Arizona republican., 1915-06-16
IF
 PLAGUE PAYS |S BLUES MESSAGE
Surgeon General of Public Health Service Delivers Address on Plague Pre- ventiVc Measures, Delel- opment and Status.
ASSOCIATED PRESS DrspArcHI

1 SAN FRANCISCO, June 15.-'In
 the more than three thousand years
 that plague has been known, it has
 been attributed Variously to evil
 spirits. divine wrath, errors of diet, i noXious winds and astronomical
 phenomena, but today the recognition 1 of plague a rodent disease has in sured it's eradication from cities and urban communities" said Dr. Rupert 1 Blue, surgeon general of the United
 States public health service in an address before the American Society of Tropical Medicine here today. Speaking upon the subject of Plague Preventive Measures, Their Development and Present Status. Dr. Blue pointed out that In any event anti-plague measures are diff ficult and expensive but they pay not only from health but from com mercial standpoints'
 Rat -proofing." said Dr Blue. lis , the best and most permanent anti plague measure, but it is not pracu- cally adapted to most places outside the United States. In the United States and it's possessions the thor oughness of enforcement of this mea- sure is responsible in large part for the continued freedom of san Fran cisco and the bay cities from the infection, for the decline and cessa tion of the infection in Porto Rico. for the continued practical freedom of the Philippine Islands from plague. and for the practical eradi- cation of the disease from New or leans" The address reviewed the history of plague preventive mea- sures and considered the legal and technical necessities for the destruc- tion of rodents. their exclusion from human habitations. and permanent methods of preventing the recurrence of the disease.
 Tn the discussion of the paper which followed. Assistant Surgeon General w. C. Fucker of the United States public health service. gave q resume of the work which has been performed under his direction in the city of New Orleans since July last. He pointed out that from that date To May 15. 35.212 buildings. over 50 per cent of the total number in the total number in the city, had been rat -proofed. 33. 900 nuisances had been abated. and 3500O0 rodents captured in traps He estimated that count ing those buildings which were al- ready rat-proof. there were only about l7.000 buildings in New orleans in which rat-proofing remained to be completed The rodent popula- tion. according to Dr. Rncker. has been reduced at least 80 per cent.
 So far as human beings are con cerned. New Orleans has been plague free since october 1. last said Dr Fucker. It is true that plague rats have been found as recently as May 17. but the great diminution in the rodent population and the abolition of rodent harboring places will eventu- .ally control the disease some op- position to the enforcement Of the rat -proofing ordinances has been met in certain quarters said Dr. Fucker
 but inasmuch as both the federal courts and the supreme court of the state have upheld the validity of these ordinances. they win be com pletely enforced to the end that New Orleans may become entirely rat proof d veritable City Sanitary.