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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![3'ho throe largo cities of the Punjal)—Dollii, Amritsar, and Lahore— have had remarkably little iilagiie. Delhi, which is situated in a stony region, appeared to he nearly all jiakka liiiilt, with the excep- tion of a few lanes around a celebrated black mosque of the fourteenth century; and oath the villages round Delhi are bnilt of a kind of conglomerate of stone and clay. Amritsar also is a Avell-built lirick city, and in Lahore there are no such extensive (piarters of mud- built houses as in Allahabad and LucknoAv. The smaller toAvns and market villages have in some instances furnished a large ])art of all the plague deaths credited to a rural area. I Avas told by the civil surgeon at (Ihazipur that the largest totals in his district this }^ear Avere coming in from certain towns or market centers Avhich had a considerable iSIohammedau iiopulation; and in tlie district of Mut- tra I saAv for myself tAvo such market toAvns Avitli much plague in them, one of them, population of 9,000, having had 400 deaths in the four Aveeks preceding, and a maximum of 2o the daj'^ before; Avhile the other, Avith a population of G,000, had 19 neAv cases reported that morning. It is the melancholy fate of those old country toAvns of the jMohammedan period, originally Avell built, Avith brick houses and paA’ed streets, and in some cases Avith fine sarais or forts, to liaA^e fallen into decay of trade and dilapidation of buildings, the houses often “ pakka Avithout, but kaccha Avithin,” as explained to mo of an old tAvo-storied lirick house at a Aullage near Benares, in Avhich the rats had been found dead, and, tAvo or three Aveeks after, the Avhole of the inmates, to the number of 18, had died. 31KANS OF AAOIl)lN(i PLACUE EVACUATION. According to eA'eryone’s belief and experience in India, there is only one thing to be done Avhen ])lague appears in a place, or the rats begin to fall, namely, to clear out, or, at all CA^ents, to avoid spending the night there. Hence the strange spectacle CA^ery eA'ening about sunset, in the city of Bijapur, of the Avhole population, saA^e the inmates of half a dozen bungaloAvs, to the number of some 20,000, quitting the bazaars, Avorkshops, and offices, and making their Avay outside the walls to a large camp on the doAvns around the raihvay station. This phenomenon is the more suggestiA'e at Bijajmr, as the city Avas de- serted once before, tAvo hundred years ago, and most ]n-obabl_y for the same reason as uoav, namely, plague, and continued to be in great ])art deserted until it Avas made the administratiA^e headquarters of the district about thirtA' years ago. Also in the country round Bijapur the people haA'^e learned the lesson of evacuation A^ery thoi’oughly. I Avent through an old fortified A'illage of 3,000 people 5 miles to the Avest of it, Avithout finding a liA’ing creature; tlie streets Avere de- serted, and the doors of all the houses padlocked, the Avhole of the](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22406967_0029.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
