Plague 583 



cent. In the epidemic at Hongkong in 1894 the death-rate 

 was 93.4 per cent, for Chinese, 77 per cent, for Indians, 60 

 per cent, for Japanese, 100 per cent, for Eurasians, and 18.2 

 per cent, for Europeans. It affects both men and animals, 

 and is characterized by sudden onset, high fever, prostration, 

 delirium, and the occurrence of exceedingly painful lymphatic 

 swellings buboes affecting chiefly the inguinal glands, 

 though not infrequently the axillary, and sometimes the cer- 

 vical, glands. Death comes on in severe cases in forty-eight 

 hours. The pneumonic form is most rapidly fatal. The 

 longer the duration of the disease, the better the prognosis. 

 Autopsy in fatal cases reveals the characteristic enlargement 

 of the lymphatic glands, whose contents are soft and some- 

 times purulent. 



Wyman,* in his very instructive pamphlet, "The Bu- 

 bonic Plague," finds it convenient to divide plague into (a) 

 bubonic or ganglionic, (6) septicemic, and (c) pneumonic 

 forms. Of these, the bubonic form is most frequent and the 

 pneumonic form most fatal. 



The infection usually takes place through some peripheral 

 lesion, but may occur by inhalation of the specific organ- 

 isms. 



The bacillus of bubonic plague was independently dis- 

 covered by Yersinj and KitasatoJ in the summer of 1894, 

 during an epidemic of the plague then raging at Hongkong. 

 There seems to be little doubt but that the micro-organisms 

 described by the two observers are identical. 



Ogata states that while Kitasato found the bacillus in the 

 blood of cadavers, Yersin seldom found it in the blood, but 

 always in the enlarged lymphatic glands; that Kitasato's 

 bacillus retains the color when stained by Gram's method; 

 Yersin's does not; that Kitasato's bacillus is motile; Yersin's 

 non-motile; that the colonies of Kitasato's bacillus, when 

 grown upon agar, are round, irregular, grayish white, with 

 a bluish tint, and resemble glass-wool when slightly mag- 

 nified; those of Yersin's bacillus, white and transparent, 

 with iridescent edges. Ogata, in his investigations, found 

 that the bacillus corresponded with the description of 



* Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C., 1900. 



t "Ann. de 1'Inst. Pasteur," 1894, 9. 



t Preliminary notice to the bacillus of bubonic plague, Hongkong, 

 July 7, 1894- 



"Centralbl. f. Bakt. u. Parasitenk.," Sept. 6, 1897, Bd. xxn, 

 Nos. 6 and 7, p. 170. 



