QUARANTINE. The old laws of Quarantine, as the French derivation of the word indicates, compelled a vessel coming from the shores of a country liable to, or ravaged by, an infectious disease, such as plague, to those of a region free from contagion, to undergo forty days’ isolation before it was unladen, or its passengers were allowed to land at the healthy port.
In Europe these ancient enactments against the importation of infection are still more or less vexatiously enforced in Spain, Portugal, Greece and Turkey; and in a modified form at Malta and some of the French and Italian ports. In the Mediterranean ports, ships coming from countries which lie in the southern or eastern shores of that sea are usually subjected to a quarantine of from six to fifteen days, during which period the passengers are confined in a sort of barrack called a ‘lazaretto,’ the merchandise, letters, &c., of the vessel being in the meantime frequently fumigated, or otherwise disinfected.
The inconveniences to commerce and the necessary intercourse between nations attending the too rigorous carrying out of quarantine have, within the last twelve years, led to a series of sanitary international conferences between the European Governments, with the object of divising some methods which, without weakening the safeguards to the public health, should as much as possible reduce the inconveniences attending the enforcement of quarantine to a minimum. At the last of these conferences, which was held at Vienna in 1873, the members were almost unanimous in advising
the abolition of quarantine on European rivers.
Until within the last twenty years the old quarantine laws were pretty strictly enforced in this country. Since this time, however, they have been considerably relaxed, or, we should rather say, superseded by the following ordinances, which, upon the authority of an order in council of July 31st, 1871, can be enforced in the case of suspected vessels.
This ordinance declares that it is lawful for a sanitary authority, having reason to believe that any ship arriving in its district comes from a place infected with cholera, to visit and examine the ship before it enters the port.
Art. 3 provides that the master of a cholera-infected ship, or one that has even been exposed to the infection of cholera, is to moor, anchor, or place her in such a position as from time to time the sanitary authority shall direct.
Art. 4 provides that no person shall land from any such ship until after the examination.
Art. 5 provides for the proper examination of all persons on board by a legally-qualified practitioner, and permits those not suffering from cholera to land immediately.
Another order in council, dated August 3rd, 1874, empowers any custom-house officer, or other person having authority from the Commissioners or Board of Customs, at any time before the Nuisance Authority shall visit and examine the ship, to detain the ship.