NationalLibraryOfScotland/medical-history-of-british-india huggingface dataset:
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exterminated by all possible methods, the dead bodies being
consumed by fire at once. Stationmasters and others of the
staff concerned with these instructions should make a special
report to this office, if they destroy 20 or more of these
rodents in any one week, and if a rat trap is wanted they
should send an indent for one." Other Railway Adminis-
trations have been requested to issue similar instructions to
their staff. Collectors should satisfy themselves that these
instructions are actually carried out.
(G.O., No. 738-P., dated 2nd August 1898.)
3. The Plague Commissioner has ruled that ordinarily,
the destruction of rats should be confined to—
(a) infected places and the surrounding area within
a radius of ten miles round it (paragraph 10 of G.O., No.
93-P., dated 26th February 1898);
(b) landing places and railway goods-sheds, where rats
from infected places are likely to be imported with goods
brought by sea or railway.
In the case of (a), rewards may be necessary but the
maximum rate should not exceed three pies. In other cases,
the Port or Railway authorities are expected to do all that is
required without the reward system.
(P.O., No. 191, dated 14th October 1898.)
4. The charges incurred in the destruction of rats should
be debited to Local or Municipal funds according to the area
within which such charges are incurred.
(G.O., No. 494, Financial, dated 11th April 1899.)
195
CHAPTER X.
ORDERS AFFECTING THE REGULATIONS ISSUED IN THE
MARINE DEPARTMENT.
(1)—Instructions regarding the admission of healthy vessels from infected
ports and the working of cargo (vide Regulation 17-A, page 63).
1. Port Health officers may admit healthy vessels from
infected ports and allow them to work cargo on the following
conditions:—
(i) Ships' crews to be inspected night and morning and
not to leave the ship.
(ii) A list with addresses of shore coolies employed to
be maintained.
(iii) Shore coolies who do not return to work next day,
to be inspected under the orders of the Municipal Health
officer.
(iv) Policemen to be employed to prevent any but
registered coolies from boarding ships, to prevent ships' crews
from landing, to guard bathing enclosures and to compel their
use by coolies.
(v) All- coolies and police who have boarded ships to
take a disinfecting bath on the beach after landing and before
going home.
(vi) Their clothes also to be disinfected.
(vii) Boats and cargoes to be examined for rats.
(viii) The coolies and others to be disinfected on shore
at night must be kept until the Health officer can land after
inspection of ships' crew.
(ix) As an exception to clause (i) above, officers and
crews of the Bombay Steam Navigation Company's vessels
are allowed to land at Mangalore under the precautions pre-
scribed for passengers, and provided they embark again; or, if
they do not, are brought under supervision in the same way
as passengers are.
(G.O., No. 367, Marine, dated 11th May 1898; No. 591, Marine, dated 7th
July 1898) No, 920, Marine, dated 3rd November 1898.)
196
2. The above rules apply to the port of Madras as well
as to all outports of the Madras Presidency where the Port
Health officer is not below the rank of Apothecary.
(G.O., No. 382, Marine, dated 13th May 1898.)
3. One inspection of a vessel is sufficient in the case of
the twin ports at which steamers call on the same day, pro-
vided that no sickness shall have declared itself on board after
inspection at the first, and before arrival at the second, port.
(G.O., No. 432, Marine, dated 27th May 1898.)
(2)—Precautions to be adopted in identifying passengers, by Bombay
Steam Navigation Company's Steamers, from infected ports in the
Bombay Presidency.
(i) Passengers embarking at infected ports are to be
provided with specially clipped tickets.
Note.—Bach ticket will bear two clips—
(1) that ordinarily adopted by the Shipping Company for its own
purposes; and
(2) the clip of one of the corners to indicate to the Plague author
rities at the port of arrival that the holder has started from
an infected port.
(ii) Tickets are not to be issued by the Steamer Agent
at an uninfected port to passengers who have already voyaged
from an infected port.
