191
No. 3.
Annual Report of the Maratha Plague Hospital,
Bombay, from 1st June 1898 to 31st May 1899.
Situation.
The Maratlia Plague Hospital is situated to the north of the Victoria
Gardens in E. Ward, Bombay. It is bounded on the north by the Connaught Eoad,
and on the east and south by an extensive piece of vacant ground belonging to Mr.
Bomanji Petit, and on the west by the back ground of the Western India Mills and
some chawls and houses.
It occupies about 30,000 square yards of vacant ground belonging to Sir
Dinshaw Petit and a strip of land measuring about 10,000 square yards belonging to
the Bombay Municipality and now transferred to the City Improvement Trust.
The hospital premises are open on all sides except a portion on the west and
north-west, where there are some chawls and small houses. It has a neat
garden and the main entrance to the hospital is from the south.
The hospital consists of Plague Wards, Observation Camp, Contact Camp, and
a Segregation Camp. There are seven Plague'Wards each holding 24—36 beds, and
four Observation Wards accommodating 80 patients, besides,there are six more wards
running along the road side which hold 150 patients, so there is accommodation for
•450 patients in this hospital. Each ward is about 60 feet long and 24 feet wide.
The Contact Camp is a long range of small well ventilated dry sheds accom-
modating 300 people, while the Segregation Camp consists of 15 sheds, which run
along the road side and are separated by a distance of 300 yards from the Plague
wards.
Each of these sheds is divided into 2 compartments and each compartment con-
sists of 2 rooms. They are all open on all sides. They are intended for evicts and
such other people who require temporary accommodation in a well ventilated and
healthy locality until their houses are perfectly disinfected and made habitable. These
sheds were mostly used by the labouring classes during the epidemics of 1898-99.
Besides these there are about 30 more sheds consisting of Dispensary, Office,
House Surgeon's quarters, Nurses' quarters, Hospital Assistants' quarters, servants'
quarters, store room, cook houses and other out-houses.
All these sheds are constructed of bamboos and zaolies, while the walls of each
shed are made of split bamboos well plastered.
Mortuary.
The mortuary is situated in the south-east corner of the hospital compound.
It has masonry walls and zaoly roof. It has a pucca chunam flooring, so that it
could be washed daily with disinfectants.
Latrines.
There are five latrines and are situated at the four corners of the hospital to
meet the convenience of the people. These latrines are also made of bamboos and
zaolies with a pucca chtmam and cement flooring, so that no sewage matter could be
absorbed in the soil. Three of these latrines are connected with the main
drain on the Connaught Eoad, while the other two latrines are situated on a low
level and could not therefore be connected with the main drain. These two have
well built cesspools from which sewage water, &c., is daily removed by the Municipal
night-soil cart.
The water supply is from Vehar main. There are six bathing places built m
different places in the compound for the use of the contacts, evicts and discharged
patients.