The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-09-29

This and the other articles to appear
in this series have been prepared by
specialists and medical men of wide
reputation. Each contributor stands
high in his field. Professional ethics
prohibit them from attaching their
names; but every statement is made
with the highest authority.
The buSonic plague, which recently
reappeared upon the Pacific coast, is
an acute infectious disease caused by
q minute organism called the bacillus
pests. The disease itself has been
known since the time Of the patriarchs
and one authority estimates that it has
killed fully two billion human beings
in the past 1000 years, but it was not
until 1894 that the organism was dis
covered.
The discovery was made simulta-
neOusly and independently by two not
ed Psychologists, Kitasato and Yersin,
and since then the latter has perfected
an immunizing antitoxin. There is also
a preventive vaccine of another sort.
Both the antitoxin and the vaccine
have been used extensively and with
good results, but the bubonic remains
q violent and virulent plague. 1t is
epidemic in India year in and year out.
and along the China coast, In Central
Asia and in the East Indies and South
Sea Islands it is ever present.
Bubonic is one of the most deadly
maladies known. All authorities agree
that the mortality is usually more than
90 per cent, and in exceptional cases
# sometimes closely approaches 100 per
cent. During the Hongkong epidemic
in 1894 nine-tenths of the Cinnamon
attacked did not recover. In India,
despite the valiant efforts of the British
doctors. the death rate is commonly
from 60 to 80 per cent.
The symptoms which give the bu-
bonic plague its name is the appear
ance of huge boils or buboeS upon the
neck and groin and under the arms of
the patient The period of incubation
is from three to seven days, and after
that, for a day or two the patient has
lchills, fever, headaches, nausea and all
the other customary signs of an acute
infection.
At the end of this time the buboes
begin to appear and the patient grows
very i'll. If he is able to walk at all
he staggers Ike a drunken man. His
temperature rises to 104 degrees or
higher and his pulse beats rapidly and
strongly. His tongue is dry and vel
low, and he can scarcely speak.
After the third day the temperature
usually falls a bit, but it is only tenn
mains at 104 or 105 degrees for a week
During this period collapse and death
often put an end to the patients suf-
ferings. If he is fated to escape, his
temperature gradually falls.
But even under the most favorable
conditions the exhaustion following an
attack is severe, and the patient may
die suddenly of heart failure. Again
peritonitis may set in, or jaundice, OF
pneumonia, or the bubOes may suppu-
rate and form huge running sores. In
any case, the disease is painful and
dangerous, the death rate is high, and
recovery is uncertain and slow.
There are a great many other forms
of bubonic plague, but the one de-
scribed is by far the most common
Nearly always there is some trouble
some complication. When this takes
the form of lung infection the disease
is sometimes called pneumonia plague.
The Investigations of the japanese