Excerpt from The Laws Relating to Quarantine: Of Her Majesty's Dominions at Home and Abroad, and of the Principal Foreign States, Including the Sections of the "Public Health Act, " 1875, Which Bear Upon Measures of Prevention

The outbreak of the plague at Astrachan in the month of February last, and the alarm which naturally arose throughout Europe, led the Author to consider what were the existing laws, not only in this country, but also in the British colonies, and throughout the whole world, which had for their end the protection of mankind from so terrible a visitation. While of the actual causes of the plague we are, in the opinion of the most eminent members of the medical profession, still profoundly ignorant, yet there seems to be a general consensus that it is transmissible, and such being the case, quarantine in some shape or other is, as a preventive, a logical consequence.

The complete suspension of all communication with an infected country, or even the isolation of suspected or infected persons at a reasonably remote distance, and during a sufficiently long period, together with a complete disinfection of all objects supposed to be tainted with infection, has been generally recognized as a means of undoubted efficacy. This constitutes the ideal of "prophylactic quarantine."

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