NationalLibraryOfScotland/medical-history-of-british-india huggingface dataset:
18
(b) pilgrims or persons belonging to any other class who
appear for any reasons to be specially dangerous
whether travelling singly or in numbers, or
persons who cannot be depended upon to present
themselves daily for medical examination for ter
days on arrival at their destination, or to give
information should plague occur among them.
Persons coming under class (a) shall be detained until they
are cured or as-long as the infection or suspicion of plague
remains. Information of such cases shall be sent urgently to
the Collector and the district medical and sanitary officer of
the district. All contacts shall, after disinfection of their
clothing and effects, be furnished with passports and be
permitted to proceed with their journey, provided that the
inspecting medical officer shall have power to segregate in a
segregation camp for a period not exceeding ten days any
contact who cannot, in the opinion of such officer, be depended
upon to present himself for observation at his place of
destination. A contact of a case of pneumonic plague, how-
ever, shall ordinarily be segregated.
Persons coming under class (b} may be detained at the
discretion of the medical officer till the full period of incubation
(i.e., ten days) has elapsed since they left the infected area, or
if that date is not known, for ten days.
25. Cave should be taken that inspection stations are not
converted into detention camps. Any attempt at wholesale
detention will only produce evasion of inspection. Unless a
passenger shows symptoms of plague or cannot be trusted to
observe the passport rules, he should not be interfered with.
This rule applies also to road frontier inspection stations.
26. Officers in charge of plague camp shall give a certi-
ficate in the forro shown in Appendix II-K to every person
discharged from the camp. In order to enable such persons to
resume their railway journey they shall take the certificates
to the stationmaster and get them endorsed by him.
27.
*
*
*
28. Any person arriving at, or passing through, an
inspection station may, at the discretion of the inspecting
medical officer, be compelled to obtain a passport in accord-
ance with Rule 2 supra and to undergo surveillance for ten
days.
29. The inspecting medical officer may also require any
passenger to deliver up his ticket, in order that the prescribed
U
mark indicative of his having arrived from a plague-infected
locality or an area notified under Rule l and therefore of his
being liable to obtain a passport at the station of destination
may be impressed thereon ; and such passenger shall be
bound to deliver it up accordingly.
30. The mark thus used is a hole four-tenths of an
inch square punched in the long side of railway tickets. It
should be made only on the tickets of those passengers who
come, or are suspected to come, from plague-infected areas or
from places notified by Government for the purposes of the
passport rules. The special mark should be made at the first
inspection station at which the passenger arrives. It is not
necessary to punch his ticket again at any subsequent inspec-
tion station through which he may pass, but he must be
medically examined nevertheless. Tickets of persons who
come from an uninfected area, or who, though coming from an
infected area, have been detained for ten days at one of the
observation camps established in the Madras Presidency, need
not be so marked.
31. Care should be taken that the plague punches are not
used except by responsible persons and that they are kept in
safe custody when not in use. The officers in charge of rail-
way inspection stations will be held responsible for the safe
custody of the plague punches, and under their orders the
punches may be used by their assistants, but under no
circumstances by the police. The wrong punching of tickets
should be specially guarded against, as the annoyance caused
by consequent liability to take out a passport may be very
great.
32. In cases where a passport has been wrongly issued
owing to erroneous plague-marking of the railway ticket, or
otherwise, the municipal chairman or any revenue officer not
below the grade of deputy tahsildar is authorized to cancel the
passport on satisfactory proof that it was wrongly issued.
33. The passport rules should be worked in such a man-
ner as to cause the minimum of inconvenience to gosha women,
and persons belonging to that class should, whenever possible,
be exempted from attendance at the hospital or elsewhere and
be inspected at their own houses. The examination of gosha
women shall always be conducted by females, who, when not
trained or duly qualified, shall work under the instructions of
the local medical officer. No fee shall be charged for the
inspection of passport-holders at their own houses.
15
34. With, the view of facilitating the working of the pass-
port rules, railway employees holding periodical railway passes
and Government officials holding standing passes should be
required to provide themselves before departure with certifi-
cates signed by the Stationmaster concerned showing the
places from which they* start.
Attempts to
evade inspec-
tion.
35, If a passenger from a plague-infected or notified area ;
appears to be attempting to evade inspection either by alight- 1
I ing at a railway station short of that for which his ticket has
i been taken or of an inspection station, or by arriving other
wise than by train at or beyond an inspection station, and is
unable to show any business at the place of alighting or
arrival, he may be detained by the Stationmaster or railway
official in charge or by any officer specially authorized by the
Collector in this behalf at the railway station at which he has
alighted or arrived aod with the assistance of the Police be
forwarded or returned, as the case may be, to the inspection
station by the same or next train proceeding thereto and there
handed over to the medical officer in charge. The railway
fare of the person so detained and forwarded to the inspection
station shall be paid by the passenger and, if not paid, shall
be recovered from him by the railway authorities as excess
fare.
