NationalLibraryOfScotland/medical-history-of-british-india huggingface dataset:
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(b) the • inspection of persons travelling by railway
or otherwise and the segregation, in hospital,
temporary accommodation or otherwise, of
persons suspected by the inspecting officer of
being infected with any such disease.
(3) The Governor-General in Council may, by general
or special order, direct that all or any of the powers conferred
by this Act may also be exercised by any Local Government
with respect to the territories administered by it.
3. Any person disobeying any regulation or order ruade
under this Act shall be deemed to have
committed an offence punishable under
section 188 of the Indian Penal Code.
Protection to persons
acting under Act.
"4. No suit or other legal proceeding shall lie against any
person for anything done or in good
faith intended to be done under this
Act.
3
II.
NOTIFICATION OF THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA IN THE
HOME DEPARTMENT (No. 302, DATED 4ra FEBKUAEY 1897),
DELEGATING TO LOCAL GOVERNMENTS POWERS CON-
FEßEED BY THE EPIDEMIC DISEASES ACT, 1897.
"WHEREAS certain parts of India are visited by, and others
threatened with, an outbreak of dangerous epidemic disease
known as bubonic plague, the Governor-General in Council,
in exercise of the powers conferred by section 2, sub-section
(3), of the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897, is pleased to direct
that the powers conferred by the said Act may be exercised
by Local Governments with regard to their respective terri-
tories as follows :—
(a) All the said powers by the Governors of Fort St.
G-eorge and Bombay in Council, the Lieutenant-Governor of
Bengal and Chief Commissioner of Burma.
*
*
*
*
1
.
I
4 •
III.
PLAGUE REGULATIONS IN FORCE OUTSIDE
THE PRESIDENCY TOWN.
(Notification No. 1261, published on pages 489 to 571 of
Part I-A of the Fort St. George Gazette, dated 16th
October 1906.)
WHEKEAS certain parts of the 'Presidency of Madras are
visited by, and other parts are threatened with, an outbreak
of a dangerous epidemic disease known as plague, and whereas
the ordinary provisions of the law for the -time being in force
in the Presidency are insufficient for the purpose of preventing
the outbreak or spread of the disease :
In exercise of the powers conferred lay section 2, sub-
section (1) of the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897, and
delegated to him under sub-section (3) of the same section
by the notification of the Government of India in the
Home Department, "No. 302, of the 4th February 1897,
the Governor of Fort St. George in Council is pleased to
prescribe under the said Epidemic Diseases Act, and in super-
session of all regulations previously issued on the subject, the
following regulations to be observed throughout the Presi-
dency except the City of Madras : —
Part I.—The Passport System and other General Precau-
tionary Measures to be adopted in all Towns and
Villages outside the Presidency Town.
Infected
area.
1, The Local Government, or, subject to their .control, the
Collector of a district, may issue an order declaring that any
town, village or other area is infected with plague ; and a copy
of such order shall be notified in the next issue of the Fort
St. George or District Gazette. The order will ordinarily
take effect from the date of notification in the Gazette. But
when the order is issued by the Collector in an emergency, it
will take effect as soon as it has been notified locally by beat
of tom-tom under the Collector's orders. As a rule, only
places in which one or more indigenous cases of plague have
occurred or in which the existence of plague among rats has
been proved by bacteriological tests should be so notified.
The Local Government may in the same manner notify
railway stations, which, from their proximity to infected areas,
are liable to be used by persons leaving such areas.
5
Surveillance
or passport
rules.
Every
arrival from
an infected
or notified
area bonnd
fco obtain
a passport
and place
himself
ander
surveillance.
