The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-11-24
PERILS OF BUBoNIC PLAGUE.
EXPERTS SAY 1T CAN BE KEPT OUT
OF NEW YORK.

Plague Carried by Rats-Foreign
Vessels Sometimes Bring Disease
Infected Rodents to Various Ports
| Romance and Tragedy OF vienna
| Plague.
L. From the Philadelphia Press
New York. Nov. 2.-It so happens that
| just as the announcement is made that
there are undoubted cases of the bu-
bonic plague in quarantine in New York
harbor. a physician of world wide fame,
Or. Frederick Kraus, Jr., of Vienna ana
Carlsbad, arrived in this city. DR.. Kraus'
intimate knowledge of the appearance
and treatment of the bubonic plague in
Vienna last summer is something that
many Americans are familiar with while
his authoritative statement with respect
to the Vienna outbreak attracted great
attention throughout Europe.
DR.. Kraus comes to this country TO
visit friend of many years. D. S. Weir
Mitchell of Philadelphia, and ex-Assist-
ant Secretary of State Calwaflader, who
was year or two ago a patent of the
doctors at Carlsbad.
DR.. kraus expresses himself with great
emphasis upon the danger and also the
immunity from danger which New York
just now faces, and is of the opinion if
| there should be an outbreak of the
plague in this city it would be impossible
| 10 prevent at least sporadic cases in other
cities of the United States.
Dangers Involved.
From one point of view in DR. Kraus'
opinion, not the slightest chance of con-
| t9piOO ri owls On ba nar
| hand, there is always the gravest peril TO
| any community when this disease is upon
| its quarantine lines. 1t depends upon en-
| ergy, watchfulness. hygienic action and
| the heroism of physicians and health au-
| thoritieS to prevent the spread of this
| disease. Fortunately, DIR. Kraus says ali
these qualities are to be found in New
| \ ork, and for that reason the community
| need have no greater anxiety than pre-
| vailed in Vienna last summer. On the
| other hand, single mistake, one bit Of
| oversight, may prove the fatal blunder
| and while, if the disease should get into
this city, it would probably be confined to
the swarming tenement districts, yet its
mortality there might be appalling.
The one danger, according TO DR.. Kraus,
that may be possibly overlooked is the
docking of the vessel in which the dis
ease is brought from Brazil in such way
as to permit the escape of rats from that
vessel, for 1t is now established by scien-
| tihc investigation, in part conducted by
one of DIR. Kraus most intimate friends,
| the late Dr. Mueller of Vienna, that the
most certain means of communicating con-
tagion is by means of rodents and in India
by other vermn which are not found in
the United States. Therefore, DR.. Kraus
| hopes that the attention of the health au-
thorities will be especially called to this
I danger and believes that it will be better
to burn the ship rather than to run a risk
of that kind.
Conquered the Plague.
Vienna, last summer, DR.. Kraus says,
had four cases of the plague. Two of
Them the original cases. recovered; the
two others that received the contagion
from the original cases died. A romance
fun of pathos, inspiring, too, the profound
est tributes for the martyrdom of one of
those who had part in this romance. Is in
terwoven in the history Of the Vienna
plague of the summer of 1899.
An American whose name Dr. Kraus
deemed best not to give without permission
was taken very i'll at Carlsbad and was
nursed there by a most competent trained
nurse, who was a woman not only skilled
in her profession but also of extremely
| attractive personality and unusually bril-
| liant intellectual quality. When her pa
tient became convalescent he was attract
ed to the nurse in considerable measure by
the charm and brllliancy of her conVersa-
ton and by the self-sacrificing spirit he
saw in her as she attended some of the
| other patients there.
! The American was man of consldera-
BILE wealth and of high cultivation. Be
fore he quilted the hospital he had be-
| tTolhed this nurse and the understanding
was that they were to be married in the
fan and he was to bring his bride to
America with him in November
This romance was one of the delightful
! CT baf u-oct ri at I'D 1o-
mer and every one who knew both the
American and the nurse were rejoiced at
| the romantic termination of the illness of
this American citizen.
There came report TO Carlsbad that
two men had been taken TO an emergency
and quarantine hospital at Vienna, who
were believed 10 have the true Asiatic
plague They had come from the East,
landed at Trieste ard had been a day in
Vienna before they were stricken with an
Illness which to the physician who was
called to attend them seemed very suspi-
| cious.
At Carlsbad at that time was DR.. MueI-
Ter, of Vienna, who was recognized in Eu-
rope as a very high authority upon the
bubonlc plague. He had spent some years
in India, in the thick Of it. He had made
bacteriologicaf researches and had formu-
lated a trea tnent which he believed would
be successful in many cases, where there
were not constitutional or organic trou-
bles. His triumphs in India We're regarded
by the medical profession as remarkable
and 1t was in part due to his investigation
that it seemed to be we1 established that
the plague was communicated chiefly bv
rats and other vermin that frequented the
houses of the poor.
DR.. Mueller was telegraphed to to come
| to Vienna and diagnose the suspicious
cases. He was satisfied that the suspi-
cions of the physicians who first attended
the sick men were well grounded, and he
felt that he was to have battle with the
| bubonic plague IN which he needed not
only the ablest medical assistance, but also
| the most skilful nurses. Therefore he
went to the betrothed of the American
citizen and asked her if she would go to
! Vienna with him, since he deemed her
| the most skillful and wisest of all the
nurses he had ever met. She did not hest
tate an instant. She said that she felt
| II 10 be her duty to respond to an appeal
of that kind, and within an hour was