NationalLibraryOfScotland/medical-history-of-british-india huggingface dataset:
39
the District Collector, to decide what person shall be considered
'suspicious' for the purposes of this rule. So long as he
remains in a place of observation under this rule no person
shall be allowed to communicate, except with the permission
of the said officers, with persons outside the limits of the place.
He shall obey such orders as may be issued by the plague
authority for the cleanliness or protection from infection of the
persons, property or quarters of the persons detained,
30. When in the exercise of the powers conferred by or
under these rules a pass or certificate is granted to any person
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.
* 31. 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. 17 of the Original Mufassal
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
* 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 140-41,
40
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, the thumb
impression has not been taken, other satisfactory evidence of
identification may be accepted :—
[COUNTERFOIL.]
Plague Inoculation [Royal Arms]
Certificate.
No.
Name
CERTIFIED that
, father's name
Father's name
, resident of
Street
7
Village
Street
Town
, District
Village
' Taluk
•
has been inoculated by me, and
Town
that his thumb-mark was at the time impressed
Taluk
before me.
District
Space for left thumb-mark.
Signature and
Date
designation,
Initials of operator.
Dated
NOTE.—Unless suffering from, or suspected to be suffering from,
plague, the holder of the certificate is exempted from segregation,
from detention when travelling, and from ten days' observation
under the passport rules. It 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
a period of six months.
32. Every inoculated person (who is exempted from
segregation, detention and observation under the preceding
Regulation 31) shall be bound, when called upon to do so by
the officer mentioned in Regulation 17-ii, to produce the certi-
ficate showing that he has been inoculated by M. Haffkine's
process, and also to make an impression of his thumb-mark
for the purpose of identification.
(2)—NOTIFICATION No. 531, FORT ST. GEORGE GAZETTE, DATED
5TH JULY 1898, PART I-A, PAGE 194.
Under the provisions of the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897,
His Excellency the Governor of Fort St. George in Council
directs that all passengers who arrive at Pódanúr from plague-
* G.O., No. 1462-P., dated 19th November 1898 ; Notification No. 1024, Fort
St. George Gazette, dated 20th December 1898, Part I-A, page 378.
41
infected parts on their way to the Nilgiris shall, with refer-
ence to the revised Mufassal Regulation 17 published on
page 137, Part LA, of the Fort St. George Gazette, dated 27th
May 1898, obtain passports from the Medical officer in charge
of the plague inspection station at Pódanúr before proceeding
further,
(3)—NOTIFICATION No. 638, FORT ST GEORGE GAZETTE, DATED
9TH AUGUST 1898, PART I-A, PAGE 240.
Under the provisions of the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897,
His Excellency the Governor of Fort St. George in Council
is pleased to issue the following rules in continuation of
Notification No. 531, published in the Fort St. George Gazette,
dated 5th July 1898, Part I-A, page 194 :—
(1) All railway carriages containing passengers from
plague-infected parts holding tickets to Méttupálaiyam shall
be locked before arrival at the Pódanúr railway station.
(2) After the train has entered the Pódanúr railway
platform, the locked carriages shall be opened and each
passenger coming, or believed to have come, from an infected
part shall be examined by the Medical officer, who will give
him a pass-port if there are not sufficient grounds for
detaining him under the Plague Regulations.
(3) The Madras Railway Company shall not carry
any such passenger beyond Pódanúr unless he produces a
pass-port signed by the inspecting medical officer,
(4)—ADDITIONAL MUFASSAL REGULATIONS UNDER THE
EPIDEMIC DISEASES ACT, 1897, FOE DISTRICT MUNICI-
PALITIES AND TOWNS AND VILLAGES.
(G.O., No. 93-P., dated 26th February 1898; Notification
No. 169, "Fort St. George Gazette" dated 1st March
1898, Part I-A, pages 55-64.)
WHEREAS certain parts of India are visited by, and the
Presidency of Madras is threatened with, an outbreak of a
dangerous epidemic disease known as bubonic plague, and
whereas the ordinary provisions of the law in force in the
Presidency are insufficient for the purpose of preventing the
outbreak or spread of the disease, His Excellency the Gov-
ernor of Fort St. George in Council, in exercise of the powers
delegated to him under section 2, sub-section (3), of the
6
42
Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897, by the Governor-General in
Council, is pleased to prescribe, under the said Epidemic
Diseases Act, the following Additional Regulations to be
observed in the district municipalities constituted under the
District Municipalities Act, 1884, and in other towns and
villages in the Presidency : —
PABT I.—MEASURES PRELIMINARY TO THE ACTUAL OCCURRENCE
OP PLAGUE,
1. Should it appear that plague imminently threatens to
attack any district, Government may declare such district
or part of it to be Under Observation.*
2. Thereupon the Collector shall establish Frontier In-
spection Stations; arrange Observation Circles; organise
Sanitary and Cordon Staffs, &c.; and strengthen and train
his district establishment; and may require certificates of the
causes of death.
