CARRIAGE OF DISEASE 153 



direction was done by Surgeon Major R. Macrae 

 (1894), the civil surgeon of Gaya, India, at the time 

 of an outbreak of cholera in the jail at that place. He 

 had in the case of the jail at Gaya a definite structure 

 composed of eight yards, and thus his observations were 

 condensed, and his medical authority enabled him to 

 control the situation to a sufficient extent to prove his 

 conclusions to his satisfaction and practically to that 

 of every one else. With much detail he gives a map 

 of the jail enclosures and a description of them, to- 

 gether with an account of the distribution of the pris- 

 oners. The cholera outbreak was under his charge and 

 thorough examinations were made of all of the possible 

 means of spread. The water supply was shown to be 

 above suspicion. The milk was of excellent quality and 

 the food as well. A high wall separated the male de- 

 partment from that of the females and cut off the fly 

 infection; no cases of cholera occurring in the female 

 side. As Macrae states : "It was observed before the 

 epidemic occurred that the jail was infested with a 

 plague of flies; disinfectants of various kinds were 

 used, but they could not be got rid of. The moist, 

 steaming weather appeared to favor their development. 

 They were present in swarms when the disease broke 

 out, and it was an observation of daily occurrence to 

 see them settling on cholera stools wherever possible. 

 The rest can be imagined! As soon as feeding time 

 arrived and the food was distributed in the usual way 

 on open iron plates on the feeding platforms, there was 

 at once a crowding of flies towards the platforms, and 



