So far, about 350 persons have died of plague in the whole disferict, of which nearly 300 come from the one village of Chienchiation, [his spot has a total population 1,700, 80 nearly one fifth has gone, Of course villagers are most backward in sanitary ideas and will not listen to isolation of the sick or leaving their homes for a fine new soldiers' barrack which we have prepared for them. They are indeed misled fatalists, preferring to predate their Chinese New Year (by pasting red seals and inserip-Tions over their doors) rather than report. the sick and cooperate with us, Some of the huts visited by us defy description. One inn, where practically all the inmates (13 in number, including the proprietor) ied, was found to be full of broken pails, pans, torn-up mats and scat-tored clothing of the dead and dying, and we have turned it into a hospital after proper disinfection. Here we have also performed most exciting cxpuriments by catching jumping infected fleas, grinding them up into an emulsion and then inoculating them. into susceptible animals, As a result we are now satisfied that not only the rat flea but also the human flea (putex irritans) can infect man, The bed-bug has similarly been proved to be infectious in this epidemic. Practically all the cases seen have bbeon bubonic (a big percentage of Druboes are situated in the armpit), but one corpse dissected showed lung complications. So we have to take groat care lest: this bubonic epidemic turns into a pneumonic one with the approach of the cold weather.
T have high hopes that the last case will be recorded at the end of October, so that I may visit you in Shanghai.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.