PART II.
THE PERIOD PROM THE CONSTITUTION OF THE FIRST
PLAGUE COMMITTEE TILL THE END OF MAY.
CHAPTER I.
(THE FIVE PLAGUE COMMITTEES.)
SECTION 1,
The Bombay Plague Committee.
1. The points to which the attention of the Chairman of the Committee
was directed by His Excellency the Governor were—
(1) The discovery of all cases.
(2) The treatment of all cases in hospitals.
(3) The gradual segregation, as far as possible, of the probably affected, that
is, of those living in the same room with or in close attendance on
persons found to have the plague.
2. The machinery for the first of these measures was to some extent in
existence already. The subordinate Medical officers employed by the Health
Department had been carrying out house-to-house visitation for the previous
month and a half ; and the Justices of the Peace, whose services had been enlist-
ed by His Excellency the Governor in February, were now placed at the dis-
posal of the Committee. For utilising these resources to the full, and for the
general sanitary supervision of the city, the Committee mapped out the whole
island into ten districts. The unit thus created was placed under the manage-
ment of a District Medical Officer, and with much difficulty the services of suf-
ficient Commissioned Medical Officers were obtained to provide for eight of the ten
districts. Two of the districts were put in charge of private practitioners who
had been previously engaged by the Municipal Commissioner. To each District
Medical Officer a certain number of Justices of the Peace was allotted for house-
to-house visitation, and to these again the District Medical Officer allotted a certain
division containing a number of streets. A few military sepoys were told off to
accompany them and prevent the chance of any disturbance. Sub-divisional
medical officers, in most cases Native practitioners, were placed under the orders
of the District Medical Officers, to assist in the search for cases and to accompany
the Justices where possible.
3. On the discovery of a case the Justice posted a sepoy at the door to
prevent the relations of the patient carrying him away, and the Medical Officer
was sent for, if there was room for doubt, to diagnose the case. Ambulances
were provided for the conveyance of the patients. The presence and assist-
ance of these Justices, many of them prominent men in their communities,
was of the greatest value to the Committee. Their intimate knowledge of
the habits of the people, and of their prejudices, enabled them to discover
the sufferers, and at the same time convinced people that nothing needlessly
offensive to their feelings or religious prejudices was intended. The people
soon showed their appreciation of the efforts made to conciliate their feelings by
the diminished reluctance with which they allowed their sick to be removed. As
soon as caste hospitals were ready, many communities removed their own sick of
their own accord, the co-operation of certain leading men having been secured.
The District Medical Officers themselves were also continually searching for
cases personally, and supervising and directing the work of their subordinates and
their Justices. In all cases of plague brought to the notice of the Committee
by house-to-house visitation or otherwise, the patient was removed to hospital
in an ambulance. The room in which the patient resided was vacated and
thoroughly disinfected and only allowed to be re-inhabited after it had been
kept empty for 15 days.
4. The second point to which His Excellency the Governor had directed the
attention of the Chairman of the Committee was the treatment of all cases in
B 1135—22—