2
4.
For prevention of importation of Plague.
(1) " Selection of sito for observation camp."
Perfectly open mál ground, with na trees in the vicinity, and with water
only near enough to prevent hardship would seem to constitute the best site for
an observation camp. All the camps in the Kolhápur and Southern Marátha
Country districts have been chosen on this principle, and though thousands of
people have come direct from infected places, and have been detained in these
camps, not a single case of plague has occurred in either of them.
(2) " Plan of observation camp and its erection and establishment."
For the camps themselves I purposely arranged for the roofs of the huts
to be thin, and the doorways wide, so that the sun might have plenty of power
inside, while at the same time there should be plenty of air. Of course for the
monsoon we have had to thatch the roofs and trench the sheds.
The sheds have been sufficient in number to accommodate each day's arrivals
separately, the occupants being moved up from No. 1 to No. 8 row. Men and
women are of course separated, except when families prefer to be together, and
there is no difficulty about caste arrangements, for natives know how to adjust
their own affairs in that respect, and therefore this has never given any
trouble. For establishment see Appendix X (Dr. Sinclair's recommendations).
(3) " Method of detaining the public and preventing leakage."
All passengers booked to stations where quarantine is imposed are handed
over by the Railway Police to the State Police at the Station barrier, and they
are taken to the observation camp. They may return to where they came from
if they choose, without leaving the. platform, but they cannot go on any
further. All roads and bridges are guarded by Police, and all travellers without
passes, unless they can prove that they are boná fide marketers, and that their
village is within 5 miles, are taken to the nearest observation camp.
(4) " Disinfection of arrivals."
To this I attribute in some measure the fact of there not having been a
single case of plague in any of our observation camps. Every passenger or
traveller as he (or she) arrives at the camp is made to take off all clothes, and
is well washed with hoi water, soap and phenyle, while his (or her) clothes are
boiled in lime water. If the clothes are unfit even for this, as is sometimes the
case, they are burnt, and the owner is provided with new clothes gratis. I
quite think that this compulsory cleansing, combined with the heat and dry-
ness of the camp, and the perfect drainage, has had a good deal to do with the
immunity from plague that has characterized these observation camps, and for
the complete way in which these arrangements have been carried out, we are
indebted to Dr. Sinclair, the Darbár Surgeon of Kolhápur.
(5) "food and amusements for the temporary occupants of the camps."
Food has up to now been supplied gratis in the observation camps, and it has
been so much appreciated with the assistance and encouragement given to
amusements of various kinds among the occupants by the Darbár, that their
detention has been rather popular than otherwise. In fact we have had difficulty
sometimes in avoiding being imposed upon by people repeating their visits, in
order to be kept for nothing."
(6) "Passes for road and rail."
Passes are of two kinds. " a " pass to enable officers on duty to avoid
detention ; " b " pass to enable the occupants of the camps to proceed after
they have done their eight days under observation.
The " a " passes are issued on application subject to certain conditions,
namely, that the applicant travels first class, and that his servant or servants
travel all the way in a compartment specially reserved for them, and not in the
ordinary 3rd class with strangers.
If they fail to show this at the detention station, the servants are taken to
the observation camp.