9
cases among them are recorded the mortality returns for December show an un-
explained excess of 11 deaths over the previous year's actuals after deducting
the avowed plague cases from the total mortality. Of the two local cases on
December 24th the Márwári used constantly to go into Bombay and the Bania
lived in a house full of Mándvi people. In February the epidemic got into the
Mahomedan village called Nizámpur, which forms the northern quarter of the
Municipality. In many instances, such as Bañara and Bhiwndi, and to some
extent Chinchni, the epidemic took a northerly course ; but I trust that no one
will make use of this remark to explain its course by the breeze or any similar
fancy. The reason appears to be simply this, that these places are on the
north bank of creeks and have their bazars of course near the water. Now this
plague has been emphatically a Bania's plague, and, as such, has invariably
attacked the market place in the first instance. If it was to travel at all, there-
fore, it must travel northwards.
The course of the epidemic in Bhiwndi was very rapid and comparatively
short. The mortality returns give no ground for suspecting any plague deaths
before December 10th, yet by the end of that month the disease was thoroughly
established, and after killing 430 people it ceased entirely on April 15th. The
cases shown in the table in paragraph 11 as occurring in July were all import-
ed from Kalyán ; Bándra, where the plague began at least a month earlier was
not free for about a fortnight later ; and Kurla, which was affected about the
same time as Bhiwndi, did not get free till the middle of May. In point of
attention Bándra and Kurla under European supervision had the advantage of
Bhiwndi, and the flight of the populace will not explain matters wholly, because
the Mahomedans, who form nearly half the population, did not fly. Nothing in
the sanitary condition of the town explains the mystery, for Doctor Anderson
describes the sanitation as bad," and the “ abundant water-supply and no
drainage " which he notes are apparently fostering conditions of plague. I am
inclined to attribute the rapid decrease of the plague among the Hindus to their
general flight at an early date, and among the Mahomedans to the strict seclu-
sion of families among the large Konkani community in Nizámpur and to the
open air lives of the weavers, who form, the rest of the Mahomedan community.
Gadding women have no doubt come next to rats as the carriers of plague from
house to house ; but the Pardanishin Konkanis were safe from this clanger.
I must not omit calling attention to Dr. Anderson's remark that during the
epidemic all the rats deserted Bhiwndi, but were beginning to return at his visit
there in May. It is of course not likely that these sagacious animals would
remain in a plague-stricken place till they were all exterminated. An emigration
of rats might explain the sudden outburst of plague in Shelar, a village two miles
from Bhiwndi, on February 18th, just at the time when the plague had established
itself throughout Bhiwndi. But there is no evidence that the death of rats
preceded the Shelar cases, and as Bhiwndi was the bazar town for the villagers,
they had ample opportunities of catching the plague without the aid of animals.
22. Bassein.—Although not on the Railway, Bassein early became a place
of refuge for fugitives from Bombay ; and one of these,
Bassein Municipality__a Christian woman who came on Christmas day, deve-
Population 11,291 loped plague on the 27th December. The next two
cases on the 30th December and 3rd January were also imported from Bombay ;
the fourth, on January 11th, was from Bándra. Two more imports from Bombay
were recorded, and then apparently the first local case on January 13th. But this
man had just returned from a visit to Bombay. Then followed ten more im-
ported cases, all from Bombay, between January 16th and February 7th, and then
the first really local case on February 9th in the Pápri quarter. There had been
two imported cases in the house of this person on January 20th ; so here is a clear
case of imported contagion. Another local case occurred in the neighbourhood
the same day, and thenceforward cases were frequent in Pápri. The first acknow-
ledged local case in Bassein proper occurred on the 8th in the person of a boy
who had touched the corpse of an imported case two days before. As far as the
evidence goes, therefore, the connexion of the Bassein plague with that of Bombay
is proved very clearly ; but it must be remarked that the mortality statistics of
January and February show that the actual plague deaths in each of these
months must have been three or four times as great as those recorded by this
B 833—3