Frontier Inspection Stations.
3. These shall be established as near as may be to the
frontier on roads † and at railway stations.
4. At each Frontier Inspection Station shall be erected a
sufficient number of sheds for hospital and observation pur-
poses ; and disinfectants and stores shall be maintained.
5. All persons shall be allowed to pass freely except—
(a) those suspected of plague,
(b) those suspected of arriving from an infected
locality.
(a) All persons ‡ suspected of plague, with their families
and attendants, shall be detained, information being urgently
sent to the nearest revenue officer of or above the grade of
§ Throughout, the word Tahsildar § and the nearest Medical
Tahsiidar includes Deputy officer. Such officers shall inform the
Tahsildar.
District Medical and Sanitary officer,
and proceed to the spot to aid in effecting isolation and
disinfection.
* Note.—When proposing any observation scheme, the Collector should enclose a
map of the district on tracing cloth on the scale of 4 miles to an inch, showing clearly
(1) the proposed arrangements, and (2) any arrangements previously sanctioned (P.C.,
No. 991, dated 27th December 1898).
† Note.—Road Frontier Inspection Stations should be located only at places where
they can be efficiently worked, i.e., at places where the nature of the country forces
traffic to converge between narrow lines and not where the country is flat and open
(G.O., No. 878-P., dated 12th June 1899).
‡ Note.—These mast be detained as long as the suspicion of plague remains (P.O.,
Ho. 838, dated 27th March 1899).
43
When the officer in charge of the Frontier Inspection
Station may declare such course to be safe, the persons
detained may be released with passports as prescribed below.
* (b) Persons † suspected of arriving from an infected
area may be disinfected if the Collector so orders, and also
(i) at a Road Frontier Inspection Station shall be
provided with passports, which shall bind them to present
themselves for daily inspection for the next ten days before
the local authority, i.e., the local Medical officer or Police
Station-house officer or village Headman in any village
where they may be.‡ As passports are issued, the officer
in charge shall inform the Municipal Chairman or the local
authority of the place of destination ;
(ii) at a Railway Frontier Inspection Station shall
have their tickets distinctively marked, if not so marked
before. On arriving at their railway station of destination,
the stationmaster or other officer appointed by the Govern-
ment or Collector for the purpose shall provide them with
passports and send intimation as required by the preceding
clause (i).
The officer in charge of a Frontier Inspection Station may
also, when specially authorized by Government or the Col-
lector, detain all persons from an infected area who appear to
be suspicious § whether by reason of their appearance, the dirty
condition of their clothes, or the fact that they are travelling
in gangs, or belong to classes which are likely to disseminate
the disease, or cannot be traced on arrival at their destination,
or depended upon to give information should plague occur
among them after arrival at their destination, or for any other
reason. Such officer shall have the widest discretionary
power, subject to the general or special orders of the Col-
lector, to decide what person shall be considered "suspicious"
for the purposes of this rule.
Any person refusing to comply with, or attempting to
evade, this rule may be detained for ten days at the nearest
Inspection Station or other place appointed by the Collector
for the purpose.
Every person passing a Frontier Inspection Station shall
be bound to declare his destination truly.
* As amended by G.O., No. 641-P., dated 2nd July 1898; Notification No. 582, Fore
St. George Gazette, dated 19th July 1898, Part I-A, page 206.
† Note.—Such persons may, if they prefer it, instead of being detained, be allowed
to go back after disinfection to the place they came from, if they give a satisfactory
reason and purchase a return ticket (P.O., No. 838, dated 27th March 1899).
‡ Includes also any person appointed as such by the District Collector—vide
Regulation 17-i, page 31.
§ Note.—All persons from infected areas may be said to fall under this class unless
they can be depended on to reside in a fixed place and to present themselves daily for
medical examination for ton days after arrival (G.O., No, 855-P., dated 19th August 1898)
44
Observation Circles.
6. For the taluks necessary in his opinion to be watched,
the Collector may appoint the requisite number of Plague
Inspectors,* who should be given a range with a radius not
usually exceeding 5 miles. For non-municipal towns, Assist-
ant Plague Inspectors may be appointed.
The Collector may also appoint Plague Supervisors to
check the work of Inspectors and Assistant Inspectors, who
shall report through them to the District Sanitary officer.
7. This observation staff shall work under the District
Medical and Sanitary officer in subordination to the Collector.
Its duty will be to constantly and systematically patrol the
circles in order to gain the earliest possible information of a
case of plague, so that immediate action may be taken, and
to report any pressing sanitary need to the District Medical
and Sanitary officer. 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 cause him to be
produced before a Plague Authority who may subject him to
isolation in the nearest proper place.
