§ SIR WALTER FOSTERI beg to ask the President of the Local Government Board whether, on the arrival of the steamship Nubia at Plymouth with cholera on board, his Department and the Port Sanitary Authority found that their powers under the provisions of the existing law were quite sufficient to meet the emergency; and whether any necessity arose for any quarantine regulations?
§ MR. T. W. RUSSELLThe Nubia, which arrived in Plymouth on January 9, was reported to have cholera on board, some cases having already proved fatal. One of the Board's medical inspectors was immediately instructed to go to Plymouth and to place himself in relation with the Port Sanitary Authority and the Port Medical Officer of Health. In all some 13 cases and four deaths occurred. The action taken was that laid down in the order of the Board as to cholera; and owing to the excellent arrangements prepared long in advance by the Plymouth Port Authority, isolation of the sick was at once carried out; the healthy passengers were allowed, on giving their addresses, to proceed to their respective homes; and the ship, after the requisite measures of disinfection, was allowed to continue her voyage to the 289 Port of London. The troops were transferred to shore under the direction of the military authorities. No extension of the disease occurred to any persons beyond those attacked on board, and the results fully justify the action which is taken in this country of dealing with diseases of foreign importation by means of isolation and disinfection, and without resort to any such measures of quarantine as are involved in the detention of healthy persons either in hospital or in an infected vessel.