The Yale expositor., 1900-07-06

Francisco, a few statistics relative to
this most deadly of diseases will be OF
current interest 1t is found in its
worst stages in lands like India and
China, where the natives live in squa-
lor and filth and the meanest of habi-
tation9. In those countries the people
are unclean in their personal habits,
the very soil becoming saturated with
filth and the utter lack Of sanitation OF
even the crudest kind, invites the dead
ly plague 1t is amid the poor that
the disease thrives, where the peoples
bodies. weakened and emaciated by
lack of proper food, present an easy
target for this fatal black death.
Under the conditions obtaining in
the orient, the bubonic plague is the
most virulent and deadly Of diseases.
The symptoms manifest themselves in
from twelve hours to twelve days after
the system absorbs the disease. The
crisis is reached in from two to eight
days, generally in forty-eight hours. II
life can be prolonged for five or six
days the chances Of successful treat
ment are greatly increased. AS a rule,
however, little can be done to save the
victims A few of the well-nourished
ones escape; of the rest death claims
an average of from so to 100 per cent
of the total number of cases. This
fearful mortality is best shown in the
following figures, furnished by Sur
geon-General Wyman of the United
States army: Bombay, cases 220,907,
deaths 164,0S3; Hongkong, cases 1000.
deaths 1,541; Formosa, cases 2,46S,
deaths 1866. Strangely enough this
death rate varies greatly according to
nationalities. From statictics obtained
during the prevalence of the plague in
Hongkong the following official show
ing is made, the percentage being based
on the total number of cases reported:
Chinese, SO deaths out of every 100
persons attacked with the disease;
East Indians, n out of every 100; Jap
anese, 60; Eurasians, 100; Europeans,
IS. This small relative percentage Of
mortality among Europeans is attrib-
uted to better blood and stamina, and
to the success OF treatment in the early
stages of the disease, the intelligence Of
the European leading him to call in a
physician at the first sign of trouble,
while the ignorance and prejudice OF
the orientals prompt them to conceal
themselves and reject medical aid.
Medical scientists have determined
that bubonic plague may be contracted
in three ways-by incubation through
an external wound or abrasion, by
respiration breathing air laden with
the plague germs and by introduction
into the stomach of food or water that
has become infected. Contrary to the
general belief, the disease is not infec-
tious or contagious in the ordinary
manner. A person might even sleep in
a bed occupied by plague victim, or
wear clothing taken from his body, and
yet escape infection, provided there
were no wounds or abrasions on the
skin in which the disease germs could
get lodgment. Even the breath of q
patient is not necessarily poisonous,
the greatest source of danger being in
the discharges from the swellings. All
this being granted, the question will
naturally arise, Why, then, should the
disease rage so among the orientals?
The assertion that the plague is not
usually infectious or contagious in the
ordinary way applies only to peoples
who are ordinarily cleanly in their
habits. To those acquainted with the
oriental no further explanation is
necessary. Once the plague gets a
foothold among East Indians or Chin
ese coolies it is almost impossible to
check it, except with the extermina-
tion of the population affected. Rus
sia has adopted heroic methods in
dealing with the plague in its Chinese
colonies. All those affected are taken
out and shot. "It saves trouble and
other peoples lives" the Russian grim
ly remarks. The conditions of envir-
onment favoring the plague are SIM
liar to those that encourage typhus
fever, mainly density of population,
bad ventilation and drainage, impure
water and inattention to sanitary re-
quirements.
The most notable visitations of the
plague of which there are records are
these The plague prevailed in Athens
in 432-429 B. c., and reappeared IS
months after 1t was thought to have
been stamped out. In the third CEN
tury B. c. the plague swept away
countless numbers in Egypt. Livy
records a great plague that destroyed
millions in various parts OF Africa in
the third century B. G.. In 1912 A. d.
the plague spread over Egypt and
reached Constantinople, where 10000
died in day. In the same century it
ravaged Italy and Northern Africa. In
the seventh century the plague invaded
England and claimed scores of vic
tins. In 1870 it appeared in Cairo and
Constantinople, spread and became
epidemic. In the fourteenth century
the pestilence came from Arabia and
swept Egypt, Armenia, Asia Minor,
Northern Africa, and nearly all
Europe. Hecter, the historian, esti-
mates that It claimed 25,000,000 VIC
tins in Europe during the century. In