ORIGIN OF THE PLAGUE.

Waikato Argus, Volume II, Issue 125, 24 April 1897, Page 1 (Supplement)

ORIGIN OF THE PLAGUE.

Various causes have been assigned as the origin of the bubonic plague in Bombay, but an examhiation made by a local medical man, Ur Waters, has proved all previously formed theories to be baseless. At Hist the blame was laid on the sewers. The bacteriological specialists, however, soon r.bandoned their search in that d'reotion. Mandvie, a native suburb of Bombay, was composed of houses bult in defiance of all sanitary principles, iis •' usual in Indian native quarters, but it was observed that the inmates of the higher houses, esp oially those exposed to the prevailing breeze, suffered most from the plague. These houses were not more objectionable than the others, which seemed to prove th.it the plague does not belong to the pythogenic or tilthbegotten class of ailments. This led to further iui|iiiry, and Dr >\a*crs soon found that the only thing which difforcntia'ed Mandvie from other quarters was that there were locate 1 there huge granaries, and to the leeward of these the plague was mostseverc. Atthc onset of the disease the granary employees were the only victims, while dead rats were found in numbers round and between the sacks of sumiu. These indications convinced him tint in fermentive emanations from the g ain were to he found the germs of plague. This bold hypothec, however, lacks confirmation. It was found that thorough whitewashing of the granaries lessened the vi tilencc of the plague. The grain siippoved to be affected is millet, long ho idol up and now produced in time o ( scarcity, for it has been observed that Europeans who eat whe.t escape even in the most deadly quarters, and tint the Hindus who use lice, arc little alluded.