SECTION I. Of the diversity of opinions respecting the cause and origin pestilence.

FROM the date of the earliest historical records, the opin­ions of men have been divided on the subject of the causes and origin of pestilential diseases. All enquiries of the philosopher and the physician have hitherto been baffled, and investigations, often repeated, have ended without leading to satisfactory con­clusions.

In the history of opinions on this mysterious subject, there is a remarkable distinction between the ancients and moderns. The ancients derived most of their knowledge and science from personal observation, as they had very few books and little aid from the improvements of their predecessors. The philoso­phers of antiquity, attentive to changes in the seasons and to the revolutions of the heavenly bodies, attempted to trace pesti­lential diseases to extraordinary vicissitudes in the weather, and to the aspects of the planets. Modern philosophers and physi­cians, on the other hand, unable to account for pestilence on the principle of extraordinary seasons, and disdaining to admit the influence of the planets to be the cause, have resorted to in­visible animalculae, and to infection concealed in bales of goods or old clothes, transported from Egypt or Constantinople, and let loose, at certain periods, to scourge mankind and desolate the earth.

In both periods of the world, the common mass of people, usually ignorant and always inclined to believe in the marvellous, [Page 10] have cut the Gordian knot of difficulty, by ascribing pestilence to the immediate exercise of divine power; under the impres­sion that the plague is one of the judgments which God, in his wrath, inflicts on mankind to punish them for their iniquities.

Without deciding on the comparative merit of these respect­ive opinions, it is sufficient to observe, that they are all probably incorrect; and those of the philosophers, altogether inadequate to explain the origin of pestilential Epidemics.

It may however be of use to insert, in this place, the expla­nations of the cause of pestilence, given by some of the princi­pal writers on the subject.

Hippocrates, the father of medical science, and a man of very acute observation, considered pestilence as the effect of partic­ular seasons and winds. A pestilential state or constitution of air he describes, as occasioned by a continuation of southerly winds, and a warm, humid, clouded atmosphere.

Galen followed the same theory. He says that pestilent dis­eases arise from a putridity of the air; and in another place, a coeli statu, from the state of the air or weather.

It will at once occur to an intelligent reader, that a particular description of weather, producing pestilence, must be principal­ly calculated for a particular country or latitude. The state of seasons which Hippocrates calls pestilential, is evidently calcula­ted to produce or augment autumnal diseases in temperate lati­tudes; and is precisely the state of weather which existed in the United States in 1795, when the bilious plague prevailed in the cities of New-York, Baltimore and Norfolk. But it does not correspond with the season in 1793, when the same disease raged in Philadelphia; for that was excessively dry, nor with the summer of 1797, which was temperate, in respect to heat, cold and moisture.

Hippocrates indeed seems to have been aware that the seasons alone were not sufficient to account for pestilence, for he speaks of to theion, some divine principle in the air, by which modern [Page 11] writers of celebrity suppose to be intended what is now called an epidemic constitution, resulting from changes in the atmosphere produced by unknown causes. Aristotle prob. 1. relates that a hot and dry south wind will produce pestilence.

The philosophical warrior and historian, Ammianus Marcel­linus, after mentioning a plague which broke out in Amida, a city of Persia, when besieged by Sapor A. D. 359, from the corruption of numerous dead bodies which lay unburied in the streets, proceeds to unfold the causes of pestilential distempers, in the following manner.

"Philosophers and eminent physicians have taught that pesti­lence is produced by excess of heat or cold, of drouth of mois­ture. Whence it is that those who live near wet and marshy places are subject to coughs, diseases of the eyes and the like. Those, on the other hand, who reside where the heat is great, are troubled with febrile complaints; and in proportion as the matter of fire is more active, drouth is more rapid in destroying life. Hence, during the war of ten years in Greece, this spe­cies of disease prevailed, and it was said that men perished by the weapons of Apollo, by which was supposed to be meant, the heat of the sun. And, according to Thucydides, the mortality among the Athenians, in the beginning of the Peloponnesian war, was occasioned by an acute disease, which proceeded from the fervid regions of Ethiopia, and gradually extended to Attica.

"Others are of opinion that air, like water, vitiated by the effluvia of dead bodies, or similar substances, is deprived of its salubrity; or at least that a sudden change of air will product the more slight complaints. Some also affirm that the air, ren­dered gross by a denser vapor from the earth, closing the pores of the body and checking perspiration, becomes fatal to the lives of some; for which reason, other animals than man, which are continually bending towards the earth, are the first victims to pestilence, as Homer testifies, and which is proved by many examples, during the prevalence of pestilential diseases.

"The first species of plague is called pandemic, and this af­flicts most severely those who are subject to excessive heat, in hot regions. The second is denominated epidemic, which when [Page 12] it rages, obscures the sight and excites dangerous humors. The third Lamodes, which is temporary, but produces sudden death."

The historian has here explained the causes of ordinary dis­eases, occasioned by extremes of weather, marsh effluvia, vitia­ted air, and the direct action of violent heat, or stroke of the sun. No person will dispute the justness of his remarks, for the same causes, at this day, produce the same effects. But the causes assigned are not adequate to all the effects, which we wish to explain. They do not uniformly occasion pestilence; and on the other hand, pestilence sometimes rages without the influence of those causes.

Aetius, an eminent physician, about the close of the 5th cen­tury, compiled the opinions and methods of cure practised by the most celebrated of his predecessors. In this compilation, entitled "Tetrabiblos," chap. ix. we find the following para­graph on the subject of Epidemic diseases.

"Those are called popular or epidemic diseases, which spring from a common cause, as bad food or water, immoderate grief or want of customary exercise, hunger or repletion, especially when abundance succeeds extreme want. But the nature of the country often causes epidemic diseases: the air we breathe being vitiated by the evaporation from putrid substances. These sub­stances are multitudes of dead bodies after battles, marshes or stagnant water in the vicinity, which emit poisonous and fetid vapours.—This cause is in continual operation. And the air which surrounds us, always changes its temperament, when it becomes immoderately hot or cold, dry or humid. To other causes we are not all equally exposed, nor at all times; but the circumambient air, when we are abroad, surrounds us all alike, and is inhaled with the breath.

"Sometimes the surrounding air, becoming unusually humid and hot, induces a pestilential constitution; and as humors, tending to putrefaction, are collected in the body by eating un­wholesome food, this air becomes the source of a pestilential fever. Therefore if a person takes moderate exercise, and is [Page 13] temperate and regular in his diet [victu modesto ac castigato] he wholly escapes all affections of this kind."

Such were the opinions of the physic [...]s and philosophers of antiquity. No distinction appears to have been made by them, between the plague and other pestilential diseases. All were ascribed to the same causes.

At what time the distinction between Pestis and Pestilentia was first made, has not occurred to my enquiries. But I find it in the writings of Prosper Alpinus, a Venetian physician, who wrote about the close of the 16th century, and who had been, for some years, a practitioner in Egypt. This author maintains that pestilent fevers are occasioned by local causes, as vitiated air, and by peculiarities of season, as extreme heat and humid­ity. But he asserts that the plague in Egypt rarely proceeds from corrupted air, and never, except after an unusual overflow­ing of the Nile, when that river has exceeded its common bounds. He contends that if this disease was produced by noxious exhalations from putrid and stagnant water, and marshy places, it would occur every year. He therefore concludes for certain that the plague is usually imported from Greece, Syria, Barbary, or Turkey. "Plerumque igitur id genus morbi ibi contagio ex aliis locis asportari solet." The contagion of the plague is usually imported from other countries.

The same author asserts that the plague brought from Barbary is more malignant and of longer duration, than when brought from Greece or Syria.

Diemerbroeck, an eminent Dutch physician of the last cen­tury, has recorded an account of a violent plague in Nemueguen in 1636, and subjoined to it the best treatise on the origin of that disease, which I have been able to find, tho in one or two particulars, his ideas are very inaccurate. This author, whose treatise, I am surprised to find, is little known in this country, assigns three causes of the pestis or true plague. First, the just anger of heaven, provoked by the exhalations from the sinks of our sins and abominable deeds. Secondly, a most malignant, poisonous, and to human nature, deadly pestilent germ, [semi­narium] [Page 14] like a subtle fermentum or leaven, sent from heaven, in a very small quantity, diffusing itself through the air like a subtle gas, and rendering it impure. This gas, he supposes to spread over many regions its numerous particles, and to impress on the air an infection like poison, which often affects not only many persons, but almost the whole world.

However whimsical we may think this author's explanation of the pestilent principle; that some such general cause exists in the atmosphere, at certain periods, will be rendered very probable, if not certain, by the facts hereafter to be related.

The "seminarium e coelo demissum" of Diemerbroeck seems to be the to theion of Hippocrates. In what the essence of this principle consists, is not known; but there must be an alteration in the chymical properties of the atmosphere to solve the diffi­culties that attend our inquiries into the cause of pestilence.— That this alteration is the effect of a poison, "e coelo demissum," is an hypothesis unsupported by facts and wholly incredible.

The third cause of pestilence, mentioned by this author, is infection.

Diemerbroeck also maintains the distinction between pestis and pestilentia. The latter is supposed to proceed from foul exhala­tions, intemperate seasons and the like. But the plague, he contends, cannot be occasioned by those causes, tho these may aid the seminarium or general cause.

Van Helmont, a Flemish writer of some celebrity, in the last century, maintains that the plague cannot be ascribed to the "importunate and unseasonable changes of times, nor to pu­trefaction;" that the "poison of the plague is a fa [...] secret one from any other;" that the "matter of that disease is a wild spirit tinged with poison, exhaling from a diseased person, or drawn inwards from a gas of the earth putrified by continuance, and receiving internally an appropriate ferment, and by degrees attaining a pestilent poison in us." "The remote, crude and first occasional matter of the pestilence, is an air putrified thro' continuance, or rather a hoary putrified gas, which putrefaction of the air, hath not the 8200th part of its seminal body." This explanation seems to be hardly intelligible.

[Page 15]This author contends that "the pest is not sent down from heaven, but that popular plagues do draw their first occasional matter from an earthquake, and from the consequences of camps and sieges."

Hodges, who wrote a treatise on the great plague in London in 1665, observes that the air suffers some essential alteration which is necessary to favor the propagation of pestilence. The nitro-aerial principle, which causes or in vigorates vegetable and animal life, sometimes becomes imperfect, degenerate or cor­rupt, being tainted with something pernicious to vitality. He calls it poisonous, and observes that it proves injurious to trees and cattle, as well as to man. He supposes the corrupting prin­ciple to be a subtle aura or vapor extricated from the bowels of the earth. To this cause also he ascribes the death of fish du­ring periods of pestilence. At the same time he contends that the infecting principle is generated in Africa or Asia, and con­veyed to other countries. The seat of the disease he supposes to be in the animal spirits.

Van Swieten maintains that the cause of Epidemics is in the hidden qualities of the air, and inexplicable. He supposes it not impossible that exhalations in earthquakes may augment or lessen the deleterious quality of the air in pestilence.

Sydenham not only agrees with Diemerbroeck, Van Swieten, and others, in ascribing pestilence to occult qualities in the air, but has entered into the subject of explaining the peculiar symp­toms of diseases by the influence of an Epidemic constitution of the air. His occult qualities have been ridiculed by later physi­cians, and so far as his theory, in this respect, has been neg­lected, the science of medicin has degenerated. If I mistake not, it can be made evident, that one of the most important, as well as most difficult branches of medical science, is to as­certain the effect of the reigning constitution of air, on prevail­ing diseases, and to apply that knowledge to the cure of those diseases.

Dr. Mead's treatise on the plague has been much admired and celebrated; yet I will assert, that next to the "Traitè de [Page 16] la peste," a treatise in quarto on the plague of Marseilles, pub­lished by royal permission, it is the weakest and least valuable performance on that subject now extant. The author acknowl­edges he had never seen the disease of which he wrote; and therefore must have formed his opinions on the observations of others.

His essay is intended to demonstrate that the plague is propa­gated by specific contagion only, and he attempts to prove that this disease, like the small-pox and measles, has been bred in E­gypt or Ethiopia, and thence propagated and entailed on Europe.

In support of this theory he even goes so far as to call in ques­tion the unanimous testimony of historians, who relate that the terrible plague of 1347, 8, 9, and 50, began in Cathay, China. In opposition to which he "questions not," that that pestilence originated in Egypt. He alledges that we must seek the cause of plague in Egypt and no where else.

He ascribes the plague to the putrefaction of animal substances and unseasonable moisture, heats and want of winds; but says "no kind of putrefaction in European countries is ever height­ened to a degree capable of producing the true plague."

This author assigns three causes of plague, 1st. Diseased persons: 2d. goods transported from infected places; 3d. a corrupted state of air.

He thinks the causes mentioned so obvious that he wonders at authors who resort to hidden qualities, such as malignant in­fluences of the heavens, arsenical, bituminous or other mine­ral effl [...]via, with the like imaginary or uncertain agents.

He does not however deny all latent disorders in the air, but considers them as secondary causes only, increasing and promo­ting the disease when once bred, but he thinks infection to be the means of its propagation. In this he differs widely from Diemerbroeck who utterly denies that the disease is originally derived from infection, although he agrees that it may be after­wards communicated from person to person by contact or near [Page 17] approach. Diemerbroeck also maintains the latent qualities of the air to be the principal cause of the plague; or cause sine qua non—a point which the facts to be hereafter detailed will most clearly demonstrate.

Dr. Mead says, "the plague is never originally bred with us, but is always brought accidentally from abroad."

The same opinion is asserted most positively in James' Medi­cal Dictionary, and in most modern publications on the subject. The compilers of the Encyclopedia say, "the plague, as is generally agreed, is never bred or propagated in Britain, but al­ways imported from abroad," especially from the Levant, Lesser Asia or Egypt where it is very common." Such also was the opinion of the celebrated Cullen.

The following sentence in Dr. Mead is very exceptionable, as it is calculated to check a spirit of free enquiry—a spirit to which mankind are greatly indebted for improvements in science.

"It may be justly censured in those writers that they should undertake to determine the specific nature of these secret chan­ges and alterations which we have no means at all of discover­ing," alluding to changes in the air.

In opposition to all these great authorities, it will probably be proved, that the plague generally, if not always originates, in the country where it exists as an epidemic. The common opinion of the propagation of pestilence solely by infection, has had a most calamitous effect on medicin and on human happiness. It has prevented the researches of acute modern philosophers and physicians, who might have been able, by diligence and a comprehensive view of the subject, to trace pestilence to its real causes, and to suggest the true means of avoiding this terrible scourge.

Thompson who travelled in Egypt about the year 1734, and whose account of that country has not been mended by modern travellers, observes, "The coming and going of the plague are two things not easily to be accounted for, notwithstanding we [Page 18] are assured of the facts in a most unquestionable manner. That the infection is propagated in the air, and thereby transferred from place to place, seems to be a matter out of dispute; but how it is generated therein, we are much at a loss to determine." He proceeds to state, like many others, "that the plague is generally brought into Egypt from Constantinople or by Cara­vans from the southern countries." And on the whole he thinks it rarely generated in that country.

In the Monthly Review vol. 33, there is an account of the plague in Constantinople, by Dr. Mackenzie, in which are some passages worthy of notice. After asserting his opinion that this distemper can be communicated only by the touch or near ap­proach, he adds, "that both here and at Smyrna, the plague breaks out, in some years, when it is not possible to trace whence it is conveyed." He supposes the disease to proceed from "venomous moleculae lodged in wool, cotton, hair, leather and skins," in houses not well cleansed after pestilence; but that the plague from this source is not so fatal as when it comes from abroad. The air he thinks no otherwise concerned in produ­cing the disease, than as "a vehicle to convey the venomous particles from one body to another."

