ANCHYLOSTOMA DUODENALIS

ON

TEA

GARDENS.

To the Editor, "Indian Medical Gazette." Dear Sib,?I desire in the following article to protest against certain statements in Dr. Giles's recent works on Auchylostomiasis in Assam, as they are unjust to a very large portion of tea estates here, and utterly so, so far as all the larger companies are concerned.

I believe that the wrong impression he derived was due to the fact of his not having visited any of the large gardens in the Seebsaugor district, his experience being wholly derived from two gardens close to the Seebsaugor station, and about the very worst in the country for leading to a fair conclusion. In his advocacy of change as against raised batecs for cooly houses at p. 147, he says:?"In the letter cases the cooly builds a small lean-to shed against his hut, but every one knows the filthy state in which natives keep their cattle sheds, &c., Sec." At p. 146, "I found small garden convenient compounds attached to the huts hiding places for rubbish and filth of all sorts Scarcely any of these patches showed signs of cultivation." At p. 147, he says :?"Perhaps the greatest fault in the huts of all the cooly lines I have met with, and I cannot recall a single exception, is that they are never provided with a plinth worthy of the name, an omission of-the most fatal character, &c., &c." ''Another disadvantage is that the necessary excavations would leave the ground honeycombed with depressions which would certainly become receptacles for rubbish, and in the rains would become full of filthy stagnant water. Speaking from a personal knowledge of nearly every garden in the Seebsaugor district, I may say that small lean-to sheds against cooly houses are never permitted in any well-conducted garden, and that between the front and back drains and "

between the houses, no filth of any kind is allowed to accumulate, and that gardens and houses for pigs and cattle are not allowed within at least 2C feet of the back of the hut.

gardens which Dr, Giles found destitute of vegeso, owing to the time of the year (January), and he might have in like manner stigmatised the whole country as a howling wilderness from the then state of the dhan-liets. It is the same with the raised plinths or batees. Excepting those gardens from which Dr. Giles derived his erroneous impression, the rule is two feet, many gardens have three and even four, and hardly one have less than a The small

tation

were

one-foot batee. These raised floors are made from the front and back drains before mentioned, and there is never auy ' occasion for lines ' lioney-combed,? and holes full of filthy stagnant water.'

The sweeping condemnation of tanks as a source of drinking-water (p. 21, smaller work) is scarcely correct, aud only applies to those which derive their water from the sandy subsoil, and which are really not tanks at all, but broad

wells. The

Rajah

Tanks which are dotted all over the tea dis-

tricts derive the whole of their supply from the rain. Their walls and bottom are water-tight, and they stand at a higher level than the surrounding country, and what leakage there may be is from within outwards, making contamination

impossible except

from above.

They

are

thus

tected by a fence, as is done on most gardens. Dr. Giles advocates conservancy as by far

easily the

promost

adopt for exterminating the parasite ; and no doubt, especially near the hospital or where cases are treated by Thymol disinfection by hoeing, fire and the other measures he suggests should be and arie adopted ; but there are certain facts connected with Ankylostomiasis which lead me to think that infection by the drinking-water is not It is rare, except in gardens so uncommon as ho supposes. where a large percentage suffer to find two cases in the

powerful

measure we

can

Neither is any one part of the lines more Certain castes, however, are another. Baorees notoriously so far more so than Bhooias, whose habits are equally filthy. I believe that dogs and pigs, and not dirty feet, are the cause in their case of infection, for Baorees far more than any other share their food feeding utensils, &c., with their dogs and pigs. same

house.

subject to it than particularly liable,

Drinking

from lioolalis I believe to be a very common for three reasons 1st: ?On certain gardens where this has been put a stop to by carrying out water to the coolies at work, the disease has disappeared. 2nd?That the disease is commoner at the commencement of the cold weather when these latrines, and virtually they are nothing more, are in a condition of unusual concentration. 3rd?That the coolies' method of drinking from hoolaks would certainly cause their inhibition if any auchylo.stomata were present I generally notice their on the bank. giving their dirty feet a preliminary wash, and then lapping up: with rtheir hand* a few mouthful of the muddy water. cause

[March

INDIAN MEDICAL GAZETTE.

94

1892.

in conclusion to the subject of changs, they not so uncommon a feature in Assam as Dr; Giles supposes the Miris, Nagas and all the hill tribes living in them. Neither is it the expense which prevents their use on gardens, but the increased danger from fire?in fact, if one house caught fire, the whole lines would in all likelihood be burnt down,?and the impossibility of keeping them clean, or disiufecting in a cholera epidemic. Compare iu support of this statement a Miri village with any well-ordered tea estate.

Returning

are

CHARLES FORBES, M.D., Glasg., D. P. H. Camb. Medical

Officcr,

University, Company.

Assam

Anchylostoma Duodenalis on Tea Gardens.

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