Sessional_Paper_1904 — Page 245

139

perature this also follows a sudden drop in temperature on April 3rd. A glance at the Humidity Chart for this mouth will also shew that there was a big drop in the relative humidity of the atmosphere at the period. The air was, therefore, cooler, drier and the weather comparatively bright just then. The rise of the Plague curve again from April 13th to 15th follows the depression in the sun- shine curve reaching zero on the 12th, while it will be noticed the humidity has much increased and the temperature generally risen again.

Taking the period from April 19th to May the 26th in which the sunshine was generally little and intermitting with periods of fairly heavy rain, the Plague curve is seen to gradually ascend. As mentioned under Temperature this curve also is gradually rising while the humidity for May is very high. The sudden fall in the humidity curve for the 9th day is not asnwered by the Plague curve.

From May 27th to June 14th it is seen that the Colony enjoyed a great amount of sunshine. Coincident with this the temperature rose and kept cons- tantly above 80° F. in June for 18 days. The air became somewhat drier from the 2nd week in June and for 10 days onwards and the Plague curve suddenly dropped on June 9th and 10th and never rose seriously again.

The weather immediately preceding the drop in Plague was hot, bright, almost free from rain and the air was drier than it had been for a few weeks. In July again although heavy showers sometimes fell there was a considerable amount of sunshine, the temperature kept up a high average (817) the moisture of the air though considerable was less than in May, and it is seen the Plague ceased to assume epidemic proportions.

The coincidences of the rise and fall of the Plague curve with those of the meteorological data may be merely coincidences and in no way point to cause and effect, but the well established fact that Plague has a distinct seasonal curve in the Colony renders it imperative that the meteorological data be taken into consider-

ation.

Pro-

There are of course many other factors which must be considered at the same time. The habits of people naturally change with change of season.

For example. the people wear thicker clothing during the cold weather, and clothing which from its appearance is, amongst the poorer classes brought out year after year. bably clothing padded with cotton wool is never washed and might become infested with vermin. In the cold weather too none sleep out of doors, and windows and doors are shut to keep up warmth, and efficient ventilation of rooms, at all times badly designed for this, is quite impossible.

The Report of the Indian Plague Commission, Appendix III, pp. 479-182, is very interesting as shewing that deficient ventilation has probably a direct effect on the Plague curves, suggesting as it does that the virulence of attenuated Plague bacilli may be raised by being subject to the influence of air containing a large proportion of carbonic acid. It goes without saying that the overcrowded and ill-ventilated houses of this Colony are deleterious to the health of their inmates, the powers of resistance of which to the parasite of Plague may thereby be con- siderably diminished.

In

During the hot weather, should the right be dry, men sleep in the street, in verandahs and on the roofs where a safe place can be found, eg., on flat roofs. this respect the great rise of the Plague and rain curves in May is interesting. Even if no rain were to fall in the night there is no doubt that the fact of the day having been wei would, if the weather were still threatening rain tend to make the people sleep in their crowded rooms rather than risk a sudden downpour outside when asleep. The overcrowding of rooms at night night also tend to raise the Plague curve through the agency of vermin since, besides rats, bugs have been found infected.

PUBLIC LATRINES AND PLAGUE.

With a view to ascertaining whether the caretakers of public latrines were greater sufferers from Plague than others owing to their calling, I made enquiries as to whether frequent changes had been made in the caretakers of the public latrines during the epidemic. The caretakers are not employed by, nor directly paid by the Government even in those latrines owned by the Government. Con- sequently there is no direct control over then by the Board; the conservancy contractor having to supply a caretaker for each Government-owned latring.