Dr. Chandler, in his account of a plague in Smyrna, has near­ly the same idea, as Mackenzie, with respect to the origin of the disease. He says "the plague might perhaps be truly defined, a disease arising from certain animalculae, probably invisible, which burrow and form their nidus in the human body. These whether generated in Egypt or elsewhere, subsist always in some places suited to their nature. They are imported almost annually into Smyrna, and this species is commonly destroyed by intense heat. They are least fatal at the beginning and latter end of the season. If they arrive early in the spring, they are weak; but gather strength, multiply and then perish. The pores of the skin, opened by the weather, readily admit them."

Baron de Tott in his memoirs observes▪ The researches I have carefully made concerning the plague, which I once believ­ed to originate in Egypt, have convinced me, that it would not be so much as known there, were not the seeds of it conveyed [Page 19] thither by the commercial intercourse between Constantinople and Alexandria. It is in this last city that it always begins to appear. It rarely reaches Cairo, though no precaution is taken to prevent it; and when it does, it is presently extirpated by the heats, and prevented from arriving as far as the Said. It is like­wise well known that the penetrating dews, which fall in Egypt about midsummer, destroy, even in Alexandria, all remains of this distemper."

In vol. 1, p. 38 he says, "that the researches into the nature of this distemper have only produced opinions which are self-con­tradictory or unsupported by facts."—"There is no difficulty with respect to the causes which preserve and propagate it. Both the one and the other may be referred to the dealers in old clothes in Constantinople."

Du Pauw, in his Philosophical Dissertations on the Egyptians and Chinese, speaks of the plague as a disease of Egypt; and supposes the plague at Vienna in 1680, to have been imported from that country.—"Egypt is the hot-bed of the plague—this disorder is not produced by famin—by exact annotations con­tinued during twenty-eight years, we find that it raged five times, without being preceded by any scarcity of food, and contrary to what I once suspected, unrestricted to a periodical course."

Savary alledges, in opposition to the last mentioned author, that the pestilence is not native in Egypt, and that he consulted Egyp­tians and physicians who had lived there 20 years, who informed him that the plague was brought thither by the Turks. He sup­poses Constantinople to be now the residence of this dreadful af­fliction, which is preserved in existence by means of old clothes, which, after a plague has ceased, are distributed and sold very low by the Jews, and thus the disease is propagated.

Dr. Alexander Russel has given an account of the plague in Aleppo in 1742 and 3, and endeavored to ascertain from what quarter the disease originated and invaded that city. He seems to think, it always appears first at Tripoli, Sidon, or on the Sea Coast. It was asserted that the great plague of 1719 came from the northward; but as this fact does not suit his theory, he, like [Page 20] Dr. Mead, in the case before mentioned, gives no credit to the assertion, but adheres to his opinion that all plagues originate in Egypt.—At the same time he is puzzled to trace the disease, in any instance, to that country.

Dr. Patrick Russel has published a quarto volume on the plague of Aleppo in 1760, and the subject of quarantine. In this work, he has preserved a number of important facts, but without under­standing the subject sufficiently to apply them to useful purposes. All his theory and practical remarks are founded on the vulgar supposition of the origin of that disease in one or two cities only, and its propagation by specific contagion—a supposition totally unfounded; his treatise of course will be found of little value, in this respect.

Mr. Volney. with all his philosophy and several months resi­dence in Egypt, furnishes no additional light, on the subject of the origin of pestilence. He says, "some persons have attemp­ted to establish an opinion, that the plague originates in Egypt; but this supposition, founded on vague prejudices, seems to be dis­proved by facts." This is an extraordinary assertion for a man who has the character of a philosopher. And on what author­ity does it rest? Simply on the declaration of European Merch­ants who have been settled for many years at Alexandria, and of the Egyptians, who say that the disease first appears in Alexan­dria, and that it is invariably preceded by an arrival from Smyr­na or Constantinople. Therefore this philosopher concludes, "that the disease certainly originates from Constantinople, where it is perpetuated by the absurd negligence of the Turks, who publicly sell the effects of persons who die of that distemper." Here we have another great man ascribing this vast effect, an epidemic pestilence, to so trifling a cause, as infection preserved in furs, woolens, and old clothes!

What is still more astonishing, the same author adopts the ideas of the Egyptians, which Prosper Alpinus had adopted before him and which he has evidently copied from Alpinus, that a plague coming from one country is less malignant than when it comes from another, as tho there could be a difference in the specific contagion of the disease, when produced in different coun­tries. [Page 21] Volney says "when brought from the Archipelago, or even from Damietta, into the harbours of Latakia, Saide or Acre, it will not spread; it rather chuses preliminary circum­stances, and a more complex route; but when it passes directly from Cairo to Damascus, all Syria is sure to be infected."

It is really surprising that, if the fact is well evidenced, that a plague proceeding from one country is more malignant than one proceeding from another, men of extensive erudition and observation should not undertake to assign some rational cause for the phenomenon, rather than to propagate the vulgar tales and opinions of the Egyptians.

From this lengthy statement of opinions in regard to the ori­gin and causes of pestilence; opinions weak, contradictory, ab­surd or inaccurate, what conclusion shall be drawn. This, most evidently, that the subject is not understood. Perhaps it never will be understood. But surely a subject so interesting to the life and happiness of man, deserves most critical and laborious enquiry. A subject which concerns the lives of millions of the human race ought not to be abandoned by the man of science, until every effort to find the truth shall have been exhausted. Yet strange as it may appear, even a history of pestilence that all devouring scourge which has swept away a large portion of the human race in every age, is yet a desideratum in our libraries.

To supply in part this defect, and to stimulate further re­searches into the origin of this frequent and formidable calamity, I will recite such historical accounts of the plague, as an im­perfect examination of authors has enabled me to collect. And as the most accurate observers of the operations of nature, have suggested the probability that pestilential epidemics are caused by some occult qualities in the air, or by vapor from the internal parts of the earth, or by planetary influence, it is absolutely necessary to enquire how far such suggestions are supported by facts. For this purpose, I shall note, as I proceed, any extra­ordinary occurrence or phenomena in the physical world, as earthquakes, eruptions of volcanoes, appearance of comets, vi­olent tempests, unusual seasons, and other singular events and circumstances, which may appear to be connected with pesti­lence, [Page 22] either as cause or effect, or as the effect of a common cause.

The result of this process will probably be a refutation of some of the foregoing opinions, and the establishment of such as are more rational and philosophical.

It is proper however to premise, that this investigation, which has been pursued but a few months only, amidst other occupa­tions, has been subjected to inconveniences peculiar to the Uni­ted States. No man can find in this country all the books ne­cessary for a complete examination of a historical or scientific subject. The public libraries in New-York and New-Haven, tho very valuable, are deficient. Those of Harvard College and Philadelphia, are more extensive, but incomplete. I have examined them all, tho in some of them I could spend but little time; yet in none of them could I find all the authorities which it was my wish and intention to consult.

It is further to be premised, that I have, as far as it could be done, resorted to original historians for my facts and authorities. This is certainly the only safe method for a compiler; but in the United States, it cannot be pursued with complete success, for want of the original writers of the local histories of countries. Most of the Greek and Roman authors are to be obtained in our public or private libraries; but some of the best historians of Italy, Germany, the Baltic nations and Spain, who have lived within the last four or five centuries, are not to be found; others are in the original languages, which I do not understand.

As to the modern historical compilations in my native lan­guage, they are almost useless on this subject. The most able and celebrated of them, Hume, Robertson, Smollet, Rapin and Gibbon, have passed over most of the plagues which have desolated cities and countries, without notice, or with some general remarks which afford little light on the subject of their origin.

Most modern writers appear to think every thing beneath their notice, except war and political intrigues. They detail, with disgusting minuteness, whatever relates to the definition or an­noyance of mankind by the ambition of princes and demagogues; [Page 23] while they omit or slightly mention whatever regards the civil and domestic economy, the private manners and habits, the arts, the health, and the social happiness of nations. To this de­scription, Dr. Henry's History of England, is an exception.

Nor have modern travellers furnished us with many valuable materials to supply the defects of our histories. They pass from country to country; examine and describe a few external ob­jects, such as cities, buildings, paintings and statues, but leave more useful subjects unexamined, and return home with a book of vulgar tales and errors.

In respect to useful history, the ancient authors have the preference over the modern. Modern compilers appear to have written for fame or for money, rather than for the sake of en­folding and diffusing truth. Hence they have principally at­tended to those animated periods of the world, which were dis­tinguished for great achievments; or those prominent events, a description of which would interest the passions of their readers: Or they have selected for description such parts of the history of nations as would enable them to adorn their works with an elevated style; omitting a multitude of subordinate facts, as below the dignity of history. Others appear to have undertaken historical compilation, solely or principally to sup­port some preconceived system of government or religion; and have studied to bend the evidence of facts, to the accomplish­ment of that purpose.

These observations have arisen out of my enquiries, relative to pestilential diseases. I have discovered that many of the histories or rather abridgements and compilations which are al­most the only authorities consulted by American readers in gen­eral, are very incomplete; and no man who relies on them only, and neglects original writers, can acquire an accurate and com­prehensive knowledge of history.

SECTION II. Historical view of pestilential epidemics, and the phenomena in the physical world, which precede, attend or follow them, from the earliest accounts, to the Christian era.

IT is an agreed point that the five books of Moses are the most ancient authentic history now extant. In the very thresh­hold of this genuine history, we meet with accounts of the plague in Egypt. In the fifth chapter of Exodus, the pestilence is mentioned as a formidable calamity.

It is remarkable, that throughout the history of the Jews, and in the prophets, pestilence, famin and the sword are often men­tioned in connection with each other, and described as the most dreadful calamities that can befal mankind. It will probably appear that famin and pestilential diseases do at times recipro­cally produce each other, and that war not unfrequently occa­sions both. But there is ground to believe that famin and pes­tilence are usually the effects of one common cause. In the Bible, as in other ancient writings, no distinction is made be­tween general pestilence which spreads over whole countries, and those autumnal epidemics, which are evidently produced by powerful local causes. There are however many passages in scripture that corroborate the principles respecting pestilence, which are still observed, and which doubtless depend on estab­lished laws of nature.

When David was summoned to receive his punishment for numbering the children of Israel, he was permitted to elect one of the three calamities, famin, the sword or pestilence. For a pious reason, he preferred pestilence, and seventy thousand of his subjects perished.

[Page 25]The prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel, in their denunciations, speak often of these three judgments, and in a way that authorizes the opinion, that they considered them all to be closely connected. It is however remarkable that pestilence is every where men­tioned as the peculiar scourge of cities.

In the 21st chapter of Jeremiah, the siege of Jerusalem is foretold. "I will smite the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast; they shall die with a great pestilence. He that abi­deth in this city shall die by the sword, by the famin and by the pestilence; but he that goeth out, and falleth to the Chal­deans that besiege you, he shall live, and his life shall be to him for a prey."

Ezekiel v. 12. declares that a third part of the inhabitants of Jerusalem shall die by pestilence. This is a proportion which is not uncommon, in violent plagues. In the seventh chapter, the same prophet says, "The sword is without, and the pesti­lence and famin within; he that is in the field, shall die with the sword; and he that is in the city, famin and pestilence shall devour him."

Another passage in the same prophet deserves notice. Chap. xxxiii, it is said, "Thus saith the Lord, as I live, surely they that are in the wastes shall fall by the sword, and him that is in the open field will I give to the beasts to be devoured, and they that be in the forts and the caves shall die of the pestilence."

In these passages, we have proof that in the time of these prophets, it was considered as a well known fact, that pestilential diseases are the effect of crouded propulation, raging peculiarly in cities, forts and other confined places. No evidence appears, in these early records, that the ancients, who lived in countries sub­ject to plague, and near to Egypt, had any idea of the convey­ance of the distemper from place to place by infection. It was considered as a judgment of heaven; and piety still recognizes this idea; to which, in a moral and religious view, there can be no objection. But philosophy endeavors to trace the hand of heaven through the medium of second causes; and the facts re­corded [Page 26] of pestilence in scripture, lend their aid to accomplish the object.

In 1 Samuel v. and vi. we have an account of the pestilence among the Philistines, inflicted on them as a punishment for the king the ark from the Jews, in which fifty thousand of the in­habitants of Beth shemesh perished. This plague is called eme­rods and a deadly destruction. This passage is noted on account of the specification of the time of the year, when the disease pre­vailed. It is said, the ark was in the country of the Philistince seven months, and was returned, during wheat-harvest, soon after which it is understood, the plague ceased. Now wheat harvest, in Syria, is in May; and it may be supposed, the pestilence was most violent in the period next preceding that time, viz. April, or during the month of May, for it was the severity of the dis­ease which induced them to send back the ark.—This account corresponds with the modern course of pestilence in that country. It appears in February or March, increases till May or June, then gradually disappears.

In this case, modern facts confirm the accuracy of the scrip­ture-history; at the same time, they establish the identity of the disease with modern plague, and the uniformity in the ope­rations of the laws of nature. They prove further that the climate of that country has suffered no material alteration.

In the eleventh chapter of Numbers, we have an account of a plague among the Israelites, occasioned by their eating great quantities of the flesh of quails, after being some time destitute of animal food—an obvious effect in the hot climates of Egypt and Arabia.

The scripture-history also furnishes us with ample proof that Egypt was, in early times, the nursery of plague—known and considered as such, centuries before the foundation of Smyrna, Constantinople, or other large cities in Greece or Asia Minor.

In Deuteronomy xxviii. the Israelites are warned against dis­obedience to the laws of Moses, and in case of disregarding them, are threatened with the diseases of Egypt, the botch, the emerods and the scab. These are still prevailing disorders in [Page 27] that country under the names of leprosy, elephantiasis, plague, &c. In verse 60 of the same chapter, it is denounced, "More­over he shall bring upon thee all the diseases of Egypt, of which thou wast afraid."

Amos lv. 10. "I have sent among you the pestilence, after the manner of Egypt."

These authorities of high antiquity leave no room for doubt or controversy, on the question, whether Egypt originates the plague. The evidence is decisive against those modern superfi­cial philosophers, who hold in contempt the most authentic an­cient history, because it has claims to inspiration. Yet infidels, if they were not too wise to read, examin and be informed, might be convinced of the authenticity of the scripture history, by comparing the facts related, with the present state of the world. The present endemical and other diseases which often occur in Egypt, answer so exactly to the description given of them in the books of Moses, as to leave no room to question the genuineness of those books. It was the peculiar climate of Egypt, and the usual prevalence of scorbutic and malignant complaints, in that country, which occasioned all the minute injunctions of Moses, in regard to washing, cleansing and purifi­cations. The same or similar regulations were enjoined by the laws of Egypt. ^*

[Page 28]In the Bible also we find evidence of the prevalence of pesti­lent epidemics among cattle. A murrain is among the ten plagues mentioned in Exodus, and Ezekiel xiv. 21 says, "If I send a pestilence into that land, to cut off from it man and beast."

We find the same fact in Homer; where also we observe pes­tilence ascribed to extreme heat, under the allegorical name of Apollo, or the supposed influence of the dog-star.

In the following passage, pestilence is ascribed to heat and south winds, according to the opinion of Hippocrates.

The circumstances to be noted in the foregoing extracts, are, first that the pestilence among cattle preceded that among men. This is a common fact, but not always the case. Secondly, that heat and moisture, with a south wind were productive of pestilential diseases. Thirdly, that such diseases raged in Greece during the autumnal season, and were ascribed to the influence of Syrius, or the dog-star.

We read of a terrible pestilence in the island of Aegina, to the southward of Athens, in the reign of Aeacus, grandfather of Achilles, about sixty years before the Trojan war; a plague which depopulated the island. Of this calamity, Ovid has given a most affecting account Metam. lib. 7. 523. He repre­sents the earth as covered with clouds, darkness and suffocating heat; the south wind blowing for four months, the lakes and fountains being infected, and the earth overspread with poisonous serpents. The disease first invaded dogs, birds, sheep and ox­en; then mankind. Death was sudden; and the streets loaded with dead carcases. The symptoms began with heat in the bowels, slushings of the face, difficulty of breathing, &c. How far the poet was authorized by history in this description, I do not know; but the whole passage is worth the attention of the learned reader.

