130                                                 [CHAP. IV.
of the last preceding paragraph of this Notification.    He shall exercise such powers subject
to  the orders and the control of the Municipal Commissioner.
Any measures which may be ordered by the Municipal Commissioner or subject to  his
directions   by the   Special   Deputy   Commissioner  for  plague   operations   or   the   Special
Medical Officer hereinbefore appointed, shall be  carried into   effect, without  delay,   by   all
public servants   and  all persons employed by the Municipal Commissioner for the purposes
mentioned in and under the powers conferred by this Notification.
Save as may be otherwise directed by Government, all expenses incurred in carrying
out such measures shall, in the first instance, be paid out of the Municipal fund of the City
of Bombay, but the Municipal Commissioner or the Corporation may recover from any person
any amount which such person would, under similar circumstances, be liable to pay to the
Municipal Commissioner or the Corporation under the City of Bombay Municipal Act, 1888.
The Commissioner of Police shall give such assistance as may be necessary in order to
enforce immediate compliance with any order issued by or with the sanction of the
Municipal Commissioner under the powers conferred by this Notification.
(Sd.)    A. CUMINE,
Acting Secretary to Government."
Turning now to the progress of plague in the City, the spread of the disease was at first
gradual. Armies of rats, which had first infected, and then were in turn infected by, the
locality in which they found themselves, fled from east to west, from west to north. In the
wake of these fleeing armies of vermin followed the deadly pestilence. "The enquiries
made," writes Mr. Snow, the then Municipal Commissioner, "showed that vast numbers of
rats, flying from the danger of the pestilence, moved steadily in those directions, and were
noticed in numbers in places where they had not before caused remark." At the beginning
of December 1896 the epidemic became worse, and the total mortality of the City for the next
three months averaged well over 1,500 per week.
It was during this period that the great exodus from the City took place; that while the
City itself wore the aspect of a " City of the Dead," the Railway Stations teemed with masses
of fleeing humanity. Special after Special bore away thousands of old and young, laden with
enormous bundles representing their entire worldly goods. And as Special after Special left
the station, disappointed crowds, rather than lose the next opportunity, settled down to wait
on the platforms. Business was paralyzed, offices were closed, and thoroughfares, ordinarily
teeming with life, were characterised by a desolate emptiness. By the end of January 1897
some 400,000 people-about one-half of the entire population of the City-had fled. This
great exodus undoubtedly lessened the mortality. The weekly figures for this as well as for
the succeeding epidemics are given in Appendix A. An important step taken in December
may here be mentioned. Most of the dwellings of the poorer classes are of flimsy construction,
easily saturated throughout by leaking pipes. Natives, moreover, habitually turn taps full on,
whether to clean their clothes, bodies, their legs, arms or faces; and they as habitually avoid
the trouble of turning off the taps when they have finished. A system of meters was repeatedly
but unsuccessfully urged upon the Corporation. The only remedy was to cut off the water-
supply. In December 1896 it was cut off from all houses in Kamatipoora, stand-pipes being
erected in the streets for the people's use.
In January 1897 drastic measures were taken under Section 426 of the Municipal Act
for the demolition of huts. The evacuation of infected houses was seriously considered, and
the prevention of overcrowding was provided for by the powers conferred upon the Municipal
Commissioner in a notification published in the Gazette of the 10th of February.