Connecticut western news., 1881-08-10
SIBERIAN PLAGUE IN EUROPE.
Man and Beast Attacked by It-Its a. History and Nature.

''Siberian plague" has appeared in sev- eral provinces of the Russian empire and that in villages in the St. Peters burg district and along the Warsaw line it has already caused much fatality among cattle and horses, as we'll as many deaths among the hu man inhabi- tants. The disease in question is not to be confounded with the dreadful bubonic plague of the East because of the simi- larity of the names they have received. Although not dissimilar in some of their grosser characteristics, the diseases are entirely distinct and the one now prev alent differs from the other in the all important feature that it never, in the true sense of the term, becomes cpl demic so far as the human race is con- cerned. Notwithstanding that good deal of mystery has always surrounded and still surrounds the disease, the ''Si- berian plague" may now indeed be said to have been fairly identified with that malady, itself little known, and hitherto thought to be of most rare occurrence in man, which medical writers are ac- customed to speak of as "anthrax," and which, occurring in sheep and cattle, veterinarians usually designate by the term "splenic fever" ;" or to carry its identification back to the ages of anti quity, it is the same disease, as medical historians inform us, as that which con- stituted one of the plaques from which the Egyptians and their cattle suffered at the time of Pharoah-a plague de- scribed in Exodus as ''grievous mur- rain, ," and as "boil breaking forth with plains upon man and upon beast"
 The historical interest that thus sur rounds the disease is, however, consid- erably eclipsed as we come to learn more of its modern history. The epizootic prevalence of anthrax is still, as in the time of Pharaoh, not uncommon among the focks and herds, especially of sheep and goats and camels, of Eastern Europe and Asia, and that it should be so is cer- tainly no matter for congratulation to us, as it was to the Israelites of old, but, on the contrary, is one, as recent research shows, of anxious concern. For the great bulk of the wool and hair of those Eastern animals is imported into Eng land and, since the feeces of the dead and diseased are not excluded, it has re- suited that both men and animals on English soil have, and not seldom, been infected with what in Russia is known as the "Siberian plague" The West Riding of Yorkshire receives, for the purpose of the worsted manufacture, by far the greater portion of the material ln question, and it appears that for many years disquieting conviction has pre- vailed among the men who have the first handling of it there--i. e., the sorters of the wool-that mysterious and rapidly fatal malady was peculiar to and resulted from their occupation. So alarmed have these men at times become on the occur renee of an unusual number of suspect ed cases of the disease among them that they have refused to work upon foreign wool and their belief in the source of thelr trouble has been so far counten nanced by the medical profession of the district that there a new name in medi- cal nomenclature is current, viz. the wool-sorters' disease"
 In the spring of 1880, owing to the continued prevalence and fatality of this disease, and its nature being still unde- termined, medical inquiry on behalf of the Local Government Board was or dered and the report of MT. Spear, the Inspector who had the conduct of the inquiry, has now been issued. The wool-sorters' disease" proves to be anthrax, or, in other words, this Sibe- rian plague. It has its origin in low parasitic rganism--discoverab under high powers of the microscope, and of vegetable nature-which, when intro duced into the blood of living animal, often develops so rapidly and with such inimical effect on the life stream that death ensues even within few hours. The organism itself-Bacillus anthra- cts, as it is named-soon dies upon its removal from living blood or other me- dia favorable to it's nutrition, but it's spore or germ may, in ordinary circum. stances, retain vitality and power of development for an indefinite time and thus it happens, doubtless, that feeces and hides of diseased animals retain the poison, and that the latter, gaining &C., cess to the blood of living animal, un- folds anew its full activity.
 Fortunately, the human subject, as has been said, does not possess great susceptibility to this infection, for au- thrax is disease essentially of the lower animals. In man it has only hitherto been met with in sporadic cases, and among those coming into intimate con- tact with infected matter. Neverthe- less, it has caused considerable fatality among the wool-sorters, and since there are numerous ways by which infected material may be conveyed beyond the factories where the wool is used, and even to distant parts of the country (the bags in which the wool has reached England are, for example, sold, often unwashed, for upholstering and other purposes), it may be questioned wheth- CT many of the obscure and often rap- idly fatal cases of blood -poisoniong that occur from time to time among the gen. eral population do not owe their origin to thls poison.