D.
CUPY
Report on the outbreak of Bubonic Plague
in Southern China.
214
Beginning of the Plague
About the middle of March, 1894, it began
to be rumoured in Canton that people were dying of a rapid fever an epidemic - but as there is no specific term in the language of this Province denoting bubonic plague, the few foreigners residing here who knew any- thing about it, had no reason to suppose that this
deadly contagion was in their midst. The first notice
in a native newspaper appeared on 14th March, when
there was a paragraph in the Chung-hsi gih Pao that in consequence of the epidemic the officials has
ordered the cleansing of the streets. At the end of
March a Cadet of the Straits Settlements Civil Service,
a young Irishman, who was living in the midst of the
city of Canton, studying the language, fell ill,
but although the Consular Medical officer regarded
the case as obscure, he did not diagnose the plague,
as he had no reason to suppose its existence in Canton.
In the light of subsequent events, the Doctor had no
doubt that the Cadet, who was very ill but recovered,
had suffered from the plague,
After
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.