THE PLAGUE.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1084, 24 March 1911, Page 5

THE PLAGUE.

ORIGIN OF THE OUTBREAK IN MANCHURIA. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyricht London, March 22. Dr. G. E. Morrison, "The Timcs's" Peking correspondent, writing to "The Times" from Harbin, Manchuria, reports that the plague has subsided. The outbreak was traceable to marmots which were formerly hunted by Buriats and other Mongols, who recognised the infected animals and left them severely alone. Recently inexperienced Chinese, hunters entered the trade, with disastrous results. The disease manifests itself after the hunters' return for the winter. Tho hunters eat the marmots, but there is no direct intestinal infection. CAUSE OP THE EPIDEMIC. The disease first made its appearance in Manchuria early in November. It differs considerably from the bubonic plaguo common in India and is more deadly. Whereas bubonic plague is propagated by rat fleas, pneumonic plague is attributed to the parasites of the bartagan, a species of large marmot-which is hunted for its fur in North Manchuria and Siberia. The epidemic of pneumonic plague ("Black Death") which reached England in 16G5 is said to have originated in Mongolia, possibly from this same animal. The extreme cold of tho Manchurian winter—the temperature is often about iOdeg. Fahr. below zero—favoured the spread of the disease. Disinfecting apparatus was rendered almost useless. The which the bacilli attacks, were weakened bv the low temperature and were thus less prepared for resistance. And on account of the great cold the infected furs and clothing of the victims were commonly stolen as soon as life was extinct. The corpses in the stricken towns were left linked in the streets and were eaten by dogs and birds. Harbin and Mukden were the chief hotbeds of the epidemic. The mortality was practically 100 per cent, and recent cabled advices gave the totiV mortality during the outbreak as 190,000. Many English and other doctors volunteered to work in the stricken towns. Dr. Jackson, of Liverpool, Dr. Mesny, a Frenchman, and a numbcv of Russian medical students succumbed. It was recently announced that Dr. Reginald Farrar. of the Local Government Board, was to' leave for China to_ represent Great Britain on an International Plague Commission at Peking.