2. (1) Every person arriving, or suspected of having
arrived, from any place notified under the ]ast preceding rule
shall, unless he is exempted under Eules 88-A, 89 and 121 or
unless he already holds a passport or a permanent pass under
Rules 82-84 or unless he has been detained for the full period
of incubation at a road or railway inspection station or in a
plague camp, before leaving the railway station at which he
has alighted, or before disembarking from the steamer, ship
or boat in which he has travelled, or in the case of arrival by
road either immediately on reaching a road frontier inspection
station or any town or village within an area placed under
observation under Rule 52 infra or within twelve hours from
the time of arrival at any other place, obtain from the officer
mentioned in Rule 3 infra a passport in the form shown in
Appendix II-A binding him to present himself for observation
daily for the next ten days before the local authority of the
town or village where he may reside or work ; and he shall be
bound so to present himself.
Definition of
" local
authority."
(2) By a " local authority " is meant any of the fol-
lowing officers :—
(a) The local medical officer.
(b) The station-house officer.
(c) The headman of the village.
(d) The karnam of the village.
(e) Any person appointed by the Collector of the
district for the purpose.
In places where there is more than one local authority, the
duties of the local authority shall, unless the Collector otherwise
directs, be performed by the officer who stands first in the order
given in this clause. In large towns, such as Madura, Trichi-
nopoly, Salem, etc., the duties of local authorities under these
rules should ordinarily be performed by a medical subordinate
and should not be left to any lower class of officer.
Penalty.
(3) Any person refusing to comply with or attempting
to evade this rule may be detained for ten days at the
nearest inspection station or other place appointed by the
Collector for -the purpose in addition to being liable to the
penalty prescribed in Rule 100.
Note.— (1 ) This rule does not apply to passengers from a non-infected or non-notifiea
railway station who pass through an infected or notified railway station without breaking
journey at that station.
(2) Persons who make frequent/ or daily journeys from an infected to an
uuinfected area may in lieu of passports be given general passes as laid down in Rule
84 infra.
(3) The Collector, or any plague officer or assistant plague officer not below
the rank of deputy tahsildar may, by written order, exempt auy person from personal
attendance before the local authority. Exempted persons will be inspected at theiç
6
residence if the local authority considers inspection necessary or if superior authority
requires it. For the definition of plague officer and assistant plague officer see Rule
103.
I'aaeport
issuing
officers.
3. The following officers are authorized to issue pass-
ports :—
(a) To travellers alighting at rail- i
way inspection stations.
(b) To travellers alighting at rail-
way stations included within
municipal limits.
(c) To travellers alighting at other
railway stations.
(d) To travellers arriving by I
steamer, ship or boat.
j
!
(e) To travellers arriving by road.
\
"The medical officer in charge or
other officer acting under his
orders.
Such medical, sanitary or other
1 officer as may be appointed
by the chairman with the
L. Collector's approval.
"The stationmaster or other officer •
appointed by the Collector for
tthe
purpose.
The medical, sanitary or other
officer appointed to examine
[_ such travellers.
"The medical, sanitary or other
officer appointed to examine such
travellers, or if no such officer
, has been appointed, the local
authority of the place of arrival.
The Collector should arrange with the railway authorities
at which stations the railway staff shall be required to
perform the duties connected with the issue of passports and
at which stations the Collector should make other arrange-
ments. . Station m aster s requiring forms or service postage»
stamps should apply to the Collectors concerned, and should
use the following designation in franking covers containing
correspondence connected with their passport work—
" Stationmaster and Honorary Plague Passport-issuing
officer."
Duties of
passport-
holders.
4. Every person required by these rules to take out a pass-
port shall declare truly his name, address, and such other
particulars as may be required by the officer issuing the
passport. He shall, unless exempted, for ten days from the
date of the issue of the passport, daily present himself with
his passport at the appointed time before the local authority of
the place where he may be for the time being, and shall daily
obtain that officer's signature on his passport in token of his
having so presented himself. If he becomes ill or if any
sickness occurs in the house in which he is or has been residing
during the said period of ten days, he shall give immediate
information of the same to the local authority. He shall report
similarly any change in his residence occurring •within ten days
from the date of the issue of the passport, and if he changes
7
his residence, he shall, before departure, get the entries under
headings 11 and 12 of his passport altered by the local autho-
rity. On the expiry of the said period of ten days, he shall
deliver up his passport to the local authority of the place where
he may then be.
