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being about 10 feet long and 10 feet broad, In the Crawford Market camp, the
space between the rows of huts was not so large as in the other two Camps and
might have been widened with advantage. The huts could each give comfortable
accommodation to about 5 persons, and were light, airy, clean, and generally sanitary.
The water and conservancy arrangements were adequate, the only complaints received
being about occasional bad smells from the latrines, and in the Charni Road Camp
also from the cesspools. Each camp was under the direct supervision of a Camp
Master, who had a staff of subordinates and servants under him. His duty was
principally to keep a register of arrivals and departures, and to go round the camp
morning, noon and night every day to see that everything was in order.
The people who occupied the camps were divided into 2 classes ; contacts
and evicts. These were sent in by the Sectional Medical Officers, in chargo of a
contact Inspector, On arrival at the camp, the Camp Master took down and re-
gistered the names of all the persons, and then assigned to them the huts in which
they were to live. Their clothes and belongings were thoroughly disinfected and
personal cleanliness was strictly insisted on. Contacts and evicts were kept in sepa-
rate rows of huts to prevent the possibility of the latter being infected by the former.
Contacts and evicts alike were detained in camp for eleven days, and were
generally discharged on the 12th. An exception was made in the cases of people
whose houses were not ready to receive them back, or when the places in which they
usually lived continued to be infected. These were allowed to stay on, and such as
could pay were charged rent for the period of their stay in excess of 15 days at the
rate of Es. 2 per hut per mensem. Many found life " in camp " so desirable and
so preferable to their usual surroundings that they begged to be allowed to stay for
longer periods, offering to pay even a higher rental than the nominal one charged.
It was not, however, possible to meet the wishes of these applicants as the camp
accommodation was necessarily limited and room had to be found or made for
numerous fresh arrivals every day.
Some plague cases occurred in the 3 camps visited by me, and full particulars
of these, as far as possible, were given in my periodical reports to the District Plague
office of the C. Ward. A careful consideration of these cases seems to shew that
in most of them—in almost all where the previous "history" of the patients could
be traced—the source of infection lay outside the camp, either in their previous resi-
dences or surroundings, or in the places visited by them for purposes of business or
pleasure during the time they were residents of the camps. The majority of the cases
occurred among low-class Ghatees, who, by their habits and mode of life were much
less immune to the plague infection than other classes, and who, when they caught
the disease, generally had it in a more or less virulent and fatal form. I may here
state that the huts in camp in which any case of plague occurred, were promptly
lime-washed and disinfected, and afterwards kept vacant for ten days at least.
On the whole it seems to me that these camps met a great want in a manner
that was altogether satisfactory. " Segregation" lost much of its terrors for the people
ab large when they saw that, as far as the camps went, it only meant a short change,
free of cost, into better, livelier and cleaner quarters. In the camps they met with
most considerate treatment and were not subjected to any irksome regulations, and
they were free to spend the day time where and as they pleased. Better surround-
ings soon proved their value in the much reduced death-rate, for though the inmates
of these camps came from all parts of Bombay and spent all day in various quarters
of the city, nearly all highly infected localities, yet the percentage of deaths and plague
cases in the camps was very small. These camps also helped to improve the
condition of tho localities from which their inmates came, by relieving the congestion