[Page 30]Our next accounts of the plague are in the histories of Rome; for altho Greece contained the older states, and had large cities, before the foundation of Rome; yet the most populous parts of Greece, Attica and Lacedemon, are dry, rocky coun­tries; not calculated to generate pestilence nor to favor its prop­agation.

Rome, on the other hand, is situated in a level country, on the banks of a river, and not far from extensive marshes. Un­der the influence of powerful local causes, this city felt every derangement of the atmosphere, by intemperate seasons, or other causes.

The first plague in Rome happened about the 16th year from its foundation, soon after the murder of Tatius, and in time of peace. "It killed instantly without any previous sickness. Even trees and cattle were not exempt from the malignity of its influence; but all nature lay one desolate and abandoned waste. It was even said to rain blood." This was 738 years before the Christian era.

Zonaras says that Rome was laid waste by disease, and the earth and cattle were barren. "Sterilitas agrorum et pecudum."

This pestilence must have been of the most malignant kind, and by the effect on cattle and trees, it was obviously during a pestilential state of the atmosphere, when there was a defect in the powers of vegetable as well as animal life—many similar in­stances will occur in the course of this history. It is to be re­marked that Rome was then in its infant state, containing few people, and few of the artificial causes of disease. Of course the sickness must have been caused by general contagion, or that state of air which is unfavorable to the preservation of healthy life.

In the reign of Numa Pompilius A. R. 46, Italy was afflicted with severe pestilence; on which occasion Numa instituted the Salii, twelve dancers who had the care of the brazen target, which was supposed to descend from heaven into the hands of [Page 31] Numa, and to check the pestilence. See the institution and an­nual ceremonies of the Salii, described in Plutarch's life of Numa, and Kennet's Antiquities, part. 2. b. 2.

Another plague attacked Rome in the reign of Tullius Hos­tilius, about the year 110 or 112, and B. C. about 640. No important particulars are related, except that the sickness relax­ed the martial spirit of the citizens. To prevent this effect, that warlike prince gave the soldiers no rest, judging "salubri­ora militiae, quam domi, juvenum corpora esse," that the young men would be more healthy in the army abroad, than at home.

In this opinion, the King of Rome was probably well found­ed; for it appears from facts hereafter to be related, that Rome was most subject to pestilence in time of peace, when the sold­iers were at Rome, augmenting the population of the city, and indulging in ease and luxury.

In the reign of Tarquin, the last King of Rome, about the year 240 and B. C. 514 a violent plague infested the city. Zo­simus however places this event, after the expulsion of Tarquin.

In the year of Rome 261, there was a famin and pestilence in the city, and the plague depopulated Velitrae, a city of the Volsci, who applied to the Romans for inhabitants to re-people the place.

Soon after this, we read of a contagious distemper among cattle, but not very fatal.

In the year of Rome 281 and B. C. 473, a plague raged in the city and country, but was most fatal in the city, sparing no age nor sex, and yielding to no remedies. It came suddenly and suddenly disappeared. ^*

[Page 32]There was an eruption of Etna, according to common chro­nology, in the year of Rome 277, and B. C. 477. This cir­cumstance is strong evidence that the chronology is not quite correct. The eruption took place unquestionably during the pestilential period, to which this plague in Rome belonged. It might not have been the very year of the plague in Rome, but probably was not so distant as four years. To which event, the plague or the eruption, a wrong era is assigned, I shall not de­termin. The early history of Rome, from the destruction of the ancient records, by the burning of the city, when taken by the Gauls under Brennus, in the year 365, is subject to great uncertainty, and authors do not agree on the chronology of that part of the Roman story.

☞ Since writing the foregoing remarks, I have discovered a fact which may serve to aid us in fixing the period of the events abovementioned. In the course of this work it will be proved beyond doubt, that the approach of comets to our system, has a prodigious influence on the elements of this globe. At pres­ent I shall assume the fact, that the eruption of Etna above­mentioned, was nearly cotemporary with the appearance of a comet, during this period of pestilence. In looking into Pliny's Natural History, lib. 2. ca. 25, I find that a comet was visible, at the time of the battle of Salamis. Speaking of the different species of comets he says "Ceratias Cornus speciem habet, qualis fecit cum Graecia apud Salamina depugnavit." "A comet in the figure of a javelin, like that which appeared when Greece fought at Salamis." This battle is fixed by authors in the year B. C. 480, and consequently in the year of Rome, by com­mon chronology 274. It appears to be a general law of nature that the approach of comets to this earth, calls into action the subterranean fire, and volcanoes discharge their contents, during or within a few months of the appearance of comets. We may safely conclude therefore that the eruption was within a year [Page 33] or two of the battle of Salamis. This is not certain, but proba­ble; and I am inclined therefore to believe that Hook and others have placed the plague in Rome three or four years too late, or that the eruption is placed too early. ^†

The army of Xerxes, retreating into Asia, after the loss of the engagement near Salamis, suffered extremely by pestilential diseases. And it will hereafter appear that during periods when the pestilential state of air is evidenced by the existence of plague in cities, armies in the field and seamen on the ocean are much more subject to epidemic complaints, than at other times.

The land forces which Xerxes left behind him under Mardo­nius, fell a prey to famin and pestilence. The highways were strewed with dead bodies, and wild fowls and beasts devoured them.

The same period was distinguished by tempests and inunda­tions —the constant attendants on comets. A violent storm had destroyed the famous bridge built by the great monarch over the Hellespont, before he returned from Greece; and while the troops under Mardonius were besieging Potidea, an inundation of the sea broke into their trenches, drowned some soldiers, and compelled them to raise the siege.

These great phenomena, without any historical account, would make it nearly certain that a comet appeared at that time, and the pestilence undoubtedly happened within a short period of its approach.

A more terrible pestilence invaded the Roman city and terri­tory, in the year 290, and B. C. 464. Several facts in regard to it, deserve particular notice. "Grave tempus et forte annus pestilens erat urbi, agrisque, nec hominibus magis, quam pecori; et auxere vim morbi, tenore pupulationis, pecoribus agrestibusque, in urbem acceptis. Ea colluvio mixtorum omnis generis animan­tium, et odore insolito urbanos, et agrestem confertum in arcta tec­ta, [Page 34] aestu ac vigiliis angebat, ministeriaque in vicem ac contagio ip­sa vulgabant morbos."

"This was an unhealthy time and a pestilent year in town and country, affecting equally men and cattle; and the disease was augmented by crouds of countrymen and herds of cattle, which were received within the walls of the city, for fear of being plundered or destroyed [by the Latins and Hernici, who then ravaged the country.] That collection of all kinds of animals in the city, and the unusual stench occasioned by them, severely affected both the citizens and the country people, crouded into close buildings, depressed by heat and watching; and their fa­tigue and the contagion spread the sickness into every quarter."

This is Livy's representation. Dionysius Hallicarnassus men­tions that the disease seized studs of mares, herds of oxen, and flocks of goats and sheep; by which expressions we are perhaps to understand, that the distemper either did not seize those animals, except in collections, or was remarkably fatal to them in nume­rous bodies—an idea warranted by modern facts. It is generally true of cattle as of men, that pestilential diseases are most destruc­tive, where many are collected together; not only by reason of infection from the diseased, but by the diminution of the vital principle of the air by respiration and perspiration.

Orosius lib. 2. 12. adds other circumstances. He says there was a short suspension of war, when a grievous pestilence, which never failed to compel the Romans to a truce, or to interrupt it, if made, raged violently through all the city. Many of the pa­tricians were victims, but it was most fatal to the poor.

It is stated that this pestilence began about the calends of Sep­tember and raged in city and country. By country, agris, the Roman writers meant the ancient Latium, the modern Com­pagna di Roma, which was naturally unhealthy; tho, in the flourishing ages of Rome, extremely populous.

That the Roman territory should be subject to autumnal com­plaints, is not at all surprising. At the port of the Tyber there were unwholesome marshes, called by Tacitus, Annals 15. 43. "Ostienses paludes." The shore to the southward, bor­dering Campania, is called by the same historian, "squalente [Page 35] littore." To the southward of Campania were and still are the extensive marshes, called "paludes pomptinae," which are so noxious as to create disease in a single night, and which have cau­sed the Appian way in modern times to be neglected, and the road to Naples to be carried round the marshes on the east. ^*

The territory next to the city of Rome is described by Livy, b. 7. 38. in these words "in pestilente atque arido circa urbem solo"—a dry plain, but indented with lakes, bordered with marshes, and subject to be overflowed by every uncommon rise of the Tyber, or by streams from the distant hills. Many epidemic diseases have been distinctly traced to stagnant waters on this plain, after an inundation.

Avernus, a lake of Campania, near Baiae, emitted such a poisonous vapor, that no birds would frequent its banks, and the ancients, in their flights of fancy called it, the road to Hell.

It was this situation of Rome which gave rise to the Cloacae, immense sewers or drains, which penetrated the city and neigh­borhood —Vast works intended to drain off the stagnant waters; and while these were preserved in good repair, the city was obvi­ously more healthy.

This plague in the year 290 proved fatal to both of the Con­suls Servilius and Aebutius, to many illustrious Romans, and to a countless number of the Plebeians. The Senate and people, in des­pair [Page 36] part had rccourse to prayers and supplications, the temples were filled with men, women and children, asking forgiveness and favor of heaven.

This violent plague was followed, anno Urb. Con. 292 by a violent earthquake. "Terra ingenti concussa motu est," says Li­vy, lib. 3. ca. 10. He expressly mentions this to have been in the consulate of P. Volumnius and Serv. Sulpicius, which was the second Consulate after the pestilence. An eruption of Etna is mentioned in the tables under the year of Rome 288, two years before the pestilence and four years before the earthquake. But there is probably a small variation in the chronology. The earth­quake was probably at the time of the eruption, especially as Li­vy mentions, that in the same year, "Coelum ardere visum," the heavens appeared to be in a flame.

Functius places these events one year later.

By this earthquake Locris, on the gulf of Corinth, was rent from the main land and turned into an island. Afterwards Lo­cris was destroyed by another earthquake.

Severe drouth marked this period.

In the year of Rome 300 according to Livy and the common chronology and B. C. 454, another terrible pestilence invaded Rome. The country was desolated, and the citizens were ex­hausted with continual burials. "Urbs assiduis exhausta funer­ibus." Famin accompanied this calamity, and cattle were vic­tims, as well as men. This plague took place in time of peace —"ab hoste otium fuit," and in the absence of the ambassadors who were sent to Athens to collect the laws of Solon and the Grecian institutions.

With this period corresponds an eruption of Etna, which au­thors place in the year of Rome 304; of course, it was at the close of the pestilential period.

In the year 315 of Rome and B. C. 439, according to Pau­lus Diaconus, tremendous earthquakes shook Italy at intervals for a whole year, so that "assiduis Roma, nuntiis fataga­reter," Rome was fatigued with messengers who were continually arriving with news of towns and villages demolished.

[Page 37]The chronology of P. Diaconus rarely agrees with that com­monly received. The earthquakes here mentioned probably ushered in the long and formidable calamity which was to follow —and were probably cotemporary with the beginning of the plague next to be mentioned.

In the year of Rome 317, and B. C. 437 commenced a pes­lential state that afflicted Rome for five years, or five seasons successively. The historian relates that the first year "a pesti­lence invaded the people," and as the disease increased, prodi­gies alarmed them and frequent earthquakes overturned houses in the country. The next year the disease was more mortal: "pestilentior inde annus." In 320, the disease was so fatal as to suspend all ordinary concerns. The people resorted to their prayers, and the Sybilline books were consulted and obeyed, to appease the Gods and avert the plague from the people. For fear of famin, corn was purchased in Etruria, the Pontine ter­ritory and in Sicily. The mortality extended also to cattle. In 321, the disease was mitigated and afterwards subsided.

This is the first instance, in which I am able to trace distinct­ly a progression in the malignancy of the plague. That this is an important fact, in all plagues, will hereafter appear. But on this point, ancient history affords very scanty materials. This was a period of universal pestilence for many years, and was marked with all the great phenomena of nature. The last year of the plague in Rome 321, corresponds with the year B. C. 433, two years before the plague of Athens. In the year of Rome 325, according to Hook, there was a most grievous famin, occasioned by a severe drouth in all the Roman territory. "Siccitas eo anno plurimum laboratum est; nec caelestes modo defuerunt aquae, sed terra quoque, ingenito humore egens, vix ad perrennes subfecit amnes." By this, we are led to believe, that the drouth was not solely caused by a want of rain, but by an un­usual defect of subterranean springs and moisture. The expres­sion, "ingenito humore egens," contrasted with the usual source of water, rain, evidently carries with it an idea that the evapo­ration from the earth was unusual; and this may easily be ac­counted for, by the violent action of internal heat or electricity [Page 38] which distinguished this pestilential period, and was evidenced by tremendous and universal earthquakes, and a great eruption of Etna.

The drouth in Rome was extreme—multitudes of cattle thronged round the arid fountains, and perished with thirst. Diseases followed, first invading cattle, and the lower classes of people and the countrymen, then extending to the city.

Thucydides relates b. 1 and 3, that earthquakes affected the largest part of the globe, and shook it with the utmost violence. In many places, there was severe drouth and a subsequent famin. In some places, the earthquakes produced alarming inundations of the sea; as in Euboea and Atalanta—the Prytaneum, or town-house in Athens, the fortifications and some dwelling-houses were demolished. These events were in the fifth and sixth years of the Peloponnesian war, answering to 427 and 426 B. C. and consequently were at the close, or subsequent to the pestilence. About the same time there was a violent eruption of Etna; such as had not been known for fifty years preceding. This period was also marked by the approach of a comet, but I am not clear that it was in the year B. C. 431, as stated by Dr. Priestley in his Lectures on History. The drouth was probably within a few months of the appearance of the comet, according to numerous observations in late periods of the world: By which it would seem to be a law of the physical system, that pre­ceding, during and following the approach of those erratic bodies, this earth is affected alternately with great rains and snows, drouth, violent tempests, high tides and earthquakes: Many instances will hereafter occur. ^*

[Page 39]The plague in Athens broke out in the second year of the Peloponnesian war, when all the inhabitants of the Athenian territory, were crouded into the city, to avoid the destructive ravages of the Lacedemonians. This circumstance alone would account for the production of pestilential diseases in the city. But it is probable that had the same event happened in a period of general health, the sickness in Athens would have been lim­ited to the dysentery, the more violent camp fevers or common typhus.

But unfortunately this war broke out at a time of universal pestilence, when the diseases of the healthiest countries assume new and more malignant symptoms, and hence we account for the duration and the violence of the malady. This idea seems to be important, and the only material one to be added to the excellent philosophical account of the plague at Athens by Dr. Elihu H. Smith, late of New-York. Medical Repository, vol. 1, art. 1. The origin of this pestilence is stated by the histo­rian to have been in that part of Ethiopia which borders on Egypt; thence extending to Egypt, Lybia, the King's domin­ions or Persia, and to Greece. Some of the more violent of modern plagues have first appeared in the same region. But we are not to conclude from this description that the disease is prop­agated by infection from person to person. It appears first where [Page 40] the original or secondary causes, that is, general and local con­tagion, are the most powerful. If the state of the atmosphere over the world, at any one time, is equally vitiated by some unknown cause, its effects will first appear in places where that state of air is most powerfully aided by local vitiation, as in cities or marshy grounds. Of this we have numerous proofs. But, in modern times, whenever the general contagion, united with local causes, produces plague in Egypt or Constantinople, it produces some milder epidemic in the neighboring countries, and often, its effects are visible, at the same time, in most parts of the world.

