?122	Extent and course of the plague	[ CHAP. V.
a child seen by the Health Officer on the 11th, another child, aged five
years, was found sick. On the morning of the 12th, the Health
Officer took the Deputy Sanitary Commissioner, Sind Registration
District, to view the cases.
Plague declared
epidemic.
" On the 19th December, at their usual weekly meeting, the Medi-
cal Board declared plague epidemic in Karachi. Their report reached
the Acting Commissioner on the 22nd, and was the same day communi-
cated to Government by telegram, and the Principal Medical Officer
was asked for daily reports of attack and deaths.
The epidemic
dates from the
beginning of
December.
" These facts leave little doubt that, from the beginning of Decem-
ber 1896, the disease had got a footing in Karachi. There was nothing
in the mortality statistics to indicate the presence of the disease- "

Week ending
DEATHS FROM All CAUSES.
AVERAGE DEATHS OF 5 YEARS
ENDING 1895.

Total.
Daily aver-
age.
Total.
Daily aver-
age.
6th October   1896
83
12
65
9
13th  “         “
51
7
56
8
20th  “         “
61
9
58
8
27th  “         “
59
8
58
8
3rd November   1896 
54
8
62
9
10th  “         “
59
8
65
9
17th  “         “
72
10
69
10
24th  “         “
74
11
67
10
1st December   1896  ...
80
11
70
10
8th   “         “
85
12
81
12
15th  “         “
86
12
82
12
22nd  “         “
104
15
102
15


Spread of infec-
tion.
The infection first spread in the insanitary and overcrowded
quarter of the Old Town, and for some time it was confined to that
quarter. But by the end of January it had spread into the Napier and
Market quarters and thence it attacked other quarters of the city. In
the Trans-Lyari Quarter the cases began to multiply in the beginning
of February. The outbreaks at Kiamari and Manora were of later
date.