5
the good which can be effected by it. The Lieutenant-Governor desires that
effective evacuation should be encouraged in every way possible such as by
an announcement that in adjudicating on the claims of village notables to
rewards, grants, privileges, or appointments open to them—especially plague
rewards for which a special allotment is now made—great weight will be given
to the extent to which they have been able to influence their fellow villagers
in favour of effective evacuation. Zaildárs and Inámdárs may be considered
bound by Rule 170 (vi) of the Rules under the Land Revenue Act to exert their
influence in securing the adoption of plague measures, particularly evacuation,
and a failure to do so may be regarded as a neglect of duties which in flagrant
cases may entail punishment.
10. Disinfection ranks next to evacuation as a measure of practical
importance, but its value is very much less. The people do not desire to have
their houses disinfected chemically by the official agency maintained for the
purpose, and they will not give the measure an adequate trial. They object to
the gangs going into and turning out their houses, but the use of perchloride
cannot be entrusted to any but trained men. It was found possible to
disinfect chemically by official agency in 1901-02 only 148 villages completely
and 116 partially, and in 1902-03 only 15,503 rooms. These numbers form
so very small a percentage of the total number of infected villages and rooms
that the disinfection performed can have produced no very appreciable effect
upon the spread of plague. Moreover, disinfection is not calculated to stamp
out infection unless it is applied to a village at the commencement of an
epidemic when only a few houses are infected and all these are thoroughly
disinfected, and it has most commonly been applied under other conditions.
In 1901-02 the rules permitted compulsory disinfection in certain cases, but all
power of compulsion has now been withdrawn, and it has been decided
ordinarily to give the people free chemical disinfection by official agency in
villages only when it is asked for at the beginning of an outbreak in the villages
concerned, though in towns where evacuation cannot be effected and greater reli-
ance has to be placed upon disinfection free chemical disinfection by official agency
will be offered in the case of every house that is infected.
11. In place of chemical disinfection desiccation has lately been offered
to the people as a valuable measure. Desiccating stoves were used in the
latter part of the 1902-03 epidemic and 15,214 rooms were desiccated by the
plague staff. The reports under review do not contain exact information and
statistics from which the value of the operation can be exactly gauged, but the
general experience of the officers who have been concerned in working desiccators
is very much in their favour. It is a matter for congratulation that the people
have readily adopted the idea of desiccation, and with an improved and effective
stove, which has now been devised and can be easily and cheaply made, His
Honour trusts that desiccation will give good results in future.
12. The Disinfection Depot which was established in Jullundur during 1902
has proved useful in connection with experiments on desiccators and their supply to
districts, and it has also effected the purpose of its establishment as a centre for
the preparation and issue of solutions and accessories required for chemical
disinfection by official agency and for the sale of phenyle to the people for
use by themselves, for which, however, there is at present no great demand.
Under the financial arrangements which will in future govern the apportionment
of plague charges between the Provincial and Local authorities, disinfection
will be the heaviest item for which Local Bodies will be responsible, and it is
gratifying to note that the operations of the Depôt have considerably reduced
the cost at which chemical disinfection can be performed.
13. The segregation and treatment of patients and the avoidance of con-
tact with infected places, persons, and things, unfortunately continued to receive
insufficient attention from the people, and all attempts to coerce them in these
matters have been abandoned, though power is given by the rules recently
issued for the enforcement of segregation in certain special cases in Municipal
towns, and the rule under which the people of an uninfected village or muhalla
can secure the eviction from their midst of persons coming from an infected