CHAP. IX. ] Measures outside the Bombay Presidency. 271
Board, the mahants or priests controlling the temples, and the leading Brahmans of the town. The existence of bubonic plague in the place was not denied, and after full consideration of all representations made the Lieutenant-Governor decided-
Evacuation of infected areas.
(a) that the infected area* (i.e., the area in which all the cases 1 but one had occurred) should be placed in quarantine and evacuated, the inhabitants either leaving Hard war altogether, after examination by, and with the permission of, the Health Officer, or removing to a camp of observation established at some distance from the town in charge of a medical officer: the names and addresses of those leaving to be forwarded to the authorities of the district of destination;
Treatment of houses.
(b) that after evacuation the houses should be thoroughly cleaned and disinfected, and should not be re-occupied until declared safe;
Examination of corpses.
(c) that all dead bodies should be examined by a medical officer before burial or cremation (as a further safeguard against concealment of plague); and
(d) that all pilgrims to Hardwar from infected places should reside in a special camp under medical observation.
Pilgrims made to reside in special camps.
"The Lieutenant-Governor acknowledged the good spirit in which his proposals were received after their necessity had been explained to the local gentlemen assembled at the meeting.
"Orders giving effect to this decision were issued on the 1st May 1897. The evacuation of the infected area was forthwith carried out without difficulty, and steps were at once taken for the systematic cleansing of the muhalla in the prescribed manner. All huts and temporary structures were either demolished or burnt (compensation being paid), and the permanent structures and houses disinfected. This may be said to be the close of the first part in the history of the outbreak.
Discouraging pilgrimages to Hardwar.
"During May the question presented itself,-whether, in view of the great danger of disseminating plague through India from such a centre of pilgrimage as Hardwar, it was desirable to prohibit the fairs or bathing festivals which were fixed for the 31st May and 10th June. The Lieutenant-Governor was advised by eminent Hindu authority that these fairs might without objection be stopped in view of the danger of the spread of infection by persons visiting Hardwar. But Sir Antony MacDonnell was most unwilling to add to the hardship which the adverse times had imposed on the people, by stopping pilgrimage to their great shrines at Hardwar: he thought it best to make widely
* See Map, Vol. IV, page 15.
Appendix VII.