54
APPENDIX C.
Vide para. 15, Section 1, Chapter 2.
We, the undersigned medical officers and members of the Special Research Committee, are
of opinion that the bubonic plague now prevailing in the city is under certain conditions only
slightly contagious or infectious, and the facts observed in connection with individual cases and
those associated with the general progress of the disease, warrant us in concluding that its inci-
dence is greatly due to local conditions. We are emphatically of opinion that the only practical
method of dealing with the outbreak, and of arresting the progress of the disease, is by the
removal of the inmates from those houses in which a case of the disease occurs. We quite
appreciate the practical difficulties attending the adoption of this proposal ; but in such an emer-
gency as the present these difficulties can and must be overcome. The Municipal Corporation
will no' doubt provide suitable huts, free of rent, for the accommodation of the different classes,
and we understand that the Mill Companies and other employers of labour are prepared to erect
huts for their different employes. The experience gained in the melas at Allahabad and Kurd-
wr will be available as to the construction and arrangement of the huts.
There will thus be no difficulty experienced in providing sufficient and suitable accommoda-
tion for the evicted, and it requires only the concurrence and sympathy of the leaders of the
different sections of the native community to render the scheme a success. If houses in healthy
localities are available for occupation, there is no reason why they should not be utilized. The
steps leading up to removal would be the report to the Health Officer of a case by a duly quali-
fied medical officer. The Health Officer would then notify the occurrence to the municipal
authorities and would at the same time submit his recommendations for the removal of the in-
mates in the particular home and, if he considered it necessary, of those also in the immediate
neighbourhood. The municipal authorities would then take the necessary action and indicate
the huts available. Carts, if necessary, should be provided, free of cost, for the removal of the
goods and chattels of the inmates.
The person attacked would either be removed to hospital or remain in the house' with his
or her relatives until recovery or death took place. The houses would then be completely vacated
and taken possession of by the Health Officer for purposes of cleaning and disinfection, and he
should be invested with full powers, in consultation with the Executive Engineer, for removing
all partitions, erections or portions of house walls which impede or obstruct ventilation. After
an interval to be determined by the Health Officer the house would be reoccupied.
There can be no question as to the necessity for the adoption of the measure we now
advocate, and we trust that in the interests not only of Bombay but also in those of the
whole of India it will be at once accepted and acted upon-more especially as the untiring
energy displayed in the thorough and systematic cleaning and disinfection of the affected
parts of the city has yet failed to arrest the progress of the disease.
(Signed) K. N. BAHADURJI.
( " ) JAMES ARNOTT.
( " ) TEMULJI BHICAJI NAKEMAN.
( " ) ISMAIL JAN MAHOMED.
( " ) BHALCHANDRA KRISHNA.
( " ) ?. ?. ??????.
( " ) L. F. CHILDE.
( " ) ACCACIO G. VIEGAS.
( " ) N. F. SURVEYOR.
( " ) THOMAS BLANEY.
( " ) HENRY COOK, M.D.,
Surgeon-Major General.
( " ) JAMES CLEGHORN, D.G., I. M. S.
( " ) T. S. WEIR.
( " ) SYDNEY SMITH.
I am of the opinion that, as there are facts showing that the plague is spread by
people coming from infected localities, the measures compelling the inhabitants to leave
those localities ought to be accompanied by others calculated to control their further
movements.
(Signed) W. M. HAFFKINE.