578 
P L A 
of the plague which happened during the fecond year of 
the Peloponnefian war, (B. C. 430.) It has been thought 
by fome not to have been the true plague, fmcethe bubo 
and carbuncle are not mentioned among the fymptoms; 
but we fhall prefently fee, however, that thefe eruptions 
are not of invariable occurrence. 
The molt dreadful plague that ever raged at Rome was 
in the reign of Titus, A. D. 80. The emperor left no 
remedy unattempted to abate the malignity of thediftem- 
per, afting during its continuance like a father to his 
people. The fame fatal difeafe raged in all the provinces 
of the Roman empire in the reign of M. Aurelius, 
A. D. 1675 and was followed by a dreadful famine, by 
earthquakes, inundations, and other calamities. The 
Romans believed that JEfculapius fometimes entered into 
aferpent, and cured the plague. 
In the 15th year of the reign of Juftinian, A. D. 54.2, 
the plague committed dreadful ravages. Gibbon, who 
borrows his defcription from Procopius, confiders Ethio¬ 
pia and Egypt to have been the original fources of this 
plague. “In a damp hot ftagnating air, this African 
fever is generated from the putrefattion of animal fub- 
ftances, and efpecially from the fwarms of locufts, not 
lefs deftru£tive to mankind in their death than their lives. 
The infeftion was fometimes announced by the vifions 
of a diftempered fancy; and the viftim defpaired as foon 
as he had heard the menace and felt the ftroke of an in- 
vifible fpeftre. But the greater number in their beds, in 
the ftreets, in their ufual occupation, were furprifed by 
a flight fever; fo flight, indeed, that neither the pulfe nor 
the colour of the patient gave any figns of the approach¬ 
ing danger. On the next, or the fucceeding, day, it was 
declared by the fwelling of the glands, particularly thofe 
of the groin, of the armpits, and under the ear; and, 
when thefe buboes or tumors were opened, they were 
found to contain a coal, or black fubftance, of the fize of 
a lentil. If they came to a juft fwelling and fuppuration, 
the patient was faved by this kind and natural difcharge 
of the morbid humour: but, if they continued hard and 
dry, a mortification quickly enfued; and the fifth day 
was commonly the term of his life. The fever was often 
accompanied by lethargy or delirium; the bodies of the 
fick were covered with black puftules or carbuncles, the 
fymptoms of immediate death; and, in conftitutions 
too feeble to produce an eruption, the vomiting of blood 
was followed by mortification of the bowels. To 
pregnant women the plague was generally mortal; yet, 
one infant was drawn alive from his dead mother, and 
three mothers furvived the lofs of their infe&ed fcetus. 
Youth was the moft perilous feafon, and the female fex 
was lefs fufceptible than the male; but every rank and 
profeflion was attacked with indifcriminate rage; and 
many of thofe who efcaped were deprived of the ufe of 
their fpeech, without being fecure from a return of the 
diforder. 
“The phyficians of Conftantinople were zealous and 
fkilful, but their art was baffled by the various fymp¬ 
toms and pertinacious vehemence of the difeafe: the 
fame remedies were productive of contrary effects, and 
the event capricioufly difappointed their prognoftics of 
death or recovery. 
“ The fellow-citizens of Procopius were fatisfied, by 
iotne fhort and partial experience, that the infeftion 
could not be gained by the clofeft converfation ; and this 
perfuafion might fupport the affiduity of friends and phy¬ 
ficians in the care of the fick, whom inhuman prudence 
would have condemned to folitude and defpair. But the 
fatal fecurity, like the predeftination of the Turks, mult 
have aided the progrefs of the contagion ; and thofe fa- 
lutary precautions, to which Europe is indebted for her 
fafety, were unknown to the government of Juftinian. 
