Report on the outbreak of plague at Sydney [1900-1907] / by J. Ashburton Thompson, Chief Medical Officer of the Government and President of the Board of Health.
- New South Wales. Department of Public Health
- Date:
- 1900-1908
Licence: In copyright
Credit: Report on the outbreak of plague at Sydney [1900-1907] / by J. Ashburton Thompson, Chief Medical Officer of the Government and President of the Board of Health. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.
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![notorious that rats and mice alone amon^ animals are specially susceptible of plague, and at the same time habitually infest the dwellings of man. The sole questions, therefore, which remain to be answered are whether connection between plague cases and jilague-rats can be positively established in a large majority of instances ; and, if so, how the infection finds its way from the rat (to which animal, no doubt, it primarily belongs) to man. 43. The latter point has been considered in previous reports, and nothing of importance can yet l)e added. Inoculation through the skin is the mode of infection in bubonic and septicaemic plague which is best supported by the pathology of the disease. The suggestion that inoculation commonly results from accidental apposition between minute lesions of the skin and infectious matter deposited by animals has been considered to overlook practical considerations to the contrary (see Report, 1902, pars. 251-60, 261, and 298); the argument was cogent, based on experimental data and common knowledge, and it has not been answered. As regards possible inoculation by the flea, a good deal of circumstantial evidence has been adduced in this series of reports (Eeports, 1900, pp. 23, 40, 56-7 ; 1902, pars. 262-71, 272-92, 293-4, 298-9), but nothing of a direct character; such direct evidence as has been offered bv otliers both for and against that mode still stands much in need of examination on more exact lines. The infection of man by feeding—the only other mode which can be suggested with due regard to practical possibilities—is negatived, in my opinion, not only by the pathology but also by the symptomatology of the disease (as well as by other considerations; see par. 29 above). 44. As regards the former question it may be inquired, first, what were the time- relations between epizootic and epidemic plague; and, secondly, by what feature were those areas on which the eiiidemic manifested itself distinguished from others, besides the occurrence of cases upon them. As to time-relations at least two points should be clearly made out—plague-cases should be met with only while plague-rats are present, and the beginning of the epizootic should precede that of the epidemic. The record is set out in the table below :— Table IV.^1900-4. Month. No. of Persons in- fected. Rats and Mice. No. ex- amined. No. in- fected. Period. Year. No. of Rats and Mice. Month. Persons in- No.ex- No. in- fected. amined. fected. August ... 1,684 September.. 1,156 October ... 2,455 November... 2,177 December... 3,108 January ... 1,115 February... 1,250 Marcli 1,538 April 1,424 May 3,723 27 June ] 5,269 97 July 1 4,186 23 August ... 3,087 14 September.. 3,196 October ... 3,232 November.. 3,045 December... 2,414 January ... 2,565 Februai'y... 2,483 March ... 1 5,808 4 April 4 5,394 32 May 3 5,605 35 June 1 5,356 89 July 1 5,371 50 August ... 4,331 6 September.. 2 4,472 20 October ... 3,783 5 November.. 3,23B 1 December... 3,621 1 January ... February... March ... April May June July August ... September.. October ... November.. December... January ... Februaiy ... March April May June July August September.. October ... November... December... January ... February... March April May June July 1 3 51 107 93 41 6 1 1 1 6 26 57 20 12 31 48 36 24 14 7 10 6 4 1 21 16 9 1 1 157 4 226 303 211 449 550 3,023 3,345 2,397 2,124 5 25 6 37 23 4 1 First. 1902 1903 1904 - Second.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21354704_0251.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
