The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-06-14
From the New York Herald


fused to call in at Hong Kong for either
mails or passengers, and since then all
vessels are giving the port wide berth
The plague, which is described by med
ical men as almost exactly similar in APP
pearance and symptoms to ''tbe great
plague of London, which devastated that
city in 1865, was noticed first in Canton
about the end of April, prior to which
date there had been period Of prolonged
drought.
IT BROKE OUT IN FILTH.
The first sign observed was the appear
anee of thousands of rats, swollen and
evidently dying, crawling up from the
open sewers and the houses of that abom-
inably filthy city. These vermin are in
variably the precursors of all such vista
tions in Southern China, and every year
they give notice of the appearance OF the
plague in Pakhoi, where it appears to be
almost endemic. The disease is of a bu-
bonic character, with purplish or black
swellings in the glandular regions, in the
groin, armpit under the knees and in the
neck, accompanied by terrific fever, the
temperature going at bound up TO los
and over 106.
1t is frightfully rapid in its course.
Purging diarrhea at once sets in and a
state of delirium followed by coma is
reached in three or four hours in bad
cases, death ensuing and the body turn
ing black, putrid and swollen to thrice
its size in the course of twelve or twenty
four hours. Very strong men have re-
sisted the attack for two days and then
succumbed, but as many as so per cent.
of those attacked in Canton died in one
day. Those who held out for three or
four days generally recovered, but they
were very few Six thousand fatal cases
are known TO have occurred in one dis
trict in Canton-in the old Mohammedan
quarter of the city-withiu a week, these
figures being checked by the number of
collins given out for the burial of the dead
by one charitable institution.
SIXTY THOUSAND VICTIMS.
A foreign missionary resident in Canton
made systematic inquiries, which he
AYERS show that up TO the Sth inst, at
least 10000 people have been carried off.
All the immense business of the city was
at a standstilI, and the inha bitants who
could do so were fleeing the country,
while those who remained were endeav-
orlng to stay the progress of the terror
by the most eXtravagant loss pidgin' or
worship of their idols, vain rites in which
the highest officers of the government
joined. Several medical and other experts
were dispatched from Hong Kong to in
quire into the cause of the plague, and
they all agreed that it was due primarily
to the incredible filth, the abominable
habits and the poverty of the Cantonese,
aided no doubt by the prolonged drought,
which caused the filth in the open sewers
to terminate into hideous forms of life.
ENTIRELY CONFINED TO THE CHINESE.
Some people believe that the fondness
of the Cantonese for rats as an article of
food is largely accountable for the pesti-
lence, which the rats caught first from
eating the fostering contents of the sew
ers. There may be something in this, for
it is fact that none of the Euronean
residents of Canton or Hong Kong has
been attacked by the plague. which is en-
tirely confined to the Chinese. Nor in
one hospital where over 400 patients lay,
300 of whom died in a few hours, were any
of the attendants attacked. l myself
saw, however, one case of a European te-
ing carried off by an exactly similar
plague in Pakhir in 1887, when the
Chinese there were dying at the rate of
over 100 a day. This man lived as a
Chinese, dwelling among them and eating
their food. So far as / can learn this is
the only instance on record of the bubonic
plague in I'akhir, Canton or Hong Kong
affecting others than natives.
BY June on one small street in Can
ton out of a population of l7O only forty
were left alive. Whole families had been
carried OH in many districts. Even the
thieves who went to rob the houses of the
dead were in many instances carried off
by death before they could escape with
their plumber, and the native doctors
were found dead in their sedan chairs
as they were being carried TO see their
patients
THE PEsTILENcE REACHES HoNG-KoN6.
The plague seems TO have reached Hong
Kong about June 3, and on the 10th forty
deaths day were recorded in one small
district called Tinpingshan, and since
then the mortality has been some what
checked By the exertions of the sanitary
authorities, but at the time of writing
there are from thirty TO forty deaths a
day in the colony, being about60 per cent.
of those attacked. Hong-Kong, too has
been suffering from want of rain, and the
great reservoirs recently erected at vast
expense at Tytam were almost empty on
Monday last, the inhabitants of the col
ony beng put on very short allowance,
and no water being available TO flush the
drains, which in many parts of the colony
were in filthy condition.
PRECAUTIONS AT HoNG-KoNG.
Indeed. from a sanitary point of view,
in the more crowded parts of Hong-Kong,
where the Chinese are packed more
densely than any other human beings
could bear, the surrounding are very
little better than at Canton. And the
same may be said of many parts of Shang-
hal. At this port steps are being taken