ARE WE IN DANGER FROM THE PLAGUE? 581 



When the plague was first announced at Bombay a large num- 

 ber of its inhabitants, estimated at about three hundred thousand, 

 left the city. There can be but little doubt that with these the 

 germs of the plague were carried into the surrounding country. 

 From Bombay the disease has spread out in every direction, imtil 

 it has found its way into nearly every part of India. To-day the 

 three large commercial cities of British India — Bombay, Calcutta, 

 and Madras — are all infected. The manner of the introduction of 

 the disease into Calcutta is somewhat uncertain, several different 

 accounts being given as authentic. Dr. Cantlie says on this point : 

 " The first case dealt with and reported upon in Calcutta gives an 

 interesting history. The patient, a lad seventeen years old, came 

 from Bombay, where evidently he had been exposed to infection, 

 as his sister, who accompanied him, had seen several cases of plague 

 in Bombay. Fifteen days before leaving Bombay he had noticed 

 swelling first in one groin and then in the other, but never felt ill 

 until his arrival in Calcutta, on September 24:th. lie was seen 

 and carefully examined in Calcutta by honest observers, and a 

 diplobacterium identical with the Kitasato bacillus was found in 

 his blood. ISTot only so, but the clinical symptoms of plague were 

 most manifest." 



Another authority would have it that the plague was brought 

 to Calcutta from Hong Kong by a British regiment which had been 

 engaged in cleansing infected houses at Hong Kong. On this point 

 Dr. Simpson makes the following statement: "In January, 1895, 

 the regiment went to Calcutta, and this disease was first diagnosed 

 as syphilis, then as malarial fever with bubo, and finally the cause 

 was declared to be unknown. In June, 1896, one of the medical 

 officers of the regiment was attacked with fever, and the glands of 

 the neck, axilla, and groin were all enlarged. A goodly number 

 of similar cases were met with in the town; moreover, the rats be- 

 came sick, and the grain stores swarmed with diseased and dead 

 rats. In spite of opposite evidence, it was well-nigh certain that 

 plague in a sporadic form had been in Calcutta since 1895 or 1896." 

 The bacillus of the plague has undoubtedly found Calcutta quite 

 as well prepared for its reception as Bombay. In discussing a 

 medical report on the sanitary condition of Calcutta, the Pioneer 

 Mail makes the following statement : " London, with its population 

 of over 4,000,000, has about 36,000 people to the square mile. In 

 the thirteen wards of Calcutta there are only four below tliis figure; 

 the remainder have from 46,000 to 144,000 per square mile, three 

 wards containing actually over 100,000. Colootolah is most dense- 

 ly populated; the houses are literally crammed with people. One 

 case is quoted where 250 persons were living in a space that should 



