218
[CHAP. VIII.
January's figures are sufficiently instructive to be given in weekly detail : —
Week ending
7th January 1898
14th January 1898
21st January 1898
28th January 1898
...
...
...
Total for January 1898
February 1898 (4 weeks)
March 1898 (4 weeks)
April 1898 (5 weeks)
...
...
...
Total
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
Cases.
49
32
18
7
106
18
20
1
145
Deaths.
45
32
12
9
98
15
12
1
126
Remarks.
4 months subsequent to
evacuation.
By the 22nd December 1897 the west and south portions of the town lay empty.
In that week the disease appeared amongst the Brahmins : whereupon the Dingerali block
near the river was vacated during the following week.
Coolies were sent from Bombay to assist in the work of disinfection.
Mr. Stewart says :—
" We have nine disinfecting parties at work, and are putting on two more, as, there seems
no doubt the whole town must be disinfected."
On the 29th December Mr. Stewart reports :—
"There has been an increase of three cases over last week, though two days during the
week were bad, showing twelve and nine cases. These nearly all occurred in the thickly popu-
lated centre of the town, and some half dozen cases were members of three or four households
related to one another. I have now ordered six more blocks covering this portion to be
vacated, and am making every effort to get the people to live in the health camp instead of going
to villages round about. A circular has been sent to all village officers that they will be
strictly held responsible if they allow plague to enter their villages."
The Bombay coolies were sent back on the 6th January 1898, their work being un-
satisfactory : and local labour replaced them. "Almost the whole city is empty," writes Mr.
Stewart on the 10th January 1898, "even those blocks which have not been formally emptied
having very few inhabitants." During the week ending the 13th January 1898 a decrease
took place, but Mr. Stewart was sceptical :—
"There has been an appreciable decrease in the number," he writes "(31 against 49),
though I should not like to say that we have got control of the plague ....
and I am
not satisfied that we are getting all the cases that occur amongst the people in the fields."
And indeed no less than 9 dead bodies were found. The following week, although
the decrease continued, it was the sanie complaint : —
"The city is practically free of plague, and disinfection of entire blocks is being steadily
pushed on. I am not satisfied, however, about the people in the fields. Of the 7 cases
reported, 5 were found dead, and more outside inspection than we can manage seems needed."
This end was ultimately compassed by detailing a Superintendent and a Hospital
Assistant to visit outlying camps daily : a measure which was instituted the following week.
As the evacuation of the town was practically complete by the middle of January
1898, it is perhaps not unreasonable to infer that the sudden subsidence of the epidemic was
largely due to that measure, especially if it be taken in conjunction with other towns, which,
under similar cirsuinstances, present the same phenomena.
In the District, inclusive of the figures quoted in the tables above, there were 61
cases and 467 deaths in the months of November and December, and 568 cases with 48
deaths in January and February 1898. There was an appreciable reduction in March —