346
[CHAP. XL
swellings, but though these symptoms were absent from his wife and child, the Agency
Surgeon, whom I deputed to the place, reported that they were plague cases. The child died
soon after, but the man and his wife are still under treatment.
"From enquiries it transpired that another daughter of this man had died of fever shortly
before these cases came to notice, and it is suspected her disease was also bubonic. The
fourth case which was certified to be plague by the Medical Officer was that of an old woman
who was living in the next room and who has since died. These persons were permanent resi-
dents of Wadhwán Civil Station, and are reported not to have gone to Bombay, though it
appears that they had constant contact with people coming from Bombay. The sanitary con-
dition of the house in which they lived is reported to have been unsatisfactory.
"The exact dates of attacks are reported as follows :—
(1) 7th February—daughter aged eight years.
]
(2) 8th „
man.
In
the same house.
(3)
,,
,,
another daughter, four years. ]
(4) 11th „
wife.
(5) 7th
„
old woman ...
...
..." In a neighbouring house.
Cases Nos. 2 to 5 came to the notice of the Medical Officer of the Station, Assistant
Surgeon Ráo Bahádur Thákordas Kikábhái, on the 11th, who at once took the necessary
steps for segregation and disinfection."
Bhávnagar and Kutiyána were the only two places where the disease established itself;
no effort was spared to eradicate it from those two places and prevent its obtaining entry
anywhere else. Strict medical inspection with observation camps was instituted for the latter
purpose ; and demolition, evacaution and disinfection for the former. The results were satis-
factory, as the total figures from 7th February 1897 to 2nd July 1897 were 261 cases—167-
deaths, of which over one-third were imported.
Kutiyána.
Population -9,537.
Second Epidemic.—For six months there was no more plague, either indigenous or
imparted. But in January 1898 imported cases again began
to occur, and continued to occur up to the middle of May, 35
cases being thus detected and detained. But menaced by
infection as it was, both by road and rail and sea, Káthiáwár would have been fortunate
indeed to have escaped scot-free. On the 19th February four cases occurred at Kutiyána, of
which three were reported as indigenous. Was this recrudescence or re-infection?
Colonel Hunter makes the following remarks about it :—
"Telegraphic information reached me on the 19th instant that 1 imported and
3 indigenous cases of plague had been discovered in the town of Kutiyáua on that day. These
are the first indigenous cases that have occurred in this province since June last, and
Kutiyána is one of the three places in Káthiáwár where indigenous cases occurred last year.
The plague appeared there in January 1897 among arrivals from Bombay, but it was not
reported until March, between which time and June, 94 indigenous eases occurred in a
population of 9,300. The town remaiued apparently free from then till now."
Colonel Hunter apparently inclines to the belief that it was a recrudescence, but it
seems more probable that it was re-infection. Kutiyána is on the line of communication,
and it is more likely that as it was infected from Bombay viá Porbandar in January 1897,
so it was re-infected in 1898, than that the germs should lie dormant for seven mouths and
then suddenly spring to life again. The theory of re-infection is, moreover, strengthened
by the fact that the same houses were not attacked in the two years, as Colonel Hunter
states—
"The disease this year has not returned to the houses affected last year. The cases
have occurred in another locality."
But, however this may be, the pestilence bad arrived, and no time was lost in
combating it. A cordon of 50 Imperial Service Lancers was drawn round the town