xi
Report published by the Medical Board speaks of the inhabitants
having long been permitted to make the space in front of their houses
the " public necessary," and the " depository of all sorts of rubbish."
Things have not improved very much at the present day. The public
streets are kept clean, but the back-yards and privy enclosures
which are out of sight, are a mass of filth. The cross-lanes are so
narrow that a cart cannot traverse them, and that heaps of refuse
accumulate until the surface soil of the back-yards is considerably
raised. Under Municipal action, measures are in progress for a better
cleansing of the town, but it is not an easy matter to remedy the
neglect of centuries.
(a.) Condition as
to cleanliness.
Very indifferent.
(b.) Latrine ac-
commodation.
Of late years open wailed enclosures for use as public latrines have been
put up, but vast numbers of people use only the privies in their
back-yards, many of which are sodden with excrement.
(c.) Court-yards
of dwelling houses.
The majority of those inspected were dangerously foul.
(d.) Streets, roads, Well metalled, and kept clean. The main streets are broad and well
ventilated ; but the cross-roads and by-lanes are much too narrow for
health, or convenient cleansing of the town.
(c.) Disposal of
excreta.
A great deal in private houses is never removed at all, but simply
buried in the back-yards. There are some cess-pit privies, and these
when full are covered over with earth, and new ones prepared.
The Municipal carts are now available for all those who will bring
their rubbish to them for removal. The Municipal rubbish is taken
to a depot outside the town.
20. Water-supply. The water-supply is taken from the river bed and from numerous wells
within the town. Water is always obtainable by digging holes in
the sandy bed of the river. The river water is soft and pure unless
it be temporarily fouled by the habits of the people. The well water
varies a good deal as to the amount of organic impurity, but many of
the wells are dangerously contaminated by putrefying organic matter,
derived doubtless from the process of surface fouling of the soil which
has been going on for ages.
(a) Quality as
ascertained by Mi-
croscopic and Che-
mical examination.
Well water not examined microscopically. A tank in the Great Temple,
from which devotees drink, and consider the act a sacred performance,
contained the foulest water 1 have ever come across. The water was
full of a green vegetable growth, and besides this the decaying
organic matter was so large, that I could obtain no reliable results
with a standard solution of potassium permanganate, owing to the
discoloration caused by the precipitation of manganese oxide. Num-
berless infusoria, some visible to the naked eye, were preying upon
this decaying matter ; the smell of the water was most offensive. At
a time when cholera was rife in the town, I saw many " caste "
people drink of this abominable mixture, with apparent relish. The
temple tank has probably never been cleaned out since the building
was erected. The tank is deep, probably below the level of the river
bed, and fed by springs. Thousands of persons wash and bathe in it,
and drink the water because of its holy character. The Municipal
Commissioners have no power to interfere with this tank, which
contains the foulest water in the whole town.