The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1879-02-16
THE PLAGUE.
WHAT 1T - AND WHERE IT HAS PRE-
VAILED IN EUROPE.
IN. Y. World.l

The plague which IL causing such sensa-
ton In Eastern Europe ut present was first
heard of from Astraehan on January g. when
It was reported that Of 1875 cases on the first
two days of the year 143 had proved fatal q
rate Of mortality sufficient to exclude the Idea
that the disease was typhus. 1t had shown
itself previously, and the occasion Of the sud-
den extension was thaw. It's first appear
ance was In the Cossack village of Vetlyanka
soon after the return Of two Cossack regi-
ments from the war In Asia Minor. Typhus
had prevailed among the men, but their cloth
Ing and effects had been fumigated- probably
imperfectly- and to this tho disease was
traced, being announced as typhus. Sickness
began to prevail towards the close Of Novem-
Der; In the second week OF December the daily
mortality In village Of 600 souls was per
cent; then panic seized the people, who would
neither succor the sick nor bury the dead. and
they fled. carrying the infection and terror
with them. Even when IL became clear that
the disease was not the typhus, but the
plague. the Russian authorities were remlss
In checking II and preparing for 1t. This re-
missness ls the more lnexcusable. apart from
the question OF international obligations, be-
cause Of the peculiarly disadvantageous cir
cumstances under which Russia finds herself,
with population never notable for
Its observance of sanitary laws, and at pres
ent enfeebled by the hardships consequent
upon war and partial famine, and with an ex-
tremey limited body of medical men, which
tho war has greatly depleted. The disease
has spread along the course of the Volga to-
wards the north and west, till now 1t threat
ems Moscow and Europe generally. Expert
physicians declare 1t 10 be the plague, and
tho symptoms which are described -"head-
ache, accompanied by fever and swelling Of
the glands arc those of the plague The
true plague according to McCready, "is a
contagious fever characterized by an eruption
of carbunces and buboea," and IL is added
that cases In which these glandular swelings
appear are attended with % higher grade OF
fever, and with prOfOunder depression of the
vital forces headache, restlessness ohills and
vertigo are commonly present" etc. Morbid
anatomy hitherto has added nothing to the
knowledge Of tho disease, Of which u majority
OF the patients die In severe epdemics, con
valescence being tedious In the event Of re-
covery. or the treatment all that can be said
is that local applications have to be made to
the eruptions; the patients strength should
be supported and the most favorable hygienic
conditions possible be- established the rest Is
with nature.
The last appearance OF the plague In Eu-
| rope was in 1874, and thereafter till 1858 it
was not recognized as existing. Since the
| latter year 1t has been occurring at intervals
in the form OF scattered local epidemics In
various parts Of Persia and Arabia Three
years ago Mr.. Netten Radcliffe called the
special attention of the English Society OF
Medical Officers of Health to the threatening
nature Of these epldemics and the high proba-
bllity that the disease, II It should assume on
active character OF diffusiveness, would pene-
trate not only into Europe but also e. Great
Britain, the seats OF the disease being In close
and constant communication with Russia by
land and the Mediterranean ports by sea-
There seems little reason to doubt that the
plague has gradually assumed an increasing
degree Of yirulence and infectivity, and that
the outbreaks in Astrachan and the adjoining
provinces are links In a chain OF continued
progress towards the west. Less than two
years ago the plague visited Resht, a Persian
town ut the south west angle OF the Caspian,
which In 1882 was smitten by the pestience
10000 OF its 10000 inhabitants falling victims
In q few weeks and the city being reduced
during the panic to the condition OF a "charnel
house, n city of the dead; no living creature
was to be seen In 1t, and those who had been
abandoned by their friends died of sheer
want. ReSht was invaded In 1877 from two
Persian villages Mt the southeast angle Of the
Caspian; the plague has now stepped from
the southwest up to Astrachan, ut the north
west corner.
The opinion of recent English writer was
that 1t was by no means unlikely that the
contagion would overstep the barriers erected
by the Russian authorities. It Is too subtle
and the possibilities OF evading quarantine
are too numerous to allow much to be hoped
for from official precautions, and even the
cordons OF troops drawn around the infected
districts to stop fugitveS have every pros
pect OF becoming fresh centers from which
the disease may be distributed. An absolute
and complete quarantine, which would GER
tainly arrest the plague, is hardly to be estab-
lshed, especially In these times of the In
creased complexity OF human intercourse.
Still, though the disease Is as formidable as
II was two centuries ago, when 1t last visited
England, it is confidently asserted that the
provisions OF the British sanitary laws and
the powers OF the local authorities to deal
with epidemics would be found sufficient to
confine and localize any cases that might
occur and render them merely pathological
curiosities. London at the time Of the great
plague was inconceivably filthy, and here
was no organization for the isolation OF Suf-
ferers from Infectious maladies and for the
prompt suppression of epidemics.
The plaques recorded in history are almost
numberless, and In many instances their raw
ages. though truthfully set down, seem in
many disastrous epidemics had been
noticed. The first general plague that
visited all parts Of the then known
world broke out In 767 b. @. In
oof D. -. StTLIldBe was 50 SOTely SlnltLeu GldG
women sacrificed their children to appease
the angry deitles; In 461 there died at Rome
and its environs 100000 people Thucydides
has graphically depicted the plague which vis
tied Athens b. G. 430, laying waste also Egypt
and Ethiopia. Plny records pestilence In
the Archipelago, Egypt and Syria in 1873 B. c..
which swept off 1000 persons day during its
continuance. Rome thereafter was repeat
eddy scourged. A. 70 10000 persons are
said to have died daily during the pestilence;
another plague swept through the Empire in
1879; still another in 1885, while between $50
and 265 many towns were depopulated and
many provinces ravaged, the daily mortality
at the capital being 5000. The great plague
in 642-5 began in Egypt and Asia Minor,
swept over Syria, Persia and India, laid
waste the north Of Africa and in Europe de-
vastated Constantinople and the Byzantine
Empire, italy and France. 1t began
at Alexandria, whose inhabitants, according
to Paulus Diaconus, brought this terrible
judgment upon themselves and their inno-
cent neighbors," by their reckless gluttony,
bringing on yearly fevers and dangerous in
digestiOns." In 542 Alexandria is said to have
lost zoo. 900 of her neoDla nv this ScOurpe and