Bubonic Plague

an eastern epidemic, first known in China. It is supposed to be the same as the Black Death which appeared at Constantinople in 543 A. D., and which carried off a fourth of the population of Europe, 1347-52. It is due to the marvelously rapid growth of colonies of bacteria in the lymphatic system. The particular germ, or bubonic bacillus, resembles that of chicken-pox. Within three or four days from the time that germs have entered, usually in food or water, the plague breaks out in swellings and purple spots in the lymphatic glands of the neck, armpits, groin, and elsewhere, accompanied by headache, dizziness, fever, and prostration. Death is likely to ensue within five hours. After forty-eight hours the chances of recovery increase. As in the case of typhoid fever the bubonic bacteria thrive in filth of all kinds and the plague is most severe in the slums; but even the most sanitary districts are endangered by plague-breeding districts. It is chiefly an epidemic of the city. Clean streets, prompt disposition of garbage, and an abundance of water for flushing and thorough drainage,--that is to say, air, light, and cleanliness,--are preventives. Hot, dry air kills the germs; moist, warm filth favors multiplication. Famine stricken people lack strength to withstand the disease.

At the present time the thickly populated quarters of the dirty, underfed poor in the cities of China and India are the centers of the pest most to be dreaded. The utmost precautions are taken at all enlightened seaports to prevent the landing of persons, animals, baggage, or articles of merchandise from a suspected locality without first holding the ship in quarantine to see whether the plague may not break out. Special efforts are made to prevent rats from swimming ashore from infected vessels, lest they carry germs into the houses and sewers of a city. Every ship approaching a port, especially a ship from Asia, must satisfy the health officers that it does not carry infectious diseases. It is not supposed that the bubonic plague can ever gain a permanent foot hold in America. It has at times reached the harbor of New York. In 1900 it appeared in the Chinese quarters of San Francisco.

The United States authorities who guard our ports say that the bubonic plague is a question of germs, rats, fleas, and men. The bacillus or germ, which is described as a spindle-shaped rod, breeds in the blood of rats. Without rats, a port will not have the plague. A person may inhale the germs, in which case pneumonia is likely to ensue with deadly results. If the germ get into the blood current, poisoning results and death is almost certain. The two types mentioned, however, are of infrequent occurrence in this country. The ordinary line of bubonic attack lies through the skin, and here is where the flea plays a part. Fleas abound in the fur of rats. They live on the contaminated blood of the rat. The flea that infests the rats is not averse to the body of man. Here he makes an incision and helps himself to human blood. While feeding, the flea, like the fly, deposits a "speck," disgustingly full of bubonic germs drawn in at previous meals, on the body of the rat. When the victim attempts to allay the itching caused by the flea bite, this speck, germs and all, is rubbed into the incision, and the germs are taken up by the lymphatic system. They are killed by the lymph, but are carried to the nearest lymphatic gland, where they cause inflammation and a swelling or bubo, from which the plague takes its name. This is the least dangerous of the forms of infection; yet seventy-five per cent of the patients die. A crusade has been inaugurated the world over to exterminate the rats in our large harbors.

See Black Death; Disease