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hospitals and sheds in each affected place were given. The affected area was
partitioned out among the available European officers : the Civil Surgeon took
Thána, the Deputy Sanitary Commissioner Kurla, the First Assistant took the
infected villages of Sálsette, and the 2nd Assistant those of Bassein and Dáhánu,
while Mr. Gilbert gallantly volunteered to take Bándra, and I myself took
Bhiwndi to assist the District Deputy Collector in charge. The history of
Bhiwndi illustrates so well the utter uselessness of our Municipalities and the
necessity and beneficence of the Plague Rules that it may be given here in
some detail.
77. The Bhiwndi Municipality consists of Pándarpeshas and Musalmáns
who were all strongly opposed to any interference with " domestic life " and up
to the end of January had done nothing to cope with the evergrowing plague,
although they had been directed on December 15th to take all the measures
sanctioned by the Commissioner, N. D., in his No. 1518, dated the 13th October
1896. The Assistant Surgeon had of his own motion built a small hospital
shed ; but no one had been taken there except a beggar. Having ascertained
the state of things by a personal visit, I issued on January 27th an injunction
to the Municipality under Section 37 of the District Municipal Act, 1873, to do
the following things :—
(1) Furnish the hospital shed and guard it from fire.
(2) Build sheds for the isolation of families.
(3) Entertain a Hospital Assistant on Us. 50.
(4) Enforce the lime-washing of all houses and granraies.
(5) Build a ring of Chaukis round the town for the examination of
all persons entering or leaving.
(6) Enforce the segregation in hospital of all plague-stricken persons
found entering or leaving, and of all such persons in the town certified by
the Assistant Surgeon to be proper subjects for isolation.
(7) Appoint a special committee of three to enforce these orders.
These measures were sanctioned by the Commissioner, N. D., in a letter
No. 8, dated the 29th January ; but the Municipality absolutely refused to
make any rule for the segregation of the sick. Most of the elected members
had previously run away, but enough returned to outvote the officials. The
arguments put forward by Hindus and Mahomedans alike were that segregation
was against religion, and could do no good inasmuch as " life and death were
not in the hands of men but of the Creator." This resolution which amounted
to a sentence of death on the town was passed on. February 1st ; and I should
have applied for the immediate suspension of the Municipality if the passing of
Act III of 1897 had not, by virtually suspending all Municipalities in plague-
stricken places, rendered this step unnecessary.
78. As soon as the first Plague Rules referred to above were received
a sufiicient number of hospital and segregation sheds were erected under my
orders and a plague establishment was got together with some difficulty.
I was delayed a few days at Thána to see the sheds run up there also, and
to impress on the leading natives that segregation was going to be carried
out whether they approved it or not ; but on February 19th, I moved camp
to Bhiwndi. The first news was that the Mahomedans were not only refus-
ing to let their sick be taken to hospital, but were compelling the Hindus also
to refuse ; and accordingly I started out the next morning, with the District
Deputy Collector, the Mámlatdár and the Assistant Surgeon, and compulsorily
removed all the sick persons I could find. These were not many as most cases
died shortly after attack and some had disappeared in the night ; but the lesson
was useful, and when I entered the Mahomedan quarter I found the leaders
more disposed to make terms than to fight. After some wearisome colloquies
and the bringing up of a body of armed Police from Thána, I finally got these
and all other recalcitrant sections of the community to agree to erect their own
hospitals in places approved by me and to take their sick there, under penalty
of their being otherwise taken to the Government sheds. The Konkani Maho-
medans selected farm buildings or stores in isolated positions and the other