
local arrangements were made at Nandurbár and Navápur, for inspection of travellers by
road when Surat became infected.
Up to the 1st November 1897 throughout the whole District 40 imported cases, with
18 deaths, had occurred, and it seemed probable that the exertions of the local authorities
would be successful in entirely preventing an outbreak of indigenous plague. However,
a suspicious case occurred in Jalgaon in the week ending 26th November 1897, and the
Collector thus describes what followed :—
"You will have got a telegram from me saying that there is indigenous plague here
and that apparently about 15 cases have occurred. The way in which deaths have been
occurring in a special area, and 2 or 3 in the same house, and in considerable excess of
the average, shows that there is something wrong. And the existence of buboes in two
of the patients seems to show that it is plague the people are dying of. The opinion of
the town is that it is not plague, and that the mortality is due to ordinary fever acting
on constitutions undermined by famine. But the increase lately in the deaths and the
distribution of the deaths seems to show that this is wrong.
The reason I gave 15 as the probable number of deaths ( from plague ) is that it
represents roughly the excess over the average, and may therefore be taken as the pro-
duct of the special cause, plague.
Pogson and Hatch and a European Abkári Inspector are here, and working hard at
getting ready segregation sheds and trying to prevent infection going to Bhusával.
Priestly, the Police Inspector, is expected to-morrow. We will have as thorough a
house-to-house search as is possible, and we hope to get a large number of people to
move out into the fields,"
The Plague Commissioner, with Surgeon-Major-General Cleghorn and Surgeon-
Colonel Hay, visited Jalgaon at this time (2nd December 1897), and made the following
notes on that town and Bhusával :—
"Jalgaon.—Population, 16,000. The first case of plague was discovered on the
23rd November, three other cases occurred in the same house, and there have been three
others up to date. All these were confined to one quarter of the town. A Márwádi
from Sholápur is said to have introduced the disease, but the evidence on this point is
not clear.
The mortality for some time past has been above the normal, and within the last two
or three weeks it has been about double of that in the same period last year, The bodies
of those dying have been examined by a Hospital Assistant, but nothing found to justify
the idea that the deaths were due to plague. No cases have been observed during the
last two days, and no other place in the district appears to be infected.
The houses in which cases occurred have been evacuated and the inmates removed
to huts which were hastily erected. We met Mr. Cumine, the Collector, here on the 5th
instant; he had already selected a site for a camp, and as soon as the necessary number
of huts have been erected, the whole of the inhabitants in the infected quarter will be
removed to them, and the residents of other quarters will be persuaded to leave the
town, Numbers of agriculturists are now departing and camping in their fields.
A mill-owner who employs 1,300 hands is making arrangements for hutting the
whole of his employés, and the proprietors of several ginning and pressing mills, in which
about 700 work people are employed, will, it is expected, follow the same good example.