350 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



again suffered a mortality of over 10,000, while the disease continued 

 to claim numerous victims in other parts of England and on the con- 

 tinent. Later in the century (1656) some of the Italian cities suffered 

 devastating epidemics. The mortality in the city of Naples was in 

 the neighborhood of 300,000, in Genoa 60,000, in Koine 14,000. The 

 smaller mortality in the last-named city has been ascribed to the sani- 

 tary measures instituted by Cardinal Gastaldi. Up to this time prayers, 

 processionals, the firing of cannons, etc., had been the chief reliance for 

 the arrest of pestilence, with what success is shown by the brief his- 

 torical review thus far presented. But this enlightened prelate inaugu- 

 rated a method of combating the plague and other infectious maladies 

 which, with increasing knowledge and experience in the use of scien- 

 tific preventive measures, has given us the mastery of these pestilential 

 diseases, and has been the principal factor in the extinction of bubonic 

 plague from the civilized countries of Europe. 



But it was long after the time of Cardinal Gastaldi before sanitary 

 science was established upon a scientific basis and had acquired the 

 confidence of the educated classes. Indeed, the golden age of preventive 

 medicine has but recently had its dawn, and sanitarians at the present 

 day often encounter great difficulty in convincing legislators and the 

 public generally of the importance of the measures which have been 

 proved to be adequate, when properly carried out, for the prevention of 

 this and other infectious maladies. 



We have now arrived in our review at the period of the ' great plague 

 cf London.' For some years this city had been almost if not entirely 

 free from the scourge, but in the spring of 1665 it again appeared and 

 within a few months caused a mortality of 68,596 in a population esti- 

 mated at 460,000. This, however, does not fairly represent the per- 

 centage of mortality among those exposed, for a large proportion of the 

 population flew from the city to escape infection. 



Upon the continent the disease prevailed extensively, especially in 

 Austria, Hungary and Germany. The epidemic in Vienna in 1679 

 caused a mortality of 76,000. In 1681 the city of Prague lost 83,000 

 of its inhabitants. During the last quarter of this century the disease 

 disappeared from some of the principal countries of Europe. Accord- 

 ing to Hirsch it disappeared from England in 1679, from France in 

 1668, from Holland about the same time, from Germany in 1683 and 

 from Spain in 1681. In Italy it continued to prevail to some extent 

 until the end of the century. 



At the beginning of the eighteenth century bubonic plague pre- 

 vailed in Constantinople and at various points along the Danube; from 

 here it extended in 1704 to Poland, and soon after to Silesia, Lithuania, 

 Germany and the Scandinavian countries. The mortality in Stockholm 



