CHAP. X. ] spread of infection by land. 329
Baluchistan.
Shikarpur.
Khanpur.
Madras.
Bengal.
starting their journey at a neighbouring station, and that the Agent
to the Governor General in Baluchistan was obliged to prevent
travellers alighting at the desert stations near the Punjab border
in order to evade observation at Sharigh or Sibi. Similarly, booking to
the stations immediately on either side of Shikarpur was prohibited
in order to prevent evasion of the Shikarpur inspection, and book-
ing to Tando-Thoro, a small station, distant two miles from Hy-
derabad in Sind, was prohibited in order to prevent evasion of inspec-
tion at this latter place. To prevent evasion of inspection at the
important station of Khanpur, the Government of the Punjab insti-
tuted a system of moveable inspections. Attention was drawn to the
fact that some passengers evaded the inspection at Khanpur by
alighting at other stations and walking across country to rejoin the
railway at some place beyond. Arrangements were therefore made
under which the inspecting medical officer varied the place of
inspection from day to day. Ten stations, situated above or
below Khanpur, were appointed inspection stations ; and in the event of
cases being discovered in the course of the inspection at any of these
places, the suspects were to be sent for treatment and observation either
to Khanpur or to Sher Shah. The rules issued by the Government of
Madras provide that, if a passenger from an infected district appears
to be attempting to evade inspection by alighting at a station short
of that for which his ticket is taken, he shall be obliged to continue
his journey as far as the next inspection station. The Bengal Regu-
lations of November 1897 contain the following rule :-
" In the event of a traveller from an infected area alighting at an
intermediate station with the object of obtaining a fresh ticket, so as
to conceal the fact that he comes from an infected area, the railway
police will take down his name and the number of the fresh ticket
issued, and will send information down the line, so that he may, on
alighting, be placed under observation."
Lighting of
stations, and
travellers by
goods trains.
Minor matters on which orders were issued by the Government of
India were the proper lighting of inspection stations, and the notifi-
cation to the inspecting officers of the carrying of passengers by
goods trains.
Results.
The result of the carefully devised scheme of inspection which
has now been described proved the efficacy of the arrangements.
Leaving aside the outbreaks at Khandraoni and Hardwar and the cases
that infected these places, only 67 cases of plague escaped across the
Bombay and Sind frontier during the first period of the epidemic, of
these 57 were detected at inspection stations along the railway routes.
Thus, so far as is known, only 10 cases of plague were introduced
42