5 86 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



nection with custom-house examinations, in order to prevent un- 

 necessary delay in travel. Passenger trains and postal cars are 

 not to be detained at any frontier, but if a car be found to contain 

 a real or a suspected case of the plague, this car shall be detached 

 from the train at the frontier or at the nearest station thereto and 

 its contents disinfected. 



(3) Travelers coming from infected countries may be, at the 

 discretion of the sanitary authorities, detained under observation 

 for a period not exceeding eight days. Individual governments 

 are allowed to take any special measures that may be deemed wise 

 against the importation of the disease by means of gypsies, vagrants, 

 and immigrants. 



In formulating the above-mentioned rules to prevent the im- 

 portation of the plague into Europe the members of the Venice 

 Congress seem to have been thoroughly convinced that the longest 

 period of incubation possible in this disease is ten days. It seems 

 to have been assumed that if a vessel had been for ten days or 

 longer at sea after departure from an infected port, and no cases of 

 the plague had developed up to that time, there could be no danger 

 of this vessel carrying the infection. It appears to me that a safer 

 course would have been to require inspection of all persons and 

 things going on board a vessel leaving an infected port, and the 

 thorough disinfection of certain things, at least, on such vessels ar- 

 riving at uninf ected ports. The disinfection of a ship and its cargo 

 by means of steam is not at present a very costly procedure. 



Since the plague, if it reaches America at all, must come to us 

 by sea, it may be of special interest to inquire concerning out- 

 breaks of this disease on board ship. In making this inquiry we 

 will confine ourselves to such cases as have occurred within the past 

 two years. In March, 1897 (I have been unable to ascertain the 

 exact date), the transport Dilwara left Bombay, bound for South- 

 ampton, with a regiment of English soldiers, together with their 

 wives and children. On March 18th, while the vessel was in the 

 Red Sea, a child died of the plague and was buried at sea. On ar- 

 riving at Suez the persons who had been in immediate contact with 

 the child were transferred to the Wells of Moses and properly dis- 

 infected. After this had been done, the vessel was allowed to pass 

 through the Suez Canal in quarantine. No fresh case occurred, 

 and the vessel arrived at Southampton April 6th. Here all arti- 

 cles which might possibly contain infection were disinfected, the 

 passengers were allowed to go to their homes, and the troops were 

 placed in barracks. No other cases resulted. 



On July 6, 1897, one of the crew of the Carthage, of the Penin- 

 sular and Oriental Company's line, was attacked with the plague. 



