NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13454, 3 June 1907, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

THE PLAGUE IN INDIA. ' The . seasonal recrudescence of bubonic plague in India, despite the widespread and ' at times drastic precautions of the sanitary ' authorities, continues, it would seem, to ' baffle all the resources of prophylactic ' science. So far as is' known it was first ' imported Into India in modem times in 1896, from Hongkong, and enormous mortality ensued. The authorities in Bombay, where the disease was first noted, were i taken by surprise, and the epidemic had made tremendous headway before it was

d realised that ships''rats were the. carrying n medium of the infection. ' From January ,t to August, 1903, the mortality; in'lndia i. from this source alone was 600,000. Since! -- that date ho scourge has periodically "■ re- J e appeared with appall ing results. In 1904 |j the plague deaths in India reached the \ x amazing total of 938,010, and in" 1905 thesej q enormous figures were exceeded. From! :. 1896 to the end of 1904 three millions and a-quarter deaths were traced in India to' this" source ''alone. A vigorous campaign! /against plague-infected 'rats has been pro- , secuted for more than 10 years past, but | with little apparent result; largely owing,! e no doubt, to the religious susceptibilities: 0 of the natives, to their aversion to leaving I | their homes, and to the consequent conceal-J >' ment of infectious cases. " When the rats! ■ l ' begin to fall it is time for the people to i. leave the houses. 'V This is a common sayit ing in India, where it was noticed long as' II that an outbreak of plague is invariably j i- preceded by a plague epizootic among the eirats, which are regarded as a domestic ani-j raal there. The connection between the) s two movements has now been established d scientifically by a Special Commission ap- .. pointed in 1905 by the Indian Government j{ on the initiative "of the Lister Institute. 'J By a series of careful experiments they | , proved that there is a special rat-flea, called j ' "Pules cheopis," which carries the plague j S germ from rat to rat, and from rats to l "! other animals, and therefore probably from Q rats to man. It only requires the germ of infection to appear within the body of one* rat to have immediately an epizootic, fol-« d | lowed by an epidemic. This explains why) s, an outbreak of plague occurs in localities j el with different climatic conditions, though .t]during well-defined seasons of the year, t i- This also explains why better-housed peoh pie, like the Europeans, suffer less than the; . poorer classes, and people of certain occu-, c l nation, like weavers, who work mostly at e home, suffer most. ( _ ~" - — - ——- ; ' THE POPULATION OP THE UNITED y 'STATES. C , It has already been briefly reported by r telegraph that the population of the United '" States is estimated to have last year reach; fc ed 83,941,510. Alaska and insular possesy sions bring the total up to 93,182,200. The ■" former figure represents 28 persons per k square mile, as compared with 26 in 1906. 3 Among cities, while New York has in* r creased from 3,437,202 to 4,113,043, Chit cago has gone up from 1,698,575 to . 3 2,049,185, Philadelphia from 1,293,697 to . i 1,441,735, St. Louis from 575,238 to . Y 649,320, Boston from 560,832 t0.602,278, i and Baltimore from 508,957 to 553,669. i 8 The population of New York State increasfc ed from 7,268,894. to 8,226,990, Pennsylvania from 6,302,115 to 6,928,575, Illinois „ from 4,821,550 to 5,418,670, Ohio from ' ! 4,157,545 to 4,448,677, and Indiana from J 2,516,462 to 2,710,898. Taking the coun- - try as a whole, it seems that the urban ; 3 population, in places having over 8000 in- ] 3 habitants— San Francisco and Los ; 3 Angeles—was last year 28,466,624, having ' s increased since 1900 by 3,912,188, or 15.9 ' ■" per cent. while the increase for the rest t of the country—4,4Bo,ooß—was only 8.8 . f per cent. - i- ■ — ■ — 5 DEAD MEN'S GOLD. ' Among the largest estates in Great Bri- * tain of the past 20 years disposing in the 1 aggregate of more than £80,000,000 are the : " following:— , , , e ■'■',■ '■■'-..'■ ■.'■. ■-"'■• , Baron Hermann do Stern (72), mer- " chant banker ... £3,544,978 -, Mr. Hugh McCalmont (78), merchant 3,121,931 "' Lord Wolverton (63), banker ... 1,824,338 r Mr. John Bylands (87), Manchester warehouseman ... ... ... 2,574,922 1 Mr. Lunius Spencer Morgan (76),. - ■ ; . ■ merchant banker '.-' ...... ... 2,022,054 Mr. Frederick Clarke Hills (85), - manufacturing chemist ... ... 1,941,715 ! Right Hon. W. H. Smith (65), news- ; i paper agent ... ... ...... 1,764,460 i J Sir Andrew Barclay • Walker (69), -: brewer ... ... 2,874,130 i 5 Earl of Derby (67) "... ... ... 1,802,204 : 1 Mr. Andrew Montagu (80). Ingmathorpe, Yorks, landowner ... 1,992,656 * 1 Sir Charles Booth (84), London, dis- ; tiller ... ... ... ... :;,:• ... 1,927,107 ' Mr. William Louis Winans (75), - American contractor .... ... 2,403,587 , i Mr. James Bibby (83), Liverpool, 1 shipowner ... ... .:. ... 1,776.432 ] ■ Mr. John Gretton (66), brewer ... 2,714,043 Mr. George Smith (91 of Elgin and , 1 t Chicago .; ... ... ...... 5,000,000 ] Mr. William Orme Foster (85), iron- ■ , ' master ... " ... . ... ... 2,587,631 ' ) Baron Alphonse de Rothschild (77) ~. 2,257,979 ■< Marquess of Bute (53) ... ... ... 1,864,310 , ' Earl FitzwilHam (30) ... ... ... 2,949,830 J ■ M. Panaghi Anthanasius Vagliano "■■-'' i (84), Greek merchant , ... ~■ ... 2,888,095 . l» Mr. William Richard Sutton, car- • '. l ; rier, Golden Lane :•';: ..:;■' ... 2,039,795 Baron Moritz Hirsch (65), railway contractor. .... •- ,;-. ..." 5,000,000 , Mr. Samuel Lewis (63). moneylender 2,572,658 * Colonel Harry McCalmont, M.P. (41) 2,000,000 5 Mr. Edward Brook (78), Hudders- ; field, threadmaker ....' ... ... 2,155,752 . Sir Robert. Jardlne (79), merchant, i owner of racehorses ... ... 2,280,663 , Lord Grimthorpe (89) "..'. ... ... 2,111,775 Mr. Alfred Beit (53), South African t financier ... ... ...... 3,000,000 i Sir Charles Tennant (83), chemical manufacturer .... ... ...... 3,151,976 1 Lord Newland (80) ... ...... 1,504,278 , Herr Johann Carl Ludwig Loeffler 1,505,004 , Lord Allendale (78) ... ■■ 3,234,806 ' . ' 1 i