NationalLibraryOfScotland/medical-history-of-british-india huggingface dataset:
No. 31
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SANITARY DEPARTMENT.
FROM
T. G. HEWLETT, ESQUIRE, .
Acting Sanitary Commissioner,
TO
F. S. CHAPMAN, ESQUIRE,
Chief Secretary to Government, General Department.
Camp Poona, 3rd January 1877.
SIR,
In forwarding the accompanying Report on the Sanitary Condition of the
Town of Sholápur for the information of His Excellency the Governor in Council,
together with a letter from the President of the Municipal Commissioners,
Sholápur, I have the honour to answer the objections taken by the Municipal
Commissioners to some of the proposals I have made.
2. Paragraph 38.—The Commissioners have, I am glad to learn, removed
two of the manure-yards which I complained of, to, I would hope, a less objection-
able site ; but they, I regret to say, decline to take similar action regarding the
biggest nuisance of the three, described in para. 10 of the report. I can but adhere
to the opinion expressed in the report, that it is utterly and entirely wrong to
have all the niglitsoil of the town day by day deposited, for the purpose of being
converted into poudrette, in such close vicinity to the town as immediately out-
side one of the principal gates, and only separated by the width of the road from
the walls. The plea set up by the Commissioners, namely, that they have incur-
red expense in erecting a shed on the present site, and that no other site is
available, is not, in my opinion, a valid one, as only a jowlie-shed has been erected,
the materials of which can be transplanted, and I shall be happy to point out
several unobjectionable sites which could bed procured. The fact of this night-
soil depôt being in this site drives people away from the public latrine which is
on one side of it, and they naturally, as they told me, prefer going to the fields to
frequenting a place where they are exposed to the horrible stench arising from
the ground which, as I can personally testify, is an intolerable nuisance to persons
whose duty calls them to travel over the road leading past the enclosure where
these offensive operations are being carried on.
3. Paragraph 41.—The Committee object to removing the lime-burners
and indigo-dyers from inside the town, and they express their opinion that lime-
burning is not injurious to health. I do not think it is necessary for me to
argue the point with them, but I may mention that it has been rightly considered
so injurious to health that to this day no lime-burning is allowed within the
Island of Bombay—a regulation which was in force before the passing of the
Municipal Act of 1865. Doctor Leith originally suggested that the indigo-dyers
should be turned out of Sholápur. They were accordingly removed, but through
ignorance of the danger caused by this trade to the public health, they were
re-admitted. I can only say I consider they ought to be removed. As regards
the tanners, it is true they have been already once removed by the order of
the Municipality ; but they were located in their present position before the
construction of the Ekruk Canal, which unfortunately passes alongside their
factories, and, therefore, especially now as the drinking water-supply of the town
B 602-1
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is derived from a point below where these people reside, it is extremely desirable
that all possible contamination with the animal decomposing matter inseparable
from a tanning-yard should be removed from the precincts of the canal.
4.Paragraph 44.—If private persons do not remove the debris of ruinous
houses belonging to them, they should be compelled by the Municipal Commis-
sioners to do so under the provisions of the Municipal Act, as such places become
places of easement, and are a source of unhealthiness to the neighbourhood.
5. Paragraph 45.—This recommendation was made because I frequently
saw, and on one occasion in company with Mr. Grant, persons washing in the old
dhobis' ghát over the Shideswur Tank. If the dhobis are now compelled—in con-
sequence, I suppose, of the absence of water in the Shideswur Tank—to go to the
Shelgi Nullah as stated, I think the order a very excellent one, and am glad that
it is carried out, and can only hope that the dhobis will never again be allowed
to wash clothes above the tank.
6. In conclusion, I would desire to bring to the special notice of Govern-
ment the great assistance afforded to me by Mr. Grant, who was kind enough
to introduce me to the Municipal Commissioners, to whom I was enabled to
express my views, and who have, I am glad to see, evinced their earnest desire to
introduce sanitary reforms into their City.
I have the honour to be,
Sir,
Your most obedient Servant,
T. G. HEWLETT,
Acting Sanitary Commissioner.
