of the Himalayas; another in the adjacent Chinese province 1 ZlI 

 of Yunnan; a third in southeastern Siberia in the Lake Baikal 

 region north of Mongolia where the disease is endemic among 

 rodents resembling our ground hog and known as "tarba- 

 gans." Another center lies in Mesopotamia and in 1898 Robert 

 Koch found one in Africa's interior, probably Uganda. Now 

 we add a final spot — the state of California. 



. . . early races, even, saw a connection between rats and 

 the spread of human plague. In 1894, in Canton, preceding 

 the outbreak among men, rats ran over the streets in shoals 

 and died in large numbers. In one district over 3 5000 dead 

 rats were collected in a day. . . . 



The history of plague in America is worth reading from a 

 political and sociological standpoint as well as from the 

 medical. . . . Every effort was made by local and state 

 authority and the business interests to conceal the facts. . . . 



The almost annual recrudescence of plague in San Francisco 

 has been a mystery. Answer to the question was found when, 

 in August 1908 I discovered that the ground squirrels in the 

 counties bordering the Bay of San Francisco were infected 

 with plague and that they had died in large numbers of 

 plague in the past few years. ... in at least five counties 

 across the bay from San Francisco, one percent of the squir- 

 rels are infected. Several cases have occurred in men hunting 

 these squirrels. Another appeared in August, 1908, in Los 

 Angeles — showing that plague is much more widely scattered 

 in California than generally believed. . . . 



State laws were passed forbidding the transportation of 

 ground squirrels and their sale. These rodents are considered 

 a great delicacy — though personally I prefer the smell of a rat. 



Do you think that the law-abiding nature of the American 

 makes him obey this law? Not at all! Hundreds of hunters 

 shoot squirrels on Sundays and cart them into town. It may 

 cheer you to know that the only cases of human plague which 

 have occurred during the past year have been among these 

 squirrel hunters. They come from that ignorant and yet 

 sophisticated class you all know. They do not believe that 

 plague exists. The Oakland Tribune says that the plague scare 

 is a game of medical graft; and the hunters believe all they 



