60 J. B. CLELAND. 
“instil dread of its ravages, and arrest the attention of the 
historian, the epidemiologist and the administrator. As 
the outbreak of cholera in England helped to lay the foun- 
dations of modern public health at the hands of Sir Ed- 
win Chadwick and his colleagues, so the outbreak of plague 
in Sydney, in India, and elsewhere, led to hygienic reforms 
of great significance to the wellbeing of the community, 
though aimed primarily at the control of rats. 
I do not purpose to deal in full with the many interest- 
ing accounts of epidemics of plague in the days of old. By 
various writers these have been more or less fully condensed 
and digested. I would like, however, to indicate some of 
the more important accounts, and refer those interested to 
the actual desctiptions themselves. . 
Drs. Tidswell and Dick, in 1899, before the then Medical 
Section of this Society,’ called attention to the account, in 
the 5th and 6th chapters of the 1st Book of Samuel, of 
what appears to be the earliest, and one of the clearest his- 
torical references to plague. The Ark of God had been 
carried away by the Philistines. Placed in the house of 
Dagon, the image of Dagon fell on its face before the Ark. 
““The hand of the Lord was heavy upon them of Ashdod, 
and He destroyed them and smote them with emerods.’’ So 
they carried the Ark to Gath. ‘‘And it was so, that, after 
they had carried it about, the hand of the Lord was against 
the city with a very great destruction; and He smote the 
men of the city, both small and great, and they had emerods 
in their secret parts.’’ Then the Philistines called the priests 
and diviners together, who advised the return of the Ark of 
God with a trespass offering, and for the trespass offering 
“‘ve shall make images of your emerods and images of your 
mice that mar the land.’’ Then the Ark was placed on a 
cart, and the kine that drew it, brought it, undriven, to 
+Aust. Med. Gaz., Oct. 20th, 1899. 
