58
after the operation and remained unconscious for several hours. The same thing occurred
in another group of villages where a Zaildár, who had been inoculated and who had asked
for some lotion for his arm, had pure carbolic acid applied by a Compounder by mistake ; the
arm swelled up to an extroardinary size ; the people took fright, and there was naturally no
more inoculation in that neighbourhood."
The Civil Surgeon states that the general attitude of the Hindús has been throughout for
inoculation both during the epidemic and after subsidence. In the latter period, however,
they sometimes declined inoculation on the grounds that they were too busy with their harvest
or that the weather was too warm or that the effects of inoculation only last for six months ;
they would come for it when winter commences.
With regard to Muhammadans the Deputy Commissioner notes :—
" As with evacuation so with inoculations, the Muhammadans have been found the
most difficult to deal with. Their opposition in this case does not appear to arise so much
from any religious prohibition as from a stolid unreasoning objection to any precautionary
measures against what they regard as a heaven-sent pestilence or punishment."
The Muhammadan population of the Bet were particularly averse to inoculation, and
some of the leading Maulvis of Ludhiána Town had themselves and their families inoculated
with the hope of overcoming the prejudices of the poorer classes. Some of the objections
were due to false rumours as to its harmful effects. These rumours were these,—inoculation
robs one of the sexual powers, affects his eyesight, and gives him unusual sensations of the
heart.
Results of inoculation.
From what has been mentioned with regard to the reporting of plague occurrences,
it will be evident that the results of inoculation
are but imperfectly ascertained. Among
the 10,646 persons inoculated during the course of the epidemic 70 persons were reported to
have been attacked with plague of whom 52 died—a case mortality of 74.29 per cent., which
is higher than that of the district which on the whole, is 7276 per cent.
The Civil Surgeon states that many of those inoculated who contracted plague were
attacked within a few days of the operation when they were probably already incubating the
disease. From the figures given and from considerations already mentioned it would appear
likely that many attacks of plague among inoculated were not brought to light.
With regard to the prospects of the extensive adoption of inoculation by the people,
•Mr. Silcock writes : —
" Judging by their present attitude, I do not think there is any ground for expecting
that the people of this district will come forward in any numbers for inoculation during the
autumn or winter months: this opinion is shared by all persons whom I have consulted on
the subject. Inoculation, causing as it does high fever and a general disturbance of the
system, is naturally disliked by every one, and I do not think that this dislike will be overcome,
until the danger is very imminent, until in fact the epidemic is well established. The choice
of the villagers will lie between evacuation and inoculation, and as matters are at present,
that choice will be overwhelmingly in favour of evacuation."
Infection.
(k) From what has been stated in reviewing the. course of the epidemic it will have
been seen that the infection of plague was intro-
duced into the Ludhiána District, there having
been a history of direct personal infection in them of the four first " foci " of the disease. On
the subject of infection the Deputy Commissioner, who in his remarks confirms those of
the Civil Surgeon, writes : —
" The cause of infection has been enquired into in each of the 653 villages
affected, and it has practically in all cases been easily traced to human agency : there is
generally a history of some one having gone to an infected village to visit sick relations or
transact business and of his or her having brought back the disease with them or on the other
hand a history of refugees from infected villages having been allowed admission."
Mr. Silcock proceeds to say:—
" There is no history of the disease having been conveyed in articles of food or
merchandise, but when it is seen that in 563 villages, out of the 653 affected, rats died first
(i.e., before any case occurred) and that in many instances the persons who are charged '
with bringing the disease were not attacked themselves, it appears to be amply proved the
disease is conveyed not in the body but' in or on clothes or some other medium. A
notable case of infection by clothes occurred in the Jagraon Tahsil where in spite of the
elaborate precautions taken to keep out the disease from the tahsil (an isolated building two
miles from the town) rats began to die and the tahsil had to be immediately vacated. It was
found on investigation that a Police Sergeant, whose wife had died of plague a
month or so before, had brought some of her clothes in his box and had taken them out to
air. No case of plague among human beings occurred, but there is little doubt that the place
had become infected."