Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 July 1894 — THE BLACK PLAGUE. [ARTICLE]

THE BLACK PLAGUE.

Its Spread Directly Attributable to Native * _ Superstition. The spread of the black plugue in China was due to a great extent to the superstition of the natives. In Hong Kong it was by a mere matter of 'accident that the European authorities learned of the disease, as the natives carefully concealed tr>e spread of the contagion. Placards were brought to : Hong Kong from Canton, which reveal I the deadly suspici in of all foreign | means of treatment. These placards | warned all people not to go to Hong ! Kong nor to permit their wives and children to go, because they I wou'd tail victims to the foreign ! doctors, who were chopping up all j side persons in order to make medicine ! out of their eyes and bones. No ! amount of explanation has yet sufficed j to eradicate the deep-seated suspicion i that all foreign doctors are on the still j hunt for the eyes of dead Chinese. The people cannot understand thart? j European medicine does not value cerI tain parts of a body for medicine, be- | cause their own pnysician-, who are j mainly quacks, insist that by eating certain parts of the bodies ot animals one may secure the b st qualities of those animals. They cling to this belief, ani therefore such absurd stories a-, those of Christian missionaries killing native children to secure their eves I find ready credence, i In Hong Kong th s silly suspicion of I foreign doctors led to thousands of unj necessary deaths. When the physii cians began house-to-house inspection | for patients stiffening from tho plague there was a tremendous clamor. Placards were posted not to permit the foreign devils to enter their homes, as this search for patients was merely a | ruse. These warnings also declared i that many who were removed were not suffering from the dread disi ase, but had been selected as spee’ally suitab:e for furnishing medicines. In the excited condition of the public these placards and rumors crea.ed such an outburst of fanatici-m that the doctors were forced to give up the house inspection for two da* s. Before they relinquished it, however, they were actually stoned by crowds which followed them in the | streets. The police detailed armed j Sikhs to accompany the doctors but this was found to promote dan. er of an insurrection, and it was finally decided to yield to native c amor. After two | drvs the inspection wa3 lesumed, the j native Governor having issued a procj lamation warning every one from in terfering with the doctors. All pu- : tients, however, were tran ferred to j the native hospitals, as the Chinese absolutely refused to use the European I hospital.