The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1879-02-27

]
the history of the human race
name which still lives in the mouth
of people, fills their minds with hor
ror; the most terrible scoUrge tha
: mankind has ever. seen"
Hirsch here especially alludes 1,
the epidemics of the fourteent
century, which carried of eight
million victims, and lasted durinj
twenty-five years.
The most ancient clear mention
of the plague is found in the writ
Eings of Rufus of Ephesus, preserved
in the unedited works of Oribasius
This was the pesulential bub,
plague of Egypt, Lydia and Smyr
ma; the same frightfu disease tina
Edepopulated the empire of Rom,
during the reign Of Justinian; th,
disease that devastated (I333) Chi
ma and the western countries ol
Asia, the eastern and southern
kinA doms Of Europe, France, Ger.
many, England, Denmark and Rus.
sia: the same. plague that ravaged
London in 1868, for the horrible de-
tails of which we are indebted To
the works of DeFOe; the pestilence
that scourged Provence IN France
in 1920, leaving behind the putrid
corpses of its two. hundred thou sand
victims; the malady that swept over
the kingdom of Morocco in 1893
and 1900, when the daily death-rate
of Fee reached one thousand five
hundred, when the grOans of the
dying and the Gelirious shrieks
OF the sick rang through the hour
of midnight, disturbing even the
rapacious Yultures that tore the pu-
trid bodies of the dead.
The history OF these pandemics
or widespread epidemIcs have been
left to postelity by medical men ol
the past, and even mere reference
to these narrowing narrations il
enough to create blood curdlinl
sensations of horror.
The plague has been defined as &
septic lever, accompanied by nausea
vomiting suppurating buboes o.
malignant pistules scattered owe
different portions of the body, as
for instance, on the neck, armpit
or groins, a disease in which wilt
delirium alternRtes with profoun'
como, sterterous breathing, and tn
involuntary vomiting of blood,
froth or mucus; a disease in whicl
the glandular structures of the bod,
are largely involved, and in whici
those victims thatrsuryIVe are hide
ously SCARED and pitted as alte
malignant smallpox; a disease il
which a mortality of sixty per cent
is considered light, and ia which tn,
mortality has often reached nlnet,
per cent. of those attacked.
The predominant symptoms o
the plague, as noted at the out
break at Morocco at the commence
ment of the present century, are
thus described by DIR. jackson, an
English physician: alt attacked
some with sudden and violent shiv.
ering, others with delirium, sue
ceeded by unquenchable thirst.
cold water was eagerly resorted to
by the unwary, and proved fatal to
those who INDUCED in its momenta-
ry relief. Some had one, two or
more buboes, which formed and be-
came as large as walnuts in the
course of the day; others had a sim
liar number of carbuncles; others
had both buboes and carbuncles."
DIR. Jacks son gives the histories of
some Of his cases. We Gull few
choice extracts from this horrible
medical naet0Rge.
"M. G. was suddenly attacked
while following his usual avocation.
He felt a sensation similar to the
pricking of needles, and IN the stu
ations where such sensations were
experienced fiery red carbuncles
afterward appeared. He died the
same day."
I'M. A. fell suddenly down on the
street, and was conveyed home.
Three carbuncles and five buboes
appeared in the same day, in the
groin, under the knee-joint, in the
arm pit and in the elbow, and he
died three hours afterward."
Dr. Jackson's cook was attacked
and rushed TO the doctor's room
with his hair dishevelled and eyes
protruding from their sockets
screaming, "Open the door for j am
smitten." Within twenty -four hours
the cook was dead and has body in
a state Of putrefactlon.
These arc only a few of the re-
voting details of cases noted du
ring the prevalence Of the epidemic.
The mass of evidence seems 10
point TO the fact that the disease is
contagious malady, always i'm
ported and never originating de
HOvo. There are medical men, how
ever, who differ from the generally |
accepted opinion, and declare that |
the plague is non-infectious. The |
outbreak IN Marseilles in 1920 was
directly traceable TO importation.
Ire ship Of a certain Captain Cha
taud, which entered the harbor Of
had sailed from Seydo,
in Syria, on May 26th, and had lost
several of her crew during the pas-
sage. The ship and cargo we're
placed in quarantine. Within a
few days more Of the crew we're at
tackled. Also some stevedores
who were unloading The cargo.
Then the health officer fell a victim
to the disease; then priest who
had been engaged in minister
ing spiritual consolation TO the af-
hicted. The passengers in the
were allowed TO enJer the
town with their baggage, and, min
Cling with the population, spread
the plague far and wide, and in a
few short days Marsellles paid the
penalty of her folly in not taking
advice. Forty thousand
people died, and so scarce were
persons 10 bury the dead that the
galleys were opened and the con
Victs given their liberty on condi-
ton that they would act as under
takers and grave-dlggei These
convicts died about as rapidly as