The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-02-05
HOW RATS
CARRY PEST.
Views of an Eminent
Authority.
DR.. MANSIONS INAUGURAL
:
# the Rodents Were Exterminated in
Any City Plague Could Not
| StayThere.

LONDON, Jan. 20.-The inaugural
address at the London School of Trop-
ical Medicine was delivered by DR..
Manson, who made special reference to
plague. 4, He said that the first lesson,
and most important one it is, that the
student of tropical disease should learn
is that the distribution of the germs
of the more tropical diseases is not in
any way dependent ON the influence of
temperature the human body, which
is proved by the fact that once estab-
lisned in thehuman body the germ will
flourish there in the coolest as we'll
as in the warmest climate.
Thus, for example, malaria par
asite acquired in tropical Africa may
remain alive for months, perhaps for
years, after its human host has come
to live in England. The same may be
said of the filariae of the ankylosto
mum. and of many other parasites,
proving that temperature regulates.
the distribution of disease by directly.
or indirectly acting on the germ dur
ing its passage from human host to
human host, and not by any direct in
fiuence it may have on THAI host.
The fact, brought out by these res
marks, that the lower animals, espec-.
iaily those that are intimately asso-
Grated with man, play an important
part an the transmission OF human dis.
ease is only now becoming properly
appreciated. In this matter | would
point out that, for once in a way,
science is vastly in advance of practice.
Our sanitarians and the public do not
| fully recognize all that the community
| o. interest as regards disease germs
| of man and beast means in the spread
| of disease. At all events, if they do
| understand it they certainly do not act
as if they appreciated it. To turn for
an illustration to subject which, at
the moment, is of pressing Importance
THE extension of plague.
| This disease, no longer, as it had
been for some 200 years of academic in
terest merely, in one of those recru-
descences, the explanation of which is
so obscure, is again threatening to
spread over the world. 1t is even now
knocking at the door of Europe. What
have sanitariaEs done with the mass OF
facts about this disease which has been
accumulated for them by biologists
and pathologists during recent years
and, more especially, what have they
done with the demonstrated fact that
the bacillus pestis is parasite of rats ?
Judging from the recent history of the
disease in Hongkong, Bombay, Poona
and -uauritius and other places plague
goes on as if there was no such thing
as sanitary science. The reason fol
this, it seems to me, lies in the fact
that the sanitarian, like other mortals
is slow to depart from traditions anC
custom; slow to adopt new ideas, slow
, to adapt himself to novel circum
stances. He has been active and will.
, ling enough, but not active in the righ
direction. Like some physicians, ha:
, only one remedy for every disease. II
his efforts at preventing and stamp
, ing out plague he has simply followed
old and stereotyped lines applicable t.
!. certain other diseases, but not appli
, cable to plague, and has disregarded
practically ignored, the well-atteste,
fact that the ubiquitous rat contract
plague before and more readily thai
, man. From the fact that the rat 4
/ attacked by plague before the diseas
p
: community, the inference is Indicate
/ that rats are a principal agency Il
' preparing any given place for the epi
demic outburst of disease in man; an
| it also suggests that if the rats in an.
) given place were destroyed, aIthoug
l iplague might be introduced, the diseas
/ would not spread as an epidemic anon
4 the people; at all events, that ii
. | chances of so spreading would b
enormously reduced. AS regards com
. municability plague cannot be said t
$ be a very infectious disease, certainl
a not nearly so infectious as smallpox
f scarlet fever or even typhus.
j The attendants on plague cases, pro
S vided they exercise a reasonable an
= by no means irksome care, do not cor
e tract the disease. Man to man infet
: ton, therefore, cannot be the only {
even the principal, means by whic
d this disease is conveyed; were it s
: plague would not have spread as it hs
# done in the recent ard current ep
demic in China, India and elsewher
!. Did its prevalence depend on man I
= man infection, considering the sanitaI