NationalLibraryOfScotland/medical-history-of-british-india huggingface dataset:
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Any such Medical officer or person acting under Ms imme-
diate orders may also demand of any person so travelling, 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 satisfying 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 in-
fection of the plague, he shall be permitted to depart therefrom.
14-A. If the place at which an inspection is held under
Regulation 3 be a railway station, and if no suitable accommo-
dation for plague cases has been provided in the neighbourhood
of such station, the officer making the inspection may require
that a passenger who is found to be suffering from, or suspected
to be suffering from, the plague, or to have so lately suffered
therefrom 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, be carried on by the railway administration in
a railway compartment vacated for the purpose to the nearest
inspection station or other place where such accommodation is
available.
15. 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 Regula-
tion, 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 Indian Penal Code, and
shall be liable, on conviction, to imprisonment of either descrip-
tion for a term which may extend to six months or fine which
may extend to one thousand rupees or both.
16. The Inspecting Medical officer at an inspection station
notified under Regulation 14 may require any passenger who
may have been medically inspected to deliver up his ticket in
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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.
17-i.* Every person arriving, or suspected of having arrived,
from any place declared to be infected with plague, or from
any place notified by His Excellency the Governor of Fort St.
George in Council for the purposes of this Regulation shall,
unless exempted under Regulation 31, before leaving the
railway station at which he has alighted, or before disembark-
ing from the steamer, ship or boat in which he has travelled,
or in the case of arrival by road either immediately on
reaching a Road Frontier Inspection Station or within twelve
hours from the time of arrival at any other place, obtain from
the officer mentioned in Regulation 17-ii a passport † binding
him to present himself for daily inspection for the next ten
days before the local authority of the town or village where
he may be ; and he shall be bound so to present himself.
Provided that, where it appears desirable, the Municipal
Chairman or any Revenue officer not below the grade of
Deputy Tahsildar may, by endorsement on the passport,
exempt any person from personal attendance and permit him
to be inspected at his residence.
Explanation.—By a " local authority " is meant any of the
following officers:—
(a) The local Medical officer ;
(b) The Station-house officer ;
(c) The headman of the village ;
(d) Any person appointed by the Collector of the
district for the purpose of this Regulation.
In places where there is more than one local authority,
the duties prescribed in these rules shall be performed by, or
with the permission of the Collector under the orders of, the
officer who stands first in the order given in this explanation.
17-ii. The following officers are authorized to issue pass-
ports :—
The medical officer in charge or
(a) To travellers alighting at rail-
other officer acting under his
way inspection stations.
orders
* As re-issued in G.O., No. 381-P., dated 11th March 1899, and published in the
Fort St. George Gazette, dated 11th April 1899, Part I-A, pages 139 and 140.
Note.—Copies of this Regulation should be hung up at railway stations (G.O.,
No. 466-P., dated 13th May 1898). It does not apply to passengers from a non-infected
area who pass through an infected station without breaking journey at. that station
(G.O., No. 1185-P., dated 27th September 1898).
† Note.—For passport form see page 53.
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(b) To travellers alighting at rail- {Such Medical, Sanitary or other
way stations included within
officer
as may be appointed by
municipal limits.
the Chairman with the Collector's
approval.}
(c) To travellers alighting at other {The Stationmaster or other officer
railway stations.
appointed by the Collector for the
purpose.
(d) To travellers arriving by The Medical, Sanitary or other
steamer, ship or boat.
officer appointed to examine such
travellers.
The Medical, Sanitary or other
I officer appointed to examine such
(e) To travellers arriving by road.
travellers, or if no such officer
has been appointed, the local
authority of the place of arrival.
17-iii. Every person required to take out a passport shall
declare truly his name, address, and such other particulars as
may be required by the officer issuing the passport and shall re-
port forthwith to the local authority any change in his place
of residence occurring within ten days from the date of arrival.
On the expiry of ten days, he shall deliver up his passport
to the local authority of the place where he may then be.
17-iv. The issue of a passport, or any change in the residence
of the person to whom it has been granted, shall immediately
be communicated by the officer issuing it (in the former case)
or by the local authority (in the latter case) to the Municipal
Chairman or the local authority of the place of destination.*
If the local authority of the place of destination is not known,
the intimation shall be sent to the Tahsildar concerned for
transmission to the local officer by whom the traveller has to
be observed. The communication may be made by a post
card, or by a special messenger, or in any other manner which
the Collectors concerned may determine. The telegraph need
be used only in urgent cases.
Intimation of departure to any railway station in the
Province of Mysore shall, however, be telegraphed to the—
(a) Assistant Surgeon on plague duty, Yesvantpur,
when the destination is a station on the Mysore
State Railway;
(b) Residency Surgeon, Bangalore, when the destina-
tion is a station within Mysore Province on the
Madras Railway.
] 7-v. The local authority of the place of destination shall
see that, on the arrival of the traveller, he is observed daily for
* This rule applies whether the place of destination is in British or Mysore territory.
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ten days. Any case of illness or death in the house in which
such traveller is or has been residing shall be forthwith re-
ported to the immediate superior of the local authority with
full details. After ten days, the passport shall be recovered
from the traveller and sent to the Tahsildar.
Any officer of the Revenue Department not below the
rank of Deputy Tahsildar may require that the person or the
clothing and other effects of the traveller shall be disinfected
in such manner as may be ordered by the Collector.
17-vi. The headman of every village shall keep himself
promptly informed of the arrival of every person from an
infected or notified area without a passport and shall deal
with him as in the preceding clauses of this Regulation to
which such person shall be bound to submit himself.
17-vii. A register * shall be maintained by each local
authority in the following form :—
(1) Date of receipt of intimation.
(2) Name of traveller.
(3) From what infected or notified area arriving.
(4) Date of arrival of traveller.
(5) Number, date and place of issue of passport.
(6) How long kept under observation.
(7) State of health of the traveller and other persons living in
the house in which he is or has been residing.
(8) Date of departure if occurring within ten days.
(9) Destination.
(10) Date of intimation of departure to the local authority of
the place of destination.
(11) Date of despatch of the passport to the Tahsildar.
17-viii. In the case of persons passing through a Railway
Frontier Inspection Station, the Medical officer in charge
shall arrange to record the following information in respect
to every traveller from an infected or notified area who is
not detained by him under the provisions of Regulation 14
and to send it without delay—if possible by the railway guard
of the same or next train—to the District Medical and Sani-
† whether in British or tary officer of the Districtf to which such
Mysore territory.
traveller is proceeding:—
(1) Date of arrival.
(2) Name of traveller.
(3) Father's name.
(4) Caste.
(5) Age.
(6) Whence coming.
* Note.—The register may be kept in manuscript (GLO., No. 466-P., dated 13th
May 1898).
5
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District.
Taluk.
(7) Destination and residence during Village.
the next ten days.
Street.
Number or name of the
owner
of the house.
17-ix. In the case of other persons coming from an infected
or notified area, the duty of recording the above information
and communicating it to the District Medical and Sanitary
officer shall devolve on the officer issuing the passport.
17-x. The District Medical and Sanitary officer shall for-
ward the report referred to in Regulation 17-viii and ix to the
Tahsildar concerned, whose duty it shall be to see that the per-
sons therein mentioned are duly observed, and that any case of
sickness or death in the houses occupied by them is promptly
reported, and to bring to the Collector's notice all instances
of omission to issue passports or attempts to evade this
Regulation.
17-xi. Whenever the deaths reported from any village are
found to be more frequent than usual, or when any case of
fever with glandular swellings is reported, the Tahsildar with
the nearest Medical officer shall at once proceed to the village
and make inquiries with a view to ascertain whether plague
exists in the village.
17-xii. In municipalities, the Tahsildar's duties under this
Regulation shall be performed by the Municipal Chairman.
The term "Tahsildar" includes Deputy Tahsildar.
17-xiii. In the case of minors and incapacitated persons,
the obligation to take out passports for them, to present them
for daily inspection, to report truly their names and addresses,
to intimate any change in their residence, and to comply other-
wise with the requirements of this Regulation shall vest in
their legal guardians or persons in whose charge they travel
or who receive them at the railway station of destination.
18. If a passenger from any railway station referred to in
the last preceding Regulation appears to be attempting to evade
inspection 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.
19. Any such passenger alighting at a railway station short
of an inspection station, who from his being unable to show any
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business at the place of alighting appears to have so alightea
for the purpose of evading examination at such inspection
station, may be detained by the statiomnaster at the railway
station at which he has alighted and he 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 he paid by the passenger and, if not paid, shall be
recovered from him by the railway authorities as excess fare.
* 20. When any carriage from the Bombay Presidency or
from any infected area is detached from a train at any railway
station in the 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 carriages, 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) applied with a mop ; 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.
* 20-A. Any railway carriage from which a passenger who is
suffering or suspected to be suffering from the plague has been
removed shall be detached at the nearest convenient station, and
shall be disinfected as follows :—
(i) The carriages, after being detached from the train,
should be thoroughly washed with soft soap and lime-water.
