NationalLibraryOfScotland/medical-history-of-british-india huggingface dataset:
184
Regulations under the Epidemic Diseases Act. [ APP. IV.
as the case may be, shall forthwith send information to the Collector
of the district of the occurrence of any such case.
Establishment
and maintenance
of plague hos-
pitals.
2. On me requisition of the Collector and to the extent to which
he may determine, a Municipal Council or a District Board if it has
not already made the provision, shall provide and maintain in such
localities, which in the case of a municipality may be within or with-
out the municipal limits, as in the opinion of the District Medical
and Sanitary Officer, or a Medical Officer deputed by him, may be
proper for the purpose, suitable and sufficient accommodation to
the satisfaction of such medical officer, for the isolation and treat-
ment of persons suffering or suspected to be suffering from the
plague, and also accommodation for their detention until they shall
be certified by the Medical Officer in charge to be free from infec-
tion. In the places so provided the Municipal Council or District
Board, as the case may be, shall furnish such hospital establishments,
equipment and supplies as the District Collector may determine,
and shall also make arrangements for feeding persons detained
under the powers conferred by any of the regulations made under
the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897, on payment by them of the cost ;
but in the case of indigent persons the Municipal Council or the
District Board, as the case may be, shall supply them with food free
of charge : provided that any person so detained may cater for him-
self subject to such rules and conditions as the medical officer in
charge may prescribe. The Municipal Council or District Board,
as the case may be, shall, on like requisition and in like manner and
subject to like approval, provide accommodation for persons who may
be required to vacate any building or ground under the regulation
set out below numbered 4, 5 and 6 and who may be unable to
procure necessary accommodation for themselves.
3. When in any building or place within a municipality, town or
village there is a person suffering or suspected to be suffering from
the bubonic plague, the Collector or any officer appointed by him
generally or specially in this behalf may enter and either—
Segregation of
plague patients
in hospital, in
their Own houses
or in some other
suitable place.
(a) remove him to one of the places of accommodation provided
under the preceding regulation 2 and in such place or in
some other place so provided to which at the discretion
of the medical officer in charge he may from time to time
be removed, there detain and treat him until he shall be
certified by the said medical officer to be free from in-
fection, or
(b) take measures for segregating and isolating the person in
his own house or in some other suitable place, if in the
APP. IV. ] Regulations under the Epidemic Diseases Act.
185
opinion of the Medical Officer in charge the person can
be there treated with no greater risk of spreading the
infection than if he were removed to a place provided
under the preceding regulation 2.
Occupation of
buildings for
plague hospitals..
4.
Any building or place which is required for, and is in the
opinion of the District Medical and Sanitary Officer or the Medical
Officer deputed by him in this behalf suitable for, the purpose of the
accommodation to be provided under regulation 2 may be entered
upon and occupied by the Municipal Council or the President of the
District Board, as the case may be, or a person deputed by him in
this behalf (untenanted without any notice whatsoever, and if
tenanted after twenty-four hours' notice in writing conspicuously
posted on such house or building) and may be used for the purposes
of the accommodation under regulation 2 ; and the owner or the
lessee of such building or place shall not be entitled to anything
beyond a reasonable rent for the period during which the ground or
building may remain in the occupation of the Municipal Council or
the Collector and President of the District Board, as the case may
be : provided that the Municipal Council or the Collector and Pre-
sident of the District Board, as the case may be, shall be bound at
the cost of the Municipality or the District Board, as the case may
be, thoroughly to cleanse and disinfect the ground or building and,
if a building, to whitewash it internally and externally, before
vacating it,
Abatement of
overcrowding.
5. When any building or place is, in the opinion of the Collector
or an officer generally or specially authorised by him in writing in this
behalf, so overcrowded as to make the inmates or occupiers specially
liable to an attack of the bubonic plague, the Collector or officer
authorised 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 occu-
pants thereof to abate, as prescribed in the notice, the overcrowding
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 sumarily
eject all the inmates or occupants or reduce the number of the same
in such manner and to such extent as may appear necessary ; and the
owner or occupier or the tenants or the inmates of such building or
place shall not be entitled to claim any compensation on account of
such ejection.
