The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1916-08-31
8UBONIC PLAGUE
Has Been Fought Since | sol BY Scien
fists The World Over.

/ 1t is a remarkable fact, confirmed by
many observations, that many physi
clans who have devoted considerable
labor to the study of particular dis
ease have themselves died of that dis
ease. One of the most interesting eX-
ampes is that of John Daniel Major,
born August l6, 1924, in Breslau, a
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
ne received the decree of doctor of
medicine at Padua in 1860. Returning
to his own country, he resided for d
short time in Silesia, and in 1861 mar
| rled at Wittenburg, Margaret Dorothy,
daughter of the celebrated Sennett
The following year his young wife was
stricken with plague 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 that had
bereaved him. Spain, Germany, France
and Russia were visited by him. He
settled in 1865 in Kiel, where he was
made professor of botany and the direc-
tor 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 con-
/ tracted the disease and died on the
third Of August.
The bubonic plauge of to-day is iden-
teal with the black death of the Middle
Ages. Primarily a disease of rodents
caused by a short dumb-bell shaped
microscopic vegetable, the spest bacil
lus, 1t occurs in man in three forms;
the pneumonia, which has 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 treatment the mortality is
about 80 per cent. 1t is disease of
commerce, spreading around the globe
in the body of the ship-borne rat. 1t is
estimated that every case of human
plague costs the municipality in which
it occurs at least 81, 500 This does not
take into account the enormous loss due
to disastrous guarantees and the COM
mercial paralysis which the fear of the
disease so frequently produces.
The disease is now treated by serum
discovered through the genius of Yer
sin. 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 feas. The
sick rat has enormous numbers of
plague baciIli in its blood. The blood
is taken by the flea which. leaving the
sick rat, seeks refuge and sustenance
on the body of human being to whom
it trainers the infection.
Since plague is a disease of rodents
and since it is carried from sick TO-
dent to we'll men by f1eas, safety from
the disease lies in the exclusion Of ro-
dents, not only exclusion from the habi-
tation of man but also from the ports
and cities of the world. Those who
dwell in rat-proof surroundings take no
plague. Not only should men dwell in
rat-proof surroundings, but he should
also live in rat-free surroundings. The
day is passed when the rodent served
usefulpurpose as the unpaid city scaven-
ger. Rats will not come where there
is no food for them. Municipal clean
illness may be regarded as partial in
surance against plague. The prayer
that no plague come nigh our dwelling
is best answered, however by rat proof
ing the habitations of man. Modern