SATARA DISTRICT.]
245
of ten days, but in the absence of effective supervision these precautions were of little
practical value. Week after week 10, 12, 15, 20 cases escaped from the town to the
villages, and though several were detected by village officers on the borders of their villages,
the rest succeeded in disseminating the infection far and wide, not only in the Karád
Táluka, but all over the District. So extensive was the spread that in addition to the
Flying Column sent to Karád Town, which was gradually made available for the rest of
the Táluka, two others had to be organized. Already in September no less than 7 Tálukas
were infected; while, of the larger towns, Tasgaon (population, 11,261) was attacked in
October, and Sátára (population, 25,750) in November 1897. During the year 1897 as many
as 165 villages were infected in the S atara District ; of these, 56 were in the Karád Táluka.
Kaledhon.
Population—4,315.
The cases which Karád scattered over the District soon bore evil fruit. In many
places indigenous plague established itself, but for some time
remained unnoticed. Even the abnormal mortality occurring
in consequence in many places either escaped attention, or was attributed to other causes,
or, still more often, was concealed, But in August 1897 the state of affairs could no longer
fail to attract attention. The abnormal mortality at Kaledhon—an important village in
the Khatao Táluka, not far from Karád—was, throughout June and July 1897, attributed
to cholera ; but at length its true cause was recognized, and plague was declared epidemic
on the 1st of August. The pestilence raged here with terrible severity : Kaledhon suffered
more grievously even than Karád. In a small population thinned by a panic-born exodus
111 cases were officially recorded during the week ending the 3rd of September 1897:
while the numbers concealed were never known. The following week (3rd—10th Septem-
ber) the official record was 123 cases — 95 deaths. A Hospital Assistant, with the assistance
of Revenue and Police subordinates, under the general supervision of a Táluka Plague
Mámlatdár, did what he could. The one effectual measure adopted was that of evacuation.
But method was wanting. The people had indeed encamped outside the village site, but
were spread over a vast area, either scattered or in groups, sick and healthy, infected and
non-infected, all promiscuously intermingled. This confusion was aggravated by almost
constant rain.
This state of things was at last remedied by the appointment of a Plague Flying
Column, which was sent there in charge of Assistant Surgeon B. S. Bharucha. He arrived
at Mayani (which was made the head-quarters of the Column) on the 18th September 1897
and held a conference with the District Deputy Collector, the Revenue Mámlatdár and the
Plague Mámlatdár. Next day he started operations at Kaledhon, and the condition of
things as described by him is appalling. Some 500 cases and 300 deaths had already
occurred. There was a large number of sick, who were scattered in all directions over an
area of nearly five square miles.
" There was no hospital for the accommodation of such a large number, nor were there
materials available for the erection of one with the promptness that the urgency of the
occasion demanded."
Four vacant houses at the northern end of the village were secured for a hospital, and
patients that were in a condition to be removed were collected here, but so large was the
number that convalescents had to be turned back.
The District Deputy Collector and Assistant Surgeon Bharucha then called a meeting
of the villagers and explained to them the objects of the measures they proposed to adopt.
These were simply the separation of the sick from the healthy and the disinfection of houses.
But the work of disinfection was unsatisfactory until help arrived from Bombay on the
62