304 [CHAP. IX.
mortality. But the strenuous efforts of the successive Collectors and their subordinates,
aided at last by the people themselves, and marked by prompter and more complete
evacuation, by greater influence, and by measures wider in their application and more
effective in their operation, were at length rewarded. From the 10th of June 1898, the entire
District was practically free from plague. It is significant that just about this time during
the previous year there was a subsidence of plague, though not a complete cessation. The
following statement gives the monthly figures for the whole District for this epidemic:-
Month.
Cases.
Deaths.
January 1898-4 weeks ...
90
60
February -4 ...
152
121
March ,, -4
240
201
April -5 ...
108
107
May -4 ...
32
28
June ,, -2
4
4
Total
626
521
Fourth Epidemic (September 1898-May 1899).-But this welcome immunity was destin-
ed to be of short duration: for, in September, plague re-appeared in the villages of Thal and
Cheul in the Alibg Tluka. Its origin was importation from Bombay. Rats were affected
before human beings at Cheul, and the inmates of the houses where dead rats were found left
them of their own accord, and the disease did not develop into an epidemic. At Thal, how-
ever, the infection appears to have lain dormant for some time, springing up again into
activity towards the end of November 1898.
Panvel.
Population-10,417.
After an interval of six months, the ill-fated town of Panvel was again attacked (Nov-
ember 1898). As usual, the source of infection eluded dis-
covery, and for the space of a month there were only three
sporadic cases. From the middle of November cases occurred
regularly every week, though they still continued to be sporadic, and evacuation was very
gradual, as only " the parts where the cases have been more than sporadic" were evacuated.
But this piecemeal evacuation had little effect in stopping the spread of the disease, though
it succeeded in preventing the rapid multiplying of attacks. In January 1899 the whole
town, except a part of the southern portion, was infected, and Kolivda and Parit Lane, the
most insanitary parts of the town, were then completely evacuated. In other quarters the
affected houses and adjoining ones only were cleared.
But among the peeple that were in camp, clandestine visits to infected houses were not
infrequent, and a largo proportion of the attacks was contributed by them. To obviate this,
the Police staff was strengthened, and greater control exercised over the evicts. "On the
occurrence of cases in the fields," the Collector writes, "a second removal of contacts is
being insisted on and the infected hut is either disinfected or burnt." The southern portion
of the town comprising the Mhar Wada was attacked in the week ending 20th January 1899,