63
However 4,539 inoculations were performed in August and 7,323 in September, bring-
ing the total number of inoculations performed during the year under report to 27,892.
As inoculation operations were carried out from the most part after the subsidence
of plague or in uninfected villages, conditions do not exist for estimating the extent of
the immunity conferred by it. Only 5 cases of plague among inoculated persons were re-
ported, all but one of which recovered.
With reference to the future prospects of. inoculation Mr. Levi notes :—
Prospects in the autumn.
" With regard to prospects of inoculation in the autumn, they may be considered to
be very favourable * * *. But there is no doubt
all inoculations in the Zira and Moga Tahsíls
should be done by an European. The people will never consent to any other arrangement;
and the mere presence of a native inoculator makes the people hang back altogether."
Infection.
(k). Where obtainable, information almost invariably pointed to the infection of vil-
lages by human agency either by refugees from
infected villages or by residents of uninfected
villages contracting the disease when visiting relatives and introducing it into their own
villages on their return. The introduction by infection of clothes from infected villages was
also recorded. Infection was brought into the village of Badowál and Ajatwál, the first
to be infected in the Zira and Moga Tahsíls respectively by refugees from Ludhiána.
It is stated that infection was deliberately introduced into some villages by their
neighbours.
Mr. Levi writes : —>
" A large number of villages were infected from the village of Badowál. The Lam-
bardárs of this village, who are peculiarly unscrupulous, had lately wronged a certain fakir
in the matter of some land, and plague, when it broke out there, was universally attributed
to this cause. To remove the stigma of this and to show that the disease was due to other
causes the Lambardárs organised a campaign of infection of clean villages. In this way
they succeeded in infecting at least ten villages and probably more, generally by nocturnal
visits."
Dr. Mahoney suggests the probability of infection through grain. He writes :—
" The Baniás and grain-dealers were also often the means of carrying the infection
by importing infected grain and other produce from other villages where it was often sold
at half or less than the ordinary market price."
It is possible however as the grain was brought from infected villages the persons
bringing it may have themselves carried infection.
Although rat mortality was very common, no reference is made of rats having either
introduced the infection of plague into villages or spread the disease within infected
villages.
The Plague Medical Officer, however, suggests that plague was sometimes introduced
into houses by dogs and cats which had eaten infected rats.
Influence of local conditions.
(l). No reference is made to the influence of the climate, soil or water-supply
as the causes and extent of the epidemic.
The effect of season has already been men-
tioned.
The Plague Medical Officer writes that the insanitary conditions of the villages and
the lack of personal cleanliness of the people—the women especially—were very favourable to
the spread of plague.
Mortality among rats.
Mr. Levi writes :—
(m). The subject of rat mortality has already been referred to. On this subiect
" Mortality among rats was universal in all villages. The mortality was generally
observed after the occurrence of the first case : rats then died more rapidly than human beings
and as a rule in one or two weeks all the rats in the village were dead. In villages which
were very promptly evacuated the disinfectors subsequently found the houses full of dead
rats. As a rule the rats all died in the villages, whether the outbreak was mild or severe."
Mention has also been made of dogs dying of plague, after eating human plague-
infected corpses. Dr. Mahoney also states that cats and dogs were exterminated in some
villages owing to their having eaten rats dead of plague.
Type of disease.
(n). The disease was chiefly of the
bubonic type of plague.
It was not observed that any class had any special liability to or immunity from
attack of plague. Of the 54 men employed on disinfection work only 1 was attacked who
recovered. All the disinfectors had been inoculated, some twice and others three times.