Plague, rats, and fleas / by W.G. Liston.
- Liston, W. Glen (William Glen), 1873-1950.
- Date:
- [date of publication not identified]
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Plague, rats, and fleas / by W.G. Liston. Source: Wellcome Collection.
3/16 page 43
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Plague, rats, and fleas / by W.G. Liston. Source: Wellcome Collection.
![/ Frp, 1905.) 43 Comparing the spirilla from the cases of relapsing fever with those from the ulcer, no difference could be nade out. Films of pus from the gums showed Spirilla bucee and bacillus fusiforinis of Vincent ; these spirilla were also indistinguishable from the two spirilla mentioned above. The pus from the gums of the case of relapsing fever showed during the whole of the periods of pyrexia and apyrexia the two organisms of Vincent. Had the present case then suffered from relapsing fever? It seems most probable that he had; question then is what is the relation between these spirilla. It is to be regretted that neither spirillum bucee or bacillus fusi- formis have yet been cultivated ; both of them are actively motile and, as Dr. A. E. Wright has recently pointed out in the Lancet that bacillus fusiformis is very like a trypanosome. Professor Schaudiun has recently found that the spirochete obermeiri of relapsing fever is but a phase in the life history of a trypanosome, that it has a large nucleus and micro-nucleus and, further, that it also alters its shape contracting so as to present a form of a minute oval or pear- shaped body provided with a large and smaller nucleus. l regret I was unable to further study this interesting case as the man left the hospital during the night and could not be found again. There is yet good deal of research to be done on human spirillosis. I believe spirilla have been found in an abscess, but I am unable to say by whom. Itrust these few notes may stimulate further research in this direction. PLAGUE, RATS, AND FLEAS.* By W. G, LISTON, CAPTAIN, I.M.S5. (fiead lefore the Bombay Natural History Society, on 24th November, 1904.) You may perhaps think that the choice of such a title for a paper to be read before a Natural Histor) Society is somewhat out of place, and would have been more suitable for a medical gathering. Perhaps you are right; but I feel sure that the subject has a proper place under the circumstances. Weare daily becoming more aware of the important part played in the spread of disease by the numerous animals and insects which surround us, and, as you will learn in the course of my re- inarks, plague isa disease which is pre-eminently depend- ent ov such surroundings. A knowledge of Natural His- tory isbecoming a more important, I may sayan all-import- ant branch of the medical profession. Quite apart, how- ever from such facts, plague isin the midst of us, carrying on its deadly ravages, and adding daily to its already uncountable death-roll hundreds, who, through ignorance of its mode of spread, fall victims to the scourge. Any ray of light shed into the darkness which surrounds the etiology of this disease should not be confined to the medical world, but be cast upon the people, that they may perhaps be enabled thereby to grope their ways through the darkness to a place of safety. You will appreciate the relation between Natural History and Plague when I define the latter as a rat EE Oh Rp AE EEE NTE ee ae * Revised copy sent for publication,—Eb., I,M.G.] disease. Not unfrequently under favouring circum- stances it is communicable to man. The disease among men, therefore, might almost be said to be accidental, and certainly avoidable if there were a distance between rats and men. The communication of the disease to man is conditional on the propinquity or distance of rats and men from one another; and is dependent partly on the habits of the former, and partly on the modes of living of the latter. ~ The ideas embodied in the above definition are not new. That plague is essentially a rat disease was known to the ancients. We find the disease attributed to these animals by the priests and diviners of the Philistines, who instructed the people in these words—‘ Make images of your emerods and images of your mice that mar the land.” They were to do soas a trespass offering to the God of Israel.1 In the Bhagavathi Purana the people are advised “at the moment rats fal] from the roof above, jump about, and die” to leave their homes with their friends and relations, and to jive in the plain.’ In Kumaun, where the disease has been known for long, the experience of the inbabitants has taught them that when rate die, it is time to quit their homes for the jungle to save themselves frum plague. It is stated in a report of the outbreak of 1634-35, that “the appear- ance of the disease in a village had been observed to be preceded by a mortality among the rats of the village” * Coming to more recent times, Hankin, in reviewing the various circumstances that produced plague in Bombay inferred that the incidence of plague in localities and houses was in relation to their acces- sibility to rats rather than to filth, overcrowding, etc.‘ Simond also came to a similar conclusion from his experience of the disease.* : Dr. Ashburton Thompson, from his experience of the outbreak of plague in Sydney in 1900, formed the opinion that plague rats conatituted the sole source from which the infection was communicated to man.® Dr. G. J. Blackmore, formerly Chief Plague Medica] Officer, Port Elizabeth, very clearly and conclusively proved that the epidemic in that town was altogether spread by rats. He writes: “To sum up shortly, in places where infected rats were found plague cases followed ; and in place where there were no infected rats, only four cases of plague occurred, and in these cases the source of infection could not be traced at all Inno case was there direct evidence of man to man infection, and in most cases the possibility of it was definitely excluded.’” I need not quote further in this connection. Jt is absolutely cer- tain that rats are the most important factor in the spread of plague. If plague is a disease of rats, then it is likely that the disease may have.its own distinct laws of origination and continuance among these animals; man becoming affected chiefly when the disease is most prevalent among rats. It is precisely thisstudy of plague among rats that has been neglected. Before any progress in this connection can be made, it is necessary to know something about the life and habits of rats. What do we really know about rats’ Very little. Now this is one reason why I am reading this paper before you to-day. You are al] naturalists, and no doubt keen observers. May I ask you to direct you attention to rats? Any notes upon the habits of these Let me here discuss some of the important facts connected with the habits of rats, which havea bearing on the developmentand spread of plague, 80 far as they are known tome. In the first place, as you are aware, I have tried to classify (more or less casually J must admit) the Indian town or village rats ; but I have completely failed. There appear at first sight to be many species, I visited the British Museum when at home, and saw Mr. Oldfield Thomas on this subject; and he assured me that any rat I sent from Bombay would be likely to be either a Afus rattus or Mus decumanus. I was discussing this matter the other day with a men ber of this society, Mr. Aitken, and he suggested that it might](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b3345310x_0003.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
