NationalLibraryOfScotland/medical-history-of-british-india huggingface dataset:
15
Part I—Rule 35.]
Attempts to
evade inspec-
tion.
35. If a passenger from a plague-infected or notified area
appears to be attempting to evade inspection either by alight-
ing at a railway station short of that for which his ticket has
been taken or of an inspection station, or by arriving other-
wise than by train at or beyond an inspection station, and is
unable to show any business at the place of alighting or
arrival, he may be detained by the stationmaster or railway
official in charge or by any officer specially authorized by
the Collector in this behalf at the railway station at which he
has alighted or arrived and with the assistance of the Police
be forwarded or returned, as the case may be, to the inspection
station by the same or next train proceeding thereto and
there handed over to the medical officer in charge. The
railway fare of the person so detained and forwarded to the
inspection station shall be paid by the passenger and, if not
paid, shall be recovered from him by the railway authorities
as excess fare.
Note.—The powers conferred by this rule should only be exercised
under exceptional circumstances to prevent evasion of the passport rules.
36. Special care should be taken to prevent evasion of the
rules by passengers halting or re-booking at intermediate
stations. If a passenger coming from a plague-infected area
breaks his journey at any station short of his destination, his
ticket should notwithstanding, be punched, or if the station
has not been supplied with a plague punch, the right-hand
lower corner of the ticket should be clipped with scissors. If
a passenger coming from a plague-infected area alights at any
station, he should be brought under the passport rules. If
he announces his intention of re-booking within twelve hours,
his new ticket shall be punched or clipped as above. If ne-
cessary, the powers conferred by the last preceding rule may
also be employed, and passengers whose conduct gives ground
to suppose that they intend to evade the rules should be
watched.
Intimation to
Ceylon medi-
cal officer at
Tuticorin,
37, 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 Tuticorin. The cost of these telegrams will be recovered
from the Ceylon Government by the Accountant-General.
Movement of
troops, police
and coolies.
38, When a large body of troops or police or coolies
engaged in plague operations are returning to a healthy district,
previous intimation of their departure should be given to the
Collector of the District in which the place of destination
16
[Part I—Rule 39,
is situated. Before starting, they should be carefully exam-
ined and disinfected, and on arrival at their destination, they
should be given passports according to the rules. With
regard to troops and their families and followers leaving in-
footed areas the orders issued by the military authorities
require (a) that they should be inspected and disinfected
before departure, (b) that they should also be disinfected on
arrival at their military stations, and (c) that, whore possible,
regimental arrangements should be made to house them
separatelv for from to twelve days.
Expenditure
on inspection
sheds.
39» Any expenditure incurred in providing inspection
sheds on railway platforms in oases where there are no proper
facilities in the railway station for the examination of pass-
engers in accordance with the plague regulations or in (he
supply of punches or scissors for marking railway tickets
should be borne by the civil department and not by the
railway administrations.
Pairs, Festi-
vals and
Pilgrimages.
40. When a festival, 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 Collec-
tor may apply to Government for orders to prohibit attend-
ance thereat and to enforce the prohibition by stopping
temporarily the issue of railway tickets to persons from
infected areas or by other means. A similar course should
be adopted when a festival, 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.
41, 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
fair or festival. In order 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 during the ensuing
three months, and should send by the 15th of each month
their recommendations relating to religious and other gather-
ings'to be held in the next month but one. ."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.
42. 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 shown in
Appendix II—M. Skeleton notifications are printed as
Appendix II—N.
17
Part I—Rule 43.]
43. The prohibition of attendance at fairs and festivals
should ordinarily be applied only to the larger fairs and
festivals. In the case of unimportant local festivals, a careful
working of the passport rules should suffice.
44. 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
village or town in order to prevent pilgrims from entering
the place unobserved. Persons who are suspected to have
come from infected parts should be passported and watched
for ten days. 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.
45. 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 festival 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.
46. 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 Hecljaz 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, sent 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
days' observation in a camp before being sent to their homes.
