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is useless. It was not reasonable to anticipate that the
new procedure would at once become effective, or that the
ignorant masses of the Chinese would at once abandon their
prejudices, or be able to realise the changes introduced.
I have been constantly assured that they dreaded the advent
of the Sanitary Inspector with his disinfecting apparatus
much more than they dreaded the Plague, and it appeared
probable that under the former system they were more like-
-ly to cherish the rat than to destroy it lest its carcase
should betray gems which would bring upon them the
measures they so detested as described in Dr. Clark 's
Memorandum. The experience of this year will not be too
dearly purchased if it leads the people to appreciate on
the one hand the vital necessity of killing the rats, and
on the other hand that they can do so without fear of
consequences which are worse to them than Plague.
The primary object which the
Government has in view is as I have said to enlist the
Chinese themselves in the anti-plague measures,
the first
and foremost of which is the extermination of the rat,
and
I have hopes that this object is in a fair way of being
realised
Žmat manum.