"تقرير عسكري عن جنوب غرب بلاد فارس، بما في ذلك أقاليم خوزستان (عربستان)، لورستان، وجزء من فارس" [و‎‎٤‎٤] (٤٧٠/٩٢)

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01
Medical Report on Bushirefor the year ending 31st March 1873.
Bushire. tlie cliieE seaport town of Southern Persia, lies in the 29th
parallel of north latitude, and is situated at the
Situation. extremity of a peninsula twelve miles in length by from
four to five in breadth on the north-east shore of the Persian Gulf. It is not
I should say, elevated more than 20 feet above sea level, the centre o
the town being about the lowest, and the Armenian quarter, in the north
corner, the highest ground. The houses are flat roofed
Houses. an( ] doeely packed together, and generally not less than
two stories in height; the ground floor being solely for winter residence, and
the upper apartments for use in the hot months of the summer and autumn
Sanitary* arrangements in Bushire are of the most primitive and meagre
description, the consequence of which is a deplorable
Sanitation. wan ^ 0 f cleanliness in the general aspect of the town,
whilst here, there, and everywhere are sources of effluvia which make their
presence painfully known to more senses than one. Hie sewage is com
monly conveyed from the necessary by means of a rude conduit into a pit
dug in the street, which is seldom provided with proper means of outflow,
and which is sometimes emptied, but not infrequently allowed to
main full, and another dug in the vicinity. The process cd emptying is most
obnoxious to passers by, for the streets being, as a rule.
Streets. not more than seven or eight feet wide, the pent-up focal
exhalations meet the olfactories in a most concentrated form. Streets here are
at best mere lanes, so that the town, though it atone time contained twenty
thousand inhabitants, does not cover an area of more than half a mile square.
There are, I think, twelve different places of sepulchre within the walls
of the town, and some of the graves are not more than
Burial grounds. three feet in depth. Moreover, each burial place has
several stone and lime encasements built on the surface, wherein are stored
dead bodies for eventual transmission to Karbala. The walls of these recep
tacles are very slim, and now and then observed to be holed through either
by the vicissitudes of the weather or by accident, the corpses in very rickety
coffins thus becoming exposed.
X)urine the cholera epidemic, which raged here some two years ago, mtra.
mural interment was for a time prohibited by the local authorities; mt t le
prohibition subsequently became a mere farce, and now there is not the eas
obstacle thrown in the way of those who revert to the old custom. Most of the
irrave-yards are traversed by a street, encroaching on which are numerous
graves; and, indeed, it is not rare to see the pathway passing over the buried
remains of some of the dead. . , , . . , 7
The wells in town are without exception brackish, and supply watei ht
only for very ordinary purposes. At the south corner
Water-supply. j s a i ar g e tank, the gift of a native merchant, for
^These remarks on the sanitation of Busl.ire apply equally to all large Persian towiis, and m
iheseremarK , an d Dizful must be emphasised. Where the sAuma l ceases to
the cases of Muhamnmrah, ohus^r, and^JJiziu^^ an( j ; n situations where the ozone of the
blow with °. rce ’ *-f-’ - t quantities to neutralize deleterious organic emanations, disease must
S wl; b. one rf ft. causes at week to keep tk. popu.at.on
01 thrnnsanitorv'ftote of the Persian barracks fro... (I) the accumulation of ordure in
,, • 1 - ifv % ( )veirrifwdin<f (under 6 square feet per man), (3) under feeding, (4) poor
their vicinity, (2) o S and unaffected was such that in 11 months out of a
regiment 700 strong, 200 bad died ton. intermittent fever; 260 were non-effective, and 200 alone
fit to bear arms.