(iii) To prevent the transfer of tickets, the following
precautions should be observed :—
(a) The name of each passenger is to be written on
his ticket.
(b) A way bill in the appended form is to be fur-
nished to the master of the vessel by the book-
ing agent at an infected port, such bill to con-
tain the name and description of all passengers
embarking from the port.
(c) The clipper of each infected port is to have some
distinguishing characteristic.
(iv) The way bills are to be filled up at the office issuing
the. tickets and are to be handed over to the master of the
vessel, who should present them to the officer on duty at the
port of destination.
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APPENDIX.
Port of
Way Bill of passengers proceeding by S.S.-
on the
1899.
Number.
Name.
Sex. Caste. Age. Occupation. Destination.
(Signed)
________,
Shipping Agent.
(G.O., No. 133, Marine, dated 9th February 1899; No. 22V, Marine, dated
8th March 1899 ; No. 484, Marine, dated 31st May 1899.)
(3)-Precautions for embarking passengers at Madras Ports on vessels
arriving from infected ports.
(i) No persons other than intending passengers to be
allowed on board.
(ii) No person after embarkation to quit the vessel while
she is in the port.
(in) No communication to be allowed between crews of
boats and crew of vessel.
(iv) A Police Constable to go off in each boat carrying
passengers or luggage.
(v) In ports in the Ganjám district, a Police Constable
need not accompany each boat carrying passengers or luggage ;
but the embarkation of passengers should be watched by
constables posted on board and on shore.
(G.O., No, 359, Marine, dated 8th May 1898 ; No. 591, Marino, dated 7th July 1898.)
198
(4) —Circular issued by the Belgian Government to Belgian Consular
Agents in all Ports, dated 14th January 1899.
Notice to Mariners.
Sills of Health.—Agreeably to the terms of Article 12 of
the Royal Orders of the 17th August 1831, modified by the
Order of 15th December 1898, every vessel arriving from any
port (vessels having merely called for orders excepted) must,
whatever their port of destination and their nationality, carry
a bill of health delivered by a Belgian Consular Agent certi-
fying as to the Sanitary condition of the place of departure
and as to the vessels own sanitary condition at the time of
departure.
This is an accordance with Article 18 of the Order of 17th
August 1831, modified by the Order of 15th December last, in
virtue of which Order every vessel without a bill of health has
to remain under observation for a period to be regulated by
the local sanitary authorities besides being subject to such
measures as its own sanitary condition may require.
It may happen that vessels sail from a foreign port where
there is no Belgian Consular Agent; in this case besides all
other documents which may be given them by the authorities
of the country and by the Consuls of other nations, they should
also provide themselves in the first port of call where a
Belgian Consular Agent resides with a license delivered by
him (Article 15 of the Order—vide 17th August 1831, modified
by the Order of 15th December 1898).
Moreover Article 16 modified by the Order of 17th August
1831 lays down that the license delivered by the Belgian
Consular Agent at the port of departure or at the first port
of call should be visée by the Belgian Consular Agent residing
in the last port of call where the vessel touches before reach-
ing Belgium. This Agent will state on the license if the
vessel has received free pratique or if it has had to undergo
any sanitary measures.
In case of a vessel bound for Belgium neglecting to fulfil
any of these formalities, the Consular Agent should imme-
diately inform the Department of Foreign Affairs, if necessary
by telegraph.
(G.O., No. 185, Marine, dated 28th February 1899.)
199
(5)—Letter from the Secretary to the Government of India (Home Depart-
ment—Sanitary), to the Secretary to the Government of Madras, Local
and Municipal Department, dated Simla, the 1st June 1897, No. 1624.
I am directed to forward, for the information of the
Government of Madras, a copy of a translation of the Con-
vention framed at the Sanitary Conference recently held at
Venice for the purpose of considering measures to prevent the
spread of the plague.
