CHAP, X, ]
spread of infection by land.
333
or more village policemen are stationed at every railway station. On
the arrival of the train the railway police prepare lists containing the
names and residences of travellers from the infected area who alight,
these lists, after being checked from the tickets collected are forwarded
to the police station. When there is reason to suspect that a traveller
has given either a wrong name or a wrong address, one of the village
policemen is sent with him to verify the information given.
General
regulations for
the surveillance
of travellers from
infected localities
enforced in the
North-Western
Provinces, the
Punjab and the
Central
Provinces.
Lists maintained
at the police
station of
villages in
communication
with Bombay
(List A).
Daily reports of
deaths in these
villages.
Lists maintained
in police
stations of
arrivals from the
Bombay
Presidency (List
B).
Enquiry on
receipt of
information of
death of any
person entered
in list B, or
residing in a
village entered
in list A, or of
unusual mortality
in any village.
The Governments of the North-Western Provinces, the Punjab,
and the Central Provinces issued a series of rules for the general
observation of the health of the country and the special surveillance
of towns and villages, the inhabitants of which were known to be in
communication with Bombay, and of arrivals from Bombay. In
issuing these rules the Government of the North-Western Provinces
remarked (February 12th) that it was known that there was consi-
derable intercourse between some districts of those Provinces
and the Presidency of Bombay ; for instance, many weavers had taken
employment in the Bombay direction, With the large exodus that
was taking place from Bombay it was apprehended that many natives
of the country would return, and it was recognised that the surveillance
of the health of these emigrants and the adoption of prompt
measures should plague occur amongst them had become a matter
of urgent necessity. Orders were accordingly issued under the
Epidemic Diseases Act that in every district a list should be pre-
pared of villages known to be directly connected, by trade relations
or otherwise, with those parts of India in which bubonic plague
was prevalent. To such villages the rules relating to the reporting
of deaths where cholera is epidemic were applied, that is to say, daily
reports of all deaths were submitted. At the same time a register
was prepared in each police station, from reports furnished by
village policemen, of all persons who returned from the Bombay
Presidency, or who had arrived from that Presidency since the
beginning of January. The information collected at the railway
station was also utilised in the preparation of these lists. On receiv-
ing information of the death of any person whose name was recorded
on the register or who resided in any village from which daily
reports were submitted, or on finding that an unusually large
number of deaths were reported from any village in his circle,
the officer in charge of the police station was required to enquire
into the symptoms which preceded death. If the circumstance
gave rise to a suspicion of plague, the officer was required to go to
the village, to report to his superiors, and to see to the adoption of
the precautionary measures prescribed by the general plague