128 I.S.C. Proceedings of the Ninth [N.S., XVII, 
into their graves in their dominoes. The grim horror of the 
situation can well be imagined. The terrible results of the 
various visitations of the plague in Europe are historical. 
During the outbreak of 1800, 76,000 persons were attacked 
and 15,000 died in Seville, a Spanish town with a population 
of about 80,000. The old cemeteries just outside the walls of 
Gibraltar bear witness to the havoc wrought by the same epi- 
demic amongst the inhabitants of the Rock. Nearly 6,000 out 
ofa population of 10,000 perished in four months. In India con- 
ditions were, if anything, worse. The large masses of people 
living under the most primitive and insanitary surroundings 
afforded an almost .unbounded field for the spread of every 
kind of epidemic disease. Fevers, small-pox, plague and cholera 
each took a terrible toll from the unfortunate inhabitants who 
frequently looked upon them as a sign of divine displeasure to 
be averted by prayers and sacrifices rather than by precau- 
tionary measures. The exact mortality caused by these dis- 
eases will never be estimated. Contemporary literature, how- 
ever, leaves no doubt as to their severity. Of an epidemic of 
‘of numerous native villages 
dead and the dying.” A similar fever in Coimbatore and 
the neighbouring districts was responsible for the deaths of 
y 8 
attacked the force at that time and, lasting just 4 weeks, 
carried off no less than 14,000 persons. 
Innumerable instances of this sort might be given but d 
have said enough to illustrate the appalling state of affairs at 
