THREATENED PESTILENCE.

Waikato Times, Volume X, Issue 931, 11 June 1878, Page 3

THREATENED PESTILENCE.

(Correspondent Melbourne ' Argus.') The Austrian Government proposes an International Commission for the disinfection of tbe battle fields of the late war, and is taking strong measnres to keep infection from its ' borders. In Koumania and Bulgaria thousands of dead men lie half buried beneath the scanty soil, or not buried, at all, and the carcasses of thousands of horses lie rotting m. uncounted numbers beneath the open sky. In Asia, m the neighbourhood or Erzroum, 20,000 corpses are interred only 2ft. below the surface. TJhese bodies are at present half frozen, but, m the hot weather soon to commence, will, unless they are cremated or consumed by quicklime.} cause such a plague that speedily the cp'mtry will be one great charnel-house. In Emoum there, are 12,000 people down v»ith. typhus. . Thence, the mischief is carried to Hassan Kaleh, where there is a daily average of 3006 cases, and on to Kars. At Tiflis, there are 200 deaths every day. The deadly poison travels with the convoys. ; Already the " spotted typhu?," as the country people, call it, is spreading far and near, and devastating parts of Prussia which have hitherto only remotely • suffered by the war with Turkey. In some of .the central provinces there are villages m which half of thte population, has died, and" m f me southern towns trenches are dug every morning capable of holding "40 or 50 coffins, and yet 'every day,' writes a correspond eut of the *Novye Vremya/ ' we have to mmake, c the common grave a little larger , The danger is scarcely less on th c European side. . AtAdrianople, th c . hospitals and barracks are; full, o > typhus patieuts ; 3000 are dispersed iv private houses beyond all sanitary control, and still the contagion spreads. Last week the • entire medical, staff, of ./the. Red Cross Society was anibilated. The disease is at work throughout Bulgaria, but its full force is concentrated onSistova. At that centre there are 10,000 sick and wounded waiting, removal into Russia. As Kis cheneneff the evil is so virulent that ifc is the veritable plague, akin to that of the Middle Age's. All who can flee the place do so. Here a large pit is dug every day, and every evening the Papa holds a service over 50 or 60 victimsRussian soldiers, Turkish prisoners and civilians— who have perished since sunrise. Prom Kischerieff the epidemic flows m a Bteady and increasing stream over the north-eaat of [Russia. « Thoagh the disease is commonly^ called typhus, yet," says an authority, ." m reality it seems distinct from that malady, and combines m some degree the appearance, of typhus and small-pox. Hence it has been named, '.typho small-poxs thougl) m Ibe Press and throughout the countryit is universally callarl /spotted typhus, 1 owing to the ! Spots i^ Which appear *all over the body wljen the. crisis Juts begun. It i>. ho^eyer,. a mistake to say that' the disease was orgi- . nated by the,war j the war has only spread apd jntfiupifipd. it. The epiprevailed at I^ischeuetf before the Ruosian army invaded Turkey, .-hutf aoQQriJ&prj&id i>n the Dobnidscha, and iiwas , then carried by invalid Solaiers : ? into the filthy southern towns,' The Xirtan officials n^de.

no efforts to stop the dissemination of the disease; 'Th'ey r earned out their instructions with regard to billowing the men. withoub. any heed as to the mischief which the disease spreading- among 1 the civil population might cause.'' .In r Constantinople meanwhile' the refugees a,re dying, from various causes at; < the rate of 100 a day.