RATS AND THE PLAGUE.
" TMPRIMIS, or firstly, the mere sport of it, which lasted 1 ten days, drew 'em most markedly out of their melancholy. I'd defy sorrowful Job himself to lament or scratch while be's routing rats from a rick. Secnndo, or secondly, the vehement act and operation of this chase or war opened their skins to generous transpiration Thirdly, when we came to burn the bodies of the rats, I sprinkled sulphur on the faggots, whereby the onlookers were as handsomely suffumigated Yet more, we cleansed, limed, and burned out a hundred foul poke-holes, sinks, slaws, and corners of unvisited filth in and about the houses of the village." Mr. Kipling's "Doctor of Medicine" could hardly preach from a text more appropriate to the occasion. It is unfortunately beyond doubt that for the first time in two hundred and fifty years we have the bacillus of plague
once more with us in England. It is also beyond doubt that the area of infection is spreading. Something must be done to check it if possible, and it is clear that whatever is done must be organised on a scale far larger than anything we have hitherto undertaken. We have to face not merely a local scare, but a national need of an importance hardly to be exaggerated.
The Times of December 22nd published an extremely able and interesting article from its special correspondent on the spread of plague among the rats of East Anglia. In it we are furnished with more than one fact which has not hitherto been made public, or which has not been brought into relation with other known facts. In the first place, it is practically certain that the outbreak of pneumonic plague at Freston last September is not the first, but that we have had the plague with us among rats and human beings for four years, and possibly more. The Times correspondent describes an outbreak now believed to have been plague, but at the time not suspected, which occurred four years ago. The cottages in which this outbreak took place are a pair, forming one small building, which, except for a tiny cottage two hundred yards distant, have no human habitation nearer to them than a quarter of a mile away. They belong, however, to the village of Shotley, situated on the south bank of the Orwell some miles south-east of Ipswich, and it is worth while to look at the map to see how very effectually the peninsula on which Shotley lies is isolated from the adjoining country by the estuaries of the Orwell and the Stour. The peninsula is sparsely populated, and the isolation of the cottages in question is a point to be noticed. On Decem- ber 12th,1906, a woman died in one of the cottages of what was thought to be pneumonia. Two of her daughters then took the disease; one recovered and one died on December 19th. On December 26th a woman in the next cottage, who had nursed her neighbours, died of pneumonia ; a few days later her husband died of the same disease, and on January 6th, 1907, her mother died. Two of her children had pneumonia, and one died about the same time. This outbreak is the earliest of the suspected cases. The second occurred at Trimley, immediately opposite Shotley, on the north side of the OrwelL Two persons died at Trimley in January last of a disease now believed to be plague ; but the evidence, it is admitted, is inconclusive. The third outbreak, definitely proved to have been plague, occurred in September last at Freston, a village a few miles south of Ipswich, and rather more than six miles from Shotley. The cottages, though nominally part of Freston, stand at some distance from the village, in a lonely position, with hardly a house visible from them. On September 11th a, little girl of nine was taken ill, and a cat which she had fondled died the same day. The child died on the 16th; her mother died on the 23rd; her father on the 29th, and a woman who had helped the father to nurse the woman on the 29th also. Bacterial cultures made from the blood of two of these four persons revealed the plague bacillus, and that they died of pneumonia plague there is no doubt. No other deaths have since occurred.
The remarkable and sinister fact which was discovered, when the Freston cases were proved to be pneumonic plague, was that for some years past, in the peninsula south of the Orwell, there had been an extraordinary mortality among rats. They had been dying in large numbers since 1908, and probably before that. One witness, among the farmers and labourers qUestioned, stated that he had seen as many as three hundred dead rats in a single morning. Examination of dead rats picked up in the neighbourhood showed that they had died of plague ; and it was next determined to ascertain whether live rats were similarly affected, and if so to what extent. A number were caught in an area near Ipswich selected at random, and it was found that as many as five per cent. were suffering from plague. The significance of the figure can be understood when it is added that in Bombay, during one of the most virulent epidemics, the proportion of live rats caught and found to be plague-stricken rarely reached six per cent. But these are not the only disquieting features of what the Times correspondent calls "these reluctant disclosures." It has been known for many years that plague is carried from rats to human beings by a rat flea, pulex eheopis, which is abundant in India, but practically non-existent in this country. The commonest rat flea in this country is ceratophyllus fasciatus, and it has been generally held hitherto that ceratophyllus fasciatus, although it is known to be an efficient host for plague germs, will not bite human beings. The Times correspondent, however, points out that experiments made in 1902 in Australia prove that ceratophyllus fasciatus will undoubtedly bite human beings if starved. The probability seems to be that the Freston outbreak began in this way. We have to consider, then, two main facts of which the seriousness is obvious. One is that plague-stricken rats can and do infect human beings by means of a flea hitherto thought to be harmless ; the other that the area over which these plague-stricken rats with their fleas extend already covers hundreds of miles, and is growing larger every day. At present the rim of infection is pushing out, from Ipswich as the centre, over not very thickly populated country. But in time, unless we can check it, this rim must reach larger villages and towns. Clearly it is of the first importance to discover where the rim may be at the present moment, and at what rate the infection is spreading.
In short, what is wanted is more exact knowledge of every kind. As the Times correspondent points out, the richest country in the world has now known for three months that it has the plague bacillus within its borders, spread over a wide area, and " in that three months has not spent £100 upon ordered, coherent, precise scientific investigation." Not only that, but it has known that the form of plague of which we have had outbreaks is the deadlier pneumonic form, infectious from one human being to another, whereas bubonic plague is almost invariably carried by the rat flea. Pneumonic plague can be caught by contact with the breath of a patient, and the possibilities of such a disease, if once it got a hold in some thickly populated district of a great city—in the area of the London docks, for instance, where rats swarm by the million—are about as hideous a nightmare as can be imagined. Apart from the danger to human life, the con- sequences to trade of London being declared an infected port, as it certainly would be, are almost beyond calcula- tion. That possibility alone demands that immediate steps should be taken to make the most comprehensive investiga- tions as to the source, nature, and means of combating the danger which we know to exist. The case is for Govern- ment action at once. The necessary investigation will cost £10,000 at least, the Times correspondent calculates ; it may cost £20,000, and "if it took a quarter of a million, the money would be well spent." Even that figure, compared with the possible loss to trade from the limitations imposed on an infected port, is a drop in the ocean. And investigation, if it is to be valuable, must begin at once. In the winter, although cold and rain do not check infection, it spreads more slowly. There are fewer rat fleas, and rats themselves do not breed so rapidly. The increased danger comes with the heat of summer and autumn, and with the increased danger let us hope that we may have increased knowledge. It is not to be supposed that civilisation has said its last word as to the means of combating one of the greatest pests of the human race. We can make buildings rat-proof ; is it beyond imagination to create a rat-proof street, a rat-proof town, even a rat-proof port? It is difficult, doubtless, in the highest degree. But it is unthinkable that the rat pest is outside the reach of science. The plain fact is that we have never troubled ourselves to try to find out what science could do to fight it, and that it is time for us to begin.
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