Bisbee daily review., 1910-04-03


 been already widely scattered. From any such focus it may be further dis seminated by old clothes. rags, or even dust. upon which the discharges from either animal or human subjects have been deposited. In this way. bu- as yet confined almost exclusive N to the rats. this army is marching under cover. hiding in garrets and eel lars. lurking in rotten logs and under brush. sneaking along fences and hedge rows, borrowing in the ground and jumping from bOugh to bough. And it has already marched a hun dre and fifty miles on its triumphal way towards the populous Eas.
 old Theories and Facts.
 It is interesting to note how facts about plaques were explained in the past and how nearly the scientists were 70 the great truth that is now known. The plague was brought to London by rags from Amsterdam. it generally seized everybody in the same house. It spreads from one house to the next house. When it began in a ship but few escaped. This was explained on the theory that the contagion was transmitted through the air and that ships car ried. confined. the air from their ports of departure In India dying rats were long accepted as forerunners of the disease among the humans, and in pest-ridden districts floods hat drown ed the rats were hailed with joy and were followed by the at least tempor- ary subsistence of disease. This was explained on the theory was con tagion was a miasma located in he earth. where it first affected the rats and whence it later emanated to af- feet the people. All these facts now find their logical explanation iR the great discovery by Kitasato.
 How the Plague Kills.
 The human victim rarely. if ever, knows when or how he contracts the disease. Af.er from four to seven days of incubation. it begins with headache. vertigo and mental de pression. shown by lack of spirit and a stupid countenance. Then comes al chill, followed by a raging fever. con- suming thirst. great prostration. with occasional vomi ing of bile and blood Then tte glands in the neck. under the arms. at -e elbows, in the Eroins, under the kues. indeed. all over the body become red. swollen, tender to the touch anu extremely painful when not ouched Soon these swellinss turn dark. become filld with pus. and # not opened. burs- spontaneously. In ! some cases the infection is mixed, 1 with the result that, in addi ion to ! tender glantS and abscesses, the pa ! tient is co~-red with boils and car buncles. The internal changes core spond with those on the surface. ! About his time the agony of living and the sting of death are both over ] come by a merciful unconsciousness, | in the midst of which the mass of hu- man putridity ceases to breathe and | his heart is stilled. In many cases | the infec ion reaches the lungs first and the patient develops a rapidly ia tai pneumonia It may cause death in 4S hours, although patients gen orally suffer from seven to nine days before they die. or from a month to two mon hs before they recover. The frightful yirulence of the disease is shown by the fact that from 40 to 90 i persons die out of every hundred at ! tackled.
 Some Historic Epiemics.
 Just what this dea b rate means IS illustrated by some historic epidemics The code of Hammurabi and the Egyptian papyri show that the dis ease prevailed long before its first mention in the Bible. bu- no aggre gats of it's decimations are recorded
 After the eruption of Yesuvius. that submerged Pompei and Herculaneum A D. 7S. as many as 10900 died in a day in Italy. Seventy-five years laJel 800 GOO died of the disease in Numidia In the Second Century the whole O
 he Roman Empire was invaded, a: many as 1000 dying in a single day il 5 Rome alone. In the Sixth Century Constantinople was almost decimated i At different times. ahout a thosanC years later. S0,00O died in Dantdg
 10000 in Paris. .5O,O0o in Lyons. ana i 200,009 in Moscow. At the grea
 London" plague of 1864 abou- sy.00' persons died out of a total population of 450.OO0. the deaths amounting tC 1 900 a day during the whole of Sep tember of that year. Tn 1720 ther, were ST.5G9 deaths out of a total pop ulation Of z50.OO0 in and around Mar seiIes, where the disease acquired foothold, and where the interests anC authorities tried 10 suppress the fac much after what seemed to have beer the way al San Francisco.
 The Plague in Modern Times.
 But the plague is not a disease O either remote antiquity or far-awal countries. It is only a hundred year or so since it killed 39O.000 in the val
 ley of the VOga In the Nineteenth
 Century it prevailed in Constantinople
 be Caucasus. Georgia. Bucharest, Al
 bania. Bosnia, Dalmatia. Moldovia
 WaIlachia. Bessarabia. and othe parts of Europe and in Persla. Indi; and China In 1894 there was SC r we're epidemic at Canton ana Honi ; Kong. There were 169.240 death , from plague in the Bombay proyinc l in the thirty months preceding Jan uary. 1899. Tn the last ten years evei h