NationalLibraryOfScotland/medical-history-of-british-india huggingface dataset:
Part Ill—Regulation 26.]
23
(3) He may order the evacuation and disinfection of
infected houses and houses in their neighbourhood, or of
infected villages and towns, and prohibit their re-occnpation
without permission.
(4) He may require the evicted people to reside in any
place which he may appoint, under such restrictions as he
may deem necessary, provided proper shelter is available.
(5) He may requisition the services of any public
servant or, for work connected with a railway, of any railway
employè.
(6) He shall, if possible, go to the village and direct
operations.
Preventive
circles.
26, If an observation staff has already been appointed
in the neighbourhood of an infected area, the Collector shall
modify the observation circles so as to contract them to 5
miles diameter, within a radius of 20 miles or less distance
around the infected area. If an observation staff has not
been already appointed, he shall at once organize one so as to
meet this requirement. Circles so formed round infected
areas shall be termed preventive circles to distinguish them
from the observation circles mentioned in the preceding
regulation 15. These circles shall be placed in the charge
of plague inspectors, whose duty shall be to frequently visit
every inhabited part of their circles, check the working of the
passport system, and maintain a watch over the health of the
inhabitants with the object of quickly discovering cases of
plague and preventing the spread of the disease.
Inoculation,
27. The Collector shall arrange with the Sanitary Com-
missioner to place an ample supply of Haffkine's vaccine
within the reach of the inhabitants of plague-infected and
plague-threatened localities and shall afford them every
facility for being inoculated.
/
Certificates
of causes of
death.
28. (1) When he has a sufficient medical staff at his
disposal to secure immediate inspection, so that there may be
no chance of funerals being delayed, the Collector may, with
the previous sanction of Government, order in respect of any
particular area that the certificate of a medical officer shall be
obtained showing the cause of every death within two hours
after such death.
(2) After the issue of such an order, if a burial or
cremation takes place without such a certificate having been
24:
[Part III—Regulation 29.
obtained, the death may be presumed to have been due to
plague, and the rules regarding the segregation oí the .
contacts and the disinfection of the house may be applied.
House
search.
29. With the previous sanction of Government, the
Collector may organize search parties to visit houses for the
purpose of detecting cases of plague, when there is reason to
believe that the residents are attempting to conceal them.
Sanitary
restrictions
with
regard to
funeral
processions
and burials.
30. (1) The Collector of the district, when and to the
extent he may deem necessary, may make rules—•
(a) for prescribing the route which shall be taken
by a funeral procession from the place of death
to the grave-yard, burning ground or other
place for final disposal of the corpse, and the
places, if any, at which such procession may
halt on its way for funeral prayers, ceremonies
or other purposes ;
(b) for enforcing burial in certain places or at a
certain depth.
(c) for requiring that the bathing of persons attend-
ing the funeral shall be conducted at a place
prescribed by him.
(2) He may also prohibit the burial or burning of
corpses of persons reasonably supposed to have died of the
plague in or upon ground other than ground specially assigned
by him for such purpose.
(B) When a person dies of the plague elsewhere tlian
within the limits of a hospital, no one shall touch the corpse
except those who undertake the necessary duties of preparing
it for the funeral. Such persons shall disinfect themselves
according to the orders which may be issued by the Collector
in this behalf.
Persons
leaving for
an uninfected
place should
obtain pass-
ports.
31. (1) The Collector may require that all persons
desiring to leave an infected or notified town or village to
reside in a town or village not infected shall, before doing
so, apply to and obtain from such officer as may be appointed
for the purpose passports in the form appended [Appendix
A] to these regulations provided that no passports be issued
to persons suffering, or suspected to be suffering, from plague,
or to have so lately suffered from plague as to be in an infec-
tious state or likely from recent contact with plague cases to
have been infected or to be in an infectious state, and the
said officer may always require, before a passport is given,
the disinfection in a prescribed manner of all clothes and
other articles to be taken away.
Part III—Regulation 31.]
