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CHAPTER V. 



PERIOD FROM A.D. 1715 TO 1 745. 



A.D. 17 15. In GermanVj France, and Italy, the weather 

 was damp and unhealthy for mankind. Lanzoni, writing from 

 Ferrara, says : ' After the plague in oxen in the preceding years, 

 and the copious rains which so much damaged the soil, we saw 

 the whole ground at Ferrara vitiated by stagnant water, so that 

 the seeds of the future harvest were for the most part spoilt; 

 whence the scantiness and high price of provisions in the year 

 1 7 15. A loss of health consequently ensued. In the beginning 

 of the month of March, a large quantity of toads and frogs were 

 observed ; and in the middle of spring swarms of midges, worms, 

 snakes, flics, butterflies, locusts, and caterpillars, from which 

 many people predicted disease to mankind. Hitherto the month 

 of May had been intolerably hot; soon, however, the air was 

 misty and moist. June succeeded with great heat, which 



originated many fevers Many attribute the cause of the 



fevers to the wine, which, on account of the inclemency of the 

 season, had been made from unripe grapes, and had for that 

 reason produced impurities and excited fevers. Not a few 

 attributed the calamity to the effect of the unburicd bodies of 

 oxen killed by the plague in the preceding year, and also 

 from those buried. For, they said, particles, offensive aiul in- 

 jurious, came up through the pores of the earth from the corruj)t 

 carcases, and infected living bodies. Some thought that the in- 



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