NationalLibraryOfScotland/medical-history-of-british-india huggingface dataset:
28
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.
(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 daring 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
* As amended by G.O., No. 429-P., dated 4th May 1898; and Notification No. 377,
Fort St. George Gazette, dated 10th May 1898, Part I-A, page 124.
29
places and at such times and under such conditions as may be
prescribed.
19. 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.
20. 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.
30
(G.O., No. 93-P., dated 26th February 1898 ; and Notification
No. 169, Fort St. George Gazette, dated 1st March 1898,
Part I-A, pages 55-64.)
ADDITIONAL MUFASSAL REGULATIONS UNDER
THE EPIDEMIC DISEASES ACT, 1897, FOR DIS-
TRICT MUNICIPALITIES AND TOWNS AND
VILLAGES.
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
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 :—
PART I.—MEASURES PRELIMINARY TO THE ACTUAL OCCURRENCE
OF 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.
31
(a) All persons suspected of plague, with their families
and attendants, shall be detained, information being urgently
* Throughout, the word sent to the nearest revenue officer of or
Tahsildar includes Deputy above the grade of Tahsildar * and the
Tahsildar.
nearest medical officer. Such officers
shall inform the District Medical and Sanitary Officer, and
proceed to the spot to aid in effecting isolation and disinfec-
tion.
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
† As amended by G.O., No. 641-P., dated 2nd July 1898 ; and Notification No. 582,
Fort St. George Gaxette, dated 19th July 1898, Part I-A, page 206.
32
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.
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 European or Eurasian nurses.
Four male ward attendants.
33
Three female ward attendants.
Four dhooly bearers.
Three male and two female toties.
Two dhobies.
Two cooka.
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. Their pay shall
then be 15 per cent. over ordinary rates, and this shall be
increased to 25 per cent. when the staff is on actual plague
duty.
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 passes, and nut 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 be
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-General of Ordnance, Madras, to
supply the District Medical and Sanitary Officer with personal
and office tents, for which lascars may be entertained.
The Collector may at his discretion temporarily close any
existing hospital or dispensary and transfer the whole staff to
plague duty.
5
.34
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
rules 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 or
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
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.
* Printed on pages 61 to 70.
† As amended by G.O., No. 641-P., dated 2nd July 1898, and Notification No. 582,
Fort St. George Gazette, dated 19th July 1898, Part I-A, page 206.
3$
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
may order disinfection in it; and may also cause the village
to be disinfected.
2,1. The Collector, on receiving information, shall tele-
graph to Government, the Surgeon-General and the Sanitary
36
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 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
area. It may be necessary to constitute special search parties
under European Officers.
23. If a case of plague be detected in a town (including a
municipal town) the Collector may not, without the sanction of
Government, cause the evacuation of the whole town, but may
cause the evacuation of a section containing not more than
200 houses.
Such evacuated area may be surrounded by a cordon, if
necessary by breaking down walls or houses, but with as little
injury to property as possible; and its inhabitants may be
removed into a Health Camp.
37
24. When there is a town or large village in the vicinity
of an infected area, the Collector may establish a Camp of
Observation at such town or village and may order detention
and disinfection in such camp of all suspected persons coming
from such area without passes.
Dissolution of Hospitals and Camps, &c.
25. No Hospital or Suspect Camp or Observation Camp
shall be closed without the special orders of the Collector,
Provided there have been no actual or suspected case of
plague therein, the Collector shall, in his discretion, allow a
Health Camp to be closed after ten days, and a village or
town or section of a town to be re-inhabited one month after
evacuation.
Administrative Staff.
26. For administrative purposes in connection with the
plague, the Collector shall have under his orders the follow-
ing Plague Authorities :—
(a) A Superior Staff consisting of Plague Officers
appointed by Government.
(b) A Subordinate Staff consisting of Assistant Plague
Officers appointed by the Collector.
(a) Plague Officers include Divisional-officers, Assist-
ant Collectors and the District Medical and Sanitary officer,
and also Personal Assistants to the Collector ;
Special Divisional-officers (either to relieve Divisional-
officers engaged in plague operations or to be in plague charge
of a division);
Extra Assistants to be in charge generally of a Taluk but,
if necessary, of a smaller area.
(b) Assistant Plague Officers shall be Tahsildars and
Deputy Tahsildars (ordinary or special) ex-officio ; or persons
of known and approved character and responsible position,
specially appointed.
Assistant Plague Officers shall have the powers given by
Regulations 3 and 7 and (in infected areas) 27 of the Regu-
lations* published in Fort St. George Gazette Notification No.
897 of 18th December 1897. Plague Officers shall have these
powers, and shall also have powers given by Regulations 4
and 5 and (in areas Under Observation) 27,
27. The Collector may, from time to time, assign to
Plague Officers and Assistant Plague Officers, jurisdiction
over such local areas as he may deem fit.
* Printed on pages 8 to 21,
38
He may also appoint any required number of Superintend-
ents of Camps or Gumastas as well as menial servants.
* 28. In the case of appointments made in connection with
the plague, the cost of which is under the standing orders
debitable to the ordinary service heads, the sanction of Govern-
ment shall be obtained and proposition statements forwarded
in accordance with paragraph 12 of the annexure to G.O.,
No. 604, Financial, dated 21st September 1896, as amended
by G.O., No. 785, Financial, dated 24th September 1897.
As regards appointments which are not additions to existing
establishments and which have been newly created on
account of the plague, the Collector shall forward, for the
formal sanction of Government, a monthly return showing
the number of such appointments, their designation, salary,
date of commencement and the duties attached to each
appointment. The return should be divided into two sec-
tions to distinguish the appointments paid from Local and
Municipal Funds from those paid from Provincial.
Passports and Passes.
29. Passports and passes shall be in the forms attached.
Passports may be granted as prescribed in Rule 5 to persons
entering the district from an infected area; passes, by a
Plague Authority or other officer authorized by the Collector
in this behalf, to persons leaving an infected area within the
district.
† 30. The Collector may exempt from the necessity of
taking out passports or passes any person with regard to
whom there are no reasonable grounds for suspicion of
infection.
31. The Collector may at his discretion exempt from the
necessity of taking out passes persons who are merely
returning from an infected area to their own village after
bringing to market in such area articles of food or fuel;
Provided that such return be within eight hours after
arrival and not after sunset, and that such exemption shall
not apply to any such person who may have entered a dwell-
ing house within the infected area.
32. Passes may be of two kinds, either (1) general, or (2)
special. General passes may be given to agriculturists and
* As amended by G.O., No. 641-P., dated 2nd July 1898, and Notification No. 582,
Fort St. George Gazette, dated 19th July 1898, Part I-A, page. 206.
† As amended by G.O., No. 330-P., dated 14th April 1898, and Notification No. 303,
Fort St. George Gazette, dated 19th April 1898, Part I-A, page 92.