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Bearing and attitude of the people
(a) The Executive Plague Officer, Lála Sobha Rám, remarks that many of the inhabi-
tants of the newly-populated part of the district,
to which, as has been mentioned, plague was
chiefly confined, were formerly, residents of the previously infected districts of Jullundur,
Hoshiárpur, Gurdáspur and Siálkot. They were therefore familiar with plague and with
the methods formerly adopted for dealing with it.
The people were frightened of plague ; they took very little trouble to protect them-
selves from it, although he mentions that some villiages attempted to keep out persons
from infected places with considerable success.
Except for the stoppage of the grain market for a few days at Chiniot Road, the
epidemic had no noticeable effect upon the prosperity of the district.
Information.
(d) Information concerning plague occurrences was obtained through Lambardárs
and Patwár's, and was checked by Revenue
officials and Hospital Assistants. At first two
sets of returns were maintained, one by the Executive and the other by the Medical authorities.
There were considerable discrepancies between the two sets of returns, and the former was
discontinued. It is stated that, except in the early stages of an outbreak in a village, cases
were freely reported, the Civil Surgeon remarking that as the people began to realise that
no compulsion whatever was employed, they had no reason to conceal cases of plague.
Segregation.
Evacuation.
Disinfection.
Inoculation.
(c) Evacuation was practised in very few instances, and was never complete.
Segregation of sick and contacts was not
observed, and no chemical disinfection or ino-
culation was.carried out.
The Executive Plague Officer considers that even such partial evacuation as was
practised had beneficial results.
Of disinfection, the Civil Surgeon writes :—Disinfection could not be resorted to, as
the people objected to vacate their houses and give scope for a fair and thorough disinfection,
but they carried out sulphur and cow-dung burning by way of substitute, which they
found more convenient and believed to be just as effectual.
No inoculation was done in the Jhang District during the year under report. The
Civil Surgeon provided himself with the necessary apparatus and prophylactic, and advocated
the measure, but no one came forward for the operation.
Infection.
(d) The infection of plague was invariably carried by human intercourse. As has been
seen, it was introduced in the first instance
from Sialkot to Chiniot Road. This place is a
railway station and grain market, and from it infection was carried to the town of Chiniot.
Both these places became a focus of infection to neighbouring villages.
There was no evidence of the conveyance of infection by grain or articles of
merchandise. The Executive Plague Officer remarks that, although Chiniot Road is a grain
market, grain is collected here from villages in the neighbourhood, not distributed to them.
Influence of local conditions.
(e) Local conditions of climate, soil and water-supply are stated to have had no influ-
ence on the course of the epidemic. That the
disease was chiefly, limited to the irrigated tract
is probably due to the comparatively small and scattered population of the remaining parts
of the district.
Rat mortality.
(f) Of mortality among rats, the Executive Plague Officer writes:—A universal rat
mortality was observed generally before the out-
break of plague among human,beings, .in almost
all the infected places. In some places it was observed after the outbreak, particularly in
Chiniot Town. No interval was usually observed to occur between the death of rats and
the outbreaks of plague among human beings.
Type and severity of plague.
(g) The bubonic type of plague prevailed throughout the epidemic, though in the early
part of the year some cases of pneumonic plague
were observed. The Civil Surgeon suggests
that this type of plague may have been due to climatic conditions, as it disappeared as the
weather grew warmer.
Classes affected.
(A) Except in Chiniot Town, where the disease was confined to the Hindu grain-
dealers of a particular mohalla, no classes were
observed to experience any special liability to
or immunity from attacks of plague.
Recommendations.
(i) The Executive Plague Officer recommends that endeavours should be made to
induce the people to evacuate infected villages
by providing huts for the poorer classes, and
that some methods of disinfection should.be devised as may make,it practicable for the people
to have their houses disinfected chemically otherwise than by official agency.