Plague Ports: The Global Urban Impact of Bubonic Plague between 1894 and 1901

367 Pages·2007·2.433 MB·English

by  Myron Echenberg

Plague Ports

Plague Ports
The Global Urban Impact
of Bubonic Plague, 1894–1901
Myron Echenberg
a
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS
New York and London
new york university press
New York and London
www.nyupress.org
©2007by New York University
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Echenberg, Myron J.
Plague Ports:The global urban impact of bubonic plague,
1894–1901/
Myron Echenberg.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
ISBN-13:978-0-8147-2232-9(cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN-10:0-8147-2232-6(cloth : alk. paper)
1. Plague—History. I. Title.
RA644.P7E34 2007
614.5'732—dc22 2006022748
New York University Press books are printed on acid-free paper,
and their binding materials are chosen for strength and durability.
Manufactured in the United States of America
c10987654321
For my granddaughters Katya Patricia
and Siena Eliane

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Preface xi
Illustrations xv
part 1: Belle Époqueand Bubonic Plague 1
part 2: Asian Beginnings 15
1 AnUnexampled Calamity: Hong Kong, 1894 16
2 City of the Plague: Bombay, 1896 47
part 3: Plague at the Doors of Europe 79
3 The Plague Has at Last Arrived: Alexandria, 1899 83
4 They Have a Love of Clean Underlinen and of
Fresh Air: Porto, 1899 107
part 4: South American Settings 131
5 ABubonic Plague Epidemic Does Not Exist
in This Country: Buenos Aires, 1900 133
6 The Victory of Hygiene, Good Taste, and Art:
Rio de Janeiro, 1900 156
part 5: Plague under the Stars and Stripes 183
7 Plague in Paradise: Honolulu, 1899/1900 185
8 Black Plague Creeps into America:
San Francisco, 1900/1901 213
vii
part 6: Plague under the Union Jack 243
9 The Inhabitants of Sydney No More Go Barefoot
Than Do the Inhabitants of London: Sydney, 1900 244
10 ItIsaMiracle We Are Not Visited by a Black Plague:
Cape Town, 1901 270
part 7: Plague’s Lessons 303
Appendix 313
Notes 315
Index 331
About the Author 349
viii Contents
Acknowledgments
I am grateful for grants from the Social Sciences and Humani-
ties Council of Canada, and from the Hannah Institute for the History of
Medicine, which have facilitated the overseas research. It is a great plea-
sure to thank the many people who helped me with this book, and I apol-
ogize especially to those whose names I have forgotten to mention. My
research assistants over almost a decade included Tolly Bradford, Jessica
Cowan-Dewar, Sharif Elshafei, Zakyi Ibrahim, Yan Lu, Maureen Mal-
owany, Melissa Melvin, Nick Pelafas, Ismail Rashid, Karen Robert, and
Mariana Woisky. Mentors, colleagues, and friends at McGill University
and elsewhere who have provided inspiration and guidance are Alan
Adamson, Evine Al-Khadem, Pierre Boulle, Alberto Cambrosio, Larry
Conrad, Philip Curtin, Elizabeth Elbourne, Mark Harrison, Lotte
Hughes, Catherine LeGrand, Stanley Lemon, Brian Lewis, Margaret
Lock, Evelyn Lyons, Patrick Manning, Edna Robertson, Ronald Sklar,
Nancy Stepan, Michael Szonyi, Maria Luisa Teixeira, Bruce Trigger, Faith
Wallis, George Weisz, Alan Young, and Brian Young.
I am happy to acknowledge the assistance and hospitality of the fol-
lowing scholars, archivists, and librarians: for Hong Kong, Chi-chueng
Choi, Patrick Hase, Kate Lowe, Kerrie MacPherson, Elizabeth Sinn, and
Anita Wilson; for Bombay, Mark Harrison, and Sunita Puri for allowing
me access to her unpublished master’s research paper; for Alexandria,
Antoine and Marie Ashba, Mohamed Fouad Mohamed Awad, Michael
Reimer,and Susan and Sheldon Watts; for Porto, Maria Jose Vaz Dias and
José Manuel Correia da Costa; for Buenos Aires, Ezequiel Gallo, Jorge F.
Liernur, and Eduardo A. Zimmermann; for Brazil, Henrique Moises Can-
ter, Geraldo G. Serra, and Kenneth Camargo; for Honolulu, Jerry Bentley
and Nancy Morris; for San Francisco, Dean Echenberg, Gladys Hansen,
and Charles McClain; for Sydney, Peter Curson; and for Cape Town,
Howard Phillips and Elizabeth Van Heyningen.
My thanks to Erica Wood for arranging the photographic permissions;
to Ingrid Stockbauer for the maps; to the industrious and patient interli-
ix