THANA DISTRICT.] 193
Thna.
Population- 17,455.
Thna. the head-quarter station of the District, escaped rather lightly in the first two
epidemics, but suffered somewhat severely in the third, the
source of infection being undoubtedly importation from
Bombay. With the exception of a few sporadic cases now and then, this town was really
free from the cessation of the first visitation in May 1897 up to July 1898, when a fresh
outbreak began, which lasted up to October ; the worst month being August, when there
were 90 cases. The Mahrttas suffered most heavily. Cases occurred during this epidemic
in 45 houses in which they occurred in 1897-98, and in 94 fresh houses in the immediate
vicinity thereof: although found in some cases, dead rats were not so numerous as in previous
years. A Plague Hospital and Contact Camp did good work all through the year, but there
was no Observation Camp. Infected houses were disinfected and untiled as usual. Here
too evacuation was freely resorted to by the people, who even in the rains readily went out
into sheds in the outskirts of the town of their own accord, the poorer classes being encour-
aged to do so by the free gift of hutting materials provided from a fund raised locally for
the purpose. It is noteworthy that not one of 201 persons who were inoculated by the
Acting Civil Surgeon, was subsequently attacked by plague. The following are the
monthly figures for the epidemic in Thna Town :-
Months.
Cases.
Deaths.
August 1898
...
90
62
September "
...
78
57
October ,,
...
28
29
Total ..
196
148
Bndra.
Population-18,759.
Yet another outbreak occurred in Bndra. From the beginning of June 1898 to the
middle of May 1899 this suburb was never free from plague.
The outbreak, which began early in June, resulted in 175
cases up to the beginning of September, after which it greatly
subsided ; but from the beginning of January 1899 the figures again rose, the disease con-
tinuing till the middle of May. (This outbreak, curiously enough, appears to have com-
menced in a hut built on the site of an old one, which, having produced the first case in
1896, was burnt down.) By the 15th of January 1899 cases were being discovered all over
Bndra, and it could not be said that any particulur localities were more especially affected.
Doctor D'Monte, the Vice-President of the Municipality, took charge of all arrangements.
Evacuation was voluntarily adopted by the inmates of all the numerous small villages which
go to make up Bndra : even Dnda, the fishing hamlet, with its population of close on
5,000 sturdy and self-willed fishermen, was cleared out without trouble by Dr. D'Monte
with the aid of one of the Municipal Commissioners, Mr. Motirm Patel. A good many
cases occurred in the sheds to which the evicts were removed, and it was due to this that
even with considerable evacuation the returns continued heavy. Wherever possible, these
huts were burned down and the occupants removed to other huts. The sick were carried
to a hospital built at Khar, a suburb of Bndra ; but where this was objected to, patients
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