Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1873-01-23
From the Boston Globe.1
The Plague.

gether with the conclusions of the Trans
| Caucasian commission as to its origin
AS the plague was visitor to Europe
long before the cholera was known, and
as it has never ceased to appear from
time to time in its ancient seats, any new
light thrown upon its origin and mode
of transmission is of especial interest
and Importance. As the dread pestilence
afflicted some parts of the Neapolitan
dominions as late as 1876, as Moscow
suffered from it in 1771-72, and Mar
settles in 1920, it is a matter of congrat-
ulation that there has been such an inn
prOvement in the sanitary condition of
the great centres of European popula-
ton as to make its prevalence almost i'm
possible, although the introduction of
railways into Asia may expose regions
hitherto wholly exempt from it, to its
influence In this respect, however, we
have much more to dread from cholera
than from the celebrated ''black death, "
which, now recognized as the oriental
plague, ravaged all Europe during the
fourteenth century. A report made to
the French Academy in 1916 says, that
the countries where the plague still orig
mates are, in the first place, Egypt, af-
forwards Syria and the two Turkeys
1t adds that the probability is, however,
that the plague may be developed with
out importation in the regencies of Tri-
poll, Tunis and in the empire of Moroc-
co.
Eastern, Europe, however, was disqui-
eted toward the close of 1871 and during
1872, by the near approach of the plague
to its borders. Its ravages occurred in
the wild, mountainous district close to
d. e.
distant from the Trans Caucasian border.
There was at one time belief that the
( Ottoman provinces in Asia Minor were
/ seriously endangered by the disease, and
anxiety was felt for the safety of eau
/ casian provinces of the Russian Empire,
and in view of the rapiditY of cOmmuni-
cation now existing between the Russo
| Persian frontier and the Russian ports
/ Of the Black Sea, even for those of
/ South Russia The fact that a terrible
/ famine prevailed throughout Persia nat
urally increased the alarm, for famine Is
I frequently the precursor or accompani-
ment of the plague, and the last great
/ outbreak of the pestilcnce in Asia Minor
was contemporary with the ravages of
an appalling famine Starvation is the
/ cause of plague as we'll as of typhus,
/ and there was no reason to doubt that
one of these maladies would result from
the extreme restitution existing Sin Per-
STA.
+ 1t is curious 10 compare the condition
/ under which plague usually occurs with
I those which were apparent in their re-
I cent attacks. The report Of the Preach
/ Academy, to which we have referred.
/ SAYS the conditions which determine and
favor its development in countriesiwhere
/ it originates are the habitatiOn of alluvial
or marshy grounds; hot, moist atmOs-
/ pherc low, badly aired and crowded
I houses: the accumulation of a great
quantity Of animal and vegetable mat
tiers in a state of putrefaction a scanty
and unwhOlesome diet; great moral and
I physical restitution. and the neglect of
the laws Of public and private hygiene.
The great plague in London began the
last of April, 1865, and ragged fearfully
during the hot. weather reaching its
. greatest destructivCLess during the week
ending the nineteenth of September
More than one hundred thousand people
persisted by this terrible visitation, which
/ abated as the weather became cooler,
I though the mIeCIIOn was not entlTeIYsal-
laved till winter had fairly set in. Late
/ in December, the people who had fled
and the king and court returned at the
beginning Of the following February
The last time the plague appeared in
Western Europe in any force was in
/ MAY, 1920, at Marseilles, to which it was
brought in a ship from SidOn. Only by
the most active and strenuous eXertions
was the evil prevented from extending
into the rest of France.
The report of the medical commits
sioners on the recent outbreak of the
plague in Kurdistan, shows that it broke
/ out in mountainous district in the be-
| ginning of the winter, or in the latter
part of the autumn of 1870, and it was
not till last spring that its ravages en-
tirely ceased. They were particularly
/ severe during the winter of 1S70-1l,
when deep snow confined the inhabitants
/ of the villages at home. In &rbanOs,
with population of twenty-five fani-
| lies, seventy-Seven persons were attack
ed and sixty died. OF the two hundred
families forming the population of Ar
meni- Boulak, one hundred and forty
five persons were attacked, and one hun
dred and twenty-five died. In Uch-tepe
with its two hundred families, two hun
bred and fifty fpersOns were sick with
the malady, of whom two hundred died.
BY the melting of the snow in hespring
the remaining inhabitants of infected
| villages were enabled to escape to the
hills, so that the progress of the disease
was effeCtually checked. In one of the
towns which suffered to comparative
w slight extent, this result was attribut-
ed to the prudence and energy of the
governor, Abdal Kerim Khan. He
caused widely separated huts of branch
es to be constructed on the wooded
| hills which overlook the town, as soon
as the disease appeared in it. To these
huts, some of which were set apart for
the sick and others for the healthy, he
compelled all patients and their families
to be removed There he maintained
them at his own cost, not permitting any
of the sick to return until after forty
DAYS from their apparent restoration 70
health IN this way, and by cutting off
communication with the neighboring
districts, the contagious disorder was
limited within a very small tract. The
deep snow preventing communication
with the rest of Persia and the Turkish
provinces, undoubtedly contributed to
the general isolation of the malady.
1t appears from the report of the
commission that the immediate cause of
the outbreak was excavating places
where persons who had died from the
plague had been buried forty years be-
fore. Yet similar outbreaks have oc-
Cured in recent years in various parts
of Asia without any such cause, and it
would seem as if the filthy condition of
Kurdish villages, combined with severe
and prolonged restitution, were sufficient
to account for them. Typhus and re-
lapsing or famine fevers, however, are
more likely to result in such cases than
plague. Although railways are likely
to increase the dangers to European
countries from cholera, and other mala-
dies epidemicsn the East, the exception
al conditions under which the plague
originates will doubtless exempt civilized
countries from its ravages in the future.
ONE MORE UNFoRTUNATE. = Nellie
Magernie, native of Pittsfield, and q
e