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by giving his opinions he did not give a full report on the subject. This meant time, and as he had what was to him much more important work on hand it was not to be expected that he should take a great interest in the matter. His views were those of one who wants to see a sanitary Utopia, and his expressions of opinion were mainly directed against the conditions which allowed such a state of affairs as he found to be brought about. Dr. KITASATO's recommendations with regard to the removal of soil was especially directed at some houses with earthen floors where the soil had become polluted with filth to an almost incredible extent. Dr. YERSIN's report was given after a few more days consideration, but even under these circumstances I think he made a mistake. Dr. KITASATO did not state that there was plague infection of the soil. Dr. YERSIN on the contrary maintained that there was. His opinion was expressed as follows:-
"I have had no difficulty in discovering in the soil of several infected houses a little bacillus identical with regard to aspect and the culture of the plague bacillus. The microbe inoculated into animals does not kill the guinea pig or the mouse-it possesses no virulence. This property does not surprise me-for already for a long time I had begun to separate microbes of different virulence in the buboes, and I have authentic cultivations of plague which kill neither the guinea pig nor the mouse, like the bacillus in the soil."
This paragraph opens up subjects which would provide material for a lengthy. controversy-subjects which call for much discussion and require many proofs.
Now it seemed that if the plague bacilli were found underground after a few short weeks of the outbreak it was a very serious thing to tackle; and to me it was a mystery how they could find their way through tiled floors-even though the tiles might be porous. If the soil was infected, then it was necessary that serious measures should be undertaken-if not, then there was still time by proper means to make any future infection of the soil impossible. As so much hinged on this question, I got Dr. KITASATO's assistant, Dr. TAKAKI, who had just arrived from Japan, to inake an extended series of experiments with me, which effectually proved that there was no infection of the soil. An organism was found which was almost identical with the plague bacillus, but this, on closer examination, was found to be really different, and this view was afterwards borne out by Dr. KITASATO, to whom numerous specimens of earth from the worst houses were sent, and to whom the results of our local experiments were submitted for criticism.
This same organism, closely resembling the plague bacillus, was found in earth taken from the garden of the Government Civil Hospital. I have not time at present to go into the minute details of the case, suffice it to say that numerous experiments with soil at depths of from one inch to twenty inches were made in the most careful manner, and the results were always the same as regards the absence of the plague. bacillus.
The main causes of the spread of the plague were as follows:-
(1) Want of means for the isolation of people who were almost certainly
incubating the discase.
(2) The grossly insanitary condition of the latrines.
(3) Overcrowding.
(4) Want of efficient house scavenging and the filthy habits of the inhabitants. These were the most potent factors in the spread of the epidemic; and these simple but urgent matters should be put right forthwith. While I write this, the houses in First Street and several other streets not far from the Government Civil Hospital are in as bad a condition as-if not worse than--they were in April
1894.
PROPHYLACTIC VALUE OF OPIUM.
Several statements were made-probably by interested persons-during the epidemic as to an alleged immunity from the disease acquired by opium smokers. There was no such immunity, as many opium smokers died in the various hospitals. The following extract from a letter to the Colonial Surgeon on this subject dated 11th August, 1894, gives my views upon the subject :—
"In answer to your question I have to state that it is not a fact that 'no opium smoker has died from plague.' Numerous opium smokers and several opium eaters have died during the epidemic. The proportion of opium smokers admitted will never be ascertained as so many patients arrived at the hospitals delirious or
comatose.
"Opium smokers would certainly be less liable to infection than those who do not smoke anything at all but I am of opinion that in the case of plague smoking