578 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



been mentioned as means by which the plague was imported, but, 

 if this had been the case, he thought it strange that the infection had 

 not been conveyed from Bagdad and Bassorah, inasmuch as these 

 articles come almost exclusively from those places. Again, it was 

 thought possible that the clothes of the sick or of the dead from 

 the plague in China might have been brought over to Bombay, but 

 Dr. Viegas was unable to find any evidence in support of this the- 

 ory. It had also been claimed that rats sick with the plague had 

 come by ship from Hong Kong, and had infected the rats about the 

 docks in Bombay. This theory, Dr. Viegas held, was not _sup- 

 ported by any facts. In short, Dr. Yiegas found some objection to 

 every theory that had been proposed, and leaves us in doubt as to 

 his own views concerning the avenue by which the plague reached 

 Bombay. He is quite confident, however, that the filthiness of the 

 city is to blame for the rapidity with which the disease spread. 



In a report by Lieutenant-Colonel Weir on the plague in Bom- 

 bay a statement is made that the disease was imported from Suez. 

 Early in September, 1896, four very suspicious deaths were re- 

 ported, but, as none of these had been attended by medical men, no 

 definite conclusion could be reached concerning them. The first 

 case was reported by Dr. Yiegas late in September, 1896. The 

 patient was a native who had not been out of the city for months. 

 The first case reported among Europeans occurred on November 

 12, 1896. During the winter of 1896 and 1897 the disease pre- 

 vailed most alarmingly, and reached its highest mortality during 

 the week ending February 9, 1897, when the deaths from all causes 

 in Bombay numbered 1,891. During the summer of 1897 the dis- 

 ease declined, and led to the belief that the measures that had been 

 put in operation would prove successful. This hope, however, was 

 not realized, and during the winter of 1897 and 1898 there was a 

 recrudescence of the disease. During the summer of 1898 the 

 disease again abated, to appear with renewed strength during the 

 winter of 1898 and 1899. During the last week in March, 1899, the 

 total number of deaths from all causes in Bombay reached 2,408, 

 and the deaths from plague alone numbered more than 250 a day. 

 It will be seen from these figures that the plague still rages with un- 

 diminished virulence in the capital of western British India. The 

 abatement of the disease during the summer months and its in- 

 creased severity during the colder season are not directly due to 

 the effects of temperature. In the warm season many of the na- 

 tives sleep out of doors, while during the colder weather they crowd 

 into small, unventilated, filthy rooms. It is the opinion of prac- 

 tically all observers at Bombay that the recrudescence of the dis- 

 ease during the winter is due to this overcrowding. 



