The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1881-04-06
BLACK DEATH.
The Plague and its Media
val Horrors.
Its Reappearance in Russia at
Present.
From the New York Herald.

From the New York Herald.
Already Europe is becoming alarmed a
the appearance of the plague. or btacI
death, In the East. and fears are cxpressef
that iG may spread westward 1t therefor.
becomes important to know the character
istics of the disease. The London Standard
states, on pathological grounds, that it i,
a very malignant form OF contagious fe
vel" which breaks out suddenly in certain
localities and spreads with frightful rapid
ity, and that the present type is as virulent
as that of the Middle Age.
It is characterized by swellings of the
lymphatic glands and by
| cARBUNCLEs
| and beyond doubt one seizure seems to
afford no security against a second attack
This is, however, point upon which ply
sicians have not often had chance of
| studying, since "the pest" does not usual
ly leave the same individual chance of
Experiencing its symptoms twice. 1t has
been contended that it is not contagious,
but IN almost every case of an outbreak
the disease has been traced to persons who
have come from infected districts. In the
Astrakhan epidemic of 1879, and in that
of I'LL, which cut of 100000 people in
Moscow, the pestilence was known to have
been bought, in ono instance, from Cen
trsl Asia, and in the other from Chocziu.
Again, during the latter outbreak, the
l, 400 inmates of the Imperial!
FOUNDING HOSPITAL,
who were isolated. and in 1913 the town of
Jegla, in Malta, (which was shut off from
Valetta, where the disease was raging,
entirely escaped. Quarantine, however. as
q preventive against the ravages of the
cholera. has been proved to be utterly fu-
tile. and it is very generally allowed that
it 10 not much more potent as q barrier
against the plague. No other form of
death has ever enlisted into its service
historians of such brilliant talent. De Foe
could not have been an eyewitness of the
horrible scenes of 1865 in London. But he
had doubtless talked to many who had sur
vived those dreadful times and were ia
miliar with the tales of the corpse carrying
wagon going its dismal rounds. of the liv-
ing being unable to carry out the dead,
and London deserted by the Court and
indeed all who could escape into the
country.
IN ''RIENZI'
the late Lord Lytton has given an account
scarcely less pictorial of the plague in
Florence, and in almost every other Enrop-
can country the pest" which crept like
q foul miasma over Asia, Northern Africa
and Europe, from Naples to Archangel,
and even to distant Greenland, where it
smote the Esquimaux by thousands. g
secured such able ehrcniclers that at the
slightest sign of its appearance, Western
Europe naturally grows.alarmed. In the
years l348, 1861, 1868, 1869 and 1902
London was visited by the black death, :"
though these early attacks of the disease
sink into insigni6cance when compared
with that which desolated the city in 1865.
the year which will even be,knowh as 1.-The
year ofathe plague"
IN REALITY,
however though it caused before Christ
mas a mortality of 6S. 500 out of 100000
people which the metropolis then contain
ed it did not abate until 1866, while in the
thirteen subsequent years there were
many fatal cases recorded. But after
1879 20 death from plaques are known to
have occurred, and in I704 so entirely had
it disappeared that the name of the dis
ease was entirely omitted from the bills of
mortality.