The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1907-10-11
SEATTLE HAS A
RAT ORDINANCE
DISCUSSING HOW TO KEEP THE
CITY FREE FROM BUBONIC
PLAGUE.

DEAL LIE, sept ES-lne erection OF
Seattles sanitary fortifications against
plague will begin in earnest on Tues
day morning. Mr.. Grant Calhoun. city
health officer, is dividing the area COW
cred by the rat ordinance into districts
and each of these will be assigned to
an inspector who will see that every
structure in his Jurisdiction is render
ed rat proof according to the provi-
s!ons of the ordinance. The progress
Of the work will be noted upon maps
which are being prepared by DR.. Cal
houn.
In one of the September reports
from the Public Health and Marine
Hospital Service, a long article is de-
voted to the cause and prevention of
bubonic plague Extracts are given
from a series Of lectures on plague be-
fore the Royal College of Physicians,
of London, by DR.. w. J. r. Simpson,
of Kings College, London, who was a
government commissioner to inquire
into the causes and continuance of the
plague in HOngkOng. He describes the
importation Of plague into a healthy
locality as due to three causes, an in
fected human being, infected clothes
or an infected rat.
1t has also been shown that infect
duce the disease. Grain which has
been contaminated by old plague cul-
lures was fed to rats and guinea pigs
and they were stricken. From this it
is argued that food products for hui
man consumption may be contaminat-
ed by infected rats and on importation
into a healthy seaport reproduce
plague.
"It is now almost universally admit
ted that rats are the principal agents
in the dissemination of the disease
says DR.. Simpson. "They bring the In
lection into houses connected with
their subterranean passages. In Hong
kong one could trace many of these
subterranean passages with their IN
fected rats and their connection with
the distribution of the disease in the
houses.
"A systematic archaeological exam
ination of rats trapped and found dead
proved that plague in the rats of the
locality preceded plague in man. So
| constantly did this occur that as soon
as plague-infected rats were discover
| ed measures were introduced for treat
| ing the house or locality as plague
infected. The precedence Of rat plague
| in relation to plague epidemics was
observed in Bombay, the Punjab, Cal
cutta, South Africa, Australia and
| Southern China.
1.-The value of the HOngkong obser-
vations lay in the direct evidence OBJ
tanned by scientific and precise meth
| ods not only of the direct relationship
which the precedence of rat plague
bore to human plague, but also the i'm
portant role which the rat plays in the
| spread of the disease from house to
house and in groups of houses"
Discussing the means by which the
| plague is transmitted to man, Dr.
Simpson is inclined to give more
weight to the theory that it is from
contaminated foodstuffs more than
from the bites of fieas making their
habitat on the rat, that the danger is
| to be apprehended. He says:
More post mortem examinations
are made on plague cases in Hongk0ng
| than in any other part of the world,
and it is on the observations there,
both on man and animals, that the
theory has been formulated that the
ingestion of food contaminated with
the plague virus is the cause of septi-
caemic cases Of plague.
"A careful inspection of cases or
crates filled with goods fIom infected
localities should be arranged for in
order that any dead or sick rats may
be Immediately discovered and dispos-
| ed of in safe manner and the con-
taminated portion of the goods disin-
! fected for the same reason an inspec-
| tiOn of fodder and loads of grain from
infected localities is necessary. The
warehouses attached to railways and
| docks require to be especially watch
! ed; also granaries, stables, slaughter
houses and markets where rats from
infected localities are likely to be i'm
ported AMI spread infection among in
digenous rats or where contaminated
goods infect healthy rats"
The rat ordinance passed by the Sc
attle city council AMI formulated by
DR.. Calhoun will largely fill the re-
quirements as indicated hy DR.. Simp-
son, as it provides specifically for the
surveillance of the wharves and the
buildings used for the purpose of stor-
ing foodstuffs for human consumption.