CHAPTER I.
Part III.—Evacuation.
Evacuation as a plague measure has not only recommended itself to almost all persons,
whether Medical, Civil or Military, who have had any experience of plague, but has been (and
is) successively adopted by Governments, as plague has appeared in their territory. In the
Government Report of the plague in the Hoshiarpur and Jullundur Districts, this is the
measure approved of and relied upon by the Punjab Government*—
"The advantages of evacuation and thorough disinfection of the whole village site have
been so accepted, as fully proved, that little argument has been used regarding them in the
report. A comparison of the number of cases in Banga, Bhangal Kariha, Garhi and Garh-
shankar, where immediate evacuation was not insisted on, with that of the later villages, where
no delay was allowed to occur, will show clearly the necessity of having all the villagers camped
out in the open air at the earliest possible moment.
The argument is this. Plague shows no tendency to spread from house to house unless it
is carried by human beings or animals.
Rats take the disease, and it is admitted that after being infected they have no tendency to
leave their homes unless they are disturbed, and that in ten days all that live in the infected
houses should have died. If, however, they are disturbed by the roofs being at once taken off
infected houses, floors being dug up and everything being flooded with Phenyle, they must
leave the infected houses and carry the infection to other houses. In front, therefore, of the
line of disinfection through a village there must be an advancing wave of infection carried by
rats ; and when the disinfection reaches the last house in the village, the remaining Tats must
either double back into the houses already disinfected, thus re-infecting them, or they must leave
the Village and carry the infection to some other village, and either result is clearly one to be
avoided.
The matter may be somewhat ridiculous, but given the premises, the conclusion and
therefore the rule would appear to be sound.
The total number of cases have been 3,390.
The total number of deaths 2,103 or about 61 per cent. of attacks. I have had these cases
analysed for the purpose of seeing what effect evacuation of the village site had on the disease,
and I find from the statements made out, that of the total 3,390 cases—
1,335 occurred before evacuation.
1,014
„
within four days after evacuation.
421
„
within the second period of four days.
169
„
within the third period.
103
„
within the fourth period.
83
„
within the fifth period.
This gives the total cases up to 20 days after evacuation : enquiries were not pursued
beyond this period.
The cases which occurred within the first four days after evacuation are cases which must
have taken the infection in the village, and which were only discovered as soon us the people
came out into camp. Adding these 1,014 cases to those known to have existed before
evacuation, it is found that 2,349 cases out of a total of 3,390, or practically two-thirds, are
directly due to infection inside the village.
It may be also fairly assumed that many of the cases included in the second period of four
days were infected before evacuation, as the ordinary period of incubation is five or six days.
The result of evacuation, as shown by the successive drops from 1,014 to 421, 169, 103
and 88, is most clearly marked. The fall is not to be ascribed in any way to the disease having
run its course, since it was proved over and over again that in the evacuated houses in the
villages the disease still retained its full virulence."
Again, in the complete evacuation of Javalapur, a town of some 10,000 souls, close to
Hardwar, the North-Western Provinces Government may be seen adopting this same measure
in its most complete form.
Evacuation may be :—I.—Complete ; II.—Partial.
I.—Complete, evacuation is the emptying of the whole town or village infected, without
discrimination of infected or non-infected quarters.
II.—Partial evacuation is the emptying only of such houses, streets, blocks or quarters us
appear to be either infected or within the sphere of probable infection.
*Report on the outbreak of plague in the Jullundur and Hoshiarpur Districts of the Punjab, 1897.98.
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