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Meeting at 7 a.m. each morning at the nearest Sub-Divisional
Office, each Justice was supplied with the following staff :-
1 Sub-Inspector belonging to the disinfecting staff.
3 Military Sepoys.
2 Police Sepoys.
1 Locksmith.
1 Ambulance and Ambulance Sepoys.
The Justice after signing the book to notify his presence, pro-
ceeded to the locality selected for the morning's visitation.
If possible, he was accompanied by the Sub-Divisional Medical
Officer of the District and, when the quarter was Mahomedan, by a Lady
Doctor.
The houses in each street were systematically searched down one
side and up the other ; no exceptions were made, all alike being subjected
to the same rigid inspection.
On arriving at a house, sepoys were stationed at all the entrances
to prevent persons leaving before the inspection was completed ; the
search party then entered the building.
Each room, landing, passage, loft, every nook and corner was
thoroughly investigated ; owing to the exodus that had taken place from
the City, a large number of rooms, dwelling-houses, shops and ware-
houses were found locked up, the owners having fled and left their
property behind them. None of these places were overlooked. All
were opened and examined in the presence of a Police Sepoy, who saw
that no unnecessary damage was done to property and that the premises
were securely fastened after the search had been completed.
A considerable amount of ingenuity was exercised in the conceal-
ment of cases. Patients have been found hidden under bedding and
under bundles of clothing, and friends have even gone so far as to lock
their sick up in large wooden chests when the search-parties were
expected, in the hope that they might thus elude their vigilance. A
favourite device was for the patient to assume an air of great activity ;
he would be found so busily engaged in his work that he had not time
even to answer questions put to him. In the case of women, the sick
were frequently come upon grinding corn and singing energetically, but
the tell-tale, anxious, haggard face, and the suffused eyes would arouse
suspicion, and upon examination the diagnosis was often confirmed by
high temperature and enlarged glands.
On one occasion a Justice entering the house of a dhobi was
told there were no sick on the premises ; this apparently was the case,
the only people present being busily engaged in ironing clothes, and the