El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1912-07-27

uary service died at a frightfuI rate
until the case afainst the rat lea was
esta pushed. Now they destroy the fleas
Dy dipping the rats into a solution of
corrosive sublimate. Five thousand
DaclIli of plague NAV harbor in tie yiZ-
zard of a single flea. and the insect
Ieels just as enterprlsing ana athletic
dS II It's digestive region contained no
microbes at all. In whites, when flcas
are scarce, the epidemic becomes Cuies-
cent though spreading meanwhile
ahong the rats, which hudile together
IN their burrows. But, while under such
circumstances 1t may disappear en-
tlrely from among human beings the
disease is stored in the rd.s.
The bacilli are held in the flea's
stomach, and for inoculating people
with them, the insect is the most eff
1ectlve instrument imaginable. In the
early stages of an epidemic the NAL
ady manifeSts itself in its victims by
swellings of the lymphatic glands
(called 'buboesO in the neighborhoOd
OF the part bitten. This is the socalled
bubonlc form of the disease, which
Kills in about seven cases out of ten
Later on, If it continues to spread, it
may assume much more dreadful
phases-the pneumonia and the 'septi-
presently.
Menace OF Rat FIeas.
suppose that you were to walk out
week and saw two or three dead rats
lying about in the cutters. They would
not excite your attention particularly.
But let US say that a dozen more came
under your eye within an hour or two,
scattered here and there. 1t might
mean nothing at all of Importance But
it might, on the other hand signify
a great deal. Certainly if 1 saw any
thing of the kind I should want to
examine some of those rats at the
earliest possible moment, and find out
if they had died of plague. For it is
exactly in this way, by a wholesale
mortality among rats, that the first
warning of a plague epidemic among
human beings is usually given.
The plague infection, however, may
actually exist among the rats of a city
for a long while before they begin to
die in such numbers that the mortality
excitcs attention. Meanwhile it is
steadily spreading among them. The
rat fleas spread it from rat to rat, and
healthy rats, eating their plague-sick
fellows, acquire the disease in this
way. Presently, in some rat-infested
Shanty or tenement hungry flea
fresh from the cold corpse of a rat that
has died of the malady, bites a man.
Four or five days later the man is
dead, the first victim of what might
prove to be a frightfuI and destruc-
tive epidemic.
"One thing to be clearly understood
is that plague is not a filth disease.
The welltodO citizen is as liable as the
Stun dweller to catch it, if rats harbOr
in his house or in other places he fire.
Quents. Furthermore, If the malady
once assumes the pneumonia form, it
becomes in manner directly lntec-
tious the very coughing and splitting
of a person afflicted with it scatter
ing death on every hand. Rats and
rat fleas in this stage of an epidemic
are no longer required as interme-
diaries.
You see, it happens this wa. When
more than a certain number of cases
have developed the lungs of some Of
the victims are liable to become in
fected. The germs distributed from
their sputum, get into the air. Other
people breathe them, and soon the very
atmosphere is poisoned The infection
then spreads like wildfire and human
beings die like flies Such is the
pneumonia plague which recently has
destroyed whole populations in China,
wiping out entire towns within few
weeks.
plague in this form is like an ex-
tremely malignant type of pneumonia,
so far as its symptoms manifested in
the individual are concerned. It is not
always distinguishable in its cOmmenc-
ing stages from ordinary pneumonia,
but it kills with great certainty and
with remarkable quiclSness. The lungs
fill up with water and the patient dies
within day or two
Ihere Is, however, Stlll another
form of plague, to which have already
alluded-the septicemic'-in which the
symptoms produced are those of
frightful blood poisoning. The germs
find their way directly into the blood
stream and the sufferer literally rots
to death in a few days.
The association of rats with plague
is so obvious as TO have excited notice
even in very early times But our
knowledge of the agency of the rat
=
rat to rat and from rat to man, has
been obtained only within the last very
few years. We have proved the case
against the insect in many ways OF
which it will suffice briefly to mention
two. Healthy rats do not take the dis
ease from plague-sick rats when con-
fined in cages with them If the latter
are first entirely freed of fleas by care
full combing. Again, Gagged rats in an
infected place do not contract plague