Evacuation,
cleansing and
disinfection of
infected build-
ings,
6. When a building or place has, in the opinion of a medical
officer appointed in this behalf, been so infected with the plague as
to render its further occupation a source of danger to the inmates
b 24
186
Regulations under the Epidemic Diseases Ací. [App. IV.
thereof, the Collector or an officer generally or specially authorised
by him in writing in this behalf may summarily cause such building
or place to be vacated and thoroughly cleansed and disinfected ; and
the building or place shall not be re-occüpied until, in the opinion of
such medical officer, it is safe to be re-occupied ; and the owner or the
occupier or the tenants or actual inmates or occupants thereof shall
not be entitled to claim any compensation on account of anything
done under this regulation.
Conveyance of
plague patients.
7. The Municipal Council or the Collector and President of the
District Board, as the case may be, shall provide suitable conveyances
for the free carriage to a place provided under regulation 2 of persons
suffering, or suspected to be suffering, from the plague and for the
transport of any clothing, bedding or other articles which have been
exposed to infection.
Prohibition of
the use of infect-
ed water.
8. If it shall appear to the Collector or an officer deputed by him
in this behalf that the water in any well, tank or other place is likely,
if used for drinking, to engender or to cause the spread of the plague,
he may by public notice prohibit the removal or use of the said water.
Destruction of
huts and sheds.
9. If the Collector of the district or an officer generally or
specially authorised 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; and the Chairman of the Munici-
pal Council or the President of the District Board, as the case may
be, may in his discretion grant compensation for any loss or damage
caused by reason of such destruction out of the Municipal Fund
constituted under Madras Act IV of 1884 or the Local Fund con-
stituted under Madras Act V of 1884, as the case may be.
Plague patients
not to be carried
in public con-
veyances.
10 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 a public conveyance.
Infected build-
ings not to be let
without previous
disinfection.
11. No person shall let a building or part of a building in which he
knows, or has reason to know, that a person has been 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.
Entry for exe-
cution of work
and abatement of
nuisances.
12. The Collector or an officer generally or specially authorised by
him in writing in this behalf may, when he considers necessary, enter
upon any premises, whether situated 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,
APP. IV, ] Regulations under the Epidemic Diseases Act.
187
sections 186, 220, 221 and 228 of the District Municipalities Act, 1884,
or sections 99 and 101 of the Local Boards Act, 1884.
Rags and used
gunny-bags.
13. The Collector of the district may, in his discretion, order the
disinfection or destruction of any collection of rags in rag-pickers'
houses and rag-stores or of second-hand gunny-bags imported from
any part of India infected by the plague and no person shall be
entitled to claim compensation for any loss or damage sustained by
reason of the disinfection or destruction of such articles under the
powers conferred by this regulation,
Examination of
railway traveller
and segregation
of plague cases.
14. At or near any railway station appointed by notification in
the Fort St. George Gazette as an inspection station, any medical
officer appointed in this behalf may detain any train and may require
any person travelling therein to alight and submit himself to medical
examination as the medical officer may direct, either on the railway
premises or in some other suitable place which the Collector shall, if
necessary, provide at the expense of the Municipal or Local Fund, as
the case may be, and if the said person is suffering from, or suspected
to be suffering from, the bubonic plague, the medical officer may deal
with him under the preceding regulation 3.
Ascertaining
particulars re.
garding travel-
lers. Detention
of persons from
infected districts
without fixed
place of resi-
dence.
Any such medical officer may also demand of any person so travel-
ling his name, his usual abode and particulars of the places in which
he has resided or which he has visited during the preceding fifteen
days and also the address to which he is about to proceed and any other
particulars which the medical officer may think fit. in view of satisfy-
ing himself as to the likelihood of the said person's spreading the
infection of the plague. A person so interrogated shall be bound to
answer truly to the best of his knowledge and belief all such
questions and enquiries. If any such person is found to have, within
the preceding ten days, been within a part of India believed by such
medical officer to be infected by the plague and is unable to satisfy
such officer that he is proceeding to any fixed place of residence,
such officer may remove-him, or cause him to be removed, to a place
provided under regulation 2 and may there cause him to be detained
for ten days, when, if he is certified free from the infection of the
plague, he shall be permitted to depart therefrom.
Penalty.
15. Any person disobeying or contravening any of the foregoing
regulations shall be deemed to have committed an offence punishable
under section 188 of the Indian Penal Code and shall be liable on
conviction to be punished with imprisonment of either description for
a term which may extend to six months or with fine which may extend
to one thousand rupees or with both.
188
Regulations under the Epidemic Diseases Act. [ APP. IV.
Passengers'
tickets to be
marked to indi-
cate inspection
having been per-
formed.
