The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-09-29
What Medicine Knows Today
THE 5u5oNic PLAGUE.

pathologists and of the British and
Americans in India, the Philippines and
along the China coast have proved be-
yond a doubt that bubonic is most
commonly Transmitted from man to
man by rats. The large rats which in
fest all ships and seaports are very
susceptible to the disease, and when it
breaks out among them they die by the
hundred thousands.
Even when human beings do not
come into actual contact with these
dead rodents, they may be inoculated
through the medium of flies, f1eas and
other insects. A special rat-f1ea called
the puleX cheOpis carries the germs
from rat to man-upon its feet or in its
jaws.
Bubonic plague is an extraordinarily
infectious malady. The germs may
enter the body through the lungs-in
dust, for instance-or by way of the
mouth-as in food that has been con-
taminated by fieas or flies. Some of
the Japanese experts are of the opinion
thaes the organisms may even enter
through the skin. The most minute
scratch or cut is sufficient to give them
Judgment, and in a few hours they
swarm in the blood.
In the tropics white men usually
son that they live clearly and take
proper precautions against infection.
In the native quarters of tropical towns
where rats are numerous and insects
are legion, it often happens that two
thirds of the population is infected.
Indeed, in India, il has been found nee
essary at times to burn down whole
towns before an epidemic could be got
in hand.
Drugs are absolutely useless in the
treatment of bubonic. When once a
case develops, in fact, little can be done
to halt or modify its course. But pre-
ventive measures are very often re-
markedly effective. They may be di-
Vided into two classes: those which
contemplate the isolation of patients
and the destruction of rats and insects,
and those which involve the employ
ment of the serum and vaccine men,
toned above.
A rigid quarantine is necessary to
keep patients from injecting other per-
sons. All rats and other small animals
must be killed, and efforts must be
made to destroy all reaches, f1eas, flies
and bed bugs. The bodies of the dead
must be burned, all sick-rOOms must be
disinfected with formaldehyde. and
chloride of lime must be used lavishly
in all drains.
The burial of any man dead of the
plague is a crime against the human
| race. The body is alive with the or
ganisms, and these will remain alive
| for an almost incredible period. Months
| afterward they may reach the surface
of the ground and begin extensive Jour
neyings-in the bodies of rats or upon
| the legs of insects. The result will in
| evitably be a fresh outbreak of the
malady.
! Even convalescents are extremely
| dangerous to the community. The jap
! anese investigators have found that q
/ patients blood SwarmS with plague
/ germs for nearly a month after he has
! apparently recovered. 1t is obvious
| that he may thus unwittingly infect al
who come into contact with him.
Indeed. bubonic is such a virulent
| disease that, in the past, the military
power has often had to come to the aid
of those fighting it. Very often martha
| law alone can insure the proper de-