The Abbe Barthelemy, in his elegant Travels of Anacharsis, speaking of the plague in Athens, says, "it was doubtless bro't into Greece by a vessel from Egypt." It is to be regretted that such an accurate and judicious writer should have indulged con­jecture on this interesting subject. He quotes no authority for his opinion, and the words of Thucydides oppose the supposition. The disease first appeared in the Piraeus, the harbor; and so ignorant were the people of the cause, that they ascribed it to the poisoning of the wells by the Lacedemonians. Besides Thucydides impliedly acknowledges that he and others knew nothing of its origin; for he calls on "every one, physician or not, to assign any credible account of its rise, or the causes powerful enough to produce it."

Plutarch, in his life of Pericles, says "the enemies of Pe­ricles, attributed this disaster to the multitude of people he had collected into the city, during the heat of summer"—a charge in which there was much truth.

But when we attend to the violent concussions of nature, that accompanied and followed the pestilence, and its general preva­lence in the world for a series of ten or twelve years, all attempts to trace its origin to infection, dwindle into puerilities; and the occasional causes of sickness, crouded population, heat and bad diet, tho powerful as auxiliaries, could not be adequate to the vi­olent and continued effects in Athens, and the neighboring cities.

The symptoms of that disease in Athens, as described by Thucydides, are known to every medical man. They corres­pond [Page 41] in all the essential particulars, with those of the Yellow Fever in its worst forms, and the disease was probably what I call the bilious plague. There is the more reason to believe this supposition, as Thucydides has not mentioned, among the symptoms, the buboes and other swellings of the glands, which distinguish the inguinal plague. The critical days were the seventh or ninth, as they have most frequently been in the bil­ious plague in America.

The disease extended to other towns in Attica, especially to those which were most populous, but Lacedemon escaped. It raged in Persia at the same time, and it is said, the King of Persia sent for Hippocrates to lend his aid in arresting the pro­gress of the pestilence, but the latter declined leaving his own country.

It has been supposed that Hippocrates was in Athens during this plague; but this must be a mistake. He was probably at Thasus, an island, near the coast of Macedonia. The four epi­demic years, which he has described, were cotemporary with the pestilence in Athens; and this proves what will hereafter appear more fully, that in all great plagues, the epidemic or pestilential principle extends to different countries, and often over the whole earth.

In this pestilence, as we shall have occasion to observe in many subsequent instances, the birds abandoned the infected at­mosphere.

In the year of Rome 341, and B. C. 413, a pestilence arose which the historian represents as more alarming than fatal, "mi­nacior tamen quam perniciosior." This circumstance affords ground to believe the pestilence to have been a violent autumnal bilious fever, and not rising to the utmost malignity of the plague.

The pestilence of that year was followed by famin in the next; owing to a neglect of agriculture; the people having been prin­cipally occupied with sedition, under their ambitious demagogues. It will be remarked that the famin was not the cause of the epi­demic, for it succeeded it.

[Page 42]It is proper to remark here that all the preceding deadly plagues which had at times almost desolated Rome, were certainly the produce of the country. The Romans were not a commercial people, nor had they any commercial intercourse with Egypt, till the conquest of Carthage, two centuries and a half after this period. It was not till one hundred and forty seven years after the time now under consideration, that the Romans owned a sin­gle ship. When they transported troops into Sicily, they hired or borrowed vessels for the purpose. Egypt was a granary of corn, but until after the conquest of Carthage, the Romans drew their supplies wholly from Italy and Sicily. There is no pre­tence therefore for supposing the plague ever imported into Rome; nor is there a suggestion in history, that its origin was ever ascri­bed to that source.

In the year of Rome 353, and B. C. 401, happened a most severe winter. The Tyber was frozen over, and the high-ways rendered impassible by deep snow. These were unusual phenom­ena and deemed prodigies in that city. On the opening of spring, the weather changed suddenly from severe cold to great heat and drouth, and a mortal pestilence ensued among men and cattle. The historian says nothing more of the cause of the mortality, than "Sive ex intemperie coeli, raptim ex mutatione in contra­rium facta, sive alia qua de causa, gravis pestilensque omnibus animalibus aestas excepit, cujus insanabili pernicie quando nec causa nec finis inveniebatur, libri Sibillini ex senatus consulto adi­ti sunt." On this melancholy occasion was instituted the cere­mony of the Lectisternium to appease the Gods and solicit the restoration of health.

With this period of pestilence corresponds the dreadful plague which about 404 B. C. almost depopulated Carthage. The dis­ease on the coast of Africa preceded its appearance in Rome, as it usually does in modern times.

Soon after, the Carthaginians under Imilco, who were sent to reduce Sicily which had revolted, were seized with the plague and the army was so weakened, that Imilco was compelled to abandon the island. Just before Imilco's arrival, an eruption of [Page 43] Etna laid waste the neighboring country. By an expression of Justin, we have ground to believe a comet appeared about the same time. "Imilco, qui multas civitates cepisset, repente pestilentis sideris vi, exercitum amisit."

This plague was remarkable for its symptoms, such as violent dysenteries, raging fevers, burning entrails, acute pains in every part of the body; and many were seized with madness, so that they sallied forth into the streets, and tore to pieces those who fell in their way.

It was during the dry season above mentioned that the Lake of Alba rose suddenly, without apparent cause, and overflowed its banks—an event that caused great consternation in Rome, but one that might well happen by a subterranean discharge of some water-fountains in the high adjoining hills.

This is one of the instances which will often occur, of a hard winter, followed by a dry hot summer, and therefore deserves particular notice; for such excesses in the temperature of the seasons are among the causes of pestilential diseases.

A pestilence broke out in the armies of the Romans and Gauls, while the latter, under Brennus, were besieging Rome, Anno Romae 361, B. C. 393. The Gauls, unaccustomed to such heat, and placed between hills, where they were exposed to a burning sun, vapor and smoke, perished in such multitudes, that, weary with burying dead bodies, the survivors burnt them in piles.

Pliny, lib. 2. 26, mentions the appearance of a comet, or light in the heavens, called by the Greeks docus or doces, and by the Romans trabs, from its resemblance to a beam, at the time of the defeat of the Lacedemonian fleet—"Cum Lacede­monii, classe victu, imperium Greciae amisere," By the last ex­pression, "the loss of the empire of Greece," I suppose he re­fers to the defeat of the fleet by Conon and the Persians in the year of Rome 360, and B. C. 394. If so, the appearance of this comet, corresponds in time with the period of pestilence last named.

[Page 44]A plague, occasioned by dearth, is mentioned to have happen­ed in the year of Rome 371, B. C. 383, but no particulars, worthy of notice.

A great earthquake in Peloponnesus is mentioned under the year B. C. 373.

In the year of Rome 388, B. C. 366, commenced a most desolating plague of three years duration. This was a time of profound peace, "ab seditione et a bello quietis rebus, ne quan­do a metre ac periculis vacarent, pestilentia ingens orta." It seemed to be the destiny of Rome never to be exempt from fear and dangers; for when war and sedition ceased, pestilence arose.

In this horrible plague, perished the great Camillus, and it is related that, in the height of the disease, 10,000 citizens died in a day.

On this occasion, recourse was had to the ceremony of the Lectisternium, ^* and to the institution of new games to appease the wrath of the Gods, but without success. Some old citizens mentioned an ancient practice, in such calamities, of driving a nail into the wall of a temple. This law was now revived, and a nail driven into the wall of Jupiter's temple. The time of the year, in which the law directed this ceremony to be per­formed, the ides of September, indicates the period when pes­tilence began in Rome to be alarming and violent.

Functius, in his chronology, assigns the absorption of Helice and Bura, two towns on the Gulf of Corinth, to the year of Rome 373, the year of the great earthquake in Lacedemon— in which case that catastrophe would make a part of the events of the pestilential period of 371, just mentioned.

Muratori and Paulus Diaconus seem not to differ essentially in arranging that event under the same period. "Saevissimo [Page 45] terraemotu Achaia universa commota est, et duae tunc civitates, Bura et Helice, abruptis locorum devoratae.

Other authors refer this catastrophe to the period of pestilence last mentioned, which some writers place in the year of Rome 388, and others, in 384; but all agree that it was during the approximation of a comet. This last pestilence was dreadful in the extreme, sparing no age or sex. The year after it, the earth opened and exhibited a vast chasm in the midst of Rome, into which M. Curtius precipitated himself for the salvation and prosperity of the city.

P. Orosius and P. Diaconus, followed by Muratori, place the commencement of this plague in the year of Rome 384. Orosius says that "in the 103d and 105th Olympiad, Italy was shaken a whole year, by tremendous earthquakes. The hundred and third Olympiad, according to our common chro­nology, comprehends the years of Rome from 386 to 389, in­clusive. It is probable that is one of the shocks of this series of earthquakes, the chasm was made in Rome as already related. It will be observed that this event followed the pestilence.

The comet that appeared, during this calamity, was probably that mentioned by Aristotle, Meteorol. lib. 1. ca. 6, of which he was an eye-witness.

But I must not omit what authors relate concerning the pe­culiar character of this plague. Orosius says, it was not such a pestilence, as usually proceeded from irregular seasons, extreme drouth, sudden heat of the spring, unseasonable moisture of sum­mer and autumn, or the impure air blown from the Calabrian groves; but severe and continued, attacking all descriptions of people, and either destroying their lives, or leaving them in a weak and miserable condition.

The winter when the comet appeared Aristotle relates to have been cold; but the severity and duration of the plague cannot be accounted for on the principle of changes or irregularities in the seasons. It was one of those violent epidemics which never afflict mankind, without some essential alteration in the invisible [Page 46] properties of the atmosphere, or a peculiar effect of the atmos­phere on living bodies.

Seneca, [...] the authority of Aristotle and Calisthenes ex­pressly ascribes the inundation to the approximation of a comet. "Cometes ingentis rei traxit eventus, cum Helicen et Burin orto suo mersit."

The symptoms of this approaching calamity are described to have been these. "For several months the w [...]ters of heaven deluge the earth or withhold their beneficial effects; a dimness obscures the splendor of the sun; [...] his disk appears like a burning brazier; impetuous winds ravage the country; and streams of fire are seen to shoot in the air." See Travels of Anacharsis, vol. 3. 404, cited from Pausanius, lib. 7. ca. 24.

Some of these phenomena, excessive rains and drouth, tem­pests, celestial lights, and singular appearances of the sun, al­ways attend the approach of comets; and it is surprising that the moderns have taken little or no notice of the fact.

The catastrophe of Helice and Bura was occasioned by vio­lent shocks of earthquakes, with contrary and conflicting winds, which swelled the water in the Corinthian gulf, above the tops of trees on the shore. This was in the winter, during the night, and just before the battle of Leuctra. It is fortunate for us that we have a correct account of this inundation; for it perfectly unfolds the true history of the deluges in the time of Ogyges and Deucalion.

In the year of Rome 391, there was an extraordinary dark­ness in Italy, during the greatest part of the day; dilata nox usque ad plurimam partem diei;" and a singular hail storm.

In the year of Rome 405 and B. C. 349, a pestilence is mentioned, but with no circumstances that deserve notice, ex­cept that it was in time of peace and internal tranquillity. "Quum et foris pax et domi concordia ordinum otium esset, ne nimis laetaeres essent, pestilentia adorta"—and recourse was had to the Sybilline books and the Lectisturnium. The circumstance of the prevalence of plague in time of peace, will be often [Page 47] noted, to refute the idle notion, that pestilential diseases are gen­erated and propagated principally by armies in time of war.

☞ After writing the foregoing, I found in Pliny, Nat. Hist. lib. 2. 25, an account of a comet in "the hundred and eighth Olympiad, and year of Rome 398." It resembled at first a crest, but changed into the form of a spear. Now, the first year of the 108th Olympiad, according to common chro­nology, corresponds with the year of Rome 406. There is therefore a difference between the common mode of reckoning by the Olympiads, and Pliny's mode, of at least eight years or two Olympiads.—By following the common mode, and placing the first year of the 108th Olympiad, against the 406th year of Rome, the appearance of this comet will coincide with the gen­eral tenor of facts, hereafter to be related, and correspond nearly in time with the plague in Rome, mentioned above.

Nearly at the same time, there was an eruption of Etna, placed by authors in the year B. C. 350, corresponding with the year of Rome 404. It is probable this eruption was within a year or two of the appearance of the comet; according to many modern facts of the same kind.

In the year of Rome 422, a violent plague arose, which, says P. Diaconus, was supposed to proceed from corrupt air, un­til the conspiracy of the Roman women to poison their husbands was detected; after which it was ascribed to that cause. Livy does not appear to credit popular opinion on this occasion. He says, "Foedus insequens annus; seu intemperie Caeli, seu hu­mana fraude fuit"—Recourse was had to the usual remedies, driving the nail, and the Lectisternium.

A pestilence again appeared in Rome in the year 440, but no particulars are stated.

In the year preceding, there was an inundation at Rhodes.

In the year of Rome 458, B. C. 296, commenced a most severe pestilence which continued for three or four years. In the third year, a hard winter appears to be related by Livy, who says, "the snow filled all places, nor was it possible to endure [Page 48] the weather abroad." This was however in the mountainous country of the Samnites. The Roman consuls celebrated their triumphs over the Samnites, during this mortal epidemic, and it was a curious spectacle to behold at the same time, triumphal and funeral processions, and lamentations for the dead, mingled with acclamations of joy.

This plague commenced with many alarming prodigies, and violent tempests. A remarkable cloud and extreme darkness, for the greater part of a day, is mentioned by Livy, under fa­vor of which the Samnites attacked the Roman lines. This darkness is mentioned, on account of the frequency of the phe­nomenon, during pestilential periods.—Perh [...]ps this appearance may be connected with the cause of pestilence.

The violence and duration of this plague induced the Romans to send to Epidaurus for Esculapius, which they imported in form of a serpent, and in the island of the Tyber, where it was first landed, they consecrated a temple to the God of Physic.

It is not improbable, that the first eruption of Lipari, re­corded in history, happened during this period; as it was in the reign of Agathocles, who died a few years after the time of this pestilence. The eruption is mentioned by the historian Cal­lias whose works are lost; but the authors who cited them, have mentioned these particulars, that the eruption continued for seve­ral days, throwing great stones to the distance of a mile; and the sea boiling all round the island.

In the year of Rome 477, and B. C. 277, happened that re­markable plague which is often mentioned, as particularly fatal to pregnant women and breeding cattle. "Gravis pestilentia urbem ac fines ejus invasit; quae, cum omnes, praecipue mulieres pecudesque corripiens, necatis in utero fooetibus, futura prole va­cuabat."

This also happened in time of peace. The words of the histo­rian are remarkable. "Sed Romanorum miseria nullis cessat in­duciis. Consumitur morborum malis intercapedo bellorum; et [Page 49] cum foris cessatur a proeliis, agitur introrsum ira de coelo." The miseries of the Romans have no truce. The intervals between their wars are wasted with the calamities of sickness; and when they are exempt from war abroad, they are afflicted by the wrath of hea [...]en at home.

Short on air has placed this disease in the year of the world 3712, corresponding with the year of Rome 462, but his chro­nology is often inaccurate.

In the year of Rome 482, a pestilence broke out in Rome, and raged two or three years, carrying off countless multitudes of people. This was preceded by an eruption of fire at Calenum, which continued for three days and nights, destroying the soil for a considerable extent. This period also was distinguished by earthquakes, in the third year of the pestilence.

This period was memorable for a severe winter. The snow, to a prodigious depth, lay in the forum for forty days.

It will be found as we proceed with this history, that most of such extraordinary seasons and unusual concurrence of great agi­tations in nature, happen during volcanic eruptions and the ap­proach of comets to the solar system of which this globe is a part. That comets were visible, during the calamitous periods mentioned in the Roman history is probable; but unfortunately few instances are recorded, until after the Christian era.—Not an eruption of Vesuvius is mentioned, and I cannot find more than fourteen instances of eruptions from Etna, anterior to the same era. This defect of history is of no small concern in a treatise of this kind.

