SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XL. No. 1018 



of tlieir subjects their principal object. But the 

 coloring given to the happiness of this period is 

 far too brilliant. The success of armies and the 

 extent of empire do not constitute exclusively the 

 happiness of nations; and no historian has a title 

 to the character of fidelity, who does not compre- 

 hend, in his general description of the state of 

 mankind, moral and physical, as well as political 

 evils. 



Let us make brief inquiry into the dis- 

 eases of this "most happy and prosperous" 

 period. It was preceded by, it began in, 

 continued in, and closed in pestilence. 

 That the plague was endemic in Italy at 

 that time and that it developed in epidemic 

 form with each increase in susceptible mate- 

 rial there can be no doubt. Of the epi- 

 demic of 68 A.D. Tacitus says: 



Houses were filled with dead bodies and the 

 streets with funerals; neither age nor sex was ex- 

 empt ; slaves and plebeians were suddenly taken off, 

 amidst the lamentations of their wives and chil- 

 dren, who, while they assisted the sick, or mourned 

 the dead, were seized with the disease, and perish- 

 ing, were burned on the same funeral pyre. To 

 the knights and senators the disease was less 

 mortal, though these also suffered in the common 

 calamity. 



About this time the plague appears to 

 have spread over the whole of Asia, north- 

 ern Africa and Europe. According to 

 Short, the deaths from this disease in Scot- 

 land between 88 and 92 a.d. amounted to 

 not less than 150,000. This was probably 

 not less than one fourth, possibly one half, 

 the population of Scotland at that time. 



In the year 80 a.d. the deaths from the 

 plague in Rome at the height of the epi- 

 demic numbered 10,000 a day. It is esti- 

 mated that the population of Rome at that 

 time was somewhat more than one million. 

 Exacerbations of the disease in Rome are 

 recorded for the years 102, 107 aud 117 a.d. 

 According to Short, 45,000 died of the 

 plague in Wales in 114. The year 167 a.d. 

 is noted for an unusually severe outbreak 

 of the plague at Rome, where it continued 



for many years. In the year 173 a.d., the 

 Roman army was threatened with extinc- 

 tion by disease, and special epidemics, or 

 rather exacerbations of the epidemic, pre- 

 vailed in Rome in 175 and 178 a.d. That 

 the "happy and prosperous" period was 

 followed by a continuation of the plague is 

 shown by the following quotation from 

 Herodian : 



A great pestilence raged throughout Italy at that 

 time (about 187 a.d.), but with most violence in 

 the city, by reason of the great concourse of peo- 

 ple assembled from all parts of the earth. The 

 mortality among men' and cattle was great. The 

 Emperor, by advice of physicians, retired to 

 Laurentium, on account of the coolness of the 

 place, which was shaded with laurels. It was sup- 

 posed that the fragrance of the laurels acted as an 

 antidote against the contagion. The people in the 

 city also, by the advice of physicians, filled their 

 noses and ears with sweet ointments and used per- 

 fumes, etc. 



Under the spell of the historian we have 

 been inclined to regard the period when 

 the greater philosopher, Marcus Aurelius 

 Antoninus, sat on the throne of the world, 

 as the golden age. Let us therefore listen to 

 a few words from his personal attendant, 

 courtier and historian, who writes : 



Unless he, M. Antoninus, had been born at this 

 juncture, the affairs of the empire would have 

 fallen into speedy ruin; for there was no respite 

 from military operations. War raged in the east, 

 in Illyrieum, in Italy and in Gaul. Earthquakes 

 with the destruction of cities, inundations of rivers, 

 frequent plagues, a species of locusts ravaging the 

 fields; in short every calamity that can be con- 

 ceived to afflict and torment man scourged the hu- 

 man race during his administration. 



It is estimated that during the dark ages 

 the average of human life was less than 

 twenty years. A high birth-rate was neces- 

 sary to keep the race alive, but notwith- 

 standing this, Europe was sparsely inhab- 

 ited. At the time of the Norman Conquest 

 the inhabitants of England numbered be- 

 tween two and two and one half million, 

 probably nearer the former, for they had 



