The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-08-25
STUDIED THE PLAGUE AND DIED

It is remarkable fact, confirmed by many observations, that many physi- clans who have devoted considerable labor to the study of a particular dis earse have themselves died of that
 disease One of the most interesting
 examples is that of John Daniel Ma Tor, born. August IS, 1884, in Breslau,
 physician and naturalist of no mean
 ability. Bitten early by the wander
 lust. he studied at Wittenburg, took
 courses at many of the schools in Ger
 many, and finally went to Italy where
 he received the degree of doctor of
 medicine at Padua in 16eO Return
 ing to his own country, he resided for a short time in Silesia, and in 1861 married at Wittenburg, Margaret Dorothy, 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 pla- que wherever he found 1t 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 settled in 1865 in Kief, where he was made pro- lessor of botany and the director. of the botanical gardens He made fre-
 quent voyages, however. always in
 quest of the remedy for plague Fin ally in 1893, he was called to Stock
 holm 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 and
 !. ;-I
 The bubonic plague of today is iden-
 tical with the black death of the Mid
 dle Ages. Primarily a disease of TO-
 dents caused by a 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; i; the septicaenic, which is nearly as fatal, and the bubonic in which even with the most modern methods of treatment the mortality is about 50 per cent. It is disease of commerce, spreading around the globe in the body of the ship-borne rat It is es- timated that every case of human pla- que costs the municipality in which it occurs at least s7.500. 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 a 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 well man by fleas. The sick rat has enormous numbers of plague bacilli in it's blood. The blood
 is taken by the flea which. leaving the sick r.t. seeks refuge and susten- ance on the body of a human being to whom 1t transfers infection
 Since the plague is disease of TO- dents and since 1t is carried from sick rodents to well man by rodent fleas, safety from the disease lies in the ex- clusion of rodents, not only exclusion from the habitation of man but also from the ports and cities of the world
 Those who dwell in rat-proof sur roundings take no plague. Not only should man dwell in rat-proof sur rourdings but he should also live in rat-free surroundings The day is past when the rodent served a useful purpose as the unpaid city scavenger. Rats will not come where there is no food for them. Municipal cleanliness
 may be regarded as a partial insur-
 ance against plague. The prayer that