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Prevention of Plague.
On November 10th, 1910, the Local Government
Board issued an Order, together with Regulations,
as to Plague, and accompanied it with a
Memorandum, which in Part I. enters very fully
into the symptoms, the diagnosis, and the methods
of the spread of the disease, and explaining how
rats, being infected, are the source from whence
the disease is spread to man. Part II. dilates (a)
upon the measures to be taken against Plague as
regards the individual, and (b) describes the precautions
to be taken in regard to inanimate
objects, and (c) the precautions against rats.
The Memorandum states that:—"After frequent
recurrences during several centuries, ending
with the great outbreak of Plague in 16641679,
the disease disappeared from Great Britain
for more than 200 years. In 1894 it became
prevalent at Hong Kong, and since that time it
has spread from Asia into various parts of
Europe, America, Africa and Australia. In 1900
and in two subsequent years small outbreaks have
occurred at Glasgow, and one or more cases have
also occurred at Liverpool, Cardiff, and Leith during
the last ten years. During the present year
(1910) cases suspected to be pneumonic plague
were associated in Suffolk with definite occurrence
of plague in rats and other rodents.
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