PESTILENCE. 



PESTILENCE. 



436 



of ioMoto, ab**uo* or death of birds, blight and mildew, 

 , w . t. with few exceptions, to have separately or conjointly preceded 

 or atUoded all tuoh calamities. Plague u usually preceded by other 

 dissaM which occasion great morulity. Lord Bacon ha* observed 

 that " Uw leaser infection* of small pox, purple fever, Ague*, 4c., in the 

 preceding summer and hovering all winter, do portend a great pesti- 

 Unoe the summer following ; for putrefaction rues not to its height at 

 once ; " and Dr. Head state*, a* a general fact, that fevers of extraordi- 

 nary malignity are the usual forerunner* of plague. Indeed nearly all 

 th moat remarkable plagues of the last two centuries have been pre- 

 ceded by n^l'g""t fever*. The increased number of deaths from this 

 source will be seen by an examination of the London Bills of Mortality 

 at the three last plague epochs in this country, an abstract from which 

 we here present, showing the number of deaths from other diseases 

 beside* the plague, in 1025, 1636, and 1665, with that of the year 

 before and after respectively : 



Yrart. 

 1621 

 1625 

 1626 



1635 

 1(>S6 

 1687 



1664 

 1665 

 [CM 



: . ..... -. 



12,199 

 18,148 

 7,400 



10,651 







8,681 



18,291 

 28,710 

 10,840 



11 



35,417 

 134 



10,400 

 ,OoS 



The season of the year in which plague commits it* greatest ravages 

 differs in different countries. In Europe it ha* invariably raged most 

 violently and fatally in the summer and autumnal months, especially 

 in September. Thus, in the plague of London in 1665, the deaths 

 from the plague were: in June, 590; in July, 4129; in August, 

 20,046; in September, 26,230; in October, 14,373; in November, 

 8449 ; and in December they were under 1000. In Egypt it com- 

 mences in the autumn, and prevails till the beginning of June, and the 

 vernal equinox is the period of the greatest fatality. Extremes of 

 heat and cold generally check, and not (infrequently entirely arrest its 

 progress. In tropical climates the disease is unknown, and in Egypt, 

 according to Alpinus, to whatever degree pestilence may be raging, as 

 soon as the sun enters Cancer it entirely ceases. The cold weather of 

 northern climates has been observed to check the ravages of plague ; 

 and in these countries, when it has broken out in the autumn, it* 

 course ha* been arrested during the winter months. With respect to 

 the progress and termination of plague, the disease appears to be sub- 

 ject to the same laws as regulate the course and termination of other 

 epidemic* : it i* moot fatal at it* first outbreak, and becomes less 

 virulent as it increase* in extent The increased mortality which 

 occur* during the advance of plague, and which we have before shown 

 to be at it* height in the month of September, arises from the in- 

 creased extension, and not from the greater malignancy of the disease. 

 With iU progress and decline there has usually been observed a pro- 

 gressive increase and decrease in the whole train of diseases, and those 

 which had immediately preceded plague, on its decline reappeared. 

 The former fact will be seen by a reference to the table we have given 

 above. 



The cause* of plague have been referred by some to a vitiated 

 atmosphere, engendered by epidemic and endemic causes, and wholly 

 independent of contagion ; while others have attributed it solely to the 

 latter influence. The truth probably lies between these extremes, and 

 we have little doubt, from an examination of the evidence on both 

 aide* of the question, that both these cause* do occasionally operate in 

 the propagation of plague. A* the foundation of quarantine establish- 

 ment* rest* entirely on the supposition of the contagious nature of 

 plague, we shall examine how far this can be supported by a reference 

 to fact*. It U asserted by the contagionist* that plague i* transferred 

 from individual to individual in all the ascertained modes in which 

 diseases are thu* communicated by contact, by inoculation with the 

 matter of buboes, through the atmosphere, and by fomites. According 

 to them, it* appearance in Western Europe ha* been alway* owing to 

 imported contagion ; and where strict isolation from all infected indi- 

 vidual* and article* has been observed, there it has never apjieared. It 

 U admitted however by several, among whom may be mentioned the 

 respected name* of Sydenh.un, Russell, and Head, that a peculiar 

 atmospheric condition i* essential to the spread of plague ; yet they 

 maintain that thi* i* inadequate to iU production without importation 

 by fomite*, or the arrival of a diseased parson from an infected district. 

 In support of thi* opinion, they refer to the histories of the different 

 plague* that have visited Europe, and above all to that which ravaged 

 HarseiUe in the year 1780. IU introduction into thi* city was traced 

 to the arrival of three chip* or lazaretto*, which, by some mean* or 

 other, for we learn not how, communicated the diesaso to a woman 

 living in the Hue de l'E*cale. This person being received into the 

 Hotel iJieu, two of the nurses who assisted at her reception, and the 

 matron who changed the linen, were taken ill the next day, and died 



after a few hour*. In a short time it destroyed physicians, surgeon*, 

 apothecaries, confessors, and all the other officers and servants, with 

 the whole of the poor in the hospital, including above 300 foundlings. 

