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PART II.—INOCULATION.
Introduction.
Review of previous plague measures.
54. When plague first appeared in the Punjab in October 1897 vigorous efforts were
made to stamp it out, and, though not com-
pletely successful, the measures taken had the
effect of confining the disease until October
1900 almost completely to the area in which it first appeared, namely, to the adjoining
Nawashahr and Garhshankar Tahsils of the Jullundur and Hoshiárpur Districts. During the
cold weather of 1900, however, the disease made its appearance in the Shakargarh Tahsil
of the Gurdáspur District and attacked several villages in this and the adjoining Zafarwál
Tahsil of the Siálkot District. Small outbreaks also occurred in the districts of Ferozepore,
Ludhiana and Ambala, and in the Native States of Patiala and Kapurthala.
55. Until towards the end of the plague season of 1900-01 most of the measures adopted
for dealing with the disease were compulsory. Thus cordons were placed around infected
villages to prevent intercourse between their inhabitants and those of uninfected places, the
isolation of the sick and the segregation of contacts were insisted upon, evacuation of
infected houses and villages was enforced, and all persons were required to submit to the
disinfection of their infected houses and effects by official agency. The opposition of the
people, however, to many of these measures made it impossible for Government to enforce
them once the disease had spread beyond a limited area, and in. accordance with the
policy of the Government of India nearly all restrictions upon the movements of persons
from infected places were removed in October 1900, and the principle of compulsion was
almost completely abandoned for dealing with plague in the Punjab from May 1901
onwards. When, therefore, plague re-appeared in an epidemic form at the commencement of
the cold weather of 1901 the extent to which measures could be adopted for checking
its progress depended almost entirely upon the wishes of the people themselves,
with what result has been shown in the Plague Report for the year 1901-02. Nearly
everywhere the people preferred to be left to their own resources, and the little
they did for their own protection was not of much use, for plague spread like wild fire
over the greater part of the Province and in a few months carried off over 200,000 of
its inhabitants.
During the cold weather of 1901-02 plague had spread throughout the greater
part of the plains of the Punjab
Epidemic had occurred in all districts and Native
States in an unbroken line from the River Jhelum on the west to the border of the United
Provinces on the east, and the frontiers of Jammu on the north to those of Rájputána on the
south.
Infection had also spread to the Himalayan Hill State of Nálagarh, and imported cases—
sure forerunners of indigenous outbreak—had occurred in districts bordering upon the North-
West Frontier Province.
It was impossible for Government to view without the greatest concern the likeli-
hood of another such epidemic in the following cold weather as to leave untried any measure
acceptable to the people which held out any reasonable hope of preventing risk or calamity.
Inoculation
56. Among the measures which from the first appearance of plague in the Punjab
had been adopted for dealing with outbreaks
of the disease was inoculation with Haffkine's
prophylactic.
The experience of four years had conclusively demonstrated that inoculation, while it
involved only slight and temporary inconvenience and when carried out with due
precaution was absolutely harmless, afforded for some time a very considerable protection
against the attacks of plague and greatly reduced the fatality of attacks. No compulsion had
ever been used to induce the acceptance of the operation, but the people had very largely
availed themselves of it.
During the season of 1899-1900 nearly 290,000 of the 345,000 inhabitants of the
Nawashahr and Garshankar Tahsils had been inoculated, the majority during the hot
weather of 1900, when special efforts were made with the hope that another outbreak.
of plague among them might be averted, and though this hope was disappointed,
yet the benefit of the measure was very marked, and the confidence of the people in
the measure was established in so much so that, although no special inducements
were held out to the people to be inoculated during the subsequent epidemic, 193,487
persons were inoculated in British Districts in 1900-01 and in 1901-02, the demand for the
operation in certain districts during the height of the last epidemic having been much
beyond the powers of the medical staff to meet.
It should be remarked that the only inducement other than the protection against
plague afforded by the operation which was ever held out to the people of infected districts
in the Punjab in order to induce them to accept inoculation was the shortening by a few days-