After an interval of two to three hours, this should be washed
off with plain water, and then the following disinfecting
solution should be thoroughly sprayed ail over the interior
as well as the exterior of the carriages by means of a
syringe :—
Corrosive sublimate ...
Hydrochloric acid
Water ...
½ OZ.
1
„
3 gallons.
This solution should be allowed to dry on the car-
riages. Special care must be taken to direct the solution
into all the cracks and crevices and jilmills.
* As amended by G.O., No. 73-P., dated 22nd February 1898; Notification No. l70,
Fort St. George Gazette, dated 1st March 1898, Part I-A, pages 63 and 64,
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(ii) After disinfection, the carriages should be kept out
in the open for 48 hours. They can then be brought into
use again.
(iii) In the case of first and second class carriages,
which afford greater facilities than third-class compartments
for the harbouring of plague germs, it will be necessary, if
the carriages are contaminated, to burn the cushions and to
disinfect the wood-work in the manner indicated above, and
repaint the interior.
(iv) Any compartment in which a suspicious case has
travelled should be sprayed with the above disinfecting solu-
tion before being allowed to proceed.
21. The clothing, bedding and personal effects of all persons
detained or segregated under Regulation 3, or removed under
Regulation 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.
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.
Where the clothes or bedding of a traveller shall have been
destroyed as hereinbefore provided, the Medical officer may, if
the person 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 discretion.
21-A. The District Collector or any officer appointed by him
either generally or specially in this behalf, or the Medical officer
in charge of a railway inspection station, may take any measures
that he may deem necessary for the disinfection of the clothing
of any person found within the limits of his jurisdiction, who,
in the opinion of the said officer, is likely to have been infected,
or of any articles likely in the opinion of the said officer to carry
infection, which are in the possession of such person ; and such
person shall be bound to submit to such measures, and he may,
if necessary, be detained until such measures are taken.
22. 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
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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.
23. The Collector is empowered to direct the evacuation of
houses in the neighbourhood of an infected house or of a block
of houses or a particular locality, and to prohibit re-occupation
of such houses or locality without permission. The Collector
shall give notice for such period as he may deem necessary, and
shall provide temporary accommodation for those removed from
the houses evacuated. The Collector may require the evicted
persons to reside in any place which he may appoint, under
such restrictions as he may deem necessary, for a period not
exceeding ten days, after which, provided no further sickness
has occurred, any one who wishes to depart may, after necessary
precautions, be allowed to depart.
24. The Collector of the district or any officer specially
authorized by him in this behalf is empowered to close 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 of all articles
of food and drink found in such places.
25. (1) The Collector of the district, when and to the extent
he may deem necessary, may make Regulations—
(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.
(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.
(3) When a person dies of the plague elsewhere than
within the limits of a hospital, no one shall touch the corpse
* As amended by G.O , No. 429-P., dated 4th May 1898 ; Notification No. 377, Fort
St. George Gazette, dated 10th May 1898, Part I-A, page 124.
Note.—Any Regulations which the Collectors may find necessary to frame under
this clause should provide that, when the burial of a person who has died of plague
takes place in proximity to habitations or sources of water-supply, the corpse shall be
wrapped in a cloth soaked in a solution of corrosive sublimate and be buried six feet
deep. (G.O., No. 429-P., dated 4th May 1898.)
38
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.
26. A canal boat shall be subject to all the Regulations
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.
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.
27. The Collector of the district may prescribe that no
dhobies within an infected area to which he may extend this
Regulation shall wash clothes except at such places and at such
times and under such conditions as may be prescribed.
* 28. (1) In the absence of a written contract to the
contrary, every maistri, peon, watchman, cooly or scavenger
employed to do duty in connection with plague, shall be
entitled to one month's notice before discharge, or to one
month'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 or sca-
venger 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.
29. Officers specially appointed by the District Collector for
this purpose are authorized to prevent the passage of suspicious
persons from or into, as the case may be, any town, village or
local area to which this rule may be applied by the Govern-
ment, unless such persons have been detained in a place of
observation for a period prescribed by the Government, and, if
arrangements for disinfection of their clothing, baggage, &c.,
have been made under the Collector's orders, unless such dis-
infection has been effected. Such officers shall have the widest
discretionary power, subject to the general or special orders of
* As revised by G.O , No. 604, dated 26th April 1899 ; Notification No. 389,
published in the Fort St. George Gazette, dated 2nd May 1899, Part I-A, page 179,