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XXII. The epidemiological observations made by the Commission in Bombay City

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 May 2009

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One of the first duties which the present Commission had to undertake was to decide where the epidemiological observations which were necessary to be made should be carried out. After various parts had been visited, it was decided that the headquarters of the Commission should be in Bombay, and that Bombay City and Island should, in the first instance at least, be put under observation for epidemiological purposes.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Hygiene , Volume 7 , Issue 6: Extra “Plague Number” , December 1907 , pp. 724 - 798
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1907

References

page 726 note 1 The statistical information which we propose to give has been obtained from the Census Report of Bombay for 1906, issued by the Municipal Commissioner, and from Parts V. and VI., Vol. xi. of the report of the Census of India for 1901. These parts were compiled and written by Mr S. M. Edwardes, I.C.S. for Bombay city.

page 729 note 1 “Some idea can be formed of the cosmopolitan character of our city and island by observing that 62 different languages or dialects are spoken within its limits.” Edwardes' Census Report, Bombay, p. 39.

page 729 note 2 A Hospital Assistant is a man who has undergone a three years' medical training in a Government Medical College.

page 743 note 1 “It is doubtful whether this (genus Nesokia) should rank as more than a snbgenus of Mus.” The Fauna of British India: Mammalia. Blanford, W. T. F.R.S., London, 1888–1891 p. 422.Google Scholar

page 745 note 1 Probably Nesokia bengalensis.

page 752 note 1 These charts have been drawn up in the following way. In that for Bombay City the data for most of the sections in the island have been collated. The data of certain sections in the north of the island have been omitted on account of a defective rat collection due to the large area and sparse population of these sections. The weekly figures of plagueinfected rats of each species for the remaining sections were corrected for a week of seven days, in order to eliminate variations due to differences in the number of days per week the rat investigation was carried out. The corrected figures for the selected sections for weekly periods having been added together a mean of the resulting figures for the year was taken, and each of the weekly figures was then expressed as a percentage in terms of the mean of the year. The chart was constructed from these percentages. The charts for the sections differ from that of the City only in that the periods are fortnightly instead of weekly. The crude figures actually obtained are shown in Table XXIV. p. 796. There is very little difference between these and the corrected data.

page 754 note 1 Monthly spot maps showing the place incidence of decumanus, rattus and human plague were prepared for all the sections of Bombay City. One set (that of Fort North and South, see Map I.) are reproduced in Appendix I.

page 758 note 1 Gunny bags are used chiefly for grain; the empty bags are stored in these godowns.

page 760 note 1 The curves for the epizootics may for practical purposes be said to be calculated on dead rats since the numbers of live rats found infected formed a very small proportion of the total infected rats. The experimental result may therefore with fairness be compared with the time as shown in the Chart. Further, in the experiments the fleas were always fed on a rat which had a large number of bacilli in the blood and a considerable number were used in each experiment. Both these factors would tend to shorten the interval between the death of the rats, in comparison to what occurs in nature.

page 765 note 1 These observations will be published in a later volume.

page 794 note 1 The crude figures shown in Table XXIV were used, except that short weeks were corrected to six days.

page 795 note 1 The non-statistician is reminded that γ must lie between 0 and ±1, ±1 marking (under “normal” conditions) a complete causal relationship.

A negative value simply means that as one variable increases the other decreases, while they both increase together if γ is positive.

Any value of γ greater than 75 is very large.