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tor by Government on the 1st October, was promptly communicated to the
municipalities of Thána and Bándra, and on the 13th of October the Commis-
sioner, N. D., in anticipation of their sanction, made rules for the removal
of plague patients to hospitals and for the disinfection of infected articles and
all-goods and luggage from Bombay, for the municipal towns of Thána, Bándra,
Kurla, Kalyán and Bassein. The Collector, in communicating these rules,
insisted on the absolute necessity of having special hospitals for the plague.
By the end of October special Inspectors, the majority of whom were medical
subordinates, had been engaged for railway stations for the five towns mention-
ed, money had been voted by the municipalities for the necessary expenses, and
at all those places except Bassein plague hospitals had already been erected.
B. In the Surat District, which lies immediately north of Thána, arrivals from
Bombay were inspected at the Surat Railway Station by medical officers from
October 22nd : the names and addresses of arrivals from Bombay were taken
down and they were watched for some days after their arrival,
4. In the district of Broach, which lies north of Surat, a Sanitary Com-
mittee was appointed by the Broach Municipality in the early part of October
under the chairmanship of Dr. Mistry, the Civil Surgeon, to effect a thorough
cleaning of the town, to erect sheds, isolate plague patients, &c. Special powers
under section 73 of the District Municipal Act were conferred on the Muni-
cipality, hand-bills were distributed and a medical inspection of railway passengers
was instituted. A register was also kept of persons arriving from the direction
of Bombay.
5. Arrangements were made at the Anand Junction in the Kaira District
in the month of October for the medical inspection of railway passengers coming
from the direction of Bombay,
6. At Ahmedabad, which is the most northerly British district through
which the B. B. & C. I. Railway line runs, a medical inspection of passengers and
a fumigation of goods was arranged for on the 5th of October. A building was
set apart for plague cases, the names and addresses of passengers from Bombay
were registered, and rules were adopted by the municipality under Section 73 of
the District Municipal Act.
7. Turning now to the G. I. P. Railway, the Calcutta branch after leaving
the Thána District ruas through the districts of Násik and Khándesh, and the
Madras branch runs through those of Poona and Sholápur. At Poona the
medical inspection of arrivals from Bombay was commenced by employes of
the Suburban Municipality on the 30th September and was supplemented by
an inspection by the Southern Mahratta Railway Company. Special rules
for the treatment of an outbreak of plague, should it occur, and for preventing
its introduction, were sanctioned for the cantonment as soon as possible.
Medical inspection at Sholápur was started by the municipality in November
and an attempt was made, but in consequence of the scarcity of medical
subordinates without success, to obtain an Inspector for Bársi. At several
railway stations in the Násik District, medical men were stationed to watch
arrivals from Bombay, and sanction was obtained to the adoption of rules under
section 73 of the District Municipal Act by the Násik Municipality. At Bhusá-
val in the Khándesh District a medical inspection of passengers from the direc-
tion of Bombay was commenced on the 1st November.
8. The stations on the S. M. Railway, which, starting from Poona, runs
through the southern districts of the Presidency, were protected by medical
inspectors employed by the railway company.
9. The Surgeon-General and the Sanitary Commissioners in the course of
their tours represented to the local authorities the need for vigilance and gave
such advice as was possible. The following instructions for the diagnosis of
plague prepared by Professor Haffkine were widely circulated by Government on
November 16th :
Instructions by Monsieur IV. M. Haffkine for diagnosing the Bubonic Plague.
1. Symptoms of disease :
Fever preceded sometimes by rigor. Trembling in the limbs.
Pain, swelling and hardening of one or rarely several superficial glands, most frequent-
ly of one in the groin, more rarely in a gland or glands of the armpit or of the cervical
region.
Delirium. Sometimes restless efforts at vomiting which may or may not be success-
ful ; -constipation, or occasionally, on the contrary, diarrhœa.