The pioneer express. [volume] (Pembina, Dakota [N.D.]) 1883-1928, 1900-09-14
1.-THE Be- j D /! 4 NH \
FAMOUS PLAQUE or fsIsToRY,
IN LONDON. ,s


have been numbered by scores Of thou
sands, has invaded London, according
to report made to the Marine Hospi-
tai service at Washington by our rep
resentatives In England, and fears are
felt that it may be transmitted to Am
erica through the persons Of travellers
or shipment of merchandise. Already
four cases have been discovered in
London. and two deaths have re-
suited.
The bubonic plague is the same dis
ease that has been known in history
as the Levantine plague, the Oriental
plague, the Black plague and the
Black Death. 1t has ragged repeatedly
in Asia, Africa and Europe in the last
Is centuries. Manettio. an Egyptian
historian, who lived at the beginning
of the third century, B. c., described
pestilences, supposed to have been the
bubonic plague. as having occurred in
the reign of the most ancient Egyp-
tian kings.
The plague prevailed in Athens 1872
1923 B. G. Thucydides had described it
and had the disease. Hippocrates, too,
noted 1t. Athens Is said to have lost
more than one-third Of its population
in one epidemic. It appears to have
been known in Syria, Egypt, and Lii
bya during Trojan's reign early in the
Christian era.
The first we'll authenticated invasion
Of Europe occurred about 543-546, the
pestilence appearing at Constantinople
and spreading to Italy and Gaul. The
next great inroad began about 1916,
and proceeded from Tartary to the Cri-
mea and Sicily, whence it reached
pretty we'll over the continent of Eu-
rope and across into England. At fr-
regular intervals. for more than three
centuries, it swept this city and that
with appalling havoc, reappearing
again and again at the same spot.
Among the most impressive death
records Of that period are the follow
ing:
1427-Dantzic ..................8 $1,000
l4eo-farls ................... 10000
1570-Moscow .................2O 200 ,0e0
lo|2-Lyons ...-............... $4,000
lo1o-Ven1ce ................... 10000
l6o6-Naples ...................3 800, 600
l664-65-London ............... 6S,596
The last item in the table gives the
figures in the London plague so prom
inent in English history. It is known
that this number Of deaths was out Of
population Of 460, oOe, and that nearly
one-third of the denizens of the Eng
lish capital fed from the city in fear of
death.
In the eighteenth century the plague
prevailed extensively in Europe, the
most notable epidemic being in Mar
settles in 1920, when from 10000 to
$4,000 persons were carried of.
In 1921 1t appeared in Toulon and
spread over Provence. Out Of a pop
ulation of 100000, 1853 are said to
have died. Sicily was visited in 174s,
at Messina. where the mortality was
between 10000 and $4,000. In 1911 it
broke out in Moscow. and more than
$4,000 persons-nearly one-quarter of
the population-were carried OF.
During the sixteenth century China
was nearly depopulated" with the
plague, it is said. while in the single
year 1903 no less than 1000, 900 lives
were lost In Egypt.
An isolated epidemic appeared in
Greece in 1928. 1t appeared in Egypt
between 1888 and 1s45, the last plague
epidemic observed in that country and
marking it's great eastward recession.
There was an epidemic of extreme Sc
verify in Cairo in 1885, during which
there died number Of the inhabitants
equal to the whole adult male popula-
ton.
In 1910 Delmatia, in 1S41 Contanti-
nople, and in 1912 and 1874 the eastern
part Of Egypt were it's western boun-
diaries.
Since 1850 the western limit of the
plague has been the Canary islands,
While its eastern limit has been the
island of Formosa. off the coast of
China. where it now prevails. Since
1850 the disease has oscillated. now
east and now west. between the Red