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Infantry Lines suffered severely. Large buildings such as the Crawford
Market and Sitaram Buildings appear to have acted as a bar to the diffusion of
infection, there being much less sign of malaria immediately due west of them
than on the Paltan Road side; but, where the wall of high buildings ceased,
infection diffused more deeply into the Esplanade and penetrated as far as the
Cama Hospital, the Gokuldas Tejpal Hospital and St. Xavier's College. Further
south in the Esplanade the lofty buildings of the Victoria Terminus and the
Municipal Offices appear to have checked the diffusion of infection to the
west, but all the residents to the east of these buildings suffered severely.
The guards, porters and sweepers belonging to the G. I. P. Railway were
attacked, and so many of the former were prostrated that at one time during
the height of the epidemic as many as ten of the local trains had to be
cancelled. St. George's Hospital, which is situated so that it overlooks the
new dock-works, became the most malarious place in the City, the members
of the nursing staff were frequently prostrated with malaria, and few of the
patients who entered the hospital escaped contracting the disease. The portion
of the North Fort immediately overlooking the harbour was also seriously
affected, but a careful examination of that area shews that, though malaria
was intense in Frere Road, there was a marked fall in the amount of infection
present, as shewn by the spleen rate, in the area immediately adjoining Mint
Road. This appears to indicate that blocks of high buildings in the North
Fort formed a barrier and checked the diffusion of malarial infection from the
east into that section just as they had evidently done in Chakla.
124. Passing westward from Fere Road into the North Fort, malaria
becomes more intense again, but investigation has shewn that this is due not to
the diffusion of malaria from the east or harbour side, but to the existence of
hundreds of open wells and permanent foci of malarial infection in the Fort itself.
A similar centre of infection, due entirely to local causes, is to be found in
Dhobi Taláo section, an area situated on the west side of the island far away from
the new dock-works. In this case also the local cause of malaria is the presence
of hundreds of open house wells in the section; and the same influence may be
traced in the Market section to the east of this.
125. It is now evident as a result of numerous observations regarding the
distribution of splenic enlargement, malarial infection and local species of
anopheles mosquitoes, that all the factors necessary for the continued existence
and spread of malaria are to be found in many of the older portions of the City,
especially in A. and parts of B. and C. Wards and to a much less extent in D. and
E. Wards. And so long as this condition is allowed to exist, the undertaking of
any large work necessitating excavation and leading possibly to the encampment
for a considerable period of large bodies of coolie labourers on the site of the
work, will undoubtedly be followed by a gradual increase of malaria in the
adjoining areas, unless the strictest precautions are adopted from the outset.
126. There are strong grounds for believing that the absence of outbreaks of
malaria in association with the construction of the Prince's and Victoria Docks
years ago and the more recent work at Sewri and the Port Trust Railway was
due to the fact that:-
(1) No serious centres of malarial infection existed in the vicinity of
these works;
(2) Few permanent breeding places of dangerous species of anopheles
were present in their neighbourhood;
(3) The labourers employed were not encamped, in the case of the
dock-works, on the site of the works.
127. The sequence of events in connection with the epidemic outbreak of
malaria associated with the construction of present new docks appears to have
been as follows:-
(1) The existence of a serious amount of malarial infection among the
residents of North Fort close to the site of the works.