NationalLibraryOfScotland/medical-history-of-british-india huggingface dataset:
52
[Railway Inspection.
and sanitary officer is not merely to inform that officer of
the movements of such, persons, but to make him responsible
that the passport-issuing officers, the local authorities, and
the tahsildars respectively carry out their duties under the
passport rules. He should maintain a register of all intima-
tions received by him and should see that all persons
mentioned therein are duly accounted for.
66. Regulation 1 (10).—The form in which the informa-
tion referred to should be recorded is prescribed in G.O.,
No. 1074-P., dated 15th September 1898 and is printed
as Appendix I. Copies of the form are supplied by the
Superintendent, Government Press.
67. Regulation 1 (11).—The tahsildar should file together
the reports received from the district medical and sanitary
officer (or Collector). No separate register need be maintained
by him. As soon as a passport is recovered from the
traveller under clause (6), it should be forwarded without
delay to the district medical and sanitary officer after the
number of the item in the report has been noted on it and
after the fact that the passport has been recovered has been
noted against the corresponding entry in the report.
68. Regulation 2.—This regulation should be strictly
carried out throughout the presidency as a check on the
Avorking of regulation 1 and prosecution should be resorted
to in places where the duty of reporting arrivals from
plague-infected parts is neglected in spite of repeated warn-
ings. If in any municipal town the existing sanitary staff is
unequal to the task of properly carrying out the system, of
observation, it should be strengthened.
Railway Inspection.
69. Regulation 3.—All inspecting officers, male and female,
at railway inspection stations, and clerks employed at
important stations, such as Jalarpet . . . should always
carry with them a note-book of a special conspicuous colour
with the words " Government of Madras Plague officials'
note-book " printed on the back. A copy of the appointment
order should be attached to the note-book. Copies of the
book may be obtained from the Superintendent, Government
Press, through the Surgeon-General.
70. Railway Administrations are requested to instruct their
staff to give every assistance to the medical officers conduct-
ing the. inspection in order to minimise the detention of the
trains, and to detain the trains until the medical inspection is
over. Railway ticket collectors may be allowed to accom-
53
Railway Inspection.]
pany the plague inspecting officers, if this course is found to
economize time. The table appended [Appendix J] shows
the time within which medical officers are required to
conduct plague inspection.
71. All passengers should be required to quit their carriages
and be examined on the platform or in some suitable place,
cases of suspicion being removed for more careful investi-
gation to a place reserved for the purpose. Care must be
taken that the carriages are locked before the arrival of the
train at the inspection station, and that no passenger is
permitted to leave his carriage until in orderly course the
arrangement shall be complete for such examination.
72. The inspecting officers should not only thoroughly
examine passengers and passenger vehicles, but also inspect
guards, drivers and firemen and their vans and engines, so
that no person may escape inspection. No distinction should
be made between railway people and others, and before any
train, whether carrying passengers or goods, leaves the in-
spection, station, a thorough search should be made to discover
if any persons have concealed themselves with the object of
evading inspection. Every endeavour should be made to
complete the inspection of trains within the time mentioned
| in Appendix J. If, on special occasions, the time is exceeded,
a report explaining fully the delay should be immediately sent
to the Collector for his information and for such action as he
may think necessary.
73. In the absence of any symptoms showing a passenger
to be suffering from, fever, it is unnecessary to examine his
person for the purpose of finding out whether buboes are
present. This practice, if it is at present enforced anywhere,
should be discontinued.
74. Female passengers should, under no circumstances, be
required to be examined by men. For their inspection, one
or more nurses are attached to each inspection station.
75. Care should be taken that inspection stations are not
converted into detention camps. Any attempt at wholesale
detention will only result in the development of effective
modes of evasion. Unless a passenger shows symptoms of
plague or cannot be trusted to observe the passport rules, he
should not be interfered with. This rule applies also to road
frontier inspection stations.
76, If a detained person has plague when removed from
the train, all who have travelled with him in the same
compartment are " contacts " and must also be detained
unless they have been inoculated. But if he is detained
54
[Railway Inspection,
merely because be is likely to evade the rules, then there is
no need to detain those who have travelled with him.
77. To enable detained persons to resume their railway
journey after their discharge from the plague camp, the
plague officer should give them certificates in the form
appended [Appendix K].
The passengers should take the certificates to the Station-
master and get them endorsed by him.
78. A return of persons detained for observation at the
camps attached to railway inspection stations should be
submitted by Collectors to Government in the form appended
[Appendix L] once in four weeks. Each week's figures should,
however, be shown separately in the statement.
