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poor people try to attend to patients who have no relations to look to them and who
are lying on a cot next to that of their friend.
Tho patients at this hospital are given the option of being treated according
to the European or Native system. Those who choose the latter are admitted in the
wards in charge of the Native Yaidya, while others are put under the care of qualified
medical men.
The patients are nursed by the nurses, ward boys, and ayahs. Patients who
do not like to be treated by medical men in charge of the hospital are allowed to be
treated by their own doctor or vaidya and are supplied with all the necessaries and
comforts that are available at the hospital.
Hindoos of all castes, except the lower classes of Maliar and Mangs, are admit-
ted into the hospital, and special convenience is made for every high caste patient ac-
cording to his position in life, so as to respect his superstition and prejudices. He is
usually given a corner in the ward and is screened on all sides, so that his tender feel-
ings may not be disturbed by the lamentable sight of the dying patients, and
special care is taken to see that he receives his food from the Brahmin cook of the
hospital.
Infection.
The patients' friends and relations having free access to the wards, the floor-
ing of the wards being of mild, and the people walking bare-footed, it was surmised
that those who visited or remained in the wards with the patients would be infected,
but from experience it has been found that that fear could be minimized by the free
use of disinfectants and by lime-washing the wards very often. Thousands of visitors
must have trod on the flooring, but instances of theso people being infected have been
rare. As to infection amongst the hospital staff, there have been some cases, but these
servants lived in the various infected parts of the town outside the hospital, and it is
difficult to ascertain whether those who fell victims to the disease became infected in
the hospital or outside. But here we have to turn to a sad page in the history of this
hospital. It was about the middle of September 1898 that a Pneumonic plague
patient was admitted into the hospital who died a day after 'his admission. Soon
after a ward boy who attended on the patient was attacked with pneumonia. A few
days after an Hospital Assistant died of the-same. The late House Surgeon, Mr.
Chonker was also attacked with Plague pneumonia and died within three days.
After him two native hospital assistants, one compounder and one ward-boy, died of
Plague pneumonia.
The cause of this infection was thoroughly investigated, but nothing was found
wanting in the sanitary condition of the hospital, and while the staff thus suffered, the
infection did not spread amongst the patients both in the Plague and Observation
wards. Since then one sweeper, one contact clerk, and two ward boys died of
Bubonic Plague.
Disposal of
the dead.
No sooner is there a death in the wards, the body is removed to the mortuary
and the cot and the clothing is thoroughly disinfected. In every case, where the
body is claimed by the relations or friends of the patients, it is immediately handed
over to them for disposal, but in many cases the relatives disappear and the bodies
have been obliged to be disposed of at the Municipal expense. Every possible effort
is made to inform the relatives or friends of the deceased, when known, and a reason-
able time is allowed for them to come and dispose of the body. In some cases we
have to wait for them from 12 to 15 hours, but when they fail to come, even after that