THE PLAGUE IN RUSSIA.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIV, Issue 38, 13 February 1879, Page 4

THE PLAGUE IN RUSSIA.

With reference to the telegram stating that the plague had broken out in Russia, the Melbourne Argus received '■ the following particulars from a gentle-! man who has been for some years in those ports. He stated "that it is already three or four years since the plague first reappeared, for so long ago' as 1874 it committed terrible ravages at Schuster, on the river Karun, in the south of Persia. It was next heard of at Bagdad in the winter of the folio wing year, but disappeared as soon as the hot weather set in. It again broke out in 187C, and the virulence of the disease may be judged when it is stated that no less than 300 to 350 deaths occurred weekly for several weeks in succession. There was no actual epidemic last year, but without any warning it suddenly appeared at Resht, 500 miles away, which place, as stated in the telegram, is situated on the south coast of the Caspian Sea. Within a fsw months no less than 4000 deaths took place out of a population of 25,000 to 30,000 people, entire families being swept away by the disease. It is a remarkable fact that not a single case occurred beyond the limits of the town. It was greatly feared at the time that the disease might spread

westward and attack the Russian and Turkish armies, then in the field in Asia Minor. Stringent measures were, however, adopted by tbe Rupsian authorities to prevent such a calamity by establishing quarautioe all along the RussoPersian frontier. Our informant himself was put into quarantine with his wife and family on a desert island in the Caspian Sea, before he could pass through Russia. It was only in July last that the regulations were somewhat relaxed, no case of plague having been heard of at Resht for three or four months belore. We now hear of it suddenly appearing at Astrakhan, the great centre of Russian trade, on the Caspian Sea, a city of 100,000 inhabitants, comprised of Persians, Armenians Tartars, Bokhariotes, and Russians. From the eccentric manner in which it has travelled hitherto, there is every reason to fear that it may ere long find its way to Tsautsin Saratoff or NidjuiNovgorod, aud thence to Moscow and other gieat cities of Europe. There is a contest of opinion among medical men as to whether the disease is the 'plague' rightly so called, but it is argued that, ifnot quite of the same type as that which has committed such ravages in times past, yet that it is closely allied thereto."