437 



PESTILENCE. 



PESTILENCE, 



433 



manner of cattle within the walls, and suffer their dung and offals to 

 lie in the streets. Moreover about those times, the Isis and Cherwell, 

 through the carelessness of the townsmen, being filled with mud, and 

 the common-sewers by such means stopped, did cause the ascent of 

 malignant vapours whenever there happened to be a flood. But since 

 that, by the care and at the charge of Richard Fox, bishop of Win- 

 chester, in the year 1517, those rivers were cleansed, and more trenches 

 cut for the water's free passage, the town has continued in a very 

 healthful condition, and in a particular manner so free from pestilential 

 diseases, that the sickness in 1665, which raged in most parts of the 

 kingdom, never visited any person there, although the terms were 

 there kept, and the court and both houses of parliament did there 

 reside." " Now what was done in Oxford, as early as 1517, to remedy 

 its unhealthiness, has since been done in all the principal cities of this 

 country and on the Continent. Accordingly we find that the plague 

 has not visited us since 1665. Holland, which has no system of 

 quarantine, has experienced an exemption corresponding to that of our 

 own country. Paris has not been attacked since 1668, and a century 

 has elapsed since the plague of Marseille. 



Treatment of Plague. The preventive treatment of plague will be 

 gathered from what we have said respecting the causes of this disease, 

 and the most effectual barriers that can be opposed to ita future intro- 

 duction into Europe, are, to adopt again the language of Dr. Hancock, 

 " the barrier of cleanliness in our towns and villages against filth and 

 crowded habitations; the barrier of Christian charity towards our 

 poor against famine and distress; the barrier of peace against the 

 desolating evils of war ; and the barrier of industry against the vice of 

 sloth." With regard to remedial measures, it appears little can be 

 done towards arresting the progress of plague after it has once declared 

 itself in an individual Our efforts therefore are limited to removing 

 the patient from those sources of miasm which give origin to his 

 disease, and in placing him in those conditions which are most favour- 

 able for his recovery. Free exposure to fresh air, supporting the 

 strength, and regulating the secretions, are the only means which 

 promise much chance of success. When this plan is adopted, we have 

 the authority of our latest writers on this subject for declaring that 

 the mortality of the disease may be considerably diminished. Thirty 

 per cent, only, of those attacked, die under this mode of treatment ; 

 while in the lazaretto at Alexandria, 90 per cent, died in 1833, and 77 

 in 1836. With respect to the management of buboes and carbuncles, 

 they must be treated in the way which is found efficacious in their 

 removal when uncomplicated with plague, and if by these means we 

 are unable to effect their dispersion, suppuration may be promoted 

 by the employment of emollient cataplasms or any other mild 

 stimulant. 



In the following chronological table of some of the principal plagues 

 upon record, we have purposely omitted the mention of many which, 

 although described under that name, are obviously a different 

 disease ; even among those we have selected, the vagueness with 

 which the symptoms of some are described, leave us in doubt whether 

 the disease was the same as that which at present goes under the name 

 of plague : 

 B.C. 



1491. The plague of Egypt. (Exodus, xii.) 

 1490. in the Wilderness. (Numbers, xi.) 



1250. of JSgina. (Ovid's ' Metam.,' lib. vii 528.) 



1190. in the Grecian camp at the siege of Troy. (Homer's 



'Iliad,' book, i.) 



1141. among the Philistines. (1 Sam., V. vi.) 



1017. in Canaan. (2 Sam., xxiv.) 



738. of Rome. (Plutarch's ' Life of Romulus.' ) 



464. (Livy, iii. 6 ; Dion. Halicar., lib. x.) 



454. (Livy, iii. 32.) 



437. (Livy, iv. 21, 25.) 



430. of Athens. (Thucydides, ii. 48, &c.) 



404. of Cartilage. (Justin, xU. 2 ; Diod. Sic. xiii.,xiv.) 



:'. of Rome. (Livy, vii. 1 ; Short, ' On Air.') 



- (Livy, x. 31, Ac. ; Orosius, iii. 21.) 



213. In the Carthaginian and Roman armies before Syracuse. 



(Livy, xxv. 26.) 



182-177. Borne and all Italy. (Livy, xli. 21.) 

 126. Numidia and Carthage. (Livy, ' Epit.,' 60 ; Orosius, lib. 5.) 

 A.D. 

 68. Borne. (Tacitus, ' Annals,' xv. 47 ; xvi. 13 ; Orosius, lib. vii. ; 



' Univers. Hist.,' voL xiv., 139.) 



167, and few following yean. Rome, and a large part of the 

 known world. (Am. Marcellinua, lib. xxiii. ; Kchard's ' Rom. 

 Hist.,' voL ii., 315, Ac.) 

 187. Rome and Italy. (Herodian, lib. i.) 

 262-270. Rome and a large portion of the globe. (Zonaras, lib. 



xii. ; Gibbon, vol. i. 10.) 

 407. Mo&t of Europe, Asia, and Africa. (Nicephonis, xiii. 6, 36 ; 



Magdeburg, cent. v. 13.) 

 642-590. A plague raging with intermissions, in most p irU of the 



world. (Niceph., xvii. 18; ' Eccles. Hist.,' lib. iv. 29.) 

 1345-1350. Europe, and moat parU of the world. (Boccaccio 

 ' Decameron,' ' Prima Giomata ; ' Muratori, iii. 588, ic. ; 

 Villari ; Short ' On Air,' voL i., 185 ;' Univ. Hist' vol. xxxii.) 



1562 and 1563, London and most of the principal cities of Europe. 



(Short, vol. i. ; Thuanus.) 

 1575 and 1576. Italy and most parts of Europe. (Thuanus, lib. Ixii. ; 



Short, vol. i. ; Mercurialis, ' On the Plague of Venice.') 

