The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-02-13

You have only to complete the drain
age system according to the original
plans and Bombay will have the best
drained city in the world"
Considering that Bombay City passed
to the British crown when the Infanta
Catherine was married to Charles H.,
and that in 1857 it was the brightest
star of the East India companys pos
sessions; taking into account also the
trivial fact that it has been under
English municipal rule since the death
of the East India company, and the
establishment of English governors
under a governor general about 1857;
taking these minor facts into account
it seems as if the Bombay perfect
drainage" system might have been fin
ished before the end of 800 years Of
! possession.
DIFFICULTIES OF SANITATION.
But it is true that the difficulties in
the way-not only of establishing sew
erage, but of having it used-are
enormous and almost insuperable. We
do not realize at all the deeply rooted
caste system which makes the gentle,
| servile Hindu a very demon of OBJ
| stinacy when it comes to adopting
| habits not prescribed in his ritual.
| water tap, Il vase pipe, system of
| plumbing, a disregard of natures pro-
| visions, the filtering of water or cleans
| ing it for bathing purposes-all these
are directly contrary to tradition, us
| age and "dustur" (custom). which
ought to be represented as one of the
| ineXorable gods of India, with four
| legs and four arms. 1t is one of the
worst of tyrants, and its DEGREES are
! fixed.
1t is this savsh adherence to Gus
! tom that makes sanitary systems so
hard to introduce. The enaradicable
| habits of orientals are directly opposed
to drains. filters and plumbing of any
sort The earth is given as a deposit
tory for refuse; why circumvent her
uses?
Another obstacle is the fatalistic ele-
ment of oriental religions. The Hindu
is firm believer in the inevitable af-
ter death and the inevitable in life
| He holds life cheaply, as do the Mo-
/ hammedans, for that matter
If a man is to die he is to die You
| cannot make him take extraordinary
| precautions to preserve what may not
be precious to him, what he does not
| consider himself TO own, and what he
is convinced he is to lose anyway, We
who live in a sO-Called christian"
country. where hardly one in a mil
lion of those who believe in a joyful
resurrection and happy home beyond
the stars does not cling to miserable
! existence here on earth rather than
go to his reward-We cannot under
stand the naturally imbibed belief of
both Hindu and Mohammedan to the
effect that the future is as clear as the
present, and that death is a mere
translation to a more glorious sphere.
VEGETARIANS SUFFERS FROM
FAMINE.
The grain eaters, that is to say,
vegetarans of India are the first suf-
ferers from famine; and weak as they
are naturally from generations of the
vegetable-fed, they soon become eX-
hausted when the supply of grain is
diminished. They will nearly starve
before they eat the cattle, which are
helping to diminish their supply.
Dr. Camille notices the great mortal
ity of rats as among the preliminaries
of plague epidemic. The present
plague, by the by, in Bombay, he Ven
lures to name "malgnant polyadeni-
tis," and considers the title "bubonic
fever" inaccurate. This plague he de-
fines as IAN acute febrile disease of an
intensely fatal nature characterized
/ by inflammation of the lymphatit
glands, marked cerebral and vesicu-
lar disturbances, and by the presence
of a specific bacillus" The rat seems
to be infected, DR.. Camille says, before
the human being, and the fact of dead
rats beig found about the house during
the plague epidemic is a true warning
, that the inmates of the house will il
all probability be affected And in sup
= port of the theory that plague is soil
bred, a miasmatic disease, he brings
| forward the fact that rats are ivaria-
bly, affected. The most ignorant ma
= tves will vacate their villages when {
, rat mortality has become distinctly no
: ! ticeable, and in some districts the dis