79, The inspecting medical officer, Jalarpet, should send
telegraphic intimation to the medical officer of the Ceylon Gov-
ernment at Tuticorin when passengers pass from Bangalore
to Tuticoriii. The cost of these telegrams will be recovered
from the Ceylon Government by the Accountant-General.
80, Any expenditure incurred in providing inspection
sheds on railway platforms in cases where there are no proper
facilities in the railway station for the examination of pass-
engers in accordance with the plague regulations or in the
supply of punches or scissors for marking railway tickets
should be borne by the civil department and not by the
railway administrations.
81, Persons sending horses from plague-infected areas
by rail through Tungabhadra, and Jalarpet railway plague
inspection stations should be informed that the syces
accompanying the animals are liable to be detained at the
inspection stations for a period of ten days under the plague
regulations, and should be requested to arrange for a second
syce from a non-infected area being present at the inspection
station, through which an animal belonging to them has to
pass, to relieve the man coming from the infected area. If
such an arrangement is not made, both the animal and the syce
will be liable to be detained and the owner will be required
to pay 8 annas a day for stabling besides the keep of the
horse during the period of detention, unless the syco brings
with him. sufficient provender.
82. The mark used at inspection stations is a hole four-
tenths of an inch square punched in the long side of railway
tickets. It should be made only on the tickets of those pass-
engers who come, or are suspected to come, from plague
infected areas or from places notified by Government for the
purposes of the passport rules. The special mark should be
55
Railway Inspection.]
made at the first inspection station at which the passenger
•arrives. It is not necessary to punch his ticket again at any
subsequent inspection station through which he may pass,
but he must be medically examined nevertheless. Tickets of
persons who come from an uninfected area, or who, though
coining from an infected area, have been detained for ten days
at one of the observation camps established in the Madras
presidency, need not be so marked.
83. Care should bo taken that the plague punches are
not used except by responsible persons and that they are kept
in safe custody when not in use. The officers in charge of
railway inspection stations will be held responsible for the
safe custody of the plague punches, and under their orders the
punches may be used by their assistants, but not under any
circumstances by the police. The wrong punching of tickets
should be specially guarded against, as the annoyance caused
thereby and the consequent liability to take ont a passport is
very great.
84. Passengers who attempt to evade the plague mark by
re-booking should be watched. If they break their journey
for a considerable period, the passport rules should be applied
to them. If they alight for a few hours with the intention of
proceeding by a subsequent train, the right-hand lower corner
of their new tickets should be clipped with scissors. If this
course be adopted, it will be unnecessary to communicate
their names and addresses to the new places of destination by
telegraph or otherwise. The railway administrations have
been authorised to supply stationmasters with scissors and
bill the Collectors concerned for their cost, which should be
met from local or municipal funds.
84-A, The discretionary power vested in the inspecting
medical officer under clause (6) shall be exercised only under
the most exceptional circumstances, when it may appear to
be necessary for the effective carrying out of the plague
regulations and to prevent the evasion of the passport rules
by persons from infected areas.
85. Collectors are requested to keep the cost of inspection
stations as low as possible, and to satisfy themselves by
frequent personal inspection that they are worked in strict
accordance with rules.
86. Regulations 4 and 5.—The special attention of the
railway authorities should be drawn to the necessity for the
careful working of these regulations. If they are properly
worked, there can hardly be any cases where passengers will
break journey and escape observation altogether:
56
[Festivals,
Fairs, Festivals and Pilgrimages,
86-A, When a festival or fair or other public gathering
which is likely to be attended by persons from plague-infected
parts is about to take place in an uninfected area, the Collector
may apply to Government for orders to prohibit their
attendance and to enforce the prohibition by stopping tem-
porarily the issue of railway tickets to such persons or by
other means. A similar course should be adopted when
a festival or fair or other public gathering which is likely to be
attended by persons from healthy parts is about to take place
in a plague-infected area.
87. Proposals submitted under the preceding rule should be
forwarded through the Sanitary Commissioner so as to reach
Government a month and-a-half previous to the holding of the
fairs and festivals. Proposals submitted at later dates do not
allow proper measures being taken to enforce them. In view
to avoid delay in their submission, Collectors should prepare in
their office every month a list of all the fairs and festivals to
take place in the ensuing three months, and should send by
the 15th of each month their recommendations relating to
religious and other gatherings to be held in the next month
but one.
