129
The following table shows the admissions from the various
diseases, by months, from July to March :-
Names of Months.
Plague.
Relapsing Fever.
Cholera.
Small-Pox.
Chicken-Pox.
Measles.
Mumps.
Whooping Cough.
Observation.
Total of each Month.
1897.
July
13
15
111
10
73
222
August
11
24
73
4
74
186
September
33
54
26
1
128
242
October
31
57
8
4
1
140
241
November
52
82
3
2
1
146
286
December
167
190
2
1
4
10
2
4
166
546
1898.
January
496
188
1
2
6
5
112
810
February
660
218
2
13
4
61
958
March
454
101
1
14
28
3
29
630
Total
1,917
929
225
39
52
24
2
4
929
4,121
Plague and Relapsing Fever.
It will be seen from the above table that although Plague had
considerably lessened in Bombay, it had not become quite extinct, and
that during the months of July, August, September and October three
epidemic diseases-Plague, relapsing fever and cholera-were running
concurrently. Cholera, however, almost vanished in early October,
but Plague and relapsing fever went on gathering strength and
virulence as they advanced. It is indeed strange that two such
dissimilar diseases, Plague and relapsing fever, should run together,
attain their maximum, and decline also just about the same time,
though not in equal proportion. For whereas relapsing fever has
all but disappeared by the middle of April, Plague still continues
to claim its victims weekly by hundreds. Both diseases present
this peculiarity that they are infectious; but it is an undoubted
fact that relapsing fever is highly infections and certainly more so
than Plague. But here the similarity ends. As against a normal
Plague mortality of about 74 per cent., the mortality from relapsing
fever is 1851 per cent. Another curious feature that was observed
during the second Plague epidemic was the blending or mixing
of the poison of relapsing fever and Plague in the same patients,
sometimes the one intensifying the other, at others moderating its
severity. And what was still more striking in this dual infection
was the fact that it existed mostly in the weak and the under-fed,
the same class of patients that have shown themselves to be the most
susceptible to both infections. When Plague has prevailed extensively
amongst the better classes inhabiting this city, the curious feature of the
mixture of Plague and relapsing fever was observed only amongst
the lower.