25
Persons
leaving an
infected
place to-at-
tend to their
profession or
to reside
temporarily
in the
immediate
neighbour-
hood should
obtain
passes.
(2) Other persons desiring to leave the infected town
or village may be required to obtain, before departure, passes,
which may be of two kinds, either (1) general [Appendices B,
O, and D,] or (2) special [Appendix E].
(3) General passes may be given to agriculturists and
others having occasion to make daily or frequent journeys by
road, rail or boat from an infected area, and may be given
for an indefinite period ; but they will not cover residence
outside of the infected area, and will not cover journeys by
rail unless that is expressly stated on them. In the case of
agriculturists, where the officer granting the pass is satisfied
that it is necessary for the whole family to go and work in the
fields, a single pass may be given for the family, but there
must be a separate pass for each person making a railway
journey under a general pass. General passes should be given
freely, and in the case of agriculturists working in the fields
need not be revoked even should a case of plague occur in
the family of the pass-holder. In the case of persons who
regularly visit weekly markets in adjoining non-infected
areas and return to the infected or notified place within a
period not exceeding 24 hours, a permanent pass in the
form appended [Appendix D] to theso regulations should be
issued. Intimation of the grant of such passes should be
duly communicated to the officers concerned in the non-
infected area.
(4) Special passes shall be passes permitting persons
to leave inhabited areas of an infected or notified town or
village and reside on sites approved by an officer appointed for
this purpose beyond them, and may be granted for households,
provided that the name and description of each person covered
by the pass is entered therein. The officer issuing the pass
may always require, before the pass is given, the disinfection
in the prescribed manner of all clothes and other articles to
be taken away. Persons holding these passes shall not be
allowed to return to the inhabited area otherwise than under
such sanitary restrictions as the said officer may, from time
to time, require or until the pass shall have been cancelled by
him and disinfection of clothing and articles to be taken back
with them be effected should he consider such disinfection
necessary.
(5) At convenient spots within, or in the proximity
of, the inhabited area of an infected or notified town or village,
the Collector shall establish one or more offices for the issue
of passports and passes and shall notify by tom-tom the
locality of such office or offices at such intervals as shall ensure
the inhabitants being aware of their purpose and position.
D
26
[Part III—Regulation 32,
Exemption
from rules
requiring
passports
and passes.
32. (1) The Collector may at his discretion exempt from
the necessity of taking out passports persons who are merely
returning from an infected area to their own village after
bringing to market in such area articles of food or fuel ;
provided that such return be within eight hours after arrival
and not after sunset, and that such exemption shall not apply
to any such person who may have entered a dwelling house
within the infected area.
(2) The Collector may also exempt from the necessity
of taking out passports or passes any person with regard
to whom there arc no reasonable grounds for suspicion of
infection.
Observation
camp to
protect a
town or
large village
threatened
with plague.
33. When there is a town or large village in the vicinity
of an infected area, the Collector may establish a camp of
observation at such town or village and may order detention
and disinfection in such camp of all suspected persons coming
from such area with out passports or passes. He shall appoint
special places where markets may be held and prescribe limits
beyond which it shall not be lawful for persons bringing
articles for sale from or to an infected area to pass.
Use of public
conveyances
by plague
patients
prohibited.
34, No owner, driver or person in charge of a public
conveyance shall carry any person suffering from the plague ;
nor shall any person suffering from the disease enter or be
taken in a public conveyance.
Infected
houses not
to be let untill
disinfected.
35. No person, shall let, or show for the purpose of letting,
a building or part of a building in which he knows, or has
reason to know, that a person has suffered or is suffering
from the plague, without having such building or part thereof,
and every article therein likely to retain infection, disinfected
to the satisfaction of the medical officer appointed by the
Collector in this behalf.
Destruction
of infected
huts or sheds.
36. If the Collector of the district or an officer generally
or specially authorized by him in writing in this behalf is of
opinion that the destruction of any hut or shed is necessary
to prevent the spread of the plague, the Collector or such
officer as aforesaid may summarily take measures for the
destruction of such hut or shed and the materials of which it
is constructed.