2. The regulations prescribed by the present Convention
are based on the conclusions of the Sanitary Conferences of
Venice, 1892 ; Dresden, 1893 ; and Paris, 1894 ; these con-
clusions have been modified to meet the special peculiarities
of the plague, and in accordance with modern scientific views
regarding sanitary precautions for the prevention of the
spread of epidemic disease.
3. The following are the most important points in which
the present Convention differs from the previous Conventions
011 which it is based :—-
(i) The fact that the period of incubation in the case of
plague may be considerably longer than in the case of cholera
has led to several important modifications. By the Venice
Conference of 1892 the period of incubation for cholera was
fixed at five days. Proposals have been made to fix the
period of incubation for plague as high as fifteen days, but
the period which has been adopted by the Conference for the
purpose of the Plague Regulations, is ten days.
(ii) The list of articles of commerce which may be
considered " susceptible " has been considerably increased ;
but it has been left to the option of the Governments con-
cerned to allow or prohibit the importation of the commodi-
ties, on the "susceptible" list, no article being subject to
absolute prohibition.
(iii) It provides that the modern principles of disinfec-
tion should be substituted for the obsolete system of land
quarantine, but, with a view to the protection of countries
which may find it difficult to thus protect their borders, each
of the Governments who are parties to the Convention is at
liberty to close its frontier to travellers and merchandise.
(iv) It embodies the provisions of the Paris Convention
on the subject of the regulation of the pilgrim traffic, but in
several respects those provisions have been altered in the
200
directions for which the Government of India have contended.
A separate communication will be sent on this subject.
4. The first chapter of the Convention deals with the
measures for the prevention of plague which are to be adopted
outside Europe. In the first place, it is laid down that the
Governments who adhere to the Convention are to notify to
other Governments the existence of plague within their
several jurisdictions, and must communicate to them a state-
ment of the measures of prevention that are being carried
out to prevent its diffusion. This requirement as to notifica-
tion is, however, subject to certain important conditions.
Thus the area to be deemed infected is strictly limited to the
actual district, town, village, &c., where the disease prevails ;
and no locality is to be deemed infected merely on account of
the importation into it of a few cases of plague which have
led to no diffusion of the malady.
6. The Regulations next deal with the measures to be
taken on the departure of vessels from infected ports. It is
laid down that every person sailing on the vessel must be
examined on shore immediately before embarkation by a
Medical officer appointed by the Government and that the
Consular authority interested in the ship may be present at
the inspection. All infected and suspected articles must be
subjected to careful disinfection on shore and in the presence
of the Government Medical officer in accordance with the
rules for disinfection prescribed in Chapter III of the An-
nexure to the Convention and no persons showing symptoms
of plague may be permitted to embark.
(a) Rules have been issued by the Governments of
Bombay, Madras and Bengal under the Epidemic Diseases
Act, 1897, which have been in force for Some time, prescrib-
ing precautions to be taken on the departure of vessels. The
rules framed by the Government of Bombay, which are in
force at the ports of Bombay and Karachi, prescribe medical
inspection and the removal from the vessel of any person
suspected to be suffering from dangerous epidemic disease.
The rules framed by the Government of Madras, which are in
force at the principal ports of the Presidency, authorising
the grant of a bill-of-health after medical inspection, the
removal of any person suspected to be suffering from plague
or not to be free from plague infection, and the disinfection
of the infected portions of the ship. The rules framed by
the Government of Bengal, which are in force at the port of
Calcutta, prescribe medical inspection, the removal of persons
201
suffering or suspected to be suffering from plague, and the
detention of the vessel from which such persons have been
removed for a period of seven days, after the lapse of which
the vessel may proceed if no fresh case has occurred.
(b) In order that the obligations imposed by the Con-
vention may be fulfilled at an infected port it is essential that
the medical inspection and disinfection should be conducted
exactly in the manner prescribed by the Regulations and
summarized above. The Government of India consider that
it is also desirable that all non-professional attendants and
relatives of any persons, who on examination appear to be
suffering from plague, shall be prevented from embarking.
