The emergence of the Wuhan coronavirus, like the SARS and the MERS coronaviruses before it, is nothing new. There have been epidemics sweeping the world before. One only needs to think back to October 1910, exactly 110 years ago. At that time, China was hit by the pneumonic plague. At the height of winter in January of the following year (1911), Dr Wu Lien-Teh travelled to Harbin to investigate an unknown disease which was killing 99.9% of its victims. It was the plague pandemic of Manchuria and Mongolia and ultimately, it claimed some 60,000 victims. Wu Lien-Teh would be remembered for his role in asking for imperial sanction to cremate plague victims. In an extract from his autobiography, Plague Fighter (pages 28 to 31), he wrote:
When in January, Dr Wu paid a visit to the burial ground, he was shocked to see the dismal sight of this long row of coffins and corpses. This constituted a serious menace to public health, and something drastic and immediate had to be done to remove it. The only solution appeared to be mass cremation. But here certain almost insurmountable difficulties presented themselves. Such mass cremations were unheard of. To the Chinese especially, with whom ancestor worship was almost a religion and the care of ancestral tombs a mark of filial piety, asuch a mass cremation would be regarded as a sacrilege. It seemed that nothing less than an Imperial edict would be needed to overcome public opposition. But first the opinion of the local officials and leaders must be won over. To do this, Dr Wu invited such of the local officials as had the stomach for such gruesome sights to drive out with him along the line of heaped up coffins and corpses and see for themselves the true conditions.
After the drive, all the local leaders agreed to support Dr Wu in his petition to the Imperial government in Peking for sanction to cremate the plague corpses. In his telegraphic memorial to the Throne, Dr Wu mentioned the increasing danger to all concerned - both those on duty and the populace - from the presence of the 2000 unburied plague corpses.lying out on the open ground, the practical impossibility of finding sufficient labourers to dig the necessary trenches, the unwillingness of the masses to undertake such work, the danger of rats gnawing the infected bodies and later conveying the pest and also the discouraging effect on the medical staff caused by the sight of the unburied dead. Dr Wu ended his petition by guaranteeing that if imperial sanction is given, the 2000 bodies would be disposed of within three days. Everyone waited most anxiously for the expected imperial consent, which would indeed break all precedent not only in China but perhaps in world history. One day went by, followed by another, and still no reply. Late in the afternoon of the third day, a telegraphic communication was received from the Foreign Office, saying that Dr Wu's petition had been sanctioned by the Emperor, and that he could go ahead with his plan.
That was January 30. Forthwith Dr Wu arranged with Dr Chuan of the medical staff to engage 200 labourers and start work early next morning to collect the coffins and bodies and arrange them in tiers of one hundred. Mechanical pumps and hoses ordinarily used for fire-fighting were sent to the spot. Altogether, twenty-two piles were raised. At two in the afternoon of January 31, some senior medical officers as well as a few selected civil and military officials were invited to watch the first mass cremation of infected bodies in history. Kerosene was pumped onto the piles, and when this method was found to be rather slow, the more intrepid labourers, who had become interest in the operation, asked to be allowed to climb to the top of the piles with tinfuls of kerosene and empty the contents from there. Permission was gladly given, and before an hour was out, every pile had received its share of paraffin. Then the order was given for fires to be lighted, beginning with the pile nearest the gathering and ending with the one farthest away. In a short while the whole area was ablaze with burning coffins, and cracking and emitting black smoke. Photographs were taken of the historic scene, and soon the tall piles could be seen slowly crumbling down to the ground which had become softened by the intense heat, Great was the elation and relief of everyone concerned at this climax to their efforts, and it was generally felt that the most effective day of their arduous campaign had been achieved by this great and historical operation.
Other parts of the country soon followed suit, and all reported how much easier their task of succouring the living now appeared, when the dead could be simply cremated in the open crematoria without any fear of future complications arising from the gnawing of infected corpses by susceptible rats in the coming spring.
A remarkable change for the better now took place in the anti-plague campaign. January 31, the day the bonfire of the plague corpses was started, coincided with the opening of the Chinese New Year, which was based upon the lunar calendar. In order to cheer the sad hearts of the people, who had lost almost one quarter of their entire number of 24,000, leaflets were issued by the Anti-plague Bureau, calling upon them to celebrate the auspicious occasion by burning the usual fire-crackers inside their houses instead of outside in the streets, as was done in former years. According to ancient Chinese beliefs, these fire-crackers, when let off, served two purposes: one, ushering in good luck to the accompaniment of the prolonged din, and two, dispelling any evil forces which happened to be lurking around. Since the plague evil had been in their midst for at least three months, doing incalculable harm to their families and material possessions, it was hoped that such burning of the popular fire-crackers within their dwellings might smoke out all the unseen spirits responsible for their woes. From the scientific standpoint, this mass experiment of widespread disinfection with the gases of sulphur from the fumes of the burning fire-crackers, might at least have a salutary effect, on however small a scale, upon the germ-laden air of the "haunted" houses of notorious Fuchiatien.
Strange to relate, as if in answer to the prayers of thousands, the mortality figures began to decline from that very day, January 31. All through the month of February, progress continued without any relapse, and the figures diminished day by day, bringing fresh hopes to the people, who thus celebrated their New Year without something approaching their customary high spirits. These New Year celebrations were kep up, as usual, for fifteen days, and served as the only holiday truly enjoyed by artisans and labourers and their families.
The last case of plague was registered on March 1, though at other centres the outbreak lasted more or less severely for another month.The cremation of these infected victims turned out to be the turning point of the epidemic, and the suppression of this plague pandemic changed medical progress in China.
[ANOTHER NOTE: I own the first edition of Wu Lien-Teh's book, PLAGUE FIGHTER, The autobiography of a modern Chinese physician, published and printed in 1959 by W Heffer & Sons Ltd of Cambridge, and the above extract was taken from that edition.]
