The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-10-11

FRANCE DEFIES THE PLAGUE.

FRANCE DEFIES THE PLAGUE.
Enough Serum to Protect All Europe
The Malady Reduced to a Scare
crow.
Here we are at the Institute Pasteur
4 in the laboratory of the plague. All
around are glass cases, transparent
prisons of white mice. Above on
4 shelves where there are no books there
are little mahogany boxes filled with
mysterious affairs, eprouyettes and
/ TASKS. On the table lying beside
! complicated microscope are lancete,
/ forceps and Pravas syringe.
You can quiet the nerves of your
readers, said the chief of the laborato-
! ry. If the plague comes here, we are
well prepared to combat it, Moreover,
| there is no reason whatever to imagine
that the thing is the most terrible NAL
adv that can affiict humanity. The
plague is no more dangerous than ty-
phoid fever influenza or cholera Chol-
era and typhoid fever are contagious
through the digestive tube, while the
plague, except in rare cases, is trans
mited by incubation only.
The principal factor In Its propaga
ton, as is now well known, is the rat,
I or rather the parasites that he carries
about with him. The slightest bite Of
q flea from a rats back can communl-
cate the plague with more certainty
/ than direct contact with the disease in
the caring of patients. From the body
of a plague-stricken Annamite a flea,
gorged with contaminated blood, will
| jump upon the back of the first rat or
mouse that comes within it's reach.
| The ilea will accompany its rat on
board a vessel bound for any port, and
after many movings, or strictly speak
ing, jumps, 1t is liable to reach the shirt
of some unfortunate sailor or passenger
who two days later will be down with
the bubonc plague.
:" Now that is why the epidemics of
the plague are so puzzling in their
causes and in the rapidity with which
they ravage an entire population in the
space of a few weeks. The disease is
most dangerous when 1t assumes the
character Of pneumonia, the pneumonie
pesteuse, which carried away the cee-
brated DR.. Muller Of Vienna. Never
theless, that epidemic came to a sud
den termination by reason of the meth
DDS that were Immediately taken to ex-
terminate it.
This example goes to show that the
plague when imported is less danger
Gus than when II Is spontaneous. In
the first case we find ourselves In pres
ence of center of contagion we'll
known and clearly determined, while in
the second case, the mysterious cause
of the disease necessitates lnvestiga-
tons and groupings in the dark with the
fatal delays during which the unknown
factor of the malady continues It's work
of propagation and multiplies It's re-
sources of infection.
-" Moreover, 1t Is notorious that rats
flee in all directions the moment they
find that one of their crowd has the
plague. That increases the danger
The microbe of the plague is an owl
form coccobacillus. See for yourself
And here the doctor handed the re-
porter the microscope which enabled
him to see In a little giaes lamel Gull
lures of microbes taken from the spleen
of a mouse that died of the plague.
The thing looked vaguely like gfeo-
graphical map with red rose and violet
tints. In the centers Of the mauve-col-
ored globules of blood there were oval
shaped red spots, in some cases stuck
together These were the microbes of
the plague.
Look at the eprouvette, said the
professor There are the baclli that
killed DIR, Muller, and there are enough
of them there to infect all Pare'
THAT assertion threw Ice water ON
tho tiOn and tp a
sion the reporter turned to the glass
vases in which the little white mice
with their red noses were rummaging
about in all directions
p" 'These were plague-infected mice
eaid the professor. They were treated
with our serum, which proves that It is
good. Two other mice died Of the
plague yesterday They had not been
innocuated, We wanted them for wit
nesses. But as you see these fellows
are In excellent health.
We are on guard against any pos
sible invasion Of the plague. In all the
ports of France the most ef1icacious
measures are taken to meet it, should 1t
arrive. outside of the regular formal-
ties of quarantine, lnocula ton Is re-
sorted to In the case Of every sick sus-
poet The doctor that treats him Is also
inoculated together with the nurse and
all the persons that may be brought
more or less in contact with him; and
reserve supplies of serum are In every
port. The efficacy Of our treatment is
both curative and preventive. A hypo-
dernic injection from five to ten cent?
metres cubes OF serum constitutes an
absolute protection that lasts for three
weeks. The patients are treated by
means Of lntravenous injections, ac-
to the satisfactory method
adopted by Doctors SsI1mbeni and Cal
nette in Oporto. The proportion OF
'ures thus obtained is the same as In
,ases of diphtheria treated by serum.
from 70 to 80 per cent. Of the patients
lot treated in this way die.
" Last year all the health officers Of
he ports came to Paris to study the
ia cue in our Laboratories. At Garches
We have now thirty-1ve horses instead
# only twelve which we had there last
ear. Consequently we can supply
nough serum to immunize or cure the
nttre population Of Europe eau
ois
Dumleigh-"Hector Is trying to be
Inny about my poem because I rhym-
n tSt0ne' with ONE There is so,ne