?4
August 10th, shewed a serious increase of general sickliness, much
of which was probably due to Plague either ignorantly or intentionally
concealed. During the month of August cases were noted in which
enteric fever, remittent fever, and pneumonia passed into Plague. It is
therefore probable that a considerable share of the cases returned during
late July and early August under lung diseases and fevers should be
assigned to Plague.
Relief works.
From the beginning of August complaints were general, and to some
extent well-founded, that the city was infested with numbers of starved
idlers whose feeble condition, predisposing to Plague, was a menace to
public health. How far it was necessary or advisable to open special
relief works was a somewhat difficult question. If liberal pay were offered
and no task were exacted, crowds of indigents would be attracted, to the
disturbance of the labour-market. As the extent of the distress was
doubtful, and as the question of opening Municipal or State relief works
was not easily determined, a subscription was started and a sum of
Rs. 9,422 collected. The Secretary of the Indian Famine Charitable
Relief Fund placed a further sum of Rs. 10,000 at the disposal of the
Committee. Relief works consisting of filling in low land on the Ripon
and Clark Roads, and of breaking stone into road-metal, were opened on
the 3rd August. The merest subsistence rates, namely, three annas a
day for men, two annas for women, and one and a half annas for
children were paid ; and by the close of the month 10,755 persons, of
whom 8,770 were men, 1,952 women, and 33 children, had received
relief. The enforcing of a labour test and the giving of a mere subsistence
wage prevented the daily gathering of a rabble of loafers and avoided
the evil of tempting the destitute from famine-stricken districts
into Bombay.
Inward Qua-
rantine-Sea.
As there was reason to believe that the spread of Plague in
different parts of the city was due to the importation of cases
by sea from Cutch and the South Konkan ports, and by land from
the Deccan, attention was given to the completion of arrangements for
inspecting and detaining new-comers. The serious outbreak of Plague
in Mandvi (Cutch), which started in May 1897 and continued with great
severity till July, was not a source of danger to Bombay till after the
middle of August when, at the close of the stormy season, naviga-
tion opened and numbers of passengers, chiefly Hindu traders of
the Bhatia, Lohana and Jain classes, began to arrive in Bombay.
Though the epidemic was practically over in Mandvi, Plague
was still active in the neighbouring villages. Cases of Plague