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nourishment, it pierces the skin with its prickcr, at the same time injecting an
irritating acrid fluid which causes the well-known irritation associated with the
bite of these insects. If the flea had previously been feeding on the blood of an
animal the subject of plague, the stomach would contain numerous plague bacilli
in a living condition. These bacilli may be rubbed into the wound made by the
pricker, or the contents of the stomach are regurgitated through the mouth of the
flea, and the bacilli are then injected into the host with the saliva.
On December 17, 1910, I sent a circular to the managers of all the wharves
in the Borough to this effect: "Dear Sir,—In view of the possibility of a spread
of plague by the means of rats, I should be greatly obliged to you if you would
communicate with me immediately you observe a number of dead rats on your
premises."
On June 9th, 1911, I received a telephonic communication from the manager
of one of the wharves that there were a number of dead rats on the wharf. It seems
that five had died, and one was in a moribund condition, and was killed. Three
of these were sent to the bacteriologist of the Local Government Board. One was
in a state of advanced decomposition and could not be bacteriologically examined.
The other two showed that they had died from pneumonic plague. I received this
information on Monday, June 12th, and on the same day, accompanied by Dr. Reece.
of the Local Government Board, I visited and inspected the premises, and gave
instructions as to precautions to be taken in handling rats. On Tuesday, June 13th,
six dead rats were found on the same premises; one was too decomposed to be
examined. Five were sent by hand to the bacteriologist of the Local Government
Board, but two of them were too decomposed to be examined bacteriologically.
The remaining three had died from Plague, two from the pneumonic variety and
one from bubonic Plague. The wharf is situated on a kind of island, bounded
on the west by Wapping Basin, on the east by Shadwell Basin, on the north by the
London Docks, and on the south by the Thames. I caused the following circular
to be given personally to the manager of each wharf on the river frontage
throughout the Borough: "Dear Sir,—With reference to my letter to you in
December last, with regard to rats, I beg to call your attention to the fact that the
seasonal prevalence of rat Plague has commenced, and I should be glad if you notice
any dead rats on your premises to communicate with me at once. I would strongly
urge on you the necessity of at once starting a campaign to kill all the rats on your
premises by trapping them." At the same time I instructed the Inspectors who
took these circulars to the wharfingers to ask in each instance if there were any
rats on the premises, or if they had recently seen any dead rats there. On the same
day I instructed three other Inspectors to make a house to house inspection in the
infected area and to inquire, first, whether there were any rats on the premises, and
secondly, whether there were any dead rats. Although a large number of rats were
found in a number of the premises, no dead rats had been seen in any of them.