The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-11-18
BLACK DEATHS SHADOW.
Terrible Ravages Wrought By This
Plague In the Past.

AeFriDie HaVages Wrought BY This
Plague In the Past.
From the New York Herald.
Austria is In fear and Vienna trembles
on the verge of panic from the presence
of the plague. that dreaded Oriental
pestilence, the very name of which fills
the Eastern mind with awe, whether it
be called "Levantine," or ''bubonic." 1t is
not the death of a few or the death OF
scores from the plague that brings fright
to the communities in which it appears.
but the known possibilities of the scourge
and the frightful consequences for its
spread. The fear of it is justified by his
tory, and when that blacklist CHAPTER of
human mortality is recalled, no wonder
the cable daily tells us that physicians
IN Vienna are working their hardest to
stay the disease, that the utmost precau-
tons are being taken. that all known and
imagined possible remedies are being ap-
piled, that careful experiments with the
baciili of the disease are being made, that
there is great fear, and that these fears
are the worst
Europe supposed TO be rid of the plague
forever, has suddenly gone back to four
teenth century conditions From the
force of the disease in Northern Africa.
Asia or China. where the bacilH appear
to be continually breeding in cesspools
that reek with the filth of generations.
the disease has found its way into Eu-
rope, where it has hardly appeared in the
present century.
1t way away back in 1347 that the plague
was worst in Europe, when its victims
numbered 100000, while the deaths
throughout the then known world reach
ed 40, 000 in the three years the scourge
ragged. Since then it has BEEN gradually
disappearing from Europe, appearing last
in France, in 1920, showing itself only in
the more easterly countries and appear
ing in Constantinople from 1892 to 1916.
Now in Vienna has appeared the slight
fever, swelling of the glands ague,
pains in the limbs, with the nervous symp-
toms that tell of the presence of the
plague. The alarm has come, for the
nervous symptoms are increasing; the pa
tient becomes distracted and losses In
restless fear of indescribable pending dan
ger. He. staggers while on his feet. he
does not understand your questions. ne
burns with intense, unquenchable thirst
his eyes are red, his tongue swollen. dry
sometimes black, sometimes white; the
fever is on him-slow, burning: he has
vomiting spells; coma takes possession of
him and death comes to his relief. These
symptoms vary some are absent in cases.
and others take their places. Some have
carbuncies many have hemorrhages. and
very, very few survive them.
The attack may last a few hours or a
month; few fatal cases go beyond five
days The records kept in India show that
sixty out of every hundred attacked ole.
NO wonder that Vienna is aroused. now
the disease is there. Where it came from
knnuy. cvafx
II never dles-has sent from It's laboratory
of filth the germ OF growth ini,nical
to human life. 1t found a lodging place.
and has propagated its offspring moving
an overwhelming circles and finding new
congenial breeding places where cleanII-
ness is most neglected. This circle or a
number of them, can now be traced IN
Vienna.
The disease depends on the reception into
the body of a specific organic contagion
which rapidly multiplies and passes from
one victim TO another. II has a prescribed
life, and low temperature kills il. out
while il lives few can withstand its rsv-
ages.st.w
Physicians in Vienna are trying to etav
the plague; they are appealing for personal
cleanliness, for the removal of foul organic
matter, for good drainage and for prevent
ion of overcrowding. They do this be-
sides using all that materia medica af-
fords them, because they know the dis
ease They know il from the time of
Trajan; they know of it in the sixth cen
fury, when it was called "Justinian's
plague" and had the same symptoms and
fearful result as now; and they know It
as the BLACK death"
They have followed it through the reigns
of Nero, Vespas sian and Marcus Anrelirs:
they know that in l06 imperial troops
brought Il from the Parthians and that
il ravaged Rome and spread TO the Rhine
and hat again, 259, it decimated the Rom
an army.
Then they know Of it's later work in
China. Egypt and India, and of the ter
rible wreck it wrought in Bombay only
a little more than a year ago. No wonder
then, that they feel there is cause for
great alarm, now that the disease has
broken bonds that were supposed to hold
II in Asia, and has started on an invas-
ion of Europe.