The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1899-12-15
PLAQUES EASILY SUBUUtD.

The idea that if the epidemic we are
having were really the bubonic
plague" there would now be a multi
tude of cases, does not accord with the
modern history of the disease. 1t is
a great nile since the black scourge
has done s.ny widespread harm in civil
lized Countries or in any land where
sanitation is understood and practiced.
India, which is, in some of its districts.
a human sink-hole,. has. indeed. seen
thousands die miserably during bu-
bonic visitations. But happily for hu-
mankind there are no other Indias.
Even China has reached a point where.
under the direction of missionaries.
white traders and Government which
is compelled TO act for the welfare of
Europeans who live in the empire. the
plague can be quickly and readily sub
dued. Almost yearly the disease makes
its appearance at some place on the
Chinese littOral or in the Yang-tse val
ley-but what does it amount to?
There is a little flutter in the press.
few dozen Cinnamon disappear and
then nothing more is heard about it.
The memory of man hardly goes back
to the time when, whatever the condi-
tons in China may have been, any
white man lost his life on account of
them.
The scare which the bubonic plague
causes is its worst feature. This ten
dency TO fright is perhaps hereditary. |
The day was when people died of the |
plague in Europe so fast that there was |
not time to bury them, and ever since |
then white men have been terribly |
afraid of it. We forget that Europe |
in that day was filthier than coastwise |
China is now. There were no sewers, |
no ventilation in houses, no segrega- |
ton of the sick, no knowledge of inedi- |
cine outside the monasteries and gypsy |
camps save of few grotesque rene
dies which recall the materia medica |
II Pliny; no acquaintance with hygiene,
nothing but coarse living in squalid |
dens which were unfit for swine and
cattle. Under such conditions people
died, whenever a plague appeared, as
flies die in winter. The world forgets
that the conditions of society have
changed vastly for the better or if it
loes not forget, it fails TO connect the
wasting pestilences of the past with
he kind of lives people once led. But
who finds the plague disastrous 10
treat populations now? The other day
t appeared at Oporto in Portugal and
here were, if we remember Alright, but |
eventeen deaths. It crossed TO Spain
nd the mortality was so slight that 1t
vas not reported. 4 while before that {
ime the plague appeared in Tif1fs and j
Ill Europe was aghast. The Russian {
light way, however. and in short
ime bubonic evidences vanished and
he death list was but little above the /
ormal. There, as here, sanitation did ,
IS perfect work.
In India several immune provinces t
resent themselves for consideration. I
hey are where the English doctors j
ave been able TO control the natives c
nd compel hygienic reforms. At Alex i
ndria, where the disease occurs in
rowded native settlements, there is
o longer, since the English got pos L
ession. any widespread loss of life. l
he other day the plague was found in I
lobe but the deaths up TO the day the j.,
apers left there did not exceed four
T five. After that, according to the
Jews of the casual wisacre, there ought
o have been a hundred deaths. We
enture the prediction that the next
ews from the Japanese city will not
eveal q dozen. The little brown doc
Ors have learned how to battle the
Hague even in such a land of bad
mells as the AIikado's empire.
So, brethren, be of good cheer. The ]
ubonic plague, though undeniably
nth us, is not likely to plague us long. /.
I is being purified with fire and white {
rash and il is but a matter of few :