November 21.1 907] 



NA TURE 



59 



theodolite, and as full instructions are given about 

 one as about the other. 



It is quite refreshing to read the chapter " Indica- 

 tions pour faire un levd de Terrain k la Boussole," 

 and then the instructions given relating to subsequent 

 work with the large-scale maps published by the 

 French Government. 



Fig. 6.— Details of the watcr-Ievtl clinomeler. 



For the angular measurement of elevation, includ- 

 ing, therefore, the angular height of the horizon 

 as seen from any monument, the archaeologist is 

 recommended to use a very simple and convenient 

 addition to the compass devised by iSI. Hue. The 

 method employed can be readily gathered from the 

 .accompanying woodcuts, obligingly sent to me by 

 the publishers of the " Manual." 



It would be a good thing if some one of our many 

 archceological societies would prepare an edition of 

 this excellent French manual for the use of British 

 workers. Normax Lockver. 



PLAGL'E AND FLEAS. 



IT is a matter of dispute as to where in ancient 

 literature the first definite mention of rats and 

 plague is to be found, and where such mention does 

 occur it is again uncertain what the author intended 

 to convey. It can hardly be doubted, however, that 

 Avicenna, who flourished about the year looo, clearly 

 refers to this relationship when he says, " Et de eis 

 quae significant illud (the approach of plague) est ut 

 videas mures et animalia quae habitant sub terra 

 fugere ad superficiem terrae et ' pate sedar " id est 

 commoveri hinc inde sicut ebria." 



It is noteworthy, however, that Avicenna does not 

 state that the rats died. Passing over many other 

 records of more or less definiteness we come to the 

 important statement of the Byzantine historian 

 Nicephorus Gregoras, who wrote of the plague in 

 Constantinople in i,H7. " Nee vero homines solos 

 morbus ille usque flagellabat ; sed et si quae alia 

 animalia cum hominibus plerumque degerent et habi- 

 taront ; canes inquam et equos et cujusque modi avium 

 genera; ipsos etiam mures, si qui forte in domorum 

 parietibus latitabant." Orraeus also, in the plague of 

 Moscow in 177 1, mentions rats, but no special stress 

 is laid on the fact, and other animals, as by many 

 other authors, are included. He says, " De avibus 

 a plurimis narrabatur quod minores cantatrices caveis 

 delentae in domibus infectis emorerentur, immo quod 

 mures et glires quantumvis antea copiosi disparuerint ; 

 sed de his fides apud relatores esto." 



In modern times the death of rats during or before? 

 eoidemics of human olague was first noticed in India, 

 viz. in Kumaon, 1S33-35, by Gownn, in the Pali 



XO. 1986, VOL. 77] 



plague; 1836-8, by Forbes White; and in Kumaon, 

 1853, by Francis and Planck. Renny states thai 

 during the epidemic of 1851 in Kumaon, in two huts 

 occupied by sixteen men (twelve of whom died of 

 plague) a large number of dead rats was found, but 

 that the cattle, thirty in number, escaped. Rocher, 

 in 1878, in Gun-nam, Baker and Lovry in China, state 

 that the rats were first attacked. Versin, studying 

 the great epidemic of 1S94 in China, states that the 

 rats found dead contained the plague bacillus in 

 abundance, and many of them presented true buboes. 

 Many other observations of a similar kind might be 

 quoted. Not always, however, is the relationship 

 manifest, for Hankin states that despite the most 

 careful inquiries no evidence could be obtained of the 

 existence of an outbreak among rats during or after 

 the outbreak among human beings in Hurdwar. 

 Xor, again, in the epidemic of Glasgow could the 

 relationship be established, though it was proved in 

 the outbreak in igoi-2. Further research will show 

 whether these exceptions are real, or due to insufficient 

 observation. 



Not only rats, but other animals have in recent 

 years been found to suffer from plague. Thus there 

 exists in Mongolia a peculiar form of plague known 

 as tarbagan plague. The tarbagan is a marmot-like 

 rodent (Artomys bobac). 



.\lmost every vear an epidemic disease breaks out 

 among these marmots, and a marmot that is affected 

 alwavs dies. The natives of the Baikal districts avoid 

 handling any animal that has axillary and inguinal 

 buboes, "though dogs and wolves are said to eat them 

 with impunity. In the skinning and handling of 

 these marmots the peasants contract the disease, and 

 epidemics of this origin are reported throughout the 

 whole of the east Asiatic plateau of Siberia and Mon- 

 golia to Tibet. The disease is almost undoubtedly 

 plague, though bacteriological proof is not yet forth- 

 coming. 



It has been noted, further, that palm squirrels 

 (Sciiiriis palmariim) die of plague in great numbers 

 in certain parts of India. Further, among the Car- 

 nivora, dogs and cats may develop plague. In certain 

 parts of India cats have been found in abundance 

 with suppurating buboes in the necl<, the position of 

 the bubo, it is interesting to note, suggesting its 

 origin in ingested food (rats). Finally, monkeys have 

 died of plague in several places in India. 



Rats and Fleas. — Ogata, in iSqy, succeeded in 

 giving a mouse plague by means of bacilli got from 

 fleas taken from rats dead of plague. Simond, in 

 iSqS, attributed the infection of man to the fleas which 

 had left the bodies of rats dead from plague. 



" It is usually in the morning that the carcass of a 

 rat which has died in the night is fatal to him who 

 touches it. We were unable to discover a single cast 

 of a rat whose death had occurred twenty-four hours 

 previouslv having communicated the plague. Simond 

 also made the following experiment. He placed 

 twenty fleas (obtained from a cat) in a bell jar, with 

 a rat dying of plague. He then placed a heaUhv rat 

 in a cage into the bell jar, but also allowed the 

 cadaver of the first rat to remain thirty-six hours in 

 the vessel. The second rat died on the fifth day of 

 plaeue. The experiment was repeated, but not always 

 with success " (Quoted from Nuttall, " Insects, 

 Arachnids, and Myriapods as Carriers of Bacterial 

 and Parasitic Diseases," pp. q-20). 



Simond believed that infection from man to man 

 takes places, but in an insignificant number of cases 

 as compared to those where fleas carrv the infection 

 from rat to man. He regards rats as the main cause 

 in the spread of plague among human subjects. 

 Loir affirmed that the fleas of rats are the main 