The authorities of the port of landing are required to send
c
18
[Part I—Rule 47.
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,
Information
regarding
plague cases
and arrivals
from infected
areas.
47. Every house-holder and every medical practitioner
who becomes cognizant of the occurrence in his house or in any
public or private dwelling or place within the limits of the
municipality, town or village in which he resides, of any case
of plague or of fever with glandular swellings, and in the case
of persons who live within an area that has been notified as
infected or who have been in any way exposed to plague
infection, of acute affections of the lung, of convulsions in
children, abortion in women and sudden death in the aged,
shall be bound to give information of the same, with the least
practicable delay, in a municipality to the chairman of the
council and the medical officer in charge of the municipal
dispensary or hospital, and in a non-municipal town or village
to the village head or to other nearest officer of the revenue
or medical department, who shall report the fact at once
to their immediate official superiors.
48. Every house-holder and every keeper or person in
charge of an hotel, chattram or other place of public resort,
shall also in the same manner forthwith report the arrival at
the house, hotel, chattram or other place, of any person from
any area which has been declared by the Governor in Council
or by the Collector to be infected or which has been notified
by the Governor in. Council for the purposes of these rules.
Power to
enter any
building or
place for the
purpose of
inspecting'
plague cases
and taking
necessary
measnres.
49. The Collector or any officer authorized by him for
this purpose may at any time enter any building or place in
which plague is reputed or suspected to exist, and may inspect
and, if necessary, detain or remove and isolate any person
Buffering or suspected to be suffering from plague or to have
so lately suffered from plague as to be in an infectious state,
or likely from recent contact with plague cases to have been
infected or to be in an infectious state, or believed to have
recently arrived from an infected or notified area.
Bringing of
susceptible
articles from
infected areas
prohibited,
50. The bringing, taking, sending, or consigning, by sea
or land, of soiled linen and used bedding (except when, carried
as the personal baggage of travellers), rags, and waste paper
from a plague-infected place in India into or through any
other part of India to which the Epidemic Diseases Act,
1897, applies, having been prohibited by the Government of
India, the Collector shall take due steps to make the prohibi-
tion known and to enforce it. Articles brought in contra-
vention of this prohibition shall be destroyed, and no person
19
Part I—Rule 51.]
shall be entitled to claim compensation on account of such
destraction. See also Appendix I, note (6) on Disinfection.
Destruction
of ruts.
51. The Collector shall arrange for the frequent inspec-
tion of consignments of grain arriving from plague-infected
areas and of landing places, railway goods-sheds, and grain
bazaars, and for the killing and subsequent destruction by
burning of all rats found therein. When any place is
infected, steps shall be taken to destroy rats in it and in
the surrounding area within a radius of ten miles. See also
Appendix I, note (7) on Rat-plague and Destruction of Rats.
Fart II.—-Bules applicable to places under observation
or imminently threatened with plague.
Areas under
observation.
52. The Governor in Council may, if it appears to him
that any district, town, village, or other area is imminently
threatened with plague, issue an order declaring such district,
town, village, or other area to be under observation. A copy
of such order shall be published in. the next issue of the Fort
St. George Gazette.
Frontier
inspection
stations.
53. Upon the issue by the Governor in Council of an
order declaring any area to be under observation, the Collector
shall, subject to the sanction of Government, establish frontier
inspection stations with the necessary staff for the examination
of persons entering the notified area. These frontier inspection
stations shall be placed both at railway stations and on roads
and shall be as near as may be to the frontier. Inspection
stations on roads shall be located at places where the nature
of the country forces traffic to converge between narrow lines
and should not be located in flat and open country where they
could be easily evaded. In special cases, and when the country
is unfavourable for inspection at fixed points patrols may be
substituted for stations.
54. At each frontier inspection station shall be erected a
sufficient number of sheds for hospital and observation pur-
poses ; and a sufficient supply of disinfectants and stores
shall be maintained.
55. All passengers arriving by rail at these inspection
stations shall be there examined and dealt with in accordance
with the provisions of Rules 16—36 supra and those arriving
by road shall also be provided with passports under Rule 2.