3
No. 3454 OF 1876.
FROM
J.H. GRANT, ESQUIRE,
A c t i n g C o l l e c t o r , S h o l á p u r ,
To
T. G. HEWLETT, ESQUIRE,
Sanitary Commissioner, Bombay.
Sholáipur Collector's Office,
26 th December 1876.
SIR,
With reference to your letter No. 114/1076, dated 14th October 1876, I have the
honour to inform you that I circulated your Report on the sanitary condition of
the City of Sholápur for the perusal of the Municipal Commissioners of Sho-
lápur, who, at a general meeting held on 20th instant, passed the following
Resolutions :—
Paragraph 36 of Report. —The Committee agree with the Sanitary Com-
missioner as to the necessity of bringing in the water from the Ekruk Tank
itself to the City ; but it would be quite impossible, under existing circumstances,
for the Municipality to incur the expenditure which such an undertaking would
involve. The best arrangement possible under the circumstances, viz., that of
distributing water from the canal by means of a channel and a steam-pump, has
been adopted.
Paragraph 37.—The Committee approve of the Sanitary Commissioner's
suggestions as regards conservancy establishment, and have resolved that his
proposals be adopted and carried out for one year as an experimental measure.
The majority of the Commissioners are also of opinion that it will be necessary
to levy a halalcore cess.
Paragraph 38.—With regard to the three manure-yards, two of them have
been removed as suggested. There is no other suitable place available for the
third, which is used for the manufacture of manure according to the Násik
system ; and as considerable expense has been incurred in connection with the
present site in erecting a shed, &c., the Committee are of opinion that it is not
feasible or advisable to make any change.
Paragraph 39.—The Committee are of opinion that the remainder of the
town-wall should be removed as suggested by the Sanitary Commissioner ; but
they do not think it should be done at the present time, as there would be no
sale for the materials just now, and also because the Committee have no funds
available.
Paragraph 40.—The question of a City survey is under contemplation, and
a correspondence is now going on with the Survey Department. The Sanitary
Commissioner's suggestions for widening the roads are being carried out as op-
portunities offer ; and also his recommendation with regard to buildings, for en-
suring uniformity and regulating height of plinth, ventilation, &c.
Paragraph 41.—Offensive trades.—The Committee do not consider that lime-
burning is injurious to health. It is carried on to the north-west of the City,
where the population is not at all dense, and, therefore, they are of opinion that
it should not be interfered with. For the same reasons they are of opinion that
4
the indigo-dyers should be allowed to remain where they are at present, and also
because a large number of persons are employed who would be put to great
inconvenience if they had to remove to a distance from the City. With regard
to the tanners, they have been removed once already by order of the Municipa-
lity, who selected the present site for them, which is so much below the Ekruk
Canal that it cannot be injurious to the water. And as there is no other suitable
site, and the tanners have spent a good deal of money on the present one, the
Committee are unwilling to interfere with them. The Irrigation Department
allow the tanners to take water from the canal on payment, and have made a set
of steps for them for that purpose.
Paragraph 42.—The question of a new vegetable market has long been un-
der consideration ; but it has had to be postponed indefinitely for want of funds,
the Committee having decided last year that the question of supplying the town
with water from the Ekruk Tank was more pressing, and that it should be dis-
posed of first.
Paragraph 43. —Burial-grounds. —The transfer of the Lingayet burial-ground
has been under discussion for some time past, and will now finally be disposed
of. The site selected for it, and also a new site for the other Hindu burial-ground,
and two new sites for the Mahomedans, will be pointed out to the Sanitary Com-
missioner for approval when he next visits Sholápur.
Paragraph 44.—Ruinous houses. —The Municipal Commissioners are of
opinion that the Sanitary Commissioner's proposal on this point is not practic-
able, the Municipality not having any right to the materials of ruinous houses
belonging to private persons.
Paragraph 45. —Washing ghauts for dhobis. —The Committee are of opinion
that these are not required, as the dhobis do all their washing in the Shelgi Nullah,
at a distance of a mile and a half from the City.
