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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![The PRESIDENT: I tliiuk we might discuss that question on one of the clauses. Mb. BERKELEY: I give notice of a resolution that what we have done here should be communicated to the other Groveraments. The PRESIDENT : That had better be done last. Mr. SANDERSON: You mean the foreign Governments ? Mr. BERKELEY : Yes ; especially Martinique. The president : We might dis- cuss next the Bills of Health, and en- deavour to arrive at some points of agreement to enable us to devise a form of bill. In the first place, ought it to be compulsory that a vessel leaving a colony should take a bill of health ? Db. grieve : Yes, if we give them gratuitously. The president : It might be made as much a necessity as clearing at the Customs. Mr. BERKELEY: How can we punish them : It is one thing to make compulsory on a vessel the taking of a bill of health, but you don't say how it is to be carried out. The PRESIDENT: Shall we make it an offence—in order to complete it— for any vessel to go into a colony with- out one ? Me. McKINNEY: I suggest that any vessel arriving at a port without a bill of health be treated as an infected ressel. The PRESIDENT: You are going on to the second point. Shall we make it compulsory that eveiy vessel leaving a colony shall take a bill of health ? Dr. crane : I think it is very desirable, but I should only like to see my way how you are going to make it work. The president : With reference to the question as to who should ac- tually issue the bill of health to any captain, I would throw it out as a suo-. gestion whether it would not be advisa- ble that all bills of health should be actually iisued by the Customs autho- rities, that is to say, that the Depart- ment best known to the Captain or Master of a vessel—the first place he goes to on coming in is the Customs and he cannot get away without going to the Customs to clear—should after his clearance give him the bill of health ; but the form, that is to say whether clean, endorsed, or fouled, must be de- cided by the medical authorities. It seems to me, the medical authorities giving so to speak instructions as to the way in which bills of health should be issued until further orders or con- sideration, the Customs would act upon that; then if disease breaks out and comes to a certain stage the medical authorities would communicate with the Customs and direct that the bills be endorsed; if the disease gets worse, then the medical authorities would communicate with the Customs and say a foul bill is to be issued. Then you would have a uniform authority in the British West Indies who should issue these bills of health. We need not here discuss the manner or means by which the autho- rities would get the information upon which the bills of health would be issued. Mb. low : In St. Lucia the bill of health is issued by the Treasurer. The president : The Treasurer being the Customs authority. Mr. low : At St. Vincent they are issued by the Health Ofiicer, and at Grenada I think by the Customs. Mr. SANDERSON : A seeking ves- sel is not bound by law to come to an anchorage. If they go to the Customs authorities they have been entered. Mb. BERKELEY: But it is only when a vessel clears that she wants a bill of health. Db. crane : I would suggest, as the bill of health is to be issued by the Customs Authorities it should only be issued in accordance with the informa- tion the Customs Authorities may receive from the Executive Authority from time to time as to the state of the public health. Agreed. [See Bills of Health 1 and 2. Page 75, Minutes, Fifth Sitting.] The PRESIDENT: The next point](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21297678_0199.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
