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Full particulars as to source should in each instance accompany
the material forwarded.
W. H. POWER.
Medical Officer
Local Government Board,
Medical Department,
September, 1900.
The foregoing Memoranda are useful for administrative purposes,
but it may be interesting to supplement them with a few general
facts pertinent to the subject, which will render it easier to grasp the
rationale of the various preventive methods recommended.
Plague is not a highly-infectious disease in the sense that Smallpox,
Scarlatina, and Typhoid are. There is no infection in the air of a
clean, well-lighted room in which a Plague patient is lying, nor is
there danger to the persons who nurse and move the patient, as long
as they are careful to wash and disinfect their hands, and to disinfect
the discharges from the patient and all utensils in his room.
The disease is caused by a vegetable micro-organism (the
Bacillus Pestis), which is so small that it would take 600 millions to
cover a square inch of surface. This microbe rapidly multiplies in
the viscera and blood, secreting a poison which produces the symptoms
of the disease. It leaves the body by all discharges save the
perspiration, hence, in filthy, overcrowded, damp, dark dwellings the
clothes, utensils, or floors may become infected, and, if allowed to
dry, may convey infection in the form of dust. The commonest
method of infection, however, is through abrasions or wounds of the
skin, and, probably also, infection may be carried by infected house
vermin, such as fleas, bugs, lice, etc.
The disease is epizootic, that is, communicable not only to man
but also to domestic and other animals, as cats, dogs, and especially
rats and mice. Indeed, frequently, extensive fatality in rats has
preceded outbreaks of epidemics in man. It is essential, therefore,
to wage vigorous warfare against rats, and to pay especial attention