Disuse of
buildings
unfit for
human
habitation.
37. If it appears to the Collector or an officer appointed
by him in this behalf that, in view of the prevalence of the
plague within his jurisdiction, any building within such juris-
diction, intended or used as a dwelling, is in so insanitary
a condition as to be unfit for human habitation, he may
Part Ill—Regulation 38.]
27
summarily cause the same to be vacated, and prohibit, by a
written order, the further use of such building as a dwelling.
After such prohibition no owner or occupier of such building
shall use or suffer the sanie to be used for human habitation
until the said officer gives written permission in this behalf.
Abatement of
overcrowd
ing.
38. When, any building or place is, in the opinion of the
Collector or an officer generally or specially authorized by
him in writing in this behalf, so overcrowded as to make the
inmates or occupiers specially liable to an attack of plague,
the Collector or officer authorized as aforesaid may, by a
notice posted on some conspicuous part of the building or
place, require the owner or occupier, if actually residing in
the building or place, or the tenants or the actual occupants
thereof, to abate, as prescribed in the notice, the overcrowd-
ing within twenty-four hours by reducing the number of
lodgers, tenants or other occupants of the said building or
place, and, in default of compliance with the requisition in
the said notice, may summarily eject all the inmates or occu-
pants, or reduce the number of the same in such manner and
to such extent as may appear necessary.
Abatement of
nuisances.
39. The Collector or an officer generally or specially
authorized by him in writing in this behalf may, when he
considers necessary, enter upon any premises, whether situ-
ated in a municipality or not, at any time during daylight and.
summarily execute any work required under, or summarily
abate any of the nuisances described or indicated in, sections
186, 220, 221 and 228 of the District Municipalities Act, 1884,
or sections 99 and 101 of the Local Boards Act, 1884.
Closing
places used
for supply,
preparation,
&c., of articles
of food and
drink.
40. The Collector of the district or any officer
specially
authorized by him in this behalf is empowered to close sheds
used for accommodation of animals whose milk or milk
products are sold by the owner or his agent, and places used,
for the supply, preparation or storage of articles of food and
drink in infected localities or in the immediate neighbour-
hood of infected houses, and to direct the removal and if
necessary, the destruction of ail articles of food and drink
found in such places.
Restrictions
on the wash-
ing of
clothes
41, The Collector of the district may prescribe that no
person undertaking for hire the cleansing of clothing or- other
laundry process within an infected area to which he may
extend this regulation shall store or wash or otherwise pre-
pare clothing except at such places and at such times and
under such conditions as he may direct.
28
[Part III—Regulation 42.
Dissolution
of plague
hospitals and
camps.
42. No hospital or suspect camp or observation camp
shall be closed without the special orders of the Collector,
and until the receipt of such orders the municipality or the
district board shall maintain such places in efficient repair.
Provided there have been no actual or suspected cases of
plague therein, the Collector may, in his discretion, allow a
health camp to be closed after ten days, and a village or
town or section of a town in which no death or fresh case of
plague has taken place for ten days after the recovery or
death of the last case to be re-inhabited as soon as it has
been thoroughly disinfected.
Part IV.—Miscellaneous.
Administra-
tive staff.
43. For administrative purposes in connection with the
plague, the Collector shall have under his orders the following
plague authorities :—
(a) A superior staff consisting of plague officers
appointed by Government.
(b) A subordinate staff consisting of assistant plague
officers appointed by the Collector.
(a) Plague officers include divisional-officers, assistant
Collectors, the district medical and sanitary officer, and
additional medical officers and also personal assistant to the
Collector ;
Special divisional-officers (either to relieve divisional-
officers engaged in plague operations or to be in plague charge
of a division).
Extra Assistants to be in charge generally of a taluq but,
if necessary, of a smaller area,
(b) Assistant plague officers shall be tahsildars and
deputy tahsildars (ordinary or special) and chairmen of
municipal councils ex-officio ; or persons of known and
approved, character and responsible position, specially
appointed.
