39
Evacuation of the character that has been carried out hero during the past
3 years is not discussed, but the remarks made at the conclusion of para. 35 are
equally applicable to small areas and large.
Experience points to the advisability of agitating the people of a large place
as little as possible when infection is widely distributed among the inhabitants
so as not to drive them away. Anything drastic in the way of evacuation would
undoubtedly agitate the people of Bombay, but with few exceptions evacuation on
the lines adopted here has not been greatly objected to, and the private camps
along the Kennedy Sea Face, Cruikshank Road, and in F and G Wards bear
ample testimony to the appreciation by the more enlightened of the value of eva-
cuation. Every encouragement will, therefore, continue to be given to various
communities to erect such camps when plague threatens : and as in the past
Municipal Camps will be erected when thought desirable in F and G Wards
for the accommodation there of those too poor to build their own camps.
In these cases, however, the inmates of such camps occupy them during practical-
ly the whole period of an epidemic, and they stand on an entirely different footing
to the persons who have been evicted in other parts of Bombay and sent for a
brief space to health camps. Conditions of space render it absolutely impossible
to provide accommodation for lengthened periods for the residents of most parts of
the City, and the only advantage they can hope to be gained by their temporary ac-
commodation is a temporary freedom from liability to attack owing to their absence
for a time from the infected area, coupled with a hope of future immunity owing
to the disinfection of that area.
Some officers have a high opinion of the value of such temporary evacuation
while others point out that plague often breaks out again in chawls that have been
temporarily cleared out in this way. The conclusions of the Commission indicate
that so brief a period of vacancy as 10 days could not be relied upon for the
destruction of infection in a chawl by the ordinary processes of nature, and the
inference is that if infection has been destroyed during the 10 days, it has been
done by the chemical disinfection which invariably accompanies such evacuation.
Now the action of a chemical disinfectant is rapid, and the conclusion is that
all the advantages secured by disinfection coupled with 10 days in a health camp
would be equally secured by disinfection followed by immediate re-occupation.
For these reasons the compulsory evacuation of chawls, &c, for a period of
10 days should now cease, and should be replaced by rigorous disinfection in cases
where evacuation would formerly have been resorted to.
If in consequence of the inconvenience and dampness attendant upon disin-
fection the inmates desire to go to camp for a day or two, they may be permitted
to do so, but ordinarily the simplest way to deal with a large chawl would be to
take one floor at a time, the people of the floor under treatment finding temporary
accommodation on the other floors during the process. Compulsory evacuation
should not be resorted to without the express sanction of this office, and District
Officers must understand that if complaints of compulsory evacuation are made it
will be impossible to support their action.
Disinfection.—Paras. 36 to 39.
The section of the report of the Indian Plague Commission, dealing with the
subject of disinfection is of very great importance, and should be carefully studied
by all Plague Officers. The conclusion of the majority of the Commissioners which
is accepted by Government is that where skilled and efficient control was exercised
chemical disinfection exercised a preponderating influence in destroying infection.