The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-07-11
ANCIENT AND MODERN PLAQUES,

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 7NI NONDAY's NEWS contained in not espec- lIW1 ially conspicuous items, the informa- ltion that two cases of Bllbonic Plague have ap- Ipeared in New Orleans. Once this announce ment received with so little trepidation would have brought shiver of fear to nations.
 Bubonic Plague, generally termed simply ssthe plague has been one of the great seourges of mankind Historical mention of the disease is traced to at least the third century before Christ, in the writings of Rufus of Ephesus, who tells of. the plague in LibYas
 The greatest assault of the plague' which has historical setting is that of the Fourteenth lcentury, the time of the Black Death, when, lit lerAlly, millions succunnbed to the attacks of the pestilenee, when the nations were paralyzed in nearly every activity. and it seemed as if the human race might be swept from the earth
 The Black Death was responsible for many 1 and widely varying economic results the chief of which was an alteration of the conditions ex-s listing between labor and capital. It was almost the direct cause of the destruction of serfdom f fly came about that the doctrine the serf must be attached to. the land of the master was nodi-s fled I It is literally true that some of the blessings lenjoyed by the workers of to-day have their deep foundation in the rayages of pestilence six Icenturies ago. Modern sanitation also has strong roots in the ravages of the plague, for when whole cities were smitten, and 1t was realized that the disease was contagious, the Iabler and more courageous leaders devised methods of quarantine and ways for improving the environment in which the populations lived, l or, perhaps it would be better to say, existed
 The Great Plague of London, which had it's climax in 1866, caused 68,596 deaths in a popu- lation of less than half million, two5thirds of (which had lied the city to escape the danger. Afterward came the great London fire. and the \ plaague never thereafter returned with any vii lr1lence. The new city was too clean. It is true the plague disappeared in cities where there was no fire, but the disappearance may be attributed to measures of sanitation which, if not equal in extent to those adopted in London, were sufficient.
 There are those who attribute the wide prevalence of the plague to conditions beyond I the control of men, such as changes in the tenn lperature, and the atmos phere, but the more us- tual view is that men were easy victims of the disease because i'll fed, ill clothed, and improp- sIerly housed
 One writer said of the Plague of London:
 The disease spread altogether by eontaslon at
 [s nor began only in one place and spread further upon several cities and suburbs ike rain Y lell
 The disease continues to prevail in Oriental dcountries, in which there are conditions of hun ger and filth very like the conditions that exist I ed in London in 1666. From 1896 to 1906 the I plague ragged in India, removing several mil l lions, of afflicted mortals. The disease had it's iclimax in 1905 when 94o,82i deaths were eaus- 5 ed by it.
 There is little occasion to worry about the black plague in these times and in this country. X We have for the most part enough to eat We l have achieved somewhat in sanitation
 We have our own plaques, however. There lis the white death, for instance, which has num- bered in it's time more victims than the black death, and which bears this analogy to the oth- CT, that the homes of the impoverished are the nurseries of both.
 Says writer, treating.of the Great Plague lof London:
 The disease vas always most destructive in souaI td. dirty neighborhoods and called "poors plague
 Shall we, then, come to the conclusion that men suffer from the white, as they suffered :, from the black, plague, because they have not sufficiently understood that man is This broth ler's keeper?n
 
 with spring beds. chairs to do all the cooking