82
Previous history of plague in India.
[CHAP. IV.
country. The cultivation is poor and precarious, though certain parts
have a better soil than others, and some tracts are comparatively produc-
tive. The principal towns in this part of Rajputana are well built and
fairly prosperous, and have for ages managed the trafic across the desert
The climate of Mewar is healthy and not malarial. It is remarkably
dry, and the country is altogether free from heavy jungle. The soil is
for the most part light and sandy ; there are few natural or artificial
collections of water, and the periodical rains speedily drain off.
The portion of Mewar affected was the fertile -open and undu-
lating country comprised in the north-east portion of the state. The
intervening range of the Aravulli hills forms a narrow strip of
territory with mountainous and varied scenery ; the highest peak
attains an elevation of 2,855 feet above the sea-level, and the average
level of the valleys is 1,800 feet. The country is naturally dry and
unproductive, but is rendered comparatively fertile by numerous tanks
(formed by embanking gorges or torrents), most of which have been
constructed since the introduction of British rule.
Outbreak at
Pali, July 1836.
The cloth-
printers first
affected.
Virulence of the
epidemic.
Origin of the
disease.
Conjecture that
it was imported
from the Gujarat
ports.
Dr. Irvine's
reason for
believing in
this theory.
The disease broke out in the month of July 1836 at Pali, a con-
siderable town in Marwar, distant about thirty-five miles as the crow
flies from the nearest point of the Aravulli hills. Pali was reckoned
the emporium of trade between Central India and the sea-ports of
Gujarat, and in 1836 was believed to contain about fifteen to twenty
thousand inhabitants. A number of families amounting to about two
O
thousand persons, called Chipis, who lived by printing the plain
pieces of cloth brought from the coast, were the first affected ; and
six hundred and fifty-five of them died. The Brahmans next, then the
Mahajans, or retail merchants, and the inhabitants indiscriminately
were taken ill in succession. The outbreak was virulent and it is
believed that four thousand inhabitants perished, the deaths amount-
ing to fifty or sixty a day. " Before the mortality abated, all the
wood procurable for burning the dead was expended, and corpses had
to be consumed with the shells of cocoanuts, and the butter commonly
used as food. " The origin of the disease in Pali is not known.
One conjecture that was formed was that the infection was brought
in the bales of cloth imported into Pali from Bhavnagar, Surat, and
other western ports. The fact that the persons first attacked belonged
to the class who handle this cloth for printing lent some support
to this view. Dr. Irvine, who was at the time Surgeon to the
Political Agency, Rajputaua, has recorded the following interesting
remarks on this subject :—
" It appears to me, in the first place, that the plague having pre-
viously appeared in obscure parts of India is very nearly proven as a
fact ; and history declares that at one period, a most fatal contagious
plague desolated the whole country. In various places in Gujarat