PART I
DEALING WITH THE PERIOD FROM THE OUTBREAK OE PLAGUE
TILL THE CONSTITUTION OF THE BOMBAY PLAGUE COM-
MITTEE.
CHAPTER I.
SKETCH OP MEASURES TAKEN DURING THE PERIOD PROM
SEPTEMBER TILL THE END OF NOVEMBER 1896.
SECTION 1.
Introductory.
1. Bombay is a narrow island of approximately 11 miles in length and
3 in width, joined to Sálsette, another and larger island of about 20 miles in
length and 10 miles in breadth, by two railway lines and two causeways. These
islands are separated from the mainland of India by the Bombay Harbour and
its continuation, the Bassein Creek. Sálsette is one of the nine tálukas or
sub-divisions of the Thána District, through which the B. B. & G. I. Railway runs
along the sea-coast towards the north of India, and the two branches of the
G. I. P. Railway, which bifurcates at Kalyán Junction, soon after leaving
Sálsette, run towards the north-east and south-east in the directions of Calcutta
and Madras respectively. When plague became epidemic in Bombay the
Sálsette Táluka of the Thána District was specially exposed to risk of infection,
and its two southernmost towns, Bándra and Coorla, which are virtually suburbs
of Bombay City, were the first in which plague appeared in an epidemic form.
2. In every British district in the Presidency there is a recognised head of
the executive administration in the person of the " Collector," so-called, who con-
trols all Government officials from the village headman upwards, who is District
Magistrate, head of the Police, and President of the District Local Board, and is
also in a position to exercise influence over the conduct of the Municipalities in
his district.
The Collector, who is an officer of some standing in the Indian Civil
Service, is assisted ordinarily by from two to four Assistant or Deputy Collectors,
one or more of whom are natives of India, the remainder being members of the
Indian Civil Service. The superior staff of a district also usually includes a
Police Superintendent, an Executive Engineer, and a Civil Surgeon. These
are generally Europeans, but may be natives of India. Subordinate to the Assist-
ant Collector, who has charge of a sub-division of a district, is the Mámlatdár,
an experienced Native officer in charge of a táluka. A táluka consists of a
number of villages each under its own headman. The Bombay Presidency
proper, exclusive of Sind, is split up into three Divisions, each comprising six
Districts or Collectorates. The Commissioner in charge of a Division is the
intermediate executive authority between the Collector and Government, and
controls the former in all executive matters of importance.
3. The authority of a Commissioner does not extend to Bombay Island.
The Collector of Bombay is almost exclusively a revenue officer. The Magistracy
have exclusively judicial functions : the Commissioner of Police is subordinate to
-Government alone; the Port Trust have important independent powers as regards
the docks and the foreshore of the island. The Municipality also have wide
powers and responsibilities.
The Municipal Commissioner, who is the chief executive officer of the
Bombay Municipality, is entrusted with the administration, subject to the
control of the Municipal Corporation and the Standing Committee of the
Municipality, of several executive departments, of which the Health and Public
Works Departments are the most important. During the plague epidemic the
Municipal Commissioner was Mr. P. C. H. Snow, an experienced officer of the
Indian Civil Service. The Health Department, which was the one chiefly concerned
with the measures for suppressing the plague in Bombay Island, was in charge of
Brigade Surgeon-Lieut.-Colonel Weir, I.M. S., an officer of many years' experience
of the sanitary administration of the city, and whose intimate acquaintance not
only with its sanitary conditions, but with the characteristics of the thousands
B 1135—1