Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-08-05
INDIA'S RECENT PLAGUE.
Natives Have an Aversion to Going
to Hospitals.

Natives Have an Aversion to Going
to Hospitals.
From the London News.
There was a "Blue Book" issued yester-
day containing the official story of the bu
bonic plague in India down to May. This,
of course, does not include the period of
the outrages in Poona and the riots in Cal
cutta; but there is much in the dispatches
that helps us to understand the native
psric. AS to the sanitary precau-
lions enforced, the Bombay government
resisted for some time the attempt of the
Indian government, urged by the home
government to impose too drastic regu-
lations upon tie people. This was the
opinion Of the Bombay administration:
From the beginning of the outbreak of
this disease 1t has been found that the ma
tive inhabitants of the city are very re-
luctant to leave their houses or to allow
any member of their family afflicted with
the disease to be taken away. Indeed,
their dread of the disease itself appears
to be hardly SO powerful as their horror of
being removed from their houses. Igror-
ance and superstition prevent them from
discerning either that removal to hos
pital is good for the sick or removal to
unaffected dwellings good for the healthy,
and they are far more easily moved by
fear of the municipal and police authori-
ties than by any realization of the bene-
fits that will accrue from a sensible course
of action. 1t is estimated that not less
than three hundred thousand persons have
already fed from Bombay, moved SO to
do. not only by fear of the plague but
quite as much. if not more, by an unbound
ed and unreasonable fear of what might
happen to them at the hands of the police
and municipal authorities were they 10
remain.
THE exodus has already necessitated
precautionary measures against arrivals
~
dency; 1t has led to the plague becoming
endemic in Poona and in parts of the
Thana district: it has resulted in over
crowCinS by refugees from Bombay of
many cities and towns. and 1t has made
demands on the number of qualified medi-
cal practitioners available to government
that can with difficulty be met Every
addition to the number Of refugees adds
to the possibility of spreading the disease
and to the difficulty of dealing with it
should 1t break out
The measures taken may not have been
SO stringent as those that would. in a
European city, have gained general sup
port, but they are the most stringent that
1t was possible to undertake without al
most certainly producing calamity more
serious and more widespread than the very
terrible one that has now to be dealt
with
The Indian government however. were
impressed by the necessity of decisive &C
tiOn and replied:
THE government of India having care
fully considered your telegram OPP,
dated 18th. and letter 263-P., dated 18th
regarding the evacuation of plague-infec1-
ed houses. regret that, while giving full
weight to the opinions of the local gov
eminent in regard to the disposition of the
people, they are unable to accept the view
that the considerations adduced in your
letter show that it is impracticable to in
duce people to move from infected houses
to healthy locality This course has been
strongly recommended by the medical ad-
wiser of the Cover nment of India 1t is
only the measure attacking the root of
evil which appears practicable. and ex-
perience in kafachi seems to show that
1t can be so introduced as rot to offend
the prejudices of the people and is cffec-
tual in holding the disease in check"