?CHAP. V. ]	in the Bombay Presidency.	109
of September 1896,   with the average mortality   during  the corres
ponding periods of the preceding five years :-	

Period
(week ending)
CHOLERA.
SMALL-POX
FEVERS.
BOWEL-
COMPLAINTS.
ALL OTHER DISEASES.

TOTAL.

1896.
Average for corresponding pe-
Rio of previous five years.
1896.
Average for corresponding pe-
Rio of previous five years.
1896.
Average for corresponding pe-
Rio of previous five years.
1896.
Average for corresponding pe-
Rio of previous five years.
1896.
Average for corresponding pe-
Rio of previous five years.
1896.
Average for corresponding pe-
Rio of previous five years.
1st September
26
8
1
2
165
127
94
53
343
318
629
508
8th September
20
5
4
2
140
128
57
47
342
312
563
494
15th September
9
5
Nil.
1
177
107
40
41
354
305
580
459
22nd September
5
12
2
1
194
116
34
40
378
309
613
478
29th September
3
11
2
...
255
122
42
35
369
333
671
492
The excess occurred chiefly under the heads of " fevers " and
"all other diseases ;" the latter head included an unusual number of
deaths from diseases of the respiratory organs. Both fevers and dis-
orders of the lungs are diseases for which the Indian plague may
easily be mistaken. Brigade-Surgeon-Lieutenant-Colonel Weir, the
Health Officer of the Municipality, has stated that it should not be
assumed that this unusual mortality was due to plague. He points
out the remarkable circumstance that the increase in mortality was
largely confined to persons not born in Bombay, and he suggests
that an influx of strangers due to a large religious assemblage held at
Nasik. near Bombay, may have had an important influence on the
general mortality. But allowing for the possible contemporaneous
existence of other causes, the unusual mortality coupled with the
other evidence must still point to the probability of numerous cases of
undetected plague.
On discovery the
disease found to
be widely diffus.
ed.
That once plague was discovered it was found to be widely
diffused through the city is additional evidence of a very important
description. It has been stated that the first public declaration of
the existence of plague was made on the 23rd September. The
municipal returns record the occurrence of 145 cases of plague during
the week ending the 2nd October : 89 in the Mandvi quarter and