London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Port of London 1908
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Port of London]
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Your Medical Officer of Health, in conjunction with Dr. Willoughby, conducted post-mortem examinations on the bodies of dead rats which had been found, and several of them presented to the naked eye appearances of having died of Plague, whilst Professor Klein examined 13 rats with the following results:—
| No. | 1908. | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | August 21 | 1 rat | Mus Decumanis | Pneumonic |
| 2. | „ 26 | 1 „ | „ „ | „ |
| 3. | „ 27 | 1 „ | „ „ | „ |
| 4. | „ 28 | 1 „ | „ Rattus | Bubonic. |
| 5. | „ 31 | 1 „ | „ „ | „ |
| 6. | Sept. 7 | 1 „ | „ „ | „ |
| 7. | „ 10 | 1 „ | „ „ | Negative. |
| 8. | „ 15 | 1 „ | „ „ | „ |
| 9. | „ 26 | 1 „ | „ „ | Bubonic. |
| 10. | Oct. 12 | 1 „ | „ „ | Negative. |
| 11. | „ 22 | 1 „ | „ „ | „ |
| 12. | „ 28 | 2 „ | „ „ | „ |
13 rats.
and I append extracts from his reports:—
"Rat No. 6 had a bubo in the left groin, the juice of the bubo showed
"numerous bi-polar bacilli like B. pestis. The spleen was enlarged,
"dark, and firm, like the typical plague spleen. It contained numerous
"bi-polar bacilli. A guinea-pig injected with spleen juice developed in
"24 hours a distinct bubo, the juice of which contained numerous
"bi-polar bacilli.
"Rat No. 7 (Mus. rattus).—No plague-like bacilli were found in the
"cervical or bronchial lymphatic glands, lung, or spleen juice. Cultures
"from cervical gland and spleen juice revealed no colonies of B. pestis.
"Rat No. 9.—Spleen and liver were enlarged, and mottled with
"greyish streaks and patches. Film specimens from spleen and liver
"showed numerous bi-polar bacilli like B. pestis. Cultures from spleen
"yielded pure cultures of B. pestis. A guinea-pig injected with spleen
"juice, developed a bubo within 24 hours, juice from this bubo showed
"crowds of B. pestis."
I urged the Dock Company to adopt all possible means to destroy rats in
that dock, and they entered into negotiations with a rat virus company for
that purpose.
I called upon the Medical Officer of the Local Government Board and
reported the facts to him, and also stated in detail the measures which I had
taken in order to deal with this disease amongst the rats.
As will be seen from the table, the mortality from Plague ended about
September 26th.
This was a very difficult matter to deal with, as the disease occurred
amongst the rodents over an area 900 yards long. It was practically