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{"id":894,"date":"2013-07-16T11:00:07","date_gmt":"2013-07-16T15:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/?p=894"},"modified":"2021-07-23T13:27:40","modified_gmt":"2021-07-23T17:27:40","slug":"how-to-prevent-the-bubonic-plague-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/2013\/07\/16\/how-to-prevent-the-bubonic-plague-2\/","title":{"rendered":"How To…Prevent the Bubonic Plague"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>By Michael Sappol ~<br \/>\n<\/em><\/p>\n<h3>The Bubonic Plague and How to Prevent It, 1897<\/h3>\n<figure id=\"attachment_896\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-896\" style=\"width: 253px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/nlm-101214745-bubonic-plague-title.jpg\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"896\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/2013\/07\/16\/how-to-prevent-the-bubonic-plague-2\/nlm-101214745-bubonic-plague-title\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/nlm-101214745-bubonic-plague-title.jpg?fit=1015%2C1200&ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"1015,1200\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{"aperture":"11","credit":"","camera":"NIKON D800","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1370445781","copyright":"","focal_length":"60","iso":"320","shutter_speed":"0.125","title":""}\" data-image-title=\"NLM 101214745 Bubonic Plague title\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"<p>The Bubonic Plague and How to Prevent It (Lahore, British Colonial India, 1897).<br \/>\nNational Library of Medicine # 101214745<\/p>\n\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/nlm-101214745-bubonic-plague-title.jpg?fit=254%2C300&ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/nlm-101214745-bubonic-plague-title.jpg?fit=840%2C993&ssl=1\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-896\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/nlm-101214745-bubonic-plague-title.jpg?resize=253%2C300\" alt=\"the cover of the pamphlet \" width=\"253\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-896\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>The Bubonic Plague and How to Prevent It<\/em> (Lahore, British Colonial India, 1897).<br \/><a title=\"Catalog record\" href=\"https:\/\/catalog.nlm.nih.gov\/permalink\/01NLM_INST\/1o1phhn\/alma9912147453406676\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>National Library of Medicine<\/em> #101214745<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>This roughly-printed small\u00a0 pamphlet (4\u00bc\u201d x 5\u00bd\u201d; 30 pages) documents a big catastrophe: an outbreak of bubonic plague in British Colonial India. The disease came to Bombay (now Mumbai) in 1897 and swept through the city at a terrible pace. At the height of the epidemic, 1,900 people were dying every week, in a population of 820,000. From Bombay the plague spread in several directions, establishing another center in the city of Karachi and the provinces of Sind and Punjab, in present-day Pakistan.<\/p>\n<p>Published in Urdu and English, the pamphlet, \u201cseventy thousand copies of which [were] distributed gratis among the people in plague stricken districts of the Punjab by H. Muhammad Sharif,\u201d\u00a0 was part of an effort to educate the public about the nature of the disease, its symptoms and mode of infection, history, and methods of containment. Germ theory was then very new. Author H. Calvert, \u201cOfficiating Deputy Commissioner,\u201d took particular pains to explain that the plague is not caused by the \u201cFates\u201d or \u201cgods\u2026angry and\u2026hurling dire calamities on earth\u201d but by germs that can be seen under a microscope and distinguished \u201cby observation and experiment\u201d from other microbial organisms. \u201cInfuse these germs by means of a syringe into the body of an animal and you will at once percieve [sic] symptoms of epidimic [sic] disease\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/nlm-101214745-bubonic-plague-dedication.jpg\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"897\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/2013\/07\/16\/how-to-prevent-the-bubonic-plague-2\/nlm-101214745-bubonic-plague-dedication\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/nlm-101214745-bubonic-plague-dedication.jpg?fit=1566%2C1200&ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"1566,1200\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{"aperture":"11","credit":"","camera":"NIKON D800","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1370445724","copyright":"","focal_length":"60","iso":"320","shutter_speed":"0.125","title":""}\" data-image-title=\"NLM 101214745 Bubonic Plague dedication\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/nlm-101214745-bubonic-plague-dedication.jpg?fit=300%2C230&ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/nlm-101214745-bubonic-plague-dedication.jpg?fit=840%2C644&ssl=1\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-897\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/nlm-101214745-bubonic-plague-dedication.jpg?resize=300%2C229\" alt=\"pamplet open to the dedication page\" width=\"300\" height=\"229\" \/><\/a>In any event, microbiology was