Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1916-08-26
THE sueoNIc PLAGUE.

sicians who have devoted consider
able labor to the study of a particu
lar disease have themselves died OF
that disease. One of the most inter.
esting examples is that Of JOAN Dan
iel Major, born August 16, 1854, in
Breslau, a physician and naturalist o;
no mean ability Bitten early by the
wanderlust, he 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 re
sided for a short time in Silesia, and
in 1861 married at Wittenburg, Mar
garet Dorothy, a daughter of the cele-
brated Sennert The following year,
his young wife was stricken with
plague and died after an illness of
eight days. Distracted by mis- loss,
Major wandered up and down Europe
studying plague wherever ne found it
in the hope that he might discover a
cure for the disease which had be-
and Russia were visited by him. He
settled in 1865 in Kiel, where ne was
made professor of botany and the di-
rector 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 dis
ease and died on the third of August
The bubonic plague of today is
identical with the black death of the
Middle Ages. Primarily a disease of
rodents caused by a short dumb-bell
shaped microscopic vegetable, the
pest bacillus, it occurs in man in
three forms; the Pneumonia, which
has death rate OF almost 100 per
cent; the septicaemic, which is near
ly as fatal, and the buhonic in which
even with the most modern methods
of treatment the mortality is about
so per cent II is a disease of COM
merce, 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 $500. This does
not take into account the enormous
loss due to disastrous guarantees and
the commercial paralysis which the
fear of the disease so frequently pro-
duces.
The disease is now treated by a
serum discovered through the genius
OF Yersin. This is used in much the
same way as is Gipntheria antitoxin
Plague is transferred from the sick
rodent to the we'll man by heas. The
sick rat has enormous numbers 81
plague bacilli in its blood. The blood
is taken by the flea which, leaving
the sick rat, seeks refuge and sGs-
tenance on the body of a human being
to whom 1t transfers the infection.
Since plague is a disease of rodents
and since il is carried from sick rod
ents TO well men by rodent tleas, safe
ty from the disease lies in the exclu-
sion OF rodents, not only exclusion
from the habitation of man but also
from the ports and cities of the world.
Those vino dwell in ratproof sur
roundings take no plague. Not only
should man dwell in rat-proof sur
roundings, but he should also live in
ratfree surroundings. The day is
past when the rodent served useful
purpose as the unpaid city scavengcr.
Rats viii not come where there is no
food for them. Municipal cleanliness
ance against plague. The prayer tnat
no plague come nigh our dwelling is
best answered, however, by rat-proof
ing the habitations of man. Modern
sanitary science aas evolved sim
pie and efficient weapon against tho
pestilence which walketh in darkness
and striiEeth at MONDAY. and the Z
s. Public Health Service has put tais
: knowledge into practical operation and
thus speedily eradicated plague wher
ever it has appeared in the United
States.