SMALL-POX IN CALCUTTA.                   13

or crooked alley, the danger is much greater. During the last small-pox
epidemic, I have very many times, while wandering about the infected
localities, been appealed to for charity by beggars who were covered
with small-pox crusts, and therefore possessed the power of conveying
the disease in a very high degree; and I have seen children similarly
situated as regards contagion, constituting the centre of a group of
sympathising companions, who were quietly playing round them. I
have seen the healthy child, as yet unprotected, being lulled to rest by
its father, in close contact with the body of its mother, who was too near
her death from small-pox, to care for anything on earth. It was a daily
occurrence to see children, as yet free from the disease, made to sleep
with those who had the disease in a bad form: and many are the
instances in which I witnessed the firm protective power of vaccination
under such circumstances. At almost any hour of the day there could
be seen in the same confined hut those dying of small-pox, those more
recently attacked, and those who had not yet got the disease.

                                   SECTION VI.

         LEGAL ENACTMENT TO COMPEL ISOLATION.

Seclusion to be
enforced.

28. To guard against such a wholesale neglect of precaution,
nothing short of legislative interference will avail.

In private
houses.

29. Those affected by small pox must be compelled by law to keep
themselves separate. If their circumstances are such that they can do
so at their own homes, such an indulgence may in most cases be allowed,
on the production of medical evidence, in writing, to the effect that they
are able to keep up an effective seclusion.

In hospital.

30. In the case of those who, from limited means, are unable to
comply with the necessary requirements, arrangements should be made
to provide, at the cost of the community to be protected, for their
isolation; and powers must be asked for to make it compulsory for such
persons to accept the provision thus made for them.

Classification of
patients.

31. In making such isolation in places set apart for the purpose
incumbent, it will be obviously right to make such a restriction fall as
lightly as possible on those subjected to it. With this end in view,
special reserved accommodation should be set apart in the small-pox
hospital about to be built, to enable those who can afford to pay for it, to
keep themselves separate from the public wards. Not only might a few