 The priest* and monk* who attended the infected suffered in the same 

 manner a* the medical assistants : and lastly, of 230 galley slaves, 

 employed in going into the infected house* and burying the dead, 220 

 perished in the space of ten or twelve days. Dr. Bancroft justly 

 observe* that " it U fortunate for mankind that the communication of 

 the contagion of the plague depends upon the co-operation of so in ny 

 favourable circumstances, and particularly upon that of a suitable 

 temperature, and of certain aptitudes and susceptibilities in the human 

 subject ; for without such requisites, or such obstacle* to its propa- 

 gation, the earth might have long since become desolate." 



Those who contend for the non-contagiousness of plague, and there- 

 fore for the abolition of the quarantine laws, maintain that these laws, 

 however rtrictly enforced, have not succeeded in shutting out the 

 plague from pestilential districts : and that countries not possessing 

 indigenous sources of pestilence are not visited with this disease, 

 although unprotected by quarantine establishments. They likewise 

 adduce numerous instances of persons in constant communication with 

 plague patients, and even wearing their clothes, escaping the disease. 

 Odessa bos one of the best organised quarantine establishments in the 

 world ; yet not long ago the plague broke out in it, entered the town, 

 destroyed a number of inhabitants, and ceased at a particular season. 

 In 1835 the harem of the pasha of Egypt consisted of about 300 

 persons ; but notwithstanding the severest cordon, the plague entered, 

 and seven died within. The cordon was composed of 500 men, who 

 were in constant contact with the town, where the disease was raging 

 violently ; of these only three died, so that the proportion of those who 

 perished within to those without was nearly as 4 to 1. The plague of 

 1665, which ravaged most parts of this kingdom, never visited Oxford, 

 although the terms were kept there, and the court and both houses of 

 parliament were held there ; a close correspondence too was maintained 

 between this city and the metropolis, where it was raging. The 

 Persians, although their country is every year surrounded by the 

 plague, seldom suffer anything by it themselves. " The Turks and 

 Hoor*," says Bruce, " immediately after St. John's day, expose in the 

 market-places the clothes of the many thousands that have died of the 

 plague during its late continuance ; and though these consist of furs, 

 cotton, silk, and woollen cloths, which are stuffs the most retentive of 

 the infection, no accident happens to those who wear them." Clot 

 Bey, who while at the head of the medical department in Egypt, 

 treated thousands of cases, says, that removed from malaria or miasm, 

 he baa never known the plague to be communicated by contact. He 

 has twice inoculated himself with the pus and blood of those affected 

 with plague, but without producing the disease. Others, however, who 

 have performed this operation on themselves, have contracted the 

 disease and died. 



This fully agrees with the evidence that was given before a select 

 committee of the House of Commons, on the contagion of plague, in 

 1819. It appears from the Custom-house returns, that none of the 

 expurgators of goods in Great Britain, at the quarantine establishment*, 

 have ever taken the plague. What then ore we to regard as the cause 

 of pestilence, and whence U it to bo sought ! Undoubtedly in the 

 miasm of pestiferous soils ; or of crowded, ill- ventilated, and filthy 

 localities. When plague has at any time become epidemic, these are 

 the spots in which it has first planted itself, and in which it has 

 committed the greatest devastation. Notwithstanding the obvious- 

 ness of this fact, it is a remarkable circumstance in connection with 

 the history of plague, that no people in the world have been willing to 

 acknowledge their own country to be the first or indigenous seat of 

 pestilence. The doctrine that it is imported and not indigenous, is as 

 prevalent in Turkey as it is in Egypt. The Egyptian Levantines insist 

 that it ha* never been an Egyptian endemic, but has been imported by 

 travellers or goods ; while the Turks contend that it is from Egypt. 

 In the eloquent language of Dr. Hancock, " Egypt disowns it ; Ethiopia 

 has no such progeny ; Syria is too genial for iU production ; and Con- 

 stantinople harbours it through neglect or sufferance. As to the 

 north, how could the temperate climate of Britain generate a principle 

 so terribly destructive ? " Facts, however, are too numerous and 

 weighty to allow us a moment's hesitation on this point. Wherever 

 civilisation has advanced, there plague has receded, till it is now only 

 to be found lurking among the swamps of Egypt or revelling in the 

 filth of Constantinople. It is the spring, we have scon, that is so fatal 

 to the Egyptians, about which time south winds prevail, loaded with 

 putrid emanations from animal and vegetable substances in the lakes 

 formed by the retiring waters of the Nile. In June, the wind is in 

 the north, passing over the Mediterranean, and this is the most healthy 

 and salubrious season. In Constantinople, the month of August is 

 most fatal, and this is the season of the year when decomposition goes 

 on with greatest rapidity. The exemption of the city of Oxford, in 

 the plague of 1665, is a strong proof of the correctness of these 

 opinions. The following words from Quincy are much to the purpose : 

 " Dr. Plott observes, the reason why Oxford i* now much more 

 healthful than formerly, to be, the enlargement of the city, whereby 

 the inhabitants, who are not proportionately increased, ore not so close 

 crowdod together ; and the care of the magistrates in keeping the 

 street* clear from lilth. For ' formerly,' he says, ' they used to kill all 