Jurisdiction
and powers
of plague
officers.
44. The Collector may, from time to time, assign to
plague officers and assistant plague officers, jurisdiction over
such local areas, and confer on the latter officers such powers
as he may deem fit. The plague officers shall have the powers
of assistant plague officers and such additional powers as
may be conferred by Government.
Part IV—Regulation 45.]
29
Monial staff
entitled to,
and bound to
give, one
month's
notice.
45. (1) In the absence of a written contract to the
contrary, every maistri, peon, watchman, cooly, scavenger or
other menial servant employed to do duty in connection with
plague shall be entitled to one month's notice before dis-
charge, or to one mouth's wages in lieu thereof, unless he
is discharged for misconduct or was engaged for a specified
term and discharged at the end of it.
(2) No such maistri, peon, watchman, cooly, sca-
venger or other menial servant in the absence of a written
contract authorizing him so to do, and without reasonable
cause, shall resign his employment, or absent himself from
his duties without giving one month's notice, or neglect or
refuse to perform his duties or any of them.
Modo of
disinfection.
46. Whenever disinfection is prescribed by any of these
regulations, it shall be carried out in accordance with the
general principles laid down by Government and such subsi-
diary instructions as may be issued by the Sanitary Com-
missioner or, in respect to management of hospitals, by the
Surgeon-General with the Government of Madras.
Compensa-
tion.
47. When in the exercise of the powers conferred by or
under these regulations, any damage or loss is caused, no
person shall be entitled as a matter of right to claim any
compensation, but the Collector of the district or any person
authorized by him may, in his discretion, award compensation
at the cost of local, municipal or provincial funds as the case
may be, and shall do so when the loss would fall upon people
in very poor circumstances, to whom it would be a great hard-
ship to bear it, or he may, in such cases, arrange for providing
other necessary articles in the placo of those destroyed or
damaged and debit the charge to the proper funds.
Contents o£
certificates,
passes, &c.
Their im-
proper use
prohibited.
48. Any certificate or passport or pass granted under
these regulations shall contain an accurate description of the
person named in it to prevent, so far as possible, its being
used by another person; nor shall such a certificate or pass-
port or pass given to any person to enable him to go from one
place to another or for any purpose shall be used by any
other person or for any other purpose.
Segregated
or detained
persons
bound to obey
directions
givea to
them.
49. Every person segregated or detained under any of
these regulations shall obey the directions issued to him by
the officer in charge of the place of segregation or detention
and shall not leave such place except with the written permis-
sion of the said officer, who may take such steps as may be
necessary to enforce this prohibition.
30
[P'art IV—Regulation 50.
Canal boats,
subject to
same
regulations
as buildings.
50. (1) A canal boat shall be subject to all the regula-
tions applicable to buildings ; and passengers by a canal boat
shall be subject to interrogation, inspection and detention in
the same manner as passengers by railway.
(2) In order to prevent the spread of the infection of
the plague either by or to a canal boat, the Collector of the
district or any officer generally or specially empowered by him
in this behalf may require such boat to alter its moorings or to
stop during its passage and moor in such position as such officer
may indicate, or direct that it desist from plying until such
time as may be stated in a notice placed on a conspicuous
position of the boat.
Privileges
granted to
inoculated
persons.
51. (1) Persons who hold certificates that they have been
inoculated by M. Haffkine's process, shall be entitled to the
following privileges, provided such certificates bear a date
not earlier than six months but not later than ten days
previously :—
(a) Unless suffering from, or suspected to be suffer-
ing from, plague, they shall not be liable to detention at any
railway or road observation camp when travelling, except for
such period as may be required to disinfect their baggage and
clothes, if those are considered suspicious.
(b) They shall not be liable to take out passports and
present themselves daily for observation for ten days after
arrival from a plague-infected place, or from any place noti-
fied by the Governor of Fort St. George in Council for the
purposes of No. 1 of these regulations ; but they may be
observed at their own residence and shall, with this view, be
bound when required by any plague officer to give their
names and addresses for the next ten days.
