Bubonic Plague and Rat Control
The seriousness of the bubonic plague in San Francisco is to be realized in the fact that up to the first of the month there had been 111 definite cases, with sixty-six deaths, thirty-two recoveries, and thirteen under treatment; and there are now fifty suspected cases under observation. The local health office reports that since the middle of September 25,333 rats have been taken to the bacteriological laboratory for examination. Of the 7,897 rats last examined, only sixty-four were found to be infected with the plague, and this is looked upon as a most encouraging record. It appears that the average number of cases reported weekly has decreased over seventy-five per cent since the middle of September, as the result of the campaign of sanitation conducted by the United States marine hospital corps, under the command of Dr. Rupert Blue, assisted by Dr. W. C. Rucker. In this connection the city council of Portland, Ore., recently passed an anti-rat ordinance, which requires the use of wire screens or netting in all basements, warehouses, grain elevators, docks, and packing-houses for the protection of all foodstuffs from rats. It is the purpose of the ordinance to starve these animals by shutting off their food supplies as much as possible, and at the same time prevent foodstuffs from being infected with bubonic plague germs. This is the same ordinance that was enacted by the councils of San Francisco and Seattle on the recommendation of the federal authorities as the most effective means of guarding against a possible invasion of the plague.—Springfield Republican, Dec. 14, 1907.