334 Measures to prevent the [CHAP. X.
regulations of the province. The rules issued by the Government
of the Punjab and the Chief Commissioner of the Central Provinces
followed those enforced in the North-Western Provinces and Oudh.
The regulations issued by the Government of Bengal in Novem-
ber 1897 prescribed similar arrangements modified to some extent to
meet the different circumstances of Bengal Administration. In Bengal
the nominal list is prepared from information supplied by the village
policemen and from the information collected at the railway stations.
Disinfection of Clothing and Baggage.
Importance of
this subject.
Special
arrangements at
principal
inspection
stations.
As infection may be spread by the contaminated clothes and
personal effects of passengers, it was recognised that the disinfection
of suspicious articles was a necessary adjunct to the medical inspec-
tion which was made at different stations along the lines of communi-
cation from the infected districts. At a number of the principal inspec-
tion stations, both within and without the Bombay Presidency, special
arrangements were made for the disinfection of all suspicious baggage,
and the rules framed by the Local Governments and Administrations
provided specially for the disinfection or destruction of such articles.
Rules framed
by Local
Governments.
The following rule promulgated by the Government of the
North-Western Provinces and Oudh is similar to that, enforced in
other provinces :-
" If necessary, the medical officer shall himself arrange for the
disinfection or destruction of clothes, etc. In cases where it is
considered necessary that the clothes, or bedding, etc , of a traveller
shall be burnt, the medical officer may, if the person is poor or for
other sufficient reason, arrange for providing other articles in their
place at the expense of Government."
Instructions
issued by the
Government of
India for
disinfection of
baggage near the
Bombay frontier.
On the 28th February and again on the 15th March the Govern-
ment of India addressed the Government of Bombay on the subject
of the disinfection of the suspicious baggage of travellers before
they were permitted to cross the borders of the province. It was
stated that the Government of India considered that the disinfec-
tion should be performed at a railway station near the frontier of
the Bombay Presidency and Sind on each of the railway lines lead-
ing from those provinces to other parts of India, and that the
medical officers at places where the disinfection took place should be
instructed to exercise the widest discretion so as to render it impossible
that articles which might be contaminated should be passed without
being disinfected. Disinfection was not prescribed in the case of