If any infectious or contagious disease shall appear in the vicinity of any jail, or if the appearance of such disease be apprehended, the board of supervisors of the county, or, if it should not meet in time, the sheriff of the county, with the concurrence of two (2) members of such board, or of a circuit judge or chancellor, expressed in writing, may cause the prisoners confined in such jail to be removed to some suitable place of security, for safekeeping, until the threatened danger shall be over, when they shall be returned to the jail.