?CHAP. IV. ]	Previous history of plague in India.	85
Mortality.
thousands died in Jodhpur, and Assistant Surgeon Maclean believed
that the assertion of the Marwaris that a hundred thousand persons
perished of the plague in their country was not very far wide of the
truth. He estimated that when the epidemic had reached a virulent
stage, not less than three-quarters of the sick died.
Contemporane-
ous yellow fever
in Rohilkhand.
Dr. Guthrie on
the Rohilkhand
fever.
Dr. Ranken states that at the same time that the plague raged
in Rajputana, common remittent and intermittent fevers prevailed in
Jilwara and Jaipur, and Rohilkhand was ravaged by an infectious and
deadly epidemic resembling yellow fever. Hirsch remarks that it was
stated by Dr. Guthrie that, while the plague was at Pali, there was a
pestilence observed over the whole country round Bareilly (Rohil-
khand), which had precisely the same characters. The appendix to Dr.
Ranken's report contains a note by Dr. Guthrie (Civil Surgeon) on the
subject of the Bareilly fever. The symptoms he describes seem to be
those of relapsing fever rather than plague, and are in some respects
widely different from the ordinary symptoms of plague. In only one
instance did Dr. Guthrie observe any enlargement of the glands, but
occasionally the illness was marked by severe pains in the throat
and chest, with cough and expectoration. Dr. Guthrie's note is re-
printed in Appendix II.
Symptoms.
Bubonic and
pulmonary
forms.
Description by
Assistant Sur-
geon Maclean.
The symptoms observed in the Pali epidemic were similar to those
of other plague epidemics in India. The disease was commonly of
the bubonic form, but the pulmonary variety was also sufficiently
well marked to excite special attention. The following is the account
given by Assistant Surgeon Maclean, who saw numerous cases of the
malady:-
"The attack is generally sudden, without previous feeling of
indisposition; the patient is seized with rigor, usually slight headache,
pains of the loins, nausea, etc.; the skin soon becomes hot and dry,
and the pulse frequent, generally soft and easily compressible, seldom
full and bounding and rarely or never hard. I counted a great many
pulses; they were all frequent, often 130, 140, 150. This might
in some measure be attributed to the exertion necessarily made by
the patients while being carried to the doors of their houses from the
interior. In many cases, however, where the patient was not moved
at all, I found the pulse equally frequent. Tongue usually covered
with a white or light brown fur. Sometimes it was nearly clean,
chiefly where the disease was of recent date. Vomiting did not
appear to be common at any period of the disease. I saw, however,
a few cases in which there was much irritability of the stomach,
manifested by frequent and distressing retching. Bowels generally
bound in the early stages of the disease, abdomen rather tumid and
hard, and almost always free from pain on pressure; considerable