The river press., 1881-04-27
THE BLACK DEATH.
Reappearance of the Great Plague which
Devastated the Middle age.

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. It therefore becomes
important TO know the characteristics Of the
disease. The London Standard states, on
pathological grounds, that it is a ''veEy ma
lignant form of contagious fever" which
breaks out suddenly in certain localities and
spreads with frightful rapidity, and that the
this "type' is as virulent as that of the Mid
die Ages. It is characterized by swellings of
the lymphatic glands and by carbuncles and
beyond doubt one seizure seems to afford no
security against second attack. This is,
however, a point upon which physicians
have not often had q chance of studying,
since 'sthe 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 taced to
persons having come from infested districts.
In the Astrakban epidemic of 1779, and in
that of 1771, which cut off 100000 people in
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 founding hospital, who were
isolated, and in 1918 the town Of Jegla, in
Malta, which was shut off from Valetta
where the disease was raging, entirely es-
H,1a
tive against the ravages Of the cholera, has
been proved to be utterly futile, and it is not
much more potent as a 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 to 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 its dismal rounds, of
the living being unable to carry out the dead,
and London deserted by the court, and, in
deed, all who could escape into the country.
In .'Rienzi' the late Lord Lytton has given
an account scarcely less pictorial Of the
plague il Florence, and in almost every other
European country 'sthe pest which crept
like a foul miasma over Asia, Northern Afri- |
ca and Europe, from Naples to Archangel,
and even to distant Greenland, where it smote
the Esquimaux by thousands, has secured |
such able chroniclers that, at the slightest |
sign Of its reappearance, western Europe
naturally grows alarmed. In the years 1346,
1861, 1868, 1869, and 1902 London was visited
by the "black DEATH" though these early at
tacks Of the disease sink into insignifcance
when compared with that which desolated
the city in 1865, the year which will ever be
known as "the year Of the plague" In re-
Atty, however, though it caused before Christ
mas q mortality Of Ge, ,596 out Of the SOC, 900
people which the metropolis then contained,
{ did not abate until 1866, while in the thir-
cen subsequent years there were many fatal
Eases recorded. But after 1879 no death from
he plague is known to have occurred, and il
-7O4 50 entirely had it disappeared that the
name of the disease was actually omitted from
he bills of mortality.