Page 33 - PERSIAN 4 1899_1905

RESIDENCY AND MA8KAT POLITICAL AGENCY FOR THE YEAR 18W-1900. 25
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dir(io"»°r tbe suburban area, all the plooc, o£ minor importance in their yicinitr^W
included under one or the other of these two divisions. The population of tho whole of this
or Maskat area may bo roughly estimated at about 10,000 persons.
The hamlet of Riyara, which standa on the road from Maskat to Matrah, being nearer
Localitirt included under Matrah. tbe ,attcr town,is included under it. Matcireh, or
, , . , ... ... 6mall Matrah, is a hamlet quite close to Matrah and
may be looked upon as a part of it, whilst Arbak, which is situated in the direction opposite to
Mateireh, may be looked upon as the other extremity of tho town of Matrah. The Tillage
of Darseit nnd tho hamlets of Shietifee and Falaj in tho immediate vioinity of Matrah are
shown by their proper names. As in Maskat several localities forming the suburban area
have distinctive names, but I have included them all nnder tbe two general names of Jabra
and Tuyan, the former being the northern suburb and the latter the southern one, the two
being separated by a high projecting hill which forms a natural harrier between them.
Tbe population of all these places included under Matrah may be roughly estimated
to be about 15,000.
Ao regards Maskafc and Matrah the epidemic set in so slowly and insidiously as hardly
to arouse any suspicion at first; in fact so gradual
Nature arid characters of the epidemic.
was its development that its very existence was
for some time doubted and denied by the local authorities. Its slow origin is all the more
remarksbi.® as in its subsequent advance through the interior of Omau it broke out in many
of the pTaces suddenly and with great violence. The individual attacks, however, were
even in tbe <orly 6tage of the epidemic mostly sudden and unpreceded by any preliminary
diarrhoea.
Owing to the difficulty of fixing tho date of the first case, it would be safer
in my opinion to allow at least two weeks for the existence of the disease before the
occurrence of the first case which came to my notice; counting, therefore, from that time,
the epidemic may be considered to have extended over a period of five months. Judging by
the mortality a* recorded at the time, it attained its maximum in Matrah in about five
wci-ks and in Maskat between four and five weeks from its commencement. The period of
decline, hoxvovcr, differed greatly in the two places; in Maskafc the decline commenced iu
about a week from the maximum period and continued steadily till the disease finally dis­
appeared. Matrah, however, was situated differently, for being in direct communication
with the interior and the north-western coast, where the disease was then prevailing, it was
more expose! to fresh sources of infection, so that the epidemic was not only later in entering
upon its fiual stage, but there was also a recrudescence of it about the end of November,
which lasted through the whole of December, the final decline not being reached till the
middle of January; the total duration of the epidemic in Matrah was thus five months.
Tbe epilomic was characterized especially at its commencement by the occurrence of
cases in which the illness set in acutely without any previous warning-, and though
the premonitory diarrhcea was absent in most of them the subsequent algide stage was
nei'.her rapid iu its supervention nor very severe in its nature. As the epidemic, however,
advanced, there was a greater preponderance of cases in which profuse evacuations followed
hv early collapse formed an important feature of it. In iho majority of cases in which
was a* prominent symptom, its duration was generally short, being only a few hours,
hat iciiiaees of prolonged collapse, though not common, were not entirely absent. Two
»«.ch cases came under observation and are remarkable in the fact of their having ended in
recovery. The first one was that of an African boy who was admitted into the hospital for
a«rea>r attack of broncho-pneumonia resulting from influenza; he had just recovered from
t!» fcevei^r symptoms of that disease and was scarcely strong enough to sit up in bed when
he was suddenly attacked with cholera. The state of collapse which followed, though not
rapid in tUsuperventiou, was complete at first and only gradually yielded to treatment, so that
it lasted for nearly three davs. The other case was that of a young pregnant Khoja woman
at the full period of pregnancy in the Khoja fort at Matrah; the illness set in gradually with
the premonitory diarrhoea on the 8th of November which lasted for nearly 18 hours, and when
tiie choleraic symptoms became pronounced on the 9th, collapse set in rapidly,. and on the
third day of the disease, that is, on the 11th, while yet in the state of collapse, which, however,
not then of an extreme degree, she gave birth to a still-bora child. She remained more or
less in a state of collapse till the 14th of November and eventually recovered.
Of the other symptoms characteristic of this stage of the disease spasmodic griping pains
and t ramps iu the extremities were neither coaimou nor very severe when present, but great
restlessuesv aud a sense of burning in the stomach were more common and constant among the
Bymptonos.
The reactionary or febrile stago was mostly of a mild character mid short duration, bemg
entirely absent iu some of the cases. The temperature among the cases which my
personal observation was, as a rule, not high, but in twoo! the cases which were complicated
with cerebral meningitis nnd which ended fatally it contiuued to he hig 9 *m *