138
[CHAP. V.
Whenever any of the crew or passengers, removed from a vessel bound for a foreign port,
developed plague, the fact was communicated by telegraph to the authorities at the first
port for which the vessel was bound. In the case of vessels bound for an Indian port, the fact
was also notified to the next port of arrival.
Inward Inspection.
When the plague declined in Bombay City large numbers of people returned to
Bombay as eagerly as they had left it. In the meanwhile, the infection had spread far and
wide over the Presidency, and many of the places from which people returned were now in
their turn active disseminators of plague. It was necessary therefore to protect Bombay as far
as possible, and with that view inspection of inward passengers was commenced early in April
1897. All passengers coming from any place on the sea coast between Bhatkal on the south
and a line ten miles north of Karachi, or coining by vessels which touched at any intermediate
port, were inspected under the direction of the Port Health Officer by an establishment of the
strength shown below, provided by the Bombay Plague Committee :—
Three Commissioned Medical Officers.
Two Private Practitioners.
Five Assistant Surgeons.
Thirteen Medical Students.
One Lady Doctor.
One Lady Nurse.
One Lady Medical Student.
Passengers were disembarked at Modi Bandar, at the Docks' Harbour Walls, or at
anchorages in the open harbour, except those coming by native craft, who were examined at
the Dutiable and Free anchorages and at a special anchorage near Tucker's Beacon. At Modi
Bandar and at the Docks the existing arrangements had to be augmented, and this was cheer-
fully done by Messrs. Shepherd & Co., including even an installation of electric lighting at
Modi Bandar for the examination of passengers arriving after dark.
The manner in which the inspection was conducted during the first few months is thus
described by Lieutenant-Colonel MacCartie :—
"In dealing with the masses of people who came under inspection during the four
months, April to July, and who represented arrivals from heavily infected places, such as
Karachi, Janjira, Alibág, etc., as well as from ports where plague had not reached epidemic
proportions, although each case was decided on its own merits, it was found necessary to decide
on some defined plan in order to eliminate the healthy from the suspected, A sliding scale of
temperatures was accordingly introduced, and passengers were divided into classes according
to their own state of health and to the state of plague at the places which they were judged
to have arrived from. A map showing the progress of the disease, and altered according to
the reports from the mofussil, was furnished by the Plague Committee, and in accordance with
the alterations in this map the figures on the sliding scale of temperatures would vary. Thus
arrivals from a place only slightly infected would, if free from other signs of plague, and with
temperatures under 100° F., be passed as healthy one week, and the next week, owing to
unfavourable reports from the same place, would be placed in the observation camp if found
with temperatures anything over normal. This system was found to work well, and as a brisk
house-to-house visitation was being carried out by the Plague Committee at the same time,
it is probable that few, if any, cases of plague which arrived by sea during the four months
under report escaped detection, even if they succeeded in passing through the inspecting staff's
in the harbour and at the bandars. Some difficulty was experienced in discovering the places
from which the passengers had really come. By arrangement the tickets were not collected until
the inspection was over, and in many cases tickets contained the information required. In other
instances, however, the passengers Lad travelled on foot for many days and covered long dis-
tances in order to secure the cheaper transit by the Dharamtar ferry-boat, the fare for which
by law is fixed at four annas, and their original places of departure could with difficulty be
traced, and in some instances not at all.