Plague in India / by Charles Creighton.

  • Creighton, Charles, 1847-1927.
Date:
1907
Catalogue details

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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    There are no carriage ways through this region, but only a maze of narrow alleys, with houses on either hand three or four stories high, and innumerable temples—a perfect rabbit warren, like the closes of the High street, Canongate, and Cowgate of Old Edinbui-gh. What strikes one most in the not unexciting passage through this maze is the solidity and durability of the structure everywhere. ’’J'he walls are of stone, the courtyards and floors are paved with stone, the alleys are laid crosswise with long slabs of stone, which form at the same time the roofs of a networlv of sewers. Tn this dense mass of humanity, constantl}'^ mixing with pilgrims from all parts of India, there has been hardly any j)lague. I make this state- ment on the authority of the police inspector Avho accompanied me, as well as of the collector, Mr. Kadice, who Avrote as folloAvs: “In the fiA'e years Ave haA'e had jilague (this is the fifth) the pakka mahals have been almost entirely free;” and in the sketch ])lan shoAving the incidence of the infection on the seAxn-al quarters of the city, Avhich he Avas good enough to make for me, he has marked only one small spot in the riA'erside <iuarter, the Gaighat, Avhich had some plagne in 1908. On the other hand, the mud-built suburbs and the Aullages to the Avest of the city have had much plague; for exami)le, this year a maximum of nearly 400 deaths in a Aveek in March. In driAung through them one could tell at a glance Avhere the jilague Avas likely to have been; thus, on the Avay from the cantonment to the city, a certain aip in the read is lined on both sides Avith mud houses of exce])tionally mean appearance, Avhich is found, on reference to the j)lan, to be the Tiliabagh, marked as having had plague “ CA'ery year.” CITIES OE THE NOKTIIWEST. In all the other cities of the northwest, AA’hich haA'e had much plague, there are extensive qnartei's of mud-built houses—in Alla- habad, CaAvnpore, Agra, LncknoAV, Bareilly. In LucknoAV, beauti- fied as it is AA'ith palaces and fine houses, the relatiA'e extent of the kaccha mahals seemed to be enormous, and the mud Avails of so dusty and friable a kind that the heavy rain of December had been break- ing them doAA'ii. BucknoAA' this year has had np to 480 plague deaths in a Aveek, a ratio higher than Bombay. I shall giA'e a single illus- tration of plague in Agra. One of the patients in the plague hospi- tal, a convalescent, Avas a little girl, the sole surviA'or of a plague- stricken family of nine. On proceeding Avith the assistant medical officer to see the house Avhere this tragedy had happened, we found it to be a dilapidated and abandoned mud hut, one of a compact group of three standing at the roadside on the edge of a small pit, from Avhich the earth to build them had doubtless been dug.