PLAGUE ADMINISTRATION, CAPE PENINSULA. 745 
PLAGUE ADMINISTRATION (MILITARY) ON 
THE CAPE. PENINSULA. 
By W. Ramsay Smiru, M.B., C.M., B.Sc. (Edin.), Chair- 
man of the Central Board of Health for South Australia. 
[Abstract.] 
It is doubtful if any city was ever in such peculiar circum- 
stances as Cape Town found itself in at this time. Fresh 
drafts of troops from England and the Colonies were 
arriving daily; and the old drafts, time-expired men and 
invalids, were being shipped home. Boer prisoners were 
also being deported from the camps to various parts of the 
world. Plague had appeared in the city and had iaid hold 
of all classes of a mixed population to an extent that there 
was no means of accurately gauging. Corpses were being 
found in the streets, and the authorities were unable to 
trace the houses fram which they had been ejected. The 
religious beliefs and peculiar susceptibilities of sections of 
the coloured population had ‘to be allowed for in all civic | 
action. 
Plague had also broken out in various quarters of the 
Peninsula, including the military camps, and it seemed im- 
possible to trace its origin or the paths of its propagation. - 
After serious consideration of the subject with the 
principal medical officer, Surgeon-General McNamara, of 
whose liberal and comprehensive views and accurate fore- 
sight regarding administration I cannot speak too highly, 
I was requested by him to embody my viewsand exper iences 
of the subject in a Memorandum, which I did, under the 
following heads :— 
. Mode of Propagation of Disease. 
. Infectiveness. 
Diagnosis. 
Suspicious Cases. 
. Contacts. 
Preventive inoculation. 
. Curative Treatment by Serum. 
. Medical Inspection at Embarking. 
. Danger to Healthy Troops Landing at the Cape. 
pe eeepc myn eye 
This Memorandum formed the basis of all action and 
instructions, both on the Cape Peninsula and on transports 
conveying troops, invalids, or prisoners. Into details I do 
not enter. In addition to the military inspections, the 
