The Daily Morning Journal And Courier

THE PLAGUE.

How devastating the bubonic plague now raging in India is is indicated by the fact that while Bombay has had about a million inhabitants the number has been reduced by flight and deaths to less than four hundred thousand. It is being seriously considered whether it is not best to burn up the entire native section of Bombay in order to purify that quarter and kill the disease germs. While it is expected that the plague will continue and even increase its ravages in India there is yet no scare about it in other countries except perhaps in Russia. But no chances are to be taken, and the European countries will take steps at once to prevent the introduction of the Asiatic filth plague into Europe. At the Suez canal there are two quarantine stations with disinfecting apparatus. All vessels from Bombay or other Asiatic cities must pass through the canal before they can enter the Mediterranean, and such vessels will be put into quarantine and fumigated. In this country the New York health authorities are awake to the situation. Health Officer Doty has no fear that the disease will make any trouble here. He points out that the disease is one which thrives in the presence of filth and famine; that in India it has not been subjected to careful sanitation and policing; that patients have not been cared for in the way of proper food and medical treatment, and that the officials have not had the co-operation of the natives. These neglects are among the most potent agencies in the propagation of the disease, and as these agencies do not exist to any extent in this country the disease, even if it reached these shores, would not receive the encouragement of these conditions. As the period of incubation of the plague does not exceed ten or twelve days, and as more than this period is ordinarily consumed in a passage from the Mediterranean ports, and even from Hamburg, it is evident that an infected person embarking at any of those ports would be almost sure to be taken ill before the vessel reached this country, which would place the vessel at once under the observation of the quarantine officials. Should the disease reach New York city the almost perfect methods of isolating and caring for cases would, Dr. Doty thinks, prevent any spread of the disease. It is to be hoped that sanitary science will show conquering skill and power in this important contest.