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EXTRACT FROM "THE LANCET"
Dated 25th April, 1908.
SANITARY REFORM IN INDIA.
The Plague Problem: BURMAH.
Regarding the measures pursued, steam dis-
infection was substituted for the wet methods of
disinfection hitherto employed, this method being more popular probably with the owners of clothing. The success of the Clayton Apparatus in killing rats
induced Colonel King to ask for sanction for the
purchase of the necessary machines, by means of which
it was found that if the holes are sought for and
the exits are discovered and closed, rats can be
killed freely. Even when these holes camot be found
and closed the machine is most useful in ejecting
rate in a feeble condition so that they can be killed
by sticks, and also by tracing the fumes the rat runs
can be followed, which of course, when the rats are infected by plague, is important. Colonel King rightly
considers the method of dealing with rats by sulphurous
fumes, irrespectively of the length of the burrows, very important. The fumes only require to be forced in quickly to displace the air and to overpower the rats. Liston has shewn that 0.4% of the gas suffices to kill the fleas. The Civil Surgeon of Kaymyo advises the "Flaming" method of disinfection for plague suggested by Colonel King in 1899. The latter officer, however, hesitated to advise its general adoption in a country
where