New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1900-09-16
WANING FEAR OF THE PLAGUE.


1t would not be easy to conceive anything
more significant in its way than the manner in
which the news of the appearance of the plague
at Glasgow is received in Great Britain and
the United States. Here is what by universal
consent has been regarded as the most dreadful
of all peStil9nCes a disease so terrible that 10
specific name could be devised worthy of it.
wherefore it has always been known by the
generic appellaton of the plague; or If ever
il was otherwise called it was by the no less
ominous title of the 'black death" Time was
when in a single campaign in Europe it num-
bered its victims by tens of millions. and when
the mere mention Of it was sufficient to blanch
the cheeks of the bravest 1t now breaks out
in one of the chief cities of the world, the sec
ond city of the greatest mercantile nation. Yet
there is no panic. No material sensation is
caused That city is not deserted nor Stunned.
The tides of life and business continue to flow
as uninterruptedly those in the Firth Of
Clyde The news that would once have con-
vulsed a continent with fright and horror is
conveyed in a few inconspicuOus lines which
are read with scarcely more emotion chan the
report Of the latest golf match or the announce
ments of the coming opera season.
That is as have said, significant of many
things but chiefly of the great advance in
knowledge due 10 the researches OF Louis Pas
teur and his Coadjutors and disciples. The
plague in old times was terror inspiring partly
because il was deadly and partly because
men were ignorant of its nature. And it
was. as we now know deadly because of
that very ignorance II was mans lack Of
knowledge of it that made il at once so deadly
and so dreaded Indeed. if it had been such
n disease creduloUs and supersttious igno-
rance pictured it no fear Of It could have been
II "
gated through the air: that to he near or 10 see
n patient stricken with II was to contract It;
that no one was immune from its attacks. and
that no one could be cured Of II. Such notions
seemed almost justified by the great epidemics
of the sixth and fourteenth and sixteenth cen
turtles. To-day they still exist among the
lower class natives of Asia and OF Russia, who
say "Klsmet 1t is fate Leave us alone and
let us die" But. thanks to the life work OF
Pasteur and 10 the labors Of such disciples Of
his as Kitasato and Yersin. the intelligent part
of the world no more tolerates such ideas than
it does those of alchemy and witchcraft
This dreadful plague is known to he
filth disease, propagated solely and exclusively
by specific germ. That germ does not spread
through the medium Of the air. bur exists and
IS impaired from one to another in liquid or
solid substances only, and il may readily be
destroyed by the Of diSinfectants among
the most efficacious Of which pure air and
sunlight. The value OF these latter proph glaC-
tics strikingly shown during the epidemic
at Hong -KOng for in midwinter, when days
were short. sunlight scanty and the people
lived indoors there were two thousand three
thousand cases a month, while in midsummer.
when the city flooded with sunshine and
the people lived out Of doors, only a few score
cases We're reported. 1t Is perfectly well estab-
lished, moreover. that persons of sanitary ways
of life, who observe ordinary precautions Of
bodily and dietary cleanliness, are practically
immune and may 90 with safety among those
who suffering from the disease in its worst
forms. Nor is the disease. once contracted, nee
essarily fatal. On the contrary, the percentage
OF cures is a large and growing The dis
ease, in brief. instead Of standing apart, unique
and solitary in pre-eminenCe of morbitic power.
Is now seen to be worthy of rank only with
common and familiar ailments, such as typhoid
fever and diphtheria, and is actually less to be
dreaded than some of them. Thus just as
through ignorance II was once so fatal and so
dreaded, to-day through knowledge 1t is robbed
of most Of It's deadliness and of its terrors