Proposed Extension of Fumigation io Prevent the Escape of Infected Rats In his report on the working of the port sanitary station during 1922 (published as an apbendix to the annual report of the Commissioner of Customs), Dr. C. Bennett states The new regulation requiring all vessels entering this port to show a certificate of fumigation not more than six months old came into force on March 15. The measure has been complied with without hitch or complaints and is welcomed by the masters of ships. Considerable correspondence has taken place over the proposed amendment to Article No. 9 of the Sanitary Regulations. In effect, provided a vessel has not been fumigated after the cargo has been loaded, either at the port declared against or at an intermediate port, the amendment calls for the fumigation of all vessels from infected ports on going alongside a wharf in Shanghai and before opening the hatches. An alternative is given to large mail steamers only, carrying numerous passengers, to discharge" their cargo in the stream into lighters, these lighters to be such as can to be easily covered and fumigated before being emptied. In the meantime, the vessel, being anchored in the stream, does not require to be fumigated, This ruling would apply also. to lighters, loaded from vessels from infected ports lying "t Woo. sung, coming to Shanghai.
The objection at present to this amendment is, apparently, the delay that might be caused to the vessels concerned, but with bu-tonic plague threatening this port from the south, pneumonic plague and possibly typhus from the north, and cholera from all sides, it is to be hoped that, in spite of slight delays, this amendment, which from a sanitary standpoint is exceedingly sound, will be adopted at an early date. The delay at this port would be infinitesimal as compared with that in other ports should Shanghai become plague-infected through the _entry of diseased rats. That plague-infected rats do enter the port was clearly shown at the end of 1921, when two were found near the South Manchuria Railway Wharf. Shipping companies then submitted to a three-monthly fumigation of all vessels from the south, where infection was most likely to come from, although no ports were actually declared against. In this particular instance, what might have proved the nucleus of a epidemic was nipped in the bud by the vigilance of the municipal health authorities, with the ready ce-operation of the shipping community.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.