The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1879-02-20
HORRORS OF THE PLAGUE.

FITS MEDIEVAL History Rayages of the Pest
in the Fourteenth Century.
Many Americans are inclined to re-
gard the plague which devastated the
Old World in the fourteenth, fifteenth,
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries as
an extinct disease; to imagine that it
could not now prevail in any part of civ
Aization, owing to the absence of such
conditions as produced and fostered it.
Since they have begun to read of its
zavages in Russia they have hardly
&hought it to be the old plague, but a va
citation of it with the same deadly
name, deadly distemper, though moth
mig Like SO terrible as the ancient pesti-
hence, and very different in its symp-
toms and consequences. The plague in
Russia to-day is, essentially, if not ex-
actly, the same plague SO horribly con-
spicuous in every history of the middle
ages, and which has never ceased to exist
Nh certain regions of the East. Since
a720, when it destroyed nearly half the
entire population Of Marseilles, France,
and 1879, when it visited Russia and
Poland, it has until the present been al
most unknown in Western Europe.
During the last 100 years it has been
limited mainly to Egypt, Syria. Anatolia,
Greece and Turkey, occasionally spread
ing northward toward Russia and west
ward toward Malta. It's true and per-
naanent home seems to be in the terri
tory bordering on the eastern extremity
OF the Mediterranean, where the condi-
&ions and habits of the people foster
and stimulate it. But the mass of
Americans have so little knowledge of,
and SO small concern for, what is going
cn in that quarter of the globe that,
never thinking of the plague, they
naturally presume it's CHASTITY engage
ments closed long ago and forever.
The genuine plague is q very malig-
aant kind of contagious fever marked
by buboes, or swellings of the Emphatic
glands, by carbuncles and petecchje,
and without any apparent security
against recurrence to the same person.
1t commonly begins with feeling of
intense fatigue, slight chiliiness, much
nausea, giddiness, mental confusion
and lumbar palms. These symptoms
are speedily followed by increased dis
tUrbanoe of mind, with occasional stu
por and delirium, by alternate pallor
and flushing of face, suffusion of the
eye and sense Of extreme restriction
IN or about the heart. Sharp, darling
pains are experienced in the groins,
armpits and other parts Of the body,
soon succeeded by enlargement of the
aEmphatic glands. which occurs some
tunes the first Or second day, sometimes
aot until near the close of the disease.
and at others not at all, and also the
Sormation of carbuncles in various
Piaces. AS the distemper advances, the
tongue grows dry and brown, while the
gums, teeth and lips are covered with
dark fur; the bowels, at first consti-
pated, relax, and the excavations are
%ausky, offensive and sanguineous. The
patlent loses much power of will over
ials muscles, and presents the appear.
ance of intoxication. He is more or
less faint throughout the attack, and
usually the second Or third day petec-
Gt5a (pUrple spots), lvid patches, like
bruises, and dark stripes (Uibices) arc
visible on the skin-especially in severe
cases-in consequence of extravasation
of blood, and are often accompanied
with hemorrhagic discharges from the
snuoous membranes, In fatal cases the
pulse gradually sinRs the sufferers
body grows cold and clammy; blood
flows from the mucous membranes
either coma or low delirium sets in, and
death takes place, either without a
struggle or preceded by commissions.
1he period of incubation in plague
would seem in no case to extend beyond
eight days, Sometimes the local symp-
toms first show themselves, and the
Sever that follows is comparatively mild.
AT other times the disorder is rapid and
violent, and causes death without the
appearance of buboes or carbuncles.
Between these extremes, tending to the
mild OR virulent form, the disease pre-
sents every phase of variety. In mild
cases, small red spots, resembling flea
Mites, are seen, especially on parts where
Che body is exposed to the air, gradually
enlarge, get dusky, and are covered by
Vesicles filed with dark-hued fluid.
The base of the spots is hard grows
slack, forming gangrenous eschar an
inch or an inch and half in diameter,
and developing into carbuncles. This
Rrocess is attended with more or less
aever, which subsidies gradually as the
eschar is detached. Often consequent
upon the carbuncles, the buboes form
in the groins or armpits; occasionally
60 away without suppuration, though
generally after forming pus sometimes
healthy, sometimes thin and sanious