{"id":440,"date":"2019-05-21T13:57:38","date_gmt":"2019-05-21T17:57:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/hst-journeys\/?p=440"},"modified":"2019-05-21T14:08:37","modified_gmt":"2019-05-21T18:08:37","slug":"medicine-and-disease-in-history-bubonic-plague","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/hst-journeys\/2019\/05\/medicine-and-disease-in-history-bubonic-plague\/","title":{"rendered":"Medicine and Disease in History: Bubonic Plague"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"

Rat Collecting Station. <\/em>Shortly after 1900. Philadelphia.  <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By Alex Gregory<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Note: Essay 1 in a series, all from Dr. Amanda McVety’s Spring 2019 class on Medicine and Disease in Modern Society<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bubonic plague\nravaged Asia and Europe during the 14th<\/sup> century and resulted in\nmajor economic and social paradigm shifts. Fear and a poor understanding about\nhow the disease was spread resulted in epidemics occurring for the next five\ncenturies. The invention of faster transportation, increased levels of immigration,\nand worldwide trading lead to a fifty-one-year outbreak of the Bubonic Plague\nthroughout the world. Particularly in port cities, such as San Francisco, New\nOrleans, and Honolulu, the plague proved to be a dangerous and isolating\nexperience for the population. Denial, racial tensions, and attempts at\nquarantine from the outbreaks between 1901-1910 affected the social\nunderstanding and regulations that were implemented around the bubonic plague.\nThroughout the 1920s and 1930s the scientific understanding of the bubonic\nplague developed, with the discovery of Bacillus\npestis<\/em> and a link being drawn between historical black death and the\noutbreaks in the 19th<\/sup> and 20th<\/sup> centuries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the 1930s\nit was understood that the bacteria that cause the plague was Bacillus pestis,<\/em> but the ways in which\nthe disease entered the body were still being debated[1]<\/a>.\nKnown as a disease of rats[2]<\/a>,\nthe bubonic plague was thought to contaminate food and water, which would be\nappropriate with the limited knowledge of how bacteria and viruses were spread\nin the early 20th<\/sup> century[3]<\/a>.\nWith the adoption of germ theory and the discovery of Bacillus pestis, <\/em>it is now known that plague is spread through\nbodily fluids and vectors, such as fleas, rats, and other small rodents. The\n1900-1924 outbreak in India and China allowed scientist to diagnose the Black\nDeath of the medieval period[4]<\/a>,\nand give reasons behind a long history of fear and death. With the lack of\nknowledge that preceded the Chinese and Indian outbreaks, several government\nlaboratories were established in these countries, and lead to bacteriologists\ndiscovering essential information about the plague[5]<\/a>.\nEven though the plague was almost nonexistent during the 1930s in the United\nStates, the history of massive graves and quick deaths allowed fear to persist\nand lead to the plague still being on the report list for the City of New York.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today\u2019s\nunderstanding of the Bubonic Plague divides the illness into three categories:\nbubonic, septicemic, and pneumonic. Bubonic is the most common, with\napproximately \u00be of all cases from the 1900-1924 Chinese\/Indian outbreaks\nfalling into this category[6]<\/a>.\nSepticemic and pneumonic forms of plague are the deadliest and have the most\nserious side effects. Septicemic is a form of plague which infects the blood stream\nand causes death within 24-72 hours. Pneumonic plague can spread directly,\nquickly, and efficiently from one individual to another, through coughing and\nother bodily fluids[7]<\/a>. Early 20th<\/sup>\ncentury societies knew that the plague was common among small mammals, but now\nit is understood to be difficult to eradicate because of its ability to survive\nindefinitely in its host and the wild population inability to be inoculated[8]<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Outbreaks that\noccurred between 1900-1924 in California[9]<\/a>\ngave rise to racism and anti-immigrant attitudes, which carried on into the\n1930s and 40s. Today it is known that the plague arrived on a steam ship from\nHong Kong and was carried by the rats on board, but those in the United States\nblamed the Chinese immigrants for bringing the disease to North America.\nJapanese internment camps during World War II were preceded by the quarantining\nand unfair treatment of the Chinese during the plague outbreak. Immigrants, the\nhomeless, and those in the lower class were the primary sufferers of the plague,\nand the denial of San Francisco\u2019s Mayor did not assist in reducing the plague\nor helping those who suffered. These outbreaks also revealed the staggering\ndifferences between the upper and lower classes access to public health\ninitiatives and how indifference of the upper class can cause devastation in\nthe lower class. Even after the surgeon general of the US Public Health Service\nattempted to implement anti-plague regulations, there was a concern of causing\nalarm about the disease. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Common\npreventative measures included rodent control, incineration, isolation, and\ninoculation. Incineration was a highly used method in Honolulu, resulting in\napproximately 171,950 dollars of compensation being paid out to insurance\ncompanies in 1926 by the U.S government, from the fire suppression methods that\nwere used during the 1899-1900 outbreak of plague[10]<\/a>.\nAn attempt at quarantining Chinatown grew from the racism and anti-Chinese\nsentiments that were common during the time. Immigrants were forced to stay in\nChinatown, while white individuals could move freely throughout the city. Although\nrodent control had the ability to be the most effective method of containment,\nthe disinfection campaigns failed in the immediate eradication of the disease.\nBy pouring carbolic acid into the sewers in an attempt to kill the bacteria,\nthe rats fled and began to live among the homeless and those in poor living\nconditions[11]<\/a>. Because\nof the disinfection campaign\u2019s failure, lower classes became even more impacted\nby the disease, since rodents were the primary carriers of plague. In the late\n19th<\/sup> century a plague vaccine was created, but the effectiveness has\nnever been fully studied[12]<\/a>.\nIn the United States there is not a current plague vaccine accepted by the\ngovernment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hawaii is the only\nstate in the United States to have plague in human victims during the 1930s.\nBetween 1931-1932 there were five instances of plague on the island of Maui,\nwith four of the victims dying; following these cases there was instance of\nplague in humans in the United States thru the 1930s[13]<\/a>. During\nthe 1930s there were countless occurrences of rats and small rodents being\ninfected by the plague[14]<\/a>.\nVarious maps included in the United States Health Service report of 1936 reveal\nthe extent of infected rats across three Hawaiian Islands. The cases are\nconcentrated around waterways and main roads[15]<\/a>, leading\nto the belief that the plague was being spread through the transportation\nvehicles that were used. Rats, fleas, or other small mammals would have been\nstowaways on these vehicles, allowing the disease to spread to other\npopulations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although the\ndisease had similar symptoms to past epidemics: high fevers, convulsions,\nvomiting, pain in the limbs, and appearance of buboes, the social experience of\nhaving the disease changed. Attempts at Cartoons, newspapers, and caricatures\nwere used to target the Chinese and other immigrants[16]<\/a>.\nWritten in Chinese, a poster showing a Chinese immigrant injecting \u2018common\nsense serum\u2019 into a government officials head[17]<\/a>\nreveals that the methods being implemented by the government, or white man,\nwere clearly not effective. It is also understood from this image that the\ntargeted groups, particularly the Chinese, were not passive bystanders in this\nhazardous environment of illness, racism, and denial. By showing how the lower-class\ncitizens understood what was happening to them and around them, the artist of\nthis poster makes a statement about the poor and ignorant treatment of the\nimmigrant population. \u201cPlague phobia\u201d[18]<\/a>\nresulted in other illnesses being left untreated, such as appendicitis, because\nof the fear that the plague would spread if contact occurred between the sick\nand the healthy. Some individuals claimed that the plague was a \u201cdistant,\ntropical, exotic disease\u201d[19]<\/a>\nthat should not be worried about, which was a sharp contrast to those\nindividuals who compared the disease to Bolshevism[20]<\/a>.\nHaving these highly variable views of the plague is a result of the denial and\ncoverups that occurred in California in the early 20th<\/sup> century. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most diseases come with social, economic, or scientific influences, but the racial tensions left by the bubonic plague were evident for decades and impacted the experience of Asian-Americans\/ Asian-immigrants during World War II. Lack of understanding about how the disease was spread lead to blaming the outbreaks on a specific racial group, the Chinese. Even though the plague was not an active epidemic in 1930s, the fear of past epidemics resulted in mandatory reporting and extreme measures to be taken if a case was to appear. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alex Gregory is double majoring in English Literature and History with double minors in Archaeology and Museum Studies. A native of Liberty Twp., Ohio, she hopes to attend graduate school and study public history or museum studies.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bibliography<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chase, Marilyn. The Barbary Plague: The Black Death in\nVictorian San Francisco. <\/em>New York:            Random\nHouse, 2003.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

U.S. Congress, Senate, Committee on\nthe District of Columbia. Experiments on\nLiving Dogs. <\/em>Washington, DC: GPO,\n1930<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bollet, Alfred. Plagues and Poxes: The Impact of Human\nHistory on Epidemic Disease. <\/em>New York:           Demos\nMedical Publishing Inc., 2004<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Herlihy, David. The Black Death and the Transformation of\nthe West.<\/em> Cambridge, Ma: Harvard        University\nPress, 1997.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

