Chapter XII
DISEASES AND MALINGERING
Perhaps a few observations on the principal diseases to which these Indian convicts were liable may be found useful; and we take for the purpose the statistics of the year 1863-64 as given in [Appendix No. 2], when nostalgia did not occur. In alluding to these diseases, we shall at the same time notice the locality of the Singapore jail, and the composition of the soil on which it was built. It is now universally recognised that the soil on which communities reside continuously does in a measure influence their health.
So many works on hygiene have, however, been written, and so much has been said by medical experts on this subject, that we may almost say that it has been exhaustively treated. What we wish to show is simply that soil and locality do not influence all communities alike.
The site of the Singapore jail in Brass Basa Road was originally a piece of low ground saturated with brackish water; and the convicts themselves were, as we have elsewhere stated, employed in conveying red earth from the side of Government Hill to reclaim most of this marsh, in order to erect thereon the necessary buildings for their occupation. The site had to be raised from two to four feet, and the red earth was what might be called disintegrated laterite or clay ironstone. When the finished level was completed, it was about two feet above high water mark S.T. The surface of the enclosure had been so thoroughly trodden down, rolled, and graded to the drains and into the adjoining canal, that, with the periodical coatings of pure white sand from the Serangoon sand pits that had been laid over it, it had become almost impervious to water; and this we would notice particularly, for it had much to do with the sanitary condition of the jail and its inmates.
The dormitories were further raised slightly over two feet above the general surface, and their floors were carefully laid, so as literally to be as dry as a bone.
From [Appendix No. 2] it will be seen that the principal disease from which these Indian convicts suffered was "fever," but not of a dangerous type; for, upon comparing the admissions to hospital with the deaths from this disease in all three settlements during the year referred to, we find that in Singapore and Penang they were nil, and but seven in Malacca. The next ailment which presented numerous cases were abscesses and ulcers, and the deaths from this cause amounted only to one in Singapore. Many of these ulcers were on the legs, and were caused by grit getting between the skin and the leather band worn under the fetter rings of convicts in the fourth and fifth classes. Stomach and bowel complaints rank next on the list, but we find that the deaths here only amounted to units. Rheumatic affections were numerous, caused perhaps in that damp climate from working on extra-mural duties and returning to jail in wet clothes with the wind blowing on them. A few cases of dropsy appear on the list, the largest number occurring in Penang, three only at Singapore. There were ordinary cases of œdema.
The death-rate to strength per cent, from ordinary diseases for the year given was 2.20 for Singapore, 3.82 for Penang, and 3.17 for Malacca. Perhaps the special attention to sanitation in Singapore may account for the death-rate being lower here than at the sister settlements.
After the convict jail had been broken up, and the convicts had all left it, the jail was handed over to the prison authorities to be converted into a criminal prison for the whole settlements. Not long after this change had taken place a very peculiar disease broke out amongst the inmates. It was known as Beri-beri, or, as some call it, the "Bad sickness of Ceylon." It is a very serious disease, and some think it arises from extreme exertion without sufficient sustenance to the body. In 1878 the ratio of mortality in the prison had risen to 16.20 per cent.; in 1879 it was further augmented to 20.63 per cent. The Local Government deemed it necessary without delay to appoint a Committee of Inquiry into the possible causes which had given rise to the spread of this disease. The conclusion at which they arrived was that it was due to the want of proper drainage of the site, so that the soil had got water-logged, and had generated malaria; also, that the prisoners needed a more nitrogenous diet. They advised the erection of an entirely new prison on a better and more elevated locality. These suggestions were all adopted, and the Committee in their judgment were greatly aided by Dr. Irvine Rowell, C.M.G., the Principal Civil Medical Officer, who formed one of the Committee.
There was no time lost by the Government with the Colonial Engineer (Major McNair) in preparing plans and erecting on the west side of Pearl's Hill, near the old civil jail, a prison on the cellular system, and after the most approved English model; but the change of site did not effectually remove the disease, for as late as the year 1884 "there were 262 cases under treatment. In the first nine months of that year the deaths were comparatively small, but during the latter three months they increased, constituting nearly one half of the total deaths during that period." Dr. Kerr attributed this increase to exacerbation in the type, and epidemicity of the disease.
It is not necessary, nor is it within our province, to attempt a description in detail of this disease; and happily it is mostly confined to Ceylon and the Malay Archipelago, though it occurs occasionally in China and Japan, where in the former country it is known as "Tseng," and in the latter as "Kak-ki." It is referred to in a book we have quoted in the body of this work, viz., that written by "Godinho de Eredia" in 1613, reproduced by M. Leon Janssen in 1882. It is called there bere-bere, which in the Malay language signifies a "sheep," or a "bird which buries its eggs in the sand," and is not now known by the Malays under that name, as far as we can gather, as a "disease." Godinho de Eredia says that the Malays cured it by the use of a wine made from the nipa palm, from whence we know a saccharine fermentable juice exudes from the cut spadices of this and other species. They call this juice "tuaca." Marco Polo alludes to the same wine in his second book, chapter xxv.