288
METEOROLOGICAL PHENOMENA AND PLAGUE.-JANUARY TO JULY, 1905.
Week.
Mean Temperature.
Relative
Humidity.
Sunshine. Hours.
Rainfall. Inches.
Plague
Cases.
F.
%
1,
63.9
73.3
5*5
Nil.
1
2,
63.3
79.3
6.2
""
3,
68.0
83-7
3.8
3
"
4,
67.3
78.4
4.8
0.204
5,
52.4
86-8
Nil.
0-055
6,
50.8
85-1
0.014
0.012
7,
53.2
75.3
2-9
0.007
8,
61.3
93.5
0:53
0.069
9,
54.8
79-0.
0*24
0-098
Nil.
10,
55.4
79.1
0.67
0.028
>>
11,
62.5
90-8
2.90
0.474
12,
59-1
92-7
0.28
0-882
13,
62.3
93.7
0.60
0.225
14,
59-3
71-7
0.95
0.014
15,
67-6
92-3
0'84
0.101
1
16,
70-9
85-1
3:51
0.043
17,
72.2
87.5
7.68
0.003
18,
75-4
84.3
6.35
0'013
19,
76-8
82-1
10.84
0.001
18
20,
79.6
81-7
5:04
0.002
19
21,
80.5
76·0
7.7
0.170
19
22,
78.4
88-1
27
1.93
21
23,
81-3
85.6
2.3
0-818
21
24,
82-3
75 1
6.5
0-057
26
25,
79-4
83.7
2.5
0-783
16
26,
82.3
82.3
9.27
0.017
26
27,
81.4
77.5
7.6
0.488
19
28,
82.5
77.5
9.7
0.012
15
29,
83.0
78-8
9.0
0-094
19
30, 31,
82-1
85-8
45
0.672
10
79.8
87-0
7:5
0·734
5
The figures in the first four columns are weekly means, those in the fifth column shew the total Plague cases recorded each week,
RATS AND PLAGUE.
The systematic examination of rats caught or found dead in the Colony has been con- tinued through the period following that covered by my last Report on Plague.
For the purpose of the following charts* and tables I have taken the whole of twelve months extending from July 31st, 1904, to August 5th, 1905.
The charts and tables therefore shew the rise and fall of plague in human beings and rats from the end of the 1904 Epidemic through the non-plague season to the end of the 1905 Epidemic.
In this respect these charts and tables are comparable with those published in my 1904 Plague Report. Moreover the division of the Colony into different districts for the purpose
of these statistics is the same in those charts and tables as in those for 1904.
An examination of these charts and a comparison of them with those for 1904 will shew of course some differences.
Broadly speaking, however, the behaviour of the curves is very similar in the two years and would again point to the conclusion that the connection between rat plague and human plague is not a direct one but through some as yet undecided factor.
W. W. PEARSE, M.D., D.P.H.
* Not printed.