22
81. "When the patient had been removed and the family cleared out,
disinfection was effected by removal of the roof or part of it, by squirting a
solution of carbolic acid (1 in 100) or corrosive sublimate (1 in 1,000) through
garden syringes over the floor and all the interior walls and roof, and finally by
lime-washing walls and floor. At first fumigation with nitric acid and copper
or chlorine was attempted before the roof was removed ; but this was generally
abandoned as practically useless in inexperienced hands, and the first step taker
was to let in as much light and air as possible. After the publication of the
Joint Commissioner's notes in March I issued orders that floors were to be dug
up as described in the notes after saturation with disinfectants, and this was
generally done until May, when the Commissioner objected. There is this, ano
I think only this, to be said in favour of digging up the floors, that if the
plague authorities do not do it, the people are very likely to do it themselves
after their return to the houses in order to replace the white-wash by the usua"
cowdung coat, and if any bacilli had managed to escape the carbolic acid and
the white-wash they might be turned up in this process. But the risk seems
infinitely small inasmuch as the bacillus cannot possibly burrow (being ε
mere cell), and as a matter of fact no evil results have occurred in Kurla or
Bándra, where surface disinfection only was carried out. I believe, therefore
that digging up, which is troublesome, and is generally badly done, may safely
be omitted, if there is a second visitation of the plague.
82. All the clothes and bedding of an infected person were invariably
burnt at his death or recovery, and the clothes of the rest of the family were
either boiled or soaked in a solution of carbolic acid. Families were not
allowed to return to their houses until the following three conditions had beer
complied with, viz. :—
(1) The house had been thoroughly disinfected.
(2) Nine days had elapsed since the members of the family were
exposed to any kind of infection.
(3) All clothes had been disinfected in the presence of a plague
authority.
As a matter of fact when a house was once vacated it was rarely re-occupied
within a fortnight, and families often stayed out for a month or two without
showing any particular wish to return.
83. For greater security all the houses in the immediate neighbourhood
of an infected house were usually treated as suspected, and were disinfected ir
much the same way. In view of the excursions of rats this was highly advis·
able, and it led to the whole or the greater part of each infected place getting
a thorough cleaning up. The masses of dirt which were brought out of the
better class houses were surprising. It seems to be the custom to sweep
everything up into corners and leave it, and the accumulation of these corner!
formed great heaps before the houses when the plague officers had them properly
swept out.
84. The hospital returns submitted to Government by the various officer:
in charge of hospitals, including the Kalyán and Pálghar Railway Hospitals
show 2,775 cases and only 1,068 deaths, or 38.4 per cent., but no reliance
should be placed on these figures as showing the percentage of cures in hospitals
Not only the Railway Hospital figures, but those of some other hospitals, such
as Bassein, show large numbers of merely suspected cases which never turned
into plague at all. The proportion of deaths on cases throughout the district
was 81 per cent., and that of the hospitals generally was probably not much
below this when suspected cases are excluded. The four hospitals which wen
in trustworthy hands show better results :—
Kalyán
...
Kurla
Bándra
Thána
Percentage
of deaths.
51.6
63.8
65
68.4
but I do not feel sure that even here no merely suspected cases were included.