NationalLibraryOfScotland/medical-history-of-british-india huggingface dataset:
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work required under, or summarily abate any of the nuisances
described or indicated in, sections 313, 314, 321, 322, 326 or
327 of the City of Madras Municipal Act, 1884.
3. When in the opinion of the Health officer of the munici-
pality and of a Medical officer deputed by the Surgeon-General
or, in the absence of any such officer, of the Surgeon of the
district, any building or place is so overcrowded as to make the
inmates or occupants thereof specially liable to an attack of
the bubonic plague, the President or any officer generally or
specially authorized by him in writing in this behalf may, by
notice posted on some conspicuous part of the building or place,
require the owner or occupier, if actually residing in the build-
ing or place, or the tenants or the actual inmates thereof, to
abate as prescribed in the notice the overcrowding within
twenty-four hours by reducing the number of lodgers, tenants
or inmates of the said building or place ; and in default of
compliance with the requisition in the said notice may sum-
marily eject all the inmates or occupants, or reduce the number
of inmates or occupants in such manner and to such extent as
may appear necessary; and the owner or the tenants or the
inmates of such building or place shall not be entitled to claim
any compensation on account of such ejection.
4. When any building or place has, in the opinion of the
Health officer of the municipality, been so infected with the
plague as to render its further occupation a source of danger to
the inmates, tenants or occupants thereof, the President or any
officer generally or specially authorized by him in writing in
this behalf may summarily cause such building or place to be
vacated and thoroughly cleansed and disinfected; and the said
officer may cause the inmates of such building or place to be
detained and segregated in such place as he may appoint for a
period not exceeding ten days from, the date of the occurrence
of the last case of plague among such persons ; and the building
or place shall not be re-occupied until, in the opinion of the
Health officer, it is safe to be re-occupied; and the owner or
occupier or the tenants or the inmates thereof shall not be
entitled to claim any compensation on account of anything done
under this Regulation.
In like manner if it appears to the said officer that, in view
of the prevalence of the plague within his jurisdiction, any
building within such jurisdiction, intended or used as a dwell-
ing, is in so insanitary a condition as to be unfit for human
habitation, he may summarily cause the same to be vacated
and prohibit by a written order the further use of such building
as a dwelling. After such prohibition no owner or occupier
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of such building shall use or suffer the same to be used for
human habitation until the said officer gives written permission
in this behalf.
5. No person shall let, or show for the purpose of letting,
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 President in
this behalf.
6. If, in the opinion of the Health officer and of a Medical
officer deputed by the Surgeon-General or, in the absence of
any such officer, of the Surgeon of the district, the destruc-
tion of any hut or shed is necessary to prevent the spread of
the plague, the President or any officer generally or specially
authorized by him in writing in this behalf may summarily take
measures for the destruction of such hut or shed and of the
materials of which it is constructed ; and the President may,
in his discretion, give compensation, but no person shall be
entitled to claim it of right, at the expense of the Municipal
fund constituted under Madras Act I of 1884 for any loss or
damage caused by reason of such destruction.
7. The President may, in his discretion, disinfect or destroy
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 him
by reason of the disinfection or destruction of any such articles
under the powers conferred by this Regulation.
7-A. The President of the Municipal Commission or any
officer appointed by him either generally or specially in this
behalf, or the Medical officer in charge of 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.
* 8. The President shall provide and maintain in such
localities whether within or without the municipal limits, as
* As amended by G.O., No. 13-P., dated 4th January 1899; Notification Mo. 18,
Fort St. George Gazette, dated 10th January 1899, Part I-A, pages 4 and 5.
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in the opinion of the Health officer of the municipality may
be proper for the purpose, suitable and sufficient accommo-
dation as approved by the Health officer and by a Medical
officer deputed by the Surgeon-General or, in the absence of
any such officer, by the Surgeon of the district, for the
isolation and treatment of persons suffering from or suspected
to be suffering from the plague, or to have so lately suffered
from the 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, and for their detention until they
shall be certified to be free from infection. In the places so
provided, the President shall furnish such hospital establish-
ments, equipment and supplies as the Health officer may
require, and shall also make arrangements for feeding persons
detained under any of the regulations now prescribed, on
payment by them of the cost; but in the case of indigent
persons the President shall supply them with food free of
charge : provided that any person so detained may cater for
himself subject to such rules and conditions as the Health
officer may prescribe. The President shall also in like
manner and subject to like approval provide accommodation
for persons who may be required to vacate any building or
ground under the preceding Regulations Nos. 3 and 4, and
who may be unable to procure necessary accommodation for
themselves. He shall also appoint such other establishments
as he considers necessary to carry out the Regulations under
the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897.
