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PLAGUE. 



The Prefect Lopez Lavalle having turned 

 Iquique over to the care of the foreign con- 

 suls, the Chilians sent marines on shore and 

 hoisted their flag. By decree of the Peruvian 

 President, the port was closed to commerce, 

 and the exportation from all the ports of Ta- 

 rapaca prohibited. The blockade was now ex- 

 tended by the Chilians to Arica. The Peru- 

 vians had only one man-of-war left, the Union, 

 the remaining vessels being merely wooden 

 transports badly armed and unable to leave 

 Callao, while the Chilian fleet was reenf orced 

 by the thoroughly repaired Hna'scar. 



After the departure of General Prado, the 

 popular dissatisfaction with the government ot 

 La Puerta became very great. As time was 

 lacking for a regular Presidential election, 

 Nicolas de Pierola assumed the dictatorship 

 after the armed resistance of the government- 

 al troops at Lima had been overcome. Being 

 received at Callao with a warm welcome, Pi- 

 6rola was permitted to take the helm of the 

 state. The people of Lima resolved on the 

 23d of December to raise him to the " supreme 

 magistrature of the nation, with full powers." 

 Lima was declared under martial law ; all citi- 

 zens capable of bearing arms were enrolled in 

 the line of National Guard regiments. The 

 ports of Iquique and Pisagua were declared 

 closed, and all Peruvian commercial relations 

 suspended during the occupation of the prov- 

 ince of Tarapacd by the Chilians. General 

 Bundia was suspended from the command of 

 the southern forces, Rear-Admiral Montero 

 being his successor. The ports of Arica, Ilo, 

 Mollendo, and Islay were blockaded by the 

 Chilian squadron. 



PLAGUE, THE. The government of As- 

 trakhan, in Russia, was afflicted for several 

 months in 1878 and 1879 by an epidemic 

 which after investigation was decided to be 

 the genuine Eastern plague. The attention of 

 the countries of eastern Europe was directed 

 to the danger of the disease spreading and be- 

 coming general, and renewed interest was 

 awakened respecting a scourge once of the 

 most fearful character, concerning which the 

 Western nations had almost ceased to have 

 any apprehensions. During the present cen- 

 tury the plague has appeared to only a limited 

 extent in Europe, and has hardly risen to be 

 an epidemic in any civilized state. The refer- 

 ences made to it in history, from the time ot 

 Thucydides down, show that it has been in the 

 past one of the most dangerous diseases that 

 have ever afflicted the human race. The ac- 

 counts which are given of the number of per- 

 sons who have fallen victims to it in the differ- 

 ent countries and cities it has ravaged from 

 time to time seem hardly credible ; and, inas- 

 much as they are not based on any exact enu- 

 meration, but only on estimate, they may be 

 exaggerated. Nevertheless, it is an authenti- 

 cated fact that extensive districts and flourish- 

 ing towns have been more than once depopu- 

 lated by it. Such was the case under the epi- 



demic of the " Black Death " in the fourteenth 

 century, when 25,000,000 persons are eaid to 

 have perished in Europe. The disease has 

 never since been so universally destructive, 

 but it prevailed several times in succeeding 

 centuries in more limited areas with nearly 

 equal malignancy. During the eighteenth cen- 

 tury 300,000 persons are said to have died of 

 it in East Prussia, from 1703 to 1709 ; Mar- 

 seilles was visited by it in 1720 ; 30,000 people 

 of Messina died of it in forty days in 1743 ; and 

 52,000 died in Moscow in 1770. During the 

 present century the plague has appeared in 

 only a few places in western Europe : in Mal- 

 ta in 1813 ; in Bari, in Lower Italy, in 1815; 

 in Majorca, where it became a considerable 

 epidemic, in 1820. It has appeared several 

 times in the Turkish Empire, but not since 

 1843 in its European dominions. It was an 

 epidemic in Mesopotamia in 1857; it has pre- 

 vailed in Persia at different times since 1863. 

 An outbreak occurred at Bagdad in 1876, and 

 another at Reshd in 1876-'77. Another va- 

 riety of the disease, called the Indian plague, 

 which is characterized by bleeding from the 

 lungs, prevailed in different parts of India 

 from 1815 to 1821, in 1836, 1846-'47, 1859- 

 '60, and 1863. In Russia, during the present 

 century and previous to the last visitation, the 

 plague prevailed in the Caucasus in 1806-% 

 appearing in Mordok, Astrakhan, and Zarov, 

 and in Saratov in 1808 ; then drew back in 

 1810 to the region south of the Caucasus. It 

 broke out at Odessa in 1812, and never wholly 

 disappeared from the country till 1820. At 

 eome places attacked during these visitations, 

 all the inhabitants are said to have died. 



The removal of Europe from the liability to 

 the attacks of this disease, which it once suf- 

 fered in common with Eastern countries, is 

 attributed to the general adoption of sanitary 

 precautions and the unproved condition of the 

 life of the people. The plague has always 

 originated in the East, generally in Turkish 

 and Persian lands. It is now largely confined 

 there. In these districts, and particularly in 

 the plains of Mesopotamia, every condition is 

 favorable to the generation of disease. The 

 lands, neglected for ages, are exposed to the 

 overflows of the rivers, and are swampy and 

 miasmatic, so that intermittent fevers are al- 

 ways prevailing. The people live in damp, 

 unventilated huts, are filthy and surrounded 

 by filth, and know nothing of the simplest 

 rules of health. Offal is allowed to remain 

 and accumulate where it falls, and extreme 

 carelessness exists in the burial of the. dead, 

 whose bodies are seldom perfectly covered. 

 To these is added the Persian custom of bring- 

 ing their dead to be buried in the ground 

 which is sanctified by the neighborhood of 

 the tombs of Ali and Hussein, in which con- 

 siderable caravans are often engaged, gener- 

 ating, with the corpses, noxious emanations. 

 Here a plague prevailed in 1876, and hence, it 

 is supposed by some, its germs were carried 



