Sessional_Paper_1904 — Page 219

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AN INTERESTING CASE.

Reference has been made under the heading Preventive Measures to a family all of whom contracted Plague. Some longer account of this case may be found interesting.

On April 18th a Mr.

requested that his house might be cleansed because he had notice rats dying there. This was done and Mr.'s family all removed to another house, all being apparently in good health.

On the 20th April Mr.'s mother died of Plague. On the 21st April the house where she died was disinfected as well as the house from which the family had removed. The family in the meanwhile removed to a third house. In this house a daughter of the family was taken ill on April 24th and died in Kennedy Town Hospital on the 27th. This third house was disinfected on the 28th. After disinfection the family reoccupied this house, but on May 3rd removed to a fourth house when another daughter was taken ill with Plague on the 5th May but had felt indisposed from the 3rd May. From this fourth house on the 21st May Mr.- himself (the son of the family) was admitted to Hospital with Plague.

From enquiries it was found out that the first case in this household was that of an amah who, however, left the family on first feeling unwell and died two days afterwards in the house of her own friends on April 16th. When cleansing the original house of the family on the 19th April a dead rat was found under the bed which had been occupied by the amah and on again cleansing and disinfecting the house after the report that the mother was suffering from Plague three more rats were found dead. These rats were not proved to have died of Plague on exami- nation but it is possible that they may have done so and that decomposition prevented a positive diagnosis.

In every case the disinfection was as thorough as possible, Mr.'s clothes which he had on being even disinfected (other clothes being lent him for the time). It seems probable that the series of cases was brought about by personal contact. The 16 days elapsing between the 28th April and the 10th May are more than the generally accepted incubation period but the fact that the daughter reported on the 11th May had been indisposed since the 3rd May reduces the time elapsing between the two cases to 9 days. Mr.- also was unwell for several days before he finally went to Hospital on his own initiative to be examined.

METEOROLOGICAL Data and PLAGUE.

Temperature. Although there were four cases of Plague in December, 1902, and four in January of this year yet the epidemic does not seem to have become established until February. During the fist six days of that month there were four on which Plague cases were reported. A reference to the Temperature Chart will shew that the first three days of February were the coldest of the season, the minimum on the 3rd being below 42° F. During the rapid and considerable rise of temperature from the 7th to 20th day, only on two days was Plague known, but during the uext eight days only two days were free, 13 cases being notified.

From this point onwards the curve of the epidemic rises, with daily varia- tions, higher and higher until the 8th of June after which there is a remarkable fall, after which the epidemic through June and July gradually comes to an end. The worst month is May when the mean monthly temperature was 75-4 and on no day in which was a temperature of 82 reached by the mean.

The great height of the Plague curve is carried over from May into the first nine days of June. For the first 18 days of this month the mean temperature is continuously above 80° F., and on 13 out of these 18 days 82° F. or above 82° F. The sudden drop of the Plague curve on the 9th and 10th days follows this rise of tem- perature and the curve continues low with the continuous high temperature. The slight drop below 80° F. ou the 19th day and below 78° F. on the 20th day is followed by a slight rise in the Plague curve on the 21st day but this is probably accidental as an incubation period for plague must be taken into account. With the subsequent rise of temperature to above 82° F. from the 21st to 24th days the Plague curve generally declines nor does it shew any appreciable rise again although the temperature drops below 80° F. on the 26th, 27th and 28th days.