Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-03-31
CRUSADE AGA|NSTRATS
How Plague Was Put Down in
San Francisco.
MILLION RODENTS SLAIN
Sanitary Measures introduced to
Prevent Spread.

41CVCuC ~ ICdU.
| Now that the epidemic of plague is
over in San Francisco the marine hos
pital service has issued a detailed story
of how the disease was fought and wiped
out.
| 1t was a long, hard fight, and one in
which there was no precedent on which to
act. 1t was the first time the plague had
ever been fought to finish the first time,
| in fact. that it had ever taken hold in a
civilized community where conditions
favored its spread. and yet where there
Was police power enough over the popula-
| ton 10 put into effective practice repres-
1 sive methods by which the disease could
/ be wiped out.
| Enough had been learned of the disease
| TO know that 1t was carried only by a
certain breed of flea that infected rats,
which in turn carried the disease broad
| cast. The anti-plague campaign became,
| therefore, an anti-rat campaign.
| The whole attention of the marine hos
p.tal service was devoted to killing off
rats. disinfecting premises and ships
where plagu infected rats had been
found. and preventing the breeding and
spread of the pests.
Service in Charge.
1t was in October, 1907, that the gov
to the President of the United States and
the policing of San Francisco was turned
c'-or :" the marine hospital service 1t
was after the earthquake and fire in San
i l.-4-s. $50 and the city was In course of
| rebuilding.
Thousands of people were still living in
camps. There was little attempt at car
ing for garbage, manure and the like
General living conditions were most in
sanitary.
The health officers had to educate the
people to the need of covering up gar
bage to prevent rats feeding on it: to
educate the stablemen to the point of
ratprooflng their stables and properly
protecting the manure accommodations 1t
was a long and thankless task but the
| men went at 1t with system and finally
won out.
| The work was under the general charge
| OF Surgeon Rupert Blue of the marine
hospital service. He had under him ten
| commissioned officers, thirteen assistant
surgeons. thirty-one inspectors fifty-six
assistant inspectors, 1O2 foremen and 534
laborers.
/ were by no means all the per-
| sons engaged i'm the work. There was
| active assistance and cooperation from
the city board of health, the police depart
ment, the various Improvement cubs.
labor organizations and mercantile bodies
Money was great consideration and
the citizens committee raised $50 900 for
"~@ TIE board - sr~er-
visors appropriated at first $4,000 a
u.s. Sii,UO a month
for the same purpose. The city was d.
vided into districts and the districts were
subdivided, the workmen operating in
gangs of five each under competent
| brennan. The men were promoted and
denoted in accordance with their eff
iciency. and the whole system was run
on military basis.
| Amount of Work Done.
Some idea of the amount of work done
may be CLEANED from the record of the
campaign. Up to June 30, 1903, there had
| been 1l9 cases of plague and q deaths.
This by no means represented the number
| of cases that had to be inspected and
passed on by the surgeons.
| There were 1850 cases suspected of
plague that had to be examined: 1913 in
| Spections of the dead were made to de-
termine whether or not they had ded
from plague. There were $500 houses
| dsinfected. and proportionate number
Of sanitary nuisances abated
/ t.~~p t~ovi1 Il with rat trans
and total catch of 2O3,642 rats was re-
4. 1900 examined for
pa -ue. OF these it was found that 30i
| There were 1900 600 poison bats spread
u. .Iic- - means of telling
| how many of these bats took eTec, But
there We're 100000 dead rats discovered
| floating in the bay after one ra.nstorm
| fshed the sewers.
| The last case OF human plague was re-
po. -, Ia san r'Ia.Icisco in February, 1908
But The campaign against rats is s. i'll he
| ing carried on now with undated vigor.
1t was found that giea. al .nud
be done in lighting the rat pest by rat
proofng stables and dwellings. Dumping
! of garbage on vacant lots was prohibited.
No garbage was allowed to be left in
| uncovered receptacles to furnish food for
the rodents and prevent their going for
| the rOiSpnpd hats and the hats in the
traps.
New Pest House Built.
| 1t wa. found also that the plague hos
pital, as 1t stood, was an old building
that was harbor Tor rats and fiIe
focus for infection. Consequently a rev
pest house was built, or rather. series
| s' t'-f ~ thoroughly ratproof ana sur
rounded by q corrugated iron fence set on
:. 100 concrete foundation.
| Inside this fence was an inverted iron
| trough to prevent the escape of any rats
: = might find their way into the in
closure.
/ ,..e shipping in the harbor was disin-
| fected with sulphur fumes. There were
nine for every day of the campaign. IN
Guiding Sundays and holidays. There
was con umed 10000 pounds Of sulphur
and 4,342 gallons of alconol.
| 1t was not uncommon at the beginning
to clean up 100 dead rats from fuml-
gated vessel. In few cases there were
800 and even 500. After the first fumiga-
ton the number rapidly decreased and
the vessels were soon free. not only OF
rats and mice. but all sorts OF insect
vermin.
In addition to the fumigating precau-
tons the hawsers OF the vessels were
guarded with iron cones with traps in the
apex. SO that rats were prevented from
getting to or from the vessels. Those
caught In the trap We're drowned.
The fleas captui ed from lie rats were
examined for plague germs. The feas
were bottled in alcohol. each phial being
labeled and sent to the hygienic labora-
tory. There were over 10000 fieas thus
examined. and the breed most commonly
found infesting the rats was determined
Edward and Alfonso Loving.
SAN SEBASTIAN. Spain, March 81
King Edward today returned the cal