CHAP. IV.]	Previous history of plague in India.	89
of which the improvident and pennyless mass of the people depend
to-day for subsistence to-morrow. Nothing, in short, appears to me more
calculated than an efficient cordon to assist famine, disease, and with
the concomitance of an impure atmosphere, the very infectious or conta-
gious fever which it is intended to eradicate. The combined coercion,
restraint and oppression subversive of the functions of society, which
the system of quarantine involves, are inferior only to the horrors of
plague when it actually prevails." Dr. Ranken attributed the
comparative immunity of Merwara and the escape of the civil and
military stations in British territory to their superior sanitary con-
dition rather than to quarantine and preventive lines.
Breach of the
Merwara
cordon.
The Merwara cordon did not prevent the infection from invading 
the hill tract. It was broken on the western line, and a village in Mer-
wara (Dewair) was attacked by the malady, which did not, however,
spread to other parts of the district. In the neighbourhood of Dewair
there was a much frequented pass, connecting Marwar and Mewar
territory. It was discovered that certain people of the Dewair district,
who gained their subsistence by acting as guides to travellers cross-
ing the Merwara hills, were (after Captain Dixon had closed the
main road) in the habit of conducting travellers into and through the
Merwara districts by bye-paths and during the night when discovery
was difficult or impossible.
Dr. Ranken's
advocacy of
sanitary reform.
Advice with
regard. to
Calcutta.
The measure in which Dr. Ranken had the greatest confidence
was sanitary improvement, both in the condition of towns and
villages and in the condition of the people themselves. "The most
comprehensive injunction that can perhaps be given on this subject,"
he states, "of paramount importance to public health, is to pre-
vent the contamination and promote the circulation of the at-
mosphere, and to let no water stagnate on the surface of the
ground * * *. If earnestly acted on, a great change for the
better must soon appear. It is very possible for an active magistrate
to get the streets cleaned of rubbish, dung-hills and other filth;
dead walls, fences, jungle and planted trees removed from the areas
and outskirts of the place; and to make the inhabitants drain or
fill up puddles. The benefit derivable from such obvious and practi-
cable means would far exceed the expectation of those to whom the
subject is new." In especial he earnestly advised the Government
"to begin the amelioration of the country by making Calcutta, the
capital, a model by which other stations may be improved in a
manner which shall render them less sickly at all times, and compara-
tively safe from the occasional irruption of diseases resembling
plague."
12