590 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



The disease continued in Marseilles until December, 1721, but iso- 

 lated cases persisted until April, 1722. During the fifteen months of 

 its duration it carried off 40,000 of the population. According to 

 Defoe, there died of the plague in Marseilles and within a league of 

 its walls 60,000. 



From Marseilles the plague reached Aix, and in the winter of 1720 

 and 1721 it carried off 18,000 of its people. It also reached Aries, 

 where, in 1721, out of a population of 23,000, 10,000 died (forty-five 

 per cent). The same year, in Toulon, which had a population of 

 26,000, the plague attacked 20,000 of the population, and of these 

 13,000, or about one-half of the original population, died. 



The country districts about Marseilles were likewise invaded. Out 

 of a population of 248,000, there died of the plague 88,000, or fully 

 thirty-five per cent. 



It is evident from this description that the plague of 1720 was in 

 nowise inferior to that of 1348. Fortunately, the disease did not spread 

 beyond Provence. It is noteworthy that in many instances, in Mar- 

 seilles, people secluded themselves in their houses, avoiding all com- 

 munication with the outer world, and in this way escaped. Similar 

 isolation of cloisters, insane asylums, likewise resulted in freedom from 

 the disease which stalked so freely throughout the stricken city. It 

 was experience of this kind in isolation of the healthy which led Defoe 

 to write his 'Due Preparations for the Plague.' 



Toward the middle of the century the plague reasserted itself in 

 the Danubian provinces, the constant battleground between the Turks 

 and Russians and Austrians. In 1738 it not only prevailed in Russia 

 but also invaded Hungary. Of more importance than this occurrence 

 is the outbreak of the plague in 1743 in Sicily. The last epidemic of 

 plague had occurred in Messina in 1624. After a lapse of one hundred 

 and twenty years, it reappeared with terrible results. In Messina, as 

 in Marseilles and in London, the first cases were not recognized as 

 plague cases and, as a result, the infection spread until, like a veritable 

 explosion, the disease developed all over the city. The plague, with 

 its attendant misery of lack of food, and even of water, was in vain 

 combated by religious processions. The plague corpses were in heaps 

 in the streets, as in Marseilles, and cremation was resorted to in order 

 to effect their removal. That year 30,000 died of plague in the city 

 of Messina. With the exception of a slight epidemic at Noja in 1815, 

 this outbreak in Messina in 1743 was the last one to appear in Italy. 



In 1755, the plague was introduced into Transylvania by an Ar- 

 menian merchant from the Black Sea. Before it was extinguished, 

 4,300 deaths were recorded. 



Next to that of Marseilles and of Messina, the most noteworthy 

 outbreak of plague was that which occurred in 1771 in Moscow. The 



