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]
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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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    o was mainly bubonic in character, as also was that which carried off over eight hundred people in Tang Shan in 1Q08. We are indebted to the Russian doctors for the first accurate information regarding epidemics of pneumonic plague, and as full papers will be read before this Conference by our learned Russian Colleagues, I will pass over that part of the subject and confine myself, rather, to what little we have been able to discover regarding the present outbreak. That a certain rodent, the arctomys, Bobac, known in English as the Marmot, in Russian as the Tarabagan and in Chinese as the Han T’a is chiefly associated with this form of plague, has, for some time, been fully believed by the inhabitants of Mongolia and north-western Manchuria. According to some valuable information gathered by Dr. Chiian, of the Chinese Medical Staff, who was sent up to the station of Manchourie to report on the subject, it appears that the local people have long been familiar with this disease, both in men and animals. From the actual Marmot hunters them- selves, he found out some items, which, I venture to believe, will exercise an important bearing on our knowledge of the plague. Nature is very rich in coincidences, and perhaps as Scientists, more than any other class of men, you are pre- pared for such, but who could have dreamed that the healthy marmot basking, as it loves to do, in the warm sun- shine, utters a cr}' resembling the sound “ Pu p’a, pu p’a,’' which in the Chinese language, at any rate, means, “ don’t be afraid,” or ” no harm ”? Sickness renders it mute, so that in the light of present knowledge it would seem, that when the marmot is not crying ” no harm, no harm,” there is a very real harm indeed! The sickness in the tarabagan, which we presume is the forerunner of the plague in this case.