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in their power to'assist, and it is incumbent oil all local health authori-
ties to keep the local railway officers in touch with the measures they
intend to take, and to invite their co-operation in so fa,r as railway
colonies and station premises are concerned. As soon as the local health
authorities are ready with their plans of campaign, they should inform
the railway authorities of the steps they propose to take. Railway goods
yards and stores are frequently known foci for plague, and whenever a
local board or municipality carries out preventive measures in the
vicinity, identical measures should "be conducted simultaneously in the
railway yards.
20. (ii] Persons.—Control of the movements of persons is of less
importance than that of grain. Th.e passport system has been dis-
credited. The segregation of the sick is not essential. The disinfection
of clothes and baggage is not generally practicable. In the case of towns
it is well nigh impossible to give effect to the provisions of Plague
[Regulation No. 10.
21. Village boycotts-is, the case of the ordinary village, there is no
real reason why the headman should not compel persons suspected of
coming from an infected place to have his clothes and personal effects
sun-dried or,, in the alternative, to remain outside for a couple of days.
Nor should he have difficulty in preventing grain consignments from
getting into his village until both grain and bags have been disinfected
by the sun. In some parts of the Presidency this system of ' village
boycott ' has been adopted with success by the villagers on their own
initiative. But there is reason to believe that villagers are not generally
aware of the drastic powers with which their headmen are invested.
22. It is regrettable that in the past this very useful measure has
been almost entirely neglected, and there seems to be great need for
spreading information regarding this measure among the people of the
Presidency. Where it has been adopted, it has proved of the greatest
value, and all district health authorities should see that the people in their
districts are made fully aware of their powers in this respect and of the
value of these powers.
23. Evacuation may also be encouraged, but it rests with local bodies
to provide accommodation for those who have been rendered homeless.
Evacuation should be carefully controlled by the health staff who should
see that temporary huts are erected on a convenient and suitable site
and that they are occupied only after the bedding, clothing and other
personal effects from the evacuated houses have been well exposed to the
sun's rays. Emigration from infected to uninfected places is commonly
responsible for the spread of plague, and local bodies and their health
staffs should endeavour to control any such movement, and should en-
courage villagers and townsfolk to carry oat the method of village
boycott already described. Plague refugees should at all times be
accorded a very cold welcome. The close supervision of all such move-
ments is, in any case, a- very importa.nt duty devolving on district
health staffs, and the duty is not rendered any easier when the people
carry out these migrations, as they usually do, surreptitiously and during
the hours of darkness.
24. (d] Inoculation.—Once plague has occurred or threatens to break
out, no time should be lost in conducting an inoculation campaign. The
protection that inoculation affords need not be enlarg-ed upon here, but