178
[CHAP. VII.
Health Camps were established. These were occupied by inhabitants of infected streets,
which were evacuated wholesale. Bamboos were supplied free to the poor, and huts built
for the helpless. Twelve other private Health Camps were also built and occupied by people
living even in uniufected localities. The number in these Camps on the 1st November 1897
was about 34,000. As a result of this, many lost their means of living; and the Collector
started a General Belief Fund about the same date. This fund was generously supported, not
only by contributors on the spot but by contributors in Bombay, Rajkot, and other places,
and soon reached a total of some Rs. 22,000. Fuel was provided free.
On the 1st November 1897, Mr. A. Wingate, I.C.S., Plague Commissioner, visited
Surat and approved of what had been done, and suggested the following additional measures
which the Collector promptly put into execution : (1) The Ward System ; (2) Segregation
Camps for Contacts ; (3) Extension of Hospital accommodation.
The Ward System came into force on the 3rd November 1897. The modus operandi was
as follows :—The City was divided into 9 wards. Each ward was provided with a requisite
staff of officials and non-officials, Police, a Clerk, and gangs of Coolies and Sweepers ; each
Superintendent being responsible for all the details of plague management in his ward.
Perchloride of mercury 1 in 1,000 was used as a disinfectant. When these Super-
intendents took over charge (3rd November 1897), Captain Dyson, assisted by Dr. E. Hill,
assumed charge of the Health and Segregation Camps.
The Civil Hospital and the adjoining High School became a General Plague
Hospital, and patients suffering from ordinary diseases were accommodated in another build-
ing. On the 3rd November matters stood thus—
Civil and Plague Hospitals ...
...
... Lieutenant Colonel K. S. Nariman,
I. M. S., Civil Surgeon.
Health
and
segregation
campus
Captain T. E. Dyson, I. M. S.
Health and Segregation Camps
... ...Dr. Ernest Hill, Engliah Doctor.
Discovery of cases, removal of patients, disinfection Nine Ward Superintendents each
of buildings and locaties, and general sanitation. with an efficient start, oftmals and
of buildings and localities, and general sanitation. with an efficients staff, officials and
volunteers.
The Collector speaks very highly of the Ward System. "The Ward System," he writes,
"had a speedy and marked effect on the plague. It first acted by immensely reducing con-
cealment.'' Prompt prosecution, doubtless, had a similar effect. About this time the power
of granting Railway passes was given to Ward Superintendents.
In December 1897, the Collector made a permanent improvement in the sanitation
of the City by having 7,000 pit privies filled in. This measure, he says, produced no active
opposition and little grumbling. In many cases these pits were in the closest proximity to
the household well used for drinking water.
Two incidents are mentioned at this time—
(1) In the Salabatpura Camp lived a sect called the Golás, or huskers of rice.
They numbered about 5,000. They were allowed to go into the City during the day for
work, returning to the Camp at night. When plague was at its height, the relatives and
caste fellows of the Hindu patients often shrank from performing the last offices for
their own dead, and a charitable Hindu gentleman (Mr. Dámodardás) supplied carts for
the removal of corpses from the Hospitals. The Golás, however, were exceptional, and
it was found that instead of doing their ordinary work, they hired themselves out as
corpse-bearers in plague funerals. The result was an outbreak of plague in their Camp,
which caused considerable trouble.