PLAGUE IN CHINA.

Clutha Leader, Volume XXXVI, Issue 49, 30 November 1909, Page 1

PLAGUE IN CHINA.

I Tho discovery of a means of preventI ing the, spread of plague in India by ' rats lias long occupied th« attention of scientists and medical men. In this connection the 'Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene' publishes some account of the ell'orts made by the second Indian Plague Commission. This Commission, recognising the fact that plague is communicated to man from vats by moans of rat-ilcas, has raised the question of insecticides as a means of cleaning infected dwellings of fleas. It seems that tlio acid solution of J)erehloride of mercury at one time in use has been abandoned in favor of cyllin. The necessity for a pj'epaVation ]>ossessing pulicidal as well as bacterieial powers is evident. Kerosene emulsion merely kills tjie (leas, Init something more seemed to he required, and tho germs of the disease themselves attacked. The value, therefore, of an insecticide in combination with a disinfectant would seem the rational and scientific plan of coping with require'Phis principle has been for some time carried out in practice, and in Hong Ko:ig and several parts of India "List-"-'ne" has been used in combination wi'.'i cyllin. A mixture of equal part-; :if -yllin and petrol diluted with water ha-- recently been employed with _ satisf-'ct- / results as a reliable pulieide an ; disinfectant. As regards the pulicidal action of kerosene ofl emulsion there seems 110 doubt; but cyllin alone and the evllin-petrol mixture are equally powerful in this direction, while they serve also as disinfectants, a most important point in dealing with infection where both pulicidal and disinfectant aefcion is required.