FIGHTING THE PLAGUE.

Mataura Ensign, 27 January 1911, Page 4

FIGHTING THE PLAGUE.

I [ SCOURGE IN THE EAST. | .MARCH OK DKATH. [ :t V"":"' »• '.m,„ lßi .vv [Magazine \ ance I lu'in|>s<iii treat*',,j | The Con<|Ucred :il!il the Cnconutieroil j Plagues, Ili<- Dc.'xil\ Diseaso* 0 f kind," which interest in view 1.1 to-day cal(l<. regarding .i,„ plague i>l China. H" st rites: •lull. IS s.-t „i rotary printing pres.,, which j-iiin.Ts up tlic endle,« | v.'hite paper ol 1 hj,. lut urc, prints jj 'dates il and tosses a into the archive* «>1 tin- past. Tli.' man who «tu«Ji*- M Mhos., aicliiv.'s 11. -ed not go through | t)( , ; wholly unprepared. He will have | oartl _ jed that Nature now and then low* p„. itieuce at the slow march ol lil,. a mi death. and throws down catastrophe inU> the world. even in these splenetic outhursts there is order. In cycles m va>i , that it is difficult to plot their curve* tiles., revolutions occur, and scienee )K beginning to umlerst I their w,.,,,.. rence. This law ol sequence the path..logical historians liave laid down. You may see it in the v -ars ol seismic ,Jj fc . order, ol plague and war. in the |<,u r . feonth century when the black death rode abroad. Farthquak.-s that shook tlx- World. posts <>l inwctK. i)n» harhi liters ol plague, and atmospheric of lustorv darkly. To-day it is known as the bubonic plague; then it was called the black death. "Medical science, even the lotirtecnth century, was not wholly without wisdom. It recognised tin- contagious character ol bubonic plague an.] fought it with methods ol isolation, of sanita* tion and diet. It lanced the inflamniti. Tory boils and cautcri*e<| (he black sj>ot* which mark this phytic, but in the <.,1.1 it acknowledged that the black death had come upon Immunity like M-orm or earthquake, and. like them, had pawwif in its own good time. The Black Death To-day. Now once again the bubonic plague is M-ouryiim tlk- Far Kast. Curiously <"i .ugli. ii was first lizard of in our <lay at \.tlia:il;a, <m the Volga, the verv jp. u,t uin ii- it sti.pji...l on its way round j tin- w.ii-ld -i\ centuries ago. It *jk |p;ar.(l there in JB7N; by 1894 it had reached China, touching Canton. Hong Kong, tlx Isles ol Annam and Formosa; two y.-ars later it was in Bom. bay; and in 1K97 Hindu pilgrim* had carried it to the shores ol the Ke.l Sea. '"Travelling from th<- south of China, Hie plague reached Japan in 1809. Iti the other direction it made its way info Persia, Kurdistan, Astrakhan; there has been a notable outbreak in Arabia, .south ol Mecca. In a word, tin* black .loath is abroad once more in the eastern world. ' ' "What steps haw been taken to stop | " -*ifw.;M-rerl tlx- microbe ol the | bubonic plague i:i ]B<M. He <kwcril»e<l the three tonus oi the disease. The common kind begins with chills an.] lever; the patient talis into a swoon and terrible hallucinations; blue streaks app-ar on the tongue; then the buboes- th 1 swollen glands— aji|X'*r here and tli-r. en the b.ujy, and death , comes. A milder lorm. eaJJod the am. jbulatory plague, is distinguished by j smaller bubo, s; only about <»0 per cent, jol the \ii t ii.is are doomed to die. The |iii<>-t i:,ti in, form is the 'lightning I'b'gUe ! ;ij.s ill ail hollf Ol' < Wo, before en the Ijulnx-s have had time ■to show t!wMM-Ives; per cent ol it* j Victims erta;nly <iio. j Hi:' Japanese, those marvellous little y.-liow !):. )f . have pio\<-;J the best plague-light. To those two tucdiaeval leinedies. i?< lat;oii and disinfection, they have a.fi!. .{ of YorsinV serum. I I Ir ir fir.-t ai; i most urgent care was to <'sta i!:v|i st'itions at all their S "il(0, is. ' t ;i:!i>wei| ii'i .]iipto land ''•"> lit t:a! , •,'isiul;'ct. i d, and unuf its rats led i' .e destroyed. For fhe !w ' s| ls •' 'il two ways fil-M, by iim! '. lit, . - o| plagu.--stricken vovarid mor • comiiioul> , by 1:1 ! ! -;-i'lise and in this <-asc t he rats < arty ,1, far abroad. i'y v. ;iy i jiroteetioii nothing lihs I t V.-rsin's anti|H-st \ ace,ne. I . C Jt lowered the deathrate In.lll v.. T cent, to 70 per cent. : -' apa 1 1 » "ijvaiai, i/i)orii)s me that " ' 1 ; ' " with anii|Mst • 1 biluseli' inmilllie. Those Nti-K-kcwith the JH-St are - so: the set tun as much ~ 1 -I ■ it irt s, and where this '"" •' '• ► • 's'l.v stag •ol the .lis. «.ts< ii. -i a . ~ -!;;•[ i recover. In addition ' •>" tors einplov the tin i i.i.-v ~l t ', 1 ;• 1 ol cxi irp-iting tin 1 '• Mirg.V-,1 kllile. Where !' '"-"iveii out ill l.,rill!v 1 the house. , S " , ' vvit!l plague !i\ the '' " i:arbors ha\ - wv< ral disease to Kiif-opean V l '. .. I: ' ion-.r U vague, in- '''' '' hunianii v nnist ' """y. Can he be i 'i' ! "iiy liiilliuii ol rats - ' ' •* * •••'• u -ii <-itv swarms u : i Ii :