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Formation of divisions.
38. The next precautionary measure calling for special notice is the organization introduced
for the carrying out of disinfecting operations. As previously
stated, the entire city, including Gidu and the villages and
encampments on the Fuleli banks, was divided into 12 divisions. The main bazr, running east
and west through the entire length of the city, formed the chief dividing line, and the larger
streets striking off at right angles separated the divisions on either side of it. In this way,
10 divisions were formed. Gidu and the Fuleli quarter constituted special divisions, raising the
total to 12.
Divisional Officers.
39. Each division was the charge of a Divisional Officer, who, being appointed a Plague
authority, directed the operations of the disinfecting staff, super-
vised the conservancy of his charge, gave orders for the segre-
gation of suspected persons, directed the evacuation of insanitary houses or houses liable
to become infected by reason of their proximity to already infected houses, supervised the
destruction of property considered to be infected, and was in short the responsible person entrusted
with the execution of the directions of the Plague Committee. The following gentlemen served
as Divisional Officers either throughout or for periods of various length of the epidemic:-
Major C. H. U. Price, Surgeon-Major Avetoom, Surgeon-Captain Jackson, Captains Tighe and
Fowler, Lieutenants Humphreys, Hart-Dyke, Hext and Hulseberg, Surgeon-Lieutenants Evans
and Milner, Messrs. Knight, Rieu, Bushell, Pringle, Hesketh, Cox, Bayliss, Keefer, Ryan,
Rozare and Meyers, and Diwan Kauromal. Of the above, all the Military officers, together
with Messrs. Knight, Hesketh, Cox and Bayliss, tendered their services voluntarily to the
Municipality. The remainder were either Government servants specially deputed for plague
duty, or persons whose services had been temporarily engaged by the Municipality.
Sub-Divisional Officers.
40. Acting under each Divisional Officer were one or more Sub-Divisional Officers.
The latter were for the most part Municipal Commissioners, or
other Native gentlemen of standing, though a few had been
specially engaged for the occasion and were salaried. Although the Sub-Divisional Officers had
no very definite duties assigned to them, being variously employed according to the diverse
requirements of each division, they were nevertheless very hard worked and of the greatest
service to Divisional Officers. Their local knowledge and the influence which, owing to their
position, they exercised over the public were invaluable. They were the medium through
which Divisional Officers found it convenient to issue their directions to the staff under them,
and to whom they deputed their powers when occasion required. They exercised a thorough
supervision over the disinfecting staff, and made all arrangements for the supply of coolies and
disinfectants. They frequently kept the statistics necessary for the weekly reports of work done
submitted for each division. They were, in short, the Divisional Officers' right-hand men.
Supervisors and European sol-
diers Medical Officers of quarters.
41. In addition to his Sub-Divisional Officers, each Divisional Officer had under his orders
a number, generally three, of Supervisors. The latter were,
almost without exception, drawn from the ranks of the school
masters and other servants in the pay of the Municipality, whose
services had been rendered available by the closure of all the schools and suspension of business
in the city during the prevalence of the epidemic. Their duty was to immediately supervise
the gangs of coolies engaged in disinfecting and cleaning. When they had once acquired a
thorough knowledge of the entire process of disinfecting a house, their services were exceedingly
useful, for they thus set their superior officers free from the ordinary petty routine work, enabling
them to devote their attention to the general administrative work of their charges.
From the middle of April until the complete cessation of plague operations, European
soldiers to the number of about 10 were distributed under certain Divisional Officers and
employed on disinfecting and cleaning duty. Their work was partly manual, partly supervisional.
It was invariably satisfactory.
The division of the city into four quarters, each under a Medical officer, has already been
commented on. It only remains to mention that the officers in question were Surgeon-Lieutenant
Colonel Henderson, Surgeon-Major Avetoom, Surgeon-Captain Jackson, and Surgeon-Captain
Austin.
Process of disinfection of houses
in which cases of plague had
occurred.
41 a. The process of cleaning and disinfecting is described below. Before the plague
broke out in the city, operations were confined to limewashing
the inner walls of the houses, inducing the inhabitants to clear out
their houses and rid them of the accumulated rubbish which they
were generally found to contain, and sprinkling privies and gutters
with disinfectants. Subsequently, when plague cases began to occur, the disinfecting of infected
houses became the chief duty of the staff. The mode of disinfecting varied in some particulars
during the course of the epidemic. In all cases, however, the first step on entering an infected house
was the sprinkling of the floor with a solution of perchloride of mercury or phenyle. All furniture
was then removed, articles capable of disinfection being either boiled for 30 minutes, or washed in a
solution of some disinfectant, or fumigated with sulphur, or merely exposed to light and air, accord-
ing to the discretion of the Plague authority. Articles incapable of disinfection, and in any case the
clothes and bedding of the plague patient, were generally destroyed by fire. The walls and
ceilings were then abundantly sprayed with a solution of perchloride of mercury, hand syringes
and latterly, when they became available, pumps being utilized for the purpose. The walls were
then thoroughly scraped down. This process was subsequently discontinued, being an exceedingly
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