Report on the outbreak of plague in the state of Queensland, 1903. / Department of Public Health, Brisbane.

  • Queensland
Date:
1903
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Report on the outbreak of plague in the state of Queensland, 1903. / Department of Public Health, Brisbane. 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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    Tlie following episode is particularly interesting in connection with. tJte I transmissibility of plague among rats by means of fleas, and occurred during the early part of tlie third epidemic of plague in Brisbane. Mr. A. brought a half-grown live rat in a cage to the Institute. The rat was removed From the wire cage and placed in another larger one with nine perfectly healthy and nearly full-grown rats. On Mr. A. being handed back his cage, he incidentally mentioned that a member of his family had only a few days previously been removed as a plague patient to the plague hospital; he further stated that it might be of interest to know if anything was wrong with the rat that he brought, as it had been caught in bis house. Although the rat in question appearel quite lively and well, I instructed the caretaker to inform me at once should atiy sign of sickness appear either in this or in any of the other rats in the same cage. Four days later two of the rats were found dead and three others w ere sick, including the rat Mr. A. brought. These three died the next morning. Post-mortem and bacterio- logical examination revealed the fact that all five rats had died of plague; moreover, on the bodies of two of the rats fleas were found, and in the bodies of several fleas jilague bacilli were discovered. In view of the results of this investigation it was decided to destroy the remaining five rats, several of which were in a dying condition. The box was drenched inside and out with strong carbolic acid solution, and then placed in a fumigating room, and subjected Ibr about six hours to ammonia and then to sulphurous acid gas. On examination, each of these rats was found to be infected with plague, and in four of the ten rats examined there was a marked haemorrhagic condition of the subcutaneous tissues. The nine healthy' rats referred to had been reared at the Institute, and belonged to one family, being born about twelve months previous. They were always in a healthy condition, and on no occasion whatever were Ileas or other parasites found upon them. It was, therelore, quite evident that the fleas which had been introduced with Mr. A.’s rat were solely responsible for the outbreak of plague among the nine healthy rats, although it WHS quite possible that Mr. A.’s rat may not have been infected at the time it was placed with the others. It should be mentioned that the plague patient, a young boy, the son of Mr. A., had been for several weeks in the habit of cajituring rats (handling them without any precaution) for the purpose of obtaining ihe capitation fee of 6d. per head offered I'y the Epidemic Board. The facts in relation to a possible accidental transmission of platrue from rat to rat by the agency of cockroaches are as follows In a room specially set anart for keeping all inoculated animals are two large stands with wide shelves on which are placed long lead-lined trays about two inches deep, containing carbolic solution; standing in these trays and surrounded by the carbolic solution are the various strong glass jars in which are kept the experimental animals. These jars are about sixteen iiiclies high and about nine inches in diameter. Each jar contains only one animal, guinea-pig, rat, or mouse, as the case may be, and is covered with a mosqiiito-proof fine wire-gauze lid. On the occasion referred to in Is'ovem- ber, 1902, a liealthy guinea-pig, that was being kept as a conirol for certain experiments suddenly became sick and after three days it died Post- mortem and bacteriological examination proved that th s guinea-pier had died from a generalised form of iilague, but no lesiou was found to indicate that It had been infected through the skin. A careful examination revealed
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