The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-07-20

~ eANC do III bNpHuS lever, sometimes mild.
and this changed into coma. The tongue
became dry, the gums were coated with
soot-colored crusts. Then the signs of
paralysis or of weakness Of the heart APP
peared, the pulse was almost gone and the
eXtremities were cold. After this had
lasted for one, two or three days the
glands began to swell and she carbuncles
10 form.
In the third period the glands were
swollen sOmetims as large as hens eggs,
and the carbuncles opened. The body
was covered with sticky perspiration,
which had horrible smell. The fever
lesseued and the pulse grew fuller, while
the mind became clearer. Sometimes the
swollen glands suppurated, in which case
tne patient was believed to have a chance
OF recovery.
The fourth period was like the con-
yalescence from any very severe illness.
IL generally began between the fifth and
sixth day. Among the dangers to be APP
pretended during convalCscence were
pneumonia, protracted fever, showing
typhus fever, dropsy, partial paralysis,
mental disturbances, etc.
A GERM DISEASE.
While we know a good deal about the
symptoms of the plague, we know very
little about its cause. IL must be remem-
bered that the disease has never been
portunity to study it until this outbreak
in China-since the discovery of the germ
origin of the infectious diseases While
we have not yet found the germs or bac-
terra which cause many infectious dis
eases-tor example, typhus fever-we
have found and experimental with
enough of them to make US believe all in
fictitious diseases are caused by germs,
each disease having its specific germ,
which has the power, under favorable
conditions, to cause that disease to de-
velop when this is introduced into the
body of person previously well. l there
fore believe the plague to be a germ dis
ease.
1t is necessary, in order that l should
explain. my own theories about the
plague, to allude briefly to the definitions
of infectious diseases. AS looked on by
the board of health of this city these are
divided into four classes.
First-Communlcabie infectious dis
eases being those in which the germs can
reach the well by mere contact or prox-
unity, as typhus fever, scarlet fever,
smallpox, etc.
Second Contagious infectious diseases
being those in which specific germs must
enter the body in given way in order to
develop them in the well, as cholera,
dlphtheria, typhoid fever, etc.
Ihird-Miasmatic infectious diseases,
in which the germs reach the well from
some place or thing. and cannot travel
from the sick directly to the well, as
malaria and probably yellow fever.
Fourth-Wound infectious diseases. in
which the germs must reach the body of
the well through some abrasion of the
skin or mucous membrane, as erysipelas,
hydrOphobi a. septiCaemia, etc.
| have great pleasure in pointing out
that these definitions are largely founded
on that suggested by DIR. ". H Thomp-
son in most able paper published in the
Medical Record.
Let US see what are the facts about the
plague that we have.
FACTS KNOWN ABOUT IT.
In the first place, we have no record
whatever of the plague developing ad ovo
anywhere. In historic times it has always
travelled from place TO place, or has re-
vived after 1t had renamed quiescent for
long periods of time When the sanitary
conditions nave combined with continued
drought-as in China-or heavy rains and
great heat, it has developed again. For
example, the plague broke out in Italy in
1894 after the opening of some graves
where victims of the disease mad been
buried.
1t travels from place to place along the
routes of commerce, but it has left towns
alone where the sanitary conditions were
good while it has decimated the neigh
boring places.
Dr. Liebermeister says, speaking Of the
outbreak known as the Plague Of Justin
ian:
The communications of the different OBJ
servers who were not themselves physicians,
and who were, so to speak, themselves far re-
moved from all theories about the cause of
the plague and its manner Of dissemination.
show plainly that a direct transmission OF the
f~~fNN0n to Ian
not the rule.
Defoe speaks of the number of persons
who lived in London during the plague,
but who kept themselves in their own
houses, avoided the districts where the
disease was the worst, and survived.
1t is believed by the majority of those
who have studied the subject that the
establishment of severe quarantine ended
the power of the plague to travel Not
only did these guarantees defend one
country from another but towns in which
the plague had appeared were promptly
shut in.
MEDIAEvAL oUARANTINEs.
The severity of these medieval quar-
antines was very great. Morea. in his
"Storia della peste di Noja," published in
Naples in 1917, gives the following &C
count of the quarantine of that town:
When cases of the plague were found in the
a Gordon around IL. The town was Circled
with two deep bitches, and opposite the gates
drawbridges spanned the bitches. Across
these food was introduced, but no other com
munication was allowed Letters were taken
from the city, dipped IN vinegar and for
warded, but nothing else was allowed to come
out Cannon we're planted opposite the gates.
Sentinels patroled the bitches. with orders
to shoot down at once any person coming from
the town who did not stand the moment he
was hailed. a plague patient who escaped
while deirious and attempted to cross the
line was shot and killed Two other cOrdons
of sentinels were established outside the first.
Il hose who disobeycd the orders were treated
most severely. A man in Nola who had
thrown pack OF cards to soldier and the
soldier who picked the cards up were shot
and killed In that Quarter OF the town
where the plague was the hercest 1872 houses
were burned or torn down,
1t is only when we remember the terri
BILE dread of the disease which filled the
minds of all men that we can understand
how measures of such severity could have
been put into operation. Yet the quaran-
tine was the only remedy, and it was
effectual. There are towns and villages
in Egypt which, although repeatedly sur
rounded by the plague, have escaped by
the isolation of quarantine against the
surrounding country.
Now. compare these facts with the
record of the outbreak of yellow fever in
Florida in 1891. The camp of refuge es-
I tablished near Fernandina did not have
e;DCla coca of the dispagp although the