Explanation.—Any certificate given under this Regulation
should contain an accurate description of the person named in
it to prevent so far as possible its being used by another
person.
* 9. Any building or place, whether within or without the
municipal limits, which is in the opinion of the Health officer
and of a Medical officer deputed by the Surgeon-General or, in
the absence of any such officer, of the Surgeon of the district,
suitable and required for the purpose of the accommodation
to be provided under Regulation 8, may be entered † upon and
occupied by the Municipal Commissioners (if unoccupied with-
out any notice whatsoever and if occupied after twenty-four
hours' notice in writing conspicuously posted on such building
* As amended by G.O., No. 1374-P., dated 25th October 1898 ; Notification No. 901,
Fort St. George Gazette, dated 1st November 1898, Part I-A, page 312.
† Note.—This provision obviates the necessity for taking action under the Land
Acquisition Act (G.O., No. 940-P., dated 29th August 1898 5 P.O., No. 1002, dated 14th
April 1899).
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or place) and used for the purposes of the accommodation
under Regulation 8 as aforesaid ; and the owner or the lessee
of such building or place shall not be entitled to claim from
the Municipal Commissioners anything beyond a reasonable
rent for the period during which the building or place may
remain in their occupation : provided always the Municipal
Commissioners shall be bound at their own cost to cleanse
and disinfect the said building or place and, if a building, to
whitewash it both internally and externally before vacating it.
10. The Municipal Commissioners shall provide suitable
conveyances for the free carriage of persons suffering or
suspected to be suffering from or infected by the plague,
and for the transport of any clothing, bedding or other articles
which may have been exposed to infection.
11. When in any building or place there is a person
suffering or suspected to be suffering from the bubonic plague,
or to have so lately suffered from the 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 area, the President
or any officer generally or specially authorized by him in
writing in this behalf may enter and inspect such person or
building or place, and either—
(a) remove such person to one of the places of accom-
modation provided under Regulation 8, and in such
place or in some other place so provided to which,
at the discretion of the Health officer, he may
from time to time be removed, there detain and
treat him until he shall be certified by the Medi-
cal officer in charge of the place to be free from
infection, or
(b) take measures for segregating and detaining such
person in his own house or in some other suitable
place, if, in the opinion of the Health officer,
the said person can be there treated with no
greater risk of spreading the infection than would
arise if he were removed to a place provided
under Regulation 8.
Provided that no person segregated or detained under
this Regulation shall leave the place of segregation or
detention except with the written permission of the
officer in charge, who may take such steps as may
be necessary to enforce this prohibition.
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12. At or near the railway station of Perambúr any Medical
officer appointed either generally or specially by the President
of the municipality in this behalf may detain any train and
may require any person travelling therein to alight and sub-
mit himself to medical examination as the Medical officer may
direct, and may for this purpose, with the assistance if neces-
sary of the police, using such reasonable force as may be
required, detain such passenger either on the railway pre-
mises or in some other suitable place which the President shall,
if necessary, provide at the expense of the Municipal fund ;
and if the said person is found to be suffering from or is sus-
pected to be suffering from the bubonic plague, or to have so
lately suffered from the 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, the Medical officer
may deal with him under Regulation 11.
Any such Medical officer or other officer generally or specially
appointed by the President in this behalf may also demand of
any person so travelling his name, his usual abode and parti-
culars 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 or other 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 inquiries.
If any such person is found to have within the preceding
ten days been within a part of India believed by such Medical
or other 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 8, 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.
13. 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 pun-
ishable under section 188 of the Indian Penal Code and shall
be liable on conviction to imprisonment of either description
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for a term which may extend to six months or fine which may
extend to one thousand rupees or both.
14. The President of the Municipal Commission is em-
powered 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 President shall give notice for such
period as he may deem necessary, and shall provide temporary
accommodation for those removed from the houses evacuated.
The President 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.
15. The President of the Municipal Commission 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 neighbourhood of infected houses, and to direct the
removal of all articles of food and drink found in such places.
16. (1) The President of the Municipal Commission, when
and to the extent he may deem necessary, may make Regula-
tions—
(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.
* 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 Rogulations which the President 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.)
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(3) When a person dies of the plague elsewhere than
within the limits of a hospital, no one shall touch the corpse
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 President
of the Municipal Commission in this behalf.
