THE RUSSIAN EPIDEMIC. (FROM THE "TIMES.")

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXI, Issue 2501, 26 July 1865, Page 6

THE RUSSIAN EPIDEMIC. (FROM THE "TIMES.")

AuxnEXTio intolligonop, touching tho Russian opidemio, states that three several maladiei oxisfc ad the Bamo time in St. Petoisburg. In* Ootobor last meningitis tipimlis appeared at bt. Potoribnrjf. This is a spasmodic affection of tho brain nnd spiiml oord, by which children are ohieily nttaolted ; tho mortality from 20 to 50 por ceut. Jn Novembor typhus Tfai added to the first-mentioned disoase, occurring f poradionlly at lirst, and gradually developed into a malignant spooies olfebris reeurrens. Tho fever lasts a week at a timo, tho sevorahattaoks bsing separated by intervals as long. During theso intervals tho health is apparently «o good that people have been dismissed ft oiu hospital \>ho died soon after. 4. special committee has been formed under Governor-Genoral Suwaioff to look after those apparently cured. On a second or third attack thore is a general collapse, decomposition of blood, and paralysis. Qninine and stimulants have no effect The deaths, at flrtt but 20, have rison to 40 por cent. The spleen and liver are much affected, in many cases epidemical inflammation of the spleen, or pustula maligna, has been observed. Quito recently, the Siberian plague has broken out also. Of this," 70 per cent, die within a few hours. A itiong disposition to vomit, »which caunot b9 satisfied, a swelling of tho belly, pestilential carbuncles, aud dailc colour of the skin a\o its nwnittakablo symptoms. It is thoßlack Death. St. Petersbin q papers deny tho existoncc of ths plagno in the capital, but tho official Not them Post states i t to have broken out at Szauie wo, in tho Waldai Hills, and tho description given in the St. Petersburg official Medical News and Exchange News, in whioh tho dilation of tho pupils i« especially dwelt upon, shows tho malady m its preseut stage greatly to resemble the plague. Iv many cases, indeed, it w difficult to distinguish plague from film reeurrens at a time when typhoid epidemics aro abroad. The disoase is apparently ou the decrease. Dr. Eriohson, smgeon to the Emperor Nicholas, aged 75, died while attending hospital. Tn Polnucl, also, an epidemic lias brokeu out, Ono ense at Cole, near Warsaw, 10 represented iv tho Wursaw Gazelle as meningitis spinalis. Out of 5,000 inhabitants in that town thoro aro 36 sick and 15 dead. In Eastern Prussia thcie are many cases of meningitis near Dantzic. A despatch from Sir A. Buchanan, British Ambassador at St. Peter»bur#, says :—: — " 'i he number of new cases of diseases from all causes known to the Government aro estimated during the last ten days ot an average of 300 a day, tho cures at 212 and the deaths at BS. Tho fevers here, which have no affinity with the plague, fire attributed to ovei-crowded lodgings of labouriug classes, spoiled vegetables, and drinking canal water. The number of new cases of recurrent typhoid ferer, and other foveis of a similar nature, admitted into the hospitals, varies from 100 to 150 a day; tho highest mortality in the hospitals from typhus fever and lccunent fever has been 60 » day, and the aveiage 25 to 30 ; only two physicians havo died in the hospitals. The disease is decrea»iug, and there are vacant beds in tho hospitals,"