3
cipal limits. He died before his case was reported, and directly after his
decease a second member of his household, also a recent arrival from Poona,
was attacked. Of the other two cases, one sufferer arrived from Poona, and
was concealed in Nagar City for several days before information was obtained
of her arrival, and the other imported case from Násik was detected at the
Kail way Station.
Enforcement of general
Quarantine for eight days.
9. A consideration of these cases seemed to show the necessity for more
stringent precautions and to throw suspicion on the
manner in which the inspection staff charged with the
duty of observing new arrivals were acquitting them-
selves or their daily tasks. At this time the quarantine camp at the station
was sufficiently advanced for immediate use, and it was therefore thought
advisable to impose a strict quarantine without further delay. Quarantine was
thus notified with effect from March 10th. Quarantine was declared applicable
to all arrivals from outside the district, whether by road or rail, except
Europeans, officers on duty, and the servants of the latter. Pirst class passen-
gers were to be exempted on executing a bond to remain at Ahmednagar under
daily medical examination for eight days. The Personal Assistant to theCollector,
who was entrusted with the contrbl of the quarantine arrangements, was allowed
a general discretion to exempt persons who could satisfy him that they had not
come from an infected locality, or whose detention appeared to be unnecessary.
The difficulty in enforcing quarantine between places connected by road
and rail are mainly the following :—
(1) How to ascertain correctly the place from which travellers
arrive ?
(2) How to provide against the evasion of quarantine by persons
alighting at intermediate stations and continuing their journey by road ?
The satisfactory solution of these difficulties appeared so problematical that no
attempt would have been made to enforce quarantine if the situation at Poona
had not rendered the facing of these difficulties absolutely necessary. The mor-
tality in Poona had reached 82 per diem, the normal death-rate being 5. This,
and the house-to-house inspection, induced the residents to look elsewhere for a
temporary refuge. Ahmednagar, only 78 miles by road and a few hours' journey
by rail, offered an asylum the more valuable inasmuch as its reputation for
healthiness is widespread. Already the population of Nagar City had been
augmented by many thousands of arrivals from Bombay and Poona, thus creating
a risk of serious overcrowding which, if permitted to continue unchecked, could
not have failed to produce dangerously insanitary conditions. Por these reasons
quarantine seemed to be absolutely necessary, however difficult it might prove in
its subsequent working. The notification imposing eight days' detention at the
station camp on all arrivals was supplemented by two orders of the District Ma-
gistrate, requiring all arrivals from outside the district arriving by road and not
passing through the camp to obtain a permit before taking up their residence
in Nagar or Bhingár, and forbidding the inhabitants of these places to receive
any such arrivals unless they had passed through the quarantine, or received
such a permit. Even with these precautions, many evasions of the regulations
must have occurred, though but few were brought to light. In a few cases the
offenders were prosecuted and fined.
Description of the Ahmed-
nagar Quarantine Camp.
10. The Quarantine camp is thus described by
the Vice-Président of the Municipality in his re-
port—
The camp was laid out (on designs prepared by the Municipal Sec-
retary) in a field near the station, the land being kindly lent free of rent by
Mr. Bezanji Chandabhai. It consists of 40 sheds, each 20' by 10', each shed
being divided into two parts by a partition wall, and provided with a
verandah facing west. The 40 sheds are arranged in four rows with broad
walks between each row. They are constructed of bamboo matting, plas-
tered and whitewashed. The whole camp is enclosed by a fence of matting
and barbed wire. Inside the enclosure, besides the 40 huts already
described, are cook-houses for Hindus and Musalmáns, a large shed for low
castes, an office and residence for the Camp Superintendent, a hospital,