8 DDT — Killer of Killers 



because no one knew its cause or how it was spread. People 

 a few hundred years ago were not appreciably different from 

 folks today, and they reacted to the unknown in praaically 

 the same manner. Some accepted the plague as punishment 

 from an angry God and turned to religion for their salva- 

 tion. Others felt that there was no hope and threw them- 

 selves into all forms of dissipation in attempts to squeeze the 

 maximum amount of pleasure from their few remaining days. 

 And, as further evidence that the world hasn't changed much, 

 some blamed the plague on the Jews, and thousands of un- 

 fortunate members of this race, particularly in southern Ger- 

 many, were burned to death in their homes. This l4th cen- 

 tury persecution — like persecution of the Jews today — often 

 had its practical aspeas. Many noblemen owed money to 

 the Jews and used the plague as an excuse for eliminating 

 their creditors. However, the mass of people knew in some 

 vague way that the disease could be transmitted only by some 

 physical means; and those who could afford it fled from the 

 towns and cities at the approach of an epidemic and avoided 

 as much as possible contact with the sick and dying. Very 

 often, even flight and quarantine were ineffective: castle 

 walls could not keep out the Black Death. 



It had often been observed, even in ancient days, that 

 large numbers of rats died during epidemics of human plague. 

 But the role of the rat in the transmission of plague was not 

 discovered until the present century. The disease itself is 

 caused by a specific bacillus, first discovered in 1894 during 

 the plague epidemic in Hong Kong. It was later demon- 

 strated that plague is primarily a disease of rodents, particu- 

 larly rats; and in 1906 the British Indian Plague Commission 

 proved that the bacillus is transmitted from rats to man by 

 the bite of the flea. 



