In the benighted Presidency, an even worse state of affairs prevails among the low caste villages of Chingleput, where the.patiahs do not care to conceal the fact that they live largely on the carcases of the wretched domestic animals of which many each week dio.in times of scarcity. The result of this carrion diet is 4 terrible outbreak of sickness among these people already weakened by mouths of insufficient and unsuitable food, and a serious outbreak of cholera is feared.
Government will not be behindhand in establishing the usual relief works and soup kitchens where necessary, but as yet it hag been found impossible to check the streams of half-starved coolies who flock into Madras in: search -of work. Cholera is already spreading among these homeless wandgrors, and the authorities in charge of the health of the city have recommended the Madras Government to establish a huge health camp without the..rounicipal boundaries, where poor and homeless travellers from thedistrictarourid may be housed and.fed.
The Mealth Camp, As mitters are.so urgent, pending the sanction of Government, the Collector of Chingleput in consultation with the Settlement Commissioner, has already selected a site for this camp on the Nellore truck road to Madras. Provision will be here made for about 4,000 persona, aad the camp will have its own staff of police, apothecaries, and nurses, so that segregation may he complete if necessary. It is not proposed to support here in idleness all' who may be gathered into the health camp, but if, on enquiry, it is found possible to obtain work for them in their own districts, the people will be drafted off by rail and have their fares paid. 'Those who romain in the camp will have work provided for them at various surrounding loc: and when normal conditions prevail again, all will be returned to their homes. In the meantime,' much is being dono in the villages to awaken' in the people a sense that they can and must assist themselves, snd may ward off the ravages of disease by more attention to sani conditions around their. villager, and above all by the cleansing of wells, which fare in many cases in a terrible state; not only is the bottom of the well usually coated with the collected slime.and rubbish. of ages, but the ground outside and around the. mouth of the well is ly in an even more dangerous state. The paving stones are frequently cracked and loose and. often slope inwards, so that all sorts of unhealthy moisture drains slowly into the drinking water. In times of scarcity of water the wells are sometimes so few and far between, and so constantly thronged by people, that it is difficult to got them to understand that it would be in their interest in.the long run to give up their well for a day or so in order to have it thoroughly purified.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.