24
sized room. It was found out of the question to desiccate a room that was as much as
20 X 20 feet. In small rooms temperatures varying from 150 to 200 Fahr. were reached on
the walls and floors. Difficulty was experienced in moving the machine from one room to
another.
Infection.
Of 63 villages in which special enquiries were made, in 47 the infection was traced
to importation by human agency. In 7 villages
outbreaks were apparently a recrudescence of
the previous epidemic, and in g the inhabitants put it down to rats, which were said to have
died before any human beings. Dr. Jones, the District Plague Medical Officer, remarks,
however, that the more the latter class of cases were enquired into, the more doubtful they
became, as it was almost always found that there had been communication with infected
places or that the place had been infected during the preceding season.
Influence of climate, &c.
The effect of climate upon the epidemic has already been incidentally mentioned.
The Plague Medical Officer considers that
the extreme cold of January may have done
much to check the course of the disease. The weather, he remarks, was so cold during the
month that nearly all the sugarcane crop was destroyed.
Rats and other animals.
Excessive mortality among rats was observed throughout the infected area. No rela-
tion, however, was noticed between the extent of
mortality among rats and the severity of plague
outbreaks in villages. In places where the disease was very severe, cattle, dogs, squirrels
and sparrows were sometimes observed to die.
No attempts were ever made to destroy rats, the Hindús objecting on religious
grounds and the Muhammadans being too apathetic.
Type.
The bubonic type of the disease prevailed, but the statistics regarding type are said
not to be very accurate. The pneumonic type
was noted to be very fatal.
The lower classes were the most affected by outbreak of plague. It was noticed that
no case occurred in any of the Christian schools in the district, in many of which children
of the poorer classes are educated. The difference is attributed by the District Plague
Medical Officer to the better sanitary condition prevailing in these schools.
Females suffered more than males both as regards their liability to attack by and
death from plague.
Medical Staff and Establishment.
The following Medical Officers and subordinates were employed on plague duty in the
district :—Captain P. B. Haig, I. M. S., and
Dr. L. Jones, District Plague Medical Officers,
Dr. C. P. Husband, Dr. G. Warner, Dr. Reilly, Dr. A. S. McSorley, Inoculating Medical
Officers, Assistant Surgeon Amrík Singh and 10 Compounders.
GUJRANWALA DISTRICT.
Epidemic.
The Gujránwála District suffered from a very severe epidemic of plague during the
year under report, and was the most seriously
affected district in the Province during the
present season. The epidemic affected a much larger area than during the previous year,
in all 720 villages becoming infected. There were 70,329 cases with 45,456 deaths
during the present epidemic, whilst during the previous season there had been only 3,319 cases
with 2,244 deaths. There were outbreaks in nearly all the villages of the Wazírabad and Guj-
ránwála Tahsíls, and the disease spread into the Háfizabad and Khángah Dográn Tahsíls.
Throughout the previous hot weather dropping cases had been occurring in various vil-
lages. In Gujránwála Town the disease was apparently a recrudescence of the previous
year's epidemic. In the case of all other places, however, a distinct history of importation
from without was obtained. An imported case occurred in the town of Háfizabad on October
the 10th, 1902, but owing to prompt measures the disease did not spread, with the result
that this tahsíl remained free from plague till February 1903. In the middle of February
the disease broke out both in the town of Háfizabad and in the villages of the tahsíl,
and became so severe in the town that for a time it was more or less deserted. The
mortality steadily rose from the commencement of the season up till the last week in De-
cember, from which time till the last week in January there was a lull in the growth of the
epidemic. This was followed by a great upward bound in the first week of February.
The numbers then again grew steadily until the climax was reached in the week ending