The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-01-28
BUBONIC PLAGUE.
Surgeon General WymRn Explains
Diseases Nature-Cause and Re-

! Surgeon General Wyman Explains
Diseases Nature-Causc and Re-
| suits.
A New York special to the Philadelphia
Press. Jan. 25, says: DR.. Walter Wyman,
surgeon general of the United States Ma
rlne Hospital Service, has been making a
special study q the black DEATH or bu-
bonic Plague, now raging in India, the
deadliest scourge that ever afflicted the
earth.
1.-The disease" said the surgeon gem
eral, begins generally with high fever,
and in from one to five or six days the
glands of the groin and of the axilla be-
gin to swell. The duration of the fever
! is from few hours to some weeks, in a
large proportion of the cases the fever
lasting about five or six days.
after this primary fever, the second
AIRY fever occurs in a majority Of recov-
ering cases.
The most prominent characteristics of
the disease is the swelling of the glands
Large buboes may form within few
hours after a person has felt in the best
of heath, but buboes are sometimes en-
tirely absent
The term black death is probably de-
rived from the hemorrhages of the stom-
ach or the intestines, or from the fact
that the bodies frequently undergo dis
celebration owing to rapid decomposition
after death.
THE cause of the disease is bacillus
somewhat resembling that of chicken
cholera--a small, short rod, with rounded
ends. This bacillus. which was discovered
| by X itasato in 1894, is characterized by
/ mr. Y IF mic frli
the facility with which it enters the hu-
man organ SIN.
1T is related by Yersin that a camel
hair pencil infected with the germ and
touched to the eve of rabbit would cause
death as rapidly as if inoculated under
the skin.
I'm general the disease is spread in the
same manner as cholera, except that the
cholera germ must enter the intestinal
tract, while the germ of the plague may
| attack any part of the mucuous MEM
brane or be contracted by even the min
utest abrasion of the skin.
while this germ is so Vire and so
easily taken into the system it is one of
the most easily killed by disinfection. Re-
garding the present danger from this dis
case it should be borne in mind that its
terrible ravages We're, at periods when
there was the utmost ignorance with re-
| gard to preventive measures
Even during the last century, as COM
pared with previous periods. the disease
has been kept in allegiance under quaran-
| tine restraints and by sanitary measures
extremely imperfect as compared with
| those of to-day
"All the European authorities are on the
alert, and 1 believe that they will be abh
to prevent the extension of the disease
! from India.
1T should be borne in mind that it is
only within three years that the exact
nature of the disease has become known.
This positive knowledge obviates unnec-
essary and futile measures and gives d-
rectness and force to those which are of
service. The admirable system of quar-
! antine established by a law of congress,
which provides for the thorough inspec-
| ton of vessels at various foreign ports
! before their departure for the United
States, and the uniform system of quar-
antine in the ports of the United States,
| warrant confidence that the disease will
/ not enter This country