252 [CHAP. VIII.
town was infected until September 1898, in which month Limb and Khnpur were attacked
one after another. Khnpur, with a population of just over 5,000, escaped lightly with
73 cases and 58 deaths. But Limb was not so fortunate : with a smaller population
(4,593) it contributed no fewer than 546 cases with 437 deaths in a period of 6 months. It
took nearly 2 months to get this town evacuated; but evacuation does not appear to have
been as successful here as at other places.
Uran and Islampur.
Population-10,657.
Towards the close of September 1898 the Town of Uran and Islmpur was infected by
Peth, a considerable town in the same Tluka with a population of
some 6,500.
Blocks of houses were evacuated as infection appeared, until the entire Uran division of
the town lay empty. Even then cases occurred amongst the people in the fields, the deaths
averaging 3 or 4 daily up to the middle of December. The first case in the Islampur divi-
sion of the town occurred on the 10th November 1898, the pestilence having apparently
crept steadily forward from Uran. This division of the town was also ultimately evacuated :
but the disease lingered in this locality for a long time, the monthly figures being as
follows :-
Month.
Cases.
Deaths.
September 1898
2
1
October ,,
74
52
November ,,
137
118
December ,,
105
101
January 1899
29
23
February ,,
16
15
March ,,
5
3
Total..
368
313
Stra Town.
Population-29,601.
Kard and Ashta excepted-and they were soon to follow-every town of importance
had suffered more or less severely in the third epidemic, while Stra still remained free.
The most strenuous efforts to ward off a second epidemic were put
forth : all arrivals were placed under surveillance : Major T. E. Mont-
gomery, I. 0. S., who in October 1898 gave place to Lieutenant-
Colonel H. Hay, I. S. C., was placed in charge of precautionary measures : when villages in
the Stra Tluka became infected, no one was permitted to enter the town without a pass,
and all comers from infected places were rigorously excluded : fruit and vegetable markets
being held outside the town.
But in spite of all precautions plague eventually effected an entrance, first attacking a
small village within the limits of the Stra Suburban Municipality. Although the village
was promptly evacuated, infection was communicated to the town and resulted in an out-
break. It is noteworthy that those parts which had escaped formerly were chiefly the
ones to suffer now. The rise and progress of this epidemic is thus described by Lieutenant-
Colonel Hay :-
"The epidemic in Stra City began on the 7th October 1898. The first serious out-
break occurred in a Peth called Pantachagote; seven cases occurred there in the week ending
3rd November 1898. Eight more cases occurred there in the same Peth in the following week,
after which the whole Peth was evacuated, after which plague ceased there. After plague
had made its appearance in Pantachagote it similarly began in two more Peths called Raviwr
and Malhr. These two Peths are in the vicinity of Pantacagote, and the infection was, no