NationalLibraryOfScotland/medical-history-of-british-india huggingface dataset:
14
places notified by Government for the purposes of the pass-
port rules. The special mark should be made at the first
inspection station at which the passenger arrives. It is not
necessary to punch his ticket again at any subsequent inspec-
tion station through which he may pass, but he must be
medically examined nevertheless. Tickets of persons who
come from an uninfected area, or who, though coming from an
infected area, have been detained for seven days at one of the
observation camps established in the Madras Presidency, need
not be so marked.
31. Care should be taken that the plague punches are not
used except by responsible persons and that they are kept in
safe custody when not in use. The officers in charge of
railway inspection stations will be held responsible for the safe
custody of the plague punches, and under their orders the
punches may be used by their assistants, but under no
circumstances by the police. The wrong punching of tickets
should be specially guarded against, as the annoyance caused
by consequent liability to take out a passport may be very
great.
32. In cases where a passport has been wrongly issued
owing to erroneous plague-marking of the railway ticket, or
otherwise, the municipal chairman or any revenue officer not
below the grade of deputy tahsildar is authorized to cancel the
passport on satisfactory proof that it was wrongly issued.
33. The passport rules should be worked in such a manner
as to cause the minimum of inconvenience to gosha women,
and persons belonging to that class should, whenever possible,
be exempted from attendance at the hospital or elsewhere and
be inspected at their own houses. The examination of gosha
women shall always be conducted by females, who, when not
trained or duly qualified, shall work under the instructions of
the local medical officer. No fee shall be charged for the
inspection of passport-holders at their own houses.
34. With the view of facilitating the working of the pass-
port rules, railway employés holding periodical railway passes
and Government officials holding standing passes should be
required to provide themselves before departure with certifi-
cates signed by the stationmaster concerned showing the
places from which they start.
Attempts to
evade inspec-
tion.
35, If a passenger from a plague-infected or notified area
appears to be attempting to evade inspection either by alight-
ing at a railway station short of that for which his ticket has
been taken or of an inspection station, or by arriving other-
15
wise than by train at or beyond an inspection station, and is
unable to show any business at the place of alighting or
arrival, he may be detained by the stationmastsr or railway
official in charge or by any officer specially authorized by the
Collector in this behalf at the railway station at which he has
alighted or arrived and with the assistance of the Police be
forwarded or returned, as the case may be, to the inspection
station by the same or next train proceeding thereto and there
handed over to the medical officer in charge. The railway
fare of the person so detained and forwarded to the inspection
station shall be paid by the passenger and, if not paid, shall
be recovered from him by the railway authorities as excess
fare.
Note.—The powers conferred by this rule should only be exercised under exceptional
circumstances to prevent evasion of the passport rules.
36. Special care should be taken to prevent evasion of the
rules by passengers halting or re-booking at intermediate
stations. If a passenger coming from a plague-infected area
breaks his journey at any station short of his destination, his
ticket should, notwithstanding, be punched, or if the station
has not been supplied with a plague-punch, the right-hand
lower corner of the ticket should be clipped with scissors. If
a passenger coming from a plague-infected area alights at
any station, he should be brought under the passport rules.
If he announces his intention of re-booking within twelve
hours, his new ticket shall be punched or clipped as above.
If necessary, the powers conferred by the last preceding rule
may also be employed, and passengers whose conduct gives
ground to suppose that they intend to evade the rales should
be watched.
Intimation to
Ceylon
medical officer
at Tutioorin.
37. The inspecting medical officer, Jalarpet, shall send
telegraphic intimation to the medical officer of the Ceylon
Government at Tuticorin when passengers pass from Banga-
lore to Tuticorin. The cost of these telegrams will be
recovered from the Ceylon Government by the Accountant-
General.
Movement of
troops, police
and coolies.
38. When a large body of troops or police or coolies
engaged in plague operations are returning to a healthy district,
previous intimation of their departure shall be given to the
Collector of the district in which the place of destination is
situated. Before starting they shall be carefully examined
and disinfected, and on arrival at their destination they shall
he given passports according to the rules. With regard to
troops and their families and followers leaving infected areas,
the rules in Madras Command Order No. 810, dated 27th
16
October 1903, shall be observed. These rules are reprinted
as Appendix II-U to these regulations.
Expenditure
on inspection
sheds and on
supply of
punches.
39. Any expenditure incurred in providing inspection
sheds on railway platforms in cases where there are no proper
facilities in the railway station for the examination of pas-
sengers in accordance with the plague regulations or in the
supply of punches or scissors for marking railway tickets
will be borne by the civil department and not by the railway
administrations. The construction of all such buildings will,
in the absence of the orders of the Government to the con-
trary, be carried out ordinarily by the railway administration
concerned, the civil department defraying merely the cost
of the same.
Fairs, festi-
vals and
pilgrimages.
40. When a festival, fair or other public gathering which
is likely to be attended by persons from plague-infected parts
is about to take place in an uninfected area, the Collector may
apply to Government for orders to prohibit attendance thereat
and to enforce the prohibition by stopping temporarily the
issue of railway tickets to persons from infected areas or by
other means. A similar course should be adopted when a
festival, fair or other public gathering which is likely to be
attended by persons from healthy parts is about to take place
in a plague-infected area.
41. Proposals submitted under the preceding rule should
be forwarded through the Sanitary Commissioner so as to reach
Government a month and-a-half previous to the holding of the
fair or festival. In order to avoid delay in their submission,
Collectors should prepare in their office every month a list of
all the fairs and festivals to take place during the ensuing
three months, and should send by the 15th of each month
their recommendations relating to religious and other gather-
ings to be held in the next month but one. Notice of the
prohibition of the issue of railway tickets should be given to
the railway authorities at least a week previous to the date of
commencement of the prohibition.
42. The Collector's reports should be invariably accom-
. panied by draft notifications under the Epidemic Diseases Act,
1897, and by a statement in the form shown in Appendix
II-M. Skeleton notifications are printed as Appendix II-N.
43. The prohibition of attendance at fairs and festivals
should ordinarily be applied only to the larger fairs and
festivals. In the case of unimportant local festivals, a careful
working of the passport rules should suffice.
44. Where pilgrimage to a fair or festival has been pro-
hibited by Government, the Collector should, as far as the
17
means at his disposal permit, watch all the roads round the
village or town in order to prevent pilgrims from entering the
place unobserved. Persons who are suspected to have come
from infected parts should be served with passports and watched
for seven days. It must be distinctly understood that the
prohibition is not in any way intended to interfere with the
performance of the usual religious ceremonies at the temple,
and that its only object is to prevent the assemblage of persons
who might import or spread the plague.
45. A special establishment to carry out the measures
prescribed in the foregoing rule is not ordinarily required.
As far as practicable they should be carried out with the aid
of the existing district establishment. If in any special case
extra establishment is needed, a separate recommendation
should be made when the imposition of restrictions on the
holding of the festival or fair is suggested. It is not necessary
for the purpose of these measures to build costly structures at
each place where a festival or fair is held. It will suffice if
the Collector has in stock materials for one or two sheds,
which may be utilized if required, but if not, may either be
sold, or carted to another place where they may be required
after the close of the festival.
46. As regards pilgrimage to the Hedjaz, the Government
of India annually issue orders either prohibiting it altogether
or allowing it under certain conditions from uninfected parts
only. In the latter case, the intending pilgrims are collected
at convenient observation camps, they are not allowed to
purchase passage tickets to the Hedjaz except at those observa-
tion camps, and after they have been detained for the prescribed
period and certified to be free from infection, they are sent in
special trains or carriages to the selected ports for embarka-
tion. Pilgrims returning from the Hedjaz in healthy vessels
are, after disinfection of the clothing and baggage, sent at
once to their destination without being allowed to mix with
the population of the port of landing. Those returning in
a plague-infected vessel are subjected to seven days' observation
in a camp before being sent to their homes. The authorities
of the port of lauding are required to send nominal rolls of the
pilgrims to the Collectors concerned, and to give previous
intimation of their departure, in order that they may be
watched for a few days after arrival at their destination.
Information
regarding
plague cases
and arrivals
from infected
areas.
47. Every house-holder and every medical practitioner
who becomes cognizant of the occurrence in his house or in any
public or private dwelling or place within the limits of the
municipality, town or village in which he resides, of any
2
18
unusual mortality among rats or of any case of plague or of
fever with glandular swellings, and in the case of persons who
live within an area that has been notified as infected or who
have been in any way exposed to plague infection, of acute
affections of the lung, of convulsions in children, abortion in
women and sudden death in the aged, shall be bound to give
information of the same, with the least practicable delay, in a
municipality to the chairman of the council and the medical
officer in charge of the municipal dispensary or hospital, and in
a non-municipal town or village to the village head or to other
nearest officer of the revenue or medical department, who shall
report the fact at once to their immediate official superiors.
47-A. The owner or occupier of any house in which a case
of plague occurs shall be bound to give full and true informa-
tion to the plague officer, or to any member of the observation
or preventive staff or to the local authority who has jurisdiction
over such house, regarding all persons who have been in
immediate contact with the patient.
48. Every house-holder and every keeper or person in
charge of an hotel, chattram or other place of public resort,
shall also in the same manner forthwith report the arrival at
the house, hotel, chattram or other place, of any person from
any area which has been declared by the Governor in Council
or by the Collector to be infected or which bas been notified by
the Governor in Council for the purposes of these rules.
48-A. Upon receipt of information, under Bule 47 or
otherwise, of the occurrence of unusual mortality among rats,
the chairman in municipal limits or the district medical
officer, and in regard to non-municipal areas, the Collector
or district medical officer, shall forthwith forward a special
report regarding rat-mortality to the Sanitary Commissioner
and may, if necessary, forward specimens of dead rats, under
proper precautions, to the Superintendent of the King Insti-
tute of Preventive Medicine for bacteriological examination.
Power to
enter any
building or
place for the
purpose of
inspecting
plague cases
and taking
necessary
measures.
49. The Collector or any officer authorized by him for this
purpose may at any time enter any building or place in which
plague is reputed or suspected to exist, and may inspect and,
if necessary, detain or remove and isolate any person suffering
or suspected to be suffering from plague or to have so lately
suffered from plague as to be in an infectious state, or likely
from recent contact with cases of pneumonic plague to have
been infected or to be in an infectious state.
19
Bringing of
susceptible
articles from
infected areas
prohibited.
50, No person shall bring, take, send, or consign by sea or
land, soiled linen and used bedding (except when carried as the
personal baggage of travellers), rags and waste paper from a
plague-infected place into or through any part of the Madras
Presidency. Articles brought in contravention of this prohibi-
tion shall be destroyed, and no person shall be entitled to claim
compensation on account of such destruction. See also
Appendix I, Note (6) on Disinfection.
Destruction
of rats.
y
51. The Collector shall take steps for the extermination
of rats both in infected and threatened localities. He shall
also arrange for the frequent inspection of consignments of
grain arriving from plague-infected areas and of landing places,
railway goods-sheds, and grain bazaars, and for the killing and
subsequent destruction by burning of all rats found therein.
See also Appendix I, Note (7) on Rat-plague and Destruction
of rats.
Part II.—Rules applicable to Places under Observation or
imminently threatened with Plague.
Areas under
observation.
52. The Governor in Council may, if it appears to him
that any district, town, village, or other area is imminently
threatened with plague, issue an order declaring such district,
town, village, or other area to be under observation. A copy
of such order shall be published in the next issue of the Fort
St. George Gazette.
Frontier
inspection
stations.
53. Upon the issue by the Governor in Council of an
order declaring any area to be under observation, the Collector
shall, subject to the sanction of Government, establish frontier
inspection stations with the necessary staff for the examination
of persons entering the notified area. These frontier inspection
stations shall be placed ordinarily at railway stations and shall
be as near as may be to the frontier. Inspection stations shall
not be established on roads except in places where the nature
of the country forces traffic to converge between narrow lines
and when the staff can be placed under proper supervision.
This prohibition does not apply to passport stations at the
entrance to towns.
54. At each frontier inspection station shall be erected a
sufficient number of sheds for hospital and observation pur-
poses ; and a sufficient supply of disinfectants and stores shall
be maintained.
55. All passengers arriving by rail at these inspection
stations shall be there examined and dealt with in accordance
2*
20
with the provisions of Rules 16—36 supra and those arriving
by road shall also be provided with passports under Rule 2.
Observation
ranges and
staff.
56. (1) The Collector shall divide the area under observa-
tion into observation ranges and shall appoint an inspector
for each of them. The size of each range shall admit of the
inspector's visiting every portion of it in ten days and shall be
fixed with reference to such details as the number of villages
included, their population and importance, difficulties of loco-
motion and geographical features. For each non-municipal
town with a population in excess of 5,000 a separate plague
inspector should be appointed.
(2) Every municipality which is declared to be under
observation or which is included in the area under observation
shall be divided into ranges, which should, as far as possible,
follow the municipal wards, and for each range an inspector
shall be appointed. When any ward contains less than 1,200
houses or a population of less than 5,000 persons it may be
combined with other wards to form one range. Three ranges
shall ordinarily form a division and each division shall be
placed under a divisional inspector.
(3) The Collector may also appoint plague supervisors to
check the work of inspectors.
(4) As far as possible such plague inspectors shall be
certificated sanitary inspectors, hospital assistants not below
the third grade, or persons who shall have received a special
training for dealing with plague to the satisfaction of the
Sanitary Commissioner. Hospital assistants, when available,
may in all cases be employed in place of sanitary inspectors on
plague work.
Note.—The limits of population and extent laid down in clause 2 may be varied
according to local conditions.
.Duties of the
observation
staff.
57. (1) Subject to the Collector's control, this observation
staff shall work under the district medical and sanitary officer
or other officer appointed by the Collector for the purpose. In
municipalities the Collector may place the staff under the
control of the municipal chairman, and may vary or cancel any
such order. It shall be the duty of the observation staff
constantly and systematically to patrol the ranges in order to
gain the earliest possible information of any suspicious death
or of the occurrence of any case of plague, to report immedi-
ately any such case or any suspected case and to remove with
the aid of the ordinary conservancy establishment all defects
in sanitation which would favour the propagation of plague,
such as accumulations of filth, sewage, or the like. It should
21
also check the possession of passports or passes, in the case of
persons arriving from an infected locality. Should any person
so arrive without a passport or pass, or having broken its
conditions, any member of the observation staff may detain him
and shall produce him at the earliest possible date before a
plague officer having jurisdiction.
(2) It shall also be the duty of this staff to ascertain
whether any special sickness or mortality has occurred among
rats, and to examine any rats that may be found, in order to
see whether any enlarged glands are present. Houses in
which sick or dead rats are found should be disinfected.
(3) Inspectors for their respective charges and village
headmen for their villages shall keep a record of all persons
suffering from continuous fever for more than twelve hours,
and inspectors shall arrange with the village headman to have
such persons inspected twice daily. If a member of the obser-
vation staff discovers a case of plague, he shall proceed in
accordance with Eule 67 et seq.
Ambulance
Btaff.
58. In municipalities or districts which appear to him to be
imminently threatened with an attack of plague, the Collector
should make all arrangements necessary to enable him to
concentrate at any point on short notice an ambulance staff
together with the equipment prescribed by Government.
The ambulance staff should ordinarily be constituted as
follows :—
Sanitary Section.
One plague inspector.
One dhoby.
Two male toties.
One female toti.
Two dhooly bearers.
Disinfectors (any number up to 50
\
»/
.IT
for a single section, to be recruited
locally in the infected area, if
sepoys be not employed).
Medical Section.
Two hospital assistants.
One or more trained nurses.
Four male ward attendants.
Three female ward attendants
One dhoby.
Two cooks.
Of the foregoing statt the ward attendants, dhoby and
cooks belonging to the medical section need not be entertained
unless and until cases of plague occur, and it will usually be
sufficient to appoint a single hospital assistant until plague
occurs.
Plague
oamps.
59. The Collector may call upon any municipal council
or local board within an area under observation to provide and
maintain any or all of the following :—
(a) a hospital camp for the isolation and treatment of
persons suffering or suspected to be suffering from
plague;
22
(5) a suspect camp for the detention of contacts ;
(c) a health camp for the occupation of persons who
may be required to vacate any building or ground
under these regulations and who may be unable
to procure necessary accommodation for them-
selves.
60. The municipal council or district board shall be bound
to provide these camps in accordance with the requisition of the
Collector, and at such places (whether within or without the
local jurisdiction of the municipality or local board) as the
Collector, or subject to the Collector's control, the district
medical and sanitary officer or such other medical officer as
the Collector may depute, may determine. For the camps so
provided the municipal council or the district board, as the
case may be, shall furnish such hospital establishment, equip-
ment and supplies as the Collector may direct, and shall also
make arrangements for feeding persons detained under any of
these regulations on payment by them of the cost. In the case
of indigent persons, the municipal council or the district board,
as the case may be, shall supply them with food free of charge :
provided that any person so detained shall have full liberty to
supply his own food subject to such rules and conditions as the
medical officer in charge may prescribe.
Acquisition
of lands or
buiddings
required for
plague
purposes.
61. The Collector or the chairman of the municipal
council or the president of the local board may without notice
enter upon, occupy and use, or may depute any person to
enter upon, occupy and use, without having recourse to the
provisions of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, any building or
place which is required for and is, in the opinion of the
district medical and sanitary officer or other medical officer
deputed in this behalf, suitable for the purposes mentioned in
the last preceding rule or for any other purposes connected
with plague measures, provided that if the building or place
is occupied, twenty-four hours' notice in writing shall be given
to the occupier or shall be conspicuously affixed on such
building or place. The owner or the lessee of such building
or place shall be entitled to a reasonable rent to be fixed by
the Collector for the period during which the ground or building
may remain in the occupation of the municipal council or the
Collector and president of the district board, as the case may
be : and the Collector, chairman of the municipal council or
president of the local board, as the case may be, shall, when the
building or place ceases to be occupied for the purposes of the
last rule, thoroughly cleanse and disinfect it, and if the owner
so desires, shall whitewash internally and externally any building