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traffic. They also sent the following telegram on the 10th February to Collectors
and Commissioners :
" It is essential to take all possible precautions against spread of plague. Instruct all
Revenue, Police and other Government officers to report every suspicious case and bave
movements of persons from Bombay or Poona or Thána District watched. If necessary, esta-
blish segregating camps at places of arrival by land or water from Bombay, &c., and place
arrivals in quarantine. Have death rate carefully watched in all places where it can be a
useful guide. If necessary take measures to prevent all fairs and pilgrimages and largo
gatherings of people. Don't wait for Government sanction to proceedings or expenditure
that are urgently necessary."
2. The measures taken in this month in the city of Poona will be sketched
in Part II, Chapter I, by way of introduction to the history of the Poona Plague
Committee. The measures of the nature of quarantine adopted specially with a
view to preventing the spread of plague in the Deccan by panic-stricken people
emigrating from Poona, Daman and the infected cities in Sind will also be
referred to in Part II. In the Kolába District, owing to the scarcity of medical
subordinates, and the facts that there was no Commissioned Medical Officer
and the Collector had only one Assistant, little would be clone in this month
to meet the first outbreaks, except in the Mora hamlet of Uran, where the
presence of Mr. Carrel, Supervisor of Government Distilleries, a gentleman
who possessed great influence over the Kolis, enabled a system of segregation
to be established with success. The measures adopted in this month in the
Thána and Surat districts in which the disease had become firmly established,
are sketched below,
Thána.
8. On 13th February provisional sanction having been accorded by
Government to the rules proposed by him, Mr. F. S. P. Lely, Commissioner
of the Northern Division, visited Thána and in consultation with the Collector of
the district, the Sanitary Commissioner, the Deputy Sanitary Commissioner and
the Civil Surgeon formed a plan of campaign. It was resolved that the segrega-
tion of the sick and their families in hospitals and observation camps should be
rigorously enforced and orders for the erection of hospitals and sheds in each
affected place were given. The affected area was partitioned out among the
available European officers. The Civil Surgeon took charge of operations in the
city of Thána, and Mr. R. Gilbert, a Solicitor of Bombay, volunteered to become
President of the Bándra Municipality and to take charge of plague operations in
the town of Bándra, thus setting free the First Assistant Collector, Mr. Hudson,
to devote his attention to the other infected villages of Sálsette, except Kurla and
the villages in its neighbourhood, which were placed in charge of Surgeon-Major
Anderson, Deputy Sanitary Commissioner. The Second Assistant Collector,
Mr. Mead, took charge of Bassein and Dahánu, and the Collector himself
proceeded to Bhiwndi to assist the Deputy Collector in its administration which
was giving trouble. It may here be mentioned that in this town it was
found at one time necessary to bring up a body of armed police ; at Vesáva
in Sálsette a violent riot took place early in March in which the First
Assistant Collector and the Special Plague Mámlatdar were some-what severely
handled by the mob : and at Bándra also on one occasion difficulties were
experienced which rendered necessary the presence of troops. The prejudice
against hospitals seems however to have rapidly disappeared, especially in
Thána, Kurla- and Bándra, where there were European doctors, Surgeon-Captain
Prall having volunteered for service at the latter. In many places people
preferred to have their own caste isolation sheds, and no objection was taken to
this, the important point being to promptly remove the occupants of infected
houses and to disinfect the houses. Discovery of the sick was ensured by house-
to-house visitation.
4. As already mentioned the Civil Surgeon of Thána Lac! been removed
in January for service under the Bombay Municipality and the Thána District
was thus left entirely without a Commissioned Medical Officer. Surgeon-
Major Anderson, Deputy Sanitary Commissioner, was, however, promptly
ordered to abandon his tour, proceed to the Thána District, and remain there
till further orders. Another Commissioned Medical Officer, Surgeon-Captain
Hudson—one of the officers deputed to this Presidency by the Government of