Chapter II.] ASPECTS IN WHICH THE DESTRUCTIVE DISEASES OF JAILS APPEAR.
177
from epidemic or contagious disease, and the death-rate went down to 30; and in 1876, 6
prisoners only died out of 807, a ratio of 7.43 per 1,000.
The relation of these contagious fevers to season is defined by the figures given below:—
Fever Deaths in, the Rawalpindi Jail, 1868-74.
1868 January
10
February
March
April
May
June
July
1
August
September
2
October
1
November
4
December
2
1869 January
7
94
February
14
March
52
Apri
11
May
2
June
2
July
August
September
1
October
2
November
3
December
1870 January
2 8
February
March
April
7
May
8
June
2
July
2
August
1
1
S e p t e m b e r
1
October
3
November
2
December
2
1871 January
9
1
February
31
March
4
April
2 2
May
2
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
1872 January
1
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
1
October
November
December
1 8 7 3 January
91
February
8
March
23
April
10
May
4
June
2
July
August
1
September
1
October
13
November
17
December
17
1874 January
9
33
February
10
March
5
April
4
May
3
June
July
August
1
September
October
November
December
The clinical character of the fever of 1868-69 seems to have resembled that of the fever of
1873. It was a typhus, introduced in all probability by a working gang employed on the
Sohan Bridge Works.
The following is the description of the fever of 1808-69 given by the Civil Surgeon:—
"For some time past a highly contagious fever has been. prevailing in the Rawalpindi
Jail. It is not relapsing fever nor typhus, although no doubt presenting occasionally symp
- t o m s o f a t y p h o i d t y p e . I t s e e m s t o p a r t a k e m o r e o f t h e c h a r a c t e r o f o r d i n a r y c o n t i n u e d f e v e r
with marked cerebral complication. The patient on admission is dull and listless, with white
furred tongue, but with no great amount of heat of skin or other febrile symptoms; and there
is nothing in his appearance to indicate that he is suffering under a dangerous attack. From
the first there is great prostration of the strength. Each day the tendency to stupor increases.
In fatal cases death generally occurs before the seventh day. Those who survive until the tenth.
day after the attack recover. Convalescence is very slow. The strong and healthy men appear
as liable to attack as the weak and sickly."
What follows seems to be a correct history of the introduction of the leaven which
developed the contagious fever.
The Civil Surgeon writes: "The fact is undeniable, that since August last the condition of
the Sohan prisoners was most wretched. They got emaciated; ulcers of a sluggish indolent
type broke out on their bodies, and buboes and collections of matter appeared in various places.
And altogether the appearance presented by them unmistakably proved that they had been
long exposed to some influences, which were gradually reducing their vital powers. This was
not so much proved by the number of deaths which took place as by the general condition of
the whole body of prisoners belonging to that working gang.
"The men transferred to Rawalpindi for change were probably the worst cases, and there
can be no question that the presence of these unhealthy men acted injuriously on the prisoners
of the main jail. In December, sloughing ulcers, erysipelas and buboes began to show themselves
amongst the prisoners in the main jail, and in January the epidemic fever appeared. I have no
doubt that the disease occurred spontaneously, and was probably due to the crowding of the jail
with debilitated and unwholesome prisoners transferred from the Sohan Jail."
This outbreak I take to have been allied in its nature and origin to that of the Benares
jails of 1855.
It was evidently the same disease, possibly in a modified form, which reappeared towards
the close of 1869. In January, February, and March 1870, 3 deaths appear caused by erysipelas
and sloughing sure-throat. In April, contagious fever follows, which dies down in June, but
2 w