48 OEIENTAL PLAGUE chap. 



result, to conclude that the sputum which caused this 

 state in the guinea-pig contained the B. pestis, and that 

 the disease of the lung is due to plague, would be a grave 

 error. The culture (plate) test with the sputum made at 

 the same time as the animal experiment would at once 

 check this possible error ; and, further, the examination of 

 the hemorrhagic exudation in the fresh and living state 

 would show at once that the microbe, being motile, 

 cannot be B. pestis. The culture of the exudation would 

 also soon show that the microbe is not B. pestis. There 

 occurred actually such a case of pneumonia, which was 

 said to be due to B. pestis, but which was not due to 

 B. pestis at all, but to a motile, highly pathogenic (for 

 the guinea-pig), coli-like microbe. The premature dia- 

 gnosis of plague on insufficient or on erroneous data is not 

 only apt to discredit the great value and great importance 

 of bacterioscopic analysis in respect of suspected cases — 

 which of all others are those in which the bacteriologist's 

 assistance is most needed, — but is liable to cause consider- 

 able embarrassment and actual damage to the locality in 

 which the case has occurred. For it has to be remembered 

 that by international convention (Venice and Paris) the 

 Foreign Office are bound to notify to the foreign Consuls 

 the occurrence of any case of plague, and that our Foreign 

 Office have always carried out this obligation both in the 

 spirit and in the letter — different from some continental 

 Foreign Offices. 



The loss liable to be inflicted on commerce and the 

 damage done in other respects to the inhabitants and the 

 locality in whose midst an indigenous case of plague 

 suddenly occurs — or rather is said to have occurred — can 

 easily be imagined. The diagnosis of such an indigenous 