in its infancy\u2014Alexandre Yersin and Shibasaburo Kitasat\u014d had only identified the bacterial organism that caused bubonic plague in 1894\u2014and colonial administrators had few good weapons to fight the disease in India\u2019s overcrowded cities. Their strategy, outlined in the pamphlet, was to mobilize the public, organized by religion, caste and tribe, and try every conceivable tactic:\u00a0 a bounty on mice and rats, exhortations to refrain from touching the sick and the dead, whitewashing and disinfecting buildings (with toxic chemicals and \u201cdisinfectant powders at hand\u201d), \u201cinoculation\u201d and \u201cprophylactic serum\u201d (although no effective serum then existed and inoculation did not work), barriers to keep people from moving to or from infected areas, the erection of temporary hospitals, closing public latrines, and sanitary provisions to isolate, cremate or bury the dead.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/nlm-101214745-bubonic-plague-what-is1.jpg\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"901\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/2013\/07\/16\/how-to-prevent-the-bubonic-plague-2\/nlm-101214745-bubonic-plague-what-is\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/nlm-101214745-bubonic-plague-what-is1.jpg?fit=1600%2C1106&ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"1600,1106\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{"aperture":"11","credit":"","camera":"NIKON D800","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1370445703","copyright":"","focal_length":"60","iso":"320","shutter_speed":"0.125","title":""}\" data-image-title=\"NLM 101214745 Bubonic Plague what is\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/nlm-101214745-bubonic-plague-what-is1.jpg?fit=300%2C207&ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/nlm-101214745-bubonic-plague-what-is1.jpg?fit=840%2C581&ssl=1\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-901\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/nlm-101214745-bubonic-plague-what-is1.jpg?resize=650%2C449\" alt=\"pamphlet open to section headings What is Bubonic Plague and Its History\" width=\"650\" height=\"449\" \/><\/a>There is no way to know how many lives were saved by these measures, but the overall effort was woefully inadequate. By 1899, cases of bubonic plague had been recorded as far away as Madras in southern India and over 250,000 people had perished in India alone. Even then the plague was not finished. In 1899 it crossed the Pacific Ocean from Hong Kong to Honolulu and appeared the following year in San Francisco\u2019s Chinatown.<\/p>\n<p><em>Read other How To… features from the NLM Collections <a title=\"How To...from the collections of the National Library of Medicine\" href=\"http:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/tag\/how-to\/\">here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/mike-in-chicago_final.jpg\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"548\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/2013\/07\/01\/a-relic-of-gettysburg-and-cycloramas-past\/mike-in-chicago_final\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/mike-in-chicago_final.jpg?fit=446%2C600&ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"446,600\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{"aperture":"2.8","credit":"","camera":"Canon PowerShot A430","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1188062475","copyright":"","focal_length":"5.4","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0.016666666666667","title":""}\" data-image-title=\"Michel Sappol\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/mike-in-chicago_final.jpg?fit=223%2C300&ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/mike-in-chicago_final.jpg?fit=446%2C600&ssl=1\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-548\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/mike-in-chicago_final.jpg?resize=78%2C105\" alt=\"profile portrait of Michael Sappol in Chicago\" width=\"78\" height=\"105\" \/><\/a>Michael Sappol is a historian in the History of Medicine Division of the National Library of Medicine.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This roughly-printed small\u00a0pamphlet documents a big catastrophe: an outbreak of bubonic plague in British Colonial India in 1897.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19605840,"featured_media":18808,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12763,347145303],"tags":[273905,136219,2708,3054,145811,28006],"class_list":["post-894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-collections","category-rare-books-journals","tag-1800s","tag-epidemic","tag-how-to","tag-india","tag-plague","tag-public-health"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/101214745-Bubonic-Plague_feature.jpg?fit=900%2C399&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3xcDk-eq","jetpack-related-posts":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19605840"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=894"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/894\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21872,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/894\/revisions\/21872"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} |