No reftraints were impofed on the free and frequent in- 
tercourfe of the Roman provinces; from Perfia to France 
the nations were mingled and infeCled by wars and emi- 
G U E. 
grations; and the peftilential odour, which lurks for 
years in a bale of cotton, was imported, by the abufe of 
trade, into the moft diftant regions. The mode of its 
propagation is explained by the remark of Procopius him- 
felf, that it always fpread from the fea-coaft to the inland 
countries: the moft fequeftered iflands and mountains 
were fucceflively vifited; the places which had efcaped 
the fury of its firft paflage were alone expofed to the con¬ 
tagion of the enfuing year. The winds might diffufe 
that fubtle venom; but, unlefs the atmofphere be previ- 
oufly difpofed for its reception, the plague would foon 
expire in the cold or temperate climates of the earth. 
Such was the univerfal corruption of the air, that the 
peftilence was not checked or alleviated by any differ¬ 
ence of the feafons. In time its firft malignity was 
abated and difperfed; the difeafe alternately languifhed 
and revived ; but it was not till the end of a calamitous 
period of fifty-two years that mankind recovered their 
health, or the air refumed its pure and falubrious quality. 
No fatfts have been preferved to fuftain an account, or 
even a conjecture, of the numbers that perifhed in this 
extraordinary mortality. I only find that, during three 
months, five, and at length ten, thoufand people died 
each day at Conftantinople ; that many cities of the Eaft 
were left vacant; and that, in feveral diftriCts in Italy, 
the harveft and the vintage withered on the ground.” 
Gibbon adds, that it is not wholly inadmifflble to be¬ 
lieve that one hundred millions of perfons fell victims to 
this contagion in the Roman empire. 
About the year 430 the plague vifited Britain, juft af¬ 
ter the PiCts and Scots had made a formidable invafion of 
the fouthern part of the ifland. It raged with uncom¬ 
mon fury, and fwept away moft of thofe whom the fword 
and famine had fpared, fo that the living were fcarcely 
fufficient to bury the dead. 
Between the years 1346 and 135a the plague became 
almoft general over Europe. It began according to the 
beft accounts in China, was carried by the caravans which 
every year crofled Tartary to the Northern Cafpian Sea, 
and even to Azof. Hence it proceeded gradually weft- 
ward to Conftantinople and Egypt. From Conftantino¬ 
ple it paffed into Greece, Italy, France, and Africa, and 
by degrees along thecoaftsof the ocean into Britain and 
Ireland, and afterwards into Germany, Hungary, Poland, 
Denmark, Ruffia, and the other northern kingdoms. 
Now it is curious to obferve, that Ruffia, although the 
Chinefe caravans were nearly touching her fouthern 
frontiers, although governed at this period by Tartars, 
who fomeyears before had fubdued the country, although 
in direct communication with its Tartar mafters, was not 
infeCted by that quarter; and yet the land KaptlhaCth 
(Cumanien), and its capital Sarai, were nearly deftroyed 
by the plague; and the fame happened at Yeholdai, 
Ormtfchai, and even at Aftracan, as Levefque fays, in his 
Hiftoire de Ruffle. It is true that Le Clerc fays other- 
wife; and maintains that the plague appeared in Ruffia 
even in 1343, and that it was brought there by the Tar¬ 
tars, but he gives no proof; and no traditional report, 
no cotemporary chronicle, mentions it, whilft they all de¬ 
tail, and in the fame manner, the partial irruption of the 
plague into the towns of the European frontier, l'uch as 
Plelkow, Novogorod, &c. in 1350, and the tremendous 
one of the next year, 1351, which fpread rapidly from this 
place over all the country. This plague, like that of the 
fixth century, which equally fpread from the Afiatic 
fliores to Conftantinople and Rome, after the firft fury 
had abated, appeared fomeyears afterwards a fecond time, 
though milder, and a little diffimilar in fymptoms, as may 
be feen in Freind’s Hiftoria Medicinae, page 387. “Al¬ 
tera J'pecies ,” he fays amongft other things, “ quae priorem 
excepit, cum febri continua invafit, carbunculis et abfcejji- 
bus in prcccipue in ingtrine ct Jub alis; hsec priorem letha- 
lite equavit.” The firft was beginning with fever, but 
a bloody vomiting was foon afterwards taking place, and 
on 