(c) Inoculated persons who have been living in an
infected house or have otherwise been exposed to plague
infection shall not be liable to be segregated, but may be
required to evacuate the infected house and to have their
clothes and personal effects disinfected. When, however,
all the occupants of a house have been inoculated, neither the
patients nor the other inmates of the house shall be required
to be segregated, provided arrangements are made to the
satisfaction of a plague authority for the disinfection of the
house and its contents, and for the prevention of the spread
of plague to the neighbouring dwellings.
(2) The inoculation certificate shall be in the form
appended [Appendix F]. But when in a certificate issued
Part IV-Regulation 52.]
31
under authority, the thumb impression has not been
taken, other satisfactory evidence of identification may be
accepted.
Inoculated
persons bound
to produce
their inocu-
lation certifi-
cates and
make an im-
pression of
thumb-marks.
52. Every inoculated person (who is exempted from segre-
gation, detention and observation under the preceding regu-
lation 51) shall be bound, when called upon to do so by the
officer mentioned in clause (3) of No. 1 of these regulations,
to produce the certificate showing that he has been inoculated
by M. Haffkine's process, and also to make an impression
of his thumb-mark for the purpose of identification.
Supersession
of district
board or
municipality
by Collector
in emergen-
cies.
53. The Collector of a district may, in case of emergency
or to save delay, provide for the execution of any work or the
doing of any act which a district board or municipality is
empowered or required to execute or to do in accordance with
these regulations, and the immediate execution or the doing
of which is in the said Collector's opinion necessary for the
service or the safety of the public, and may charge the
expense of executing the work or doing the act to the local
board or municipality concerned.
Penalty for
breach of
Regulations.
54. Any person disobeying or contravening or refusing to
submit himself to any regulation made under the Epidemic
Diseases Act, 1897, or obstructing any measure which has
been taken by Government, or which any authority, or officer
appointed under competent authority to carry out such
regulation, has been required or empowered to take under
any such regulation, shall be deemed to have committed
an offence punishable under section 188 of the Tndian Penal
Code, and shall be liable, on conviction, to imprisonment of
either description for a term which may extend to six months
or fine which may extend to one thousand rupees or both.
32
CHAPTER II.
* INSTRUCTIONS WITH REGARD TO THE CARRYING OUT OF
PLAGUE MEASURES AND WITH REGARD TO OTHER
MATTERS CONNECTED WITH PLAGUE.
General Remarks,
A combination of the following measures is likely to
produce the maximum of good :—
(a) The prompt discovery and isolation oí every case
of plague.
(b) The thorough disinfection of the personal effects,
clothes, and houses of patients.
(c) The segregation and inoculation of contacts.
(d) The removal and destruction by burning of plague-
infected rats, and the disinfection of the houses in which
they are found.
Every endeavour should be made by the officers respons-
ible to apply the first stated measure by sufficiently early
organization of observation staffs in rural areas and muni-
cipalities when imminently threatened, and by frequent
insistence as to care and promptitude in effecting plague
regulations by all authorities concerned, so as to secure that
the first imported cases are rapidly and effectually dealt with ;
for it is only at the commencement of the outbreak that the
remaining three measures can be carried out with success
and within reasonable expenditure, and can therefore be
expected to stamp ont the disease before much harm is done.
.But when once the plague has been allowed to obtain a
footing in a, large place or to spread to a number of village
it will be found very difficult to apply the above measures.
The policy then to be adopted at a particular place will
depend on its physical features, the season of the year, the
general sentiment and state of education of the people in
regard to plague measures, the strength of the" staff available,
and the influence of the local authorities.
* The regulations contained in chapter I should bo worked suhjcct to the explana-
tions and conditions stated in this chapter.
The portions omitted in this reprint, which are indicated by dots ( . . . ) relate
to matters not concerning mufassal towns and villages.