PLAGUE, or Levantine plague, also Bubonic plague, are terms by which the nations of Europe designate a contagious disease of a severe form which from time to time has appeared as epidemic in Egpyt, in S. Arabia, Syria, Turkish Arabia, Southern Persia, extending to Turkey in Europe, Malta, Gibraltar. It is known to the Arabs as Ta'un. It prevailed severely in Baghdad in 1830, and appeared in Egypt in 1842. It broke out at Pali in Rajputana about A.D. 1830-1840, and appeared in China during the fifteen years of civil war, from 1855 to 1870. The Chinese called it Yang-tzee. It prevailed specially in the province of Yunnan and some of the neighbouring districts, and was believed to have been introduced there from Burma, but this unlikely point was never established. On the outbreak of the civil war, it became very prevalent, and was still raging in 1879, though the rebellion had been long put down. The disease first attacked animals
which live in or on the ground. The rats, who were the soonest assailed, came out in troops from their holes, and, after staggering about and falling over each other, dropped dead. Buffaloes, oxen, sheep, and deer also very quickly succumbed, but fowls, which spend part of their time above the ground, more often escaped. Those who died of it were supposed to be possessed of a devil, and could not be buried, lest the repose of their ancestors should be disturbed. The bodies were placed on a bier, and exposed to the sun out side the gates, so that the traveller who passed a village where the Yang-tzee was raging was nearly choked by the odours with which he was suddenly brought into contact. —31. Emile Kocher on the Chinese Malady called Yang-tzee.