CHRISTCHURCH CITY COUNCIL

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16662, 18 February 1922, Page 9

CHRISTCHURCH CITY COUNCIL

i|VHE healthy rat. becomes infected by JL contact with another rat which has open ulcers due to old-standing buboes resulting from previous plague infection, this latter being, in fact, a carrier of tho disease; or, again, a healthy rat becomes ill with plague due to the bites of infected fleas desertiug from infected rats. Plague is a disease of rodents, more particularly the rat. A rat dying of Plague, when cold, .is deserted by these Plague-infected fleas. These seek tho particular species of anininl they usually reed upon, namely, another rat. Failing to find one on which to harbour and feed, they will bite another species, liencs it is that Man. the mouse, the marmot, the ground squirrel, the kangaroo, the bat. the guinea-pig, the dog and cat sometimes contract the disease. Plague l aving thus established itself on another species of animal, there is nothing known to prevent the particular flea of this species passing the disease directly on from one to another of the same species. This is the usual mode of infection in the Bubonic type of the disease. As in Man the ipost accessible portions 1o readily become bitten by fleas are the feet and legs, the hands and arms, and the face and neck, in this order, so it is found that tho frequency of bubo formation takes up this order also; thus 70 per cent of the buboes being found in the groin of the particular lower limb bitten; 20 per cent being in tho arm pit of the arm bitten; and in the balance, namely. •JO per cent, the buboes develop in the glands of the neok and under tho jaw and at the side of the jaw due to bites in or about the neck. To prevent this type of the disease, it is necessary to tali© measures ior flea and rat destruction. HENRY T. J. THACKER, Mayor. February 18, 1922. 8979