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460 In regard to plague, it will equally take account of the installation on board of apparatus for the destruction of rats.

Sanitary authorities of such countries, where it may be convenient to make such regulations may dispense with the medical visit and other measures toward indemne ships which have on board a physician specially commissioned by their country.

XXX. Special measures may be prescribed in regard to crowded ships, notably emigrant ships, or any other ship presenting bad hygienic conditions.

XXXI. Any ship not desiring to be subjected to the obligations imposed by the authority of the port in virtue of the stipulations of the present Convention is free to proceed to sea.

It may be authorized to disembark its cargo after the necessary precautions shall have been taken; namely, First, isolation of the ship, its crew and passengers; Second, in regard to plague, demand for information relative to the existence of an unusual mortality among rats; Third, in regard to cholera, the discharge of the bilge-water after disinfection and the substitution of a good potable water for that which is provided on board the ship.

Authority may also be granted to disembark such passengers as may demand it, upon condition that these submit themselves to all measures prescribed by the local authorities.

XXXII. Ships coming from a contaminated port, which have been disinfected and which may have been subjected to sanitary measures applied in an efficient manner, shall not undergo a second time the same measures upon their arrival at a new port, provided that no new case shall have appeared since the disinfection was practiced, and that the ships have not touched in the meantime at an infected port.

When a ship only disembarks passengers and their baggage, or the mails, without having been in communication with terra firma, it is not to be considered as having touched at a port, provided that in the case of yellow fever it has not approached sufficiently near the shore to permit the access of mosquitoes.

XXXIII. Passengers arriving on an infected ship have the right to demand of the sanitary authority of the port a certificate showing the date of their arrival and the measures to which they and their baggage have been subjected.

XXXIV. Packet boats shall be subjected to special regulations, to be established by mutual agreement between the countries in interest.

XXXV. Without prejudice to the right which governments possess to agree upon the organization of common sanitary stations, each country should provide at least one port upon each of its seaboards, with an organization and equipment sufficient to receive a vessel, whatever may be its sanitary condition.