CHAP. X.] spread of infection by land. 303
As an alternative it was suggested that a commissioned medical officer
should be appointed to an inspection station in Baluchistan with wide
discretion to detain the suspicious. The Agent to the Governor Gen-
eral replied that quarantine in the manner described by the Govern-
ment of India appeared to be hardly practicable, and that he was tak-
ing steps to give effect to the alternative suggestion.
Arrangements
at the Sibi
inspection
station.
An inspection station under the charge of a commissioned
medical officer deputed by the Government of India was accord-
ingly established at Sibi, the junction of the Sind-Pishin and
the Mushkaf-Bolan lines. On the 13th April the Agent to the
Governor General reported that the arrangements were work-
ing well. A rigorous medical inspection had been instituted at Sibi
under the supervision of the Commissioned Medical Officer and the
Assistant Political Agent. In exercise of his discretion, and with
the approval of the Agent to the Governor General, the medical offi-
cer detained as suspects all native passengers from infected places
in Sind unless they produced a certificate from the Plague Committee
of the place of departure, or other proof that they had come from a
non-infected quarter. Other passengers travelling in the same car-
riages as suspects were merely detained for a few hours for disinfection.
As numerous refugees from Sukkur were found alighting at the desert
stations between Sibi and the Punjab border and fleeing into Kalat
territory, orders were issued prohibiting them from alighting and
requiring them to proceed, in the first place, to Sibi for examination.
The Agent to the Governor General reported that these arrangements
were cordially approved by all classes of the community, even by
those whose families were detained. On the 12th April, the obser-
vation camp having then been working for a fortnight, the number of
persons in the camp was 304. This was the maximum, as the exodus
from Sind had already began to decrease, and the plague soon after-
wards abated.
Proposals made
during the
recrudescence.
At the time of the recrudescence at Palanpur the Agent to the
Governor General in Rajputana again proposed (September 1897)
the stoppage of booking from Palanpur and neighbouring stations, and
the proposal was again negatived. A similar proposal was made at
about the same time with regard to booking from Poona and Sholapur
to stations on the Nizam's Guaranteed State Railway in the direction
of Hyderabad, and was also negatived.
Inspection of Railway Passengers.
Early arrange-
ments.
The importance of inspecting persons travelling by rail from the
seat of the plague was recognised from the outset, and arrangements