Inspectors and Assistant Inspectors shall keep a record
of all persons suffering from continuous fever for more than
twelve hours, and shall arrange with the village Headman to
have such persons inspected twice daily. If a member of the
observation staff shall discover a case of plague, he shall act
as is laid down in Regulation 17.
Ambulance and Cordon Staffs, &c.
8. The Collector shall keep in readiness in a central posi-
tion—
Two stretchers with awnings.
Medical stores, disinfectants and comforts, hospital
furniture and clothing.
9. The Collector shall make all arrangements for being
able to concentrate immediately, when desirable, the following
Ambulance Staff in the same central position :—
Two trained nurses.†
Four male ward attendants.
* Note.—The Government has since decided that the employment of special officers
should be restricted and that for obtaining information regarding plague and for the
proper working of the passport rules, the chief reliance must bo placed on the existing
village and Revenue officers (G.O., No. 878.P., dated 12th June 1899).
† As amended by G.O., No. 878-P., dated 12th June 1899 ; Notification No. 512,
Fort St. George Gazette, dated 13th June 1899, Part I-A, page 235,
45
Three female ward attendants.
Four dhooly bearers.
Three male and two female toties.
Two dhobies.
Two cooks.
One certificated Sanitary Inspector.
Two Hospital Assistants.
One Compounder.
10. * When he sees fit, the Collector shall concentrate the
Ambulance Staff and hold it in readiness.
11. The Collector shall also arrange through Government
for one hundred men of the Madras Infantry, with complete
tent equipage, being placed at his disposal under the command
of a European officer.
Seventy-five of the men shall remain at their Military head-
quarters warned for duty, and the remaining 25 with a Native
officer, shall, when required by the Collector, join for duty and
training at the locality chosen for assembly of the Ambulance
Staff.
The detachment shall be at the disposal of the Collector
for cordon, guard, disinfection and sick transport duties.†
N.B.—'By the word 'Cordon' is meant a guard posted round a
village, camp, hospital or other place so as effectually to prevent the
ingress and egress of persons not provided with parses, and not going in
or coming out on duty under these rules.
12. The Collector shall also warn for such duty in com-
munication with the heads of their respective departments
as many Police, Salt and Abkári ‡, and Revenue peons as can
spared.
Strengthening and Training District Establishment.
13. The Collector may strengthen his own office and that
of the District Medical and Sanitary officer by the employment
of such temporary clerks as may be required. He may also
indent upon the Inspector-G-eneral of Ordnance, Madras, to
supply the District Medical and Sanitary officer with personal
arid office tents, for which lascars may be entertained.
* As amended by G.O., No. 4-15-P., dated 21st March 1899.
† Note.— See Chapter XI (7) for orders restricting the employment of troops.
‡ Note.—Plague officers have full powers of an Assistant Commissioner in the matter
of punishment of the peons of the Salt and Abkári Department placed under them for
plague duty, and Assistant Plague officers may award black marks or fine up to one
rupee, or suspend up to one month. Suspension for accumulation of black marks can,
however, be inflicted only by the Plague officer. As regards Sub and Assistant
Inspectors, Collectors have power to suspend them, reporting to the Board for all orders
as to punishment (G.O., No, 1611-P., dated 20th December 1808),
46
The Collector may at his discretion temporarily close any
existing, hospital or dispensary and transfer the whole staff to
plague duty.
14. He shall see that the rules* framed in G.O., No. 522-M.,
dated 13th March 1897 (Notification No. 185, Fort St. George
Gazette, dated 16th March 1897), have been carried out in every
municipality, and also that the whole district establishment
knows its duties both while the district is Under Observation
and also on the outbreak of plague. He shall especially bring
rales 15 and 17 to the notice of village officers.
15. It shall be the duty of Station-house officers and
village officers to prevent the entry into their villages of per-
sons coming without passports or passes from any infected
area, and to inspect daily for a space of ten days persons so
arriving with passports or passes.
Certificates of the Causes of Death.
† 16. When he has a sufficient medical staff at his disposal
to secure immediate inspection, so that there may be no chance
of funerals being delayed, the Collector may order in respect
of any particular area that the certificate of a Medical officer
shall be obtained showing the cause of every death within
two hours after such death.
After the issue of such an order, if a burial or cremation
takes place without such a certificate having been obtained,
the death may be presumed to have been due to plague, and the
persons believed to have been in recent immediate contact with
the corpse shall be liable to segregation and detention.
PART II.—MEASURES TO BE ADOPTED ON THE OCCURRENCE OF
PLAGUE.
17. On the occurrence of a suspected or actual case of
•plague in a village, whether in a district declared to be
Under Observation or not, it shall be the duty of the village
headman to send intelligence by express to the Tahsildar and
(if Plague Inspectors have been appointed) to the nearest
Plague Inspector; and meanwhile to isolate the patient and
all who have been in attendance upon him or in contact with
him, in a hut or shed remote from inhabited houses.
