No. 905 0F 1897.
REPORT ON TRE MEDICAL INSPECTION" OP PERSONS LEAVING
AND ARRIVING AT BOMBAY BY SEA DURING THE PLAGUE
EPIDEMIC, 1896-97.
OUTWARD INSPECTIONS.
1. Before describing in detail the wholesale system of inspection of outward
vessels, crews and passengers, which was introduced early in February 1897, the
procedure as regards issue of bills of health which had hitherto been in force at
Bombay may be explained, as apparently much ignorance prevails, especially
amongst foreign nations, on that point.
2. The bills of health issued at Bombay have been, until the 6th of Febru-
ary 1897, of two kinds—Form " Β " and Form " C." Form " Β " Bili of Health
certifies not merely to the health of Bombay city and its environs, but
testifies to the sanitary condition of the vessels to which it refers, and to the
absence of dangerous epidemic diseases amongst its passengers and crew. To
it is attached a necrological certificate that shows the number of deaths
during previous week in Bombay from Plague, yellow fever and cholera, and
contains the official opinion of the Standing Medical Board as to the epide-
mic or sporadic character of these diseases at the time of its issue. This official
bill is therefore not merely a document which gives evidence of the health of
the port that issues it, as ordinary bills of health do, but furnishes a medical
guarantee that the vessel which carries it is free from dangerous epidemic disease
and is in a sanitary condition at the time of sailing. It necessitates of course
a medical examination of the vessel, crew and passengers prior to departure by
an officer appointed for the purpose ; and this examination—India's effort to
prevent the export from its shores of such diseases as cholera and Plague—has
been in force since June 1884. Up to 6th February 1897 this Bill, Form " Β ",
was only issued to vessels bound to some of the following ports :—Aden, Bed
Sea Ports, European viâ Canal, Persian Gulf and Mauritius, vessels for which
with their crews and passengers have been regularly inspected here during the
last 13 years. It is well to make this fact clear, because other countries never
seem to have admitted that efforts have been honestly made by India to keep
her own special diseases within her own borders. Thus oue of the Delegates
sent by the Mauritius Government to study the Plague at Bombay, and who was
present at a medical inspection of a batch of sea-borne passengers here, express-
ed surprise at the closeness of the inspection and professed amazement when
told that vessels, crew and passengers for Mauritius have been carefully inspected
here prior to departure for the last 13 years; and he further stated that no one
in Mauritius had ever been aware of that fact; and this notwithstanding that
the very wording of the Indian Bill precludes its issue without a medical in-
spection of ship, crew and passengers immediately before sailing.
Form " C " Bill of Health is on the other hand a pro formâ bill, which
merely states the condition of health in Bombay at the time of issue, and is
therefore granted without inspection of ships and those sailing on them, It is
taken by vessels bound to ports other than those already mentioned.
3. Such was the procedure in force in Bombay up to 6th February 1897
when, as the Plague epidemic increased and it became evident that a panic
stricken population was rushing from the city by all available routes, Government
decided to enforce medical inspection by their own officers of all vessels and
persons leaving Bombay by sea for anywhere, and from that date accordingly
the pro forma Bill of Health " C " ceased to be issued. The expression "by
their own officers " is here used because the two local shipping companies which
carried away the great bulk of the population that fled by sea had already, and
at an earlier date, provided a medical inspection of their own.
4. It is clear then that as regards vessels bound for Europe viâ Canal,
Persian Gulf, Aden, Red Sea and Mauritius, the Bombay procedure has been for
many years acting as a check 011 the export of cholera and other dangerous
epidemic diseases, and that, when Plague broke out in the city in September 1896,
and before the Venice Convention was even thought of, the Bombay medical
inspection system was working steadily, if silently, in connection with departures
for the ports just mentioned. Under that system, but amplified to meet the
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