134
Finding that the house was infected all through, the whole house was entirely
vacated on the 12th of May 1900, disinfected thoroughly twice and closed for
10 days.
After the re-occupation there has heen no fresh case of plague since.
(5) House No. 226, Erskine Road, Khava Talao.—It is a single storied big
chawl, occupied by Gujrati Mochis (Shoe-makers). The ground floor has 18 leather
shops; the floor is stone-paved. First floor has 20 rooms, too small, and the
floor is entirely kucha. The outside and inside walls of the rooms are all made of
wooden planks. There occurred 6 cases of plague and. 3 of suspicious fever in this
big chawl on the following dates:—
1st case of plague on
2nd
3rd
4th
5th
6th
7th
8th
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25th July 1899.
10th December 1899.
Isb January 1900.
23rd January 1900.
llth March 1900.
26th
„
30th
„
1st April 1900.
Finding that case after case was occurring in this chawl, the whole was entirely
evacuated on the 1st of April 1.900, and thoroughly disinfected twice and closed
for 10 days. It was re-occupied on 22nd of the same month. There occurred
2 cases more in this chawl after re-occupation on the following dates* and after
making deep and perfect enquiries, I learnt that these cases were imported from
another District. The infected rooms were vacated, the contacts removed and
the place disinfected thoroughly.
fey Dr. Fazl
Ahmed.
(1) House No. 234-236, Kamleker Street, Umarkhadi.—The house is an example
of the sort of houses very suitable for the growth of the plagne germs. The rooms
on the ground floor were dark, having insufficient windows to let the sun and air
in. They were overcrowded with inmates of very dirty habits, and dirt and rubbish
was found lying everywhere. The floor was katcha and quite damp. Seeds
require soil to grow upon and the seed of plague requires filth and darkness and
dump whereon to grow and multiply. As all these circumstances, so favourable to
the plague seeds to flourish upon, were present in the house there occurred a
suspicious plague death in the house in November 1899. This was followed by an-
other on the 24th of the same month, and 3rd on the 26th of January 1900. After
this there passed a period of quiescence for about a month during which the germs
remained in a dormant condition. However, on the 23rd February, they assumed a
fearful activity and there occurred 5 suspicious deaths within a short period of three
weeks; the house was searched thoroughly on the 16th March, and a plague case was
detected ; the house was evacuated there and then. The house belongs to an old widow
of the Kuchi Memon community. A large crowd gathered at the door and asked to stop
the evacuation, laughing at the measure and declaring it a fruitless uncalled-for op-
pression. However the evacuation was carried out and the inmates sent to-camp, the
house was thoroughly disinfected, cleaned, white-washed and the inmates were
brought back to live in. Not a single case occurred in the house since then, and not
even a natural death. Some of the people that were present at the time of evacuation
watched with a keen anxiety, waiting to see another case of plague occurring in the
house, but I am afraid they might have to wait till the coming epidemic season.
If the sanitation of a house is good and it is accidentally infected by infection
being brought to it from some dirty place, disinfection thoroughly and properly done
is quite sufficient to make it free from plague. It is only in dark and dirty over-'
crowded dwellings that plague germs, when once brought in, establish themselves,
it cannot be got rid of until starved to death by evacuating the house. Several
instances have been noticed supporting this view.
* 26th of April, and 29tb of Way 1900.