 1580 and 1581. Grand Cairo and different parts of France. (Thuanus.) 

 1600 and 1603. London and various parts of Europe, (Maitland's 

 'Hist, of London;' Mignot, 'Hist, of the Turkish Empire,' 

 p. 256.) 

 1611 and 1613. Constantinople, France. (Riverius, lib. xvii. ; Short, 



vol. i. ; Mignot.) 



1625. London and various parts of Europe. (Short.) 

 1635 and 1636. London, Nimeguen, and several other places in 



Europe. (Diemerbroeck, ' Tractatus de Peste.') 

 1655 and 1656. Most of Europe. Naples suffered very severely, 

 three-fourths of its inhabitants having perished. ' Univ. Hist.,' 

 vol. xxviii., 318. 

 1663-65. London and most parts of England and Holland. (Syden- 



ham ; ' City Remembrancer ; ' Hodge's ' Loimologia.' ) 

 1702-11. North of Europe. (Described, especially as it appeared in 



Danzig, by Dr. Gottwald ; and ' Univ. Hist.,' vol. xxxv.) 

 1720. Of Marseille. (Chicoyneau's ' TraitcS de la Peste ; ' Bertrand's 



' Relation Hist, de la Peste de Marseilles.') 

 1743. Aleppo. (Its ' Natural History,' by Dr. Alex. Russell.) 

 1751. Constantinople. (Chenier's ' Morocco,' vol. ii., 275.) 

 1760-62. Aleppo, Jerusalem, and Damascus. (' A Treatise of the 



Plague. 4c.,' by Dr. Patrick Russell.) 



1770 and 1771. Constantinople, Poland, and Russia. (Described, 

 especially as it appeared in Moscow, by Mertens ; and ' Ann. 

 Regist.,' 1772, p. 155.) 



1788-85. Egypt, Dahnatia, Constantinople, &o. (Volney's ' Travels, 

 voL i., 192 ; ' Courant,' October 28, 1783, and October 27, 1785.) 

 1799. In the French army in Egypt. (Sotira, ' Me'rnoire sur la 

 Peste observe'e en Egypte pendant la Sejour de I'Arme'e 

 d'Orient dans cette Contre'e;' Baron Larrey, 'Description 

 d'Egypte, Ac.') 



For further accounts of the plague, as it has appeared more recently, 

 see Tully's ' Hist, of the Plague in the Islands of Malta, Gozo, Corfu, 

 Cephalonia, &c.,' 1821 : also Dr. Bowring's ' Observations on the 

 Oriental Plague and on Quarantine, &c.,' 1838 ; and Dr. Andrew 

 White, ' On Plague and Quarantine,' 1846. 



Patilential, Epidemic, or Atiatic Cholera, is a disease not less 

 fatal than that described in the preceding article ; and in its endemic 

 origin, its occcasional epidemic eruptions, its selection of victims, and 

 the localities which it ravages, it bears a striking resemblance to plague. 

 Its essential character is, however, perfectly distinct, as will be seen by 

 the following account of the symptoms of cholera. The disease has 

 two well-marked stages : the cold or choleraic, called also the stage of 

 collapse ; and the hot or febrile stage, or that in which reaction takes 

 place. The first i generally preceded by certain premonitory symptoms, 

 among the most prominent of which is diarrhoea, accompanied usually 

 with languor and some degree of nausea ; the dejections are faecal and 

 bilious, and often very copious. The commencement of the purging 

 may precede the accession of the febrile stage for several days, or only 

 a few hours may elapse. It is important not to think lightly of this 

 disorder during the prevalence of epidemic cholera, for many a life 

 might have been preserved if timely warning had been taken, and 

 appropriate treatment adopted for removing it, before the accession of 

 the symptoms about to be described. 



Symptvnu of the cold ttage. The time of its invasion is, in the 

 majority of instances, from two to four o'clock in the morning. The 

 patient is attacked with uneasiness of the stomach, to which speedily 

 succeed vomiting and purging of a watery, colourless, and inodorous 

 fluid, similar to barley-water, or more frequently to rice-watery some- 

 times it is like milk, and occasionally yellowish ; but the ' conjee-stools,' 

 as they are termed, which consist of albuminous flakes floating in serum, 

 or discharges of pure serum, are of the most frequent occurrence. 

 These discharges are attended with severe cramps in the extremities, 

 especially in the calves of the legs, and are succeeded by exhaustion, 

 giddiness, and sinking of the pulse; the pulse is small, weak, and 

 accelerated ; and after a certain interval becomes imperceptible. The 

 skin is cold from the commencement ; and as the disease advances, it 

 becomes gradually colder, and is covered either with a profuse sweat or 

 a clammy moisture. The temperature of the whole body is lower than 

 natural. The features are shrunk and anxious : there is restlessness 

 and agitation, with great thirst, heartburn, and hurried respiration. 

 Notwithstanding the coldness of the body externally, the patient com- 

 plains of heat, and throws off his bed-clothes. As the cold increases, 

 the skin frequently becomes blue ; the eyes, which are dull and 

 suffused, seem drawn into and fixed at the bottom of their sockets ; the 

 tongue is cold but moist; the voice is feeble, hollow, hoarse, and 

 interrupted; but the mental functions remain undisturbed to the last. 

 At this advanced period the collapse is complete, the respiration very 

 slow, and the patient, who suffers little or no pain, presents the appear- 

 ance of a person who has been dead for some time. The unue is 

 usually suppressed throughout the whole of this stage ; but the dejec- 

 lions, becoming thinner and thinner, continue to the last. Some 

 patients, although blue, cold, and pulseless, have sufficient strength to 

 go about; many, however, die of exhaustion before all these symptoms 



