The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1916-08-29
MARTYRS TO DISEASE.
Many Physicians Died of Causes Which
They Studied.

1t is remarkable fact, confirmed b,
many observations, that many physi
clans who have devoted considerable la
Dor to the study of a particular disease
have themselves died of that disease
One of the most interesting examples i,
that of John Danil Major, born August
10 1884, in Breslau, physician and
naturalist of no mean ability. Bitten
early by the wanderust, he studied al
| Wittenburg, took courses Mt many OF the
schools in Germany and finally went to
Italy, where he received the degree OF
doctor 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 Dor
othy daughter of the celebrated Sem
merit. The following year, his young wife
was stricken with plauge and died after
an illness of eight days Distracted by
his loss, Major wandered up and down
Europe, studying plague wherever he
found it, in the hope that he might dis
cover cure for the disease which had
bereaved him. Spain, Germany, France
and Russia were visited by him. He set
tied in 1865 in Kel, whore he was made
professor of botany and the director OF
the botanical gardens. He made frequent
voyages, however, always in quest Of the
remedy for plague. Finally in 1893, he
was called 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
and died on the third Of August
The bubonic plague of to-day is identi.
cal with the black plague OF the Middle
Ages. Primarily a disease Of rodents
caused by a short dumb-bell shaped mi.
croscopic vegetable, the pest bacillus, it
occurs in mnn in three forms the pneu
monte which has a death rate of almost
100 per cent; the septis9mic, which is
nearly as fatal. and the bubonic, in which
even with the most modern methods Of
treatment the mortality is about 80 per
cent. 1t is disease of commerce, spread
ing around the globe in the body of the
ship borne rat. 1t is estimated that ev.
cry case of human plague costs the mu
in which it occurs at least
81 500. This does not take into account
the enormous loss due to disastrous quar-
antines and the commercial paralysis
which the fear OF the disease so fire.
quently produces.
The disease is now treated by a serum
discovered through the genius of Yersin |
This is used in much the same way "a
Is diphtheria antitoxin.
Plague is transferred from the sick |
rodent to the well man by flies. The sick /
rat has enormous numbers of plague I
bacilli in its blood. The blood is taken /
by the flea which, leaving the sick rat t
seeks refuge and sustenance on the body /
he infection.
Since plague is disease of rodents
md since it is carried from sick rodents
o well men by rodent heas, safety from
he disease lies in the exclusion of rod
nts, not only exclusion from the habi-
alton of man but also from the ports
md cities of the world. Those who dwell
n rat proof surroundings take no plague
lot only should man dwell in rat proof
but he should also live in
at-free surroundings. The day is past
when the rodent served a useful purpose
S the unpaid city scavenger. Rats will
lot come where there is no food for
hem. Municipal cleanliness may be re-
arded as a partial insurance against
Hague. The prayer that no plague come
Ugh our dwelling is best answered, how
yer, by rat proofing the habitations OF
nan. Modern sanitary science has
volved a simple and efficient weapon ,
ganst the pestilence which walketh in {
arkness and stricketh at monday, and ,
he L. S. health service has put this !
into practical operation and {
hus speedily ersdicated plague wherever
has appeared in the United States.