47 years there have been many sickly seasons in Benares, and if this record of sickness is
applicable to one year only of this long period, then a special agency in promoting the epidemic
must be looked for.
The special agency was the contagion conveyed from man to man; a contagion developed
in the prison community from the causes assigned, and when originated, propagating itself in
the forms observed. The alliance of such a disease is not with typhus; and it occurred at a
season when typhus is in abeyance. It is related in its nature to hospital gangrene; and like
hospital gangrene it spreads by association.
On the North-Western Frontier, and in no way epidemically related to the sickness of
these jails, an outbreak in many respects similar was going on
simultaneously. The Civil Surgeon of Dera Ghazee Khan
sums up the effects in a single sentence: "The type has
always been low, no matter what may have been the class of the
disease; and certain forms of disease recognisable by the pro
-fessional mind as peculiarly typical of a low and depressed state
of the constitutional powers, have more than usually prevailed
. T h e s e d i s e a s e s a r e u l c e r a t i o n a n d s l o u g h i n g o f t h e c o r n e a , n i g h t b l i n d n e s s , a m a u r o s i s f r o m
debility, latent pneumonia, and unhealthy inflammation and ulceration of the cellular tissue."
This jail had 176 cases of fever and 32 deaths. All but 13 of the fever cases were of a
low typhoid type. In Dera Ismail Khan Jail 34 cases proved fatal out of 165 admitted; and
the Civil Surgeon and four Native Doctors passed through the fever, which was virulently
contagious.
I place these cases of the Gangetic Valley and Punjab Frontier together, to show the
association of contagious fever with the same train of general symptoms.
But I do not adduce the latter example as implying that the contagious fever was set up
purely as a consequence of pre-existing conditions. The question involved will be taken up
further on.
For Oudh I have selected the Lucknow Central Jail as typical (Table XXXIX). It is a
most interesting illustration, showing what may be accomplished
in keeping large bodies of prisoners free from fatal disease. The
highest death-rate reached in the last 10 years has been 35, the
lowest 8 per 1,000, and the average 21. In the 8 years, from 1859
to 1866 the minimum death-rate was 102, the highest 357, and
the average 155. Twice this jail has localised contagious fever. It suffered along with many
others of the jails of the North-West in 1860; and again the fever appeared towards the
end of 1865. The parallelism in season and development between these two outbreaks was
striking:—
Deaths from Contagious Fevers,—Lucknow Jail, 1859-60 and 1865-66.
Oct. Nov. Dec. Jan. Feb. March. Apl. May.
June.
Novermber
1859 1859 3
10
25
19
35
39 18
3
„
1865
3
5
16
65
79
60 4
Early in 1866, I noted that deaths were being returned under the head of jaundice and
fever, fatal in about live days. I judged that the leaven of a typhus epidemic had been intro
-duced, and the fact was brought to the notice of the Chief Commissioner. But in the mean
- t i m e t h e e p i d e m i c w a s r a p i d l y s n a k i n g w a y ; a n d n o t w i t h s t a n d i n g t h e i m m e d i a t e a d o p t i o n o f
most energetic measures, 24.0 prisoners died before the conflagration was stamped out. This,
however, is to be noted, that in three months this jail showed as low a sick-rate as any jail in
India; and never since has there been the slightest attempt at any extraordinary increase
of mortality. For three years before this outbreak, the prisoners had died at the rate of a man
every day; in the succeeding ten years only 358 prisoners died in all. Six hundred and fourteen
prisoners died from fever from 1859 to 1866, and 14 in the last ten years; from dysentery 895
deaths occurred in the first eight years, and 130 in the ten years from 1837 to 1876.
While this contagious cachexy was
not a typhus, the same train of sy
mp-toms may be manifested in connec
- t i o n w i t h a c o n t a g i o u s f e v e r a l l i e d
to typhus.
Contagious fever of 1855 on the
North-Western Frontier.
Jail at Lucknow shown in two
aspects, as one of the most unhealthy,
and subsequently one of the most
healthy, jails of India.
Contagious fevers of 1860 and 1866.