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proceeded to Gravesend, and on her arrival there was boarded by your
Medical Officer. The passengers having been found healthy and free from
any suspicion of Plague, were allowed to land by tender on giving their
names and addresses.
The whole of the crew's effects, with the ship's bedding, &c., were then
landed at the Hospital at Denton, off which the "Ormuz" was moored. The
crew's effects and vessel were then disinfected. The bilges, water-closets,
and urinals were also disinfected.
By working all day and night the vessel was disinfected, and she proceeded
into Dock the next, morning, leaving the remainder of the ship's effects on
shore for disinfection. This was completed in the course of the next three
days, and an estimate of the amount of labour entailed may be gathered from
the following list of articles disinfected:—
16,218 pieces of Linen.
405 Mattresses.
62 Bolsters.
537 Pillows.
1,150 Blankets.
Every person on board was notified to the Medical Officer of Health of the
district to which he was proceeding, and the greatest precaution was taken to
prevent rats going on shore. When the cargo was discharged the vessel was
thoroughly fumigated, and it is believed that every rat on board was killed.
A bacteriological examination was made of the cases landed at Plymouth,
but the result was. negative.
It must not be assumed from this that the cases were not true Plague, but
merely that the organism of Plague was not discovered in the specimens
examined.
Every bacteriologist knows that in examining sputa of patients whose
clinical signs and symptoms undoubtedly point to pulmonary tuberculosis,
and whose lungs must contain numbers of the tubercle bacilli, that very often
the result of the examination is negative. So in cases of suspected Plague,
the clinical history and signs must receive the most careful consideration
apart from the results of bacteriological examination, and in these two cases
landed at Plymouth the history and symptoms were so suspicious that I felt
it my duty to adopt every practical precaution.
On the 6th September, the s.s. "Glenesk," of Glasgow, from Tacoma,
arrived at Gravesend. On the 8th, a Chinaman died suddenly. Medical
evidence, based on necropsy, gave Pneumonia as the cause of death. As