31
REPORT ON THE WORKING OF THE KING INSTITUTE, GUINDY
These men were constituted into a " Bowel gang " housed separately ; dieted and
treated for their conditions. They were given suitable work in their own enclosure, and
were not allowed to mix with the rest of the convicts. Having completed the division of the
convicts already in the jail, into these two classes of normals and abnormals, a control was
then kept on all fresh, admissions into the jail, and the necessary examinations were done on
various batches admitted, during the period of their routine quarantine. Only those proved
to be normal were admitted into the general jail population all latent dysentery cases were
admitted directly into the "Bowel gang " for further observation and treatment. An
interesting feature revealed during these observations is one which the Director drew
attention to, in his investigation in Bengal, viz., that a higher proportion of abnormals were
detected from amongst the more recent arrivals into the jail, when compared with the groups
who had been in jail for some time.
This separation of the normal from the abnormal population brought the following points
. into undisputed prominence:
( 1 ) A m a r k e d r e d u c t i o n i n t h e n u m b e r o f c a s e s o f d y s e n t e r y .
(2) The cases of dysentery that occurred subsequently were almost exclusively derived
from amongst the inmates of the " Bowel gang " who had already been found to be suffering
from the disease in its latent form.
The following figures show the strength of the jail with the number of admissions for
dysentery divided into three periods ; before, during and after the formation of a Bowel gang.
TABLE I.
A. Before formation of "Bowel gang."
Average strength of. jail.
Admissions of dysentery
December
•••
•••
•••
3,050
194
January
...
•••
...
3,800
•••
258
February
•••
•••
•••
4,050
...
283
B. During formation of " Bowel gang."
March ... •
•••
•••
...
4,160
...
139
April
...
...
•••
4,060
••.
71
M ay
...
0 et
•••
...
4,307
51
C. After formation of " Bowel gang."
June ...
...
...
..
4,820
...
59
July
...
•••
...
...
5,330
...
62
August...
•••
•••
...
5,419
•••
60
From these figures it can be seen that there was a very definite decrease in the incidence
of dysentery that occurred in the jail as soon as the population was divided up into the two
groups of normals or healthy convicts, and abnormals or latent dysentery cases. This decrease
occurred concurrently with the separation of the two groups, a still greater decrease occur-
ring after the groups had been completely separated and segregated.
TABLE II.
II. Origin of cases of dysentery in the jail, subsequent to formation of Bowel gang.
Bowel gang.
Normal population.
Strength.
Admission for.
dysentery.
Strength.
Admission for
dysentery.
M a r c h
887
137
4,160
2
April
1,250
62
4,060
9
May
1 300
49
4,307
2,
June
1,100
53
4,820
6
July
...
...
...
•••
1,300
56
5,330
6
August ...
...
...
...
...
...
1,000
52
5,419
8
Table II shows the number of cases of dysentery that occurred in the jail subsequent to
establishing a bowel gang. There were 442 cases of dysentery, of which 409 came from the
bowel gang out of an average strength of 1,138 convicts. Whereas from among the convicts
declared healthy—there were only 33 cases out of an average strength of 4,682 convicts
during the same period. The healthy group furnishing only 3 per cent of the cases of
dysentery whereas 97 per cent of the cases were admitted from the bowel gang who had
already been declared infected and suffering from dysentery in a latent form.