Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: British West Indian Conference on Quarantine, 1888. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.
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![with the question of infected vessels. A ship starts from Calcutta with coolies and during the voyage has an epidemic of measles on board. If we do not get some power of this kind we could not possibly deal with the disinfection of that ship. What are we to do ? Are we to allow these people to carry the disease all over the colony ? Mr. SANDERSON : When coolie ships arrive don't you disinfect them ? Have you no local Ordinance ? Dr. grieve : No. It is under the Quarantine Ordinance. Mr. SANDERSON: I think these are powers you ought to have under your Immigration Act. Dr. BOWEN : I desire to have the power to deal with the vessel as an infected vessel. If there are measles in Trinidad and the vessel comes on here they have no power here to deal with the ship ; should there be measles on board. Dr. GRIEVE: I move the following under Infected vessel:— [See Paragraph (c) of term Infected Vessel, Minutes of the Third Sitting, Page 60.] The PRESIDENT: That is taking it out of *' a and putting it in as b (afterwards c) Mr. BERKELEY: A nervous Gover- nor under that might declare for any- thing. The PRESIDENT: It is a power which is absolutely necessary, and I do not think it can do any harm to the place: it merely gives power to deal with the vessel. Dr. grieve : Could we not mould c in such a way that the question of Communication could be settled? What amount of communication are we to take as having infected a vessel ? Mr. SANDERSON : I should say if she took on board a passenger from such vessel. Dr. grieve : When she brings a person from an infected vessel, that is provided for. But take the case of a vessel which goes to Martinique where she is unloaded under what is known as Quarantine Regulations ; a lighter comes alongside, and things are handed into it from the vessel, say a schooner. What about communication bv contact ? Dr. BOWEN: I should have been quite satisfied with the ship's certificate that she had none, and that the people had been in the lazaretto and had recently recovered from smallpox ; but we could not get that. Mr. BERKELEY : I do not pretend to be a lexicographer, but what meaning is supposed to be attached to ** con- tact ? Dr. GRIEVE: The fact is, this requires definition too. Is such inter- course carried on intermediately suffi- cient to affect a vessel ? There may be no proof that they touched, but that they handed things to each other. The PRESIDENT: A very good example has been given by the Surgeon General—a case in Martinique in which goods are handed to or from men in a lighter who may have just recovered from smallpox. That is contact, while it is not actually communication. If you handed a man a match you would come more into con- tact, than if you handed him a long pole; and less into contact than if you touched him. Therefore it requires some definition. Dr. grieve : Suppose you have cargo attached to the end of a rope and hoisted up by a crane ; is that touch or contact ? Mr. BERKELEY : I submit a definition of communication. I put it forward with the view that somebody may be able to improve upon it; if not I will move it as a substantive motion :— [See Definition, Minutes, Third Sitting. Page 55.1 Dr. GRIEVE: I think we may leave the question over for future discussion. If a vessel comes from an infected place prima facie she is an infected vessel. The PRESIDENT: We may leave infected vessel where it is ; a vessel must be an infected vessel if it has come from an infected place ; and then the question will come up whether, even if she has not had communication, she should have pratique. Mr. BERKELEY: How about a](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21297678_0165.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
