PLAGUE IN INDIA. 



319 



ring of bushes, outside which was the invariable mudhole or so-called 

 tank, with the Hindu burning ghat and the Mohammedan burial 

 ])lace on its high bank. The houses stood upon a series of slight ele- 

 vations and declivities, in fairly wide streets or lanes ; they were close 

 together in rows, but there was no extreme congestion. They were 

 nearly all built of mud upon earthen foundations, but some were raised 

 a foot or two on stone plinths, and had a few courses of stone in their 

 walls above the plinths; the stone being procurable from a quarry in 

 a hill 3 miles distant. As it was the dry season, there was much dust 

 everywhere, and a general look of sordidness unrelieved by a single 

 amenity excepting an occasional carved doorway and two or three 

 verandas. Some of the houses had been rebuilt within a few years, 

 one last year on the old foundations. Some had considerable back 

 yards, very ill kept, but most had no curtilage whatever. Yet in a 

 peraml)ulation of the village site one met with nothing strikingly 

 offensive to sight or smell. 



There had been 147 deaths from plague from August to October, 

 but no new cases for six weeks, and the only evidence of the recent 

 visitation was a number of padlocked doors. This outbreak was the 

 lifth since 1898, and the slightest hitherto. I have compiled from 

 the records the following table, showing the whole history of plague 

 in this village : 



Five outbreakti nf plaf/iie in a village near Belgaum. 



[Population, 4. .586.1 



Year. 



1898. . 

 1899.. 

 1900.. 

 1901.. 

 1902.. 

 1903.. 

 1904.. 



Worst months. 



June-August 



August, September. 



July, August 



September, October . 



August, September . 

 Total 



Plague 

 deaths. 



375 

 741 



336 

 225 



147 



1,824 



The enormous loss of life in 1899 — over 700 — was felt in the census 

 of 1901, which showed a great reduction from that of 1891, and the ag- 

 gregate loss of two-fifths of the population in seven years must have 

 left a good many houses empty. I examined only two of these, in which 

 there liad been deaths a few weeks before. They were both old and 

 crumbling, built of sheer mud, without plinths, standing side to side 

 on a slight declivity of the main street. Each consisted of a single 

 square room, without window or back door, with an oil mill occupy- 

 ing the center of the worn earthen floor, the occupants of both having 