Note.—The powers conferred by this rule should only be exercised under exceptional
cironmstances to prevent evasion of the passport rules.
36. Special care should be taken to prevent evasion of the
rules by passengers halting or re-booking at intermediate
stations. If a passenger coming from a plague-infected area
breaks his journey at any station short of his destination, his
ticket should, notwithstanding, be punched, or if the station
has not been supplied with a plague-punch, the right-hand
lower corner of the ticket should be clipped with scissors. If
a passenger coming from a plague-infected area alights at
any station, he should be brought under the passport rules.
If he announces his intention of re-booking within twelve
hours, his new ticket shall be punched or clipped as above.
If necessary, the powers conferred by the last preceding rule
may also be employed, and passengers whose conduct gives
ground to suppose that they intend to evade the rules should
be watched.
Intimation to
Ceylon medi-
cal officer at
Tuticorin.
37. The inspecting medical officer, Jalarpet, shall send
telegraphic intimation to the medical officer of the Ceylon
Government at Tuticorin when passengers pass from Banga-
lore to Tuticorin. The cost of these telegrams will be
recovered from the Ceylon Government by the Aooountant-
General.
2
16
Movement of
troops, police
and cooliea.
38. When a large body of troops or police or coolies
engaged in plague operations are returning io a healthy district,
previous intimation of their departure shall be given to the
Collector of the district in which the place of destination is
situated . Before starting they shall be carefully examined
and disinfected, and on arrival at their destination they shall
be given passports according to the rules. "With regard to
troops and their families and followers leaving infected areas,
the rules in Madras Command Order No. 810, dated 27th
October 1903, shall be observed. These rules are reprinted
as Appendix II-U to these regulations.
Expenditure
on inspection
sheds and on
supply of
punches.
39. Any expenditure incurred in providing inspection
sheds on railway platforms in cases where there are no proper
facilities in the railway station for the examination of pas-
sengers in accordance with the plague regulations or in the
supply of punches or scissors for marking railway tickets
will be borne by the civil department and not by the railway
administrations. The construction of all such buildings will,
in the absence of the orders of the Government to the contrary,
be carried out ordinarily by the railway administration con-
cerned, the civil department defraying merely the cost of the
same.
Fairs, festi-
vals and
pilgrimages.
40• When a festival, fair or other public gathering which
is likely to be attended by persons from plague-infected parts
is about to take place in an uninfected area, the Collector may
apply to Government for orders to prohibit attendance thereat
and to enforce the prohibition by stopping temporarily the
issue of railway tickets to persons from infected areas or by
other means. A similar course should be adopted when a
festival, fair or other public gathering which is likely to be
attended by persons from healthy parts is about to take place
in a plague-infected area.
41, Proposals submitted under the preceding rule should
be forwarded through the Sanitary Commissioner so as to reach
Government a month and-a-half previous to the holding of the
fair or festival. In order to avoid delay in their submission,
Collectors should prepare in their office every month a list of
all-the fairs and festivals to take place during the ensuing
three months, and should send by the 15th of each month
their recommendations relating to religious and other gather-
ings to be held in the next month but one. Notice of the
prohibition of the issue of railway tickets should be given to
the railway authorities at least a week previous to the date of
commencement of the prohibition,
17
42. The Collector's reports should be invariably accom-
panied by draft notifications under the Epidemic Diseases Act,
1897, and by a statement in the form shown in Appendix
11-M. Skeleton notifications are printed as Appendix II-N.
43. The prohibition of attendance at fairs and festivals
should ordinarily be applied only to the larger fairs and
festivals. In the case of unimportant local festivals, a careful
working of the passport rules should suffice.
44. Where pilgrimage to a fair or festival has been pro-
Hibited by Government, the Collector should, as far as the
means at his disposal permit, watch all the roads round the
village or town in order to prevent pilgrims from entering the
place unobserved. Persons who are suspected to have come
from infected parts should be passported and watched for ten
days. It must be distinctly understood that the prohibition is
not in any way intended to interfere with the performance of
the usual religious ceremonies at the temple, and that its only
object is to prevent the assemblage of persons who might
I import or spread the plague.
!
45. A special establishment to carry out the measures
prescribed in the foregoing rule is not ordinarily required.
