276 Measures outside the Bombay Presidency. [ CHAP. IX.
air for eight hours, being carefully turned over at intervals and then
locked up in a specially disinfected room for ten days before being
used for food; small quantities of such materials were destroyed; and
sacks, baskets, or other receptacles either disinfected or destroyed,
The inhabitants of such houses were induced to vacate them for ten
days. A reward of two annas per head was at the same time author-
ised for every rat, living or dead, brought in from Kankhal.
Last case.
Removal of staff
and gradual
relaxation of
precautions.
" By the end of June the whole union of Hardwar had been
thoroughly cleansed and disinfected. After the 8th June 1897 (case
No. 18) no case of plague was reported from Hardwar, and it
became evident that the measures taken had been so successful in
stamping out the disease that a relaxation of the precautions was
permissible. Accordingly between the 5th and 12th July all the
commissioned medical officers (with the exception of the Deputy
Sanitary Commissioner, who was directed to remain for a further
fortnight) and Mr. Hankin were recalled from Hardwar, an Assistant
Surgeon being posted temporarily to the charge of each of the three
towns included in the Hardwar Union Municipality; at the same
time the conservancy staff was reduced by one-half. The rules in
force at Hardwar for the prevention of the spread of the disease
were cancelled with effect from the 12th July 1897, with the excep-
tion of rule II, which provided for the location in camp, and medical
inspection, of pilgrims coming from infected areas. The inhabitants
of all evacuated houses were then permitted to return to them after
the houses had been again thoroughly disinfected: the arrangements
for the medical inspection of passengers by rail remained in force,
but those for the patrol of roads were abolished.
"Before the Deputy Sanitary Commissioner is withdrawn from
Hardwar a careful examination of the whole union will again be
made. No date has yet been fixed for the withdrawal of the Assist-
ant Surgeon or the abolition of the reduced special sanitary estab-
lishment."
KANKHAL.
Danger of spread
to Kankhal
recognised
throughout.
Disappearance
of plague
amongst rats
at Kankhal.
"The danger of the disease spreading from Hardwar to Kankhal,
a town of some 6,000 inhabitants, situated on the right bank of the
Ganges and only one mile distant from Hardwar, had never been
absent from the minds of the authorities; but during the outbreak of
April to June only one case of true plague had occurred in Kankhal,
although there were reasons to suspect that rats had largely died in
that town. The house in which the case occurred was disinfected
at the time and other precautionary measures adopted. These seemed
to have been successful; for the disease completely disappeared