Inaugural address delivered at the opening of the International Plague Conference, Mukden, April 4th, 1911 / by Wu Lien Teh.

  • Wu, Liande, 1879-1960.
Date:
[1911]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Inaugural address delivered at the opening of the International Plague Conference, Mukden, April 4th, 1911 / by Wu Lien Teh. 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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    centres, under the Chinese Administration, without showing any signs of plague. It might be suggested, therefore, that few, if any, have been infected; yet in Harbin the unusually large number of deaths amongst domestic animals, as also the deaths of about four hundred horses, and three hundred pigs, might suggest the possibility of a similar epidemic infection. I regret deeply, that the enormous amount of work in hand at the time, when the epidemic was raging, and our limited number of assistants, made it impossible for us to collect positive scientific facts upon this interesting subject. The question of natural immunity forced itself upon our consideration. Several instances of plague hospital assis- tants and attendants in hospitals, where scores were dying daily under our notice, w’orked right through the epidemic, even though the precautions taken by them were of the lightest character, and for long periods, non-existent. Two items of interest which proved their utility during the Harbin outbreak, in such a manner as to have an im- portant bearing upon any future epidemic, may be alluded to. First, the use of railway w^agons for quarantine w-ork, and second, the disposal of the dead bodies by burning. The ease with which a railway w^agon, holding, at the most, not more than twenty persons, enables a segregatio?i camp to be divided into small units, completely isolated from each other; also the simplicity of disinfection, the early detection of suspects, the satisfactory ventilation by small windows and sliding doors, and the heating by a cen- tral stove, suggest at once a most efficient form of quaran- tine which can be quickly established at any place in-proxi- mity to a railway.