88 THE FLEA AND BUBONIC PLAGUE 



graphic presentations of tj^jhoid statistics of the Spanish-American 

 War and of the relation between flies and "summer disease" of children, 

 as worked out by the Association for Improving the Condition of the 

 Poor in New York City. 



Nearby are two models showing unsanitary and sanitary conditions 

 on a small farm. In one, pools of stagnant water and uncovered manure 

 heaps and general uncleanliness favor the breeding of mosquitoes and 

 flies, while the open doors and windows give these insects free access to 

 the house. In the other, the swampy land is drained and cultivated, the 

 windows screened, the shallow dug well replaced by a driven well; the 

 conditions are sanitary, and health and prosperity replace sickness and 

 poverty. 



Various types of traps for larvae and adult flies are shown with models 

 illustrating how fly-breeding may be prevented, how human wastes may 

 be protected from their access, and how manure may be cared for so 

 as not to be a medium for breeding flies. 



A wall case on the right of the entrance to the hall shows a group of 

 the natural enemies of the fly: the cock, phebe, swifts, the bat, spiders 

 and centipedes, in characteristic surroundings as they may be seen in 

 the corner of a New York State farm on a late August afternoon. 



The relation of the flea and the rat to the terrible disease bubonic 

 plague is illustrated in considerable detail. Wall charts 

 ,^ R h^ • pif^ture the spread of the great historic epidemics of this 

 Plaeue disease, and reproductions of sixteenth and seventeenth- 



century drawngs show with what terror the Black Death 

 was regarded in pre-scientific days. The chief carrier of the disease, the 

 flea, is shown in a remarkable model, 120 times the length of the actual in- 

 sect, and ha\nng the bulk of 1,728,000 fleas, prepared by Ignaz Matausch. 



Specimens of some of the principal animals which harbor the plague 

 germ and serve as reservoirs from which it is carried by the flea to man 

 (the black, brown and roof rats, the wood rat and the California ground 

 squirrel) are shown, and the manner in which the disease is disseminated 

 is illustrated by a copy of a corner of a rat-infested house in California. 

 The original from which this was copied, as well as many of the rats 

 and squirrels, were obtained through the courtesy of the U.S. Public 

 Health service of Washington. A habitat group shows a typical 

 family of ground squirrels on a rocky hillside in central California, 

 during the breeding season in May. Preventive measures used against 

 the plague are illustrated by models of a farm with buildings rat-proofed, 

 of a rat-killing squad, equipped for work in San Francisco, of a ship at 

 dock with rat-guards to prevent the access of rats to the shore, and by 

 specimens of various types of rat traps. 



