THE BUBONIC PLAGUE. 587 



an epidemic of the worst of crimes was associated with that of the 

 plague. 



In 1656 Italy was again invaded by the plague, and on that oc- 

 casion Genoa lost 65,000 of its population by death. About the same 

 time terrible epidemics of the disease ravaged Eussia, Turkey and 

 Hungary. 



London, in 1665, suffered dreadfully from the plague. The disease 

 appears to have been imported from Holland, where it was known to 

 have existed for some time. The progress of the disease in London has 

 been vividly portrayed by Defoe in the 'Journal of the Plague Year' and 

 in the 'Due Preparations for the Plague.' 



It is supposed that the pest had been imported in bales of goods 

 from Smyrna into Holland in 1663. From thence it crossed over to 

 London, where the first deaths were reported about the first of Decem- 

 ber in 1664. Toward the end of that month another death occurred 

 in the same house, but during the following six weeks no new case 

 developed. About the middle of February, however, a person cTiecl of 

 the plague in another house. From that time only occasional cases 

 of plague were reported, although the weekly mortality was rapidly 

 rising and was greatly in excess of the usual rate. Thus, while the 

 ordinary weekly mortality ranged from two hundred and forty to three 

 hundred, this was gradually increased, so that in the third week in 

 January it had risen to four hundred and seventy-four. After a slight 

 remission, the mortality again rose, so that early in May plague cases 

 were reported more frequently. It soon became evident that the plague, 

 as in Milan in 1630, had slowly but surely gained a firm foothold. The 

 increased mortality was undoubtedly due to unsuspected plague cases 

 of either the pneumonic or the septicemic type. 



During May, and especially during the hot weather in June, the 

 disease continued to spread. At the same time, the panic-stricken 

 people began to leave the city in large numbers. In July the condition 

 was truly deplorable. To quote Defoe : 



"London might well be said to be all in tears; the mourners did not 

 go about the streets, indeed, for nobody put on black or made a formal 

 dress of mourning for their nearest friends; but the voice of mourn- 

 ing was truly heard in the streets. The shrieks of women and children 

 at the windows and doors of their houses, where their dearest relations 

 were perhaps dying, or just dead, were so frequent to be heard as we 

 passed in the streets, that it was enough to pierce the stoutest heart in 

 the world to hear them. Tears and lamentations were seen almost in 

 every house, especially in the first part of the visitation; for toward 

 the latter end men's hearts were hardened, and death was so always 

 before their eyes, that they did not so much concern themselves for the 

 loss of their friends, expecting that themselves should be summoned 

 the next hour." 



