The evening tribune. (Pawtucket, R.I.) 189?-190?, 1897-01-29
TOFIGHTTHEPLAGUE
rhE WONDERFUL WORK OF OR. YER
| SIN.
n Full Description Of the Pest and It's
3 Course-Hb Experiments In Search Of =
, Cure Something About tho Life of This
Remarkable Man.

nlustre, DR.. Yersin, the discoverer OF
the pest vaccine, described the plague
as follows: "It is the cleanest of all
maladies. With a little fever, q little
exhaustion, bubo, and a few hours of
suffering, man dies without any Of
those repugnant complications attend
ing other diseases.
Since 1890, when the plague visited
Marseilles, 1t spared Europe while it
was raging in Asia, where, every year,
its victims were counted by thousands.
In March, 1894, there were 10000
deaths from the plague in the single
town Of CaIton. In 1896 it ravaged
Hongkong. Now it is in India At
Bombay the death rate increases with
terrifying rapidity. In the interior the
plague, which started in Yunnan, is ad-
vancing rapidly, threatening the Rus
sian possessions, and more than one
learned doctor has expressed the appre-
hension that it may reach Asia Minor
and from there get into France.
Therefore it was high time that
French doctor should discover the reme-
dy which would permit us to look upon
the arrival of the pest in Europe with
no more fear than we exhibit in the
presence of variola or diphtheria
DIR. Yersin is young man belonging
to the sanitary corps of the colonies.
he is not yet past 80 years of age, and
nevertheless his scientific record is suffl-
cient TO form an illustrious career He
is of ordinary stature, thin, with long
face wrinkled by his labors in the east
and his long vigils in the laboratory.
His blond hair is closely cut, and his
beard is short He is modest in his man
ner and in his language. And neverthe.
less this humble hammered man is not
only one of the most learned doctors in
the laboratory. but is also one of the
most adventurous and daring Of explor-
ers. He possesses the energy Of long and
patient studies and also the courage of
action. DR.. Yersin was born at Morges,
in Switzerland He belongs to French
family that was driven from France by
the revocation Of the edict of Nantes.
AT an early age he became distinguished
science. In 1885 he was medical stu
dent at the Hotel Dieu under Professor
Cornil. In the hospital there was a troop
of Russian peasants who had been bit
ten by a mad wolf. They were sent to
Paris by their government to receive the
Pasteur treatment. One of them died,
and while performing an autopsy on
the body DIR. Yersin cut himself. He
was sent to the Pasteur institute, where
he was vaccinated and became the friend
of DR.. Roux, who made him his asso-
ciate. The famous memoir of diphtherio
toxine which marked the first step in
the discovery Of the Group vaccine was
lsigned by Roux and Yersin.
The young doctor became a natural
tzed Frenchman, and in 1888 he was
appointed professor in the technical
meteorological laboratory, where he dis
tinguished himself by his ardor in those
minute labors which keep the seeker
bent down for months over the micro
scope But his comrades were astounded
when the young man, already treated
as an equal by his masters, applied for
n place as doctor in the Messageries
lMaritimes and set out in that quality
for the extreme east.
After having scrutinized the depths
of the infinitely little world, Yersin
was attracted by the immensity of the
ocean. Then it was the exploration OF
wild countries that captivated him.
Alone and almost without resources, and
with extremely light baggage, he reached
x1x< .,. x1><, 30 -.
China which were said to be impassa-
BILE for white man and to be inhabited
by ferocious natives. But he passed
through those forests, meeting with ex-
traordinary adventures. The doctor,
however, did not disappear in the ex-
plorer. Yersin forcsaw the immense
services that the Pasteur doctrine, ap-
piled to the plaques of that country,
might render to humanity. He obtained
an appointment rs doctor in the colonial
service. While another disciple of Pas
feur, DIR. Calmette, founded an institute
IN Cochin China and discovered vac
cine against the venom Of serpents,
fersin devoted his energies to the bovine
pest and the human pest.
But concerning this latter portion Of
his labors it II best to cite what he
himself wrote, and indeed nothing can
be more clear or more precise:
"The plague was raging for a long
time in the endemic state ON the hiph
plains OF Yunnan, and from time 10
time it appeared near the frontier of
our Indo-China possessions. In March.
1894, it reached Canton. The great
commercial movement existing between
Canton and Hongkong ON the one hand
and Hongkong and Tonquin on the other,
and the difficulty of establishing on the
frontiers Of these countries really effi-
cacious quarantine, made the French
government fear that Indo- China might
be invaded by the epidemic.
81 received from the colonial minis
try an order TO go to Hongkong to
study the nature of the plague, the con-
ditions in which it was propagated and