Role of Fleas in the Transmission of Plague 169 
In California there were 125 cases in the period 1900-04; three cases 
in the next three years and then from May 1907 to March 1908, 
during the height of the outbreak, 170 cases. Since that time there 
have been only sporadic cases, the last case reported being in May 
1914. Still more recent were the outbreaks in the Philippine Islands, 
Porto Rico, and Cuba. 
On June 24, 1914, there was recognized a case of human plague 
in New Orleans. The Federal Health Service immediately took 
charge, and measures for the eradication of the disease were vigor¬ 
ously enforced. Up to Otcober 10, 1914 there had been reported 
30 cases of the disease in man, and 18 r cases of plague in rats. 
112 b. The modern method of combating the plague. A day's catch of rats in the fight 
against plague in San Francisco. Courtesy of Review of Reviews. 
The present-day methods of combating bubonic plague are well 
illustrated by the fight in San Francisco. Had it not been for the 
strenuous and radical anti-plague campaign directed by the United 
States Marine Hospital Service we might have had in our own 
country an illustration of what the disease can accomplish. On what 
newly acquired knowledge was this fight based? 
The basis was laid in 1894, when the plague bacillus was first 
discovered. All through the centuries, before and during the Christian 
era, down to 1894, the subject was enveloped in darkness and there 
had been a helpless, almost hopeless struggle in ignorance on the part 
of physicians, sanitarians, and public health officials against the 
ravages of this dread disease, Now its cause, method of propaga¬ 
tion and means to prevent its spread are matters of scientific cer¬ 
tainty. 
