for
the living, for the burning of the effected districts, widening the
streets and enforcement of sanitary rules have tended to lessen its
virulence, although it has been yearly in its visitations; for while
foul surroundings are recognized as hot-beds for the propagation of the
germs of this pest, recent experience has demonstrated that while
cleanliness and rigid sanitary measures are less inviting, they are not
positive barriers to its approach and dire effect. The "terror"
originally supposed to be indigenous only to India, Egypt, and China,
and so domestic in its habits as to confine its ravages to few
precincts, now stalks forth as on a world mission--to Mauritius in
Indian Ocean, to Japan, Brazil, Australia, Honolulu, and last and not
least, interesting from an American point of view, are the stealthy
footsteps of the unwelcome guest in the city of San Francisco, Cal.
"While medical information relating to the plague is still less definite
and extensive than it should be," says an eminent physician, "it is now
well demonstrated that the disease depends upon a specific microbe."

It may be communicated from one person to another through expectoration,
oozings from the mouth of dying persons, or through the excretions of
the body. "The fears it inspires are well grounded, for the recoveries
in a case of severe epidemics are only ten per cent. Of 126 cases
reported from Manila from January 20 to March 30, 1900, 112 cases
resulted fatally." In India, where the plague has been the most severe,
the deaths from this cause have averaged 5,000 a week of recent years, a
considerable amount of study has been devoted to the various phases of
the plague, by physicians in Europe and the East especially, and a
number have given their lives to the cause of medical science in
attempts to find some method of successfully combating it. It is
needless to say that no specific has as yet been discovered in its
treatment, and ordinary curative measures have but little effect on its
course.

In Chinatown, San Francisco, where it made its appearance, a rigid
"cordon sanitaire" was established, and all outer intercourse
prohibited. It is not believed that conditions are inviting in North
America, although "the wish may be father to the thought."

The following brief expression relative to Madagascar and comment on
Negro status in the following letter to the "Colored American,"
published in Washington City, may be in place: