370 Measures to prevent the spread of infection by sea. [CHAP. XI.
when it is officially reported that no death or fresh case of plague has
taken place for ten days after the recovery or death of the last case,
provided that the necessary measures of disinfection have been
carried out.
The Secretary of State forwarded instructions to the Government
of India with regard to the method of notification in a despatch,
dated the 8th of July. It was then arranged to send telegraphic
information to the States who are parties to the Convention of the
extension of plague to any fresh local area, or of its extinction in any
area where it had existed. It was also arranged to send information
of any important change or extension of remedial and preventive
measures.
Inspection of
vessels sailing
from infected
ports.
The regulations next deal with the measures to be taken on
the departure of vessels from infected ports. It is laid down that
every person sailing on the vessel must be examined on shore,
immediately before embarkation, by a medical officer appointed by
the Government, and that the Consular authority interested in the
ship may be present at the inspection. All infected and suspected
articles must be subjected to careful disinfection on shore and in
the presence of the Government medical officer in accordance with
the rules for disinfection prescribed in Chapter III of the regulations,
and no persons showing symptoms of plague may be permitted to
embark.
Pilgrim traffic.
The rules regarding the pilgrim traffic form the next portion
of the regulations. It has been stated above that they are derived
with some modifications from Paris Sanitary Convention of 1894.
The subject is a complicated one, and it is unnecessary for the
purposes of this report to examine the details of the rules.
The Red Sea
and the Suez
Canal.
Persian Gulf.
The important subject of the control of the general traffic in the
Red Sea and the Suez Canal is next dealt with. The regulations
are based on the threefold classification of ships into healthy, suspect-
ed, and infected, adopted in the Venice Convention of 1892, with the
modifications rendered necessary owing to the period of incubation
in the case of plague having been fixed at ten days. The rules are
described in detail in Chapter XIV, in which is also given an account
of the arrangements for the Persian Gulf prescribed in the first
chapter of the Convention regulations.
Measures to be
adopted in
Europe.
The second chapter of the regulations deals with the measures to
be adopted by the European Governments which have assented to the
terms of the Convention. The provisions relating to notification have
been mentioned above. In Chapter II allusion has also been made to