The Great Manchurian Plague of 1910–1911: The Geopolitics of an Epidemic Disease

by William C. Summers, M.D., Ph.D., professor of therapeutic radiology, of history of medicine and science, and of molecular biophysics and biochemistry (Yale University Press) In this case study, the author first sets the scene in Manchuria, then describes the epidemic that began in 1910 when plague was transmitted from marmots to humans and killed as many as 60,000 people in less than a year. Summers examines the actions and interactions of the multinational doctors, the politicians from three countries, and the ordinary citizens who confronted the outbreak.