THE BUBONIC PLAGUE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CIII, Issue 12157, 22 March 1900, Page 5

THE BUBONIC PLAGUE.

THE OUTBREAK AT SYDNEY. TWO DEATHS. A RUSH FOR INOCULATION. United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright. SYDNEY, March ,21. Heaton and Pepper are dead. A big crowd was awaiting the opening of the Inoculation. Office this morning, and the officials (had: great difficulty ini gaining admission. As soon as the doorC Were opened the placa-jovas rushed. Thei staiirs were so densely blocked that thei banisters were broken, and the people overran the offices. The,police with difficulty obtained a clearing and kept check.. The offices were besieged: all day. Another case o;f plague it reported, thalti of a youth named Fleming, residing ah Balmain, All the .cases to date have been, traced to .Sussex -Street. Dogs taro sugt geatedl as a possible means of ti'an'sTmssicmi of germs >of the plague, , The police have killed over si thousand ownerless dogs during tth© last few days< an .cdnsequenco of the suggestion that dogsi jcarry the germs of the plague. The hieaiStih authorities wall take posses-) sion of the whakves and .thoto'ughly Wer'f haul them. One thousand 'add twenty-one persons) were innoculated to-day. A fresh supply) o sfa cram hafa been received, sufficient 'fop six or seven! thousand. In consequence of the plague the 1 .Govern-) ineint ials decided! .to dose a Djumber Of wharves in) Darling Harbour, including those of itho Unlkm, Adelaide, North Coast land Hudd art -Darker Companies. Berth-i ing u<ooommod'ation wilQl be provided jatj Darling Mand, land the .Pyimon't ferry) tifcaa'mers running to Darling Harbour will) be diverted Do Circular Quay, Mr LyU!e has unshed the Indiana Gov.em-t m'bn|fc to (grianlt the service's of two plague) ■experts, and has r’emved a i reply offering) one. MELBOURNE, March 21. The -Board of Health bias declared Syd-j ney and Adelaide infected. / [Per Press Association.] WELLINGTON, March 21. The supply of plague prophylactic in the colony at the present time is limited' to. one hundred doses, twenty-five of which have been sent to the medical officer of the Health .Department at Auckland for emergency. The 'balance is for the 'present toi be retained here. If atiy is (required fon Christchurch or Dunedin it can .be sent .an to reach either place within fifteen on .twenty-four hours. A further supply of 2000 doses has been cabled for to Bombay,: and if the preparation is available, it should retoch Wellington within the next three, weeks. THE PLAGUE IN MELBOURNE. INFECTED RATS. Though no information has been given by the cable there seems little doubt that the bubonic plague has appeared in Melbourne. The “ Argus,” of March 10, says: —“The action of the Board of Public Health in specially engaging men to destroy rats on the wharves has been proved to have been necessary beyond question. On Monday evening one of the rat-catchers took several rats captured on the Yana wharves to Dr Gresswell, chairman of the Board, for examination, because they seemed to present features allied to those generally manifested where the bubonic plague is existent. Dr Gresswell immediately despatched the suspected rats to a bacteriologist in the city, who reported last .evening that not only did two of the vermin present the clinical features of plague, but that a thorough bacteriological investigation had shown that the plague microbe organisms existed in the animals, of at any rate microbe organisms similar to those that accompany the plague. The “Argus,” of March 15, says: “After the lapse of a week further evidence of the presence of the bubonic plague in the city was obtained yesterday, when a rat captured on the Queen’s Wharf was examined by Dr Gresswell, chairman of the Board of Public Health, and found to be infected. It is therefore to be feared that the rats are disseminating the disease amongst themselves, and as they are migratory in their nature, Dr Gresswell considers that large numbers of them are already affected. The vermin are continually moving about in search of food, and from this it is apprehended that the plague may be communicated to rats in the suburbs until the whole metropolitan area is infected. Human beings may be attacked at any time, and the source of greatest danger to them is food, which may be contaminated by rats stricken with the plague. In this connection householders cannot. Dr Gresswell thinks, take too many precautions, and to make assurance doubly sure all bread should be scraped before it is eaten unless the consumer is satisfied of the absolute cleanliness of the surroundings in which it is made. It will naturally be of interest to all householders to know how they may identify rats that have died of the plague. Dr Gresswell states that the disease may be recognised by the buboes, or swellings, in the groin, under the forearm, or on the neck, which are plainly visible to the naked eye. In addition, the hair of an affected rat may fall off. But there, need not be any emaciation. The main features are the swellings of the glands, which may cr may not break out into open sores.” • The. “ O.tlago Daily Tunes ” says that a private letter received in Dunedin from the wife uf one .of the public officials in ■the Hawaiian Islands .gives some particulars relative to the spread of the plague in the. /group. The experience in Honolulu itself ,w.as reported from Auckland last week on, arrival cif the San Francisco mail steamer. It appears, however, that all the otherislands in the group have been quarantined. Kfthului, fifty miles distant from Honolulu, was free from plague until iifter tire opening of a number of cases of Chinese New Year’s goods, which had 'lain there for several months. Within five days 'after these goods were opened sWen (oases were reported, and it is .supposed that the infection was brought from Hongkong in the goods. The occurrence .of a -case cif plague at PorL-Hilo, 225 miles from Honolulu, is attributed to the same cause- The property which has been burned 1 in Hawhii for the destruction iof the germs Represents a Value of £600,000. '