The morning call., 1894-06-14
THE PLAGUE IN CHINA.

Dispatches state that disease which is
called the plague is raging in China, and
that 1t has already caused an exodus from
Hong-Kong OF half its population. One
hundred deaths day are reported in that
city, which is about IOuT-fifths the size of
San Francisco. Considerable alarm pre-
walls among those whose business requires
them to visit China. and the quarantine
authorities at this port are on the alert.
The plague of history which devastated
Europe in the fourteenth, fifteenth and
sixteenth centuries was a septic disease
supposed to be transmissibe by contagion.
1t was so fatal that. in the fourteenth cen.
tury, one-quarter OF the people of Europe
are said to have died of it. Ii appeared to
arise from poison which travelled from
some center to the glands, especially those
I'D the groin and the axilla, causing swell
lngs which suppurated and finally pro-
duced death from the decomposition of the
blood. These were the symptoms which
marked cases in the great plague of Lon
don In the seventeenth century. Since
1864 the plague has appeared in Europe on
many occasions. but in sporadic and not
an epidemic form. Towns and villages
have been rayaged, but the disease has not
spread. The most memorable outbreaks
in our time occurred in 1873 in Irak, in
Mesopotamia. in the marshes of the Lower
EuDhrateS. and in 1878 on the Volga. In
both places The cases were not eXtraordi-
narily numerous, but they were generally
fatal. There are places in Asia and East
ern Europe where vstations of the plague
are periodical even 10 our day. but after
time the disease dies where it arose, with
out spreading.
1t has been established that the maIady
cannot be transmitted by merchandise,
and some modern doctors have doubted
whether it is contagious. During a severe
recent outbreak at Alexandria the trade
of that port with Marseilles and London
was not interrupted, and none of the
foreigners died. The physicians conclud-
ed that the disease germ was 10 the air,
and that only those who had been exposed
to it for long period of time were liable
TO be attacked.
1t appears to be filth disease, springing
from poor food. want of drainage and
miasma. 1t has bsen asserted that it only
appears in marsh lands, but it has oc-
Cured in India on calcareous and granite
mountains 1000 feet above the sea. 1t is
supposed that 1t can only develop in hot
climates, but it has never broken out in
the tropics. 1t appears to be checked when
the temperature rises above IS degrees, il
the heat is anaccompanied by moisture.
If we can rely upon the published accounts
of the Black Death of the middle ages, the
one condition necessary for the develop
ment Of the disease in an epidemic form
was foul air proceeding from the accumu-
lation of garbage and the absence of drain
age. 1t appeared under circumstances
which in our day would have produced
typhoid and diphtheria, though it differs in
its main characteristics from both those
diseases.
Though plague has appeared sporadically
on various occasions in China there never
has been to our knowledge in that empire
any such epidemic as Europe witnessed IN
the fourteenth century. In China santa
ton is an unknown art. Even in the CAPT.
tai city of Picking house refuse is dumped
into the streets, as was the custom in Lon
don at the time of the great plague. In
the large as in the small cities of the en-
pire Gffal and garbage are left in the tn OF
oughfareS to faint the air. Such a course
of proceeding in this country would lead
10 endemic typhoid, diphtheria and scarlet
fever. In China it occasionally takes the
form which is called plague. 1t is possible
that one of these periodical visits OF the
aveDging deity has just occurred In the
densely peopled province of Quantung,
and that the punishment has extended to
Hong Kong, which itself is we'll drained,
but is close to the suburb OF Aber ieen, as
filthy village as there is in China. But
we lack information to judge intelligentIy.
One thing is reasonably certain. We
need have no fear of plague here. There
is no example of an epidemic crossing the
Pacific eastwardly and landing on our
shores, except smallpox. That is disease
which is no respecter OF persons or of san
itary conditions. Only vaccination wards
it off. Cholera constantly prevails in the
settlements back of Kobe, in Japan, but
tas never been transmitted to this port by
the steamers. And again, though a ship
may be focus of disease, contagion has
seldom been spread from that source.
Cases of plague at Marseilles and Genoa
have been ascribed to the arrival of vessels
from infected ports in the Levant, but the
cases were few and rarely fatal. There
have been no cases of plague being brought
to an English quarantine station of late
years. even by vessels which sailed from
ports where the disease was active. 1t is
probably both contagious and infectious,
but IL needs certain surroundings ana con-
ditions TO become epidemic.
&c THE DANCED DIDN'T ccRR .