

INSECTS AND DISEASE 
THE BLACK DEATH AND ITS CONTROL 
Of all the insect-borne diseases, the one that has proved in the 
past most deadly to mankind is bubonic plague, a malady closely 
bound up with the activities of the insect pests which have just been 
discussed. We have records of the ravages of this disease from very 
early times. The countries of the Levant have been centers of plague 
infection for 3,000 years as a result of their unique position as gate- 
ways between the East and the West. Plague among the Philistines 
is described in the First Book of Samuel, the golden images of 
tumors and of mice, prepared as sacrificial offerings, referring clearly 
to one of the characteristic symptoms of the disease and to its preva- 
lence among rodents. 
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enemas - a 7) ee 
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pede’ 74> "9: Sheree 

Fig. 27. THE PLAGUE AT EPIRUS. P.MIGNARD (1610-1695) 
The first fully recorded pandemic of plague broke out at 
Pelusium in Egypt in 542 A. D. and spread by way of the principal 
trade routes of the time into Palestine and then to the rest of the 
known world. Procopius says of this outbreak, of which he was a wit- 
ness “‘It spared neither island nor cave nor mountain top where man 
dwelt. ... Many houses were left empty and it came to pass that many 
from want of relatives and servants lay unburied for several days.” 
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