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V.—The Establishment.
The accompanying table gives a list of the establishment as it existed when pressure
was greatest. It was being constantly modified according to circumstances. What I aimed
at in opportuning the ward servants was as nearly as possible to have one attendant for five
patients. Considering each had some relative in attendance this proportion was sufficient.
VI.—The European Nurses.
They arrived as the trouble was declining. Two remained just over a month, one still
remains. They were exceedingly wishful to render every help, and if there had been much
surgical work as in a war their skill would have been invaluable. Their spirit of devotion
was beyond all praise. But I am. bound to say that under the circumstances their labours
were largely wasted. There was a want of proportion between results and sacrifices.
Ignorance of the people, their speech, their tastes, their food handicapped the nurses
insuperably. The language of pantomime is wearying to patient and nurse. Their presence
was glorious, but it was not nursing.
VII.·—The Military Guard.
The guard supplied by the 19th Bombay Infantry drew a cordon of sentries round the
camp. Admission and exit were conducted by a system of passes. This rule was impera-
tive to make isolation real, but was most useful also for the protection of camp property.
The conduct of the men of the guard throughout was admirable.
VIII.—The Police.
Our experience of the value of the Police was unfortunate. Their presence was intended
to act as a check on petty larcenies of which I had to complain, and to recover what was
stolen. The Police I got seemed useless for both purposes. I did not recover any article
stolen. If it were not for a certain amount of terror inspired by the military guard and the
stringency of the sentry's orders, I do not like to think, what ravages small thieving might
have made in our property.
IX.—Disinfection of Clothing.
At the bhaugies' platform for soiled clothes near the nálla— vide plan—were six half
barrels, a drum of carbolic acid and a measure bottle. There was a tap here with a zinc
gutter to carry the water to fill the barrels. Every morning the Camp Sanitary Inspector—
a havildár of 19th Bombay Infantry —poured in a measure of carbolic acid into each half
barrel of water. The soiled clothes were then plunged into these barrels, allowed to soak
there several hours, were then lightly wrung out and plunged in plain water at another
platform close by. Here they were wrung out to dry and were then taken charge of by the
Dhobie to be finished.
X.—Disinfection and disposal of discharges.
At each latrine were placed a half barrel of water, one dram of carbolic acid, one tin
measure, one common bazaar pump. The Camp Inspector's daily duty was to see that each
half barrel was duly prepared with the disinfectant. The Bhangi had orders to pour a pint
measure of this solution into each privy pan after each cleansing. In this way the dis-
charges were received into a vessel of disinfecting fluid. All the hospital discharges were
buried in trenches seven feet deep beyond the nála that bounded the camp.
XI. —Disinfection of Persons.
The supervision of this most important duty devolved on the Senior Hospital Assistant.
After a soap and water bath in which the hair was well washed, a plentiful scour of weak
carbolic lotion 1 in 100 was used taking care to work it well into the hair. New clothes
from store or their own clothes previously disinfected were given the people on their dis-
charge.
XII.—Disposal of the dead.
When the hospital was started it was the custom to place dead bodies in a perman-
ganate bath and send them in a closed bos to the burial and burning ground below Fitz-
Gerald Bridge. This was not without offence and danger so I selected with Mr. Plunkett
a burial and burning ground, so so speak, on the premises. The dead had to be no longer
carried along public streets. They could be disposed of within a few paces from the
camp. Thus the system was simplified, cheapened and rendered inoffensive. It worked
well.
XIII.—Behaviour of the Hospital Establishment.
When the hospital opened, Dr. Darabsett, a Pársi practitioner, was placed in charge
with two hospital assistants under him. I understand that it was no easy matter in
February to get a medical man for work like this. Panic was general and Native doctors
showed little stomach for the fight. All the greater credit is due to this little doctor for
coming forward. Being an outside practitioner he had not the same obligations that we