File:The American Museum journal (c1900-(1918)) (17972108830).jpg

Title: The American Museum journal
Identifier: americanmuseumjo11amer (find matches)
Year: c1900-(1918) (c190s)
Authors: American Museum of Natural History
Subjects: Natural history
Publisher: New York : American Museum of Natural History
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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ili:a r.iA'/i7/;/i'.s of the i'lacie '.t; plaji'iU' r imIs dnrinu tlic eartli(;nake and fire. I,ner.uv was directed at oiK'o lio\ve\cr toward the extermination of the I'ats, fully one million wen' killed, and as a result the plauiie was checked. It i> known now that an outhreak of ;)la<;iie is always preceded hy a similar scoiu\u'(' amoni; rats, hecause huhonic plague is primarily a rat disease. \et so l)liiid has the woi-ld lieen to the interrelations of animals and man in cases of infectious disease that not w it hstanding the terrihU' inroads made by the "hlack death" in xarious parts of the world during liistoric times, no report is made ))rior to ISOO of the coincident inroad upon rats. It was in 1S94 that \'ersin of the I'asteur Institute isolated the biihonie plague bacillus (BiiciUit.< pc.s-tis) and ))ro\('d the germ to be the same in rats and man. Hut this was only a few years ago. Knowledge came late. Bubonic plague had well-nigh encircled the globe before this, breaking out first in seaboard ))laces ))robably ha\ing traxclled from counti'y to country among ship rats. The efi'ect of this discoxcry which tiu-ned the att.ick upon the rat is shown well in Bombay where the death rate of 20,788 in 1903 was reduced to .■),107 in )))teml)er. For plague is not limited to the tropics or semi-tropics although it has flom-ished there because of less sanitary conditions. l-Meas are common in the eastern states. In- (iuiri(>s concerning them reach the Mu- ;^ seum at all seasons of the year, but
Text Appearing After Image:
Mashing lii.s (ace and scratcliiiiK his ear in rat conu-niment. The brown or ' 'Nor- way" rat, Mris (lecumnnus, whicli lias to- day colonized well nigh the whole earth driving to the wall the black rat, Mnn raUus, the species of romance and history. He is more "sinned against than sinning" in the plague matter for bubonic plague is a rat disoa.se, in any given outbreak the rat mortality being to hiunan mortality as ten to one

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