﻿IX, B, 1 Reiser: Plague in the Philippines 15 



measures. The medical officer in charge of a district in which 

 plague occurred ordered the immediate transfer of the case to 

 the San Lazaro plague hospital and called upon the disinfecting 

 squad to spray or wet down with kerosene the premises in which 

 the cases occurred. This was later followed by disinfection 

 with larvicide, a preparation which is used in Panama as a disin- 

 fectant and as a larvicide. It makes a milky solution upon being 

 added to water. It is serviceable both as an insecticide and as a 

 disinfectant, particularly where greasy surfaces have to be dealt 

 with. 



When a case of human or rat plague was found in a house, 

 the house was regarded as a plague center and the infected area 

 was arbitrarily considered to be three blocks on each side of it. 

 Rat-catching operations were begun on the periphery of this 

 zone and gradually directed inward until the infected house was 

 reached. It was thought by proceeding in this manner that 

 there was less danger of driving infected rats to other portions 

 of the city and also that it gave the best hope of eradicating 

 the rat infection. If an active campaign against rats in an 

 infected house is begun, there is great danger of driving the 

 rats away from it, or, in other words, of driving rats before 

 the sanitary squad and thus extending the area of the rat-plague 

 infection. 



Rats were killed by means of traps and poisoned bait and by 

 dogs and with clubs at the periphery of the zone. As the rat 

 catchers gradually moved inward, they were immediately fol- 

 lowed by from 50 to 100 laborers for general cleaning operations. 

 Each house was entered. Barrels, boxes, furniture, piles of 

 mattresses, bedding, straw, or any other things among which 

 rats might hide were moved about and replaced in such a manner 

 as to insure that such places were free of rats. The premises 

 connected with the house were then treated in a similar manner. 

 Rubbish, straw, old boxes, and other similar articles were sent 

 away and burned at the central crematory. Wood-piles, boxes, 

 and other articles which could not be treated in this way were 

 taken down and neatly replied, well above the ground and free 

 from the wall, so that rats would be accessible. While these 

 operations were going on, specially trained fox terriers were 

 kept on guard, and as the rats attempted to escape from their 

 hiding places they were caught by the dogs or clubbed to death 

 by the laborers. Large numbers of rats, and particularly rat 

 nests, were destroyed in this manner. As soon as these opera- 

 tions were completed, rat-proofing measures, so far as practi- 



