Reports and papers on suspected cases of human plague in East Suffolk and on an epizootic of plague in rodents.

  • Great Britain. Local Government Board.
Date:
1911
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Reports and papers on suspected cases of human plague in East Suffolk and on an epizootic of plague in rodents. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    Butterman’s Bay. But against this view is the important con- sideration that no mortality of rats has been observed at least during the last five years in the Ipswich Docks, and this notwith- standing the fact that j)lague-infected rats have been found in the outskirts of the town. It must, however, be borne in mind that the history of plague during the last quarter of a century has shown how frequently the disease has been introduced via the docks in i)laces where it has obtained a footing, and similarly such liistory also indicates how easily dead rats may be overlooked unless floors are taken up and a careful search made. In numerous instances, save for the presence of smell or active search, rat mortality would have passed unobserved. In like manner the history of plague, from the thirteenth cen- tury onwards, shows how frequently the disease has been intro- duced through the agency of foreign shipping, and it sliows, moreover, that in almost every instance the first cases of human ])lague have been overlooked, or only recognised, as was presum- ably the case at Freston, after death. In what manner did the Ej)izootic spread in Suffolk. The question arises as to the mechanical means by which the rat epizootic spread over su<*h a wide area, and as to the period whicli was occupied in its diffusion. Did the disease spread in whatever direction it may have been diffused, whether from one or more centres, by the migration of affected rats from one area to anotlier, or did it spread slowly from rat to rat by direct fiea transmission, or through the visits of healthy rats to rat nests infested by plague-infected fleasy As regards the question of tlie actual occurrence of rat migration there is considerable difference of opinion. That the brown rat {Mus decumanus) does migrate over enormous distances and over estuaries, rivers, and canals is well established in history; and, further, it is matter of common knowledge that rats in this country are found in hedgerows in summer and in the stacks and barns in Avinter; in other words, tlie rats, like other animals, endeavour to live, so far as practic- able, in the vicinity of their food supplies, as Drs. Martin and Rowland show in their obserA^ations upon the habits of the broAvn rat. But restricted moA^ements of this character are not quite the same thing as is understood by the term migi'ation, that is to the occasional movement of rats over long distances in search of food or to avoid their pursuers. We liaA’e the high authority, in so far as India and the black rat {Mus rnftus) is cencerned, of the Indian Plague Commission to the effect that no migration of rats has been obserA’ed in that country, and, as regards Great Britain, it is difficult to obtain anything AAdiich can be regarded as reliable evidence of rat migration. It is important, however, to observe that the habits of Mus rattus and Mus decumanus are very dissimilar, and that inferences as to the habiis of the latter cannot safely be drawn from observations on the former. It is sometimes inferred because rats are seen to be dying first in one place and then in another, that the sick rats are