The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1879-02-09
THE RUSSIAN PLAGUE.
IT'S Rise and Progress-Neglect of the
government the chief Cause
of It's spread.

The London British Medical journal pub.
| fishes the following: Russian and German
Inedleai Journals state that the East of Eu.
rope is In state of great alarm at the prog
reSs OF what they alPge to be the plague
which Is rapidly making its way upward to-
ward the north and east of Russia from the
Caspian Sea along the course OF the VoIga
According to an article. dated January Ia
published In the Vienna Mediciaiscbe Wocb
tnschrJt, 1t has reached Mill Novgorod. AS
FAR as regards the origin of the disease. n is
now ascertained that 1t was imported hy two
regiments OF Cossacks who had lately re-
turned from the war In Turkey and I'm spite
of strict orders to disinfect everything, prob
ably hid part of their booty. which without
doubt, contained the germs of the infection,
When the disease first showed itself it was
rather neglected and looked upon merely as
a variety of typhus fever. and IL was not
until the mortality began to assume alarm
ing proportions that the local authorities
begal to feel 1t to be their duty to do some
thing toward arresting its further progress
Accordingly strict quarantine was enforced,
but the inhabitants of Astrakhan, seized with
a panic, had begun to fly In different direc-
tioHs, scattering on their way germs Of the
disease. which advanced to the north over the
provinces OF SANTANA and Saratoff, and
reached Zarit2yn. This last named place
ought especially to have been protected being
a very important trading town on the voga.
connected by rail with almost the whole of
Russia, and through 1t with the rest of Eu-
rope. Having once passed that place. the
plague went on spreading till II reached Nilii
Novgorod which Is only few hours distant
from Moscow, the centre of Russia.
"It is q curious fact that some of the Rus
sian papers, among others the Vratschea-
buyga Vadomosi (Medicat Ne,os), persist
ently deny the existence of the disease and
simply treat it as an outbreak of malignant
typhus while the st. Petersburger Wochen-
schrn and other papers openly speak OF it IA
tho plague. The number OF December 28
January 81 OF the Vrdtschenbuyga Vadomosti
contains kilograms from the Governors OF
the infected Provinces (Astrakhan aad Sara
tof) 10 the Minister Of the Interior, which
reports the present state of affairs as most
hopeful. The mortality has decreased and
there are very few rev patients. A most
energetic quarantineis enforced. The infected
towns and villages which are divided into
with each other, etc. In some places it is
stated that only five to ten persons have died
within week. The symptoms are described
as being headache, accompanied by fever
and swelling OF the glands.
THE Vienna Medicinisehe Wochenschrift
No. 3, draws most terrible picture of the
present state OF things In Russia. Whatever
the disease may be, whether merely exanthe-
matte typhoid fever or a febris recuyrens. or
really the plague, 1t is certain it would never
have assumed those terrible dimensions If the
government had not treated IL at first with
objectionable neglect. 1t Is almost too late
now to attempt to stop 1t, especially as the
Russian nation itself has very vague ideas
regarding sanitary arrangements and the
misery caused by the last war and the famine
have undermined the forces of the population,
rendering 1t unfit to resist the infection. An
other very important thing is want of ex-
perienced medical men in Russia About
one third OF the Russian doctors died either
during the war, or from typhoid fever which
followed it, and a large number OF young stu
dents have been summoned from hospitals
and medical schools to take their places. The
Vienna Nedjcinische WoChenschrih insists on
the importance, In the interest OF the whole
OF Europe, of providing Russia with doctors,
and helping her to keep down and restrain
her powerful enemy. Both Dr. Zolekauer and
Professor Botkin have decided the disease to
be really the plague in its worst form. They
have drawn this conclusion from the extraor-
binary. mortality go per cent?, the rapid
spreading OF the disease, and the very few
cases OF recovery, if any, which have come
under their notice. TheSt. Petersburg iedi-
ctnische Wochenscl,rin of December 80 Jan
uary III merely gives short notice on the
disease, stating that, although the govern
ment persists in calling it epidemic, it can no
longer be doubted, from the tenor OF it's com
munication to the official papers, that it is
the plague"