BLACK DEATH IN CHINA

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 274, 10 April 1911, Page 3

BLACK DEATH IN CHINA

AWFUL CONDITIONS. The great epidemic of pneumonic plague is raging as fiercely as ever in North China, writes, a correspondent in February. The present conditions at Ilarbin beggar description. Efforts arc being made to dispose of the accumulation of corpses, and the Russian fire brigades arc cremating them a hundred at a time. There were 110 deaths one day in the Chinese quarter and four in the European town. The Government have ordered the stoppage of traffic on the Pekin-Hankow railway to prevent the disease from spreading to the south. ; The disease made its appearance, in Manchuria early in November. It differs considerably from the bubonic plague common in India, and is more deadly. There was an outbreak at Shanghai in November, and the precautions ordered by the European authorities there led to riots among the ignorant Chinese. Whereas bubonic plague is propagated by rat (leas, pneumonic plague is attributable to the parasites of the bartagan, a species of large marmot which is hunted for its fur in North Manchuria and Siberia. The epidemic of pneumonic plague ("Black Death") which reached England in 1605 is said to have originated in Mongolia, possibly from the same animal. The extreme cold of the Mancliurian winter—the temperature is often about 40 deg. Fahr. Below zero—has favored the spread of the disease. Disinfecting apparatus is rendered almost useless. The lungs, which the bacillus attacks, are weakened by the low temperature, and are thus less prepared for resistance. And on account of the great cold the infected furs and clothing of the victims are commonly stolen as soon as life is extinct. The corpses in the stricken towns are left naked in the streets and are eaten by dogs and birds. Harbin and Mukden are the chief hotbeds of the epidemic. For some weeks efforts were made by the Chinese traders to minimise the reports of Its extent, lest trade should be injured, but early in January alarm was felt in Pekin. The death-rate at Harbin then exceeded 100 a day, and the mortality was practically 100 per cent. Railway traffic between Manchuria and the south was restricted; an "Anti-Plague Board" was formed at Pekin, and the Chinese Government appealed to the European Powers for aid. Many English and other doctors volunteered to work in the stricken towns. Dr. Jackson, of Liverpool, Dr. Mesny, a Frenchman, and a number of Russian medical students have succumbed.