The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1919-01-03
PESTILENCE HAS
FOLLOWED WARS
Influenza is Not Disease of Recent
Origin-C0mmon in Fifteenth and
Sixteenth Centuries

Sixteenth Centuries
When we come to deal with cpl
denies and their effect on human life,
our minds naturally revert to some of
the great plaques of history. Two OF
these were of outstanding Importance.
worse than any others: The first, the
plague in the Sixth century, which
Gibbon describes, and which, starting
in Egypt, spread east and west over
the then known world; the second,
popularity called "The Black Death"
which visited Europe in the Four
teenth century. 1t is clear from the
symptoms that both of these were
bubonic plague, and the origin is said
to have been in Egypt where .ineffec-
tual burial had been introduced in
place of the ancient custom Of en-
balming. The effects of the early Eng
land it is reported that in the four
teenth century the population was re-
duced by about so per cent as the re-
suit of the visitation, and other coun-
tries suffered in like manner.
We have heard much of the Plague
of London of 1861 In Pepy's Diary
we have many interesting entries with
reference to il. 1t arrived in midsum-
mer and solemn fast day was OBJ
served on July IL. 1t increased in
virulence until near the end of Sep
TENDER, then decreasing gradually to
the end of November. 1t continued to
minor extent until it was finally
purged by the great fire of 1866.
There was much difference of opinion
and expressions Of foolishness as to
the treatment of the disease. One
curiosity read in Hearne, the Anti
quarry, that Tom Rogers said that all
the boys at Elton "were obliged to
smoak in the school every morning
and that he was never whipped so
much in his life as he was one morn
ing for not smoaking."
Little Sanitation
In those days, typhus, typhoid
small pox, and the plague were always
present in a greater or less degree In
the towns of Europe. Some cities had
learned elementary lessons in hygiene
but few of them had. We read of the
general life of the people in words
somewhat like these: "The floors were
commonly of clay, strewn with rushes
under which lie unmolested an ancient
collection Of lees, grease, fragments
bones, ETC." When these became toe
noticeable, fresh layer of rushes was
spread on top; then each year or two
the, most fastidious housekeepers
would have house cleaning wher
everything was swept out bodily dowr
to the clay floor. The Scriptural in
junction as to the washing of hands
before meals was a ceremony essentia
to health because the fingers were
freely used in eating until the intro
duction of forks in the Eighteenth
century.
Smallpox was probably the mos
common scourge of the peoples Of
Europe until Doctor Jenner evolved
the practice of vaccination. In the
Russian empire, it is said to have
swept away 100000 persons in sin
gle year. Even SO recently as the
Franco-Prussian war of 1871, it was
epidemic to marked extent, both in
France and Germany; the regulations
for vaccination had not been followed
The effect of incubation in the reduc-
ton and control of smallpox has been
so marked that nearly all doctors who
have studied germ diseases have en-
deavored to treat other contagious all
ments in this way.