THE RELATION' OE THE .CALIFORNIA GROUND 

 SQUIRREL (CITBLLUS BBBCHYI) TO BUBONIC 



PLAGUE. 



By William Colby Rucker, M. S., M. D. 



Whole volumes have been written regarding the maneuvers 

 which have been gone through in the detection of the source of 

 crime, and these romances are devoured with avidity by the seeker 

 after new sensations. It is only within recent years that the ad- 

 vances of science have enabled us to undertake the unraveling of 

 sanitary crime, and it has been found that the work of the sanitary 

 detective is no less absorbing and no less romantic than that of the 

 pursuer of human criminals. 



Bubonic plague, that ancient enemy of mankind, bad lain 

 quiescent in the mountain fastnesses of the Himalayas until, in 

 1893, stirring into new life, this dragon of Oriental disease began 

 its predatory march around the world. Hongkong was first at- 

 tacked, the enemy securing a permanent base at the cost of fright- 

 ful slaughter, and then spreading out along the lines of commerce 

 the pest launched itself upon the entire civilized world, attacking 

 each of the continents in turn, there to scourge humanity. In 1900 

 it landed its forces upon our western coast, establishing itself in 

 the Oriental quarter of San Francisco, from which it did not re- 

 cede until 225 human lives had been taken and an arduous cam- 

 paign, ending in 1004, had been waged. In 1907; taking cowardly 

 advantage of a city already stricken by fire and earthquake, it 

 again opened the attack, only to be repulsed and permanently 

 evicted after 160 persons bad been stricken, of whom 77 died. The 

 record of that compaign has been given sufficient publicity and is 

 familiar to all. 



The question of the etiology of the second outbreak was a very 

 puzzling one to the officers in charge of the sanitary work. The 

 first case occurred in the person of a sailor, ( )scar Tomei by name, 

 from the tug "Wizard," and by some strange whim of fate this 

 vessel put out to sea directly after the unfortunate victim was 



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