If after the medical examination has been completed and all
the passengers and crew are on board, a case of plague occurs,
the patient and his non-professional attendants and relations
must be landed and isolated on the first opportunity. The
ship will then become an infected vessel within the definition
given below in paragraph 7. Although the ports of Madras
and Calcutta are not infected, the Local Governments have,
with the approval of the Government of India, made the
special rules for medical inspection referred to above, and, in
the opinion of the Governor-General in Council, it is desir-
able that they should be assimilated, in the case of vessels
sailing for ports out of India, as far as possible to those which
will, under the terms of the Convention, have to be adopted
at the infected ports of the Bombay Presidency,
(c) I am to request that the rules issued by the Govern-
ment of Madras may be altered in accordance with these
instructions.
6. The rules regarding pilgrim-ships which form the next
portion of the Regulations will, as stated in paragraph 3 above,
be dealt with in a separate communication.
7. The Regulations for the control of the general traffic
in the Red Sea and the Suez Canal are based on the threefold
classification of ships into healthy, suspected and infected
adopted in the Venice Convention of 1892, with the modifi-
cations rendered necessary owing to the period of incubation
in the case of plague having been fixed at 10 days.
(a) Healthy vessels are those which have left an in-
fected port for ten days or more and have had no case of
plague on board; suspected vessels are those on which, though
cases of plague have occurred, no fresh case has occurred
within twelve days ; and infected vessels are those on which
plague has been present within twelve days of arrival.
26
202
(b) The period of twelve days is arrived at, as in the
case of the seven days' period in the Convention of 1892, by
adding two days to the period of incubation.
(c) A healthy vessel thus becomes entitled to free
pratique at a port at which it arrives ten days or more after
leaving an infected port, but the adoption of this period has
the serious result that fast vessels sailing from Bombay will
arrive at the Suez Canal before pratique can be granted.
This difficulty has been satisfactorily overcome by permitting
healthy vessels to pass through the canal in quarantine, and
to complete in the Mediterranean the ten days necessary to
receiving free pratique at a port of arrival. Vessels passing
through the canal in quarantine may, subject to the use of
electric light, coal in quarantine at Port Said by night as well
as by day, and passengers may embark in quarantine at that
port.
(d) The rules for infected and suspected ships follow
those of the Venice Convention of 1892. Vessels carrying a
doctor and a disinfecting stove are allowed to pass through
the canal in quarantine after, in the case of infected vessels,
landing those suffering from plague and persons who have
been in actual contact with the sick or with infected articles
and after disinfection of the infected compartment of the
vessel. Vessels without a doctor and disinfecting stove are
detained at Moses' Wells. Such vessels, if suspected, are
detained for the period required for disinfection and for
ascertaining the condition of the ship's health, while, if in-
fected, the passengers are detained on shore under observ-
ation for a maximum period of ten days. The medical and
sanitary staff at Moses' Wells is to be increased for the
purpose of carrying out these Regulations.
8. The last matter to notice in the chapter of the Regula-
tions dealing with the measures to be adopted against the
plague outside Europe is that of the measures to be taken in
the Persian Gulf. The conclusions of the Conference on this
question differ greatly from those embodied in the Paris Con-
vention. Healthy vessels reaching Ormuz before the expir-
ation of ten days since they last touched at a port infected
with plague must either complete that period at Ormuz or
may, after medical inspection, continue their voyage up the
Gulf or the Shatt-ul-Arab, provided they do so in quarantine
for such term as is required to complete the ten days. The
same provision will apply to suspected vessels, that is, vessels
on which there has been a case of plague, but no fresh case
for twelve days, subject to submission to certain processes
203
of disinfection, &c., at Ormuz; and infected vessels will,
after landing their sick, together with those persons who
have been in actual contact with them, and after disinfection
of that part of the vessel deemed to be infected, likewise have
permission to proceed on their voyage in quarantine. The
final arrangements as to the sanitary station at Ormuz are
to be a matter of agreement between the Turkish and Persian
Governments, and until these arrangements are completed,
a temporary sanitary station will be established on one of the
islands in the Straits of Ormuz.
