29
Of 6o villages infected during the previous season, 40 became re-infected during the
present. Those badly affected previously were lightly affected this time. In the great
majority of cases the re-infection was traced to importation from without, and in only a few
instances did it apparently arise spontaneously, and in these cases the outbreak was preceded
by unusual rat mortality. In no case did a village, which had been infected during the pre-
vious season and subsequently declared free, become a source or focus of infection during the
present epidemic.
On the subject of the infection of villages with plague, Captain Browning Smith, I. M. S.,
the District Plague Medical Officer, notes :—" Although infection can be traced in the majority
of villages to the agency of man, in quite a considerable number no history of such importation
can be elicited, which induces me to raise the following question : Can the pathogenic
power of the bacillus be of so mild a character that it may remain latent, producing no percepti-
ble disease, or disease of such a mild type that it is not recognised as plague, until, by
infecting and passing through the rat, its virulence is so intensified that infection from the
rat produces a fatal epidemic ?"
Influence of local conditions.
Referring to the effect of local conditions in the course of the epidemic, the District
Plague Medical Officer notes that those parts
of the district adjoining the river kept free
from plague until well on into the spring.
Rats and other animals.
In the majority of villages squirrels died in considerable numbers, dropping dead
from the trees near infected houses. When
people evacuated their houses and lived near
their wells there were frequent deaths among the squirrels living in the trees near the wells.
There were instances in some villages of unusual mortality amongst dogs. A fortnight
.after plague broke out at the village of Wanake, out of 10 dogs attached to one house, 9
died in two or three days. In a temple outside the village 7 died.
Deaths among cats were also reported. In one village, Laukha, after the epidemic
was at an end, large number of sparrows died, dropping dead from the roofs of the houses.
It was a matter of general remark that in most villages, when an epidemic became
at all severe, crows, which usually abounded, completely deserted the village. They
returned after the epidemic was at an end. No dead crows were ever found.
No unusual mortality among cattle was reported.
Type.
The type of the disease was mostly bubonic, but there were some epidemics of the
pneumonic form, especially in the Tarn Taran
Tahsil. where also some septic cases of plague
occurred.
Medical Staff and Establishment.
The following Medical Officers and subordinates were employed on plague duty
in the district :—Captain S. B. Smith, I. M, S.,
District Plague Medical Officer, Dr. A. C.
De Renzi, Dr. Mayer, Dr. Heron, Dr. C.
Cavanagh, Inoculating Medical Officers, 2 Hospital Assistants and 4 Compounders.
GURDASPUR DISTRICT.
Epidemic.
41. This the third epidemic which has visited the Gurdaspur District was less severe
than of the previous season. There were 8,242
cases with 5,164 deaths in the present epidemic as
compared with 25,868 cases with 16,479 deaths during the preceding one. At the beginning
of the season the Pathánkot Tahsíl was the only one infected, and there the disease was almost
confined to the town itself. The epidemic steadily rose, with a slight lull during January,
till it reached its maximum during the week ending May the 2nd. After this it declined
and disappeared during August.
Preventive measures.
There was never any surveillance over arrivals from infected areas, and it was very-
doubtful whether any persons from_ infected
areas were ever prevented from entering other
villages.