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XXIII. Observations made in four villages in the neighbourhood of Bombay

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 May 2009

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(1) Worli village is badly infested with rats, practically all M. rattus.

(2) Persistent trapping for one year appeared to reduce the rat population to approximately one quarter of the original number.

(3) Three cases of plague which occurred in the village were investigated. It is probable that these three cases all contracted the infection outside the village.

(4) In two instances there is evidence which points to infection having been introduced in the clothing or persons of people, and of this spreading in one instance to a guinea-pig, and in the other instance to rats.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1907

References

page 800 note 1 The key map of Sion Village is reproduced below (Map I): the other villages were dealt with in the same way.

page 801 note 1 The name has heen derived from “Simva,” i.e. the boundary hamlet-the last inhabited spot before crossing the strait to Salsette. Edwardes, History of Bombay, p. 11.

page 805 note 1 During this period 465 rats were trapped alive from houses in the whole village of Sion. These included 381 M. rattus, 81 musk rats and 2 mice. Not a single M. decumanus was found.

page 805 note 2 For ease of description we have departed in the case of certain buildings requiring detailed notice from the nomenclature adopted by us during the investigation. These buildings will hereinafter be referred to by letters of the alphabet given to them in the order of the earliest event occurring in them which pointed to plague infection.

page 811 note 1 i.e. Block II, building 18, houses 27 and 28; this building being also distinguished as A.

page 824 note 1 In this computation no account is taken of guinea-pigs which were lost or were killed by cats, nor do these figures include the guinea-pigs in the special experiments carried out in L and M.

page 827 note 1 As will however be seen below, a plague-infected rat was found in Bhandarwada on 03, 120 feet from house M. (See Map V.)

page 829 note 1 Spelt “Agarvada” on map.

page 869 note 1 This observation suggests that the rat population was really materially reduced by the trapping and not merely rendered more cautious.