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28
PLAGUE
A total of ten cases, affecting seven vessels, has been reported and dealt with.
Of these, one actual and three suspected cases were removed to, and treated at,
the Port Sanitary Hospital. Many vessels arrive from Plague-infected ports
having persons on board suffering from slight fever with buboes, for which no
apparent cause can be found. In these cases it is the usual practice to land
them at Denton, and detain them in hospital for observation and bacterioscopic
examination of the contents of the buboes by Dr. Klein, F.R.S.
A case of special interest is that of the s.s. " City of Perth," of Glasgow,
from Calcutta. The vessel left Calcutta on the 2nd May last with a crew of
15 Englishmen, 44 Lascars and one English passenger, and a cargo of seed and
jute in bags and bales, bound for Dunkirk in France. The vessel touched at
Colombo on the 10th, Suez on the 26th, Port Said on the 27th, and Malta on
the 31st, all well on board, and received free pratique at those ports.
On the 1st .June, the chief steward, an Englishman, complained to the
master of a smell in his store room. It appears that on this date he cleaned
out his store room, and found several dead rats, which he threw overboard.
On the following day he complained of a smell in the sail room immediately
above the store room. This was cleared out by a " tindal," when 30 dead
rats were found and thrown overboard by him.
On the 6th, the steward complained of feeling ill, and was found to have
high fever and, subsequently, a swelling in the left groin.
On the 7th, the " tindal " who cleared out the sail room was also taken ill
with similar symptoms. The master suspected the nature of the disease, and
isolated the men. The vessel reached Dunkirk on the 10th June, where a
French pilot was taken on board, to whom the master reported that he had
two sick men, and urgently wanted medical advice. The pilot took the vessel
right into dock, in spite of the statement of the master, arriving in dock at
2 p.m. A message was sent to the Port Medical Officer, who, it would appear,
was out of town, and the vessel remained in statu quo until 6 p.m., when he
came on board the vessel and pronounced the disease to be Plague. The
French Authorities refused to allow the sick to be landed, but permitted a
French doctor to go on board, and he seems to have done all that was possible
under the circumstances. The two men died the next morning, and were
landed at Dunkirk for burial. The vessel was ordered out of the Port into
the Roads, and all communication with the shore was forbidden.
The master was informed that he must take his ship to St. Nazaire, where
there was a lazaretto, for the discharge and disinfection of the cargo, and that
when that was done the vessel might return to Dunkirk. The alternative