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they could cure it and reduce the fever. They decided on wet-cupping as the
most suitable method of accomplishing this, and the native cupping instrument was
used, which is of very rough construction and requires the air to be removed from
it by the mouth. The man who performed the operation caught the contagion,
which was so directly communicated to him that he died within a short time,
having shown all the symptoms of bubonic plague.
With this exception there has not been a single indigenous case in the
three talukas of Mahad, Mangaon, and Roha, although there were at least ten
imported cases.
Outbreak.
In Alibag taluka several villages were affected at the commencement of
the outbreak, notably Theronda and Alibag. Akshi, Awas, Rewadanda, and Choul
had each a few indigenous cases. In all these places, the first introduction of plague
was invariably due to communication with infected areas. During the months of
October and November, when the full force and dreadful effects of the epidemic
became evident in Bombay, very many residents of that island left it in panic, and
took refuge in the neighbouring towns. Alibag and Awas, being near to Bombay,
and easy of access to native crafts, were selected by many people as their refuge.
Communication with Bombay was increased, and the relatives and friends in
Bombay of the inhabitants of Kolaba returned to Alibag, Awas, Rewadanda, and
other villages on the coast. Among these persons some were undoubtedly
affected with plague, and the rules of medical inspection in Bombay not being
strictly in force at that time, people actually suffering from the pestilence found it
easy to escape across the harbour and enter the Kolaba district. It is stated that
some of the servants of Angré and Biwalkar, two leading natives in Alibag, brought
the disease from Bombay and were the first victims, and that after their death the
germs spread rapidly through the whole town. With regard to the first introduction
of plague into Theronda, it appears that some of the crew of a native craft, which had
gone to Bombay, caught the disease in that city ; they returned in the same boat to
Theronda, where they died. The disease was introduced into Rewadanda by an old
woman of Koli caste, who was affected with the plague, going from Theronda to
the house of one of her relatives in Rewadanda, where she died after a few days. The
true cause of her death was at first concealed, and it was only on the appearance
of dead rats in the house that the Police Officers investigated the case, and found
that she had died of plague.
It appears, therefore, that the cause of the first introduction of plague
into the villages was invariably communication with an affected area ; and that
wherever it has broken but, it can be traced to the germs having been introduced
by an infected person. On the other hand, however, it is evident that plague does
not always occur in an epidemic form in every village in which an imported case
has occurred. There are many instances where the disease, introduced by an
imported case, has died with the patient, and nothing more has been heard of it
afterwards.
Epidemic
stage.
By the middle of March the epidemic had become general all through
the district, and from the 6th March regular daily returns were received showing the
progress of the disease. Up to this date 174 cases and 59 deaths had occurred, and
now for the week ending 13th March, 18 cases and 11 deaths were reported,-namely,
eight cases and four deaths at Panwel ; at Uran six attacks and three deaths ;
at Matheran one fatal case ; and at Tanjira two attacks and two deaths. With a view
to coping with the epidemic, plague hospitals were opened at Panwel, Mora, Uran,
Karanja, Pen, Alibag, and Rewadanda, and each placed in charge of a Hospital
Assistant. The provisions of Act III of 1897 were put into force; plague authorities