THE HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION OF 

 BUBONIC PLAGUE 



By George M. Sternberg, LL. D., 

 Surgeon-General, V. S. Army 



Although bulionic plague has never prevailed within the limits of 

 the United States, its recent appearance in our island possessions in 

 the Pacific has aroused great interest in the disease and considerable 

 apprehension as to its epidemic extension in the future. It has effected 

 a lodgment in Portugal and in Brazil during the past .year, and at 

 least one vessel has arrived at the port of New York with cases of the 

 disease on board from the last-mentioned country. The question is 

 therefore a very practical one as to whether there is any real danger 

 of the introduction and extension of this pestilential malady of east- 

 ern countries in our own territory. 



In view of the interest attached to this question, I have been invited 

 to prepare a paper for the National Geographic Magazine upon the 

 history and geographic distribution of the bubonic plague, and after 

 consideral)le hesitation I have consented to do so. My hesitation was 

 due to the fact that I fear it will be difficult for me to present the subject 

 in a popular manner, and the historical details relating to the ravages 

 of tliis pestilential disease in the })ast may prove fatiguing to some and 

 repulsive to others. However, while I shall have to present a dark 

 picture with reference to the past history of the disease, and some dis- 

 agreeable facts as to its recent extension from its endemic foci in the 

 Far East, I shall have the satisfaction of stating that preventive med- 

 icine has made such progress during the past fifty years that there is 

 very little danger that> bubonic plague will ever again commit serious 

 ravages in the more enlightened countries of Europe, or that it is a 

 serious menace to the lives and prosperity of citizens of the United 

 States. 



The history of bubonic jjlague extends back to a remote antiquit}'. 

 Greek physicians of the second and third centuries before the Christian 

 era have left a record of a ])estilential malady characterized by the 

 formation of buboes, which prevailed in Libya, in P3gyi)t, and in Syria, 

 and two Alexandrian physicians, Dioscorides and Poseidonios, who 

 were cotemporaries of Christ, have given a de8cri{)tion of the disease 