In the year of Rome 529 and B. C. 225, the Roman armies which were marching into Gaul, were retarded by violent rains, and the plague which infected the soldiers. The Romans were, as usual on such occasions, frightened at numerous prodigies. In Hetruria, uncommon lights were seen in the sky. Meteors were seen at Ariminum, and the waters of a river in Picenum appeared [Page 50] like blood. A violent earthquake overturned the famous Colos­sus of Rhodes, and the shock was felt in Italy. ^*

Some of the prodigies, mentioned by Roman historians, and which have been ridiculed by moderns who are too wise to study the operations of nature, aad too proud to believe in extraordina­ry occurrences, will be hereafter explained.

During the battle near the Lake Thrasamene, a severe earth­quake was experienced, which, it is said, the armies did not perceive. Pliny Nat. Hist. lib. 2. 84. This was in the year of Rome 536, and B. C. 218; in which year, Livy relates, b. 21. 61, there was a severe winter. Scipio was besieging a town in Spain, near the present Barcelona▪ and for thirty days, the snow was four feet deep. This is mentioned as a circum­stance very unfavorable for the besiegers. I cannot help re­marking how closely connected in time are great frosts and vio­lent earthquakes. This was the winter in which Hannibal cros­sed the Alps and entered Italy. He reached the Alps early in November and was nine days in arriving to the summit. His ar­my suffered incredible hardships and losses from deep snow, bad roads, and the natives who killed many of the troops. At the end of fifteen days, he gave his troops rest, on the hills near the foot of the Alps, and altho the snow was deep on the mountains, he found in the vales, pasturage for his horses and elephants. He prosecuted his route in the winter, suffering great hardships from snow, and more from rains, which swelled the rivers. Early in the spring he crossed the Appenine, and here his troops again suf­fered from a snow storm.

At the siege of Syracuse by Marcellus in the year of Rome 541 and B. C. 213, happened a remarkable mortality, among the troops, but especially among the Cathaginians, who all perished with their Generals, Hippocrates and Himilco. Of this pesti­lence, [Page 51] Livy gives the following account, b. 25. 26. "A pestilence broke out in both armies, which diverted their minds from the concerns of the war; for it was in autumn, and in a sit­uation naturally unhealthy. The heat, which was more severe without the city than within, affected almost every person in both the camps. At first, persons sickened and died, by reason of the unwholesomeness of the place; afterwards the diseases spread by infection, so that those who were seized, were neglected, or aban­doned and died, or their attendants contracted the same disease. Daily burials and death were before their eyes, and day and night their ears were assailed with lamentations. At length the survi­vors became hardened; they neither grieved at the death of oth­ers, nor took pains to bury the dead; and the bodies of the de­ceased lay scattered along the streets, in sight of those who were expecting the same fate. The dead infected the sick, and the sick, those in health, with terror and pestiferous stench; and some, preferring death by the sword, rushed on the posts of the enemy.

But the disease was much more severe and fatal to the Cartha­ginians, than to the Romans, who, in this long siege, had be­come accustomed to the air and water. The Sicilian troops, on the first breaking out of the disease, abandoned their allies, and returned to their homes. The Carthaginians, who had no means of shelter, all perished. Marcellus, to avoid the evil, drew his troops into the city, where their enfeebled bodies were refreshed by the shades of the houses. Many however of the Roman ar­my, died of the same disease."

It is observable that heat and position augmented the disease among the Carthaginians. They were encamped near a marsh or low ground; and exposed to the direct rays of a burning sun. The Romans had possession of one part of Syracuse, and had shelter under the buildings. These circumstances, and their not being accustomed to the air of the place, proved fatal to the whole Cathaginian army. Mr. Brydone learnt in Sicily from the histo­riographer of Etna, Recupero, that there was a great eruption of Etna, during this siege of Syracuse. I have not met with an ac­count of it in the original histories I have consulted.

[Page 52]In the same year, that this pestilence raged in Syracuse, a se­vere pestilential epidemic prevailed in Rome. "Eo anno pesti­lentia gravis incidit in urbem, agrosque; quae tamen magis in lon­gos morbos, quam in perniciales, evasit."

This fact is evidence of what will be fully proved in later peri­ods of the world, that a pestilential state of air extends, at the same time, over many parts of the world; and that if a violent plague is raging in one place, malignant diseases, if not plague, prevail in other places.

Another important fact related in the last quotation, is that the pestilence in Rome was the bilious plague, as it was not so mortal, as it was troublesome, by running out into long diseases.

It is a known fact and not unfrequent, that the Yellow Fever, in our climate, is reduceable to a bilious remittent and even to an intermittent; the pestilence on board the ships at Bulama of­ten ran out into long and obstinate intermittents. The fever in Baltimore in 1797 began in the form of a bilious remittent, and continued in that form for many weeks, before it assumed the symptoms of a malignant Yellow Fever.

The Roman and Carthaginian armies in Bruttium, a town in the southern part of the Kingdom of Naples, suffered greatly by a pestilential disease, in the year of Rome 548; but no particu­lars worthy of notice are recorded.

It is however to be remarked that this period of pestilence was distinguished by the appearance of immense swarms of locusts, which overspread the whole country about Capua. Their appear­ance was subsequent to the plague mentioned in the armies. We shall have frequent occasion to mention the same phenomenon in the natural world, as cotemporary with pestilence. But clouds of these animals rarely or never appear at any other time, than during or near the time of the prevalence of plagues; and by comparing the dates of their appearance, it will be found, that they are not, unless by accident, the cause of plague, nor the effect; but, like other animals which are generated in myriads, during pestilence, the produce of some general cause, and probably of that state of the elements, which occasions the diseases of the human race.

[Page 53]During the war between the Romans and Antiochus, king of Syria, in 563, an event took place, similar to many instances rela­ted by Dr. Lind. The Roman fleet, with that of the Rhodi­ans, in search of the Syrian fleet, put into the gulph of Pam­phylia and anchored at Phaselis. But it was in the midst of sum­mer, and the place unwholesome; and the men, unaccustomed to the air, were seized with a pestilential disease, especially the rowers. Why the rowers? evidently because they were more ex­posed to a hot sun, to the air and to fatigue, than the troops on board. This sickness induced the commander to quit that station, and we hear no more of the epidemic.

In the year of Rome 571 and B. C. 182 commenced a violent plague, which lasted several years, and ravaged Rome and all It­aly so that the Romans could not enlist 8000 soldiers to quell a revolt. In the next year, Livy mentions a drouth of six months, and a consequent dearth of corn.

It will be remarked by any man who reads history with atten­tion, that during pestilential periods, all the ordinary operations of nature acquire unusual strength and magnitude. Earthquakes and tempests are vastly more violent, than at other times. The an­cient historians, evidently without design, have left proofs of this fact. Thus Livy mentions, that during the period under conside­ration, the operations of the war in Spain ware retarded by con­tinual rains, which swelled the rivers, and Flaccus, the Praetor, was compelled, tempestatibus foedis, terrible storms, to order his whole army into a city in the neighborhood.

The spring of the year 571 was remarkably tempestuous, and Livy gives a frightful account of a storm in Rome which did no small injury to the public buildings.

Short has placed this pestilence in the year of the world 3763, corresponding according to Usher with the year of Rome 507. But Short's chronology is wretched. He mentions a large comet six years after this period, of the size of the sun and of a fiery color. Of the appearance of a comet at the period under con­sideration, there can be no doubt, tho I have not found the origin­al [Page 54] writer who mentions it and Short quotes no authority but Pozel. He however has made an egregious blunder in the time, as he has in many other instances of facts which he relates, of high an­tiquity.

The order of the great phenomena of nature seems to be that violent storms, rain and a cold winter, are followed the next year with excessive heat and drouth and vice versa. Violent storms however occur at all times during these periods. It will be noted, that the pestilence above mentioned could not be occasioned by the drouth and dearth of corn, for it broke out in the year preceding. The same fact often occurs, and proves that great pestilence is not solely the effect of intemperate seasons, but that both are the ef­fects of another cause.

The present instance is one, in which a most severe winter fol­lowed the other unusual seasons. In the year 574, according to Hook, and the consulship of Q. Fulvius and L. Manlius, the winter was remarkable for deep snow and every kind of tempest. It continued longer than usual, and trees, exposed to the weath­er, were blasted. An earthquake happened, in the following year.

This then fixes the year of the appearance of the comet, mentioned by Short. That he refers to the same period is cer­tain from his mentioning the circumstance of the inability of the Roman senate to raise a body of 8000 men; a fact assigned by Hook to the year 571, and which can belong to no other period. But from his description of this star, I am inclined to believe he refers to that which is hereafter mentioned, under the great pesti­lence of 610, and which Pliny has well described.

This uncommon season was succeeded in 576 by pestilence among cattle, and the next year, followed the plague, which made dreadful havoc in Rome. Some facts stated by the histo­rian deserve particular notice. "Pestilentia, quae priore anno in boves ingruerat, eo verteret in hominum morbos. Qui incide­rant, haud facile septimum diem superabant: qui superaverant, longinquo, maxime quartanae, implicabantur morbo. Servitia maxime moriebantur; eorum strages per omnes vias insepulto­rum erat. Ne liberorum quidem funeribus subficiebat. Cadave­ra, [Page 55] intacta a [...]inibus ac vulturibus, tabes absumebat: satisque constabat nec illo, nec priore anno, in tanta strage boum homin­umque vult [...]ium usquam vis [...]m."

It is not easy to do justice to this energetic description of the historian, but the following is the sense of the passage. "The pes­tilence which had affected cattle in the former year, now turned into diseases of men. Those who were seized scarcely lived be­yond the seventh day; those who survived that day, were afflict­ed with tedious dist [...]pers, especially the quartan ague. The disease made its most fatal ravages among the slaves, whose dead bodies lay unburied along the highways. It was not possible to bury the bodies of the free citizens. Their corpses lay unburied, untouched by dogs and vultures, and wasted away by corruption. It was evident that in this and the former year, during the great mortality among men and cattle, no vulture was seen."

In this account, the following particulars are noticeable.

1st. That the pestilential air first produced its effects on cattle.

2d. That the seventh was the critical day—as it usually is, in modern bilious plague.

3d. That if the disease had a favorable crisis on the seventh day, the patient survived, but the distemper changed into an au­tumnal bilious fever of the quartan type, and long duration—a strong evidence of what I have before remarked that, if pestis and pestilentia are diseases of a distinct species, the Roman pestilence was the bilious plague.

4th. This pestilence was, as usual, most mortal among the lower orders of people.

5th. Carnivorous animals would not touch the dead bodies, and vultures deserted the atmosphere of Rome.

The last fact is common in great plagues; but in plagues of a less malignancy, animals do not quit the infected places. These facts seem to indicate that birds perceive the pestilential state of air, before it becomes sensible to the human species. It seems that the vultures disappeared, the first year, while the pestilence was confined to cattle; and there can be little doubt, that the del­icate organs of fowls perceive the derangement of the air, whether [Page 56] the cause may be, the infusion into it of a pestiferous vapor, of the abstraction from it of a portion of the vital principle, before its effects are visible in larger animals, and before the air is ren­dered offensive by the carcases of diseased and dead animals.

This was one of those violent and long continued plagues of which history has recorded many instances; and the Romans on this occasion, saw many prodigies. It is difficult, in some ca­ses, to distinguish, in the relations of historians, truth from vul­gar report; and philosophy must guard against the illusions of credulity and terrified imaginations. I take no notice of the monsters born, and an ox's speaking, on these occasions. At the beginning of the late American war, many similar prodigies were announced and believed by the ignorant and credulous. But some of the phenomena, enumerated by Livy among prod­igies, in all probability, had a real existence, for it will be re­lated hereafter that similar appearances have been observed, in modern times, during pestilence, and appear evidently to have a connection with its causes.

During the plague above mentioned, a bow was seen in the sky, in a serene day, extended over the temple of Saturn in the Roman forum; three suns or haloes appeared, and at night many torches, or meteors descended in Lanuvium. There is strong evidence for believing these phenomena to be occasioned by a vapor emitted from the earth, in superabundant quantities, and which there is reason to think, may be the cause of pestilen­tial diseases; or there may be some changes in the combination of substances composing the atmosphere.

At the close of this pestilential period, in 581, Apulia was deluged by swarms of locusts; as the Pontine territory had been the year before. So destructive were their ravages, that the Praetor Sicinius was sent with an army to drive them away.

Orosius b. 4 relates, that a most violent plague desolated Rome in the year 610 and B. C. 144. The dead bodies lay pu­trefying in the houses and streets, and rendered it impossible to approach the city. In the preceding year appeared a remarkable comet. As we come down to the more authentic periods of his­tory, this phenomenon will more frequently occur.

[Page 57]It is again necessary to remark a difference in the chronology of different authors. Seneca places the appearance of this comet, which he describes to have been as large and luminous as the sun, "Post mortem Demetrii Syriae Regis, paulo ante Achaicum Bellum"—after the death of Demetrius, king of Syria, and a little before the Achean war.

Demetrius was slain, B. C. 151, according to common chro­nology, and the Achean war was in the year when Carthage was taken and destroyed by Scipio, B. C. 146. The appearance of the comet therefore should be placed in the year preceding, or 147, corresponding with the year of Rome, 607. And this is proba­bly correct, for it is agreeable to general observation, that a comet appears early in the pestilential period, and often precedes its most calamitous years.—The Encyclopedia assigns it to the year 146.

Seneca remarks that at first it appeared fiery and red, emitting a bright light, so as to overcome the darkness of the night. Gradually its magnitude lessened and its brightness vanished.

This plague was still more deadly than that in which Camillus died.

In the year of Rome 628, and B. C. 126, historians relate, that a most dreadful pestilence arose in Africa, from dead lo­custs. These animals were brought towards Numidia and Utica, by a strong east wind, in such innumerable multitudes, that they devoured every green thing—not sparing even the bark of trees. They were driven by the south wind into the Mediterranean, and being washed on shore, in the hot season, they putrefied, and caused a most deadly plague. It is related that 800,000 persons perished in Numidia alone; 200,000 on the sea coast of Carthage and Utica, and 30,000 of the Roman troops. No less than 1500 dead bodies were carried out of one gate of U­tica, in a single day.

Authors ascribe this plague to the dead locusts; and doubt­less that cause had its influence. At the same time, there is no [Page 58] necessity of resorting to the locusts, for this was a time of gene­ral pestilence. The same state of air or other elements which favored the generation of disease, first existed, and produced this unusual number of locusts. This will appear in subsequent parts of this history.

Orosius gives a most hideous account of the pestiferous state of air from the locusts. He avers that birds, cattle and wild beasts perished by means of the corruption of the air, and thus in­creased the evil. He remarks further that, altho locusts had often appeared in his days, in great numbers, yet they never be­fore had done more mischief when dead, than when living, so as to cause mankind to wish they had not perished.

We must accede to the opinion of the ancients that the stench of the locusts was one cause of the pestilence; it is possible that no epidemic disease would have been excited without that cause; but it is equally true, that in a healthy state of the atmosphere, no putrefaction of dead bodies has ever been known to produce an epidemic pestilence. It may be powerful enough to excite disease within a small extent of its own atmosphere; but if no other cause of disease exists, it will not extend beyond that in­fected atmosphere.

The appearance of immense multitudes of locusts, during pestilence, is a curious fact in natural history, and well deserves investigation; but these animals do not always precede the ap­pearance of the diseases of the same period, nor do they often perish in such collections as to be the cause of those diseases. The common idea in Arabia, is, that they are generated by heat and drouth. Cold and rains are supposed to destroy their eggs.

