On the bubonic plague / by Alex. R. Ferguson.

  • Ferguson, Alexander Robert, 1870-1920.
Date:
1897-1898
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the bubonic plague / by Alex. R. Ferguson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    This is supported (1) by the fact that plague was certainly prevalent in Hong Kong at the time, though not in such an actively epidemic form as a year or two previously; (2) that many persons resident in Bombay, who had travelled to Hong Kong on business, were allowed to return to the former city; (3) that, apart from passengers, ships are peculiarly liable to convey infection by harbouring rats, these animals being, as we shall afterwards note, peculiarly susceptible to plague; and (4) that the disease in Bombay made its earliest appearance amongst a certain class of men employed at the Bombay docks in connec- tion with the Hong Kong steamers. Before proceeding to a short description of the symptoms of plague, it will be well to mention' that plague cases of all kinds may be conveniently divided into— I. Cases of all degrees of severity characterised by buboes. n. Cases of pneumonic type, giving rise to an illness very like an extremely acute inflammation of the lung. III. Cases of an abdominal type, producing an illness re- sembling in many respects typhoid fever. I. In the first variety, or bubonic plague strictly so-called, the patient feels feverish, out of sorts generally, and complains of pain in one axilla or groin. The seat of pain, which is at first red and exquisitely painful to touch, shows in the course of a few hours a tense swelling. This is connected with the abundant lymphatic glands of the region aflfected, and undergoes in later stages a considerable enlargement and softening. Many other glands become similarly involved within a comparatively short time, a,nd, with a general aggravation of other symptoms, the patient's condition has become critical. II. In the second, or pneumonic variety, the symptoms are those of the onset of an acute pulmonary disease, and difi^er in no striking respect from those which usher in an attack of pneumonia, the degree of fever and illness of the patient being, however, out of all proportion to the lung mischief present, which mav be relatively insignificant. We may note in passing that the Vast majority of cases occurring in the fourteenth century were of this type, the description of symptoms at that time, both by medical and non-medical writers, constituting a graphic picture of the