The San Francisco call., 1899-07-09

T the East do more than foreshadOw
y such an appalling calamity-they
4 actually predict it. And the future
consequently is full of dire foreboding TO
all of us who are not either enthusiastic
entOmologists or physicians skilled in the
mysteries of circuIative poisons and their
treatment.
And il is-heaven save the name!-a
kissing bug which is to become the in
sect scourge of our broad land apd give
the kiss of death" to its victims wher-
ever and whenever it listeth.
This creature, which in reality is
bugaboo in many sections Of our country
at the present time, has earned its IA
miliar appellation by reason Of its SEEM
ingly peculiar preference in the matter of
the location Of its poisonous stings, the
lips or their immediate vicinity being the
points of attack in the great majority of
cases that have come under public obser-
walton.
AS the MenaIolestes picipes he has lived
and moved and had his being all over the
United States ever since there was a
United States to live in without attracting
any especial attention to his insignificant
self; but now he has suddenly emerged
from his innoCuous condition and gone
upon the warpath. Contented. in the days
of retirement and innocence, with sticking
his pOisOn-dealing proboscis into the
bodies of other bugs and insects and
drawing the blood from their vainly pro-
testing and wriggling bodies. he has of
late developed an experimental faculty,
the exercise of which, pleasing though 1t
may be TO him, has already had the effect
OF terrorizing whole communities in the
Eastern States.
The trouble began about three weeks
ago in the District of Columbia. An cmer-
gency call was rung in very early one
morning at the Washington Receiving
Hospital and the ambulance hurryIng
away brought in a man whose appearance
was puzzle TO the physicians in charge.
His face was swollen TO such an extent
that his eyes were completely closed and
the skin over the inflamed parts was of
q fiery crimson and distended almost TO
the point of bursting.
The patient could give no explanation Of
the disease which had attacked him. He
could only state that he had been per
fectly well al bedtime, but on awaking in
the middle of the night had found a slight
swelling on his upper lip which had in
creased so rapidly, spreading out over
his cheeks and nose, that by morning his
. eyes were completely closed and his face
hideous to look upon.
The physicians having never met or
heard of such a case before diagnosed
this one as being the effect of a peculiar
nervous disorder, and after working over
the patient for thirty-six hours discharged
him restored to something like his normal
condition.
This was but the beginning of a novel
but by no means agreeable experience.
Case after case of identically similar ma
tuTe was brought to that hospital for
treatment, the symptoms of all the differ
ent persons and the stories told by them
being almost invariably the same Each
and all went TO bed we'll and awakened
10 the misery Of distortion and suffering:
the one exception was an expressnIan,
who was attacked by the strange malady
while lying asleep on his wagon under the
full glare Of the afternoon sun.
Various theories are put forward in ex-
planation Of the strange disorder, and
physicians disagreed among themselves
as to its cause quite as energetically and
decidedly as did the newspapers and the
public in general. The majority favored
the idea of its being a particularly ag-
gravated development of the trouble
known as strawberry brash." The doc
tors at the Emergency Hospital still stand
by their first expressed opinion that it
was an outward manifestation of a ner-,
vous disease, and few determinedly de-
clared that nothing but the bite of some
noxious insect would produce such results
as were visible in every instance.
1t remained for Mr.. Schwartz, connected
with the division entomology in the De-
partment of Agriculture, to solve the
problem but his solution did not by any
means add any element of comfort to the
situation. Without in the least wishing to
become martyr for the purpose Of en-
tightening his fellow-beings on the subject
of the prevailing epidemic Of swollen and