As far as practicable they should be carried out with the aid
of the existing district establishment. If in any special case
extra establishment is needed, a separate recommendation
should be made when the imposition of restrictions on the
holding of the festival or fair is suggested. It is not necessary
for the purpose of these measures to build costly structures at
each place where a festival or fair is held. It will suffice if
the Collector has in stock materials for one or two sheds,
which may be utilized if required, but if not, may either be
sold or carted to another place where they may be required
after the close of the festival.
48, As regards pilgrimage to the Hedjaz, the Government
of India annually issue orders either prohibiting it altogether
or allowing it under certain conditions from uninfected parts
only. In the latter case, the intending pilgrims ave collected
.4it convenient observation camps, they are not allowed to
purchase passage tickets to the Hedjaz except at those observa-
tion camps, and after they have been detained for the prescribed
period and certified to bd free from infection, they are sent in
special trains or carriages to the selected ports for embarka-
tion. Pilgrims returning from the IIedjaz in healthy vessels
are, after disinfection of the clothing and baggage, sent at
once tp their destination without being allowed to mix with
2*
18
the population of the port of landing. Those returning in
a plague-infected vessel are Subjected to ten days' observation
in a camp before being sent to their homes. The autho-
rities of the port of landing are required to send nominal rolls
of the pilgrims to the Collectors concerned, and to give pre-
vious intimation of their departure, in order that they may be
watched for a few days after arrival at their destination.
Infortnatiin
regarding
plague cacen
and arrival«,
from infected
areas.
47. Every house-holder and. every medical practitioner j
who becomes cognizant of the occurrence in his house or in any
public or private dwelling or place within the limits of the
municipality, town or village in which he resides, of any
unusual mortality among rats or of any case of plague or of
fever with glandular swellings, and in the case of persons who
live within an area that has been notified as infected or who
have been in any way exposed to plague infection, of acute
affections of the lung, of convulsions in children, abortion in
women and sudden death in the aged, shall be bound to give
information of the same, with the least practicable delay, in a
municipality to the chairman of the council and the medical
officer in charge of the municipal dispensary or hospital, and in
a non-municipal town or village to the village head or to other
nearest officer of the revenue or medical department, who shall
report the fact at once to their immediate official superiors.
47-A. The owner or occupier of any house in which a
case of plague occurs shall be bound to give full and true
information to the plague officer, or to any member of the
observation or preventive stafí or fco the local authority who
has jurisdiction over such house, regarding all persons who
have been in immediate contact with the patient.
48. Every house-holder and every keeper or person in
charge of an hôtel, chattram or other place of public resort,
shall also in the same manner forthwith report the arrival at
the house, hôtel, chattram or other place, of any person from
any area which has been declared by the Governor in Council
or by the Collector to be infected or which has been notified
by the Governor in Council for the purposes of these rules.
48-A. Upon receipt of information, under Rule 47 or
otherwise, of the occurrence of unsual mortality among rats,
the chairman in municipal limits or the district medical
officer, and in regard to non-municipal areas, the Collector
or district medical officer, shall forthwith forward a special
report regarding rat-mortality to the" Sanitary Commissioner
and may, if necessary, forward specimens of dead rats, under
19
proper precautions, tothe Superintendent of the King Insti-
tute of Preventive Medicine for bacteriological examination.
Power to
enter'any
building or
place for the
purpose of
inspecting
plague cases
and taking
necessary
measures.
49. The Collector or any officer authorized by him for this
purpose may at any time enter any building or place in which
plague is reputed or suspected to exist, and may inspect and,
if necessary, detain or remove and isolate any person suffering
or suspected to be suffering from plague or to have so lately-
suffered from 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, or believed to have recently
arrived from an infected or notified area.
Bringing of
susceptible
articles from
infected areas
prohibited.
50. The bringing, taking, sending, or consigning, by sea
or land, of soiled linen and used bedding (except when carried
as the personal baggage of travellers), rags, and waste paper
from a plague-infected place in India into or through any
other part of India to which the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897,
applies, having been prohibited by the Government of India,
the Collector shall take due steps to make the prohibition
known and to enforce it. Articles brought in contravention
of this prohibition shall be destroyed, and no person shall be
entitled to claim compensation on account of such destruction.
See also Appendix I, note (6) on Disinfection.
Destruction
of rats.
51. The Collector shall take steps for the extermination
of rats both in infected and threatened localities. He shall
also arrange for the frequent inspection of consignments of
grain arriving from plague-infected areas and of landing places,
railway goods-sheds, and grain bazaars, and for the killing and
subsequent destruction by burning of all rats found therein.
