Black Death

The term "plague" is usually associated with the Black Death of the 14th Century, which destroyed a fourth of Europe's inhabitants, or the Great Plague of London, which killed 70,000 people in 1665. Surprised last week were the readers of Science and Science News Letter to find that seven States in the western U. S. are plague-stricken.--* Not humans, but thousands of rats and squirrels are the victims. The situation, however, is serious, since the disease is readily transmitted from animals to man by fleas. Five human cases of plague have appeared this year, and the U. S. Public Health Service is out to top its 1937 record of catching 74,000 fleas, 22,000 rats.

Cause of plague is an oval-shaped germ called Pasturella pestis. Two main types of the disease are recognized: bubonic plague, transmitted by fleas, which causes inflammation of the lymph glands; and the deadly pneumonic plague, which may be transmitted by bites from infected animals, or the breath of infected humans. Pneumonic plague usually enters through a bite in the arm, travels rapidly to the lungs and spleen. The patient has a high fever, coughs constantly, cannot get his breath. Usually in three or four days he is dead. There is no specific treatment for plague patients. Antiplague serum, made from immunized horse blood, has not so far proved of great value.

But of prime importance are the preventive measures of the U. S. Public Health Service, carried out under the guidance of Dr. Clifford Rush Eskey. With shotguns and traps, field crews roam the country, killing rats and squirrels at sight. Rat burrows are sprayed with calcium cyanide. Rat-proofing of buildings is strongly urged, and, when necessary, incoming ships are fumigated. By such constant, vigilant rat-catching, Dr. Eskey expects to forestall an epidemic such as Los Angeles had, in 1924, when 24 people were stricken.

--*California, Nevada, Montana, Idaho, Oregon, Washington and Utah.

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