i66 DISEASES DUE TO BACTERIA 



HISTORICAL FEATURES. 



There is a coin of Lucius Severus showing ^sculapius, God of 

 Medicine, witli the feel on a dead rat and a nude human figure in terror 

 by his side. 



The Greeks worshippeci a rat-kiUing Apollo who was reputed to 

 bring and remove plague epidemics. 



1 140 B.C. the Bible records an epidemic in the country of the 

 Philistines which produced buboes in man and killed rats (mice of the 

 field), when 50,070 men died (i Sam. v. 4). 



7/0 B.C. perhaps Sennacherib's army was attacked by a similar pest 

 (2 Kings xix. 35). 



:;42 A.D. there was an outbreak in Pelusium, a great Egyptian 

 market, whence it spread to Byzantium, the City of the World, into 

 Asia, North Africa, Western Europe, Ireland, lasting in epidemic 

 form about 200 years. 



iitli to 14th century it was pandemic, declining and leaving 

 Western Europe in the 17th centur}'. 



740J A.D. the Venetians erected the first lazaretto for the isolation 

 of the sick by a quarantine of forty davs, also disinfecting clothing 

 and merchandise. A yellow flag was to be hoisted by ships coming 

 from a foreign port, and both crcAv and passengers inspected. 



The sacred Hindoo book, the " Bhagavat Purana," believed to be 

 800 \-ears old, speaks of plague in India. It advises the vacation of 

 the house wherein dead rats were found. It is now endemic in India. 

 There were epidemics : — 



182^, in Delhi. 



i8j6 in Rajputana and in Rohilcund, the Pali Plague, at the same 

 time. 



ifj6-i8og it was introduced into China by Mohammedans returning 

 from Mecca. Since endemic in Junnan, it has spread southwards, 

 reaching, 



i86y, Pakhoi. 



iSqz}., in June, Kitasato found the Bacillus pestis in Hong-Kong. 



i8g6 it spread from China to Bombay, hence over India. 



i8g8 the pandemic spread from India to Madagascar and Mauritius. 



i8gg, Malay States, Philippines, Australia, United States, South 

 America. 



I goo, Capetown, Glasgow. 



igo'/, almost world-wide. 



Tripoli and Uganda are endemic areas in Africa. 



igog, in ]\Ianchuria, the pneumonic form was prevalent. The hot 

 season of the tropics and the winter of the Temperate Zone are dele- 

 terious to its spread. The bacilli rapidly disappear from the stomach 