9. The second chapter of the Regulation deals with the
measures to be adopted by the European Governments who
have assented to the terms of the Convention. The provisions
relating to notification have been mentioned in paragraph 4
above. Allusion has also been made in paragraph 3 to the
Regulations regarding the importation of merchandise.
(a) This matter requires some further notice. The
following are of the commodities which are classed as sus-
ceptible and the import of which may be prohibited :—
(1) Used body linen, clothes, bedding and other per-
sonal effects.
(2) Bags, including rags compressed by hydraulic
pressure and transported in bales as mer-
chandise.
(3) Used sacking, carpets and old embroidery.
(4) Green and untanned hides and skins.
(5) Animal refuse, claws, hoofs, horsehair, hair of
animals generally, raw silk and wool.
(6) Human hair.
The prohibition of import is only to be enforced at the
option of the Government concerned. The only articles
which must of necessity be subjected on arrival to any pre-
cautionary measures, such as disinfection, are clothing, bed-
ding and similar articles, which have been actually worn or
used, and which are carried as ordinary luggage, if they have
been brought from an infected area and are considered by the
local sanitary authority to be contaminated. The Govern-
ment of India do not consider it necessary to add to the list
of articles, the import of which by sea from infected ports
into other ports in British India is prohibited in Home
Department Notification No. 513, dated the 17th February
1897, and the bringing of which from the Bombay Presi-
dency and Sind into other parts of British India is prohibited
in Home Department Notification No. 1033, dated the 22nd
204
March 1897. This remark applies only to the import of
articles from the Bombay Presidency and Sind for use in
other parts of India. In reciting the obligation imposed on
the countries which are parties to the Convention to confine
their precautionary measures to goods coming from the
infected local area, it is stated in Chapter II, section iii of
the Regulations, that this obligation only exists on the
express understanding that the Government of the infected
country takes the necessary measures to prevent the export-
ation of susceptible articles derived from the infected area.
In other words a Foreign Government would be at liberty to
decline to receive articles classed as susceptible coming from
a clean port unless measures are taken in India to prevent
the exportation from that port of susceptible articles coming
from the infected area. The orders contained in the Home
Department Notifications of February and March last alluded
to above only partly fulfil this condition since they only refer
to used apparel and bedding, rags, waste paper and used
gunny-bags. All Foreign Governments have not, however,
availed themselves of the option of prohibiting the import of
all the articles classed as susceptible even from Bombay
itself, and the decree of the French Government of the 16th
April 1897, which was published in the Gazette of India of
the 22nd instant under Home Department Notification No.
1545, dated the 21st instant, and is based on the Venice Con-
vention of 1897, only prescribes prohibitory and precaution-
ary measures against goods derived from the infected area.
The decree only forbids the importation into France and
Algeria of rags, animal refuse, claws and hoofs coming
directly or indirectly from the infected local area. Raw and
manufactured wool is admitted after disinfection, and this
restriction is only imposed when the commodity comes directly
from the infected area. Used and new linen, wearing apparel,
personal effects and bedding and raw hides, coming directly
or indirectly from the infected area, are admitted after disin-
fection. The decree further provides that any vessel coming
from an infected area, or having on board any of the articles
coming within the description given above may only enter
certain specified ports. In these circumstances and in view
of the optional nature of this part of the regulations, the
Government of India do not propose at present to issue orders
In addition to the orders of February and March last, with
the view of prohibiting the exportation from clean ports of
articles included in the " susceptible " list and coming from
the Bombay Presidency and Sind. But if the Governments