Licence: In copyright
Credit: Plague in India / by Charles Creighton. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.
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![rill of bushes, outside which Avas the invariable mudhole or so-called tank, Avith the Hindu burning ghat and the Mohammedan burial jilace on its high bank. The houses stood uj)on a series of slight ele- vations and declivities, in fairly Avide streets or lanes; they Avere close together in roAvs, but there Avas no extreme congestion. They A\’ere nearly all built of mud upon earthen foundations, but some avere raised a foot or tAvo on stone jilinths, and had a fexv courses of stone in their Avails aboA'e the plinths; the stone being procurable from a quarry in a hill 3 miles distant. As it Avas the dry season, there Avas much dust eA'cryAvhere, and a general look of sordidness unrelieved by a single amenity excepting an occasional cammed dooi’Avay and tAVo or thi’ee A'erandas. Some of the houses had been rebuilt Avithin a feAV years, one last year on the old foundations. Some had considerable back yards, A^ery ill kept, but most had no curtilage Avhatever. Yet in a perambulation of the village site one met Avith nothing strikingly oft’ensiA^e to sight or smell. There had been 147 deaths from plague from August to October, but no neAv cases for six Aveeks, and the only evidence of the recent visitation Av^as a number of padlocked doors. This outbreak Avas the lifth since 1898, and the slightest hitherto. I have compiled from the records the folloAving table, shoAving the A\diole history of plague in this village: Five outbreaks of plaoue in a village near Belgawm. [Population, 4,586.] Year. AA'orst months. Plague deaths. 1898.. June-August 375 1899.. 1900.. August, September 741 1901.. July, August 336 1902.. September, October 226 1903.. 1904.. August, September 147 Total 1,824 The enormous loss of life in 1899—oA^er 700—Avas felt in the census of 1901, Avhich shoAved a great reduction from that of 1891, and the ag- gregate loss of tAvo-fifths of the population in seven years must have left a good many houses empty. I examined only tAvo of these, in Avhich there had been deaths a feAV Aveeks before. They Avere both old and crumbling, built of sheer mud, Avithout plinths, standing side to side on a slight declivity of the main street. Each consisted of a single square room, Avithout AvindoAv or back door, Avith an oil mill occupy- ing the center of the Avorn earthen floor, the occupants of both having](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22406967_0017.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
