92
Government
Resolution, 14th
November.
On November 14th, a Government Resolution laid down certain rules and
directions for the distribution of the Relief Fund which were as under :—
(1) The provision of extra rations before discharge.
(2) The gift of clothing or small sums of money on discharge.
(3 ) The payment of funeral expenses.
(4) The support of a family, where necessary, during illness or inter-
ruptions of ordinary avocations while in hospital or hospital camp.
(5) Assistance to survivors or convalescents to return to their own
homes.
The methods thus suggested were followed by me in addition to many other
little ways of giving help. In short, by means of the Fund I played the part of
the plague patient's friend. The mere fact that an officer was being deputed to
visit the sick, pleased the sufferers and their relatives, and since the officer wa&
provided by Government with ample funds to relieve distress, he was doubly
welcome.
Thus, Abdool Rayman, 18, was the son of respectable parents in Cawnpore.
His step-mother was cruel to him and so he ran away from home and made his
way to Bombay where he hoped to make a name and fortune. He caught the
plague and was taken to the Mahomedan General Hospital. When discharged
he was weak, penniless and friendless. So the Fund provided him with Rs. 4
to live on till he could obtain means from his father to return home.
Appointed Official
Plague Hospital
Visitor.
On December 3rd, my position was made more regular by the Municipal
Commissioner appointing me to be Official Plague Hospital Visitor. I was
requested to consult Lieut.-Colonel Wilkins, I. M. S., the Special Medical Officer
for Plague Operations, and to look after the wants of the patients in—
(1) The Arthur Road ; (2) the Julai Hospital in the Ripon Road ; (3)
the General Mahomedan Hospital, Northbrook Garden ; (4) the Modikhana
Hospital.
Any other hospital— and there were a great many 'private ones—might be
added to this list by me if their Managing Committees desired it. I very soon,
by request, took over the relief work at (5) the Maratha Hospital, and I have
visited occasionally (6) the Beni-Israel, (7) the Jain Hospital and (8) the Khatri
Memon Hospital. Nos. 1 to 5 have, however, been my special charge in which
I have, as ordered, organized a regular system of relief worked on the lines
described below. This system has gradually been elaborated as necessity, demanded
and as the number of patients in hospitals increased.
The five hospitals mentioned above lie scattered over the town, so I visit-
ed them in turn on a bicycle, devoting from 6 A.M. to 10 A.M. daily to this work.
While the patients were few I visited each hospital daily, saw each patient
and gathered all sorts of information about the sick and their friends and
relieved their distress from the coffers of the Relief Fund.
Powers.
Powers.—Owing to my visiting the hospitals before the doctors went their
rounds, all the hospitals were ordered to give me 24 hours' notice on a post-card
of the discharge of any patient ; and this was later extended to all attendants
on the sick, who were kept in contact camps next to the hospitals. This latter
step was rendered necessary to enable help to be given from the Fund to widows
and others who had lost friends or relations in the hospitals and had then been
detained for 10 days in quarantine.