The Weekly Perrysburg journal. [volume] (Perrysburg, O. [Ohio]) 1861-1???, 1865-08-15

Denmark were not excepted, not even leo
land, in spite of its seolusion in the distant
Arctic scas Having finally made full
sweep oyor Europe, destroying moro than
twenty-five millions Of the inhabitants, IL
passed over Russia back to tho region from
which it came.
After that period the plague visited
different parts OF Europe at intervals du.
ring the next three hundred years. Lon
don appears to have been scourged about
as bad as Stamhoul; 10000 dying of the
pcslilence IN l400 10000 in 1889; q fourth
of tho population in l60i SS,4O0 in 1923
and 6S00O, about one.third of the popula'
ton, in 1885.
Tnk oREIr PLAGuE IN IoNpoS.
Sir Gilbert Blame has calculated that there
were no less than forty.ive plaques IN the
seventeenth century, Fourteen of these
occurred in Holland, and were supposed TO
have been imported by ships engaged in
the Lcvant trade. Twelve were carried
over from Holland 70 England tho last Of
which was termed the "Great Plague" and
prevailed in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and
othcr large towns of the Netherlands during
the years 1868 and l664.
Tho British Government took extraordi-
nary pains to avoid the pcstilence, break
ing OH commercial intercourse with llol.
land. actually declaring war. This proved
successful for moro than year, but finally
the disease appeared in December, l664, at
a house in Drury Lane, In the parish ot ST.
| Giles. Several cases occurred, and then
| for time there was oessatloni but IN
| April it broke out anew, with "spotted TO-
vcr," which was regarded as another form
| of the same malady. The number OF deaths
| rapidly increased, being imputed Tor some
| time to other complaints. But in May the
mortality in st. Giles and other parishes ad-
Joining was 80 great as to demand invostl'
CATION; when il was discovered that tho
| u estiience was abroad, and spread with
such intolerable Infection" that its ravages
could not be abated. The deaths in single
parish ran up from over fifty to two hun
lred week by the 4th of July. 1t then
passed inside the walls of London, and in
the second week of August, Cripplegate
parish alone buried eight hundred and
eighty six persons. Multtudes fed from the
city. and king. Charles the ii removed his
Court to Oxford.
The usual steps were taken 10y the au'
thorites to prevent the spread OF the epl'
demic, beggars were forbidden to ply their
vocation, plays prohibited, injected houses
were shut up, and general destruction ol
cats aud dogs commanded. Physiclans ano
surgeons were often worse than nothing
The pain of the swellings were very vio
olent, often uncomfortable. Sticking plastert
were employed ito bring to head ! they
were cut open or burnt out with caustlc
thus torturing the wretched persons eXcru
ciatingly, without comforting the least ben
eft. Some died raving mad with the tor
meuts others laid violent hands upoi
themselves.
Sudden deaths, before tho tokens OF dis
ease appeared, we're very common. Some
would be attacked with iaintness, or verti
go, sit down, swoon away and die, theii
bodies being completely gangrened. The
mortality was greatest III the months o
August, September and October; the stats
tics preserved give 5S9l8 deaths Tor nine
weeks, of which 40 COS died of the plague
But one writer declares that at the hight o
the mortality ~ 900 died in one week, anI
A 900 in a single night. After the middl,
of October the violence of the epidemic Ill
minshed, and two months afterward thu
plague abated. De Foe gives the aggregate
at $4,000, others have rated it as high aI
! $4,000.
The plague is still occasionally epidemic
in Egypt, and sometimes prevails on thu
Barbary, Arabian and Syrian coasts, ant
also at Constantinople; but il has rarel.
passed the Turkish dominions since th'
seventeeth century. 1t broke out, howeV
er, at Copenhagen in l7l2; at Marseille
1920; at Moscow in I'LL; at Malta 1873
at Calabria in 1918; az Corfu in 1873; ant
in Siberia in lS49. The Russian army II
Bulgaria was devastated by it in 1928; ant
there exists good reasons to believe tiiat IL
the recent Crimean war there were cases o
it at Odessa. Certainly there prevailed
D malignant fever. with petechi@ and swell
ings of the glands, Of the groin and arm
pits.
; WHAT Is THE PLAGuEf
! II is believed that in this disease q spe
, cifio poison produces certain speclhc &C
5 tions, preceded, accompanied or FOLLOWED
by fever. The more specific actions OF thi
poison are the induction OF state smila
TO that of typhus fever, and a singular OF
. largement of the heart, liver and spleen
But the most constant action OF the poison
il on the lymphatic system generally, as i
I typhus fever-the cervical, inguinal, axilla
. ry aud messenteric glands being for til
I most part found enlarged or otherwise il
. hamed, and give rise to The characteristic
buboes. The areOlar tissue also appears t
. be often the seat OF q specific action OF tn
poison, it being frequently affected wit
carbuncles; every organ and tissue OF th
body is likewise covered with potechia
and often the seat Of hemorrhagic effusiol
; Tho poison Of the plague producing thes
= disordcred functions of the great nervou
centers which constitute the phenomena {
fever, either of low or active character
is sometimes so severe as to destroy th
} patient in a few hours. The form of plagu
i most destructive exists like cholera, will
out its characteristic eruptions or other eS
4 ternal marks considered pestilential. Tn
0 vital principle seems in such cases to b
; suddenly extinguished. But more cou
= monty the disease is preceded by lassitud'
+ loss OF strength, general uneasness an
mental anxiety to which shivering, head
: ache, vertigo and vomiting soon succeed
9 Then appear bubo, carbuncles and pete
CHA, preceded or followed by delirinm o
stupor, too often ending in death.
In mild attacks the fever is lighti the br