Democratic Sentinel, Volume 3, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 February 1879 — AN AWFUL SCOURGE. [ARTICLE]

AN AWFUL SCOURGE.

Ravages of the Plague in Brazil—Half a Million of People Swept Away—A Horrible Recital. [From the Chicago Inter Ocean.] Much has been written qf the horrors of the great famine in China, and scarcely an incident of the progress of the plague in Europe has been allowed to escape the notice of the newspapers, but the great calamity in Brazil has received comparatively dittle attention. Some months ago a brief dispatch noticed the ravages of the small-pox in connection with the drought and famine in one of the northern provinces, but this and subsequent reports were confined to generalities, and failed to give an adequate idea of the horrible visitation. Last year, when the yellow fever desolated so many districts in the Southern States, the sympathetic people of our enterprising nation had railroads, steamboats and the telegraph at hand to enable them to render efficient service and prompt assistance. Under the most favorable circumstances the scourge was terrible enough, and the deaths in the infected regions reached a total of nearly 12,000. But in the stricken provinces of Brazil the deaths, in a population of 900,000, numbered nearly 500,000. The particulars of the great calamity are given in letters from Ceara, Brazil, to the New York Herald. The writer penetrated to the infected districts, and speaks from personal observation, picturing a scene of desolation and terror that scarcely has its equal in the history of famines and plagues. The province of Ceara is about as large as the Middle States, and was inhabited by a class of people dependent on the crops of their small farms for support. There were no manufactures, no industries, no trade with other regions, few roads, no railroad, and no telegraph. The principal commercial town on the coast, Fortaleza, has no harbor, and reports of the famine, which began in 1877, were a long time in reaching the Government or the outside world. By the beginning of 1878 the mortality from starvation was terrible, and the panic-stricken and starving peasants flocked to the larger towns. Here there was little to give, and Government aid came slowly. Men fought like tigers for refuse, women died with starving children in their arms, and, in some cases, men and women devoured the dead bodies of their own children. It is estimated that 150,000 people died from hunger. At last supplies reached the famine districts, but the ignorant people were demoralized, and it was difficult to enforce sanitary regulations. The dead bodies of those who had starved were in many cases not buried, and in other cases only a few handfuls of earth had been thrown upon them. The survivors huddled together in the towns lived in filth an! idleness. The whole population of the province was gathered in a strip of territory along the coast not more than seventy-five miles wide. The drought still continued, and birds, in-< sects and, animals died. The people were fed by Government rations, but the fearful death-rate continued, and it was discovered that small-pox had broken out among the refugees. This was in June, 1878, and the disease spread rapidly to all classes, including the wealthier and aristocratic people of the cities. Up to this date the Government had had the advice and air of these. Now all became panic-stricken, and a .reign of terror was inaugurated. In the 90,000 people gathered in and about Fortaleza, the death-rate in the latter part of November was over 500 per day. On the last day of November there were 574 deaths, and during the month nearly 12,000 interments had taken place in the two cemeteries, and thousands of dead bodies lay unburied in the forests. At this date over 30,000 people were sick, and, on Dec. 10, the deaths from small-pox were nearly 1,000. This was the death-rate of the great London plague, but there was there a population of 300,000. At Fortaleza, with a population of only 75,000, there were 1,000 deaths in a single day. The death-rate decreased from that date, dropping on Dec. 20 to 400, and by D 3c. 30 to 200. The registered deaths for the month were 21,000. In the midst of such a pestilence there was necessarily much carelessness as to burial. Dead bodies were laid in trenches and a light covering of sand was thrown over them. This carelessness in due time added new horrors to the situation, and contributed, no doubt, to the inauguration of a new disease resembling the black plague now raging in Russia. Scenes like those described at Fortaleza were common in other towns of the province, and, as has been stated, out of a population of 900,000 only 400,000 remain. The Brazilian Government made all possible effort to stop the ravages of the small-pox, and in some localities 4-Vioix* worn O-txnnACLfifnl Aq if iq the province is, in truth, desolated, and, if the new disease at Fortaleza is the plague, more disastrous consequences are to follow. The Black Death has never appeared in America before, and, if the reports as to its existence in Brazil are true, there is need for precautionary measures in this country as well as in Europe. Fortunately the infected province is remote from main lines of travel, and the disease can be the more easily kept within circumscribed bounds.

Quinine. . The alkaline substance known as quinine, notwithstanding its universal use throughout civilization as a powerful tonic and remedy in intermittent and remittent fevers, has been discovered less than sixty years. To Pelletier, the French chemist, noted for observation and analysis, belongs the honor of the discovery, for which the Academy of Sciences awarded him a prize of 10,000 francs. Quinine has been much employed recently as a preservative of health when the system is exposed to certain noxious influences. Its value as a prophylactic is so generally recognized that in our own and other navies quinine is regularly administered when ships are within a given distance of the fever-infected coasts of Africa. It has not been found effective against all forms of intermittent fever; and the physician in medical charge of Livingstone’s Zambesi expedition favored mm in preference. Procured from the yellow bark of that variety of the cinchona tree known as calisaya, it is to be had only in Bolivia, and the adjoining Peruvian province of C'arabaya, although the general impression is that it comes exclusively from Peru. The forests in

which the calisaya tree is found are ten to twelve miles’ journey from inhabited places. They are penetrated by companies pf Cascarillos, men who make an encampment, and roam through the region felling trees and gathering the bark, which is sent to Africa, and thence shipped to Europe and this country. The medicine commonly taken in such quantities in the West and South is the sulphate, or, properly, the disulphate of quinine, and consists of one equivalent of sulphuric acid, two of quinine, and eight of water. — New York paper.