DOW
*
idozure SA
6 July, 1901.
:
435
I propose to answer, giving them full information as to sanitary matters which is now being collated.
From the first I have watched the returns day by day with an anxious endeavour to satisfy myself if the very full facts submitted afforded ground for a workable theory as to the cause of the disease. How does it originate? How is it propagated? Is it a dirt disease? a drain disease? or is it caused by the want of light and air? or by some atmospheric condition not yet grasped by scientific research? Is it infectious or contagious? Is it 'air borne or propagated by vermin?
The last theory holds water to a certain extent, for undoubtedly the advent of plague-stricken rats has been very frequently followed by cases of Plague, and patients have been received in hospital with insect bites about the ankles, the serum from which was found to be swarming with plague bacilli. On the other hand a large number of the rats collected, against which vermin we have been waging war for the past eighteen months, have been found by the coolies engaged in collecting the City rubbish for removal, to whom the reward is a matter of great concern. These men I am informed carry the rats sometimes about them until counted.