44 ATKINSON. 



for the city of Victoria, and in Kowloon by the inhabitants of Ivowloon 

 Point, Yaumati, and Hunghom, respectively. 



Any spare time at the disposal of the plague inspectors is occupied 

 in paying special visits to houses in which cases of plague have occurred 

 in the previous season, so as to be sure that they are free of rat runs 

 and provided with impervious ground surfaces. 



The Chinese have established public dispensaries and also district plague 

 hospitals, which in the city of Victoria are managed by a committee of 

 which the registrar-general and the two Chinese members of the sanitary 

 board are members: in Ivowloon, a purely local committee manages the 

 dispensaiy and the hospital. These institutions are suprjorted by volun- 

 tary contributions, and each is in charge of a licenciate of the Hongkong 

 College of Medicine for Chinese, who sees outpatients at the dispen- 

 sary, performs vaccinations, visits patients in their own homes, and 

 treats those in the district hospital. Notice of cases of infectious 

 diseases are given b) 7 these doctors to the nearest district office, and in 

 the case of plague, the patient may be treated in the district hospital. 



FLEAS ENCOUNTERED IN HONGKONG. 



In October last, seeing the importance attributed by the Indian Plague 

 Commission to the agency of fleas in carrying the pest infection, I 

 instructed Mr. Gilson, the colonial veterinary surgeon, and Dr. Heanley, 

 the assistant bacteriologist, to report to me concerning the species of 

 fleas and rats met with in Hongkong. 



The varieties of fleas are as follows : 



(a) Ctenocephalus canis Curtis. 2 This flea is found on cats and 

 dogs, but it is frequently taken on man also. It is a small flea, variable 

 in size and of a dark color. It is not so nocturnal in habits as the other 

 fleas.- Dr. Heanley and Mr. Gilson found it on Mus decumanus and 

 on dogs and men. 



(b) Pulex cheopis Bothschild or pallidus Tasch. This is the common 

 rat flea and is met with on Mus decumanus, Mus rattus and the muskrat. 

 It is small, light-colored and more or less nocturnal in its habits. In 

 Hongkong it is found more frequently on Mus decumanus. 



Normally, the rat flea (P. cheopis Eothsch.) is rarely found on man 

 The insects will, however, attack guinea pigs and accordingly it would 

 be advisible to set free some guinea pigs in a room where a case 

 of plague has occurred. The infection of guinea pigs by Pulex cheopis 

 Eothsch. has been proved, the same can not as yet be said concerning the 

 infection of man by this species of Pulex. Satisfactory experimental 

 proof of the power of any species of flea to communicate plague to 

 man is at present wanting. 



2 For classification of fleas see Proc. V. 8. X. M. (1905), 29, 121-170. 



