The Virginia enterprise., 1898-11-11
THE BUBONIC PLAGUE.
European Countries Often Visited by
the Terrible Disease.

the Terrible Disease. -.
Viennd's diartfl oset the preseiIce there
OF the buhbhic plague is well justified by
history, Eur0Iean countries have been
detdstatetl more than once by, this terri
BILE sconrge: ~
OF tie outbreaks related by the histo-
rians uddef Merit, Vespasian; Titus, Mar-
answer the description Of the plague-
that of Marcus Aurelius, in 1G6, and of
Gallus, in 25O. The former was said to
have been brought from the Parthians by
the troops of Lucius .Verus. 1t ravaged
Rome and the provinces, whence it spread
The latter rayaged the whole of Achaia,
decimating the imperial troops.
Toward the middle of the Sixth century
the outbreak known as Justinian's plague
desolated the countries that were inhab-
tied at that time. Important cities be-
| came entirely deserted.
From the Seventh to the Fourteenth
centuries other -epidemics occurred. but
| no one of them could be compared with
the outbreak of plague that ragged in
Europe from 1347 to 1850. 1t is said to
have carried off 25,O0O,O 900 persons, and
! its victims throughout the whole world
were estimated at 100000, which is
unquestionably the greatest havoc in hui
man life ever mentioned in history.
| AC NVAApAuIAt uppCUlSu " ISCcuc SlON :
| ly but stcadily from 1850 to 1845, and the
Seventeenth century marked its last an
pearat1ce III 1nany European countries,
| such as Denmark, Sweden and England,
| where it has not been heard of since the
terrible epidemic which occurred in Lon
don, Switzerland, Holland and Spain. In
France its last visit was from 172O to
1122, when it made $4,000 victims iii
| Marseilles and Provence.
| In the second half of the Eighteenth
century the plague confined itself chiefly
| to Asia Minor, between the Caspian sea
and the Gulf of Persia, but it spread to
! Egypt and reached Mogador, on the Med
iterranean coast of Africa. in 1890. as
we'll as Nubia, while it ravaged south
and of it's tributaries, lower Austria. Gro
alta, Slavonia, Hungary. Moldo-Walla
CHA, Galicia, Southern and Central Rus
sia as far as Moscow and Jaroslav, near
the Goth degree of north latitude. At the
end of the Eighteenth century the plague
was to be found chiefly in Asia Minor,
Egypt and the coast Of Barbary, whence
it threatened Europe.
At the beginning of the present century
| Consta ntinople was twice visited. and the
complaint spread to the shores of the
Adriatic, Wallachia, Albania and the Mo-
rea.
The plague gradually receded from
1882 to 1S45, and could only be found in
Roumelia, Constantinople, Asia Minor
and Algeria. Egypt, which had counted
twenty-one epidemics between 1888 and
| 1874, has been free from the plague since
1845, and at that time Fauvel felt au-
thorized to report to the Paris health
board that the scourge was extinct, that
it's activity was at an end, and that it
could only be found in a few spots in
Africa and Asia.
Fr6m 1916 to the present day. with the
exception Of slight outbreak iii Russia
on the Volga. in 1871; the plague has re-
manned confined to few limited regions.
which were its permanent f0cf These
foci are: In Africa, Lydia in Asia, Az
syr, IrakArabi. Persia Turkestan, At
| ghanistan, Hindostan and China.
The recent outbreak in India has shown
| the terrible consequences of the plague.