The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-05-09
PLAGUE STRUCK ANIMALS.
Curious Accounts of Death From
PestiIence in Bombay.
From the Spectator.

From the Spectator.
Evidence of the intensity and virulence
of the plague in Bombay is given by the
curious accounts telegraphed to this coun-
try of the deaths of animals from the
pestllence. Some weeks ago it was re-
ported that the pigeons were dying of
plague Now the rats are said for some
time to have been plague-stricken, and to
be dying in thousands in the native town.
If those who are fighting the plague
have time to attend to anything but the
work of saving human life, we may ex-
pect more curious information on this
point; for there is evidence that, when
the plague was at Its very worst in Flor
ence, causing the death of $1,000 persons,
the pestilence acquired some kind of cum
ulative energy by which it went on from
man to animal, and at last involved the
latter in common destruction with their
masters. AS it advance mot only men
but animals fell sick and shortly expired,
if they had touched things belonging to
the diseased or dead" Boccaccio himself
saw two hogs on the rags of person who
had died of plague, after staggering about
for a short time, fall down dead. as II
they had taken poison. In the Lives of
the Roman Pontiffs" it is stated that In
other places multitudes of cats, dogs,
fowls and other animals fell victims TO
the contagion. There is little doubt that
this concurrence of human and animal
death took place In other countries than
Italy, though the chroniclers, appalled,
by the loss of human life, only allude to
"Murrain" among the cattle as a con-
comitant of the plague. AT the COM
mencement of the black death there was
in England" says Hecker, IAN abundance
of all the necessaries of life; but the
plague, which seemed then to be the sole
disease was soon accompanied by a fatal
murrain among the cattle. Wandering
about without herdsmen, they fell by thou
sands" 1t is not known whether this
murrain was due to plague itself or to
some special animal epidemic. But 1t did
not break out until after the plague was
rife, and added enormously TO the loss OF
life, because il was impossible to remove
the corn from the fields, causing every
where a great rise In the price of food,
although the harvest had been plentiful.
1t Is not known whether the animals OF
Florence, like those Of Bombay. were
really suffering from plague. But there
is good reason to believe that their deaths
were connected by something more than
coincidence Of time with the plague cpl
demic. What the old physicians called
general morbinc conditions" thar
change of atmosphere and temperature
which seems to summon pestilence suli-
grown from the very ground In certain
parts OF the east-apparenty prepared an
lmal constitutions to receive the disease.
A month before the cholera became rife
in Hamburg. 60 per cent. OF Carl Hagen
beck's animals suffered from choleraio
symptoms. and he diagnosed the disease.
checked II by boiling the water. and no
titled the authorities OF what had hap
pened. The curious exactness with which
Homer noted that In the plague before
Troy mules and dogs were attacked be-
fore the soldiers. has often been quoted
as internal evidence OF the truth OF the
HAD. Influenza. which was very fatal
among animals, sometimes attacked them
before II was felt by men. as In New
York. where II FIRST appeared among the