CAUSE OF THE EPIDEMIC.

Northern Advocate, 3 May 1911, Page 5

CAUSE OF THE EPIDEMIC.

The disease first made its appearance in Manchuria early in November. It differed considerably from the bubonic plague common in India and is more deadly. Whereas bubonic plagu» is propagated by rat fleas, pneumonic plague is attributed to the parasites of the bartagan, a species of large marmot which is hunted for its fur in Nortbi Manchuria and Siberia. The epidemic * of pneumonic plague ("Black Death") which reached England in 1665 is said to have originated in Mongolia, possibly from this same animal. The extreme cold of the Manchurian. winter —the temperature is often about 40deg. Fahr. below zero—favored the spread of the disease. Disinfecting apparatus was rendered almost useless. The lungs, which the bacilli attacks, were weakened by the low temperature and were thus less prepared for resistance. And on account of the great cold the infected furs and clothing of the victims were commonly stolen as soon as life was extinct. The corpses in the stricken towns were eaten by dogs and birds. Harbin and Mukden were the chief hotbeds of the epidemic. The mortality was practically 100 per cent., and recent cabled advices gave the total mortality during the outbreak as 190,----000. Many English and other doctors volunteered to work in the stricken, towns. Dr. Jackson, of Liverpool, Dr. Mesny, a Frenchman, and a number of Russian medical students succumbed. It was recently announced that Dr. Reginald Farrar, of the Local Government Board, was to leave for China to represent Great Britain on an International Plague Commission at Peking.