STATISTICS OF THE JAIL POPULATION OF BENGAL FROM 1859 TO 1876.
[ Section III.
198
The loss of life caused by the transfer of prisoners already infected into healthy jails has
been enormous; indeed, I may safely affirm that not in a single instance has true relapsing fever
appeared in a jail unless introduced from without.
I have spoken of the introduction of this fever into the Alipore Jail in 1860. In the
Gya Jail report, I trace the history of this gang on its way down the Trunk Road. Forty
-five prisoners were left behind at Shergotty, and were brought over to Gya in carts. Of these
only 14 survived.
How contagious fever may be introduced by new prisoners is instructively set forth in the
following narrative by Dr. Kilkelly, of Allyghur, who saved his jail by the precautions taken.
This case occurred at the time when typhus was so prevalent over Central India in 1865. As I
have already said, quarantine wards are now recognised as a necessity :—
" Five Hindoos travelling in company from Jeypore to the Ganges, were arrested in the
district for a robbery, and were sent into the lock-up on the 25th of March, apparently in perfect
health; on the 31st March one of them was admitted into hospital suffering from intense rigors,
which he stated had come on suddenly. His case rapidly showed decided typhoid symptoms.
He fell into a state of collapse, became insensible, and died on the 2nd of April, or four days
after his admission into hospital. On the 14th April, a second of the prisoners was taken to
hospital with exactly the same symptoms as the first. His case was very severe, and ran the
usually protracted course of typhoid fever; after two or three relapses he recovered, and was
discharged convalescent on the 2nd June. On the 18th and 20th of April, the third and fourth
of the gang were attacked in the same manner as the first and second. Their cases ran a course
similar to that of the first, and terminated in death on the 22nd.
" From the fact of some very severe cases of fever having been noticed by me in the dis
-pensary about the time among pilgrims from Jeypore, I suspected, upon the occurrence of the
first case in the jail, that the disease would prove of a malignant character, and I at once
removed the whole of the Jeypore prisoners from the hawalat, confined them in a separate ward,
and took steps to prevent their having any intercourse with the other prisoners in the jail.
Though the disease from which they suffered did not spread, I look upon the case as interest
-ing, inasmuch as it tends to show how epidemics are originated in jails.
" No other cases of the same type occurred in the Allyghur jail, either before the Jeypore
prisoners were sent there, or after the survivors had been discharged, and I think it may fairly
be inferred that these Jeypore men were infected with the seeds of the disease which proved so
fatal to them before their arrest, and that had they not been at once removed from the Hawalat
barrack, they might have been the cause of infecting other prisoners, or perhaps of originating
an epidemic in the jail."
But quarantine is not always effectual in preventing the introduction of this most insidious
disease. From this very jail, the seeds of the great Agra outbreak of 1862-63 were introduced.
Mr. Planck reports :—
" In the latter part of 1862, a body of prisoners was received from the Allygurh jail in the
usual way. As it had been reported to me that typhoid fever was prevalent in the Allyghur
Jail, the gang on arrival was placed in quarantine outside the prison for days, and their clothing
was returned to the Allyghur jail. By the time of their arrival two or three had already
sickened for continued fever; these were carefully treated outside the walls, and only one died.
But notwithstanding all our endeavours to prevent an outbreak, it seems probable, that the
presence of these men determined the commencement of the epidemic."
Another illustration will suffice.
The Civil Surgeon of Delhi, addressing the Superintending Surgeon of Meerut, writes on
2nd May 1864 :—" The fever of the jail is relapsing, not remittent. Some of the cases have
terminated fatally in a few days, while others after having got over the first attack, have been
seized from the fourth to the sixth day after the febrile symptoms have disappeared, with a relapse.
The fever is generally accompanied with jaundice, and terminates in dysentery or diarrhœa."
He adds :—" To relieve the slightly overcrowded state of the jail, a hundred prisoners were sent
t o Umballa on 2nd April."
And this was the result. Dr. Bateson, of Umballa, continues the narrative :—
" What brought about this epidemic of relapsing fever in the Umballa Jail in 1864 ? The
Inspector General of Prisons in the Punjab and myself were of opinion that overcrowding was
the cause. This opinion was undisturbed till the arrival, on the 21st of November, of a docket
from the Inspector General, Bengal Medical Department, to the effect that statistical returns in
his office showed that the fever which was then raging in the Umballa Jail was contagious, and
was transferred to Umballa from Delhi last spring.* This source of the disease had never
once occurred to me; I had believed overcrowding only to be the cause of the disease.
" I have since studied the question closely— Was the jail overcrowded ? During the epidemic
period the prison had a Government license for 1,228 prisoners. The maximum number inside
the prison never reached higher than 1,053 (on the 19th August), or 175 under license, the
license in question giving 400 cubic feet per prisoner.
" Regarding the subject of the docket from the Head of the Medical Department, I
addressed letters of inquiry to the Civil Surgeon at Delhi and to the Civil Surgeon at Kurnaul,
where two of the original gang from Delhi had halted sick. I quote their replies: Delhi, 9th
February 1865.
' T h e r e i s n o t h i n g t o s h o w t h e e x i s t e n c e o f a n y f e v e r s p r e v a i l i n g i n t h e j a i l
* Written at my request.