NationalLibraryOfScotland/medical-history-of-british-india huggingface dataset:
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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
except those who undertake the necessary duties of preparing it
for the funeral. Such persons shall disinfect themselves accord-
ing to the orders which may be issued by the Collector in this
behalf.
* As amended by G.O., No. 429-P., dated 4th May 1898; and Notification No. 377)
Fort St. George Gaxette, dated 10th May 1898, Part I-A, page 124.
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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. No person employed to do duty in any capacity at a
place set apart for the accommodation, examination, isolation,
detention or treatment of persons suffering, or suspected to be
suffering from the plague or to be infectious, shall withdraw
from the duties of his office without permission, or without
having given one month's previous notice in writing to the
officer under whom he is serving, or shall 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
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.
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(G.O., No. 2830-M., dated 17th December 1897, and Notifica-
tion No. 898, Fort St. George Gazette, dated 18th December
1897, Part I, pages 1589-1593.)
REGULATIONS UNDER THE EPIDEMIC DISEASES
ACT, 1897, FOR THE CITY OP MADRAS.
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 Governor
of Fort St. George in Council, in exercise of the powers dele-
gated to him under section 2, sub-section (3), of the Epidemic
Diseases Act, 1897, by the Governor-General in Council, is
pleased to prescribe under the said Epidemic Diseases Act the
following revised Regulations to be observed in the City of
Madras :—
1. Every house-holder who becomes cognizant of any case
of the bubonic plague or of fever with glandular swellings in
his house or in any other private dwelling within the municipal
limits of the City of Madras, or of the arrival thereat of any
person from any area which has been notified by the Govern-
ment or the President of the Municipal Commission to be
infected, shall be bound forthwith to give information of the
same to the Health Officer or a Sanitary Inspector of the
municipality. Every house-holder and every keeper or person
in charge of an hotel, chuttram or other place of public resort
shall also in the same manner forthwith report the arrival at
the house, hotel, chuttram or other place, of any person from
any area which has been notified by the Governor in Council
or the Collector to be infected.
2. The President of the Municipal Commission or any officer
generally or specially authorized by him in writing in this
behalf may, when he considers necessary, enter upon any pre-
mises at any time during daylight and summarily execute any
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
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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 build-
ing as a dwelling. After such prohibition no owner or
occupier 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
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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 Municipal Commissioners shall provide and maintain
in such localities, whether within or without the municipal
limits, as in the opinion of the Health Officer of the munici-
pality may be proper for the purpose, suitable and sufficient
accommodation 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
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certified to be free from infection. In the places so provided,
the Municipal Commissioners shall furnish such hospital
establishments, 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 Commissioners 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 Municipal Commissioners 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.
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 untenanted with-
out any notice whatsoever and if tenanted after twenty-four
hours' notice in writing conspicuously posted on such building
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
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26
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.
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
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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 Grovernment, 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.
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