ΡOOΝΑ DISTRICT.]
2.27
From the beginning of December a system of visiting was instituted. Friends and
relatives could visit patients ou Wednesdays and Sundays between 4 and 6 P.M., each
patient being allowed two visitors at a time. Although not allowed inside the wards, these
people could see and converse with their sick over the walls of the wards, which were only
some three or four feet high. Contact and discontent were thus prevented. This privilege
was evidently appreciated ; as, beginning with 240 visitors on 8th December, the number
was 620 on the 15bh. From 8th December 1897 to 31st March 1898 the total number of
such visitors was 10,246.
Poona District.
In the district during this second period plague was never very severe ; the highest
figures registered being 269 cases—179 deaths (week ending
3rd September 1897) and 240 cases —180 deaths (week ending
5th November 1897).
The only reporte received for Poona District for this period -were for the towns of
Ghodnadi (suburb of Sirur) and Manchur (Táluka Khed), and for the village oí Mawdi
Karipather (Purandhar Táluka).
Sirur Táluka.
Plague began in this Táluka in March 1897, in which month 2 cases were discovered
in the town of Ghodnadi (population, 7,65(3). The infection
was due to Poona. Six members of the same family had
previously died, their deaths being ascribed by the Hospital Assistant to the following
causes :-Chronic phthisis, pneumonia, dysentery and grief ; but there is little doubt,"
says the then Collector, Mr. Lamb, " that these were all plague cases." No further cases
were reported till the 27th July 1897, when Surgeon Captain Kilkelly, being called in to
examine some sick persons, found them to be suffering from plague.
The fact that the mortality was generally above the average during the interval
between March and July 1897 appears to point to the presence of undetected plague through-
out. The following remarks by Surgeon-Captain Kilkelly, on its origin and dissemination,
are interesting :—
"It is almost certain that infection in the first instance was from prostitutes in the
town. Rats may have carried the disease. Cats were frequently found dead in plague
houses in the town of Sirur, and a few days after plague occurred among my servants,
a cat was brought to me, obviously out of sorts, and with enlarged and tender sub-maxillary
glands. I kept the animal under observation, and in about ten days it recovered completely.
"It is difficult to obtain accurate dates, but among my private servants on one occa-
sion, at least, the incubation period was exactly eight days. One of two stable boys sleep-
ing together was attacked. [ went into tent that day and took all servants with me and had
them all strictly under observation. On the eighth day exactly the second boy became ill
of plague. Ou the other occasion it seemed that incubation period was much shorter. In
the open, infection was almost nil, but in cases of people living in crowded houses whole
families were attacked. More than once it was noticed that when cases occurred in a new
locality, several fresh cases appeared in the houses around after about 15 or 20 days. If
the incubation period is 8 days, this might be explained by supposing that rats or cats, be-
coming infected by the first case, developed the disease in a week, and infected healthy
persons, who, in their turn, did not show signs of the disease for some days. Dead rats and
cats were found in numbere. No case was traced to grain."
The following measures were taken to suppress the outbreak :—
"Two Hospital Assistants and a disinfecting party of 6 men and 6 sweepers were sent
from Poona to Sirur. The town was divided into four divisions, and search parties told off
to each division. These parties began their work by taking a complete list of all houses
and persons resident in their divisions. Absentees were thus easily detected. The sick
men who came from Poona were each made mukádams of a disinfecting party, and the work
of disinfection was carried on under the personal supervision of Surgeon-Captain Kilkelly,