17
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
Kelva (Máhim) ...
Thána (Sálsette)
Mahul ( " )...
Pamtembhi (Máhim)
Kolhe Kalyán (Sálsette)
Ráí Murdhe ( " )
Kalyán (Kalyán)
.
...
.
.
.
.
11
0.8
0.8
0.8
0.7
0.5
0.2
The first twelve, with, the exception perhaps of Santa Cruz, have this in
common that they either have an artificial water-supply like Bandra and Kurla
or have water at no great distance below the surface of the ground. With the
two exceptions of Santa Cruz and Sopára, they are all also within sight of salt
water. The latter consideration is not in my mind of the slightest consequence ;
it is simply the result of the fact that most places within reach of local trains
are either on the sea or a creek. Thána, Kalyán, and Kelwa, which are situated
on creeks or the sea, suffered very slightly, and numbers of similarly situated
places like Máhim, Dáhánu and Umbargaon escaped local cases altogether.
I am not prepared to deny that the proximity of water to the soil, by creating
a feverish habit, may not render inhabitants of such places more susceptible to
plague once it is brought ; but even this I doubt ; for Máhim, which is notoriously
malarious, escaped altogether, and though the whole garden belt of Bassein is
thoroughly water-logged, almost the only places in that táluka which appear in
the above list are places with crowded bazaars, and in those places the disease
practically confined itself to the bazaar, leaving the neighbouring hamlets
untouched. On the other hand, of the 15 Sálsette villages in the list, at least
half are places where water is far from the surface, and A'ndheri which was one
of the worst affected, was so badly oft that a charitable Pársi had to set up a
stand-pipe connected with the Tansa main to prevent a water famine. The
fact that the interior of the district escaped scathless is due, in my opinion not
to its being dry, though that may be generally true, but to the fact that
firstly the small villages of the Kunbis offered little accommodation to fugitives
from the towns, and secondly that owing to a printed proclamation issued from
this office to every village, the villagers exercised a strict quarantine against
all strangers. So far was this carried that the people of Wada actually petition-
ed against the transfer of a kárkun from Bhiwndi to their táluka on the ground
that he might bring the plague ; and on one occasion an Educational Inspector
was kept in vile durance which was only terminated on a telegram from this
office. I have little doubt that the escape of the villages surrounding Poona
was due to similar action by the villagers. I was myself inclined to think, at
the beginning of the pestilence when the clamours of empirics filled the air,
that a dry soil might be a protection, but looking at the general experience of
the Sálsette táluka, which is generally dry, I have now little doubt that if the
plague had been conveyed into the interior of the district, it would have proved
as destructive there as on the coast.
70. The intensity of the plague appears also to have borne no perceptible
ratio to general sanitary conditions. Villages or small towns are naturally less
insanitary than large towns ; yet ten out of the 14 worst affected places are
villages, and some of them like Santa Cruz and Ghivle are not large villages.
Of the towns Kurla, Bassein and Bhiwndi certainly, and Thána and Kalyán
probably, are less well attended to by their Municipalities than Bándra. Yet
all these places suffered less severely than Bándra, and Kalyán hardly suffered
at all. The only satisfactory explanation of the intensity is the liability to
infection by a constant stream of immigration, minus promptness and vigour
in segregation. Given accommodation for high caste natives and easy distance
for Bombay, infection was everywhere a certainty ; and the degree of it depended,
I should say, almost entirely on the degree of efficiency in the machinery for
stopping the spread of infection. Bándra, Kurla, Bassein and Bhiwndi suffered
heavily, because plague entered them two months before nrinicipal government,
which meant inefficiency and neglect, was superseded by the plague authorities.
Thána and Kalyán owed their comparative immunity to the vigilance of the
officials from the beginning. The Koli villages of Nagaon, Vesave, Mudd,
Ghivle, Manori, &c. 5 require a word to themselves. It has been supposed that
the intolerable stench of rotten fish, with which every house in these villages
reeks, may have rendered the Kolis susceptible of plague. Looking at the
B833—5