ON THE SUBJECT OF PLAGUE 
868 
lasted for eight years, affected the Punjab and Mohammedan 
India generally. From 1684 to 1707 an epidemic ravaged 
Bombay, Surat, and a great part of Western India. In 1836 
an epidemic broke out in Bajputana, known as the ‘ Pali 
Plague,’ from the name of the town in which it first occurred ; 
and ‘ Maha Murrie,’ which is undoubtedly bubonic plague, 
has recurred several times in the district of Gharwal in the 
south-west of the Himalayas since 1823. 
In 1896 plague was introduced into Bombay from China, 
and has ravaged the country since that time. During the first 
ten years of the present outbreak in India, it accounted for 
a mortality of over 4,000,000 people. 
China has probably had plague since time was. The first 
definitely known epidemic was in Yunnan in 1860 ; and from 
there by way of Pakhoi and Canton it went in 1894 to Hong- 
Kong, and from this great seaport it was carried by sea traffic 
to India, Australia, Japan, Europe, Africa, and America — 
North and South. In 1899 the plague crossed the Equator 
and appeared at Tamatavi in Madagascar, probably imported 
from Bombay. From Tamatavi it went across to Lorenzo 
Marques, and in the same year appeared at Fort Louis in 
Mauritius. In 1900 it appeared in Capetown, having been 
imported, in spite of quarantine precautions, from Bosario in 
South America. It spread to the city and to Port Elizabeth. 
In 1902 it was recorded for the first time in Nairobi in this 
Protectorate. There were sixty-five cases and twenty-one 
deaths. Where this came from is not accurately known. 
Possible sources were Bombay, South Africa, or Uganda, 
which last is held to be an endemic centre of plague. 
Bacteriology 
Now let me introduce you to the Bacillus pestis. It was 
first discovered in the year 1894 by two independent investi- 
gators, viz. : Kitasako, who had been sent by the Japanese 
Government to investigate the plague outbreak at Hong- 
Kong, and Yersin, sent by the French Government for the 
same purpose. 
Plague belongs to the group of haemorrhagic septicaemias, 
