The Star. MONDAY, MAY 15, 1905. THE PLAGUE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 8316, 15 May 1905, Page 2

The Star. MONDAY, MAY 15, 1905. THE PLAGUE.

I Very occasionally a oase of the plague is reported in the United Kingdom, and the announcement made this morning, that a death has occurred in ScotI land, is therefore worthy of more than passing notice. Curiously enough, the death-roll from the plague is much higher in Australia than in the British Islands. Cablegrams from Australia keep telling us with painful frequency of another ca«e reported here , and another patient dead there. But the death-rate from plague in New South Wales and Queensland is j .trifling compared with the losses reported from India. Recent statistics show that from September, 1896, when ; 1 the scare of recent years began, to the j end of 1902, the deaths from plague i alone in the whole of India were about a million and a quarter. In 1903 alone they numbered 853,573, and in 1904 they mounted to 1,021,648. In these circumstances it is not surprising that the " Lancet " should condemn the j policy of concealing exaot information j on the subject. Moreover, the figures we have quoted represent only the deaths admitted or proved to be due to plague in its bubonic or pneumonic form. Many authorities consider that, after making allowance for concealment, mistaken diagnosis and faulty registration, especially in native States, at least 50 per cent should be added in order to arrive at the true mortality due to plague. If 50 per cent be added to the total number of deaths reported in 1904 the mortality would then represent a million and a half. Enormous as this number is it represents only 5 per 1000 of the whole population of India. As a matter of fact vast areas of the country were not visited by the plague at all, or were comparatively free, so that ! the horrors of a visitation were only ! felt locally. Th* visit oi" th* plague to Burmah was reported but a few weeks ago, and the weekly death-rate in the central provinces scarcely exceeds that of Bombay city alone, while j there are other areas that are, com- j paratively speaking, slightly affected, j In the Bombay presidency there were 353,504 deaths from plague in 1903, or a death-rate of about 19 per 1000 on the total population of the province. ' In the Punjaub the rate was about 17 per 1000 in 1904, the deaths having been 351,688 from the scourge. Up to 1903 Bombay stood at- the top of the list in the death-rate column; in 1904 the Punjaub held the unenviable position. At present the plague is so virulent in the united provinces that the heaviest death-rate' for the year may possibly be claimed for them. The plague still stalks on its ghoulish way defiant, apparently, of all measures taken for its suppression^ and the scourge seems to Be as complex a problem to-day as it was eight years j ago. A scientific commission is again;' to study the cause of plague, but it is impossible to hope that.it will discover a means of staying the disease. Happily we have had no visitation of plague in New Zealand, nor have we had any serious scourge of epidemic disease, though we have had many scares. ■' '..