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taking as much trouble to put the people back in the same houses as he
had taken in removing them to camp. The following example of the
patience of the people is taken from Captain Dunbar Stuart's report:—
" To show how marvellously they do take things, one morning I evacuated a chawl,
" and sent 60 of them off : the Sectional Medical Officer, through some misunder-
" standing, sent them to Chowpaty Camp, This was not open at the time, but some
" huts were erected, the people quietly dumped their things down, so I had to send for
" them again, they again packed up, sat on the carts and were marched off to Charm
" Road Camp, where they eventually arrived sometime in the afternoon, not a murmur
'' nor a complaint did I get. They were started 8 A. M. and got in at 3 p. M."
The following extracts from the reports of the District Officers, B
Ward North, Byculla, and F and G Wards, respectively, show the high
opinion held by those officers as to the value of evacuation as a Plague
measure.
Lieutenant Dalgiiesh (B Ward North) writes : —
" Houses in which two or three cases of Plague occurred within a short time
" were, as a rule, vacated and the tenants sent to camp.
" Sometimes, if all the cases occurred on one floor, only that floor was vacated
" and the house was carefully watched for further developments. When a house had
" to be vacated the landlord was first interviewed, and in the majority of cases, was
" found to be willing to help the Plague measures by personally persuading the
" people to go to camp. This result was brought about by more or less lengthy
" explanations (by volunteer members chiefly, sometimes by the District Officer)
" of the benefits both landlord and tenants would derive from removal to segregation
" camp. Landlords knew that if very many cases of Plague occurred in their house,
" they ran a good chance of the house being made U. H. H., which would entail
" a heavy loss of rent, while the house was being repaired, and renovated. They
" were thus more ready to give assistance to any measures which might stop the
" occurrence of fresh cases in their houses.
" Evacuation of infected houses and segregation of their inmates was found to
" be a very effectual way of stopping Plague, at any rate for a time, as the following
" instances, among many others, all tend to prove :—
" In No. 20-22, Umerkadi 2nd Row, a dirty dark house, in a very narrow lane,
" 8 cases of Plague occurred between 5th May 1899 and 29th December 1899. On
" the latter date 3 Plague cases were found concealed in rooms which were locked up,
" The whole house, which was a small one, contained only about 30 persons, was
" vacated, disinfected and the residents segregated in camp for 15 days, since when
" there has been no recurrence of Plague.
" House No. 26, Jail Road North, in which one Plague death occurred on 8th
" January 1900, and 2 on 10th January 1900, was vacated and subsequently
" marked U. H. H. by the Health Department. One case occurred in the adjoining
" house on the 7th January 1900, of which 10 contacts were sent to camp. No Plague
" occurred in this house since that date, which I put down to the fact that No. 26
" next to it, which had a bad record previously, was vacated and not re-occupied.
" Another instance is No. 66-68, Umerkhadi Road, in which 25 deaths have oc-
" curred since 20th August 1899, including 7 deaths from Plague and 3 suspicious.
" Of these 3 Plague cases occurred on the 5th April 1900 and 6th April 1900. The
" house was vacated on 7th April 1900, since when there has been no more Plague.
" When a house was vacated landlords were requested to limewash the houses before
"the tenants returned, which they invariably do. Vacated houses were of course in-
" variably disinfected."