February, 1917.1 Annual Address. xxv 



eighteen years' experience. This may briefly be summarised 

 by saying that the dread disease had been completely stamped 

 out of ten coolies' lines, in one of which three-fifths of the 

 whole population previously had the disease in their house- 

 holds, while the new lines had subsequently remained free from 

 the disease in every case, namely for from 12 to 18 years in 

 five of them and for shorter periods in the others, no recur- 

 rence having ever taken place ay here Dr. Price had been able 

 to get his orders carried out by the garden managers to prevent 

 any infected person being allowed to go to live in the new- 

 lines. That this success was not due to the decline of the disease 

 in the Nowgong district was clear from the fact that on two 

 gardens where he could not get the managers to adopt my 

 measures the disease was still present at the time of my 1913 

 visit, having persisted on them for twenty years. I am glad 

 to say that as a result of the publication of our results within 

 the last two years the disease has been completely removed 

 from these two plague spots, and recently Dr. Price was unable 

 to obtain a single case in which to try a new treatment 1 had 

 suggested to him When it is stated that the population of 

 the neAv kala-azar free lines in 1913 amounted to 6,727 souls. 

 and that the deaths from kala-azar alone in the old lines before 

 removal had amounted to 1 .393 or no less than 207 per mille, 

 over one-fifth, that the loss would have continued indefinitely, 

 as shoAvn by the fact that the disease remained present for 

 twentv years on two gardens Avhere the plans Avere not adopted, 

 and that coolies cost about Rs. 200 a head to recruit by the 

 time the\ reach Assam, the saving to the tea industry in this 

 one district alone must haA-e amounted to lakhs of rupees. 

 I am glad to be able to say that the industry has shown its 

 gratitude in a very practical way by promising Rs. 20,000 a 

 year for five years for investigations in connection with the 

 School of Tropical Medicine. 



The more difficult question remained as to whether any- 

 thing could be done to check the spread of the disease up the 

 Brahmaputra Valley. On turning once more to the map you 

 will see that the Nowgong district is bounded on the east bi 

 the sparsely populated Mikir Hills with no roads through them, 

 and the only traffic eastward is along the narroAV strip between 

 these hills and the Brahmaputra River, which also has com- 

 paratively feAV inhabitants. I found it to be free from kala- 

 azar in 1897, so recommended that steps should be taken to 

 stop infected people from passing up into the Oolaghat sub- 

 division of the Sibsagar district, and that if any villages became 

 infected in Golaghat the segregation measures should at once 

 be carried out, and the healthy people moved to a new site. 

 This was actually done later with succe 98, and as the epidemic 

 has abated in Nowgong although sporadic eases remain, there 

 is good reason to hope that the main danger has been averted. 