About the beginning of this destructive period, appeared a comet. The Encyclopedia mentions two, in the year of Rome 629, and B. C. 125. But it is probable this is a mistake of the compilers. The universal history places one under the year 630, and a second under the following year, quoting Justin, for au­thority. But Justin mentions two comets, one at the birth of Mithridates, another in the year he began to reign. Now Mi­thridates was about eleven or twelve years old when he came to [Page 59] the throne, in the year of Rome 631, and B. C. 123. Of course the first comet must have been about the year 620, and B. C. 134.

It is no inconsiderable proof of the truth of Justin's account, and of the accuracy of our chronology in this particular, that there was an eruption of the great volcano of Sicily, in both the pe­riods when these comets are said to have appeared. In the year 620, and B. C. 134, there was an eruption of Etna, tho not mentioned by Justin; and this was the year of the first great comet, and of the birth of Mithridates. Nine years after, in 629, there was a second eruption of Etna. The last year cor­responds nearly with the period in which Mithridates began to reign, allowing him to be eleven years old, and with the ap­proach of the second comet.

This last comet produced most tremendous effects, as we might expect from its magnitude, and proximity to the earth. The following is Justin's description of it. "Nam et eo quo genitus est anno, et eo quo regnare primum coepit, stella cometes, per utrumque tempus, 70 diebus ita luxit, ut coelum omne fla­grare videreter." For 70 days the heavens appeared to be in a flame.

The eruptions of the volcano were equally remarkable.

The lava from Etna laid waste the city and suburbs of Catana.

Aetna ultra solitum exarsit, says the historian; Catanam ur­bem [...]inesque oppressit."

In Paulus Diaconus we have a relation of singular facts in re­gard to the eruption of Etna. Globes of fire were thrown from the Crater. Lipari, a small volcanic island on the north of Si­cily, became so heated, during the eruption, that the rocks were dissolved, tho it is not said that this island discharged any fire. The water of the neighboring sea was so heated as to kill the fish, and melt the pitch on the decks of vessels. Dead fish ap­peared on the surface of the water, and many persons, who were near the island, were suffocated with heat.

This author places the appearance of the locusts which cau­sed the plague in Africa, in the year after the eruption of Etna. [Page 60] Others place this event, a year before the eruption. It is much to be regretted that authors have been so careless of the chronol­ogy of important phenomena, on the order of which may de­pend important principles. This however is certain, that all the great agitations of nature here related belong to the same period, and it is not surprising that they were attended with most mortal pestilence.

The foregoing period of pestilence was one of the most dread­ful on record.

It will be found invariably true, in every period of the world, that the violence and extent of the plague has been nearly pro­portioned to the number and violence of the following phenome­na—earthquakes, eruptions of volcanoes, meteors, tempests, in­undations

During the civil wars excited by Sylla and Marius, the armies lost ten thousand men by the plague, in the year of Rome 665, and B. C. 89.

It must have been during this period that the comet appeared which is mentioned by Pliny. Nat. Hist. lib. 2. cap 25. "Civili motu, Octavio Consule," for this was the year, in which Octavius was Consul. This period was preceded by an extraordinary collision and disrupture of two mountains, and the bursting of fire from the chasm, in the territory of Modena. Pli­ny assures us, this was seen from the Emilian way, by an immense number of Roman knights and others.

With this period corresponds the eruption of a volcano in Hi­era, one of the Aeolian isles, north of Sicily, now called Lipari, which burnt for several days, and the very sea around it appeared to be fire. Pliny says this was during the Social War.

The year B. C. 44 was distinguished by the death of Julius Cesar, by the hands of conspirators; soon after which appeared a comet, supposed to be the same which appeared in [Page 61] 1680, whose period is calculated to be 575 years. If this is its period, it must have been seen in the year B. C. 1767, in the reign of Ogyges, when Attica was inundated and rendered barren for a number of years; and when the planet Venus is said to have changed her figure, color and course. When we survey the uniform effects of comets in tempests and floods, and compare the traditional account of that event with the terrible inundations which have happened in Greece at other times, and especially with that in the time of Thucydides, which rent Ata­lanta from the main land; which events all took place during the approach of comets; we are constrained to believe the fact of the Ogygean deluge, and fable rises to the dignity of authentic history. This inundation might have happened during the approach of some other comet, but the probability is, that it was during that of the comet under consideration, which fixes the time of the Ogygean flood, in the year B. C. 1767. This circum­stance may serve to correct the chronology of the early events in Greece.

Its next appearance must have been in the year A. C. 1193, when Electra, one of the pleiads, abandoned her sister orbs, and fled from the Zodiac to the north pole.

Its third appearance corresponds with the year A. C. 618, the year of the terrible comet of the Sybill, says Gibbon; and its fourth, is the one under consideration. Its subsequent appear­ances A. D. 531, 1106 and 1680 will be hereafter mentioned. All the periods here named, which come within the limits of authentic history, have been remarkable for pestilence, earth­quakes, inundations or other great phenomena. Such was the fact in 44 and 43. There was a terrible inundation of the Tyber, a violent earthquake, many unusual pheno [...]ena in the sky, and in the year 43, a violent eruption of Etna—Pesti­lence, as usual, accompanied these events.

But another phenomenon, the paleness or defect of light, in the sun, deserves more particular attention. Pliny asserts that this pale color lasted almost a year. His words are, "Fiunt prodigiosi et longiores solis defectus, qualis occiso dictatore Cae­sare [Page 62] et Antoniano bello, totius pene anni pallore continuo." Nat. Hist. lib. 2. 30.—Virgil and Ovid, who were eye wit­nesses of this phenomenon, have both described it, with the other prodigies of this period.

The words ferrugo and luridus give us an exact idea of the color—a paleness tinctured with the color of rust. A similar defect of light in the sun occurred at the time of the next ap­pearance of this comet, A. D. 531, as will be hereafter related. The fact is curious. It is well known that this comet ap­proaches very near to the sun; but whether the defect of splen­dor in the sun was the effect of the attractive powers of the comet, or of an alteration in the electrical atmosphere of these bodies; or whether it was occasioned by an alteration in the ter­restrial atmosphere, is a question not easily solved. It might have been owing to a vapor, like that which overspread Europe in 1783.

This period was marked with famin also, with shooting stars, and numerous prodigies.

The comet appeared in 44 and also the pestilence—the erup­tion of Etna in 43 B. C. and therefore subsequent to the other events. Indeed it is more generally the case, that the volcano does not emit fire until some time after the appearance of the plague. To this however there are exceptions. Most of the great plagues appear two or three years, with different degrees of violence; and during this period, volcanoes discharge im­mense quantities of lava.

By a paragraph in Usher's Annals, p. 684, it appears the winter following the appearance of this comet, was severe.

[Page 63]The next pestilential period commenced in the year 30 B. C. An eruption of Etna, which laid all the neighboring towns in ruins, marked the commencement of this period, which how­ever was preceded in 31 by an earthquake in Judea, in which thousands of people perished in the ruins of their houses. About the same time appeared, says Dion Cassius, "those meteors which the Greeks call comets." These phenomena were fol­lowed by a pestilence in Jerusalem, which destroyed a great part of the nobles and people of the Jews. The same period was marked by a great inunda [...] of the Tyber, which spread over the low grounds of Rome, and was considered as an omen of the future power of Augustus.

By a curious circumstance, we learn that a hard winter and pestilence afflicted Rome at this period. The Emperor Octavi­us Augustus, in his 5th Consulship, B. C. 29, had formed the design of resigning the empire. Horace, the Poet, his friend and flatterer, endeavored to dissuade him from this purpose, on account of the prodigies which happened at the beginning of the year, which was the winter of the year 30 B. C. and corresponds exactly with the appearance of the comet. Among these prod­igies, the poet enumerates an abundance of snow, terrible hail, thunder and lightning, and a destructive inundation of the Tyber.

See the 2d Ode of the first book, which is worth the notice of the philosophic reader, on account of the description of the inundation, which proceeded from a swell of the sea.

It is a fact of which there is full evidence, that during the ap­proach of comets, not only tempests are more violent, than at other times, but the ocean swells without winds—the tides are much higher and high tides are more numerous. The ancients [Page 64] took notice of this fact, and it came under my own observation, during the approach of the comet in 1797.

In the 21st ode of the same book, Horace addresses Apollo who "drives war, famin and pestilence from the Roman people and the Emperor, to the Persians and Britons."

This passage is proof that the Romans found pestilence in Brit­ain; but the Britons, at that time, had no trade, except with the coast of France. How or from what quarter, they imported the infection, is left for the solution of Dr. Mead's followers.

In the year B. C. 25, according to the Universal History, a violent pestilence raged in Rome, an inundation laid a great part of the city under water, lands were left untilled and a famin en­sued.

The same year, the plague raged in Palestine, which was pre­ceded by a severe drouth and a dearth of corn. A hard winter is mentioned about the same time, but the order of this event is not recorded.

This pestilence was preceded the year before, by "epidemic distempers which proved fatal to many." This fact is important, and will hereafter be found very material in determining the cau­ses of epidemic pestilential diseases. It goes to prove a progres­siveness in the pestilential state of air, or general contagion. And this instance, among many to be hereafter specified, demonstates that the plague was not produced by the famin, according to vulgar opinion in almost all cases of this kind. Had no malignant dis­ease preceded the plague, and had the plague followed close on the heels of famin, we should have strong ground to believe fam­in to be the cause of the plague; and a series of similar facts might establish that as a principle or law of nature. But it appears, that the malignant distempers, which are found to be the constant precursors of pestilence, were epidemic, in the year preceding the famin—a demonstration that the general cause, in the state of air, existed anterior to the dearth.

SECTION III. Historical view of pestilential epidemics from the Christian era, to the year 1347.

AT the close of the reign of Augustus, about the year 14 or according to some authors 16 of the Christian era, there was a great famin in Rome, and a comet is mentioned, near the same time, by Dion Cassius. This was followed by a most terrible pestilence in the east, during which twelve cities of Asia Minor were overthrown by earthquakes. Of these ca­lamitous events, the following is the account recorded by Taci­tus, An. lib. 2. 47. "Eodem anno, duodecem celebres Asiae urb [...]s conlapsae nocturno motu terrae, quo improvisior gravior­que pestis fuit. Neque solitum in tali casu effugium subveniebat in aperta prorumpendi, quia diductis terris hauriebantur: Sedis­se immensos montes, visa in arduo quae plana fuerint, effulsisse inter ruinam ignis memorant."

It is a circumstance not to be overlooked that the plague was prevalent, anterior to this dreadful earthquake, as the historian remarks that this catastrophe rendered the sickness more severe and less tolerable. Such is the usual course of these calamities; the pestilence appears, before the most destructive shocks of the earth, which rarely fail to occur, during its prevalence. It is to be observed also that men obtained no security, in this in­stance, by flying to open places, for the earth opened and swal­lowed them up—fire also issued from the earth. Large moun­tains subsided to plains, and plains were thrown into mountains.

In the year 40 of the Christian era, there was an eruption of Etna, which frightened Caligula out of Sicily and which was [Page 66] followed by universal famin in Rome and the east. ^* This was the famin foretold by Agabus in Acts xi. 28, in the reign of Claudius Cesar. A pe [...]tilence, at the same time raged in Bab­ylonia, and multitudes of Jews, on account of it, withdrew to Seleucia.

During this famin and pestilence, a comet was visible in the year 42.

The close of the reign of Claudius and the beginning of the reign of Nero, A. D. 53 and 4, were marked by a similar train of phenomena and calamities. A comet is noted by Sue­tonius and Pliny about the year 54, the year in which Claudius was poisoned. Tacitus relates that people were alarmed by fre­quent shocks of earthquakes, which demolished many buildings, and great dearth of corn prevailed in Rome and Greece. Pliny records that thr [...] suns, by which are doubtless intended, halos or mock suns, appeared the same year. These were considered by the ancients as prodigies; but tho common phenomena, they are remarkably luminous, and frequent in the periods of pesti­lence.

This period was sickly, tho not recorded as pestilential. Su­etonius remarks, "Ex omnium Magistratum generi, plerique mortem obierant." Many of all kinds of public officers died; by which we infer that the year was sickly.

In the reign of Nero occurred the next pestilential period. Two comets are noted, one A. D. 62 and a second in 66. In the year 62, Laodicea was overwhelmed by an earthquake. In the year 68, occurred a most violent tempest in Campania which destroyed villages, trees and grain; and a violent earthquake. At the same time, raged a mortal plague in Rome, which is said to have carried off 30,000 people; but by the description of its [Page 67] ravages, it is probable the number was much greater. Tacitus remarks that the "houses were filled with dead bodies and the streets with funerals; neither age nor sex was exempt; slaves and ingenuous plebeians were suddenly taken off, amidst the la­mentations of their wives and children, who, while they assisted the sick, or mourned over the dead, were seized with the disease, and perishing, were burnt on the same funeral pile. To the knights and senators, the disease was less mortal, tho these also suffered in the common calamity."

As Rome, at the time under consideration, contained more than a million of inhabitants, so mortal a plague must have ex­tinguished a much larger number than 30,000 people—it is not improbable, a numeral or figure has been omitted by the trans­cribers of the original history.

The earthquakes of this period were experienced in Asia Mi­nor, at Laodicea and Hierapolis.

Seneca mentions that a flock of 600 sheep were killed by the pestiferous vapor, discharged during the earthquake in Italy.

Dion Cassius relates, that at this period, a most formidable in­undation laid waste the Egyptian coast.

It must not be omitted that the violent tempest in which St. Paul was shipwrecked on the island of Melita, now Malta, was in the year 61 or 62, during the approach of the first comet.

Tacitus remarks, that no visible cause could be assigned for the pestilence of this period; "Nulla Coeli intemperie quae occur­reret occulis." No remarkable season had occurred, to which this distemper could be ascribed. We shall find, in subsequent periods, distinguished writers making similar remarks. The rea­son is, these authors did not take a view sufficiently comprehen­sive of the operations of nature; and if the cause of plague could not be found, very near in time and place, they did not observe it. It is true, that an extraordinary season does not always precede or attend pestilence, in a particular place; but by extending our view of the subject, to general causes, operating over whole quar­ters of the globe, and perhaps over the whole globe; and con­sidering the causes, as invisible, and acting for a series of years, [Page 68] the whole mystery is unfolded.—Such may be the result of this investigation.

Seneca places the great earthquake in Campania under the Consulship of Regulus and Virginius, which, according to com­mon chronology, was in the 65th year of the Christian era.

The next pestilential period is one of the most remarkable in all the circumstances, that is recorded in History.

In the year 79 [some authors say a year later, but the diffe­rence is of no moment, as they agree in the order of the events related] just before the death of Vespasian, appeared a comet with a long coma in the month of June. On the first of Novem­ber following, a most tremendous ebullition of fire and lava issu­ed from Vesuvius and laid waste the neighboring country. At the same time, happened a violent earthquake, which buried the cities of Herculaneum and Pompeium; and so sudden was the shock, that the people, who were attending a play, had not time to quit the theater, and were all buried in a mass.

This dreadful catastrophe was preceded by rumbling noises in the earth, and the earth was heated to a great degree. Violent agitations of the sea, thunder and lightning also announced the approach of some dreadful event.

The eruption lasted three days, during which time such im­mense quantities of ashes and smoke were discharged, that day was turned into night, and the ashes were driven by different winds to Rome, Syria and Africa.

The agitations of the earth and the elements were tremendous and frighful. Baronius remarks, that some persons supposed the world would be reduced to chaos, or consumed with fire. The fish in the neighboring seas were destroyed.

This explosion of subterranean fire was preceded by a severe drouth in Italy. The next year, 80, was remarkable for a terri­ble inundation in England; the Severn overflowing a large tract of country, and destroying multitudes of cattle.

