Reports and papers on suspected cases of human plague in East Suffolk and on an epizootic of plague in rodents.

Date:
1911
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Reports and papers on suspected cases of human plague in East Suffolk and on an epizootic of plague in rodents. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    Rat plague was regarded as having been introdiiced either through the medium of the manure itself or by the agency of rats transported from the cattle ships to the manure barges. It, therefore, became necessary to make some inquiries in this connection. It is in the first place desirable, for the information of the lay reader, to point out that plague is a specific disease caused by a definite micro-organism or germ, and that without this organism the existence of plague is impossible. Otherwise stated, no collec- tion of refuse or filth, however putrid, however offensive, can pro- duce plague unless the specific bacillus of plague be present, and it may be said generally on bacteriological grounds that the greater tlie decomposition of the material and the more its offensiveness, the less likely is it to act as a carrier of tlie plague bacillus. It is, therefore, essential, in order to bestow upon the London manure theory of rat-plague causation some degree of probability, to consider how far cattle-boat manure from infected or suspected localities has had opportunity of reaching London and afterwards Suffolk. If, so far as is known, no cattle manure has within recent years reached this country from plague-infected ])orts it wo\ild not seem necessary to consider the que.stion of manure-borne infection in very great detail. Careful inquiries have accordingly been made at the Deptford Cattle Market as to the importation of live cattle during the last five years, and it appears that the only countries from which such cattle are now imported into this country are the TTnited States and Canada, no live cattle having reached this country from the Argentine Republic since tlie year 1903. But, notwithstanding this fact, inquiries have been made relative to the destination of manure from these cattle-ships and of that made at the Deptford Cattle Market by the cattle there awaiting slaughter. The Canadian vessels which belong to the Canadian Pacific, Allan and Thames Lines come direct to the Deptford Cattle Market, where the cattle are at once landed, and the empty boats proceed immediately to the Surrey and Commercial Docks on the south side of the river to discharge the cattle manure and to be cleansed. The North American boats proceed direct to the docks at Tilbury, where the cattle are transhipped into smaller boats and brought up to De])tford. Some inquiries were kindly made for me by Dr. Herbert Williams and by the Siiperintendent of the Deptford Cattle Market as to the destination of the manure taken from both the Canadian and American boats, and they informed me that most of it is put upon barges and discharged at either Erith or Greenhithe; some of it occasionally goes as far up the Medway as Stoke. None of it, I am assured, ever goes further seaward than the mouth of the Medway. A considerable quantity of manure is produced by the cattle at Deptford while awaiting slaughter, and this is placed in barges and token down the Thames to places such as Maldon and Bradwell in Essex and up the valley of the Medway as for as Maidstone. None, BO far as is known, goes into Suffolk.