The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1900-05-15
6enqluuQ's 0rou1ls
in Sad Hna1ia.
Wasted by Famine, the People are now
Stricken With That Most Terrible
ofA1l Diseases, the Plague.


.sFron famine and pesdlence, coed Lord
deliver us!'
So PRAYED the English Queen I'M the
Chapel Royal, while tears rained down
her furrowed cheeks and care bowed her
shoulders.
The good woman had just held, the
papers told us, a meeting of her advisers
TO consider means by which the plague.
yof India, now raging $50 fiercely, could
be stamped out, and she had also con-
ferred with her ways and means commit
tee upon the sending of a sum OF money
for the relief of those whose heads lot
families had BEEN stricken. lin previous
years there were large private subscrap-
tons but this year all the money went
to the Cape.
So England, torn with blocdshed in
South Africa and worried over the move
nents of Russia and France, is menaced
by a still more deadly foe than that OF
war namely the terrible plague in india,
which breaks out every year, but tifsS
year has come with a tifousanGtold tine
violence of former seasons.
Lord and LADY Curzon, at the begin
ming of the. plague. issued an order that
all should be inoculated incubation rs
almost preventive, but not quite; YET
SO far does it arrest the progress OF the
disease that even those who take the
plague, after inoculatio are not serious
ly oil and survive the ordeal through
which SO few pass alive.
But the natives refuse to be lnoculat-
ed A rumor spread among them that
it was the injection of a, demon into their
bodies and that these WHO Were anocu-
lated would never be sane again.
Everybody knows how vaccination acts.
A day or two after the injection Of the
of soa,tieOt Incomes
inflanned, sickly feelings pass through the
system, and for a week, and sometimes
two or three, the patient as half Ill, While
the arm goes on in Inflammation until
suddenly the process of healing begins.
FRIGHTENED NATIVES.
When the natives of India had OBJ
served the action of the serum, they be-
came afraid of.it, and no amount IF per-
suasion coullt convince them of its jarin-
lessness. They fed aftirightel from their
homes and sought refuge in the passes
of the country: some. -tcoksup arms; few
tribeS submitted peaeeably.
Then came Lord CurzcuS stroke OF
diplomacy. He issued a decree that none
should be allowed to escape inocuiauon,
and announced that he himself anc ms
Lady would undergo the operation with
all the rest, at the government pest
On the mentioned day he drove there
state possible to .the representatives. OF
Her Majesty, and so attracted much
notice On 'alightings they were conduct
ed into the center of the thrvng and there
with few delft strokes of the needle.
the incubation was performed. mat ar
ternoon the government post was crowd
cd and all in Bombay were made plague
proof.
Residents of other countries can have
i. 10 caJSpH
this most fearful OF modern eiaidenics
In Bombay city alone, during the three
wears of plague, there have been no fewer
that $1,000 cases, and out of TINS numoer
the enormous proportion OF 4i.5oo nave
ended fatally. During the worst period
as many as 800 and 400 natives died an
a day.
Up to this year Europeans have been
comparatively immune from plague, but
in Poona, during the past few months,
over a dozen Europeans have fallen VIC
tins to the terrible disease.
SPECIAL INDUCEMENTS
There is no known cure for plague, nut
incubation mas proved the best means to
ward off the disease.
The government OF India is doing all 1T
8 can to encourage the natives, ITO be tuocu-
lated, and, in spite of prejudice against
the operation, large numbers are being in
-
country the natives prefer to die rather
than seek the remedy which medical
science has discovered. Natives who have
been inoculated are exempt from certain
restrictions mcted but to the uninoculat-
ed. They escape medical examination ana
detention i'm segregation camps which IS
1dgidly enforced otherwise. Then, too,
they receive copper coins to the value
of about. penny if they undergo the
operation, the children being given
sweets.
Many officials have undergone the .oper-
alton. just to prove to the natives how
harmless the process is.
The arm, upon which the inocluation is
to be made, is first washed with an anti
septic. a small pad of lint is placed on
the arm, the instrument inserted through
it, and the serum injected Thus there
is no possible means of outside contasion.
The lint is antiseptic, and the lnstru-
men,t is steriMzed; so that nothing but the
serum can enter from the puncture.
When the operation is completed the
patient receives q certificate to the effect
that it has been performed.