16.* The inspecting medical officer atan inspection station notified
under regulation 14 may require any passenger who may have been
medically inspected to deliver up his ticket in order that some mark
indicative of his having been inspected may be impressed thereon ;
and such passenger shall be bound to deliver it up accordingly.
Station master
or ticket col-
lector to require
passengers to
furnish particu-
lars to the Police.
17. On a passenger's alighting at a railway station, which has not
been appointed an inspection station under regulation 14, holding a
Bombay to
Sayn,
Bombay to
Dhond.
Bombay to
Manmad.
Poona
to
Alandi.
Karachi to Shikar-
pur and Pano Akil
and all stations south
of them to Dabheji
viá both North-
Western main line
and
Kotri-Rohri
chord.
Hyderabad-Shadi-
palli Railway (Sind).
ticket from a station which is within the
limits prescribed in the margin and men-
tioned in Appendix At to these regu-
lations or which is within the Goa
territory, the station master or ticket
collector shall stop such passenger and
require him to furnish to the police officer
on duty at the station his name and
address with particulars of the place
whither he is bound, his business at such place, and the length or
time he means to stay there ; and the passenger shall be bound to
furnish such information and answer all such enquiries truthfully to
the best of his knowledge and belief. If there is no police officer
at the railway station, the station master or ticket-collector shall
himself record the said particulars.
Particulars to
be communicat-
ed to the author-
ities of the local-
ity in which the
passenger's des-
tination is situât-
ed.
The police officer, station master or ticket-collector, as the case
may be, shall thereupon communicate forthwith such information to
the officer in charge of the nearest police station, who shall imme-
diately communicate the same to the Divisional Magistrate, the District
Medical and Sanitary Officer and the officer in charge of the police
station within whose jurisdiction the place of the destination of the
passenger is situated. The last mentioned officer shall inform the
Municipal Chairman or the headman of the village, as the case may be,
of the said place in view of the passengers being kept under observation.
Passengers
alighting to evade
inspection to be
compelled to
continue journey
18. If a passenger from any railway station referred to in the
last preceding regulation appears to be attempting to evade inspec-
tion at an inspection station by alighting at a station short of that
for which his ticket has been taken, the station master or railway
official in charge shall insist on his continuing his journey as far as
the inspection station either by the same or the next following
train and may, with the assistance of the police, take all such steps
as may be necessary to compel him to do so.
* Rules 16 to 20 issued in Notification No. 18, dated the 6th April 1897.
Not printed.
APP. IV.] Regulations under the Epidemic Diseases Act.
189
Such passengers
may be detained
and forwarded
by another train.
19. Any such passenger alighting at a railway station short of
an inspection station, who from his being unable to show any busi-
ness at the place of alighting appears to have so alighted for the
purpose of evading examination at such inspection station, may be
detained by the station master at the railway station at which he has
alighted . and be forwarded by the same or the next train to
the inspection station. The railway fare of the person so detained
and forwarded to the inspection station shall be paid by the pas-
senger and, if not paid, shall be recovered from him by the railway
authorities as excess fare.
Through car-
riages from the
Bombay Presi-
dency to be dis«
infected on being
detached.
20. When any through carriage from the Bombay Presidency is
detached from a train at any railway station in Madras Presidency,
it shall be disinfected or ventilated in the following manner as soon
as possible and before it is again brought into use:—
Third and intermediate class carriages—
The interior wood-work of the carnages, especially the floors
and seats, shall be thoroughly washed with a solution of perchloride
of mercury (1 in 1,000) or with a carbolic acid solution (a wine-
glassful to a gallon); the doors and windows shall be opened, and the
vehicle exposed to the air.
First and second class carriages—
The floors and wood-work shall be treated as above, the cushions
being also brushed and thoroughly cleaned.
Destruction or
disinfection of
infected clothing
or bedding.
21.* The clothing, bedding and personal effects of all persons
detained or segregated under regulation 3 or removed under regula
tion 14 to a place provided under regulation 2 shall be thoroughly
disinfected and may, at the discretion of the medical officer in charge
of the place of detention or segregation, be destroyed.
Payment of
compensation.
The Collector of the district may in his discretion, at the cost of
Local or Municipal funds, award compensation for articles destroyed,
but no person shall be entitled as of right to recover any compensation
by way of damages or otherwise for the destruction or disinfection
of any article dealt with as above.
Provision of new
articles.
