DURBHANGA JAIL (1896) 



197 



4. Assam-Burmah Railway. 



For a good instance of lives saved even during 

 an outbreak, take the Assam - Burmah Railway 

 coolies : — 



" Three hundred and fifty # Khassia Hill coolies 

 had been collected for the survey party of the 

 Assam-Burmah Railway, and put under the escort 

 of a detachment of Goorkhas, when cholera broke 

 out amongst them. The largest part of the coolies 

 immediately submitted to the preventive inocula- 

 tion, the rest remained uninoculated. The result 

 was that among the not-inoculated minority there 

 were 34 cases, with 30 deaths ; whereas the inocu- 

 lated had 4 fatal cases" (Haffkine, 1895, Lecture 

 in London.) 



5. Durbhanga Jail (1896). 



The figures in this instance are small : but 

 Surgeon-Captain E. Harold Brown's report is very 

 pleasant reading. Cholera broke out in the jail 

 on 31st March 1896, and by 9th April there had 

 been 8 cases. Next day, 172 prisoners were moved 

 into camp 12 miles away ; and 53 were left behind, 

 the sick in the jail hospital, the patients in the 

 cholera huts, with their attendants, the old and 

 infirm, and a few cooks and sweepers. That day, 

 3 cases occurred in the camp, and 1 in the jail ; and 

 on the nth, at 2 and 4 a.m. 2 more cases were 



* The exact number is 355, of whom 196 were inoculated ; 

 the coolies numbered 343, and the Goorkhas 12. (See Dr 

 Simpson's 1896 Report.) 



