3
Arrangements for obtaining information regarding
plague occurrences.'
8. The arrangements for obtaining information concerning plague occurrences were
then prescribed in the Plague Manual. Owing
to the large number of Medical Officers on duty
in the Province during the season under report,
the opportunities for checking returns were greater than during the previous season, though
many district reports contain complaints of the defective reporting of plague occurrences
and deaths.
Evacuation.
9. Evacuation was not resorted to either as extensively or as thoroughly as could
have been desired Numerous instances are,
however, recorded showing that the measure
is a practicable one and nearly always beneficial, even where imperfectly carried
out. The chief objections urged against evacuation were the danger of theft of
property left in evacuated houses and the difficulties of providing sufficient shelter
from the cold for the cattle outside the village. In the Jullundur District it is reported that
evacuation is better understood and more practised year by year. In the Una Tahsil of
the Hoshiárpur District every infected village was evacuated more or less thoroughly and
in consequence the incidence of the disease was much lessened. It sometimes happened
that local conditions existed which more or less favoured evacuation. In the lowlying
villages of the Ferozepore District, located along the banks of the Sutlej, evacuation was
more readily effected than in other parts of the same district, owing to the circumstances
that the villagers are accustomed to being turned out of their houses by' floods and that
abundant grass, suitable for the erection of temporary shelters, grows in their immediate
vicinity.
The segregation of sick and contacts was but seldom resorted to. In only one
or two instànces were guards employed to protect property left in evacuated villages.
Treatment.
10. Medical treatment was fairly generally accepted wherever facilities existed for
its provision, and it often proved a ready
means of gaining the confidence of the people.
A very considerable amount of treatment was carried out in the Lahore District.
Disinfection.
11. In the British districts a total of 30,717 rooms were disinfected. Of this number
slightly more than half, viz., 15,503, were chemi-
cally treated, while the remainder, viz., 15,214,
were subjected to desiccation.
Chemical disinfection.
12. Chemical disinfection was not popular. For this reason it was never even
attempted in the Amritsar District, a district
where the attitude of the people towards
plague measures in general was by no means unfavourable. Nevertheless the large amount
of chemical disinfection done in the Jullundur, Hoshiárpur, Gurdáspur, Lahore, Jhang and
Gurgaon Districts shows that it is possible to induce the people to accept it on a fairly
extensive scale. For controlling outbreaks at their commencement the reports for individual
districts show that chemical disinfection was invaluable. Because the number of rooms
shewn as chemically disinfected in any particular district is small, it should not be concluded
that the measure was not of much practical use in that district ; for the numbers, though small,
may include instances where an outbreak was controlled in the midst of a very large
community. For instance in the Ferozepore District a serious outbreak was probably
averted early in the season in the town of Mehráj by the disinfection of a few rooms.
Desiccation.
13. While chemical disinfection found little favour with the people, desiccation
was a very popular measure, the people
understanding the process and having no
prejudices against it It had the advantage that the people could carry it out themselves
with but little supervision and that it involved but little trouble. As the process was not
extensively tried until late in the season, when the disease shows a marked tendency
to die out of itself, it would be premature to offer any opinion as to its efficacy.
In most instances desiccation was carried out with Sawhney's stoves, but other patterns
of stoves were also used, and where no stoves were available fires were lighted on the
flosrs of infected rooms. The amount and nature of the fuel used varied in different places,
varying quantities of charcoal, wood and cowdung cakes having been employed.
Thirty Sawhney's desiccators were purchased in March 1903 for use in the Punjab,
and these were disposed of as follows : 3 each to the Gujranwala, Lahore, Amritsar,
Jullundur, Hoshiárpur, Ferozepore, Ambala and Gurgaon Districts, 2 to the Jhang District,
and 1 each to the Ludhiána, Gurdaspur, Siálkot and Karnál Districts In addition to
the above number 10 more desiccators were purchased in June 1903 by the Central
Disintection Depôt, Jullundur, for issue to districts when necessity may arise.