See also Appendix I, note (7) on rat-plague and destruction
of rats.
Part II.—Rules applicable to places under observation or
imminently threatened with plague,
Areas under
observation.
52. The Governor in Council may, if it appears to him
that any district, town, village, or other area is imminently
threatened with plague, issue an order declaring such district,
town, village, or other area to be under observation. A copy
of such order shall be published in the next issue of the Fort
St. George Gazette.
Frontier
inspection
stations.
53. Upon the issue by the Governor in Council of an
order declaring any area to be under observation, the Collector
shall, subject to the sanction of Government, establish frontier
20
inspection stations with the necessary staff for the examina-
tion of persons entering the notified area. These frontier
inspection stations shall be placed ordinarily at railway
stations and shall be as near as may be to the frontier. Inspec-
tion stations shall not be established on roads except in places
where the nature of the country forces traffic to converge
between narrow lines and when the staff can be placed under
proper supervision. This prohibition does not apply to
passport stations at the entrance to towns.
54. At each frontier inspection station shall be erected a
sufficient number of sheds for hospital and observation pur-
poses ; and a sufficient supply of disinfectants and stores shall
be maintained.
55. All passengers arriving by rail at these inspection
stations shall be there examined and dealt with in accordance
with the provisions of Rules 16—36 supra and those arriving
by road shall also be provided with passports under Rule 2.
Observation
ranges and
staff.
56. (1) The Collector shall divide the area under observa-
tion into observation ranges and shall appoint an inspector
for ea.ch of them. The size of each range shall admit of tho
inspector's visiting every portion of it in ten days and shall
be fixed with reference to such details as the number of
villages included, their population and importance, difficulties
of locomotion and geographical features. For each non-
municipal town with a population in excess of 5,000 a separate
plague inspector should be appointed.
(2) Every municipality which is declared to be under
observation or which is included in the area under observation
shall be divided into ranges, which should, as far as possible,
follow tho municipal wards, and for each range an inspector
shall be appointed. When any ward contains less than 1,200
houses or a population of less than 5,000 persons it may be
combined with other wards to form one range. Three ranges
shall ordinarily form a division and each division shall be
placed under a divisional inspector.
(3) The Collector may also appoint plague supervisors
to check the work of inspectors.
(4) As far as possible such plague inspectors shall be
certificated sanitary inspectors, hospital assistants not below
the third grade, or persons who shall have received a special
training for dealing with plague to the" satisfaction of the
Sanitary Commissioner. Hospital assistants, when available,
may in all cases be employed in place of sanitary inspectors
on plague work.
Note.—The limits of population and extent laid down in clause 2 may be varied
according to local conditions.
21
Duties of the
observation
staff.
57. (1) Subject to the Collector's control, this observation
staff shall work under the district medical and sanitary officer
or other officer appointed by the Collector for the purpose.
In municipalities the Collector may place the staff under the
control of the municipal chairman, and may vary or cancel
any such order. It shall be the duty of the observation staff
constantly and systematically to patrol the ranges in order to
gain the earliest possible information of any suspicious death
or of the occurrence of any case of plague, to report immedi-
ately any such case or any suspected case and to remove with
the aid of the ordinary conservancy establishment all defects
in sanitation which would favour the propagation of plague,
such as accumulations of filth, sewage, or the like. 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 shall produce him at the earliest possible
date before a plague officer having jurisdiction.
(2) It shall also be the duty of this staff to ascertain
whether any special sickness or mortality has occurred among
rats, and to examine any rats that may be found, in order to
see whether any enlarged glands are present. Houses in
which sick or dead rats are found should be disinfected.
(3) Inspectors for their respective charges and village
headmen for their villages shall keep a record of all persons
suffering from continuous fever for more than twelve hours,
and inspectors shall arrange with the village headman to have
such persons inspected twice daily. If a member of the
observation staff discovers a case of plague, he shall proceed
in accordance with Rule 67 et seq·
Ambulance
staff.
58. In municipalities or districts which appear to him
to be imminently threatened with an attack of plague, the
Collector should make all arrangements necessary to enable
him to concentrate at any point on short notice an ambulance
staff together with the equipment prescribed by Government.
The ambulance staff should ordinarily be constituted as
follows :—
Sanitary Section.
One plague inspector.
One dhoby.
Two male toties.
One female toti.
Two dhooly hearers.
Disinfectors (any number up to
50 for a single section, to be
recruited locally in the infected
area, if sepoys be not employed).
Medical Section.
Two hospital assistants.
One or more trained nurses
Four male ward attendants.
Three female ward attendants.
One dhoby.
Two cooks.