Paragraph 46.—The Committee will take measures to enforce lime washing
more frequently, both inside and outside houses, as recommended.
Paragraph 47.—In order to carry out stringently the registration of births
and deaths the assistance of the Police is necessary. The District Magistrate
has been requested to issue the necessary order.
2. Your report under reference is herewith returned as requested.
I have the honour to be,
Sir,
Your most obedient Servant,
J. H. GRANT,
Acting Collector and President.
No. 1332.
GENERAL DEPARTMENT.
Bombay Castle, 27th April 1877.
Letter from the Sanitary Commissioner, No. 31, dated 3rd January 1877—Forwarding a
report by himself on the sanitary condition of the town of Sholápur, together with a
letter (No. 3454, dated 26th December 1876,) from the President, Sholápur Munici-
pality, who states the resolutions arrived at by the Municipal Committee of Sholápur
a consideration of the report; and stating his answer to the objections taken by the
Municipal Committee to some of the proposals made by him in the report.
RESOLUTION.—Government have read this clear and practical report of
Mr. Hewlett's with much interest, the more so as many of the suggestions con-
tained in it are capable of execution by the Municipal Committee in the course
of time without going to extravagant and ruinous expense.
2. The attention of the Municipal Committee is specially drawn to the
remarks of the Sanitary Commissioner contained in paragraphs 14, 16, 21, 25,
30, 33, 34, of the report under notice, with the expression of a hope that the
state of affairs described and the remedies proposed may have the earnest consi-
deration of the Committee.
3. One or two other points specially call for notice. The third manure-
yard mentioned in paragraph 38 should be moved to some more suitable spot.
Lime-burning and indigo-dyeing, paragraph 41, should not be allowed in the
municipal limits, but as the site of the tanneries is much below— i.e. , presum-
ably on a lower level than—that of the Ekruk Canal, the occupants thereof
need not be disturbed. As regards the remarks of the President concerning
ruinous houses, his attention is drawn to Sections 46 and 53 of the Bombay
Municipal Act VI. of 1873.
T. D. MACKENZIE,
For Chief Secretary to Government.
B 221—K
No. A.-917 OF 1876.
To F. S. CHAPMAN, ESQ.,
Chief Secretary to Government, Bombay,
General Department.
Sanitary Commissioner's Office,
17th October 1876.
SIR,—I have the honour to report, for the information of His Excellency
the Governor in Council, that during my late tour in the Sholápur District, I took
occasion to visit Bijápur with the view of inquiring into the sanitary aspect of
the proposed re-occupation of some of the old buildings with reference to the
contemplated removal of the Zillah station of Kaládgi to that city.
2. I had the advantage of the company of Mr. Spry, C.S., Collector of
Kaládgi, who was en route to join his appointment, and who most kindly stayed
for two days with me at Bijápur, and to whom I am indebted for much assist-
ance. I must also bring to the especial notice of Government the valuable aid I
received from Rao Saheb Hanmant Ramchandra Shirhatti, the Mámlatdár of Bijá-
pur, and from Mr. Umaji Lingoji, the very zealous and intelligent Overseer in the
Public Works Department, who, in the absence of Mr. Molecey, the Executive
Engineer, showed us all the buildings it is proposed to convert, and explained
what had been done, and the further action that will be necessary before they
can be inhabited. Mr. Spry visited all these buildings with me, and in this
letter I will only, in anticipation of Mr. Molecey's valuable report on them being
sent to me for my official opinion in accordance with recent orders of Govern-
ment, confine myself to the general question.
3. Bijápur is situated nearly on the line of water-parting of the Bhima
and the Don rivers, and is approached from the north over undulating ground,
which, especially during the present season of drought, presents a sterile appear-
ance, and the absence of trees was a noticeable feature in the landscape. The
road, however, from Sholápur passes, in the vicinity of Bijápur, gardens with trees,
which are for the most part situated over the various water-courses which are met
with. On the south-west of the town the ground rises considerably, though I
have no means of saying to what elevation, but sufficiently so to have permitted
it to have been made one of the sources of water-supply by the construction of
an earthen dam across a nullah, a tributary of the Don river near the Kaládgi
road, by means of which a lake of some 700 acres in extent was formed, and the
water from which flowed into the city by gravitation through earthen-ware pipes,
the course of which can be traced by the 14 air-shafts which remain to the
present day, and which are, I believe, in a good state of preservation. This tank
was constructed in A.D. 1653 by Sultan Mohammed, VIth King of Bijápur, and
was called the Begam Talao, and though the embankment has given way in two
places, and the bottom of the tank has silted up for a depth of about 10 feet,
it could, I think, at a reasonable cost be repaired.
