The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1899-12-03
DANGER FROM PLAGUE
Fortunately Less Apt to Strike
in the First Place
THAN TO KILL ITS VICTIM
After 1t Strikes--C Cleanliness
Its Deadly Foe.
THAN TO KILL ITS VICTIM

Herald. Captain Walters and the COO
of the vessel, Robert Burns are reporte
to be doing well in their quarters i
swineburne Island, but that the meres
shadow of so dread and terrible a visi
tant as the plague should be cast in on
vicinity is sufficient to cause a shudde
of dismay, for there is no doubt that tn
''black death" is making it's appearance
in spots where it has been unknown 70
many years, or where it has never beel
known before. Its recent appearances il
Portugal have put all civilized nations OF
the alert, and any ship coming from an,
port where the shadow of the ''blacl
death" lies is subjected to the most rigit
inspection
In this country, indeed, we have les
reason to fear the pleague than have tn,
European countries, for, besides an eX
cellent quarantine system, We have tht
advantage of a distance so great that the
maxim period of incubation for the mi
crobe-seven or eight days-would be
passed before the infected ship reached
here. Health Officer Doty expressed tC
the Herald his belief that the chances OF
the bubonic plague reaching this country
through the port of New York are ex-
ceedingly remote.
II know perfectly WELL" said he, that
there is no microbe that I cannot kill alb
solutely. This statement is not built on
theory, but on personal experimental
work
I have killed these microbes with steam
at a temperature of 23O, and even 215 de-
grees, when the microbes have been
buried in two pounds Of newspaper.
There was positively no growth. These
were most exhaustive tests. 1t is much
less difficult to kill the microbes when
they are exposed.
by the process we have developed
here I am confdwent Of thoroughly dis
injecting any bundle of clothing or bag
gage that may arrive on an infected
ship.
Sanitary science has never yet had a
fair chance to fight the bubonic plague.
All our records of its frightful devasta-
ton date from a time when there was
no such a thing as sanitary science
when frightened people sunk ships in
SlGou VI dlSliACSIlIS bhC1AA. w Z NV All d
different age, and are prepared to cope
with the disease under different condi-
tions."
In the present instance the ship, the
Taylor, is being thoroughly fumigated
with steam and sulphur, and the authori-
ties feel assured that the plague can get
no further than the vessel.
The principal European countries have
been preparing themselves for years to
destroy the dread invader at their TIRES
holds. The international Sanitary Con-
ference. which met at Vienna in the
spring of 1897, organized sanitary precau-
tions to prevent the spread of the plague
outside of Europe and to prevent its en-
trance into that continent. Information
al quarantine stations were established
or icreased along routes which the pla-
que was to follow in making progress
westward. With the. cooperation of Tur-
key and other powers the congress put a
stop to the pilgrimages to Mecca, which
for centuries have been instrumental in
diffusing pestilence over vast regions of
Europe and along the shores of the Red
Sea and the Persian Gulf. Despite Eu-
ropean precautions. however, the
scourge has appeared in Vienna as well
as Portugal
What wonder. then, if all Europe is
alarmed, for the fear and terror which
the plague inspires by history, and when
that blacklist chapter of human mortal
it yis recalled it is not surprising that
the gTavest apprehension arises.
The question has never been definitely
settled as to the date at which the first
outbreak of the plague occurred, but the
first authentic description o fthe bubonic
plague is to be found in the writings of
Rufus of Ephesus. who described the dis
ease as having existed in Northern At
RIGA during the third or fourth century e.
c. OF the various outbreaks related by
the historians under Nero, two only ap-
pear to answer to the description of the
bubonic plague-that of Marcus Aurelius,
in 166, and Of Gallus, in 80. The former
was said 10 have been brought from the
Parthians by the troops Of Luclus Varus.
1t ravaged Rome and the provinces,
whence it spread to GalIia and the banks
of the Rhine. The latter ravaged the
whole Of Achaia, decimatihg imperial
troops.
Toward the middle Of the sixth cen
fury the disease appeared in Egypt and
to Constantinope where it is
said to have caused the death of 10000
persons in one day.
From the seventh to the fourteenth
century other epidemics occurred. but no
one of them could be compared with the
outbreak that ragged in Europe during the
middle of the fourteenth century. 1t Is
said to have carried off 100000 persons
in Europe. and its victims throughout
the whole world were estimated at 40
90. 600. which is unQuestiopably the great
est havoc in human life ever mentioned
in history.
During the great plague in London in
1865 nearly seventy thousand persons
were carried OF. The seventeenth CEN
fury marked It's. last appearance in many
European countries. such as Denmark.
Sweden and England In France its last
appearance was from I7a0 TO 172a. when
It made eighty thousand victims in Mar
settles and Provence.
At the close of the last century the
plague reached Egypt. Southeastern Eu-
rope, the region Of the Danube, Lower
Austria and Southern Russia. At the be-
Of the present century il twice
visited ConStantinople, and spread to the
shores Of the Adria:ic But from 1876 20
the present day, with the exception OF I
slight outbreak in Russia. in lS77. and its
recent appearance in Portugal the great
seonTse has been confined 10 certain Al i
r'can and ASiatic countries. But its /
tendency 10 expand. and the recent raw /
ages It has wrought in India and China. /
hs,a l,e-,t III 49, II