Fulton County tribune. (Wauseon, Ohio) 1883-1925, 1916-09-29
BUBONIC PLAGUE AND RATS

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BUBONIC PLAGUE AND RATS
1t is remarkable fact, confirmed by
many observations, that many physi-
cans who have devoted considerable
labor to the study of a particular dis
ease have themselves died of that |
disease. One of the most interesting |
examples is that of John Daniel Major
born August 16, 1884, in Breslau, a
physician and naturalist of no mean
ability. Bitten early by the wander
lust, ne studied at Wittenburg, took
courses at many of the schools in
Germany, and finally went to Italy
where he received the degree of doc
tor of medicine at Padua in 1860. Re-
turning to his own country, he resided
for short time in Silesia, and in 1861
married at Wittenburg, Margaret
Dorothy, a daughter of the celebrated
Sennert. The following year, his
young wife was stricken with plague
and died after an illness of eight days.
Distracted by his loss, Major wander
ed up and down Europe studying
plague wherever he found it in the
/ hope that he might discover a cure
for the disease which had bereaved
him. Spain, Germany, France and
Russia were visited by him. He set
tied in 1865 in Kiel, where he was
made professor of botany and the
director of the botanical gardens. He
made frequent voyages, however, al
ways in quest of the remedy for
plague. Finally in 1893, he was call
ed to Stockholm to treat the queen Of
Charles the Eleventh, then i'll with
plague. But before he could render
her any service, he contracted the
disease on the third of August.
The bubonic plague of today is
identical with the black death of the
Middle Ages. Primarily disease of
rodents caused by short dumb bell
shaped microscopic vegetable, the pest
bacillus, it occurs in man in three
forms; the pneumonia, which has a
death rate of almost 100 per cent; the
septicaemic, which is nearly as fatal
and the bubonic in which even with
the most modern methods of treat
ment the mortality is about 80 per
cent. 1t is a disease of commerce
spreading around the globe in the body
Of the ship-borne rat. 1t is esti-
mated that every case of human
plague costs the municipality in which
it occurs at least $500. This does
not take into account the enormous
loss due to disastrous quarantines
and the commercial paralysis which the
fear of the disease so frequently pro-
duces.
The disease is now treated by ser
um discovered through the genius of
Yersin. This is used in much the
same way as is diphtheria antitoXin.
!. Plague is transferred from the sick
rodent to the we'll man by fieas. The
sick rat has enormous numbers of
plague bacilli in it's blood. The blood
is taken by the flea which, leaving the
sick rat, seeks refuge and sustenance
on the body of a human being to whom
: it transfers the infection.
Since plague is disease of rodents
2 and since it is carried from sick ro-
, dents to well men by rodent feas,
safety from the disease lies in the
exclusion of rodents, not only exclu-
> sion from the habitation of man but
f also from the ports and cities of the
: world. Those who dwell in rat-proo1
- surroundings take no plague. Not
p only should man dwell in rat-proo1
f surroundings, but he should also live
9 in rat-free surroundings. The day is
;. past when the rodent served use.
: full purpose as the unpaid city scaven
ger. Rats will not come where there
" is no food for them. Municipal clean
! liness may be regarded as g. partia
. q insurance against plague. The prayer
that no plague come nigh our dwell
q ing is best answered, however, b!
q rat-proofing the habitations of man
4 Modern sanitary science has evolved
a simple and efficient weapon agains
p the pestilence which walketh in dark
;, " ness and striketh at monday, and tn,
r U. S. Public Health Service has pu
this knowledge into practical oper
alton and thus speedily eradicateC
n plague wherever it has appeared il
h the United States.