THE BUBONIC PLAQUE. 591 



disease was introduced by troops returning from the Danubian prov- 

 inces. As so often has been the history of plague, the first cases were 

 not recognized, and the existence of pest was denied. When the plague 

 was demonstrated to be present, it is said by Haeser that three-fourths 

 of the populace deserted the city. The disease began early in March 

 and increased during the early summer months. In August over 7,000 

 deaths resulted, while in September the records show that 21,000 

 died. In October the plague decreased, but still 17,000 deaths at- 

 tested to its fearful power. Early in January it became extinct, after 

 a duration of ten months, and after having caused the death of more 

 than 52,000 people. 



Toward the close of the eighteenth century, at the time of the 

 Napoleonic invasion of Egypt and Syria, the French armies came into 

 contact with the plague. Bonaparte's visit to the pest-stricken soldiers 

 at Jaffa has been perpetuated in the historic canvas which is to be seen 

 at Versailles. 



During the nineteenth century the plague ravaged Northern Africa 

 on diverse occasions. Constantinople was invaded in 1802, 1803, 1808. 

 It was also present to a slight extent in the Caucasus and in Astrakhan. 

 A notable plague epidemic appeared in Egypt in 1812, and soon spread 

 through Turkey and Southern Russia. Constantinople and Odessa 

 were severely scourged. In Odessa out of a population of 28,000 there 

 died 12,000. 



It is a noteworthy fact that the Napoleonic wars, with all their 

 incident hardships and misery, did not develop or spread the plague 

 in Europe. The outbreaks of the disease were limited during this 

 period to Africa and to Turkey, Bosnia, Roumania, Dalmatia and to 

 Southern Russia. Two exceptions, however, are to be noted. In 1812 

 the Island of Malta was infected and more than 6,000 of its people 

 yielded to the disease. The epidemic of 1815 at Noja, in Apulia, was 

 the first recurrence of the plague on Italian soil since 1743, and thus 

 far it has been the last. 



The Balkan Peninsula and Southern Russia were visited from time 

 to time by the plague up to about 1841. For nearly forty years Europe 

 was wholly free from the disease, which, however, continued its exist- 

 ence in Northern Africa, in Mesopotamia and in India. The Russo- 

 Turkish war of 1878 brought the Russian troops into contact with the 

 disease in the Caucasus, and the epidemic at Vetlianka on the lower 

 Volga was unquestionably introduced by such returning soldiers. 



Such, then, has been the history of the bubonic plague. No other 

 epidemic disease can be traced authentically as far back as the 'Black 

 Death.' The characteristic symptoms, the rapid death, the excessive 

 mortality are all features which have been noted through more than 

 twenty centuries. The plague bacillus discovered in 1894 by Yersin, 



