The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1881-05-05
THE BLACK DEATH,
Temperance of the Great Plague Which
Devastated The Middle Ages.


Devastated the Middle Ages.
Already Europe is becoming alarmed
at the appearance of the plague, or
black death, in the East, and fears are
expressed that it may spread westward.
II, therefore, becomes important to
know the character of the disease. The
London STANDARD states, on pathological
grounds, that it is every malignant
form of contagious fever" which
breaks out suddenly in certain localities
and spreads with frightful rapidity, and
that the present "type" is as virulent
as that of the Middle Ages. 1t is char
acteristic by swellings of the Emphatic
glands and by carbuncles, and beyond
doubt one seizure seems to afford no Sc
curity against second attack. This is,
however, point upon which physicians
have not often had chance to study,
since " the pest" does not usually 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 1771, which cut off 1000 peo-
pie III Moscow, the pestilence was
known to have been brought, in one
instance, from Central Asia, and in the
other from Choczin. Again, during
the latter outbreak, the 1,400 inmates
of the Imperial foundling hospital, who
were isolated, and in 1913 the town of
Jegla, in Malta, which was shut off
1,lt I,
raging, entirely escaped. Quarantine,
however, rs a preventive against the
ravages of the cholera, has been proved
to be utterly futile, and it is very gen.
orally allowed that it is not much more
potent as a barrier against the plague.
No other form of death has ever enlist
ed into its service historians of such
brilliant talent. De Foe could not
have been an eye witness of the
horrible scenes of 1865 in London. But
he had doubtless talked to many who
had survived those dreadful times and
were familiar with the tales of the corpse
carrying wagon going it's dismal rounds
OF the living being unable to carry ou
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 accoun
scarcely less pictorial of the plague il
Florence, and in almost every other Eu
ropean country the "pest" which crep
like foul miasma over Asia, Northern
Africa and Europe, from Naples t.
Archangel, and even to distant Green
land, where it smote the Esquimau,
by thousands, has secured such abl
, chroniclers that, at the slightes
sign of its reappearance, Western
, Europe naturally grows alarmed. In tn
f years 134S, 1861, 1868, 1863 and 100
: London was visited by the "blacl
! DEATH" though those early attacks O
+ the disease sink into insignificanc
; when compared with that which desc
, lated the city in 1865, the year whicl
r will ever be known as "the year Q
: the plague" In reality, however
a though it caused before Christmas
mortality 9S, 59G out ofthe five hundre
! thous| nd people which the metropoli
, then contained, it did not abate til
/ 1866, while in the thirteen subsequen
years there were many fatal case
, recorded. But after 1879 no death fror
l plague is know to have occurred, an
a in 1704 so entirely had it disappeare
, that the name of the disease was actual
a omitted from the bills of mortality
| Mem York Hep02d