The age-herald., 1900-07-08
BUBONIC PLAGUE.
 HOW TO FIGHT IT

or plague. The great DuDOnlc plague oI London in 1865 was called ''the poor mans plague" and the plagues of Bagdad and Mesopotamia in 1878 were called "mseriae morbus' (disease of wretchedness). The plague bacillus is the direct cause of bu- bonie plague. In Canton, China, it killed 100000 persons out of population of 1,oOo,- GOO.
 Outbreaks of plague are usually preceded by an unprecedented mortality among rats This happened in Canton and Hong Kong.
 Drains were found to be in an unsanitary condition Especially was this the case in Bombay, where the disease broke out in persons living on a certain Port Trust tate, where the drains were found to be in
 a choked and very filthy condition.
 The disease was supposed to be imported
 along with sugar and dates in cargo. Rats,
 sick of the plague, came by steamers from
 Hong Kong, and those Hong Kong rats
 gave the plague to the rats on and about
 the docks in Bombay. The fouling of the
 grain by the plague-stricken rats communi-
 cated the disease to the men who had the
 handling of the grain.
 The rat mortality of Hong Kong preced-
 ed the outbreak of the disease in human
 beings, as it did in Bombay, especially on
 the Port Trust estate, the sewer rats es-
 pecially being stricken. Dead rats may
 iidNe Deen brought 10 bOTlDdy rom Hong
 Kong in the sacks of sugar candy in cargo,
 and thus the disease could have been com
 municated directly to the coolies who had
 the handling of the sugar candy, and after
 wards of the grain of the warehouses on
 this estate. The godowns on this estate
 showed nothing objectionable, nor was
 there in the grain the least smell percepti-
 ble. The first attack in Bombay were those employed at the grain stores where
 the live rats abounded; in fact, on their
 special feeding grounds.
 Dead rats in numbers were first found around and about the sacks of grain The rats died at the very first, not only in the grain stores, but in the houses from the lowest to the topmost floors; on the stairs, on the roads, in the gullies, in their holes,
 in the streets and the walls and floors of houses, and even among the clothes lying on the floor. In fact they were found dead almost everywhere for some days preceding the outbreak, and therefore there is a probability at least that they were the first infected.
 The corner houses of this Port Trust es- tate were those which suffered most so far as human beings are concerned. This is explained by the fact that these were the houses supplied by two sewers instead of one, as in the case of the other houses. The first house affected, however was not
 a corner house. but the house in the middle of block nearest to the granaries, the ltSuIiS pldCS Ol tue TdlS Ine upper uOO1S had more sufferers, because more people live on the upper hoors In Mesopotamia, too, it was the grain storage sections that were first affected.
 The plague microbe, according to Han kin, will not exist over forty eight hours in the grain but it will exist in the rats dead body for long periods. In Garkwal and Kaumon the plague broke out mostly in premises used as stables for cattle and also as places for human habitation. Stables are we'll known to be habitations for rats. It would seem that dirt, especially organic dirt, and other forms Of decaying animal matters, supply whatever is necessary for the development of the poisonous element to which plague is due.
 Kitasoto supposes that the bacillus en- ters the human body by three principal channels-by respiration, through an ex- ternal wound and by the intestinal tract. The body must be in such a condition for the development of the disease to afford a suitable indus; otherwise it does not four 1sh. Unless it finds suitable surroundings either inside or outside the human system, 1t decays, and eventually dies Almost every one has slight abrasion or wound ed cuticle on the body somewhere, through which the germ may enter
 The most frequent channel by which the bacillus enters into the human system is respiration.
 
 the sick in India is a common practice, and it is by touching these raw surfaces that the well relatives are frequently con- taminated.
 Both lower animals and men act as cen ters of infection.
 Dried particles, such as dust may float in the air and transport the contagion, al though the disease is considered to be soil bred. The bodies of dead rats therefore should be burned up, because each dead rat or mouse which is not cremated may be said to be greater danger than the presence of a person sick of the plague; for its body affords food to insects, such as ants and reaches, birds, etc. Ants and reaches may carry the infection to food supplies, and birds from place to place. Cremation of dead human bodies and rats is absolutely necessary. In a late number of the Calcutta Gazette I read the observation that it is presumed that men who have much to do with oils, merchants of oil or of grease, are rarely attacked with plague.
 They who know, says. the Indian Lancet, the impervious qualities of oil and the pre- seriptions of the Ayurveda, or system of Indian medicine, will tell you that oil is considered by all Hindu physicians as one of the best prophylactics against contagion and infection from any disease. because 1t protects the skin from the bites. Of insects. Plague is never widespread in Bengal This blessing is attributed to the popular habit there of washing the body with oil. This is the reason why Hindu physicians recommend the use of oil as measure or prophylaxis in plague. People wash their feet after walking on the streets, believing that the skin is the point of entry for germs They place saucers about their sleeping apartments to absorb infection (by insects). Certainly the oil catches many insects which might bite and !nocu- late the sleeper. Frictions with oil have been known for ages in Egypt The Emperor Napoleon the
 First's physician ordered to the French in-
 vaders of that country frictions of oil as
 means of prophylaxis and treatment for
 plague.
 The dead bodies of rats and mice on board
 infected ships should be cremated to pre-
 vent contamination of insects, which might
 feed upon them and afterwards fly ashore and infect human beings.
 Under no circumstances should cargo, however valuable it may be, of an infected ship, even after most perfect disinfecton, be lighted" and sent at once ashore. It might still contain the living germs of plague.