?4
Surgeons on October 2nd and four Hospital Assistants on October 6th). Two
more Assistant Surgeons were also supplied on October 22nd. The President
of the Municipal Corporation in a letter dated October 10th acknowledged with
thanks the promptness with which the request of the Municipal Commissioner
for more medical men had been complied with.
11. The second suggestion of the Surgeon-General, viz., that Suburban Mu-
nicipalities should be warned and furnished with the means of detecting the plague
in the event of its spreading to their towns, was dealt with in a letter dated Octo-
ber 1st from the Secretary to Government, General Department, in which an
extract from the letter of the Surgeon-General on this point was communicated
to the Collector of the Thána District. Copies of this letter were at once sent by
the Collector to the Presidents of the Municipalities concerned for the necessary
action. Instructions for the diagnosis of plague were subsequently issued.
12. The third proposal of the Surgeon-General-viz., the isolation of the
sick-was dealt with by the proclamation of the Municipal Commissioner, which
will be referred to in detail in paragraphs 17 and 18 of this section.
13. The fourth proposal of the Surgeon-General, viz., that the filth removed
from the drains should be removed at once, was dealt with by the Drainage
Department of the Municipality.
14. In his letter of October 1st the Surgeon-General had expressed his
regret that the proposals for the appointment of a bacteriologist and a scientific
committee had been rejected. The Municipal Commissioner also thought that
the appointment of such a committee would be desirable. Government there-
fore determined to appoint a Committee for the purpose of " Inquiring into the
nature and history of the disease, stated to be bubonic plague, of which a num-
ber of cases have occurred in Bombay City." The services of Prof. Haffkine
and Mr. Hankin were lent by the Government of India and the Government of
the North-West Provinces respectively, and the Surgeon-General was asked on
the 9th to appoint a Pathologist and a Physician to serve on the Committee com-
prising these experts. Dr. Surveyor, who had been the first medical man to
identify the plague microbe in Bombay, was also nominated by Government.
The nominees of the Surgeon-General were Doctors Manser and Childe. The Port
Trust, the Bombay Municipality, and the Chamber of Commerce were asked to
help the Committee.
15. The Sanitary Commissioner reported on October 3rd that the Municipal
Commissioner had divided up the Mandvi Ward, where the plague had broken
out, into three sections, each in charge of a medical man. He had received two
Assistant Surgeons from Government on the previous day. Their duties were
to visit and treat every case that they heard of.
16. On October 6th the Sanitary Commissioner reported that he had
visited the Arthur Road Hospital, and found some cases under treatment there.
There was, he said, plenty of room there, and unless the disease increased very
much there was no need to take any steps as regards a hospital ship. No
danger was to be apprehended from the detritus taken from the drains (referred
to by the Surgeon-General). He concluded his report as follows:
" Finally, I have to report that the energy and zeal displayed by the Health Depart-
ment and other executive officers of the Bombay Municipality have, in my opinion, been very
successful in dealing with the outbreak. It has by no means stopped, and cases have occurred
outside the Mandvi Ward, but on the whole the outbreak has been confined to one quarter,
and the number of attacks and deaths has not increased-rather the other way,-and this is,
I consider, a satisfactory result."
17. As already mentioned the Special Committee at their meeting on
September 30th recommended to Government that the Municipal Commissioner
should apply for the powers necessary to carry out the suggestions of the
Surgeon-General. His Excellency the Governor had already telegraphed to
the Municipal Commissioner on the 29th September promising the sanction of
Government to any measures which might be needed. The Municipal Com-
missioner forwarded a draft on October 2nd of a Notification under section 434
of the Bombay City Municipal Act. The wording of certain parts of the draft
seemed to need some slight alterations, and it was therefore returned to him to