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16
of modero society prevents the menac–
ing spectrc of plague from casting a
death-angel pall over humanity. In the
past, diseasc plagues have severa! times
spread across nations and continents.
Medieval history, for example, is replete
with accounts of the disease and the
devastation it wrought in Asia and
Europe.
No one knows how long plague has
affiicted humanity. Thc first fully
rccorded
globrtl
epidemic came out of
China in l3 38. Relentlessly following
the trade routcs, it rolled darkly across
India, reaching toward Egypt in ooe di–
rection and spreading tentacles toward
the Black Sea and Constantinople in the
other. Like a threatening storm, it hov–
ered on the brink of medieval Europe.
The rat- and vermin-infested cities were
easy targets.
The unwarned and unconcerned resi–
dents of Genoa, Italy, paid little atten–
tion when a few more rats carne ashore
from a spice-carrying cargo ship in Jan–
uary, 1348. Even when the native rat
populatioo began to die mysteriously in
large numbers no one became particu–
larly alarmed.
Only whcn meo began to fall, along
with the rats, in greater and greater
numbers, did the Genoese begin to sus–
pect that something was wrong. Frorn
Genoa, plague burst with astounding
fury into the rest of Europe, infecting
and destroying millions of helpless
people, dccimating populations, usher–
ing in the grimmest years of the Dark
Ages.
Plague reached England in July of
that same year, and spread to Scotland
via Scottish invaders returning home. A
British ghost ship, Aoating uncontrolled
in the North Sea with everyone aboard
dead, spread the disease to Scandinavia.
Curious authorities boarded the myste–
riously quiet vessel and unwittingly
carried thc pestilence ashore.
No sector of Europe was free from it.
Plague was a quick killer. Onset of the
disease was rapid, usually after a short
period of incubation - 36 hours to six
days. Symptoms included headache,
fever, dizziness, shivering. Hard pain–
ful lumps appeared sn the groin
and armpits. Black spots, which gave
the disease its name, appeared under the
skin. Soon the victim spat or regurgi-
Tbe
PLAIN TRUTH
tated blood. In a few days - usually
within 70 hours - he was dead. Doc–
tors could do nothing.
During the next fifl) )'ellrJ, !he Black
Death killed more !han one third of the
total popll!ation of Europe.
Archaeologists have found 200,000
abandoned market towns in England
and Europe. They were completelr de–
populated by the disease and subsequent
economic depression, never again to be
inhabited. Today many are noticeable
from the air as symmctrical structures
covered by fields of grass or cultivated
ground.
Plague Strikes Again!
Round one of the plague disappeared
as quickly as it came, allowing Europe a
breathing spell until the 17th century.
Then it came back for another kili. Its
resurgence was blamed on the super–
st itious notion that "bad vapors" in the
air were aroused by certain heavenly
bodies over India. Physicians had no
better luck in these later outbreaks than
before. Sorne recommended leeches,
others the rank odor of fresh urine to
be smelled and drunk on an empty
stomach before breakfast. Others vowed
that a goat kept in the house would pre·
vent infection. People tried anything to
escape.
Another great European pandemic of
plague occurred in 1720. T hen, nearly
two hundred years Iater, in 1894, once
more ong1nating in China, plague
began to spread to the West. By this
time its sourcc had been discovered by
researchers and given the name
pasle/lrella peslis.
This more localized
epidemic killed millions in India, but
did oot spread toward Europe.
Three Kinds of Plague
Actually, black plague is known m
three forms, each egually deadly.
Pnemnonic
plt~glle
attacks the lungs,
primarily, and is the most contagious,
being spread by coughing, which is
common to its victims just prior to their
deaths. lt was this form which seemed
to be spread by the wind during the
massive plagues of the 14th century.
B11bonic plagrte
produces swellings,
or buboes, of the lymph glands wher–
ever they are located in thc body.
Septicemic plagtte
kills the victim
Occember 1971
rapidly through poisoning of the blood.
Plague is normally a disease of ro–
dents. It kills man rapidl y, but can con–
tinue for great lengths of time in rodent
populations, especiaUy rats, without
breaking into epidemic form. Epidernics
of plague in man are generally preceded
by widespread outbreaks in the rat pop·
ulation. The rats were always associated
with the black death of the Middle
Ages. But no one knew thcir actual
relationship with the disease, or the fact
that they were the chief travel agents
for the
pastelll'ella pestis
microbes.
Germs are transmitted f rom rat to
man by the rat ftea (
Xenopsylla
cheop.ris)
biting fiist a sick rat, then a
man. This ftea, feeding on an infected
rat - which mar have well over 100
million plague bacteria in one milliliter
of its blood - will take up about 500
of these organisms at one feed. The rat
death rate is high. When a host rat dies,
its fteas must find some other host to
visit. That host is ofteo man. Once man
is infected,
pnemnonic pla[!.lle
may
develop. This highly contagious plague
needs no Aea to spread itsdf. Coughing
is just as effective.
A Quiescent Monster
The twentieth century has been
blessed with the knowledge of im–
proved city sanitation, and a generally
higher standard of living and per–
sonal cleanliness that was nonexistent
during the plagues of the Míddle Ages.
Other diseases such as influenza period–
ically sweep around the world, killing
thousands, but posing much less of a
threat now than it did even in 1918.
Today most of us are concerned more
about the immediate dangers of heart
disease and canccr, diseases of a.ffiuence
and degeneration, rather than contagion.
But
pasteme//a pestis
has not dis–
appeared.
It is now known that plague germs
are not coofined to the domestic rat, but
may be carried by most members of the
large rat family and by various sorts of
fleas. Plague baccilli have been isolated
from 65 spccies of rodents, rangiog
from the common American ground
squirrel to the great Central American
capybarra, largest of all rodents. A
grand total of 45 species and subspecies
(Contin11ed on page 33)