4. It is unnecessary for me in this letter to attempt any description of the
city further than to say that the population at the time of the census of 1872
No. 3434.
GENERAL DEPARTMENT.
Bombay Castle, 3rd November 1876.
Letter from the Acting Sanitary Commissioner, No. A.-917, dated the 17th October 1876
—Stating that during his late tour in the Sholápur District, he took occasion to visit
Bijápur with the view of inquiring into the sanitary aspect of the proposed re-occupa-
tion of some of the old buildings with reference to the contemplated removal of the
zillah station of Kaládgi to that city; and suggesting measures for improving its sanitary
condition and water-supply.
RESOLUTION.—This very interesting report may be printed as part of the
series of reports now being issued by Mr. Hewlett.
2. His remarks should have the careful attention of the Public Works
Department so far as regards the drainage of the fort ditch, the destruction of
the pit-privies, and the restoration of the aqueduct.
F. S. CHAPMAN,
Chief Secretary to Government.
B 2 2 1 —S
REPORTS
ON MILITARY CANTONMETNS AND CIVIL STATIONS
IN THE PRESIDENCY OF BOMBAY
INSPECTED BY THE
SANITARY COMMISSIONER
IN THE
YEARS 1875 AND 1876.
Bombay: PRINTED AT THE GOVERNMENT CENTRAL PRESS.
1877.
IP/QB,10
(NEW SERIES. )
No. 17.
SCIENTIFIC MEMOIRS
BY
OFFICERS OF THE MEDICAL AND SANITARY DEPARTMENTS
OF THE
GOVERNMENT OF INDIA.
SNAKE-VENOMS IN RELATION TO HÆMOLYSIS.
BY
CAPTAIN GEORGE LAMB, M.D., I.M.S.
ISSUED UNDER THE AUTHORITY OF THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
BY THE SANITARY COMMISSIONER WITH THE GOVERNMENT
OF INDIA, SIMLA.
CALCUTTA:
OFFICE OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF GOVERNMENT PRINTING, INDIA
.
1905.
Price Annas 6 or 7d.
No. 17.
(NEW SERIES.)
SCIENTIFIC MEMOIRS
BY
OFFICERS OF THE MEDICAL AND SANITARY DEPARTMENTS
OF THE
GOVERNMENT OF INDIA.
SNAKE-VENOMS IN RELATION TO HÆMOLYSIS.
BY
CAPTAIN GEORGE LAMB, M.D., I.M.S.
ISSUED UNDER THE AUTHORITY OF THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
BY THE SANITARY COMMISSIONER WITH THE GOVERNMENT
OF INDIA, SIMLA.
CALCUTTA :
OFFICE OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF GOVERNMENT PRINTING, INDIA.
1905.
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SNAKE-VENOMS IN RELATION TO HÆMOLYSIS.
IN recent years the study of the action of snake venoms in relation to
hæmolysis has acquired considerable importance in view of the results of the
researches of Flexner and Noguchi1 in America and of Kyes and Sachs 2
working in Ehrlich's laboratory in Germany. While by these researches a flood of
light has been thrown on the intimate mechanism of venom hæmolysis, it has also
been shown that this phenomenon is analogous in many respects to serum
hæmolysis and is therefore worthy of the most careful investigation in consider-
ation of the relationship which exists between this latter process and bacteriolysis.
As an introduction to this communication it will be convenient, therefore, to
give a brief summary of the results of the investigations of the workers men-
tioned above, in so far as these results concern our present purpose.
