October 20, 1904] 



NATURE 



617 



suggested. The most obvious suggestion is to tlie effect 

 that it was derived from Hong Kong, which town had been 

 the seat of a serious epidemic in 1894, and which in 1896 re- 

 mained still infected. An alternative suggestion was put 

 forward in the report of the German Plague Commission to 

 the effect that it was derived from Garhwal. The suggestion 

 was to some e.xtent substantiated by the fact mentioned in 

 the report in question that two thousand fakirs from 

 Garhwal had arrived in Bombay on their way to a pilgrim- 

 age at Xassik shortly before the appearance of the disease. 

 Plague is endemic in Garhwal (a district in the Himalaya 

 Mountains), and this locality is therefore a possible source 

 of infection. By conversation with a fakir who had attended 

 the Nassik festival, Mr. Hankin learnt that the Garhwal 

 fakirs only visit western India on occasions when the Nassik 

 festival is being held. This festival is held regularly at 

 twelve-yearly intervals. 



It occurred to Mr. Hankin that if Garhwal was the source 

 of the Bombay plague, by means of fakirs, it might also 

 be the source of previous epidemics of plague in western 

 India. On counting backwards from 1896 by twelve-yearly 

 intervals, one arrives at 1836, the date of the Pali plague, 

 ;md at 1812, the date of the Gujerat plague. That is to say, 

 of the eight occasions on which these fakirs visited western 

 India during the nineteenth century, on no less than three 

 an outbreak of plague appeared. This fact may be regarded 

 as strongly substantiating the suggestion of the German 

 Plague Commission as to the origin of the Bombay out- 

 break. Further, it is stated by Forbes that the Pali plague 

 originated in a village a few miles distant from the town 

 of Pali shortly after the arrival of some wandering fakirs, 

 and that it was preceded by a mortality among the rats. 

 It was pointed out that these three plagues of western India 

 had certain characters in common in which they differed 

 from the majority of plagues in other parts of the world. 

 First, they were characterised by their greater intensity 

 and persistence ; secondly, during the greater part of their 

 course, at all events, they showed more virulence in villages 

 than in towns ; thirdly, they spread over the affected country, 

 like a wave, from village to village, and showed but little 

 tendency to travel along trade routes ; fourthly, in each of 

 the outbreaks the pneumonic form of the disease was fre- 

 i|uentlv observed. The fact that these outbreaks resembled 

 each other, and differed in general from outbreaks else- 

 where, in the above characters, accords with the idea that 

 they have a common origin. One apparent exception, how- 

 ever, which is of great importance must be described. This 

 is the black death. So far as evidence goes, this outbreak 

 was distinguished by each of the characters that have been 

 ascribed to Indian plagues. In order, therefore, to be able 

 to hold that Indian plague is of Garhwal origin, it is 

 necessary to show that the black death may possibly have 

 been derived from the same source. 



The black death is known to have been imported into 

 Europe from the town of Caffa, in the Crimea, where the 

 Tartar army had been besieging some Italian merchants. 

 .According to an .\rab historian, Aboel Mahasin, the plague 

 was brought to the Tartar army from Tartary, where it 

 was present in the year 1346, if not earlier. At that period, 

 trade in horses and merchandise existed between India and 

 Tartary. It is therefore necessary to investigate whether a 

 Nassik festival occurred shortly before that time, and 

 whether it was accompanied by an outbreak of pestilence. 

 At first sight a study of Indian history appeared to negative 

 the suggestion. It is stated, however, in Elphinstone's 

 " History of India " that a rebellion broke out in Ma'bar 

 in 1341, and that the army sent to suppress it was destroyed 

 bv plague. It appeared desirable to investigate this state- 

 ment in detail. Counting back by twelve-yearly intervals, 

 we arrive at 1344 as the year of a Nassik festival. In view 

 of the great antiquity of Indian religious festivals, we are 

 s.ife in assuming that in that year a number of fakirs 

 ■merged from Garhwal on their way to the sacred shrine. 