Observation
circles and
staff,
56. (1) The Collector shall divide the area under obser-
vation into observation circles, ordinarily with a diameter not
20
[Part II—Rule 57.
exceeding ten miles, and shall appoint an inspector for each
circle. For each non-municipal town with a population in
excess of 5,000 an assistant plague inspector should be
appointed.
(2) Every municipality which is declared to be under
observation or which is included in the area under observation
shall be divided into circles, which should, as far as possible,
follow the municipal wards, and for each circle an inspector
shall be appointed. When any ward contains less than 1,200
houses or a population of less than 5,000 persons it may be
combined with other wards to form one circle. Three circles
shall ordinarily form a division and each division shall be
placed under a divisional inspector.
(3) The Collector may also appoint plague supervisors
to check the work of inspectors and assistant inspectors.
(4) As far as possible such plague inspectors and assist-
ant plague inspectors shall be certificated sanitary inspectors,
or such as have received a special training for dealing with
plague to the satisfaction of the Sanitary Commissioner.
Hospital assistants, when available, may in all cases be
employed in place of sanitary inspectors on plague work.
Duties of the
observation
staff.
57. (1) Subject to the Collector's control, this observation
staff shall work under the district medical and sanitary officer
or other officer appointed by the Collector for the purpose.
In municipalities the Collector may place the staff under the
control of the municipal chairman, and may vary or cancel
any such order. It shall be the duty of the observation staff
constantly and systematically to patrol the circles in order
to gain the earliest possible information of any suspicious
death or of the occurrence of any case of plague, to report
immediately any such case or any suspected case and to
remove with the aid of the ordinary conservancy establish-
ment all defects in sanitation which would favour the pro-
pagation of plague, such as accumulations of filth, sewage,
or the like. It should also check the possession of passports
or passes in the case of persons arriving from an infected
locality. Should any person so arrive without a passport or
pass, or having broken its conditions, any member of the
observation staff may detain him and shall produce him at the
earliest possible date before a plague officer having jurisdic-
tion.
(2) It shall also be the duty of this staff to asc ertain
whether any special sickness or mortality has occurred
among rats, and to examine any rats that may be found, in
21
Part II—Rule 58.]
order to see whether any enlarged glands are present. Houses
in which sick or dead rats are found should be disinfected.
(3) Inspectors and assistant inspectors for their re
spective charges and village headmen for their villages shall
keep a record of all persons suffering from continuous fever
for more than twelve hours, and inspectors and assistan
inspectors shall arrange with the village headman to hav
such persons inspected twice daily. If a member of the
observation staff shall discover a case of plague, he shall
proceed in accordance with Eule 67 ei seq.
Ambulance
staff.
58. In municipalities or districts which appear to him to be .
imminently threatened with an attack of plague, the Collector
should make all arrangements necessary to enable him to
concentrate at any point on short notice an ambulance staff
together with the equipment prescribed by Government. The
ambulance staff should ordinarily be constituted as follows : —
Sanitary Section.
One certificated sanitary inspec-
tor.
One dhoby. */
Two male toties.
One female toti.
Two dhooly bearers.
Disinfectors (any number up to
50 for a single section, to be re-
cruited locally in the infected
area, if sepoys be not employed).
Medical Section.
Two hospital assistants.
One or more trained, nurses.
Four male ward attendants.
Three female ward attendants.
One dhoby.
Two cooks.
Of the foregoing staff the ward attendants, dhoby and
cooks belonging to the medical section need not be entertained
unless and until cases of plague occur, and it will usually bo
sufficient to appoint a single hospital assistant until plague
occurs.
Plague
camps.
59. The Collector may call upon any municipal council
or local board within an area under observation to provide
and maintain any or all of the following :—
(a) a hospital camp for the isolation and treatment
of persons suffering or suspected to be suffering
from plague ;
(b) a suspect camp for the detention of contacts ;
(c) a health camp for the occupation of persons who
may be required to vacate any building or ground
under these regulations and who may be unable
to procure necessary accommodation for
themselves.
