‘Administration Report on the Persian Gulf Political Residency and Maskat Political Agency for 1899/1900’ [‎282r] (37/150)

RESIDENCY An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, established in the provinces and regions considered part of, or under the influence of, British India. AND MASK AT POLITICAL AGENCY An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. FOR THE YEAR 1899-1900.
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As it seemed inipr£icticable from the bejriunincr nrcraniyo anxr r
medical relief to the sufferers, we considered it advisable to adopt so^e Tethod oTToS
treatment wh.ch could be with,n an easy and immediate reach of the attacked persons. W th
this view two kinds of cholera p.lls, one with and the other without opium were freely diltS
bated, with full directions for use, among-sneh persone as were intelligent enouo -h to make »
proper use o them. Several hundreds of these pills were subsequently supplied to His High!
uess the hnltan and h.s officials at their request for the purpose of sending them into the
interior when cholera broke out there. This was not, however, the course adopted in
case of the attacked persons for whom regular relief was songht. There being no specific
remedy or plan of treatment for cholera, we thought it best to be guided by the symptoms
though in order to assure success this mode of treatment iuvolved great trouble' it bein<*
necessary at first to report the symptoms almost hourly or every two hours The plan mos't
generally followed was to administer a dose of salol (gr. x) with or without sp. chloroform
afier the application of a large sinapism oyer the pit, of the stomach ; this was followed iu
about hair an hour by a cholera pill containing the following ingredients, being the formula
of the cholera pills sold by McKesson & Robbins, of New York:
Pulv. Capsici,
Assafoetida,
Pulv. Pip. Niger,
Camphora a a 4 parts, and
Pulv. opii—1 part.
In many instances this first dose of salol and cholera pill were found enough to check the
vomiting and purging, and it was necessary in only a few cases to repeat "the dose of salol
or cholera pill or both according to symptoms; a third dose had very rarely to be given.
Salol in my opinion had a highly beneficial effect in not only checking vomiting, but also in
relieving in a charming manner the restlessness and burning sensation when present in a later
stage of the disease. In the sta^e of collapse diffusible stimulants such as brandy, ammonia,
and ether were principally administered hourly or every two hours or at longer intervals
according to the urgency of the case, and the strychnia was administered hypodermically iu
some few cases, and by the mouth in a few others with marked benefit. External application
of heat to the surface by means of warm water bottles, heated stones or warmed pieces of cloth
was also had recourse to for restoring the normal heat of the body. For relieving the
suppression of urine calomel in 2-grain doses with or without the extract of Cannabis Indioa
was found highly beneficial, and that with dry cupping to the loins and hot watgr fomentations
to the abdomen and loins rarely failed to restore the function of the kidneys. The febrile
stage was treated on general principles. It may be here noted that whenever a friend of
an attacked person called for medicine, he was given in addition to the necessary medicines a
bottle containing carbolic acid solution ( 5 per cent.) for disinfecting the dejecta and clothes of
the patient with instruction for its use and as to the manner in which the clothes and bedding
were to be disposed of on recovery or death.
It is true that in the treatment of cholera no particular line of treatment can be always
„ , ,, . depended upon for giving the same favourable
Result of treatment. i, •
result, nor can any given epidemic be taken as
the standard of the utility of our therapeutic measures for striving with the disease;
still it cannot but be admitted that a certain percentage of cases in a given epidemic
when treated on rational principles may recover in addition to the usually accepted average
of 50 per cent, of natural recoveries. This is fairly illustrated by the result of our treatment
inMaskatand Matrah. The total number of persons who more or less received medical
relief from us was 243, out of whom 70 died, giving a ratio of SB'S percent, of deaths to treated,
whilst among the remaining 1,096 who did not receive our treatment the rate of mortality
was 59 8 per cent, being a little more than double of the former. This great differerce between
the rate of mortality among the treated and that among the non-treated becomes still more
accentuated if we separate the figures for Maskat where evidently the disease was of a more
virulent type as judged from the general rate of mortality, from those for Matrah.
In Maskat out of a total of 162 persons treated only 39 died, giving a ratio of only 24
per cent, of deaths to treated, whilst among the remaining 287 persons who were not treated
there were 235 deaths, or the alarming rate of Sl'9 per cent. Although the disparity between
the two rates seems to be very great, in fact almost incredible, it must be remembered that
many of the persons for whom medical relief was sought had probably by the time the
relwf could reach them passed through the critical stage of the disease. Under other
circumstances, perhaps, 1 should have felt inclined to doubt the accuracy of these figures
but coasidering that they have been furnished by an assistant in whom I have perfect
reliance for truthfulness and carefulness and who himseif treated all the cases in Maskat, i see
no reason to discredit them, though the result 1 personally obtained in Matrah is not nearly
as favourable as this.
In Matrah out of SI persons treated 31 died giving a ratio per cent, of 88-3 to treated'
Whilst among the remaining 809 who were not treated by me the rate of mortality was oi per
cent., or nearly the same as the general rate of mortality. But m order to find a correct es i-
mate of the value of our treatment we must take the figures only for the Khojas and Hindus
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