73
them, but'otherwise there was little in the way of-evacuation.- -After the weather grew
warm in April many people lived in the fields, but there was usually the difficulty of leaving
their houses unguarded. In no case did Khatrfs leave their houses, and I do not think that
any villages were completely evacuated except two or three hamlets belonging to Nawab
Fateh Ali Khan."
• * S . •
Cordons and guards.
(/) No cordons'or guards were employed
over the sites of evacuated villages.
In the town of Kasur the inhabitants of the first muhallas to be infected went into
camps, and such of their property as they did not take with them was taken charge of by the
Civil authorities and stored by them in a house over which a guard was appointed. Lists
were prepared of the property deposited by each family, and on the re-occupation of the
houses the property was restored to the owner after it had been disinfected.
The effects of evacuation, even where only partial, are noted by the Plague Medical
Officer to have been beneficial in the case of several villages, and he notices some instances of
striking benefit resulting from evacuation combined with the disinfection of infected houses.
Segregation.
(g) The segregation of sick and contacts was but very rarely observed, though the
Deputy Commissioner mentions that in a few
cases where early information was received the
first cases of plague were segregated by the efforts of Plague Officers and even by villagers
of their own accord, with beneficial results-
Medical treatment
(h) The Plague Medical Officer states that medical treatment was offered, but was not
accepted by the people.
Disinfection.
(i) Of chemical disinfection the Deputy
Commissioner writes :—
" Chemical disinfection was largely resorted to in Kasur Town where the people
showed themselves on the whole in sympathy with our measures. In the few cases that
occurred in the smaller Municipal towns, chemical disinfection was done more or less by
order, though no formal order had to be passed. Government buildings were also chemically
disinfected. The only villages in which there was chemical disinfection were a few in
Kasur Tahsil. In these cases, it was not accompanied by evacuation, but it seems to have
stopped the disease till fresh infection was imported.
" Chemical disinfection was in all cases done by a special gang under an Assistant
Surgeon. Disinfection is not popular, but is asked for by a few intelligent people usually
in towns or large villages, when their houses are infected by the disease, or by dead'
rats."
Assistant Surgeon Kidar Nath Bhandari, who was in charge of the disinfection
operations in the town of Kasur, states that every infected house in Kasur was chemically
disinfected, though all were not completely evacuated. Altogether 711 houses, consisting
of 2,865 rooms, were disinfected with perchloride of mercury solution.
Of these houses 26 were disinfected at the request of the occupiers on account of
the death of rats in them.
Cases of plague occurred after disinfection in 27 of the 685 infected houses : all these
cases occurred either within 2 or 3 days after disinfection or after a considerable interval ;
and this was not attributable to imperfect disinfection.
In the town of Kasur personal effects were also chemically disinfected at the com-
mencement of the epidemic : no mention is made of the disinfection of personal effects in
villages.
The Deputy Commissioner remarks that the attempts at disinfection by fire by the
people themselves were very feeble and ineffective.
Inoculation.
(/) The number of inoculations performed in the Lahore District outside the City and
Municipality of Lahore was 11,274. Of the
attitude of the people towards it, the Deputy
Commissioner writes :—
" People were at first greatly frightened of and opposed to inoculation. All sorts of"
rumours were started about it.
" The operation was supposed by different people to cause death, impotency, leprosy
or plague. It is still far from popular. What has been done has been done largely by
official pressure."
And the Plague Medical Officer remarks :—
" The most common objection put forward by Muhammadans • was that to try to run
away from death is sin. They think that plague is certain death ordained by God and to
inoculate with a view to avert it is sin."