18. The Plague Inspector and the Tahsildar shall inform
all superior officers up to the Collector by the quickest possible
* Printed on pages 73 to 82.
† As amended by G.O., No. 641-P., dated 2nd July 1898 ; Notification No. 582, Fort
St. George Gazette, dated 19th July 1898, Part I-A, page 206.
47
means, and shall go at once to the village. The Tahsildar
shall arrange to be accompanied or followed by the nearest
Medical officer with a supply of medicines and disinfectants,
and by a staff of constables and peons.
19. On arrival at the village, the Plague Inspector (or
Medical officer if there is no Plague Inspector) shall supervise
the isolation of the patient and the disinfection of his residence,
clothing and excreta, and the person and clothing of his attend-
ants, and shall continue such supervision until relieved under
the orders of a Plague officer and sent back to other duty;
the Tahsildar shall act as follows :—
(a) If the plague patient be a traveller newly arrived at
the village, or a resident newly returned to it, from an infected
locality, and have been with his attendants put into complete
isolation from the beginning of his sickness, the Tahsildar
may content himself with continuing such isolation, with pro-
viding the patient with medical attendance, and with thorough
disinfection as above. But (b) if he thinks it necessary, or
is so ordered by superior authority, and provided the attack
shall have been declared by a Medical officer to be probably
plague, after first completely isolating the patient and his
attendants by a cordon of police, peons and taliaris, &c., he
shall construct—
a Hospital into which he shall remove the patient and
which he shall provide with a guard;
a Suspect Camp, where he shall remove, disinfect and
detain all persons who have been in attendance on,
or in contact with, the patient, and which he shall
surround with a cordon; and
a Staff Camp, to house the Ambulance and Cordon
Staffs on their arrival.
20. On receiving information of a case of plague, the duties
of a Plague Officer (defined below, Regulation 26) shall be as
follows:—
He shall send telegraphic information to the Collector
and the District Medical and Sanitary officer.
He shall then go to the scene of outbreak, and shall
enforce the measures mentioned above. He may also isolate
the whole village or part of it by cordons, patrols, chowkies,
gates, or in such other manner as he may deem expedient.
He may also, when authorized by the Collector, compel the
evacuation of the village or any part of it, and the removal of
the inhabitants to a Health Camp, provided sufficient shelter is
available, and may isolate the Health Camp with a cordon and
48
may order disinfection in it ; and may also cause the village
to be disinfected.
21. The Collector, on receiving information, shall tele-
graph to Government, the Surgeon-Greneral and the Sanitary
Commissioner, and despatch the Ambulance and Cordon Staffs
to the village under the District Medical and Sanitary officer.
He may indent on the Surgeon-General for two Com-
missioned Medical officers, one of whom should relieve the
District Medical and Sanitary officer and the other be held in
reserve ;
* may notify by tom-tom (the notification to be as soon as
possible published in the District Gazette) that any town or
village or group of villages is an infected area, whereupon Part
I of these rules and original Mufassal Regulation No. 17,
shall come into force in the district if they have not been put
in force by Government already ;
may requisition the services of any public servant or, for
work connected with a railway, of any railway † employé ;
may authorize a Plague officer to remove all or part of the
inhabitants of an infected area into a Health Camp, provided
proper shelter is available ; and
shall, if possible, go to the village and direct operations.
He shall also at once take steps to organize a second
Ambulance Staff as provided for in Rules 9, 10, et seq. so as to
be ready for despatch to any other locality in which plague
may break out.
22. If authorized by the Collector under Rule 21, the
Plague officer may cause an infected area to be evacuated, all
inhabitants except patients and suspects being moved into a
Health Camp where disinfection may be ordered.
He shall see that the Hospital, the Suspect Camp and the
Health Camp are properly organized and cordoned.
He shall see that the patrols and guards round the infected
area completely isolate it, or such part of it as he deems fit.
On the evacuation of houses, he shall cause them to be
surrounded by a cordon and to be thoroughly disinfected.
If no observation ‡ staff has been already appointed, the
Collector shall organize one. This must be rendered parti-
cularly efficient within a radius of 20 miles round an infected
* As amended by G.O., No. 1447-P., dated 2nd October 1899 ; Notification No. 816,
Fort St. George Gazette, dated 3rd October 1899, Part I-A, page 348.
† Note.—Railway servants should not be called upon to do plague duty when it would
interfere with their proper a vocations or require them to absent themselves from the
place where their daty as railway servants have to be performed (G.O., No. 295-M.,
dated 1st February 1898 ; G.O , No. 314-P., dated 4th April 1898).
‡ Note.—The observation circles round an infected area should be five and not ten
miles in diameter. These are called preventive circles (P.O., No. 88, dated 7th October
1898).