58 ORIENTAL PLAGUE chap. 



Now, the above sputum, as also its cultures, and the 

 cultures obtained from the injected dead guinea-pig, were 

 submitted through the Local Government Board to 

 analysis, and it was at once seen that there was no justifi- 

 cation for the above diagnosis, because the cultures all 

 showed that the bacilli, when examined in the hanging 

 drop, were actively motile. Subcultures and experiment 

 proved them to be B. coli of a pathogenic kind. The 

 above case of pneumonia recovered, and no further cases 

 occurred. 



Unfortunately the case had been already notified as 

 plague at A. on the basis of the local evidence, and it 

 required a considerable amount of effort, not of the most 

 desirable kind, to negative the first impression and to 

 retract the erroneous diagnosis of plague. 



Another instance : a ship coming into port was at first 

 thought probably to harbour plague rats owing to mortality 

 of these rodents on board ; but on careful bacterioscopic 

 analysis the mortality was shown not to be due to B. pestis, 

 but to an altogether different microbe, as the following 

 description will show : — 



3. Bacterium Bristolense. 1 — In a cargo vessel, s.s. 

 George Boyle, which was being unloaded at Bristol, a 

 number of dead rats were found. One of these was for- 

 warded by Dr. Davies, medical officer of health, to the 

 Board for bacterioscopic examination. 



Owing to the steamer having come from Smyrna, 

 which was then plague-infected, it was thought probable 

 that the rats in question had died of plague. No case of 

 plague in man had occurred on board the vessel. 



1 Report of the Medical Officer of the Local Government Board, 1902-1903, 

 p. 414 and passim. 



