THE PLAGUE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 11346, 14 April 1900, Page 5

THE PLAGUE.

i DAY OF HUMILIATION AND PRAYER. • .•■;-' SEVEN FRESH OASES. By Tclcgraph.-Press Assoeiation.-Copyright, Sydney, April 13. Seven fresh cases of plague have been reported to-day. The fresh cases are a girl named Davis, at Woolloomooloo ; a. youth named Vogan, in a hotel in Pitt-street ;' a boy named Hackett, at Bathurst-street; and tie following men: Quill, Ultimo 5 Taylor, Woolahra ; and Griffiths, Glebe. - Yesterday was observed as a day of humiliation and prayer, on account of the plague. ANOTHER DEATH IN PERTH. , " PERTH, April 13. The second plague victim, Wilson, is dead. His body is to be cremated, owing to.the popular outcry, and a slump in the fish trade, through the first victim being buried at sea.

PRECAUTIONS IN AUCKLAND. The sacks to which reference was made in the -Herald yesterday have been burned. They l formed part of a miscellaneous shipment of cargo for Tonga, being returned copra sacks, from Lever Brothers' Soap Works at Balmain. They were shipped at Sydney five weeks ago by the Hauroto, which intended to tranship them and the rest of her cargo for Tonga into the Manapouri at Samoa, to be taken on by the latter vessel to their destination. It was subsequently ascertained, however, that this course would have involved the quarantining of the Manapouri at Tonga for four days, and consequently the transhipment did not take place. Instead, all the Tonga cargo was taken on to Fiji, where it was transferred to lighters, and under the supervision of Dr. Comey, the medical officer of health, thoroughly fumigated, along with the cargo for Fiji. It was subsequently taken on to Auckland by tho Taviuni, whence it will be sent to Tonga, minus, of course, the sacks, which were destroyed yesterday. Tho chairman of the Harbour Board informs us that the shipment of sacks was reported to him by the Board's sanitary inspector at noon on Thursday, and that orders were given by him to have the shed, containing the same thoroughly fumigated before any of the cargo was allowed to be taken out of it. though the Union Company assured the Harbour Board's representative that the sacks had been most effectively fumigated at Fiji. Tile shed containing the sacks whs locked up at the time of His Excellency's visit in the evening, and the party had to wait while the keys wore obtained to open it. The Auckland Harbour Board was the first to take measures in this colony for plague prevention, and the chairman was in the early stage threatened with several legal proceedings for the firm action he took. Vessels were ordered into the stream at night, a shipment of bones was denied admittance, and after the bones were taken. out of the hold, 52 lats were caught, the steamer being from the worst wharf in Sydney. The chairman adds that great 'danger existed at the first outbreak of tho plague, when diseased rats and unsanitary conditions prevailed on Sydney wharves, it was then that vigilance was necessary, and care was exercised by the Auckland Harbour Board at the right time.

CITY REFUSE. In the report of Drs. Moir and Girdler, on the condition of the city refuse depot, which appeared in yesterday's' issue, two errors occurred. The nearest house to the depot was stated to be a mile away. This should have read half-a-mile. Instead of recommending that the refuse should be "buried" after the pigs had cleared it of vegetable matter, the doctors' recommendation was that it should he "burnt.". Owing to want of space we have been unable to publish the report in fdll, but intend doing so on Monday morning.

COMMUNICATION WITH SYDNEY. The following telegram has been sent by His Worship the Mayor (Mr. D. Goldie) to the Hon. J. G. 'Ward, Wellington: — "Strongly urge Government) to close this port against vessels coming from Sydney at once, and both Sydney and Melbourne advised, so that cargo on vessels at Melbourne could come on direct, and thus save our merchants from inconvenience and loss. Please reply." What is suggested is, that the " tramp" steamers calling at Melbourne and Sydney, before coming on to New Zealand, should tranship their Sydney cargo ah Melbourne, which is at present a clean.though a proclaimed, port, and thus avoid the detention they would otherwise experience in getting (heir return cargoes for the Mother Country.

PLAGUE INOCULATIONS. A correspondent of a London paper writes :—Under the above title the .Abolitionist, of January, gives some particulars of the medical fracas over the preparation and employment of plague scrums. The solicitude of the serum clique for the safety of society is truly touching. Up to the end of October last, 25,000 doses of Haffkine's prophylactic, according to the British Medical Journal, have been sent to London for 'he Local Government Board from the Imperial Bacteriological Laboratory at Parel. •' Lord Lister speaks of the protection given by plague serum inoculation as lasting for a twelvemonth. M, Haffkine, the inventor, says from four to six months. The inoculation certificates issued by the Government of India, are valid only for six months. Dr. Calmette and Dr. Salimbeni slate, as a re-' suit of their study of the subject in Oporto, that the immunity only lasts for about 20 days, after which a (urthei) inoculation becomes necessary. Who shall 'decide : when these bacteriological oracles disagree ? Dr. Pcstana, (he brilliant young Portuguese scientist, who was the foremost authority on bacteriology in Portugal, and had been in the thick of the work at Oporto, and who died of plague in spite of frequent and considerable injections of Heroin's serum, said on his death-bed: " flic plague is a disease which is not understood by tho doctors today? They know no more about it than in the olden time."

In the official report on the plague in Calcutta, published by the Calcutta Municipal Press, there is a ghastly story of making plague cultures from a plague-stricken WOintin of notoriously infamous character. "From these cultures," says tho health officer, "I subsequently obtained the plague bacillus in pure culture." Dr. Calmetle took with him to Paris a tin box containing millions of microbes, which he exhibited with pride to parties of friends. Tho authorities in Melbourne confiscated Dr. Haydon'a plague microbes, and the Madras Government confiscated those brought by an official from Bombay, and put a stop to scrum experimentation, for fear of infection. Yet wo patiently submit to the presence of quantities of them in London, And so the loathly fiasco goes on, and in the midst of our crowded metropolis we have death prancing On the plague-microbe, waiting for the appearance of the disease as a signal for his wholesale dissemination into the systems of the public by the great magicians of the cult of the microbe.