45
Mr. Brown, as Plague Superintendents, the clerics and munshis deputed from the different offices
as supervisors, and such number of police, coolies and masons as seemed necessary for each
charge.
t( 53. At the same meeting it was decided to obtain for the Plague Superintendents the same
powers as were granted to the Municipal Engineer and Secretary, and rules were drawn up for
their guidance.
" 54. With the initiation of this important measure the mouth of January ended, the num-
ber of cases and deaths having reached a total of 871 and 802 respectively, the largest number
of c:ises on any one day having been 43, while the disease had established itself in the Napier
and Market quarters, and following its eastern course had commenced its attack on the suburban
area, comprising the Garden, Serai, Ja : l, Rambagh and Runchore quarters."
3. With reference to the imported disease at' the beginning of January
that compulsory segregation of the sick should not be adopted the following
remarks are quoted from the report of the Commissioner in Sincl :
A meeting was convened at Government House on the afternoon of the 4th, at which
the Collector, the Medical officers named and the Municipal executive, including Mr.
Tahilram, the President, and Mr, Strachau, the Engineer and Secretary, were present.
The Acting Commissioner had consulted these officers. The Collector considered that
Section 73 of the District Municipal Act was inadequate to deal with the disease and there
was no provision of law to render compulsory notification of Plague legal. The
Honourable Mr. James, in a letter of 30th November 1836, had expressed a similar
opinion that, under Section 73, compulsory segregation of the sick would be unauthorized.
The Principal Medical Officer, the Collector of Karachi and the President of the Munici-
pality, as also Mr. Strachan and Dr. Kaka, were of opinion that no segregation of sick was
possible without compulsion, and that in the present state of the public mind compul-
sion would not be the best way of meeting the epidemic. In fact, it would be the
worst possible means to adopt. As a scientific method, the Civil Surgeon and the
Deputy Sanitary Commissioner advocated segregation, but considered compulsion neces-
sary, and that it would be met by opposition,
The Acting Commissioner reviewed the position with great care, chiefly in view of
the fact that there were, according to the last census, over 51,000 Muharnrnadans to
some 42,000 Hindus, that the former had probably still further increased the disparity
of numbers in the interval, and that it was practically a Hindu Municipality who would
have the task of enforcing rules in the teeth of the Muhammadan majority, a majority
composed largely of a fanatical congeries of tribes and nations, not one of whom had
listened to thè proposal for caste hospitals, nor was there a Muhammadan hospital in
existence. Asked how the Municipality proposed to carry out their rules, the reply
was "The Police/' And the Acting Commissioner silently resolved that, if the Muni-
cipality were to pass rules hateful to both Hindu and Muhammadan, at once retire to
the background, and leave the Police to fight with the people, he would prefer the
rules should be his own, the personality his own, and before attempting to drive a crowd
of terrified and panic-stricken people, he would be quite sure he could treat the sick
when they were segregated. He had seen the effect in cholera and famine of crowding
numbers without carefully prepared arrangement, and determined to meet Hindu with
Hindu and Muhammadan with Muhammadan, and, if possible, to win the confidence of
both before resorting to compulsion.
On the 4th January, immediately after the Meeting, the Collector was informed that
the Acting Commissioner was unable to sanction the compulsory removal clause as it
stood. The clause, read with the directions, left a door of escape for the rich and none
for the poor, and these would ignorantly and fanatically resist compulsion. Government
were informed that the fear of this impending compulsory seizure of the sick had already
produced something like panic : medical aid was being rejected, sickness was concealed,
•and the population hostile. Surgeon-Colonel Bainbridge had concurred that it would
be unadvisable to resort to compulsion. Tbe segregation must be effectual, or it must be
abandoned as impracticable. The Municipal President and the Engineer and Secretary
had warned that a reign of terror would certainly follow resort to force, and better results
were to be expected from conciliation. It carne to this—either sick people must be
dragged from their homes by force and opposition be met by force, or else this terror
of compulsory removal must be allayed aud sympathy and conciliation take its place.
The success of segregation depended upon the population being more or less consenting,
not opposed, to the remedy. The Muhammadans, for example, would not even set
a house apart. A Muhammadan Medical officer would greatly strengthen the Muni-
cipality, aud an effort would be made to render the hospitals, if possible, popular.
A valuable suggestion from Surgeon-Lieutenant-Colonel Clarkson was placed before
the Meeting, and accepted by the Municipality, that the town should be divided into dis-
tricts and a Medical officer be appointed to each, to see every case of suspected Plague
before removal, and an Inspector, whose duty it would be to find out the cases. The
Municipality immediately appointed Inspectors, and these men proved most useful in
securing correct and early information.
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