California State Board of Health. Ground Squirrel Eradication. <\/em>Sacramento,\nCalifornia, 1911<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Center for Disease Control. \u201cPlague\nVaccine,\u201d CDC.org              https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/mmwr\/preview\/mmwrhtml\/00041848.htm<\/a>.\n(accessed March 2,     2019).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The United States Public Health\nService, United States Treasury Department. Public\nHealth     Reports<\/em>. Washington, DC,\n1936. Pp 1537<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kellogg, Williams and Simpson (1920). Present Status of\nPlague. American Journal of Public   Health<\/em>, 11, p.844.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

U.S Congress, House, Special\nCommittee to Investigate Communist Activities in the United           States. Investigation of Communist Propaganda. <\/em>Chicago, Il., 1930.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

[1]<\/a> Marilyn\nChase, The Barbary Plague: The Black\nDeath in Victorian San Francisco <\/em>(New York: Random House, 2003), 44<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[2]<\/a> U.S\nCongress, Senate, Committee on the District of Columbia, Experiments on Living Dogs <\/em>(Washington, DC: GPO, 1930), 174<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[3]<\/a> Alfred\nBollet, Plagues and Poxes: The Impact of\nHuman History on Epidemic Disease <\/em>(New York: Demos Medical Publishing Inc.:\n2004), 25<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[4]<\/a> David\nHerlihy, The Black Death and the\nTransformation of the West <\/em>(Cambridge, Ma: Harvard University Press, 1997),\n20<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[5]<\/a> California\nState Board of Health, Ground Squirrel\nEradication, <\/em>(Sacramento, California: 1911), 513<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[6]<\/a> David\nHerlihy, The Black Death and the\nTransformation of the West <\/em>(Cambridge, Ma: Harvard University Press, 1997),\n21<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[7]<\/a> David\nHerlihy, The Black Death and the\nTransformation of the West <\/em>(Cambridge, Ma: Harvard University Press, 1997),\n21<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[8]<\/a> David\nHerlihy, The Black Death and the\nTransformation of the West <\/em>(Cambridge, Ma: Harvard University Press, 1997),\n21<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[9]<\/a> Alfred\nBollet, Plagues and Poxes: The Impact of\nHuman History on Epidemic Disease <\/em>(New York: Demos Medical Publishing Inc.:\n2004), 25<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[10]<\/a> U.S\nCongress, Senate, Committee on the District of Columbia, Experiments on Living Dogs <\/em>(Washington, DC: GPO, 1930), 174<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[11]<\/a> Alfred\nBollet, Plagues and Poxes: The Impact of\nHuman History on Epidemic Disease <\/em>(New York: Demos Medical Publishing Inc.:\n2004), 25<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[12]<\/a> Center\nfor Disease Control, \u201cPlague Vaccine,\u201d CDC.org \nhttps:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/mmwr\/preview\/mmwrhtml\/00041848.htm<\/a>,\n(accessed March 2, 2019)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[13]<\/a> The\nUnited States Public Health Service, United States Treasury Department, Public Health Reports <\/em>(Washington, DC:\n1936), 1537<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[14]<\/a> The\nUnited States Public Health Service, United States Treasury Department, Public Health Reports <\/em>(Washington, DC:\n1936), 1537<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[15]<\/a> The\nUnited States Public Health Service, United States Treasury Department, Public Health Reports <\/em>(Washington, DC:\n1936), 1537<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[16]<\/a> Marilyn\nChase, The Barbary Plague: The Black\nDeath in Victorian San Francisco <\/em>(New York: Random House, 2003), 46<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[17]<\/a>\nDr. Kellogg, Dr. Williams, and Dr. Simpson, \u201cPresent Status of Plague,\u201d American Journal of Public Health <\/em>11\n(1920): 844<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[18]<\/a> Marilyn\nChase, The Barbary Plague: The Black\nDeath in Victorian San Francisco <\/em>(New York: Random House, 2003), 50-51<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[19]<\/a> U.S\nCongress, Senate, Committee on the District of Columbia, Experiments on Living Dogs <\/em>(Washington, DC: GPO, 1930), 174<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[20]<\/a> U.S\nCongress, House, Special Committee to Investigate Communist Activities in the\nUnited States, Investigation of Communist\nPropaganda <\/em>(Chicago, Illinois: 1930), 89<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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