17. 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 President of the
Municipal Commission 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.
18. The President of the Municipal Commission may, in
order to prevent the spread of the infection of the plague,
prescribe that no dhobies shall wash clothes except at such
places and at such times and under such conditions as may be
prescribed.
* 19. (1) In the absence of a written contract to the contrary,
every maistri, peon, watchman, cooly, or scavenger employed
by the President, Municipal Commission, to do duty in
connection with plague or general sanitation, 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 to the President or neglect, or refuse to
perform his duties or any of them.
20. When, in the exercise of the powers conferred by or
under these rules, a pass or certificate is granted to any person
*As revised by G.O., No. 604-P., dated 26th April 1899; Notification No. 389;
published in the Fort St. George Gazette, dated 2nd May 1899, Part I-A., page 179.
3
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or persons to enable him or them to go from one place to another
or for any purpose, such pass or certificate shall not be used
by any other person or persons or for any other purpose.
*21. The provisions of these Regulations in regard to
segregation do not apply to persons who hold certificates that
they have been inoculated by M. Haffkine's process, provided
such certificates bear a date not earlier than six months but
not later than ten days, previously. Such persons shall be
entitled to the following privileges :—
(a) Unless suffering from, or suspected to be suffering
from, plague, they shall not be liable to detention at any
railway or road observation camp when travelling, except for
such period as may be required to disinfect their baggage and
clothes, if those are considered suspicious.
(b) They shall not be liable to take out passports and
present themselves daily for observation for ten days after
arrival from a plague-infected place, or from any place noti-
fied by His Excellency the Governor of Fort St. George in
Council for the purposes of No. 22 of the City of Madras
Plague Regulations; but they may be observed at their own
residence and shall, with this view, be bound when required
by any Plague officer to give their names and addresses for
the next ten days.
(c) Inoculated persons who have been living in an
infected house or have otherwise been exposed to plague
infection shall not be liable to be segregated, but may be
required to evacuate the infected house and to have their
clothes and personal effects disinfected. When, however, all
the occupants of a house have been inoculated, neither the
patients nor the other inmates of the house shall be required
to be segregated, provided arrangements are made to the
satisfaction of a Plague authority for the disinfection of the
house and its contents, and for the prevention of the spread
of plague to the neighbouring dwellings.
The inoculation certificate shall be in the following form.
But when in a certificate issued under authority, thumb
impression has not been taken, other satisfactory evidence of
identification may be accepted :—
* 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 141 and 143.
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[COUNTERFOIL.]
Plague Inoculation [Royal Anns] Certificate.
No.
No.
CERTIFIED that
, father's name
Name
street
, resident of
,
Father's name
Village
Town
, District
Street
' Talnk
Village
has
been inoculated by me, and
that his thumb-mark was at the time impressed
Town
before me.
Taluk
Space for left thumb-mark.
District
Signature and}
designation,
Date
Dated
Initials of operator,
N
o. • suspected to be suffering from,
plagu
is exempted from segregation,
from
nd from ten days' observation
under the passport rules. If does not, however, exempt him from,
liability to evacuate an infected house, except in the case where all
the occupants of the house have been inoculated, or to have his
clothes
disinfected when travelling. The certificate is valid for
V a period of six months.
* 21-A. Every inoculated person (who is exempted from
segregation, detention and observation under the preceding
Regulation 21) shall be bound, when called upon to do so
by any Medical officer appointed under Regulation. 12, to pro-
duce the certificate showing that he has been inoculated by
M. Haffkine's process, and also to impress his thumb-mark
for the purpose of identification.
† 22. 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 21, be
bound to appear at a place provided for the purpose and
obtain a passport binding him to present himself daily
for inspection for the next ten days before the officer ‡
named in the passport, and he shall be bound so to
* G.O., No. 1462-P., dated 19th. November 1898; "Notification. No. 1025, Fort St.
George Gazette, dated 20th December 1898, Part I-A, page 378.
† 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 1-A, pages 137-38, and as amended by
G.O., No. 999-P., dated 28th June 1899; Notification No. 563, Fort St. George Gazette,
dated 4th July 1899, Part-I-A, page 254.
Note.—This Regulation 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.—The town should be divided into convenient circles, so that persons
required to present themselves for daily inspection may not have to go a long distance"
for the purpose. For each circle an officer should be appointed to conduct the ten days'
inspection (G.O., No. 890-P., dated 24th August 1898).