| OCR Text |
Show advantages of today that, the influenza i3 much more deadly than was the plague of the middle ages. It is an old statement that pestilence kills more people than war, but in the past that has been largely due to the lack of proper medical care. At least during the greater part of the present war disease did not keep pace with the bullets in the matter of destruction, but it is very likely when the figures are obtainable for the year 1918 that it will be shown that disease carried off more men than did the battle. Scattered all over, this country can be found towns where not a single soldier has been killed in battle, but there can. hardly be found a town anywhere that has not had a number of deaths during the past few weeks from influenza. In this state the undertakers un-dertakers in many towns are overwhelmed with work and their parlors are stacked with dead awaiting burial. Burial service now goes by priority and in many instances dead bodies have been held a week or more awaiting in line for interment. ? . With reference to the disease there are many people who are intensely afraid they will take it and many others who say that they are not afraid at all and pay no attention. But being afraid or not afraid has nothing to do with its dangers. Precaution of all people is the big thing. It is a most dangerous disease and all people should act with prudence ard obey instructions of the doctors and officers. The doctors are overworked and nurses are almost unobtainable, and it is the duty of everyone to try to avoid contracting the disease. ta. h la I INFLUENZA IS A GREAT PLAGUE i i The epidemic which is now exacting an immense toll of human hu-man life in America and Europe, known as Spanish influenza, will be reckoned in history as a great plague. So far it has baffled baf-fled medical skill and has claimed one hundred times as many Americans as have German' bullets. In big cities like New Vork and Philadelphia graves for the victims have to be dug with steam shovels, and in the smaller cities throughout the country tjie work of making graves has been enormous. The Great Plague was a term applied to all fatal epidemics in the middle ages, but is generally linked with the deadly disease known as Black Death. The symptoms of the plague as given by reference books are as follows : "The general symptoms resemble those of other fevers: shivering, shiv-ering, rise of temperature, pain in the head, back, limbs, etc. Bleeding from the lungs, though rare in recent epidemics, was formerly regarded as a characteristic symptom of the Black Death in its most virulent form. About the second or third day the most distinctive features of the disease present themselves glandular swellings, usually in the neck, arm pits or groins ; these generally break and lead to prolonged supperation. The cause of the epidemic has never been determined. It is certainly very in-fctious in-fctious and is the most destructive of all epidemics." The Black Death is supposed to have started from the lower Egypt. It devastated the Roman empire in the sixth century and claimed many millions of victims. In 1348 in the city of Florence, Italy, it carried off 100,000 of the inhabitants and in the following year is said to have destroyed half the population of Europe. It swept London in 1665 and in a few months time 100,000 persons in the city perished. At that time it wa3 called the "Great Plague of London." Since then it has visited several portions of Europe and Asia, but its destruction has been less disastrous. But when the plague wrought such havoc it was in the dark ages when there was no efficient method of combatting the disease dis-ease or preventing its spread. The sanitary conditions in the congested centers were doubtless of the worst and the methods of treating the disease were very crude. So it is likely with the |
