362 Measures to prevent the spread of infection by sea. [CHAP. XI.
up to eight days from the date of departure from the infected
port.
Precautions
against arrivals
from Cutch.
The outbreak of a violent epidemic of plague in Cutch-Mandvi
was a serious menace to other ports in the Bombay Presidency with
which it is in constant communication, and special arrangements were
made to prevent the spread of infection by arrivals from the Cutch
port.
Quarantine at
Aden,
The quarantine arrangements at Aden were the subject of con-
siderable correspondence, the fact that Aden is the port of call for
ships sailing from India to Europe rendered the matter specially
important and difficult. The history of quarantine at Aden has
already been described, and it has been stated that the rules
framed for Aden against arrivals from Bombay in October 1896
followed the general rules issued for Indian ports against Hong-kong
in 1894, and were somewhat stricter than those enforced against Bom-
bay at ports on the Indian mainland, inasmuch that they required
eight days' quarantine of healthy vessels which did not carry a quali-
fied medical officer.
Modifications of
the Aden Rules.
Subsequently certain modifications were made in the Aden rules,
of which the most important was the imposition of ten days' quarantine
from the date of departure from Bombay or Karachi on persons
landing at Aden. This rule was introduced on the 3rd February,
with the previous sanction of the Governor General in Council,
because the voyage from Bombay and Karachi does not occupy the
full ten days which has been recognised for practical purposes as the
maximum incubation period. It was also decided in correspondence
with the Government of Bombay that the Health Officer should not,
for fear of being compromised, visit the vessel until the ten days'
period expired, and that vessels using Aden merely as a port of call,
and not holding communication with the port, need not be examined
or detained. The Government of Bombay undertook the amendment
of the rules in accordance with these decisions, in communication
with the Resident at Aden, but before this work was completed the
whole question of sea quarantine had been reconsidered in the light
of the provisions of the Venice Sanitary Convention. The Government
of Bombay reported on the 30th April that no practical difficulty was
being experienced in working the Aden rules,
Revised rules
issued by the
Government of
Madras.
Before the general discussion of quarantine in the light of the
Venice Convention commenced, the Government of Madras proposed
(on the 3rd April) important modifications in the rules in force in the
ports of the Madras Presidency, based on the orders of the English