88. The Collector's reports should be invariably accom-
panied by draft notifications under the Epidemic Diseases
Act, 1897, and by a statement in the form appended
[Appendix M]. Skeleton notifications are printed as Ap-
pendix N.
89. As stationmasters and booking clerks are not likely
to find out in the case of small fairs and festivals whether the
purchasers of railway tickets are going as pilgrims or not,
the prohibition of the issue of tickets in such cases does not
work satisfactorily and need not be recommended. As, how-
ever, pilgrims to large fairs and festivals can perhaps be
recognized, and it is of considerable importance to reduce
the number of visitors to these festivals, the issue of tickets
in their case may continue to be prohibited. It is left to the
discretion of Collectors to decide which of the fairs and festi-
vals are small and which large. In the case of unimportant
local festivals, a careful working of the passport rules should
suffice. Notice of the prohibition of the issue of railway
tickets should be given to the railway authorities at least a
week previous to the date of commencement of the prohibition.
90. Where pilgrimage to a fair or festival has been pro-
hibited by Government, the Collector should, as far as the
means at his disposal permit, watch all the roads round the
57
Rat killing.]
village or town and prevent pilgrims f'rom entering the place.
Persons- who are suspected to have 'come from infected parts
should be watched for ten days, and, if not suffering from
fever or any suspicious complaint at the end of that period,
should be allowed to proceed on their journey. .It must be
distinctly understood that the prohibition is not in any way
intended to interfere with the performance of the usual
religious ceremonies at the temple, and that its only object is
to prevent the assemblage of persons who might import or
spread the plague.
91. A special establishment to carry out the measures
prescribed in the foregoing rule is not ordinarily required.
As far as practicable they should be carried out with the aid
of the existing district establishment. If in any special case
extra establishment is needed, a separate recommendation
should be made when suggesting the imposition of restric-
tions on the holding of the festivaJ or fair. It is not necessary
for the purpose of these measures to build costly structures
at each place where a festival or fair is held. It will suffice if
the Collector has in stock materials for one or two sheds,
which may be utilized if required, but if not, may either be
sold or carted to another place where they may be required
after the close of the festival.
92. As regards pilgrimage to the Hedjaz, the Government
of India annually issue orders either prohibiting it altogether
or allowing it under certain conditions from uninfected parts
only. In the latter case, the intending pilgrims are collected
at convenient observation camps, they are not allowed to
purchase passage tickets to the Hedjaz except at those
observation camps, and after they have been detained for
the prescribed period and certified to be free from infection,
they are sent in special trains or carriages to the selected
ports for embarkation. Pilgrims, returning from the Hedjaz
in healthy vessels are, after disinfection of their clothing and
baggage, se ' nd at once to their destination without being allowed
to mix with the population of the port of landing. Those
returning in a plague-infected vessel are subjected to ten
clays' observation in a camp before being sent to their homes.
The authorities of the port of landing are required to send
nominal rolls of the pilgrims to the Collectors concerned, and to
give previous intimation of their departure, in order that they
may be watched for a few days after arrival at their destination.
Destruction of Bats.
93. Regulation 10.—There is a general belief, supported
by medical opinion, that rats are peculiarly susceptible'to-the
H
58
[Rat killing.
infection of the bubonic plague and are active agents in its
dissemination. Granaries are the favourite haunts of rats,
and grain bags arriving from any place suspected to be affected
by the plague should be very carefully examined, and any
rats found with them at once destroyed and their bodies
consumed by fire. Infection once brought into a granary
spreads rapidly among the healthy rats, and thence in time to
human beings living in the neighbourhood. The attention of
all Collectors, presidents of district boards, chairmen of
municipal councils, . . . is therefore drawn to the
necessity of taking special precautions to prevent the danger of
infection from this source. Arrangements should be made for
the constant inspection of granaries and grain bazaars and care
taken to keep them clean and disinfected and to have the rats
destroyed. In inspecting these granaries particular inquiries
should be made whether any dead or sick rats have been
observed. Rats sick with the plague seem careless in the
presence of men and run about in a dazed way with a peculiar
limping gait in the hind legs owing to painful glands in the
groin. The port and sea customs authorities should be
.instructed to see that no rats are lauded with goods imported
by sea into this presidency, and that rats found in ships are
destroyed forthwith.
