9
7. The municipal authorities, now becoming alarmed at the occurrence
fresh cases, began to lend a more willing ear to my suggestions, and I was able
to get all the drains in the vicinity of the houses alluded to in the last paragraph
cleaned out, having first disinfected their contents. Fires were lighted in the
verandahs and on either side of these houses, and sulphur with dammer burnt.
But even now the aid of the municipal authorities was, considering the circum
-stances, given in a most niggardly way
.
8 . I t i s u n n e c e s s a r y f o r m e t o f o l l o w e a c h c a s e s e p a r a t e l y , a s d a i l y r e p o r t s ,
h a v e b e e n f o w a r d e d t o y o u ; I m a y m e r e l y s t a t e h e r e t h a t , u p t o t h e p r e s e n t
date, (18) eighteen cases have come under treatment, and of these (4) four have
proved fatal. I have no doubt that other cases may have occurred, of which I
have not received information. Six of the whole number of cases reported and
three of the fatal cases, occurred in the house No. 32, Ghaty Alli Street. This
is a small two-storied house divided off into a numbe of dens by bamboo parti
-tions. In many of these so-called rooms a person of ordinary height cannot
stand upright, air finds very little admission, and the light of day none. In such
a building as this there were living between 60 and 70 human beings, the
accommodation not being fit for so many domestic animals. I am happy to say
that these people, becoming alarmed at successive cases occurring in the house,
determined to leave it. They were taken to the dharamshala outside the town;
here they were thoroughly fumigated with sulphurous acid. A police guard
took care that they did not enter the town for two days, at the expiration of
which time they elected to separate and go to live in the open country for some
time, which they were permitted and encouraged to do.
9. The roof of the house No. 32, Ghaty Alli Street, is being taken off, the
partitions pulled down, and the floors dug up. These measures, conjoined with.
scraping and whitewashing the walls again, and a liberal use of disinfectants,
will, I trust, render the premises safe for habitation in future, instead of being a
hot-bed for the birth and dissemination of septic poison, which it most certainly
would be if allowed to remain as it is.
10. A few remarks on the state of the town, and the measures I have taken
with a view to checking the spread of cholera, and placing it generally in a better
sanitary condition than I found it on my arrival here some three weeks ago,
may not, perhaps, be out of place in this report. The approximate population
of Tanna is 14,299; the dwellings in which these people are housed number
2,086. With the exception of those in the main streets, the so-called houses are
small huts, badly lighted, with scarcely any ventilation, and crowded together
in such a manner that the air cannot possibly circulate between them. They
are approached from the main thoroughfares by narrow lane-ways, some of
which will not admit two persons walking abreast.
11. Of the 2,086 houses only 406 have privies: so that the occupants of
1,680 dwelling-houses respond to the calls of nature in such places as they find
most convenient to themselves, without reference to the comfort of their neigh
bours—the consequence being that the moment one leaves the main streets the
stench that prevades the atmosphere is most sickening. Many of the better class
of houses have privies and urinals; but it is to be regretted that these are allow
-ed to communicate with the drains, which are supposed to (but in reality do not)
carry off the surface sullage of the town: so that in numerous instances cess
-pools are formed; which are filled with indescribable filth, giving out most
noisome and noxious vapours. Each privy has a trap-door at the back, from
whence the basket can be (but sometimes is not for days) removed. There is
no provision for catching the urine or preventing it from running out under
the trap-door and soaking into the soil, or finding its way where it will.
12. The number of sweepers retained by the municipality is (20) twenty
—a number manifestly too small to remove the nightsoil of more than 1,4,000
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