Intimation
of issne of
passports.
5. Every officer issuing a, passport shall immediately send
the triplicate copy of it by post, or by special messenger or in
any other manner which the Collector may direct, to the local
authority of the place of destination of the holder of the pass-
port. If the local authority of the place of destination is not
known, the triplicate copy of the passport shall be sent to the
tahsildar concerned for transmission to the local authority.
When the destination is beyond India, the triplicate should be
sent to the local authority, at the port of departure from the
Madras Presidency. Intimation of the issue of the passport
need be telegraphed only in urgent cases.
Change of
residence
during
surveillance.
|
6. (1) The following procedure shall be followed in respect
to passport-holders who change their residence within the
Madras Presidency within ten days of their arrival :—
(a) The local authority of the original place of arrival
shall send the triplicate copy of the passport to the local
authority of the new place of destination after noting therein
the number of days during which the passport-holder has been
observed.
(b) If the new place of destination is in another
district, the change of residence: shall also be intimated direct
to the district medical and sanitary officer of that district
and through the tahsildar or municipal chairman concerned to
the district medical and sanitary officer of the original place
of arrival. The intimation should contain the following
particulars :—
Passport number, date and station of issue.
Passport-holder's name and father's name.
How long observed and where.
New place of residence—district, taluq, village, street, and
number or name and occupier of the house.
The forms should be printed at the District Presses.
(2) When the destination is beyond India, the intimation
should be sent to the local authority of the port of departure
from the Madras Presidency.
Duties of
local
authority
or passport
examiner.
7. The local authority of the place of destination shall keep
himself promptly informed of all arrivals from infected or
notified areas, shall report to higher authority every person
arriving without a passport, and shall see that, on the arrival
8
of a passport-holder, he is observed daily for ten days. Any
case of illness or death in the house in which such passport-
holder is or has been residing shall be forthwith reported "with
full details fco the nearest'plague officer or assistant plague
officer or to the nearest medical officer. Particular atten-
tion should be paid to cases of fever accompanied with acute
affection of the lungs, as these symptoms may indicate the
existence of pneumonic plague. The appearance of glandular
swellings even though attended by constitutional disturbance
so slight as not to prevent the patient moving about, the
occurrence of abortion amongst women, of convulsions
amongst children and of sudden death in the aged should be
regarded as suspicious and should be reported. After ten
days, the duplicate passport shall be recovered from the pass-
port-holder and sent to the tahsildar or municipal chairman.
Register to bo
maintained
by local
authority.
8. Every local authority shall.maintain a register, which
may be in manuscript, in the following form :—
(1) Date of receipt of triplicate copy of passport or other
intimation.
(2) Name of passport-holder.
(3) From what infected or notified area arriving.
(4) Date of arrival of passport-holder.
(5) Number, date and place of issue of passport.
(6) How long kept under observation.
(7) State of health of the passport-holder and other persons
living in the house in which he is or has been residing.
(8) Date of departure if occurring within ten days.
(9) Destination.
(10) Date of despatch of triplicate passport to the local autho-
rity of the place of destination, and of intimation to the
tahsildar or municipal chairman and district medical and
sanitary officer.
(11) Date of despatch of the duplicate passport to the tahsildar
and how despatched. If sent hy messenger, his name
and time of his departure.
Persons
Passing-
through a
railway
inspection
station.
9. In the case of persons passing through a railway
frontier inspection station, the medical officer in charge shall
record the following information in respect to every traveller
from an infected or notified area who is not detained by him
under the provisions of Rule 24 and shall send it without
delay—if possible by the railway guard of the same or next
train—to the district medical and sanitary officer of the
district to which such traveller is proceeding :—
(1) Date of arrival.
