204 [CHAP. VIII.
And by the end of December the number of cases had fallen to 1. But the disease
did not at once die out as expected, for straggling cases continued to occur. This is
attributed by the Collector to people constantly returning to the town :-
"It soon became apparent, however, that plague could not be altogether checked
unless all communication ceased with the infected town ; and all our energies were directed
towards this end. Gradually, by the grant of some aid, partly from plague and partly from
charitable funds, weavers and other artisans were persuaded to erect their workshops out-
side the village. A site was also chosen and fitted up for the weekly bazr. There a large
Camp or market was erected, and all the merchants and shopkeepers induced to open their
shops and offices in that Camp. In this way, by the end of January, the town had been quite
emptied and all communication forbidden .... By the 15th January
1898 plague had practically disappeared."
The total numbers of the attacks and deaths, as given by Mr. Ghosal, who was on the
spot, were 189-118. " Even then," he states, "probably many plague cases have been
excluded." The largest weekly number of eases in Ahmednagar District was reported
during the week ending 18th December 1897, being 108.
Twenty-three towns and villages were attacked in all during this epidemic, excluding
Nagar Town, Cantonments, and the Station. In 33 other villages imported cases of plague
occurred. In several villages evacuation was spontaneously resorted to by the people before the
occurrence of cases, and they escaped very lightly. Nagardewal (1,106) and Athwd (436) are
instances, and escaped with 9 cases each. Pendshet is a curious example, of which the Collector
gives the following description: -
". . . . at Pendshet, a little hill village in Akola with a population of 183, spontaneous
evacuation stopped an outbreak of which nothing was known to the authorities until it had
ceased, after accounting for 18 lives-10 per cent. of the population."
The monthly plague mortality for Nagar Town and District throughout the epidemic
was as follows :-


Month and year.
AHMEDNAGAR. DISTRICT
(excluding Nagar Town). Population - 852,724.
AHMADNAGAR TOWN. Population- 36,031.
Cases.
Deaths.
Cases.
Deaths.
September
1897
21
13
8
6
October
,,
155
106
2
...
November
,,
136
83
21
15
December
,,
205
164
90
73
January
1898
76
67
180
112
February
"
83
68
53
50
March
,,
60
46
16
14
April
,,
...
...
1
2
Total
736
547
321
272
On the 30th December 1897, Mr. C. W. M. Hudson, I.C.S., relieved Mr. A. F. Woodburn,
I.C.S., as Collector.