Epidemics. 199 



found the Peloponnesians no longer in Attica, but re- 

 turned. 



" Now all the time that the Peloponnesians were in the 

 Athenian territory, and the Athenians were engaged in the 

 expedition on board their ships, the plague was carrying them 

 off both in the armament and in the city, so that it was even 

 said that the Peloponnesians, for fear of the disorder, when 

 they heard from the deserters that it was in the city, and 

 also perceived them performing the funeral rites, retired the 

 quicker from the country. Yet in this invasion they stayed 

 the longest time, and ravaged the whole country ; for they 

 were about forty days in the Athenian territory." 



The peculiarities of this plague may be put forward in the 

 following manner. It began at the head and eyes, which 

 latter were red and inflamed ; the tongue and throat were 

 tinged with bloody exudation and fetid breath. It then went 

 to the throat and chest, occasioning hoarseness and violent 

 coughing. Next it came to the stomach, occasioning vomit- 

 ing. At this stage, which was the seventh to ninth day, 

 many died ; but if he survived, the malady descended lower, 

 when diarrhoea came on, and probably caused, as Thucy- 

 dides affirms, ulceration of the bowels. Finally, many of 

 those who survived these sufferings had not yet seen the 

 end of the disease, for the poison of this plague, whatever 

 it might be, destroyed the integrity of structures remote 

 from the head, the first seat of its attack; and in the fingers 

 and toes, as well as the generative organs, amputation by 

 sphacelus was not infrequent ; and occasional destruction of 

 the eyes, and not merely of the sight, completed the sad 

 wreck which befel the survivors of this awful malady 

 awful alike in its destruction of life, and awful, at times, in 

 the wrecks of men who survived its invasion. 



To this category of evils, which in succession laid hold 

 upon the sufferers, let it be noticed that " externally the body 

 was not very hot to the touch, nor was it pale ; but reddish, 

 livid, and broken out in small pimples and sores." Adams 



