NASIK DISTRICT.
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Tbc following incident is related. On the 9th February there was a heavy storm.
"The people," says Mr. Simcox, "came en masse to my bungalow and threatened me,
and I was down at the Health Gamp for some five hours with the other officers and gentle-
men arguing with the angry mob, and even so had to leave them without coming to
any definite arrangement, though at least a riot was averted." The final arrangement
made was that the weaving men should be allowed to weave in their town workshops by
day, sleeping in the Health Camp, where all drying and stretching of thread, and household
work, was still to be done. This arrangement was successful and prevented a fresh
outbreak, which would probably have occurred as at other places, had the people been,
allowed to re-occupy the town. The partial re-occupation had also another effect, viz.,
that of testing the efficacy of the disinfection. On the 23rd March 1898, re-occupation of
the town was permitted and was not attended with a single case of plague.
Second Epidemic (August 1898—May 1899).—After being entirely free for over two
months and a half, Násik District was again affected to wards the beginning of August 1898,
and during the week ending the 5th of that month, 22 cases were reported from Vinchur
in the Niphád Táluka, and δ cases from Anjanneri in the Násik Táluka. Neither of these
places was infected during the previous epidemic ; nor is the origin of the outbreak at
Vinchur traceable ; the infection of Anjanneri is attributed to intercourse with the Konkan.
Next week 23 cases were reported ; but in the succeeding weeks the circle of infection grew
wider and the number of attacks increased, until, with 9 places stricken, it reached the
total of 176 in the week ending 16th September 1898 ; and with 15 infected places, 203 in
the week ending 14th October 1898.
Almost at the beginning of this epidemic, strict instructions had been issued by the
Collector, Mr. Moore, to the effect that as soon as 2 cases occurred in a village, it should
at once be evacuated. The inhabitants were ordered to reside in huts in the village fields.
Disinfection was secured by unroofing houses and leaving them open (the doors and windows
being barred with bamboos to prevent ingress), and exposing their contents to the sun for
3 days. If any cases occurred in huts, they were pulled down and the materials allowed to be
used after exposure to the sun, but the site of the hut was not permitted to be built upon again.
A careful system, of death registration was also set on foot.
The season, however, did not permit of thorough evacuation, and it could only be
resorted to on a regular scale about the beginning of November. Both townsmen and villagers
quitted their homes and lived in the fields, and were only allowed ingress on business : shop-
keepers attended by day, but slept in the fields, and the towns were guarded by night patrols.
It was then that the weekly returns improved, and in the week ending 18th November, only
30 cases were reported. At this time some dead rats having been found in the village of
Khadak Málegaon, Táluka Niphád, the villagers promptly turned out into the fields of their
own accord and the place remained free. Though the figures were slightly worse in the
subsequent weeks, this was due to infection of fresh places.
Several villages were now declared free and were re-occupied in January 1899, but
the disquieting feature was the clanger to Násik Town, through imported cases, which con-
tinued to occur there from time to time. In spite of all precautions, 4 indigenous cases, all fatal,
took place in the week ending 20th January 1899. The number rose steadily, and in the week
ending 31st March 54 cases were recorded out of a total of 69 in the district. It has since been
declining, and the report for the week ending 2nd June 1899 shows 11 attacks. It is satis-
factory to note that besides these casos in Násik Town, only 1 cuse was returned from the
District during that week.
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