Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1894-07-05

q similar manner, so to 100 persons are
dying every day. The whole number
OF deaths thus far is over 100000. In
Hong Kong, the percentage OF deaths
for three days was 100, that is, every
person who was attacked died.
In Hong Kong as in Canton, ener-
getic measures are being taken to ex-
terminate the plague, but with no sue
cess. Detectives are at work making
a house to house canvass of infected
districts and bringing the sufferers to
the hospitals, whore some care can be
given them. In many ca es they have
found the sufferers alone and uncared
for. AS soon as a case appears the
Chinese desert the afflicted, leaving
him in room with jug of water and
peering in the window at intervals,
and prodding the victim with long
pole to ascertain If lite is extinct.
The danger from infection from the
disease is greater than is generally
imagined. Hong Kong is a great tea
shipping port, and the pestilence might
be brought over to this country in the
tea chests. Canton and Hong Kong,
however, have been declared infected
ports. and all vessels coming from
there will be placed in quarant ne on
arrival in San Francisco. AS Europe
ans and Americans in Yunnan, Can
ton. and Pakhoi have been stricken
with the disease, 1t is important that
all quarantine precautions should be
taken against the introduction of the
plague in American ports. The vari-
Gus consuls on the Southern China
coast are urging that the laws pertain
ing to the arrival of ships and steamers
in America from infected ports be rig
idly enforced.
What Caused the Plague.
The plague is mystery. Whence it
comes has puzzled the world for seve-
raj centuries. Scientists now. how
ever, lean to the belief that it Is q Sc
we're form of malaria or typhus, and
that it is caused by bad sanitary con-
ditions, ty drouth and filth. This the
ory is sustained by the fact that, in the
case OF the present epidemic, ii broke
out in section where the drainage is
imperfect and filth abounds, and that
the whole af1iicted section has not been
visited by rain in many months.
The original birthplace of the plague
was in Yunnan, a Chinese province,
and its first visits were the most dread
full scourges to which humanity has
ever been subjected. In the fourteenth
century it killed l3, 0),000 people in
China. "a, 100000 in othe' Oriental
countries. and not less than %, 0l,U0O
In Europe. Germany alone had 1,z4l,
434 recorded deaths from this cause.
Italy had quite one. half of its entire
population swept away, and in London,
then comparatively small city, there
we're no less than 10000 victims
The last outbreak of plague in
Europe was in 1879, on the banks of
the Nolga. 1t was very virulent, and
at Vetlianka, out of a population Of
LOO, there were All attacked and 1862
died The epidemic probably took its
rise in Astrakhan, in 1877, and was not
brought from Turkey by Cossacks
after the war, as was popularity sup
posed.
Plague has been observed in China
since 1871, in Yunnan and at Pakhoi, a
port in Tonquin Gull, since 1882. where
IL Is said to have prevailed for a. least
fifteen years. In Yunnan 1t Is endemic
and at Pakhoi IL occurs nearly every
year.
The disease is directly infectious,
spreading rapidly from every place OF
its appearance. IL Is attended by fear
ful suffering, and Is so nearly always