24
a tap on full bore to clean their clothes, their bodies, or even their legs and
faces, but they habitually avoid the trouble of turning off the taps after they
have finished their ablutions." The system of putting up meters has_ been
repeatedly urged on the Corporation, without success, and accordingly in the
plague period the only remedy was to cut off the supply. In pursuance of this
policy, in December, the water was cut off from all houses in Kiimatipura,
standpipes being erected in the street for the use of the people.
14. In the course of a communication on the subject of plague in the
period to which the present chapter relates the Commissioner of Police, Mr. H.
H. Vincent, C.I.E., writes as follows :
"I had during these days, I speak of the early part of January, several communications
from the Municipal Commissioner and'the Health Officer asking me to use my best
endeavours to keep the menial servants of the Health Department; together, and while
my chief subordinates were constantly engaged to effect this. I had the headmen of
these people up before me on more than one occasion and we fortunately succeeded in pre-
venting strikes among the municipal employes, &c. Again, the butchers in the municipal
slaughter-houses in B.indra and the meat-van drivers began to show signs of unrest,
while domestic servants of Europeans and of natives of position fied in ever-increasing
numbers, leaving numerous households without cooks, hamals and ayahs Office peons
likewise left their employment often without asking for their wages, and lastly the mill-
hands left in thousands, compelling the owners either to close their mills or to keep them
going with a very small number of men. It can easily be imagined how difficult was the.
task under these circumstances to keep the police and the employes of the Municipality in
handj and this was certainly not the work of an hour or a day. For weeks and well into
February there was not a day on which I could with certainty reckon th.at the following one
would not leave the city practically without a halalkhor service."
SECTION 3.
New Measures for Railway Inspection in the Presidency proper.
In the month of January it became clear that the existing staff of Medical
Inspectors employed at the stations in the Island of Bombay was incapable of
effectually dealing with the increased number of departures. Plague had by
this time spread all over the island, and as there were twenty railway stations at
which passengers could enter the trains, the expedient of inspecting them at a
few stations only was clearly useless.
2. The matter was carefully considered by Government in consultation
with the Surgeon-General with the Government of Bombay and the Consulting
Engineer for Railways. There were two alternatives. One was to remove all
passengers from the trains at one or two large stations outside the Island of Bom-
bay and employ a large staff to examine them on the platforms. The other was
to block the causeways leading from Bombay Island to Sàlsette, and to employ a
small staff at each of the railway stations in Bombay to examine passengers as
they came into the stations. The former plan, assuming that Kalyàn was
selected as an inspecting station on the G. I. P. Railway, involved an absence of
interference with persons suffering from the plague when travelling by railway
within 30 miles of Bombay and also involved a long detention of trains, and
the turning out of passengers at night, at which time five of the ten through
down trains passed Kalyan Junction. On the other hand the plan of blocking
the causeways and examining all passengers before they entered any of the
stations in Bombay involved the employment of an additional staff of some
40 medical subordinates. The Surgeon-General with the Government of
Bombay having pointed out certain ways of obtaining the requisite staff, Govern-
ment resolved on giving a trial to the latter plan. Pending the arrival of
the necessary staff the best arrangements possible were to be made with
the existing staff : and, at the Municipal Commissioner's request and on the
advice of the Surgeon-General with the Government of Bombay, the management
of the inspection was removed from the control of the Municipality and placed
in charge of Surgeon-Major A, W. Street, D.S.O. The difficulties in the way
of promptly obtaining the requisite staff, however, being found insurmountable,
a scheme for leaving local traffic unchecked, and preventing passengers for