230
due to a dry winter and spring. And in the year of the Kao-Chou outbreak 1890-1891 the rainfall recorded by the Hong Kong Meteorological Department was only 7.395 inches for the six months November to April against the average given above of 17.26 inches.
With regard to the breeding medium of the poison all that I have heard and read on the subject seems to point to the conclusion that this disease is not much carried in air, or water but that it is bred and resides in the earthen ground floor of houses saturated with filth during months of drought or accu- mulated filth protected from the rain, when the rains come, by the roof. That the disease is due to drains outside the house is inconsistent with the following facts:- (I) That people will go on dying in particu- lar houses for weeks after the drains outside the house- in fact all the ground not protected by the roof have been flooded by the tide and deluged by torrents of rain. (2) That the poison infects houses on the hills in Yunnan where there are no drains at all and where the people are too few for any serious nuisance to exist in the open air. (3) That under- ground drains have bred enough disease in Europe but that since this system became general the plague has disappeared there.
ww
The following facts support the theory of a poisoned earthen floor or accumulated filth beneath a roof (1) the often observed fact wherever this di-
sease has broken out that certain houses are poisoned
and
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.