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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![is whether if a vessel arrives in any colony she shall be admitted without producing a bill of health ? Mr. McKINNEY: If she comes from England there is no bill of health. Mr. BERKELEY: In the case of every vessel from England, would you compel them to hoist the yellow flag ? Mr. SANDEESON : We tried it last year and it failed ; we had to abandon it. I should suggest it be confined to the West Indies. The president : What is it to be limited to ? Dr. grieve : Mr. Sanderson's sug- gestion is a very good one—those coun- tries that are dealt with in this Ordi- nance. Mr. SANDERSON: I would sug- gest, British and foreign colonies in the West Indies and the French and Dutch colonies of Cayenne and Suri- nam. Dr. BOWEN : I shall object if it is not general; and another thing I must object if it is to include an English bill of health because we know that is im- practicable. The PRESIDENT: Any vessel arriving in a British colony without a bill of health shall be treated as an in- fected vessel for the purposes of obser- vation. Mr. BERKELEY: I should put it shall be liable to be treated. Agreed. [See Bills of Health 3, Page 75, Minutes, Fifth Sitting.] Form of Bill :— The president : Before we deal with the endorsement of bills of health, we must settle as to what authorises the Governor to declare a place infected. Mr. McKINNEY : I think a foul bill of health should be printed on different coloured paper. Dr. grieve : We have done away with the peculiar disability attaching to foul bills of health ; it is done away by the Ordinance. We have reduced everything to the numerical standard, and said, if there is a single case treat it in such a way, or many cases treat it in another way. A single case brings it within an infected place for cer- tain diseases. Dr. BOWEN : It might do very well among ourselves, but if any one Ccirries a bill of health from here or Barbados to a Spanish place, for one case of yellow fever they are going to quarantine. Mr. BERKELEY : I would not put anything on the bill. Mr. SANDERSON : So long as it is not epidemic. Dr. grieve : Every ship that comes from a place where there is a single case of disease Mr. BERKELEY: We have altered that. Dr. grieve : Not at all. Every ship that comes from a place where there is a single case of disease is under observation. You get under observa- tion if we have no knowledge onjthe bill. It was done entirely on the understand- ing that bills of health would contain the number of cases. Dr. BOWEN: While we protect ourselves, we must not hamper trade. It just comes to the old saying : You may as well die by the sword as by famine. I hold we can notify one another well enough, and we should be honest, and by every mail notify each other of the whole state of matters. Dr. grieve : We have provided elaborately in this Ordinance for the treatment of vessels whether they have come from an infected place or not. If we are to wait a month for information, how are we to deal with the vessels ? If we don't do that, the whole work we have done up to the present time goes for nothing. Dr. PRINGLE ; I think we are over- looking the fact that these deHberations will come under the notice of foreign Governments, and it would be only a temporary restriction of trade if these foreign vessels could not come into our harbours. It would be only a short time before all the cargo were taken by other vessels. Mr. SANDERSON: Have you any idea what quarantine is in a Spanish port ? In Cuba it is the most prohibi- tory thing on the face of the earth. If](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21297678_0200.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