 Ma'bar is situated on the Coromandel coast, on the Madras 

 side of India, and one would expect that the army of the 

 Emperor of Delhi would not march anywhere near to 

 Nassik. But a contemporary history dealing with the con- 

 quest of Ma'bar, some thirty-five years previously, describes 

 minutely the route then followed by the army. It appears 

 to have lain through, or near, Nassik, and that the soldiers 



NO. 1825, VOL. 70] 



must have marched along the same route as the fakirs for 

 all the first part of their journey. It is further recorded 

 that when the army was destroyed by pestilence the Emperor 

 himself was attacked, and that when suffering from the 

 disease he halted at Deogiri, a town close to Nassik. It 

 appears from a contemporary history that the army 

 originally sent in 1341 was insuflicient for its purpose, that 

 the Emperor returned for reinforcements at a time when a 

 famine was raging in Delhi, and that it was these reinforce- 

 ments that were destroyed by the pestilence. The date of 

 the famine is given as 1344. This is also given as the date 

 at which the campaign terminated, and at which the rebels 

 recovered their independence. Thus we have evidence that 

 a plague broke out near Nassik in the year 1344, at a time 

 when Garhwal fakirs were present, and it is obvious that 

 this plague may have been carried to Tartary in time to 

 have been the precursor of the black death, which is first 

 known to have been present there in the year 1346. Other 

 suggestions as to the origin of the black death, as, for 

 instance, that it came from China, or from the supposed 

 endemic area in Mesopotamia, or from the then existing 

 endemic area of the Levant, if not contradicted by known 

 facts, are at least unsupported by any positive evidence. 



Prof. G. S. Woodhead asked whether it was known to 

 what the pneumonic form of plague was due. Was it due 

 to e.xtra virulence or to the climatic conditions? 



Sir Edward Candy asked if the outbreaks of plague in 

 1812 and 1S36 spread and continued in the same manner as 

 that of 1896, which re-appeared for some time after with 

 everv return of cold weather. It was noteworthy that the 

 plague of 1896 took hold of the country up to the Punjaub, 

 but missed out Calcutta and Madras. 



In the course of his reply, Mr. Hankin pointed out that 

 it was a remarkable fact that the pneumonic form of the 

 disease showed but little tendency to spread as such by direct 

 infection from person to person. Mr. Hankin had found 

 that the plague virus lost its virulence by passages through 

 rats. It was possible that it would also lose its virulence 

 by passages through human beings, and that the true nidus 

 of the disease in which it could retain or regain its virulence 

 was to be found in some other living organism, as, for 

 example, some species of flea. With regard to the important 

 point raised by Sir Edward Candy as to the spread of plague, 

 Mr. Hankin stated that it was a necessary corollary of his 

 theory that the present outbreak of plague in India had 

 not established itself in any other part of the world. It 

 was probable that plague was carried from Hong Kong 

 to Noumea, to Australia, to Madagascar, thence to South 

 .i^frica, Oporto, and other localities. The present pandemic 

 of plague was essentially a disease of sea-ports, in the first 

 instance, and then of towns. It but rarely established itself 

 in villages, and then always rapidly died out. In this and 

 in other characters it showed itself distinctly different from 

 the Indian form of the disease. 



INVESriGiTlONS ON THE NUTRITION 

 OF MAN.' 



PROF. W. O. ATWATER, Middletown, Connecticut, 

 chief of nutrition investigators of the United' States 

 Department of Agriculture, gave an account of the inquiry 

 regarding the food and nutrition of man which is carried 

 out in the United States by authority of Congress. The 

 work is done by cooperation between the Departinent of 

 Agriculture and a large number of universities, experiment 

 stations, and other organisations from Maine to California. 

 The headquarters is at Wesleyan University, Middletown, 

 Connecticut, where the speaker, who is in charge of the 

 work, is situated. The Federal Government devotes 20,000 

 dollar's (4000!.) a year to the enterprise. This is used 

 mainly as aid to research, and is supplemented by grants of 

 monev and other aid from State Governments and other, 

 sources. The inquiry has three aspects, one very practical, 

 another more purely scientific, and a third educational. 



On the practical side studies are made of the composition, 

 the digestibility, and the nutritive values of food materials 



1 Abstract of an address before the Sections of Physiology and Economics 

 at the Cambridge meeting of the British Association on August 23. 