(2) Name of traveller (in full, including house-name and
caste-title).
(3) Father's name.
9
(4) Caste.
(5) Age and sex.
(6) Whence coming.
(7) Railway station of destination.
(8) Number of railway ticket.
District.
Taluq.
(9) Destination and
resi
dence during
the
next
ten
days.
next ten days.
Number or name or the owner of
the house.
10, The foregoing rule does not require the maintenance
of a register. The information referred to should be recorded
in duplicate with the aid of carbon paper, a separate slip of
paper being used for each passenger, except in the case of the
members of a family proceeding to the same destination, when
their names may be entered in one slip. One set of copies
should be forwarded at once to the respective destinations and
the other kept for reference at the inspection station. No
such intimation is necessary in the case of persons exempted
from the passport rules under Rule 89 as the officers to whom
they are immediately subordinate are responsible for their
observation ; but it should be forwarded in the case of
inoculated persons from infected areas who hold valid certifi-
cates, as they are liable to be observed at their own houses.
The intimation forms will be supplied by the Superintendent,
Government Press, to Collectors on indent. If the guards of
the trains and other railway subordinates do not carry out the
instructions given to them with regard to the transmission
of the names and addresses, of passengers, they may be
prosecuted. The object of sending intimation of arrivals
from infected parts to the district medical and sanitary
officer is not merely to inform him of the movements of
such persons, but to enable him to see that the passport-
issuing officers, the local authorities, and the tahsildars,
respectively, carry out their duties under the passport rules.
He should maintain a register of all intimations received by
him and should see that all persons mentioned therein are
duly accounted for.
Intimation
in respect
to other
travellers.
11. In the case of persons coming from an infected or
notified area and not passing through a railway frontier inspec-
tion station, the duty of recording the information mentioned
in Rule 9 (excepting items 7 and 8) and of communicating it
to the district medical and sanitary officer shall devolve on
the officer issuing the passport. The form in which the
information referred to should be recorded is prescribed in
10
Appendix II-I.
Copies of the form are supplied by the
Superintendent, Government Press.
Duties of
district
medical
and sanitary
officer and
tahsildar.
12. The district medical and sanitary officer shall forward
the reports referred to in Rules 6, 9 and 11 to the tahsildar
(or municipal chairman) concerned, within whose jurisdiction
the place of destination lies, and it shall be the tahsildar's
(or municipal chairman's) duty to see that the persons
mentioned in the reports are duly observed, and that any
case of sickness or death in the houses occupied by them
is promptly reported, and to bring to the Collector's notice all
instances of omission to issue passports and all attempts
to evade these regulations. The tahsildar (or municipal
chairman) should file together the reports received from the
district medical and sanitary officer. No separate register
need be maintained by him. As soon as a passport is
recovered from the passport-holder under Rule 7, it shall be
forwarded without delay to the district medical and sanitary
officer after the number of the item in the report has been
noted on it and after the fact that the passport has been
recovered has been noted against the corresponding entry in
the report.
Incapacitated
persons and
minors.
13, In the case of incapacitated persons and persons who
are under twelve years of age, the obligation to take out
passports for them, to present them for daily inspection, to
report truly their names and addresses, to intimate any
change in their residence, and to comply otherwise with the
requirements of these regulations shall rest on their legal
guardians or on any person in whose charge they travel or
who receives them at the railway station of destination.
Tahsildar's
duties may be
performed by
municipal
chairman.
14. The term " tahsildar " in these regulations includes
deputy tahsildar. In municipalities, the tahsildar's duties
under these regulations shall be performed by the municipal
chairman.
Note.—Rules 82—90 also relate to the subject of passports and should be referred to.
Notice in
railway
carriages
regarding
passport's.
15. Every railway administration shall put up in a con-
spicuous place in every railway carriage a copy of the following
notice in English and in the principal vernacular language of
the country through which the railway line passes :—
Notice.