Flexner and Noguchi were the first to point out that washed blood corpuscles
are not hæmolysed by venom, but that, if the separated serum is restored to
each of the several kinds of blood corpuscles treated with venom, lysis takes
place. They also showed that the serum of another species may act as the
activating element in this process, but that such a foreign serum does not act so
well as the homologous serum. They, therefore, concluded that venoms in the
process of hæmolysis act only as intermediary bodies or amboceptors, requiring
a complement to complete the reaction. Further, working with the washed
corpuscles of the dog, of the rabbit and of the guinea pig, they state that a venom
solution treated in succession with these corpuscles gives up to each a part
of its intermediary body. In these experiments they do not particularise the
venoms which were used nor the temperature at which this union was effected.
It is to this question that I wish to refer especially in this paper.
In a later communication these authors elaborate their previous researches
in several directions. They show that fresh snake venom contains no comple-
ment : they also enter into several intricate problems with reference to the rela-
tionship between snake venom amboceptor and complement and with reference
to a comparison of the haptophore groups of snake venom and snake serum
intermediary bodies. These problems do not concern us at the present moment.
In a third paper, however, entitled, " On the plurality of cytolysins in snake-venom,"
they, among other details, state that a venom, to wit that of the water mocas-
sin, when kept for 3 hours at 0° C. in contact with the red corpuscles of the sheep, of
the dog and of the rat, is deprived entirely of its hæmolytic action for the cells with
which it had been in contact. I shall have to refer to this experiment later on.
The work done by Kyes and Sachs in Germany has been almost entirely
2
carried out with cobra venom. These observers confirm in a general way the ambo-
ceptor nature of the working of cobra venom in the sense of Flexner and Noguchi.
They, however, show that, while this poison can by itself hæmolyse the washed
cells of certain species, it has no action on the washed cells of certain other
species. Therefore, as regards the action of cobra venom the red cells of
animals can be divided into two groups : namely, A, those which are sensitive to
cobra venom alone ; and B, those which are not dissolved by cobra venom alone.
In group A are the red cells of the dog, the guinea-pig, man, the horse, etc.
These cells vary in their degree of sensibility ; thus the cells of the dog and of
the guinea-pig are the most sensitive, while those of the horse are the least
sensitive. In group B are the cells of the ox, of the sheep and of the goat. With
these cells hæmolysis can be brought about by the addition of certain fresh
sera ; thus, guinea-pig's serum is able to act as complement for cobra venom and
ox cells. These complements are destroyed by heating at 56°C. Further, they
state that sheep's cells bind cobra venom to a certain extent, and that at 0° C. no
complement is fixed at the same time. They, therefore, conclude that the
amboceptor nature of cobra venom is evident and may be taken as proved.
In following up the results got with cobra venom and the washed cells of
class A they show by a series of ingenious experiments that the reason why
these cells, even when carefully and thoroughly washed, are sensitive to cobra
venom alone, is that the lecithin contained within them is able to act as an
activating substance. They prove that the lecithin is bound to the stroma of
the cells, and that on dissolving red cells with distilled water it remains attached
to the stroma ; they offer as a probable explanation of the non-sensitiveness of
the cells of class B to cobra venom the supposition that the lecithin contained
in these cells is so firmly bound to the stroma that the venom cannot separate
it from this binding. Kyes and Sachs in further elaborating these discoveries show
that free lecithin prepared from the yolk of egg can act as complement for
cobra venom and the cells which are not dissolved by the venom alone ; they
carefully compare the action of lecithin with that of serum complement and, while
they show that there are several important differences in the conditions of working
of these two substances, they are of opinion that the action of lecithin is of the
same nature as that of serum complement. They also point out that Calmette's
observation3 , namely, that certain normal sera are more suitable to cause hæmo-
lysis with cobra venom after they have been heated than in the fresh condition,
receives a simple explanation in the light of their observations. They show ,
in fact, that this thermostabile substance in serum which acts as a complement
to cobra venom is nothing more or less than lecithin, which probably by the
heating of the serum becomes loosened or entirely freed from its bindings, and
which only then is in a condition to be taken up by the amboceptor of the poison.