22
[Part II—Rule 60.
60, The municipal council or district board shall be
bound to provide these camps in accordance with the requi-
sition of the Collector, and at such places (whether within
or without the local jurisdiction of the municipality or local
board) as the Collector, or subject to the Collector's control,
the district medical and sanitary officer or such other medical
officer as the Collector may depute, may determine. For the
camps so provided the municipal council or the district board,
as the case may be, shall furnish such hospital establishment
equipment and supplies as the Collector may direct, and shall
also make arrangements for feeding persons detained under any
of these regulations on payment by them of the cost. 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 shall have
full liberty to supply his own food subject to such rules and
conditions as the medical officer in charge may prescribe.
Acquisition
of lauds or
buildings
required for
plague
purposes.
61. The Collector or the chairman of the municipal
council .or the president of the local board may without
notice enter upon, occupy and use, or may depute any person
to enter upon, occupy and use, without having recourse to the
provisions of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, any building or
place which is required for and is, in the opinion of the district
medical and sanitary officer or other medical officer deputed in
this behalf, suitable for the purposes mentioned in the last
preceding rule, provided that if the building or place is occupied
twenty-four hours' notice in writing shall be given to the
occupier or shall be conspicuously affixed on such building or
place. The owner or the lessee of such building or place shall
be entitled to a reasonable rent to be fixed by the Collector
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: and the
Collector, chairman of the municipal council or president of
the local board, as the case may be, shall, when the building
or place ceases to be occupied for the purposes of the last
rule, thoroughly cleanse and disinfect it, and if the owner so
desires, shall whitewash internally and externally any building
so occupied. Nothing in this rule shall authorize the chair-
man of a municipal council to enter upon, occupy or use any
building or place which is the property of Government
without the previous permission of the Collector.
Private
plague camps,
62. Contributions towards the cost of the construction and
maintenance of private plague hospitals and segregation camps
in places which are or may be threatened with plague will be
23
Part II—Rule 63.]
made by Government from provincial funds in accordance
with the following scale :—
(a) For construction, half the cost will be paid by
Government provided the charges are considered reasonable
and the buildings erected on sites approved by the Collector
or Plague officer acting under his control. In any case of
doubt or dispute the Government will have the right to
estimate by means of the Public Works department the value
of the work done.
(b) For maintenance, grants not exceeding half the
actual expenses will be sanctioned by Government on the
following conditions :—
(1) The arrangements for the sanitation and supply
of food must meet with the approval of
the Collector.
(2) The amounts will be paid, month by month, in
arrears to the manager or managers approved
by the Collector.
63. Hospitals and camps to which a grant is made under
the last preceding rule will be under the general super-
vision of Government officials, but these officials will have
nothing to do with the treatment of the sick except at
their request, and their duties will be confined to preserving
order, preventing theft, keeping guard, and attending to sani-
tation. Detailed instructions with regard to the construction,
equipment and management of pingue camps will be issued
by the Sanitary Commissioner and of plague hospitals by the
Surgeon-General.
The sale-proceeds of private hospitals to which Govern-
ment, has made a contribution should be equally divided
between Government and the plague committee concerned.
Grants for
erection, of
sheds in.
rural areas.
64, In rural areas district boards may find it cheaper to
give poor people grants not exceeding Es. 3 per household
and let them make their own arrangements rather than to
build sheds for them. Such grants should be kept at as low
a figure as possible, and should be made as a rule only to those
who are otherwise unable to furnish themselves with shelter.
Occupation of
buildings
belonging to
Government
departments.
65. It may become necessary at any moment for Collectors
or other plague authorities to occupy buildings belonging to
other departments than the Revenue department, for plague
purposes. In such cases the earliest possible intimation of
such occupation should be given to the authorities in charge
of such buildings. Before occupying them any moveable
articles in the building at all likely to retain infection
should be removed and placed under proper custody.