The Madras plague regulations require all passengers arriving
from plague-infected parts to take out passports at the station where
they alight, or
11
(1) in the case of passengers proceeding to Madras by the
North-East Line of the Madras Railway, at Bitragunta ;
and
(2) in the ease of those arriving at Madras by the other lines of
the Madras Railway, at Perambúr.
Persons infringing the regulations render themselves liable to
prosecution.
Copies of Rules 1—4 shall also be hung up in English and
the vernacular in all railway stations.
Inspection
of railway
passengers.
16. (1) At or near any railway station which has been
appointed by notification in the Fort Si. George Gazette to be
an inspection station, any medical officer appointed in this
behalf may detain any train and require every person travelling
therein to alight and submit himself to such medical examina-
tion as the medical officer may direct, and may for this purpose,
with the assistance, if necessary, of the police, use such
reasonable force as may be required in order to detain such
passenger either on the railway premises or in some other
suitable place which the Collector shall provide for the purpose.
(2) All inspecting officers, male and female, at railway
inspection stations, and clerks employed at important stations
such as Jalarpet should always carry with them a note-book of
a special conspicuous colour with the words " Government of
Madras Plague officials' note-book " printed on the back. A
copy of the appointment order should be attached to the note-
book. Copies of the book may be obtained from the Super,
intendent, Government Press, through the Surgeon-General.
17. Every passenger shall be bound to submit himself to
examination and shall furnish the information referred to in
Rule 9 supra and any other particulars which the medical
officer or any person acting under his orders may demand.
Any person refusing to comply with this rule may be detained
for such period as may be necessary, and shall also be liable to
the penalty prescribed in Rule 100.
18. All passengers should be required to quit their
carriages and should be examined on the platform or other
suitable place, suspicious cases being removed for more careful
investigation to a place reserved for the purpose. Care shall
be taken that the carriages are locked before the arrival of the
train at the inspection station, and that no passenger is
permitted to leave his carriage until the arrangements for such
examination are complete.
19. Railway administrations shall instruct their staff to
give every assistance to the medical officers conducting the
inspection in order to minimise the detention of the trains.
12
and to detain the trains until the medical inspection is over.
Railway ticket collectors may be allowed to accompany the
plague inspecting officers, if this course is found to economize
time. The table given in Appendix II-J shows the time
within which medical officers are required ordinarily to
complete plague inspection, and every endeavour should be
made to complete the inspection of trains within the time there
mentioned. If, on special occasions, the time is exceeded, a
report explaining the delay should be immediately sent to the
Collector for his information and for such action as he may
think necessary.
20. It is the duty of railway authorities assisted by the
platform police to see that passengers alighting at a railway
station do not leave the premises except by the proper exit,
and to afford every facility for the working of the plague
regulations. Ticket collectors should, be required to stop all
passengers holding tickets issued at infected or notified stations
until their names and addresses have been taken down and
passports issued to them either by the plague official appointed
for the purpose, or at smaller stations, by the station staff.
21. The inspecting officers shall not only thoroughly
examine passengers and passenger vehicles, but shall also in-
spect guards, drivers and firemen and their vans and engines,
so that no person may escape inspection. No distinction
shall be made between railway employees and others, and
before any train, whether carrying passengers or goods, leaves
the inspection station, a thorough search shall be made to
discover if any persons have concealed themselves with the
object of evading inspection.
22. In the absence of any symptoms showing a passenger
to be suffering from fever, it is unnecessary to examine his
person for the purpose of finding out whether buboes are
present. This practice, if it is at present enforced anywhere,
should be discontinued.
23. Female passengers shall, under no circumstances, be
examined by men. For their inspection, one or more nurses
are attached to each inspection station.
24. After examination, all persons shall be allowed to
proceed to their destination except—
(a) those suffering from, or suspected to be suffering
from, plague or those who have so recently
suffered from plague as to be possibly in an
infectious state ;