CHAPTER IX 



FLEAS AND PLAGUE 



| L AGUE has always been one of the most 



dreaded diseases, and when we read of 



its ravages in the old world and the 



utter helplessness of the people before 



it we do not wonder that the very word rilled them 



with horror. One of the greatest scourges ever 



known began in Egypt about A. d. 542, and spread 



along the shores of the Mediterranean to Europe 



and Asia. It lasted for sixty years, appearing again 



and again in the same place and decimating whole 



communities. 



Another great pandemic, beginning in 1364, 



spread over the whole of the then known world and 



appeared in its most virulent form. On account 



of diffuse subcutaneous hemorrhages it came to be 



known as the " black death" and of course spread 



terror in all the communities where it appeared. 



Whole villages and districts were depopulated. 



The death-rate was very high, one authority placing 



the total mortality at twenty-five million. 



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