Chapter III, ] EPIDEMIC FEVERS OF INDIA AND THEIR RELATION TO JAIL MORTALITY.
205
Fifty-one outbreaks are here figured ; but many of these are double, presentinz the
The mortality following the intro-
duction of relapsing fever into jails,
and the season of its prevalence
illustrated.
spring outbreak, the decay, and the renewal, often with extreme
virulence, with the setting in of the cold season. The story told
throughout is absolutely consistent, if we except the mortality
of the Meerut jail in 1861, the correct history of which we do
not know.
At any time during the typhus season the fever may be brought into a jail ; but whether
introduced early or late in the typhus season, decay or extinction occurs in May and June.
Persistence in a state of decay through July, August, and September implies generally a
deadly outbreak to follow in the cold season.
Grouped as a body, the deaths of fifty outbreaks (excluding the Meerut jail mortality).
show the relation to season thus :—
July. Aug. Sept. Oct. Nov. Dec. Jan. Feb, Mar. Apl. May. June. Total.
Deaths of each month.
55 78 145 230 298 425 484 513 805 831 426 156 4,479
Died per cent. of total deaths 1 . 3 1 . 7 3 . 2 5 . 1 6 . 7 9 . 5 10 . 8 12 . 1 18 . 0 18 . 6 9 . 5 3 . 5 10(1.0
This statement shows generally what is much more strikingly shown in almost every
individual case, namely the working of the zymotic element from month to month. From
July to April the ratios are steadily progressive ; the mortality of May shows a sudden decline
to one-half, and in June in the great majority of instances, the decay is absolute.
This is the state into which a jail community falls while the poison of typhus is working'.
Dr. Bateson writes :
" I have a vivid recollection of the scene upon entering one of the hospital barracks about
Condition to which a jail commu-
nity is reduced by an outbreak of
relapsing fever.
the end of October. Looking at the wretched living skeletons,
as many of the prisoners were, yellow was the all-prevailing
colour. An amaurotic patient with his deep-stained ghastly
j aundiced eyes upturned, was groping his way in search of Ins water-cup : another had ins
eye shrivelled up, and a third a leg or arm more specially atrophied even than the rest of
his body. With all this misery the absence of delirium was a striking peculiarity. The pre-
vailing feature was apathy, abandon and utter listlessness. Monotonous hiccough alone dis-
turbed the ouiet."
The use of the term Jail Fever, which is often employed, suggests that this typhus was
Contagious fever is almost invari-
ably present among the free commu-
nity before it appears in jails.
peculiar to the jails during the years of its prevalence. This
is not the ease. The fever was in all these years among the
free population as well. Nearly all reports on jail outbreaks
mention the fnet
Lahore, May 1865.---" A. fever similar to that which visited the Lahore and Mooltan jails
two years ago, and which was designated the famine fever, now prevails throughout the
Lahore district, and the villagers are deserting their homes in consequence of the great mor-
tality which the disease is creating."
Amritsar, 1864.—" In the winter months of 1861, a yellow fever prevailed epidemically
in the district, which carried off thousands. Many villages lost a fourth of their adult popu-
lation."
iS`ial7•ot,1864.—" There is a tribe noted for their thieving propensities who have been
collected together and located in walled compounds ; they have suffered fearfully from a
remittent fever of a very fatal character."
Delhi, 1864.—" This form of fever has been prevalent in the city and district. There
have been several cases among the troops, and these have been complicated with pleuro-pneu-
monia. It has also been very prevalent in the Hissar Division. It is looked on by the
natives as epidemic, and by them is termed the Goojcrat sickness."
Saharimpore, 1864.—" During March, April, and part of May a low fatal form of fever
prevailed in various parts of the district."
Raepore,186-1.—" The epidemic was prevalent in the district, and did not originate in
the jail."
Allyf jhur, 1863.—" Hitherto, when the fever has prevailed in the jail, it has raged in the
district ; and now that it has disappeared from the jail, it has, at the same time, disappeared
from the district."
Ttittehghur,1863.—" The disease is evidently the same which prevailed in some villages
of the district during the early part of 1863, and in the city of Furruckabad in November and
December."
Bareilly, 1862.—" Since May this fever has been prevalent in the district."
Neernt, 1860.—" In one village, near Sirdhana, it is reported that 500 have died. out of a.
population of 4,900."
Why have these fifty outbreaks occurred, and why has this typhus remained for so many
W h
i
y precautionary and sanitary months after having once shown its presence ? Why in these
measures have failed to cut short years have 6,000 prisoners died from typhus, and 161 only
these jail outbreaks.
from smallpox, an equally deadly and allied disease ?
The history of all epidemics is repeated over and over again in India.. After an interval
of ten or twenty years, or it may be longer, the general spread of typhus over Northern and
Central India will again take place, and again the jails will be visited, as in our time. The most
fatal error handed down to us I take to have been that which, has sought to connect jail fevers
with evil conditions existing within the jails, ignoring the growth of the outbreak from the
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