Geographies Of Plague Pandemics PDF Download

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1903 edition. Excerpt: ... PLAGUE. General Characters and Etiology. Clinically plague occurs under three principal forms: --the bubonic, the pneumonic, and the septicaemic. Some observers have spoken of a fourth form, --the abdominal or enteric, but it is doubtful whether this form exists. The clinical varieties of the disease have been thought to depend upon the different modes of penetration of the bacillus into the tissues--the bubonic by its passage through the skin and its multiplication in a lymphatic gland; the pneumonic by its being inhaled and multiplying in the lungs; the abdominal (if such variety exist) by its entering the alimentary passages. There is, however, evidence which seems to point to the possibility that each variety of the disease may have a distinct and specific character, bubonic cases giving rise to fresh bubonic cases, and pneumonic cases to fresh pneumonic cases. The Indian Plague Commission is of opinion that this, rather than the accident of the mode of penetration of the bacilli into the tissues, determines the character of the attack. But the evidence on the point is conflicting. Each variety of the disease may become septicaemic before death by the passage of the bacilli into the blood-stream. In some instances the attack seems to be septicaemic from the beginning. A mild form of plague or bubonic fever, or even a condition of enlarged glands without fever, is often seen before and during a plague epidemic, and is known as pestis ambulans or pestis minor. History. The oldest known historical references to the occurrence of plague are probably contained in the early books of the Old Testament. The Biblical use of the word plague is, like its medieval use, more often than not, in the general sense of a pestilence or epidemic disease, .