12
tagion, had contagion sought it, escaped almost untouched by the disease,
while places of salubrity like Bassein on one side and Tárápur and Ch.inch.ni
on the other suffered severely. Nothing but the absence of importation on a
large scale explains this immunity. As regards rats, Doctor Anderson makes the
interesting observation that dead rats were discovered in a Bania's house in
Máhim on February 12th and in two school-houses on March 30th and April 1st.
As all these places were instantly disinfected no cases followed. The imported
cases of January 29th and February 7th may explain the first appearance, and
in the other cases the rats may have come from Kelwa. The discovery of dead
rats in these schools, a school at Mâlád and the Chinchín dispensary seems to
show that these animals sometimes seek refuge in uninhabited places, as if re-
cognising that their sickness is connected with the habitations of men. The
next stage would be to desert a town altogether as they are also reported to have
done at Bhiwndi and Bándra.
Vesáve Village—Popula-
tion, 4,747.
33. Vesáve (Sálsette).—This is a populous and very crowded Koli village
orten called Versova. The first case, on January 30th,
was imported from Bombay by a brother of the
Customs Kárkún of Vesáve, and a school-master who
lived with the village taláti and had attended the sick man got plague himself
on February 5th. But on February 2nd the taláti's nephew living in the same
house had got the plague, evidently through the school-master though before the
latter showed it. The next two cases on February 11th and 13th were a Christian
and Khoja both of whom got infected in Bombay ; on the l7th the epidemic got
among the Kolis and began to spread. Rats had previously died in the Koli-
wada, and probably brought plague from the infected houses in the other part
of the village, though as the Koli fishermen would be in constant communication
with Bombay and Bándra it is quite possible that there had been concealed
cases among them before the first reported one. It is noticeable that although
the first reported cases were in Christian and Mahomedan houses, these sections
of the population suffered very little in comparison with the Kolis. The latter
class, which are everywhere independent and troublesome, refused to submit to
segregation or disinfection and created a serious riot on March 7th when the
Assistant Collector and his staff were beaten and driven out. Strong measures
were instantly taken, and nearly the whole Koli population were forced to vacate
the village and live in sheds in the fields. This did not, however, check the
epidemic for some weeks, most of the cases reported in March and April about
176 in all being cases of infection in the sheds. This shows that when a com-
munity has got saturated with the disease mere change of residence will not
cause it to disappear. The percentage of local cases on population was 4.4.
34. Dahánu.—A small town where only two imported cases were reported
deserves no particular notice except to say that being beyond the limit of local
trains, it was not inundated by Bombay refugees and thus was in no great danger.
Kelwa has already been dealt with in paragraph 32 above. The local case in
Kowlar Budruk was infected in Bombay, and the next five villages in the list,
having only about one case apiece all imported from outside, need no remark.
Santa Cruz hamlet : Popu-
lation, 442.
35. Santa Crnz (Sálsett).—This village being part of Dánda, (of which
the rest is included in Bándra Municipal limits) has
been described in the weekly reports under that name.
It is about 2 miles from Bándra. The first two cases.
which occurred on February 15th, were of local Christians, but dead rats had
been found in the house a few days before. As the village swarmed with Bom-
bay refugees it is quite possible that there had been one or more concealed cases
whereby the rats were infected, or those visitors may have been part of the
swarm then proceeding northwards from Bándra according to the hypothesis in
paragraph 16 above. The next cases were all among Christians who were
infected from the first family. The percentage of local cases on normal popula-
tion was 4.0.
36. Umbargaon.—The four cases shown against this place were all taken
sick or dead out of the train. The indifference of the Railway Companies to
the booking of infected persons at the beginning of the epidemic was scandalous.
Many that were taken out of trains in this district must have been visibly sick
when booked.