8.
sheds, and subsequently three cases occurred among people who had gone back
into the village to clean up their houses. This seems a clear case of a village
being infected by rats who had brought the poison from an infected place.
Bhayndar village—Popula-
tion 2,697.
19. Bhayndur (Sálsette).—Thía is a village situated on the B. B. & C. I.
Railway in Sàlsette on the south bank -of the Bassein
creek. The first case here, which occurred early in
December, and was never reported, was one of a Chris-
tian who frequented Bombay and Bándra, and had returned from a visit to the
former place with plague on him. The next case a week later was of a Hindu
Bania who went daily to Bombay. The third known case which occurred on
January 5th was perhaps one of a kind of which several instances have occurred,
viz., where a person is infected by other persons who have been in infected places,
though without becoming sick themselves. The victim in this case had never
left Bháyndar, but her husband had been to Bombay. However the probability
that she was infected by her husband's clothes seems weak, since she did not fall
ill till nearly a month after his return from Bombay ; and as the possibility of
local infection existed owing to the two previous cases I would not lay stress
on this case. The next victims in January were respectively this woman's
daughter and three Christian neighbours, showing that the house hud become a
centre of infection, and ultimately the whole village became infected. The
percentage of local cases on population was 3.4.
Chinchni village—Popula-
tion 4,785.
20. Chinchni (Dàhànu).—Chinchni lies on the sea coast, about 40 miles
north of Bhàyndar, but received Direction about the same
time by the arrival of a Sonar woman from Bombay
on December 10th. She got fever and died within
7 days ; but the resident Hospital Assistant never having seen plague took the
disease for pneumonia. The next case, also called pneumonia, was imported by a
Brahmin from Bombay on January 17th. After the 20th dead rats were reported
in various adjoining houses, and on the 25th a Bania died in the house next but
one to that of the first Sonar case. On the 29th another local case occurred in
a house in which dead rats had been found and from this date cases became
common in the Bania Bazàr, where all the above cases had occurred. Thence
it spread throughout the village and into the adjoining village of Táràpur. The
Hospital Assistant, whose report being of some value, is appended, after describ-
ing the division of Chinchni into quarters inhabited by Banias, Mángelas,
Màhomedans, Palse Bráhmans, Lohársand Wàdwals, adds : "It was observed
during the time that the plague took portion by portion, cases not occurring in
that portion where it had ceased." The last remark is a little Irish, but the
Hospital Assistant really means that the plague almost took one quarter at a
time, and when it had been extirpated in one place by turning the people out
of their houses and segregation, it broke out unaccountably in a new quarter.
As it was reported at the beginning of the epidemic that many of the castes, e.g.
the Mangelàs and Mahonieclans, were rigorously excluding outsiders from their
streets, I am inclined to think that the spread of the plague from quarter to
quarter was largely due to rats. That rats were travelling about the village
with the plague is certain from the fact that no less than 26 deal ones were
found at a somewhat late stage of the epidemic in the roof of the dispensary, a
building in the north of the village and fairly isolated. I am convinced that
rats are a most potent factor in the distribution of the plague, and are the last
and worst enemy that the plague authority has to combat. The parcentage of
local cases on population was 6.8.
Bhiwndi Municipality—Po-
21. Bhùvndi.—The first cases reported from this
pulation 14,387.
town were as follows :—
December 11th.—A Parbhu from .Bombay.
„
13th.—Servant of the Parbhu.
„
17th.—A Musulman from Bombay.
„
24th.—A Márwári local resident.
„
24th.—A Bania living near the Márwári.
„
26th.—A Bania living near the last,
after which rats died and cases became general in that quarter of the town.
Numbers of Banias from Mándwi had come to live in the town, and though no