Evening Post. MONDAY, JANUARY 16, 1900. THE PLAGUE IN AUSTRALIA.

Evening Post, Volume LIX, Issue 12, 15 January 1900, Page 4

Evening Post. MONDAY, JANUARY 16, 1900. THE PLAGUE IN AUSTRALIA.

The news we publish to-day of the appearance of bubonic plague in Adelaide is of a serious character. It is evident that we should at once set about obtaining the most reliable information as to the course, the prevention, and the cure of this terrible disease. The very last thing that either the Government or the people of the colony should do is to allow the spread of morbid excitement or of undue panic. Never, since the birth of modern sanitation, has this veriwble filth-disease reached an epidemic form among any English-speaking community. If the proper precautions are taken under expert guidance, the plague should not assume dangerous pioportions in any of these colonies, even though they should be unfortunate enough to have one or two sporadic cases introduc ed, m at Adelaide. But the proper precautions must be taken promptly, and they must be directed by thoroughly competent men who understand the best modern methods of preventive medicine in general and the treatment of plague in particular. Two points in connection with this disease arc universally accepted, and they indicate how something may at once be done to protect !New Zealand. In the first place, the plague finds its fittest environment where insanitary condition"} prevail. It thrives on filth, and it is irupidly disseminated by such animal scavengers as rats and oriental dogs. Bearing this in mind, we see that a heavy responsibility now devolves upon all Australasian municipalities, especially if (heir jurisdiction includes seaports. The closest attention should be paid to drainage, and to the general hygienic surroundings of the population, most of all in the poorer and less spacious parts of our towns. We must take care lhat we cultivate no human nur cries for the special benefit of plague germs'

] In the second place, the plague, though not so readily passed Irom individual to individual as tmollpox or typhus fever, is extraordinarily infectious, and its germs have, to fa), as Eastern experiences show, a marvellous vitality. They live long in soil, in skins, in woolleu fabrics, and in sundry other such stuffs ; they spread their ravages with enormous rapidity among rats, chicken, and other small animals. Ground turned up in Ssuchuan, where the plague is, so to speak, indigenous, will frequently cause an outbreak of the disease. Sacks, silks, woollens, and other artioles of merchandise will, even after a long period, convey these noxious microbes from an infected district to one hitherto free from their activity. In "these circumstances, it is plain that quarantine, as we ordinarily understand the term, is wofully inadequate as a preventative of the spread of contagion. When the plague was raging in Hongkong and in the southern parts of China the British and American officials at the northern ports objected to the old-fashioned quarantine system proposed as an imperfect security scarcely justifying the derangement of trade it would cause. Complete isolation of infected districts is practically impossible, and it therefore becomes absolutely necessary that the health officers at all our ports should be more watchful than ever, that jsplatipn should follow upon the slightest suspicious symptoms, and that everything likely to have been impregnated by a case, if such occurred, should bo burnt. The old quarantine station here might, if necessary, be made use of for purposes of isolation, and after it had fulfilled that purpose it might be set fire to. The Government and the municipalities should at once arrange for special precautions on the part of v 'all health officers, and for special attention to hygienic conditions 1 in cities and towns Moreover, it would, we believe, be advisable for the authorities to obtain at once a committee of experts, medical and other, conversant with such matters to advise them in drawing up a set of regulations for isolation, quarantine, and other such measures as may seem necessary. There are, no doubt, dootors in the colony who have had experience of these Oriental epidemics, and their views should now prove of great value to the Government in devising the measure** to adopt.