38
villages, cases having no buboes have not. been shown as plague at' all, being returned as
fever, pneumonia or delerium. In other cases all kinds of diseases have been put down as
plague, i.e., once plague became epidemic."
The Deputy Commissioner considers that there was a decided tendency on the part
of the people to conceal first cases, though reporting during the subsequent progress of the
epidemic showed an improvement ; deaths were more fully reported than cases.
(d) The Deputy Commissioner and the Plague Medical Officer concur that the
people appreciate the benefits of evacuation,
Evacuation.
Mr.
Fagan remarking
that
this is especially
the case in the Garshahankar Tahs'l, which has had a long experience of plague.
Even so, however, very few villages, only 14 altogether, were completely evacuated
but partial evacuation was very generally adopted. In a few instances people left their houses
on the occurrence of mortality among rats, and this action combined with the disinfection
of the houses in which rats had died prevented an outbreak of plague among the people.
While complete evacuation was very beneficial, the Deputy Commissioner remarks
that even partial evacuation has had noticeably good results in checking outbreaks even
where disinfection has not been carried out.
(e) In a few villages guards were em-
Cordon and guards.
ployed to protect property left in the houses.
(/)
Little or no attempt was made to segregate plague patients and contacts.
Segregation.
Mr. Fagan remarks :—
" The plague patient has continued to live as usual in his home with the other mem-
bers of the family. Indeed under the normal conditions of native rural life nothing else is
to be expected."
(g) European medical treatment was not asked for, except by the people of two
Medical treatment.
villages, the people preferring to trust to
their own Hakims.
(h) The Deputy Commissioner and the Plague Medical Officer concur in stating that
chemical disinfection by Government agency
Disinfection.
is
unpopular;
it
is
not
the
measure
itself
which is objected to, but, as the Plague Medical Officer says " They do not wish their
houses to be spied into and their household goods spoiled by outsiders. " Forty-one villages
were, however, disinfected by Government agency according to the rules in the Plague Hand«
book ; 13 of these were completely disinfected—and the clothes were also disinfected—and
28 partially ; altogether 2,110 houses, consisting of 7,234 rooms, were chemically disinfected.
No recrudescence occurred in villages entirely disinfected.
The Plague Medical Officer mentions that the people themselves in numerous cases
adopted their own methods of disinfection,
Popular methods of disinfection.
such as washing, smoking fires in their rooms
" to smoke out the ' Devi, ' " the fires being maintained for several days, making the
temperature of the rooms fairly high, making holes in the roofs, white-washing walls and
' leeping ' floors. A few burnt sulphur or frankincense m infected rooms.
(i) Thirty thousand four hundred forty-eight inoculations were preformed in the
year under report, 127 villages contributing to
Inoculation.
this total. The Deputy Commissioner remarks
that this was in spite of various rumours against inoculation, as for example, that it injures
the eyesight, causes paralysis, hastens outbreaks of plague, renders death more likely,
and that Medical Officers are pecuniarily interested in the measure. Gujars and Játs
accepted inoculation more freely than other classes, Muhammadan Rajputs and Patháns
objecting to it : most chiefly with regard to their women on account of the pardha
system. Some Patháns said it was contrary to their religion to be inoculated, but no
other classes objected to it on religious grounds. The Deputy Commissioner states that
the measure is decidedly unpopular, this being chiefly due to actual dread of the operation ;
people defer submitting to inoculation until plague is actually in their midst,, and the attacks
among persons incubating plague at the time of inoculation is likely to produce an un-
favorable impression. With reference to the attitude of the people towards inoculation,
Mr. Fagan remarks :—
" Personally I do not anticipate any rapid and widespread popular conversion in
favour of inoculation. To do so would be, it seems to me, to overestimate considerably the
mental progress which the agricultural masses have made ; and so far as my experience goes
the urban is even more averse to inoculation than the rural population. We may provide
facilities on an extensive scale, but I do not think that the people will use them until they
have in the process of time learnt by actual experience the benefits of inoculation as they
bave those of vaccination."