Arizona republican., 1893-01-20
THE BLACK DEATH.
Reappearance of a Terrible Scourge
 in Turkestan.
Some of the Ravages of the Dread Dis ease-The Frightful Mortality Com sequent Upon Its Visits to
 Europe.

Recent advices from Turkestan tell of the outbreak there of the black death in a very virulent form, some thirteen hundred people dying of the disease in a small town inside of six days. The black death, says the New York Sun, is an unfamiliar name to modern times, but in the middle ages it was n current term, never spoken without a sense of horror. It passed under different names at times, such as the great death," the "bubo plague the plague" and. indeed, it was the plague of the ancicnts. It was the rlaguc of the time of Trajan and was first mentioned historically by the phy- sician Rufus, of Ephesus and for 2,O0O years it has paid periodical visits, chief ly to Mediterranean shores. In the fourteenth century it extended all over Europe and the mortality was fright ful, fully 25,OOO,OOO of people having succumbed to the scourge, while at the same time in the east 23,OOO,OO and in China l3,OOO, 900 perlshcd. In lG5G some 3OO 900 people were carried off in five months by the plague in Naples. Lon don had been visited many times by the disease, when what is known as the great plague of London" pre- vailed in 1864, and about oue-siXth of the population of the city was carried off. In Tou,on in 172l one-third of the population pershed.
 Almost the last appearance of the black death in Europe was in 1s4O and 1S4l, in Turkey and Da.matia. It has never appeared in the United States. Our first accurate knowledge of the scourgc dates from its prevalence in Egypt from 1888 to 1S45, where it was studied by European physicians as care fully as could be done with the restrict ed pathological teachings of that time. Since then there have been outbreaks in lrak on the Euphrates in 1867 and in 1873, in 1876 at Bagdad, in 1877 at other points on the Tigris and again in 1884 in the same parts of Mesopotamia. In 1878 Europe was thrown into panic by the appearance of the plague on the banks of the Volga, but it was mild in character, and died out spontaneously in short time. The various govern ments sent commissions to the spot to study and report upon the disorder, but it had quite disappeared when the commissioners arrived, and consequent ly our scientific Knowledge of the disor- der was not increased.
 We know it to be the most fatal of all epidemic diseases. The mortality varies from sixty to ninety per cent of those attacked. and occasionally every person affected dies. Not only human beings suffer, but rats, cats, dogs, cat tie and other animals become victims to the pestilence. It is undoubtedly an acute infectious disease, caused by some micro organism which has unusually malignant proclivities, and which null tiplies with enormous rapidity within the body. Death sometimes takes place in very few hours. Among the symp- toms which have contributed to it's vari- ous designations are enlargement and suppuration of glands and the forma- ton of carbuncles, whence the name "bubo-plague;" and hemorrhagic spots and petechiB under the skin, rendering the body quite dark or black, whence the origin of the phrase "black death"
 Like ther cholera and smallpox and several other contagious diseases, it haunts the habitations of the poor, the shiftless, and the squalid. Modern civilization in Europe, with it's im- proved sanitation of cities and perfected water supply, has gradually eradicated most of the epldemics that so ravaged medieval peoples, but pestilence still fingers among the Orientals, where everything it demands for its susten- ance and perpetuation is furnished with prodigal liberality; foul water, decay ing food, vile habits, filthy houses, un-