218 Epidemics. 



imaginable form fevers and agues taking the lead, as con- 

 stant pest-houses in every community ; next the eruptive 

 diseases, as measles, small-pox, and scarlatina, &c. ; and, 

 thirdly, plagues, or universal wide-spreading diseases, assum- 

 ing various forms and modes of manifestation, but always 

 at first of extensive range, and then peeping in at this city, 

 then spreading over that country; and in this town or village, 

 and keeping up a constant state of unsettledness in every 

 nation or city as to when it will be their turn next. The 

 Athenian plague, the Levant plague, the Black death, and 

 Cholera are those to which most attention has been directed 

 in modern times, and the small-pox and cholera because 

 they are present neighbours ; whilst of the Levant and 

 Athenian plagues it may be said that the Historian has 

 clothed them with the imperishable monument of a masterly 

 and comprehensively written description. 



That one, the greatest of all, and which affected mankind 

 the most, was the Chronographic epidemium, about which we 

 can bring no contemporary history but that which is legendary 

 in confirmation of it ; the only distinctive testimony is that 

 which is written in the Bible. Hence it is called the epi- 

 demium of chronographic decay, and it is thus recorded 

 to us : 



Married, or 

 Lived Years. eldest son 



born at 

 Arphaxad (born two years after the 



Flood) 438 35 



Selah 433 30 



Eber 464 .. 34 



Peleg 239 30 



Reu 239 32 



Serug 230 30 



Nahor 148 29 



Terah 205 70 



