The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-10-06

putrefying on the decks of the tenant
less hulks-drifting through the Iediter-
ranean. the Black and the North seas"
This disastrous plague is supposed to
have originated in China In that country,
in 13S3-4S. there was great mortality from
droughts, famines, floods and earthquakes
which swallowed mountains and from To-
Gusts. Europe manifested sympathy with
the changes which affected the East. The
order of the seasons seemed at various
times TO be inverted; storms Of hunde
and lightning were frequent in the
dead of winter, and there occurred great
earthquakes and eruptions of volcanoes
supposed TO be extinct. The theory of sci
entists is that this great tellurian activity,
accompanied by the decomposition of vast
organic masses, myriads of bodies of men,
brutes and %locusts, produced some change
in the atmosphere unfavorable to life. Some
writers, speaking of the progress of the
plague from the east to the west, say
that the impure air was actually visible as
it approached with its burden of death: "A
dense and awful fog was seen in the
heavens, rising in the east aud descending
upon Italy"
In the fifteenth, sixteenth, seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries there were nu-
merous destructive epidemics of the plague.
In one year-146S-Europe lost 10000 people.
In 1872 5000 died in Lyons, and in 1876
Venice lost 10000. In 1856 the plague ragged
in Naples. carrying off 10000 in a period of
five months. London was visited in 1864 and
1865. In the latter year $1,000 died, while
two-thirds of the population of $780, 900 are
supposed to have fed to escape c~ontagion.
A vivid description of the plague in Flor
-
caccio and in Lord Lytton's "Rienzi."
During the nineteenth century the plague
receded toward the East-its native lair
although early In the century it appeared
in Italy for the last time. In Cairo in 1885
there was an epidemic of extreme severity,
during which there died a number of people
equal to the whole adult population. 1t
appeared in Malmatia in 1913 and 1874. Since
1850 the disease has oscillated. now east and
now west, between the Red sea and the
Pacifc-in China. India, Arabia. Persia,
Mesopotamia. Russia, Caspian sea, Afghan
istan and Tripoli. The last outbreak of
plauge on European soil was in 1878 and 1879,
on the banks OF the Volga.
Toward the close of the nineteenth CEN
fury it began to seem improbable that theirs
would be any more extensive epidemics of
me pldS0e, WlSn III 1870 liiG olSSdSc AOh
out with Old-time virulence in TOnkin and
Hong-Kong. and within a short time in
Bombay, Kurrachee, Poonah and British
India. 1t threatens TO make its periodical
pilgrimage to the other parts OF the world,
scattering death in all directions.
MEDICAL DISCOVERIES.
Within recent years medical men have
made some discoveries which cause them to
- 49, 49,. Mill 10 nhIa e. CONTROL fhN
plague hereafter. One, for instance, is
that the disease is transmitted by rats
which infect ships sometimes in large num-
bers. DR.. Wyman notes an instance here.
after a steamer of $500 tons had been fumi-
gated, sixteen ordinary deck buckets of
dead rats were removed. Hence the great
need of killing them off the moment the
presence of the plague is suspected. An
other cause of the spread of the plague is
the religious pilgrimages so common in
India. Pilgrims from infected districts
visit the shrines which are also visited by
people from noninfected districts, who car
ry the germs OF The disease back with them.
The disease proceeds from place to place
by leaps and bounds. often skipping large
intermediate districts. but usually following
the beaten tracks of commerce.. A source
VI SlNaN htAA46NA IL ANC C&AoAtAlE u lie
"ambulant" form of the disease. Its early
manifestations are so mild that it may not
be detected, but 1t may suddenly acquire
viTulence and quickly infect others long
after exposure. Not only do rats transmit
the plague. but IL affects mice. snakes,
beetles, bugs, flies, dogs and jackals. 1t
does not attack purely ~herbivorous animals
horses. oxen, sheep. goats and rabbits.
Rats die in large numbers and generally
this phenomenon is observed in advance Of
the appearance of the plague among human
beings. The cause OF their infection is still
a subject of discussion. y common belief
in Oriental countries is that rats contract
the disease from miasmatic emanations
from the soil. hut this has never been
scien idcally demonstrated. and is prob
ably Inc erect. An authority explains that
rats have heir shouts about an inch above
the floors @ houses. and are more liable
TO breathe plague-infected dust than are
human beings. Fleas are supposed to
transmit the disease from rats to men. IL
CONTINUED ON PAGE IA. COL A.