The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1874-09-20
Tho Plague.
New York World.

- New York World
Those of our readers who have ever
thought at all of the plagne have probably
thought Of it only as a "reminiscences of the
dead past, interesting from its historical
associations with the reign of the Emperor
Justinian, Boccaccio's "Decameron," and
the great fire of London, but possessing nc
present Importance. 1t may therefore be
matter of news to state that this venerable
malady has not only survived the on
slaught of guarantees in the sixteenth and
| seventeenth centuries, but has for come
months past renewed the vigor of it's youth
| in a disastrous epidemic in the East, com
hitting widespread ravages in the districts
| about Bagdad and Benghasi. Its fret ap-
pearance seems to have occurred last
March in the Arab tribes of Sit-Istanik,
from whom it slowly spread to neighboring
tribes, reaching early in June the village
of Marab, where its true character was re-
cognized by DR.. Laval, who himself con-
tracted 1t and died a few weeks afterwards.
The virulence of the disease may be eeti-
mated from the fact that of twenty three
cases observed within few days by speci :.
ally appointed medical commission nine
teen proved speedily fatal. From Marah
the epidemic moved upon Benghasi, Bag
dad, and the surrounding country, where
at the latest accounts it was only beginning
to decline in intensity, and serious alarm
was felt as to its possible advent to Con-
stantinople.
The Investigations of the Medical Com
mission. "a described by correspondent of
the British Medical Journal, are of inter
est in pointing out that in this, as in all
other epidemic pestilences, prominent
part is played by local insanitary conditions
which increase individual susceptibility to
the specific contagion. In the little village
of Marah the habitations of the people
"are mere excavations in the rock they
are dark, damp, and lie below the level of
the Turkish fortress" On an adjoining
emincnce is cemetery wherein, according
to Arab custom, bodies are buried in graves
only foot in depth, and covered iosely
with gravel and earth. "Cose to the ceme-
terry are wells, which are usually dug in sum
mer, but the winter rains I'LL them and as
the rain water flows down from the GENE
terry it washes away the slight covering of
earth, and often leaves the bodies exposed.
The impure matter thus carried to the
person unaccustomed to it," And as far
as the commission observed only those per-
sons who drank of this well water
were attacked by the plague. But other
favoriug conditions coexisted. rhe viii
layers had been suffering from ia
mine, many of them snbsisting scantily
on wild herbs (; animals had sickened
and died in great numbers, and their car
cases were left to putrefy in the sun
pressed by hunger, the inhabitants became
unfastidious feeders, and it was noticed
that "the malady much more readily attack
ed those who ate of sheep affected with
tumors very much resembling those which
appear on human beings in cases of ordi-
nary plague"
If we have dwelt on these far-off details,
it is because they afford lesson applicable
to other disorders than plague, and to
people nearer to our doors than the poor
Arabs. Unventilated, unlit dwellings; CON
taminated water; insufficient or improper
food; exhalations from decomposing organic
MATERIAL these and other concomitants
of squalid misery exist in what by courtesy
We call Christian, civilized communities;
and wherever they exist The germs of cpl
demic infection multiply and increase in
virulence, and spread with uncomfortable
violence to surrounding neighborhoods. It
is not pretended that these conditions alone
can generate the contagium of plague or
other communicable scourge, but they pre-
pare the fermentible material, ready. to
burst into action on the addition of the
specific leaven, which in their absence, as
experience has amply proved, may easily
be destroyed. And the moral thus point
ed, as every ono familiar with our poorer
wards can testify, is not without pertinence
to this metropolitan city of New York.