[Page 69]These violent effects of subterranean fire were attended by one of the most fatal plagues recorded in history. A remark of Dion is here very important. He says that the "Ashes from Vesuvi­us caused, at the time, only slight indispositions or diseases; but afterwards produced an Epidemic distemper," The remark is incorrect, in ascribing even slight diseases to ashes; but it leads to a conclusion, which is of moment. The slight complaints which prevailed in the autumn of the year of the eruption, com­pared with modern observations, appear to have been the precur­sors of the plague, which broke out the next year, and as au­thors assert, destroyed, for some time, 10,000 citizens of Rome in a day.—The same year, while the Emperor Titus was view­ing the ruins in Campania, a fire broke out in the city, which laid in ashes a great number of buildings.

The order of the events in this period was, a comet, drouth, slight diseases, and an eruption of Vesuvius, with the earth­quakes, the first year.—In the second, appeared the pestilence with its most malignant effects.

In this eruption of Vesuvius, the first recorded in history, per­ished the elder Pliny; and the Emperor Titus fell a victim to his paternal care of his subjects.

In the year 90 appeared a comet. The plague is said to have appeared in the north of England in 88, and in 92, to have de­stroyed 150,000 lives in Scotland.

In 102 a plague is said to have arisen from dead fish driven on shore, but I have no other particulars.

In the year 107 four cities of Asia, two in Greece and three in Galatia, were overwhelmed by an earthquake. A comet is mentioned by Short in 109▪ but as I have not found the original authority, I cannot depend on the accuracy of the chronology. It is probable that these phenomena occurred within the same year; and there is the more reason to believe this, as different and respectable authors differ two or three years in the chronology of Roman history. The next event to be related, is a re­markable instance of the truth of this observation.

[Page 70]Short mentions a plague in Wales in 114 which destroyed 45,000 lives; but I have not the history of the facts.

In the reign of Trajan, the city of Antioch was almost to­tally demolished by an earthquake. This emperor was in the city at the time, and narrowly escaped with his life. Some au­thors place this event in the year 114; others in 115; but Ba­ronius has proved by an ancient inscription, that it happened under the consulate of P. Vipstanus Messala and M. Virgilianus Pedo; which brings the event to the year 117. A comet was visible the same year.

The earthquakes of this period were extremely violent—ma­ny cities were overthrown, mountains sunk, rivers were dried up and new fountains appeared.

Aurelius Victor adds to these calamities a great inundation of the Tyber, violent pestilence and famin; but to which of the periods, the year 107 or 117, he alludes, is not quite certain, tho probably to the latter. "Terrae motus gravis per provin­cias multas, atroxque pestilentia, famesque et inundia facta sunt."

To remedy the danger from fire and earthquakes, Trajan limited the height of houses in Rome to 60 feet; and for that regulation obtained the title of "Father of the Country."

The great earthquake at Antioch was accompanied with fierce winds, a circumstance not very common; it being more usual that shocks of the earth happen during a perfect serenity and tranquillity of the atmosphere, unless in the vicinity of volca­noes.

During the time that Trajan was making war on the Agarini, a people of Arabia, which had revolted from the Roman gov­ernment, flies in myriads appeared and covered every vessel and utensil, so that the Emperor was compelled to abandon the ex­pedition. This was near the time of the earthquake which de­stroyed Antioch.

This fact ought not to be omitted; as the generation of innu­merable insects is one of the phenomena which generally attend a great pestilence—The same season was marked by terrible storms of wind, rain and hail-stones of unusual size. The win­ter [Page 71] succeeding that in which Antioch was destroyed, was so tempestuous, and the Tigris so swelled by deluges of rain, that Trajan's army suffered extreme hardships and great losses, in his expedition into Assyria.

Under the year 115, I find mentioned a sudden and violent inundation of the Severn in England, which drowned people in their beds, and destroyed 5000 head of cattle. Perhaps phi­losophy will place this event, under the year of the earthquake at Antioch; whichever may be the true year, 115 or 117.

In the chronological tables, a great earthquake in China is mentioned under the year 114—the year of the plague in Wales.

Under the Emperor Adrian, say the compilers of the Mag­deburgh history, from Eusebius, the greatest part of Nicomedia and Nicea was overthrown by earthquakes; and not long after, Nicopolis and Cesarea were totally overwhelmed. Functius as­signs the fate of Nicomedia to the year 121, and that of Nicop­olis to 129. By another writer is noted a comet in 127, and a plague in Scotland.

In 137 appeared a comet, followed by the plague.—In this year or the subsequent one, the Thames was almost dry.

The plague again made great havoc in Scotland in 146.—An eruption of fire from Lipari happened in 144.

In the year 153 happened a severe winter of three months, which covered the Thames and all rivers with ice.

In the reign of Antoninus Pius, A. D. 154, occurred an earthquake which prostrated some towns in Asia and Rhodes. A comet appeared nearly at the same time, and a pestilence in Arabia, together with an inundation of the Tyber.

Of the general and fatal pestilence in the reign of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus and Lucius Verus, we have many accounts. It appeared in Rome in 167, but its origin was in Asia, a year or two earlier. Ammianus Marcellinus, the philosophic soldier, relates that this plague originated from the foul air of a small box or chest, which a Roman soldier had opened, in search of plunder, after the taking of Seleucia. Julius Capitolinus men­tions [Page 72] the same fact on the authority of mere vulgar report or tradition. "Et nata fertur pestilentia in Babylonia, ubi de templo Apollonis ex arcula aurea, quam milis forte inciderat, spiritus pestilens evasit, atque inde Parthos orbemque complesse."

A. Marcellinus gives a more particular account of this event. "Milites fanum scrutantes, invenere foramen angustum, quo re­serato, ut pretiosum aliquid invenirent, ex adyto quodam con­cluso a Chaldoeorum arcanis, labes primordalis exsilivit, quae in­sanabilium vi concepta morborum, ejusdem Veri et Marci Anto­nini temporibus, ab ipsis Persarum [...]inibus, adusque Rhenum, et Gallias Cuneta contagiis polluebat et mortibus."

That a close box or other confined place, which might have been shut for ages, should contain a pestiferous vapor which might destroy the life of the man that first opened it, is not only possible, but very probable. But that this trifling quantity of nox­ious air should be sufficient to generate a universal pestilence from the confines of Persia to Gaul, is a vulgar notion, precisely re­sembling the modern opinion that the plague is conveyed from country to country, in bales of goods.

The historian adds, that the Emperor returned to Rome, and "luem secum deferre videreter," seemed to carry the plague with him. But the Romans passed only from Seleucia to Rome; whereas the plague raged over the whole earth; so that the dis­ease must have originated in other countries, through which the Emperor did not pass, and from other causes than the noxious air of a little box. It raged in Gaul and in Scotland.

By attending to the phenomena of the physical world, during this period, we shall find causes fully adequate to the effect, with­out resorting to the temple of Apollo in Seleucia. The state of the elements was deranged, and nature was every where agitated. An inundation of the Tyber at Rome laid all the low grounds, and a part of the city under water, sweeping away people, build­ings and cattle, and desolating the fields. Famin and earth­quakes marked th [...] same period. The air became insalubrious, and myriads of caterpillars and other insects overran the earth and devoured vegetation.

[Page 73]The pestilence was violent and mortal, corresponding with these symptoms of derangement in the elements. In Rome, at one time, it is related, that the mortality extended to ten thou­sand persons in a day. Its precise duration, I do not find to be specified by the historians; but it continued for a number of years; in the midst of which appeared a comet, about the year 169.

Of the symptoms of this desolating plague, I find no account, except that the patients had a light fever, and a gangrene appear­ed on the extremities of the feet.

It is proper here to notice a passage in Gibbon's Hist. vol. 1. chap. 3, which describes, as halcyon days, the period of the world in which this calamity occurred. The following are his words. "If a man were called upon to fix the period in the history of the world, during which the condition of the human race was most happy and prosperous, he would, without hesita­tion, name that which elapsed from the death of Domitian to the accession of Commodus;" that is, from the year 96 to 180.

It is certain that, at this time, the Roman Empire was in its glory, and governed by a series of able and virtuous princes, who made the happiness of their 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 com­prehend, in his general descriptions of the state of mankind, moral and physical, as well as political, evils.

During the period mentioned by Gibbon, not only Antioch, with the loss of most of its inhabitants, amounting probably to more than 100,000, but thirteen other cities were demolished by earthquakes. In the famous revolt of the Jews under Tra­jan, historians relate that 450,000 Romans were massacred in Syria, Cyprus and other countries; and in the wars undertaken by Adrian to subdue them, it is estimated that 50 cities and 985 [Page 74] towns were destroyed, and 580,000 men lost their lives by famin, disease and the sword. The reign of the Antonines was distinguished for multifarious and severe calamities. The de­scription of them, by Aurelius Victor, ought to be given in his own words. Speaking of the Emperor M. Antonine, he says, "Nisi ad illa tempora natus esset, profecto quasi uno lapsu ruissent omnia status Romani. Quippe ab armis nusquam quies erat: perque omnem orientem, Illyricum, Italiam, Galliamque bella fervebant. Terrae motus non sine interitu civitatum, inunda­tiones fluminum, lues crebrae, locustarum species agris infestae, prorsus ut prope nihil, quo summis angoribus atteri mortales so­lent, dici seu cogitari queat, quod non illo imperante saevierit."

"Unless he, M. Antonine, had been born at that 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 Illyricum, 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 conceived to afflict and torment men, scourged the human race, during his administration."

How can that be a "happy and prosperous condition of men," in which they were subject to continual wars, to massacres, to the ravages of insects, and to a series of plagues, which destroy­ed probably one fourth of the inhabitants of the globe; and when the Roman empire was upon the brink of ruin? And how can a writer be esteemed as a historian, who substitutes the flow­ers of rhetoric for sober truth, and sarifices fact to embellishment?

In the year 173 a pestilence raged in the Roman armies, which threatened them with extermination.—This appears to have been a continuation of the plague before described. It prevailed in Rome in 175 and 178.

A severe winter in 173 produced famin in England, where the snow covered the earth for 13 weeks.

In 181 a comet was visible, and in 182 Smyrna was almost ruined by an earthquake. The plague prevailed in Rome in 183.

[Page 75]In the reign of Commodus, about the year 187, Rome was again afflicted with a severe plague, which was felt also in all parts of Italy, tho with less mortality than in the city. Hero­dian, lib. [...], gives the following account of it. "A great pes­tilence raged throughout Italy at that time, but with most vio­lence in the city, by reason of the great concourse of people assembled from all parts of the earth. The mortality among men and cattle was great. The Emperor, by advice of certain physicians retired to Laurentum, on account of the coolness of the place which was shaded with laurels, from which circum­stance it derived its name. It was supposed also the effluvia from the laurels acted as an antidote against the contagion of the distemper. The people in the city also, by advice of phy­sicians, filled their noses and ears with sweet ointments, and constantly used perfumes, for in popular opinion, they occupy the passages of the senses, with these odors, and shut out the corrupt air; or if they do not wholly exclude it, they over­power its influence by superior force. But these things did not check the progress of the disease, and men and cattle continued to perish."

The deaths amounted, in Rome, to 5000 in a day, for a considerable time. A famin prevailed at the same time, and historians ascribe it to Cleander, the minister of Commodus, who had monopolized the corn, to compel people to purchase of him at an advanced price. Dion Cassius however says, the year had been unfruitful. The pestilence continued three years. Indeed we may here remark once for all, that when we read of a plague of great extent and violence in any part of the world, under the date of a particular year, we may always consider that or other pestilential diseases, as prevailing at least three years. Rarely are great plagues of less duration, but often of greater. Historians seldom mention the pestilence, except in the year of its greatest violence, but no plague, I will assert, ever yet in­fested a particular city or country, without precursors of a very malignant type. When therefore we speak of pestilence, as prevailing in a particular year, we are to consider the epidemic as extending to a period of three, four or five years, perhaps [Page 76] to a much longer period, either in the form of [...]ague, a deadly petechial fever, or other fatal disease.

In the foregoing description of the disease under Commodus, we notice the vulgar modes of guarding against contagion, by stuffing the nose and ears with aromatics—a practice that in part subsists at this day, altho constant experience proves it to be ut­terly ineffectual.

It appears from Herodian that a comet appeared at this peri­od, or other singular heavenly phenomena. He says, "Ea tempestate stellae per diem perpetuo apparuerant, quaedamque ex iis in longum productae medio quasi aere suspensae videbantur." Comets are sometimes visible in the day time, and it is well known that many of the ancients considered them as meteors, floating in the earth's atmosphere, as we see in Aristotle, Seneca and Pliny, who have discussed and refuted those opinions. See also Sampridius who mentions the comet and unusual darkness, at this period.

Another circumstance mentioned by Herodian deserves no­tice. He says, that animals at this time grew out of their usual size, assuming an extraordinary figure and disproportioned in their parts. "Preterea animalia, genus omne, minime suam naturam servantia, cum figura corporis prodigiosa, tum membris haudquaquam congruentibus edebantur." This fact the writer arranges under the head of prodigies; but numerous modern ob­servations confirm the veracity of the historian. In many plagues, to be hereafter mentioned, myriads of unusual animals have ap­peared, and many common animals and insects have grown to an unusual size. With this fact almost invariably attending pes­tilence, and before the eyes of every man of science in well at­tested accounts; a fact that demonstrates a prodigiously pesti­lential state of the elements, modern philosophers, physicians and rulers have been tracing all the plagues of the earth to one or two little spots in Egypt and the Levant—This circumstance is hardly credible; yet is true, and indicates [...] lamentable de­cline of sound philosophy.

A slight shock of an earthquake is mentioned incidentally by Herodian, after the plague. Speaking of the burning [...] a [Page 77] temple in Rome, he says "there had been no storm or clouds, but a small earthquake preceded the conflagration:" and he in­sinuates that the building might have been set on fire by a flash of lightning in the night, or by an eruption of fire in the earth­quake.

In 193, Canterbury in England was severely shaken by an earthquake.

The plague prevailed in London in 211, and a comet ap­peared in the same year. In 214, there was a most dreadful inundation of the river Trent in England, which spread over 20 miles of country, and destroyed many lives. Here is prob­ably a mistake in chronology of at least two years—or rather a difference between different authorities. Eusebius, the learned Bishop of Caesaria, places the birth of Christ two years earlier, than the common or Dionysian Chronology. Many authors fol­low one mode of computing time and many the other; and without the original authors, and a close attention to their modes of reckoning time, it is not possible to reconcile these differ­ences. The uniform influence of comets in producing violent tempests and unusual swelling of the ocean, within a year of their appearance and after their departure, may assist in correct­ing ancient chronology.

In the year 218 two comets appeared, and a severe frost of five months is related to have happened in England in 220.

There was a great inundation of the Tweed in 218, and a pestilence in Scotland in 222 which destroyed 100,000 lives.

In 235 a comet is noted, but I find no other phenomena men­tioned about this time, except a great death of fish in 231, mul­titudes of which were washed ashore on Britain; and an earth­quake in Wales in 232.

In the reign of the Emperor Gordian, about the year 243, the earth was agitated by most violent earthquakes; and in 245 there was a prodigious inundation of the sea in Lincolnshire, England, which laid under water many thousand acres of land, which are said not yet to be recovered. A severe winter is men­tioned in 242.

[Page 78]We have now arrived to one of the most calamitous periods recorded in history—a period of mortal plagues, which com­menced about the year 250, or 252 in the reign of the Emperor Decius and continued fifteen or twenty years, through the ad­ministration of Gallus and Volusian, Valerian and Gallienus. This period was ushered in by a comet in 250, the winter of which in England was so severe, that the Thames was frozen for nine weeks.—An eruption of Etna is noted under the year 253, and an earthquake in Cornwall in 251.

The plague appears to have been most fatal in Rome at two different times, during this period; viz. in the years 252 and 262 or 3, including the year preceding and succeeding each of these periods. It reached the northern parts of Europe, and in 266, Scotland had scarcely living people enough to bury the dead.