Where the clothes or bedding of a traveller shall have been des-
troyed as hereinbefore provided, the medical officer may, if the per-
son is poor, arrange for providing other necessary articles in their
place, the cost of the same being intimated to the Collector of the
district who shall debit it to Local or Municipal funds at his dis-
cretion.
* Rule 21 issued in Notification No. 19, dated the I2th April 1897.
190
Regulations under the Epidemic Diseases Act. [App. IV.
Regulations issued by the Government of Bengal.
GENERAL REGULATIONS ISSUED BEFORE THE PASSING
OF THE EPIDEMIC DISEASES ACT.
Instructions to
the Corporation
of Calcutta.
No. 35.
Resolution No. 937-T.—M , dated the 10th October 1896.
In the Government letter* No. 77O-T.—M. of the 30th September, a
copy of which is annexed to this Resolution, the Corporation of Calcutta
were addressed on the subject of the reported outbreak of plague in
Bombay, and it was suggested that the following measures should be
taken under sections 321 to 334 of the Calcutta Municipal Act:—
(1) To declare bubonic plague or any form of typhus fever
with glandular swellings to be a dangerous disease
regarding any case of which information should at once
be communicated to the Commissioners or their Health
Officerunder section 321.
(2) To select a site for a temporary plague hospital away from
the main thoroughfares, and to arrange for its prompt
erection should the need arise.
(3) To provide special carts for the conveyance of cases to
hospital, and to arrange for the disinfection of both carts
and drivers.
(4) To divide the town into sanitary circles of manageable
size, and to place in charge of each a medical inspector
with full powers to carry out the measures ordered by the
Commissioners or Government for preventing the spread
of the disease.
(5) To draw up regulations under section 334 of the Act, in
order to give effect to such special measures as might
be necessary to prevent, check or mitigate an outbreak
of plague.
The Corporation were further informed that the Government would
be prepared to appoint a Medical Board to assist the Corporation in
devising measures to deal with the disease.
Instructions to
the Magistrate of
Howrah.
2. While trusting that no necessity for the above measures would
arise, the Lieutenant-Governor expressed his entire approval of the
steps taken under the Commissioners' orders to give special attention
* Not printed.
APP. IV.] Regulations under the Epidemie Diseases Act.
191
to the cleansing and sanitation of Calcutta. A copy of the letter was
sent to the Commissioner of Burdwan, who was directed to instruct the
Magistrate of Howrah to move the Municipality to take the necessary
action to cleanse and sanitate the town.
Suspicious case
at Howrah.
3. A case of mild bubonic plague is now reported to have occurred
in Howrah, the patient being a Eurasian lad of 17, who arrived from
Bombay on the 26th September, and is believed (though this is not
certain) to have brought the disease with him. It may be hoped that
the case is an isolated one, and that no general outbreak of the disease
will take place. But the occurrence of even a single case in a crowded
area where the sanitary conditions are suchas to favour the spread of
contagion, if not actually to generate the disease, convinces the
Lieutenant-Governor that the time has now come to adopt further pre-
ventive measures.
Appointment of
a Medical Board.
4. It has accordingly been decided to appoint the following gentlemen
to form a Medical Board for the purpose of determining the action to
be taken by all executive authorities, whether official or municipal, with
the object of preventing and checking the plague throughout Bengal :—
Hon'ble H. H. Risley, C.I.E., Secretary to
Government, Financial and Municipal
Departments.
Hon'ble P. P.layfair, C.I.E.
Hon'ble J. G. H. Glass, C.I.E., Chief
Engineer.
Surgeon-Colonel Ross, Inspector-General
of Civil Hospitals.
Surgeon-Captain Dyson, Sanitary Commis-
sioner.
Dr. Mahendra Lal Sirkar, C.I.E.
Surgeon-Captain Robson-Scott, Officiat-
ing Deputy Sanitary Commissioner,
Presidency Circle
President.
Members
I
Secretary.
Suspected cases
tobe reported to
the Board.
Orders issued by
the Board to be
deemed orders of
the Government,
5. All cases of illness which are believed to be plague should at once
be reported to the Board by the Magistrate of the district where they
occur, and in Calcutta by the Health Officer of the Corporation. The
orders issued by the Board on matters affecting health and conservancy
should be deemed to be the orders of Government and carried out with
all possible despatch by all executive authorities. Steps will hereafter
be taken, if necessary, to legalise all action taken during the present
emergency. Nothing should meantime prevent the Board from ordering,
or the executive authorities from carrying out, any reasonable measure
of precaution, segregation or disinfection which may appear called for.