26
Infection.
Human intercourse was believed to be the chief factor in the spread of plague in the
Gújránwála District, though the outbreak in
Gujránwála Town was considered to be due to a
recrudescence from the previous epidemic. The people frequently attributed the infection
of their villages to rats, numbers of which died in almost every infected village before plague
became general in it.
Influence of local conditions.
No relation could be traced between the nature of thé soil and the incidence of the
disease. The District Plague Medical Officer
remarks that villages which were surrounded
with " kallar, " those in the " Gharkha'ri " of Gujránwála with a subsoil water level of 20 to
30 feet, and those of " the Bar, " where the water was over 40 feet from the surface, were
equally affected by the epidemic.
Rats and other animals.
It was commonly recognized among the people that mortality amongst rats was a
sure precursor of the disease. In the only two
cases Where the interval was determined, it
was found that the outbreak among human beings occurred 14 days after the mortality among
rats was noticed t Dogs, cats and squirrels died in places where the epidemic was rife.
The symptoms in dogs were swelling of the glands of the neck, fever and rapid death.
No measures were taken by the people to destroy rats. Plaster of Paris und " ata "
was experimented with in the jail, but was not a success.
Type
The commonest type of plague in the Gujránwála District was the bubonic. At Akal-
gárh and Gujránwála owns a typé of disease
was reported in which there was fever, vomit-
ting óf blood and death within 48 .hours. It is believed to have been pneumonic plague,
and in the instance in Gujránwála Town 12 mistris who lived in different Tiouses, but work-
ed in the same shop and smoked from the same hukah, all died of the form of plague.
The Civil Surgeon considered that some cases reported as plague were really attacks of cere-
bro-spinal fever. It was observed in all cases where pregnant women were attacked with
plague that they aborted and died.
Among the sequelae of plague the District Plague Medical Officer notices marasmus,
in children, with wasting of the muscle óf the leg on the same side as the bubo, paraplegia
and difficulty of speech. In one instance an attack of acute pneumonia followed upon one of
plague.
Medical Staff and Establishment.
The. Medical Officers and subordinates employed on plague duty in the district were
as follows :—Captain S. A. Harris, I. M S.,
District Plague Medical Officer, Dr. G Beley
and Captain R. M. Blaker, Inoculating Medical Offcers, Assistant Surgeon Ashtosh Datta,
Assistant Surgeon D H. Bharucha and 4 Compounders.
MONTGOMERY DISTRICT.
Epidemic.
38. The Montgomery District was visited with plague for the first time in March
1903. The disease broke out in the Dipalpur
Tahsil and an outbreak followed in which
655 cases of plague with 228 deaths occurred. Infection was introduced from the
Chunián Tahsil of Lahore which adjoins the Dipalpur Tahsil. At the end of March
the Gugera and Montgomery Tahsils were infected from the Jháng District. The population
of the infected areas were terrified at the appearance of the epidemic in their midst and fled
in large numbers from their homes. At first they obstinately refused to adopt any of the
measures suggested to them by Government.
Preventive measures.
Such was the attitude of the people that beyond a small amount of desiccation
absolutely no preventive or palliative measures
were ever undertaken.
Disinfection.
Eighty rooms were desiccated with Sawhney's stove, but the people were so ignorant
and intractable that they even dreaded and
avoided this measure Fifteen seers of wood
were used, and the prescribed temperature was obtained within the hour and maintained
for another hour.
Such evidence as could be obtained indicated that infection was ordinarily con-
veyed by human agency, though it was disseminated throughout infected villages by rats.