The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-02-05
HISTORY OF THE PLAGUE
Surgeon General Wyman's Mono
graph on the Seourge.
The Western Hemisphere Invaded by
the Terror for the First Time
Duration of the Present Epidemic
characteristics of the MaIady-Sus-
ccptibiIity of the Underfcd Natives.

Surgeon General Walter Wyman ha
I issued an exhaustive monograph repsrt OF
the bubonc plague, describing the disease
: telling its history. past and present ard
epitomizing for the Marine Hospital Officers
: and other physicians, official and private
,, the most successful known measures ana
methods of prevention and treatment. The
report is a revision of an article wri ten by
! DR.. Wyman on the plague in 1897 for his
annual report for that year, but, as he
states in his letter of transmttal to Sec
rotary Gage, within the past two year:
many important facts have become kno"r
regarding the disease which seem TO make
advisable the republication and enlarge
ment of that work. The plague, nov for
the first time in history, has invaded the
Western Hemisphere in its slow but SUI e
spread over the world. The present epi-
demie broke out seven years ago in Tonkin
and HonEkong Since that time it mas
worked westward to India, 10 Egypt TO
southern Europe, to Brazil. and westward
TO Hawaii, if not. as asserted by some
physicians, to San Francisco and Van
couver. Hundreds of thousands of cases
have been recorded as a result of the
prevalent outbreak, and tens of tho sands
of deaths. 1t is considered by the medical
world one Of tie most insidious and terrible
scourges that human flesh is heir TO.
Physicians the world over are studying it,
and governments are adopting the most
strenuous measures against its impor alton.
New Quarantine Regulations.
The Marine Hospital Service has adopted
new and stringent quarantine regulations,
and is sending out voluminous special
warnings to quarantine officers and to sea-
board city authorities.
Dr. Wyman states in the introduction to
| his monograph that new facts as they de-
veop regarding the disease ard new meas
ures which may become necessary will he
| promulgated in weekly bulletins from the
| bureau.
| AS to the terrible deadliness of the bu-
bonic plague from the earliest records Of
history, Dr. Wyman says:
THE plague, known also as the bubonc
plague, PESTS bubonca, Levantine, ORR
! entail, and black plague, and black death,
is disease which has ravaged from time
to time the several countries of Africa,
Asia, and Europe almost from time imme-
mortal. The literature on the subject is
appalling in extent, a mere enumeration
of titles with authors covering forty pages,
royal quarto SIZE of the Index Catalogue
of the library of the Surgeon Generals
V.
more of the columns of the Index Medi-
Gus, published since the issue of the In
dex Catalogue in 1889.
'Manetho. an Egyptian historian. who
lived at the beginning OF the third cen
fury B. c., described pestilences supposed
TO have been the plague as having oc-
CURED in the reign of the most ancient
Egyptian kings. 1t prevailed in Athens
4S2-i29 B. c., and reappeared in eighteen
months after the last-named date. Thucy- |
dides has described it, and had the dis |
ease, and Hippocrates noted it. 1t is
said that Athens lost more than one third |
of its population by the epidemic.
THE great plague reported by Livy, |
who died 221 B. c., is said to have de- |
stroyed million of persons in Africa, but |
it is not mentioned that it passed into |
Europe. Plague is also alluded to in the |
Bible, Zachariah xiv:1S, as peculiarly |
Egyptian, of which country this disease |
has been a great scourge.
In the Christian Era.
In the Christian era il is not until the
sixth century that we find bubonic plague
in Europe. In 542 it spread over Egypt, |
and passed to Constantinople, where it
carried off 10000 persons in one day. and
in the same century appeared in Ualy,
and extended also along the northern coast
of Africa. 1t prevailed in England in the
seventh century.
In the fourteenth century it was intro
duced from the East and prevailed through
out Armenia, Asia Minor Egypt. northern
Africa and nearly the whole of Europe.
Hecker calculates that one-fourth the pop
citation of Europe, or 25,000.00e persons,
died in all of the epidemics in the four
teenth century. 1t was in this century that
( ha first xy-pr tax in obi he |
spread Of the plague, Venice appointing
in 134S three guardians OF the public health
for this purpose.
In the fifteenth century it REQUIRED fire.
quently in nearly all parts of Europe. in
one year 1866, the mortality reaching
40. 000
The sixteenth century was not more free
from plague than the fifteenth. In 1872
sc, 900 died at Lyons. In 1916 Venice lost
1000.
In the seventeenth century it still pre-
vailed in Europe, though less widely than
in the Middle Ages. In 1856 one of the
most destructive of all recorded cpl
denies ragged in Naples. 1t is said
to have carried off 300,0 in period of five
months. The great plague OF London was
in 1864 and 1868. The total number of
deaths in 1865 was 1886 in an estimated
population OF 460,0 out of whom two
thirds are supposed 10 have fed to escape
contagion.'
The nineteenth century, Dr. Wymsn says,
has been marked by recession of the
plague toward the East although isolated
cpidemics have occurred from time to time.
Since 1850 until the present epidemic the
western limit of the plague has been the
Canary Islands and las eastern limit For
mosa
China, II is stated, has been signally free
from the plague. The present epidemic.
however, It is believed originated in Ton
kin and Hongkong in 1898. The disease
was conveyed from Hongkong to Bombay
by sea. and in the latter city II broke out
in the section near the docks and ware
houses. Later 1t appeared in other Indian
cities. In Bombay Presidency alone this
epidemic has resulted in 220,307 cases and
1914. 0S3 deaths in the past six years.
DR.. Wyman describes the present cpl
denic in 0porto, Portugal, and In Santos,
Brazil. He states that up to the present
time the disease in Santos has advanced
slowly, but that owing TO the VIGOROUSLY
bad sanitary conditions it is reasonable to
fear further spread.
Dr. Wyman mentions the case OF the
plague on the steamship J. W. Taylor from
Santos, which arrived at the quarantine
station, New York, on November IS, and
the appearance of the disease at Honolulu
in December, but states that owing to the
vigorous repressive measures adopted IL is
hoped that spread will be averted in both
cases
He says;
I'm the light Of experience in other parts
Of the world and with even a cursory study
Of the sanitary conditions obtaining in the
places infected with plague it seems rea-