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occupant of such house and other person who may be therein or who may resist or
desire to obtain access thereto shall obey any order which he may receive from the
Commissioner or any Municipal or Police officer empowered by the Commissioner in
that behalf, prohibiting ingress to or egress from such house.
For the purpose of carrying into effect the objects of this regulation, the Com-
missioner or any such Municipal or Police officer as aforesaid will, if necessary,
forcibly prevent persons from entering or leaving such house.
P. C. H. SNOW,
Municipal Commissioner.
BOMBAY, 6th October 1896.
On October 14th the Commissioner had to issue the following memorandum to
the Health Officer :—" In reference to the recent Notification published by the Com-
missioner under Section 434 of the Municipal Act, as few cases of bubonic fever have
occurred in the last day or two and influential petitions and representations have
reached the Commissioner from the whole district of Mandvi and other parts of the
town against the compulsory removal of patients to the Arthur Road Hospital, the
Commissioner now directs the Health Officer as follows :—' Where cases of bubonic
fever break out in the houses of persons who are able to properly tend and feed their
sick, and isolate them in any reasonable degree, the Health Officer should, on all
occasions, allow such persons to be tended in their own houses and not permit their
removal to the Arthur Road Hospital. Every possible consideration should be shown
to the caste and prejudices of persons whose houses the Health Department officials
have to enter. The Health Officer is requested to instruct his officials accordingly
without any delay, and to see that this order is carefully complied with.' "
On October 30th the following proclamation was issued :—" Whereas the Muni-
cipal Commissioner is informed that great alarm has been caused to the public by the
Notification recently issued under Section 434 of the Municipal Act, and whereas the
objects of that Notification have been misunderstood, inasmuch as the powers under it
were obtained principally to meet the case of a large increase of bubonic plague,
the public are now hereby informed that no cases, where proper segregation and
treatment can be carried out on the premises, will be removed to the Arthur Road
Hospital ; and, in such cases as require removal, no action will be taken except upon
the certificate of a qualified medical practitioner employed by the Health Department.
The Executive Health Officer has been instructed accordingly and the Commissioner
of Police informed."
Another Notification, as follows, was issued to Mill Managers to be circulated
amongst mill-hands :—" Whereas it has come to the notice of the Municipal Com-
missioner that false and unfounded reports, with the object of producing a general
panic, have been recently spread among the mill-hands regarding the forcible removal
to the Arthur Road Hospital ; and whereas, from information that has reached the
Commissioner, it is desirable that such false impressions should be removed, you are
hereby informed that, provided a competent medical officer is engaged to supervise
the hands employed in your mill, the duty of attending thereto, and communicating
with the Health Department in the event of any bubonic case occurring, will be
left to such medical officer, and no person suffering from such disease will be removed
to hospital except upon the certificate of the said medical officer. The Health
Officer has been informed accordingly, and the name of any such medical officer
appointed for your mill should be communicated to that department."