Evening star., 1914-02-08

floors of the better class houses should
be of cement. and that all houses should
have cement foundations, the rats
viii burrow under any ordinary floor.
AS it is now, according to DIR. Perry.
Guayaqul has rats everywhere, and all
of its rats have feaS The bubonic
plague is transmitted by these fieas bit
ing such rats as have the plague. and
chen going from them to men. women
or children and biting them. A flea
that has bitten a sick rat will carry
the plague i'll its system for ten or
twelve days. and If 1t bites you during
that time the plague bacilli will go
into your blood. They will multiply
rapidly. and within five or six days
the chances are that you will die in
horrible pain.
I asked DR.. Perry what kind of rats
carry the plague. He replied: Almost
any kind. but there are three which are
especially dangerous. One is the big
tree rat. which has white belly, and
the third is "a little black rat. The
black rat is most common in Guayaquil.
and the plague existing there comes
plague often die; they will give the
plague to other rats. and it sometimes
becomes epidemic among them. although
they run from it. If a rat dies of the
plague in IA block or house. the unin-
fected rats of that block seem to know
it. and they will desert the block and
go somewhere else"
| am afraid of the bubonic plague,
and l shall not stop in Ecuador on ac-
count of it. l have seen a great deal
of the disease In China and India. About
and Canton. when the people there were
dying at the rate of hundreds a day.
and where there were so many deaths
that there were coffin associations by
...I.x
of charity. During that plague 10000
collins were furnished by such associ-
ations.
The plague in China came from the
rats. and it ragged In the densely built
warrens of the Chinese at Hongkong.
where it has since broken out again and
again. The English government there
is doing all that is possible to control
it, but the city will have to be rebuilt
to make 1t absolutely safe: and, as DR.
Perry says, the same condition obtains
here.
X
1t would be terrible if this plague should
he brought through the canal to New
Orleans, New York or Boston. 1t is won
derfully catching. although it can be
transmitted only by fieas and by rats.
Nevertheless. it ragged throughout Eu-
rope again and again in the years he
and 1t is said to have caused more deaths
than any other epidemic that has popu-
lated human graveyards. 1t was this
pest that Daniel De Foe described in his
story of the great black plague in Lon
don of 1868 and 1896 and it is the same as
that which ravaged Europe during the
fourteenth century. Those two plaques
said to have come from China. The
plague in Guayaquil was not known un-
til about 1905. when it was brought in.
some claim, from Paita, Peru, and others
by certain Asiatic ships that called here
The people We're warned of their danger
by DR. j. B. Lloyd the American health
officer. who was then stationed in Ecua-
dor, and for time he was allowed to
try to control it, Later on he was re-
pudiated by the Ecuadorian government
and DIR. W. NJ. Wightman was sent in his
place. DR.. Wightman took the yellow
fever and died here. That was in 1903
At that time Col Gorgas was much
alarmed a the danger of the pest getting
foothold on the isthmus, and in order
to keep 1t out OF Colon he had more