The morning times., 1897-01-22
THE DREAD ORIENTAL PEST
All Europe Has Begun to Quar-
antine Against 1t.
DIR. WYMAN GIVES WARNING
Some Apprehension Felt Both IN
New York and in Washington, but
the Epidemic Has Never Reached
America and Is Withstood by
Proper Hygiene and Food.

reached Hamburg. 1t is even reported
that a case has proved fatal in New
York, and the health authorities there
attempted to keep it a secret. Washing
ton is practically unprotected so far as
quarantine in concerned, and it has
considerable population that is subject to
the inroads of the disease.
Widely varying reports can be heard as
to the sanitary conditions OF TINS city
DR. S. c. Busey and others have made
public within the past two years maay
facts that show a grave need OF improve
mcnt, especially in the sewer system.
Health OFFICER Woodward is now urging
legislation which he declares is essential
to proper sanitation here. While the great
majority of citizens are well-tO-dO and have
ample room, there are crowded INTO Ill
kept tenements i'll alleys larger popnla-
ton, presenting some of the conditions
which have fostered the disease abroad.
The disease is at Hamburg among the
crew of the steamer PivTic from Bombay.
Seven of the crew are i'll Her mate died
of the poison during the voyage. Quar-
antine is being enforced at Bremen, Havre,
Liverpool and other European ports against
all East Indian vessels. All cargoes from
India are fumigated.
The New Y ork case was that of John M.
Molansky, who died several weeks ago.
The autopsy was performed because his
death was quite sudden. The coronerS
physician, Dr. Weston, found that the mans
kidney and groin had been eaten away by
the buhonic bacilli The death was re-
ported as Brght's disease Of the kidneys,
but nevertheless the body was hermetcally
sealed in a casket and the house was fumi-
gated. No friends attended the funeral
Surgeon General Wyman was asked yes
terday afternoon wbatmeasures were being
taken TO keep the disease out OF the United
States. He said:
There is no need Of special provisions
against the introduction OF disease into this
country. We have n permanent quaran-
tine system, and under the instructions Of
1894 whenever an epidemic disease ap-
pears at any foreign port it becomes the
duty of the American consul to see that
regulations TO prevent it being brought
here are enforced. At the same time
every qGara ntinc station in this country is
warned against the epidemic.
The eighth paragraph of article 3 OF
were especially directed against the chol-
era, directs that all rules prescribed for
disinfection Of baggage from cholcra in
fected ports should also be observed with
regard to persons coming from places
where the plague is epidemic. Other reg
ulations extend also to the plague. New
erthcless, q special bulletin has been is
sued by this office cautiOning all against
the bubonic plague. 1t was cabled at once
to bombay and sent TO all other places
where it was needed. 1t provides for
fifteen days detention instead OF the five
days called for by the cholera regulations. "
DR. Huntington, of the Medical Museum,
was asked whether there was danger OF
the plague breaking out here.
II think not" was his reply. ut is a
malady that only appears when extremely
unsanitary conditions prevaii-such as we
know almost nothing OF in this country
don't see how it could gain a foothold
here
Has it ever appeared as an epidemic
in this country"
mo; there may have been few cases
brought to our ports, but it has never
existed otherwise on the Western Conti-
nent, l think
was it ever epidemic in Europe?''
Yes; but think not in modern times,
not since sanitation has been carefully
looked after in the large cities. The con-
ditions at some European ports were at
one time favorable TO it, 1t has been sup
posed that the great plague of London
might have been due to this disease
DR. Huntington handed the reporter
recent copies of the Lancet, containing a
lecture by Dr. James Camille, who was at
HonG-K ong during the prevalence of the
pestilence, there, in 1894.
DR.. Cantlin says the malady belongs
neither to a cold nor hot, wet nor
dry season. 1t broke out in China at one
time after a long dry period. 1t prevailed
at Calcutta from the season when the
average temperature was so degrees till
it was 80 degrees, and finally stopped when
the weather was damp and the mean tenn
perature was S5degrccs, state of weather
usually deemed most favorable TO its pre-
valence. The extremely cold province of
AstraEan, in Russia, has been subject to
its ravages. Its geographiclitnits are given
as the Canary Islands on the wesl, Formosa
on the east, and the tropic of Cancer on
the south, with no limit on the north.
The plague attacks most virulently the
natives of oriental countries, Europeans
living among them are usually exempt, even
when engaged in the care of the sick OF
ten French physicians who cared for the
dying in Egypt in 1885 only one took
the disease. OF their number, NJ. Bullrd
was so convinced that the disease was not
nearly SO contagious as supposed, that he
wore for two days the shirt OF a man who
had died with it. He escaped unframed
At Hong-Kong in 1894 physicians and
nurses, and even the Chinese medical
students engaged in caring for the dying
all escaped. The members of a Shrops shire
regiment, however, who volunteered to
clear out the filth from the infected dwell
ings, were seized with the epidemic and
some OF them died. This is explained on
the ground that the contagion was much
mere intense where they We're employed.
A singular fact is that the prevalence of
the plague among men is nearly always
preceded by its killing all the rats in the
quarter where it appears. These rodents
seem to be craZed, and come out in the
rooms without fear and die there in con-
vulsions. The children amuse themselves
at morning by throwing the dead rats out
of the house into the cutters. An effort
was made once at Calcutta to prevent the
epidemic by gathering up the rats, and one
morning $4,000 were hcaped up at
single gate.
1t has become customary for the natives
to leave their homes when the rats begin
| to die in them, but this is usually not pos
sible for lack of food and shelter else
| where. 1t seems certain that the chief
| cause of the plague is lack of sufficient