104 ON 7 HE DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH IN ENGLAND, 



panied almost from the first symptoms by great oppression of the 

 brain, and a lethargic sleep. 



It visited England again in 1506, though with far less 

 severity than before, and when the physicians had learned from 

 the experience of 1485 what was the best method of treating 

 the disease. As before, it was confined to England. The third 

 visitation was in April 1517, when it was as destructive as it 

 had been more than thirty years before, lasting till the spring of 

 the next year, though it was at its height for only six months. It 

 was particularly deadly in the two Universities. It also reached 

 Calais, but it was noted that it affected only the English in- 

 habitants of that town. The fourth visitation was in 1528 and 

 1529. On this occasion it began in May of the former year, 

 and devastated the whole of England, the period being described 

 as the Great Mortality. The year 1527-8 was one of famine, 

 and the two following were years of scarcity. It is worth noting 

 that this was the period in which smut was first noticed in 

 wheat. On this occasion the disease, hitherto confined to 

 England, ravaged Northern Germany, beginning at Hamburgh 

 in 1529, in which town noo persons died of the disease in 

 twenty-two days. Thence it spread eastwards to Dantzic, and 

 westwards to Cologne and the Low Countries. It appeared at 

 Amsterdam, Copenhagen, and Stockholm simultaneously, in 

 September of the same year. But it had wholly passed away 

 before Christmas. The last visitation of the disease, that which 

 was described by Dr. Caius, was in 1551, from April 15 to the 

 end of September. Since that time it has not reappeared in 

 England, though epidemics closely resembling the described 

 symptoms of it have occurred up to modern times, especially in 

 North Germany and North Eastern France. 



It is clear that the Sweating Sickness, though alarming from 

 its virulence and the rapidity of its course, was not so de- 

 structive of human life as the plague had been and even was. 

 But I have thought it desirable to give a short account of this 

 disease, because apart from the enduring effect which great 

 pestilences have on the social condition and moral character 



