Quarantine

Quarantine (from the Fr. quarantaine, 'a period of forty days') is a forced abstinence from communication with the shore which ships are compelled to undergo when they are last from some port or country where certain diseases held to be infectious, as yellow fever, plague, or cholera, are or have been raging. Where a quarantine is established it is a punishable offence for any person in the suspected ship to come on shore, or for any one to disembark any merchandise or goods from her, except at lazarettos, which are establishments provided for the reception of goods or passengers or crew, and where such purifying processes as the sanitary science of the time prescribes are applied. Prolonged quarantine in bad quarters is apt to produce new diseases in typhus, &c. Until a ship is discharged from quarantine she exhibits a yellow flag at the mainmasthead if she has a clean bill of health, and a yellow flag with a black spot if not clean; at night a white light is exhibited at the same place. The permit to hold intercourse after performing quarantine is called Pratique. Quarantine is not of necessity limited to a sea-frontier; and it is enforced at the frontiers between contiguous states. History declares quarantine regulations for maritime intercourse to have been first established by the Venetians in 1127 A.D.; but the practice must have been greatly older on land-frontiers; and the precautions of the Jews against leprosy indicate that a species of quarantine was enforced by them. The law for regulating quarantine in Britain is 6 Geo. IV. chap. 78, amended by 29, 30 Vict. chap. 90; power to proclaim any place subject to quarantine and prescribe regulations being vested in the Privy-council. See BILL OF HEALTH.