Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1900-01-13
Horrors of Bubonic Plague.

NOW L0dJ the L ull6u OLaI6S mas Dt-
come world power, we are liable
to all kinds of old diseases. Among
these imperial importations into some
of the i'm perial outlying provinces j.
the bubonic plague, which, accordiD Z
to reports, has broken out in HAWAII
and the Philippines. The great plague
that devastated the Roman world in
the time OF the Emperor Marcus
Aurelius lasted from 1914 a. d. To $50
A. ID. Its results were sO.terrible that it
almost obliterated the Greek nation
and did more than any other one
thing to corrupt the Greek tongue
and hinder the progress OF Greek
philosophy. Although it has been
held by some writer's that the malady
was the cholera and not the plague.
the latter disease, saws an exchange,
is characterized by symptoms like
those of ague (shivers often long con-
tinued and pains in the limbs). but
combined with nervous symptoms.
The patient becomes distracted, losses
about in constant fear of something
he cannot describe, has a difficulty in
understanding the questions put to
him and is slow in answering. He is
often described as staggering like a
drunken man. There is severe
headache, intense thirst and severe
pains in the epigastrum. The eyes
are red and turbid, the tongue swollen
and dry and assured. 1t is some
times black and sometimes remarka-
bly, white. The fever which sets in
may last from twenty-four to thirty
hours or more. The temperature may
be from 100 10 107 degrees Fahren-
heit or even higher, but in the most
rapidly fatal cases there may he little
or no fever. Besides these symptoms
there are special ones especially char
acteristic. Buboes or glandular
swellings are observed in all except
very rapidly fatal cases. They oc-
cur in AS or 80 per cent of the cases in
the groin and in 30 per cent in the
axilla. also less frequently in the neck
or other parts. The swellings may
occur before the fever, simultane
ouslv with it, or for some hours after
it has set in. A sudden pain, like
that of Il stab, is felt in some region
of the body. which has given rise to
the superstition that the unfortunate
victim was wounded by the arrow OF
in Constantinople in the sixth CEN
fury, and said still 70 survive in Mo-
hammcdan countries. The buboes
NAV separate, when free discharge of
matter from them has in all time
been held TO he favorable sign and
inducive to recovery. All that is
known of the plague goes to show
that it is a specific febrile disease, de-
pending on the reception inI the body
of specific organic cOntagion which
becomes multiplied in the body of the
patient. 1t is now believed that this
contagion is a living organism of the
class bacteria. Plague is the most
fatal of all known diseases that affect
large numbers of people. The NOR
talIty in India is almost 30 per cent,
but in Russia it has reached as high
as go per cent. 1t is believed that the
poison is both miasmatic and conta-
gious. for in India and China the first
symptoms OF its appearance is the
death of rats and other animals
that live underground. The greatest
outbreak of this malady occurred in
the 18th century and was known as
the Black Death" 1t made its firs
outbreak in China, where it destroyed
IS, 600. 900 people.
1t reached Italy in 1916 and rav-
aged until 1868, destroying fully al
third of the population. Ten thous-
and persons died in one day in Con-
stantinople. In London the mortality |
was 1000 week. In Moscow 200. 600 |
persons died, and the malady ragged |
over the whole continent until it |
fairly spent its course. a century
later it broke out again in Italy. |
Naples lost 800, 000I Genoa 60, coo. |
This was the great plague that raw
aged London. Latterly, since better
hygenic laws have been observed, the
evils of the plague have been greatly |
however. 1t is not a NAL
ady to be treated lightly, and the
news that it is invading us by the
way of the Sandwich islands will !
cause us to be mere careful.