94. The Traffic Manager, South Indian Railway, has
issued the following circular to his subordinates :—" Station-
masters and their staff should carefully inspect consignments
of grain from plague-infected areas to see that any rats that
may arrive concealed in the grain are destroyed ; should also
destroy bandicoots, rats and mice where grain is deposited
on railway premises in case they may have eaten of the grain
and so become infected. This vermin should be tracked and
exterminated by all possible methods, the dead bodies being
consumed by fire at once. Stationmasters and others of the
staff concerned with these instructions should make a special
report to this office, if they destroy 20 or more of these
rodents in any one week, and if a rat trap is wanted they
should send an indent for one." Other Railway Adminis-
trations have been requested to issue similar instructions to
their staff. Collectors should satisfy themselves that these
instructions are actually carried out,
95. It has been ruled that ordinarily the destruction of
rats should be confined to—
(a) infected places and the surrounding area within
a radius of ten miles round it ;
59
Eeports and Returns.]
(b) landing places and railway goods-sheds, where rats
from infected places are likely to be imported with goods
brought by sea or railway.
In the case of (a), rewards may be necessary but the
maximum rate should not exceed three pies. In other cases,
the port or railway authorities are expected to do all that is
required without the reward system.
98. The charges incurred in the destruction of rats should
he debited to local or municipal funds according to the area
within which such charges are incurred.
Plague Reports and Returns.
97, When a case of plague, genuine or suspected, is first
discovered in any place, the Collector or any gazetted officer,
who may be at the head-quarter station of the district, should
immediately telegraph the fact to the Secretary to Govern-
ment, Local and Municipal department, to the Sanitary
Commissioner and to the Surgeon-General, stating how the
case was discovered, whether it was indigenous or imported,
and in the latter case, whence it was imported, and such
further particulars with dates as may be thought necessary.
Cases of plague among ' contacts ' who have not within
a fortnight been in an infected place should be treated as
indigenous and not imported. Further details should be
furnished by post as early as practicable, if possible within 48
hours. This report should be in the form prescribed in
Plague Commissioner's Proceedings, No. 845, dated 5th
December 1898, and printed as Appendix 0, and need be sent
only !;o Government and the Sanitary Commissioner. A
separate report should be furnished for each imported caso
unless the persons attacked belong to the same party, but
where plague is indigenous, it is sufficient if the officer in
charge of operations sends direct to Government a brief
weekly report stating the number of attacks and deaths, the
measures taken and the success they meet with, the attitude
of the people, the method of infection (e.g., by air, imperfectly
dried dust, infected soil and habitations, articles of apparel,
merchandise and domestic use, by medium of rats, mice,
squirrels, cats and infected water and food) and any other
matters of interest. This report should contain the latest
information available on Thursday, and should be despatched
direct fco reach Government not later than. Saturday morning.
98. All attacks and deaths should be telegraphed daily
by Collectors to Government, the Sanitary Commissioner and
60
[Reports and Returns,
the Surgeon-General in the form communicated with Plague
Commissioner's Proceedings, No, 357, dated 8th February
1899. Nil telegrams are not required. All Collectors should
also send daily telegraphic reports of plague to the medical
officer of the Ceylon Government stationed at Tuticorin
whenever plague cases occur in their districts. The cost of
these telegrams and of similar telegrams sent by Government
will be debited to the Ceylon Government by tho Accountant-
General-
99. The following reports and returns are sent by the
Government of Madras to the Government of India : —
(a) An ordinary telegram every Monday showing
separately the number of seizures and deaths
from plague during the week ending with the
previous Saturday (i) in the presidency town,
(ii) in towns of 50,000 or more inhabitants, (iii)
in the rest of the district, and (iv) in all ports of
the Di-esidency.
(b) . . .
(c) Special telegraphic reports whenever plague extends
to any new district or important place.
(d) A monthly return showing daily plague seizures and
deaths in each district during the previous month,
to bo despatched with a brief narrative of any
events of importance in connection with plague,
so as to reach the Government of India not later
than the 7th of each month.
(e) A special report by letter when a district or town of
over 50,000 inhabitants previously included in the
weekly returns is considered or declared to be
entirely free from plague. Copies of this report
are circulated to all Local Governments and
Administrations and all Political officers.
To enable the Local Government to prepare the monthly
narrative required by the Government of India, the Collectors
of districts affected with indigenous plague are requested
to forward every month a report, written by themselves,
(1) stating whether plague is increasing or decreasing in their
districts, and (2) containing brief notes as to the measures
taken, to suppress the disease and the degree of success
attained, the temper of the people, the readiness with which
they permit segregation of the sick and contacts, or with
which, they evacuate houses of their own accord, whether they
accept treatment or desire inoculation, what steps they are
taking to help themselves and any other matters of interest.