It first appeared in Ethiopia, on the confines of Egypt, and spread over all the provinces of the Roman Empire, which, says Zonaras, were excessively exhausted by its destructive ravages. Zosimus, after describing the devastation occasioned by the ir­ruption of the Scythians, says "Lues etiam pestilens in oppidis atque vicis subsecuta, quicquid erat humani generis reliquum, absumpsit." The plague in towns and villages followed the Scythians and devoured that part of the human race which the barbarians had spared.

Jornandes says, the pestilence "faciem totius orbis foedavit" —desolated or disfigured the face of the whole earth.—In the reign of Gallienus, 5000 citizens of Rome perished daily, in 262, or the following year, a portion of this period most distin­guished for convulsions of the earth.

This latter period was marked by destructive earthquakes in Rome, Syria and other countries. In some places the earth opened and salt water issued. Trebellius Pollio says, "Fright­ful earthquakes shook Italy, Asia and Africa. For many days, [some authors say, three days] there was an unusual or preter­natural darkness and a hollow rumbling noise in the earth, which opened in many places. Many cities in Asia were overwhelmed, [Page 79] and others lost in the ocean. Pestilence followed and desolated the Roman Empire."

In the Universal History, it is said that this plague ravaged Capadocia and all Asia Minor, and was followed by famin, earthquakes and a great comet or meteor.

Orosius remarks that "Nulla fere provincia Romana, nulla civitas, nulla domus fuit, quae non illa generali pestilentia cor­repta atque vastata." Scarcely was there a province of the Em­pire, a city or a house, which was not attacked and desolated.

This passage is worthy of notice, for it will hereafter appear, that altho the plague is usually limited to cities, where powerful artificial or local causes aid the general contagion, yet in some in­stances, the general state of the atmosphere has been so pestilen­tial, as to produce plague on the most elevated hills and salubri­ous places, in detached villages and houses, without the least communication with the sick and infected.

Gibbon chap. 10, has calculated that "a moiety of the hu­man species" fell a prey to this frightful epidemic.

Cedrenus page 211 says this disease began in autumn and ended at the rising of the dog-star; or beginning of August.

The state of the air, during this pestilence, was uncommonly impure. The description of it by Eusebius, in a philosophical view, deserves notice. "Quando, inquit, aer iste pravis undi­que evaporationibus turbatus, serenus reddetur? Tales enim ex terra fumigationibus, e mari venti, e fluminibus aurae, e portubus exhalationes spirant, ut veluti ros quidam tabidus e cadaveribus putridis, cunetis subjacientibus elementis inferatur."

This is a remarkable instance of a state of air so highly cor­rupt, as to form on objects a mould or coat, like a turbid dew, from dead bodies ros tabidus—a state of air which the author as­cribes to vapor from the rivers and the earth.—The account is analogous to what is related of other pestilential periods, and the fact denotes an utter derangement in the healthful qualities of air and water.—Cedrenus compares this dew to the gore of dead persons. "Ros saniei mortuorum similis apparebat."

[Page 80]In the Traitè de la Peste, I find the following description of the symptoms of this malady, from St. Cyprian—dejection of mind, exhaustion of strength, incessant involuntary evacuations, as in certain paralises, violent fever of the bowels, mouth infla­med, stomach swelled, eyes sparkling. The disease destroyed the feet, the hands, the sight, the hearing and organs of gen­eration.

Aurelius Victor says of this plague "Simulque Romam pes­tilentia grassabatur, quae saepe curis gravioribus atque animi des­peratione oritur." The plague spread, which often arises from the more distressing cares and despair. This describes the mise­rable state of mankind, at that period; but anxiety and despair do not produce the plague, except during the prevalence of a pesti­lential state of air. There must be a strong predisposition in the body, or an imbecillity in the powers of animal life previously induced; or the utmost pressure of grief will never occasion a plague. But at the time when general causes have impaired the vigor of the animal principles, slight causes will often induce fever and destroy life. The practical inferences from this fact are extremely important to mankind.

The articles in this account of pestilence which deserve par­ticular notice, are the introduction of the period by a comet and an eruption of Etna—the agitations of the earth by subterranean fire—the preternatural darkness of three days, a phenomenon not unusual at such times and easily accounted for, on the supposition of the extrication of a great quantity of subterranean vapor— the pestiferous state of air which covered objects with mould and corruption—and which generated plague in every village and al­most every house.

Near the close of this period, about the year 272, there was an eruption of Vesuvius. At the same time, a severe famin raged in England. Five or six years later, a severe famin prevailed over the world. "Fames ingens per totum orbem grassata est."

[Page 81]It is proper here to notice an inaccuracy of the celebrated New­ton, in his Dissertations on the prophecies, on the 6th chapter of Revelations, in which he says, "In the reign of Probus also there was a great famin throughout the world—an usual conse­quence of famin is pestilence.—This pestilence according to Zo­noras, arising from Ethiopia, while Gallus and Volusian were Emperors, pervaded all the Roman provinces for fifteen years." But Probus began to reign in the year 276, whereas the pesti­lence broke out in Ethiopia under Decius or Gallus and Volu­sian, about A. D. 252 according to Zonoras, but according to other authors, two or three years earlier. Therefore the pesti­lence under Gallus, could not be a consequence of a famin under Probus, which was 25 years later than the plague ascribed to it. These remarks are necessary to correct that passage of Newton, and they are useful in correcting the common notion, that the plague is usually occasioned by famin. The idea is probably un­philosophical; but is certainly contrary to fact. Famin often goes before the plague, and as often follows it. But some of the most disastrous periods of the plague, have originated during the greatest abundance of provisions.—Such was the fact in England, in 448, and in 1347, as will be hereafter related. The great er­ror of historians and physicians has been, that observing famin and pestilence often cotemporary, and the cause of the plague not being obvious to the senses, they have taken famin to be the cause. Whereas it will appear on careful investigation, that fam­in is an effect of the same cause which produces the plague among men. The dearth of provisions, during this formidable epidemic, is the effect of a pestilence in vegetation; that is, a failure in the principles of vegetable life, which proceeds from the same de­rangement of the seasons, or defect in the properties of air and water, which causes the plague among men.—Famin often aug­ments pestilence, and modifies the symptoms of the disease; but in a healthy state of the elements of life, air and water, famin will not produce the plague. This may be demonstrated by mul­tiplied instances of seamen, starving on the ocean, who often per­ish by hunger, without disease, or if they had diseases in conse­quence [Page 82] of mere hunger, nothing like the plague has ever been of the number.

I cannot help noticing also the observations of Mr. Gibbon on the calamities of this period. He says, "Our habits of thinking so fondly connect the order of the universe with the fate of man, that this gloomy period of history has been decora­ted with inundations, earthquakes, uncommon meteors, preter­natural darkness, and a crowd of prodigies fictitious or exagge­rated."

If the original writers who have related the facts above men­tioned, had been as fond of decorations, as this author, we might well have distrusted their accounts of unusual occurrences. Had this elegant writer taken due pains to inform himself of the truth, before he had indulged such reflections on the most cred­ible historians, he would have found similar phenomena to have attended the same calamity, pestilence, in every age from that period to the present, and many of them if not all, during his own life, if not within his own observation.

He goes on to observe that "famin is almost always followed by epidemical diseases." This point will be afterwards considered.

He says also that the plague at this period "raged from 250 to 265, without interruption, in every province, every city and almost every family of the Roman Empire."

The words without interruption, were probably inserted for the sake of decoration. They are not authorized by the original writers; and cannot possibly be true, for an uninterrupted plague in a city or country, would soon leave it without an inhabitant. The truth is, it seldom raged, more than six or eight months, in the same place, at one time. It seized this town, one year, and that, the next, as we observe in modern times, through the whole period. ^*

The more I examin the original writers, from whom Gibbon derived his materials, the less confidence I place in his represent­ations of events. He appears to be a partial historian and a superficial philosopher.

[Page 83]In 280 a comet, and in 282 an earthquake in England.

In the year 289 was visible a large comet, and in 290 the winter in England was very severe, all the rivers being closed for six weeks. Busiris and Coptis, two cities of Egypt, were overthrown by an earthquake. In 292 famin, pestilence and drouth prevailed—the bodies of men were covered with carbun­cles and ulcers.

Worcester in England was almost ruined by an earthquake in 287.

In 298 also appeared a comet and earthquakes soon followed, which in Syria, destroyed several thousand lives.

Earthquakes were experienced in Constantinople in 309 & 310.

In the year 311, the usual rains of winter failed in Italy, famin followed and then pestilence. Baronius, vol. 3. p. 69, describes it as a new disease of foreign origin, which, in con­sequence of excessive heat, produced the anthrax or carbun­cle over the whole body, which exposed the patient to mortifi­cation. It fell upon the eyes with great severity, rendered ma­ny persons blind, and destroyed the lives of great multitudes of all ages. The reader will remark that this distemper was not of domestic origin! This is a stale custom of ascribing all evils to foreign sources.

It is related that Cyprus, about this period, suffered a drouth of thirty-six years in consequence of which it was nearly dispeopled.

Under the chronological tables, I find a famin mentioned to have destroyed in England and Wales, forty thousand lives in the year 310; and in the following year a violent earthquake injured London.

A comet is noted in 321, and a universal famin in Britain in 325.

In the year 335, appeared a comet of great magnitude, and as it was about two years before the death of Constantine the Great, superstition held it to be the omen of that event.

In 336 Syria and Celicia were laid waste by pestilential dis­eases. [Page 84] There was an inundation of the Tweed, the same year.

I have not found any particular account of the duration or extent of this calamity. But it appears that this period, like that in the time of Thucydides, was followed by most destruc­tive earthquakes in 340, which overwhelmed or injured many cities of the east. A comet marked this period in 339.

A snow of 15 feet depth in England is recorded under the year 341.

In 358 happened a most tremendous shock of an earthquake, which buried in ruins the greatest part of Nicomedia. The shock happened soon after day-break in the morning, 11th Kal. Sept. and was preceded by a collection of vapor or clouds, that covered the city with impenetrable darkness, so that the eye could not discern the nearest objects. This was soon succeeded by flashes of lightning and most violent winds and tornadoes, which carried buildings to the adjacent hills. The scene was closed by a shock of the earth which demolished a large portion of the city.

Authors relate that this earthquake levelled 150 cities.

Short indeed was the respite which Asia Minor enjoyed. In 362, the remains of Nicomedia were destroyed, part of Nice was overturned, Jerusalem was shaken and other parts of the world did not escape. This was the year also in which Julian attempted to rebuild Jerusalem, when fire bursting from the earth, destroyed the works and rendered the place inaccessible. This event has been ascribed to a preternatural influence; but is a common phenomenon in Italy, Asia Minor, and in all countries subject to earthquakes; and as it happened when the neighboring countries were laid waste by the explosion of subter­ranean fire, there is no necessity for resorting to supernatural causes, to account for the phenomenon.

During these agitations of the earth, the sea receding left its bed, a highway for passengers. Inundations succeeded, and drouth, famin and pestilence walked in the train of public ca­lamities.

[Page 85]In the following years, the earthquakes were repeated and Baronius asserts that the whole world was shaken; the shores of the sea were in some places changed; some places sunk, and in others the waters rose and carried vessels over the tops of houses. Authors place the destruction of Nice in 367, and of other cities in 368 or 372.

The destruction of Nicomedia was preceded by a severe drouth—a common event, that a violent explosion of fire from the bowels of the earth, is preceded, some weeks or months, by a total exhaustion of water by evaporation.

In the midst of these convulsions, appeared a comet in 363 or 4, and a meteor or globe of fire in 363.

A hard winter of 14 weeks duration in England is mention­ed under the year 359, the year following the destruction of Nicomedia, and the severe drouth. This is a usual event. A singular light of great extent appeared in the heavens, in the year preceeding.

The whole reign of Constantius was distinguished for destruc­tive earthquakes, and the early writers of ecclesiastical history "make no doubt that God, by these judgments, manifested his displeasure at the prevalence of the Arian blasphemies." A dreadful famin closed this period.

It was during the early part of this period, in 359, that the plague broke out in Amida, a city of Persia, when besieged by Sapor, and from which, when taken, Am. Marcellinus very narrowly escaped.

Just before the death of Valentinian I. appeared a comet, in the year 375. Zosimus mentions a hard winter at that time, extending to an unusual length. Another author mentions a se­vere drouth about the same time. Crete, Peloponnesus and Greece in general were agitated by earthquakes and some towns were demolished. ^* In Wales 43,000 died of the plague.

[Page 86]The following year was marked with famin, and universal pestilence among men and cattle. So severe was the famin in Phrygia that the inhabitants abandoned the country.

A comet appeared in 383, and the plague raged in Rome and in Syria in 383 and 4.—This star however is described by Ni­cephorus and others, as of a singular figure, resembling a burn­ing column; its motions differed from those of other stars—it was visible 30 days.

About the same time, the Nile rose to such an alarming height as to threaten Alexandria and Lybia with an inundation.

Just before the death of Theodosius, about the year 394 or 5, happened dreadful earthquakes, storms, rain and unusual darkness.

The appearance of the fiery column and the inundation are placed by some authors under the year 394. The Magdebu [...]g [...] History from Prosper's Chronicon, places it under the sixth ye [...]r of Gratian, which is alledged to be the year of Chri [...]t [...]. But Gratian was killed about the year 383. There is therefore a mistake as to the era of this phenomenon, which, as described by authors of credit, was one of the most singular that was ever ex­hibited to the people of this globe.

About this period, swarms of locusts covered the land of Ju­dea; and being driven by the winds into the sea and washed on the shore of Palestine, by Gaza, Ascalon and Azotus, they fil­led the atmosphere with a fetid effluvia, which occasioned pesti­lence among men and cattle.

In 396 Constantinople sustained a violent shock of an earth­quake, during which the heavens appeared to be in a flame. Functius places these events under the year 400, and he is prob­ably correct.

[Page 87]We are now arrived at another singular and distressing period of the history of man. In the year 400, under the administra­tion of Arcadius and Honorius, a comet appeared of a prodi­gious size and horrible aspect. Its immense coma seemed to sweep the earth, and Baronius, the pious author of Ecclesiastical An­nals, remarks, that many of the Gentiles were terrified into christian baptism and [...].

Durin [...] [...] or [...]ppearance, happened one of the most [...] on [...]ord. The [...] Sea was covered with [...] 10 days. A drouth is mentioned under the same period, which was so se [...]ere that the heavens were like [...]. Unfortu­nately historians have often neglected to arrange these phenomena in due order, throwing them into a general description.

The same period was marked by deluges of rain, and from the [...] of narration, it appears that the rains preceded the hard win­ter of the year 400. The rivers were so sorelled as to prevent the imperial generals from passing into the east to attack Sardis.— Severe earthquakes occurred in the same year.

About the year 407 or 8, near the close of the reign of Arca­dius, a celestial phenomenon of a singular species presented itself to the view of an astonished world. It was called a comet, but did not resemble one of the ordinary figure. It resembled a cone or pillar, but had not the appearance of a star, so much as of the flame of a lamp. Its motion was not regular—it began to move from the point of the heavens where the sun rises at the equinox­es, and passing the tail of Ursa, proceeded to the west.

It measured the heavens—its vertex, at some times, extended to a great length; at others, was contracted into the figure of a cone. After being visible for four months, it disappeared. This is the description of it, nearly in the words of Nicephorus. Me­teors were observed at the same period.

Accompanying an [...] following these phenomena, were some of the most distressing calamities. Violent earthquakes levelled cit­ies—inundations of rivers and the sea, followed by intolerable cold storms of hail, and a drouth that blasted vegetation, by which means multitudes of people perished. Pestilence raged in every quarter, and famin so severe, that the populace deman­ded [Page 88] that human flesh should be sold in market. Palestine was de­voured by locusts.

Nicephorus has employed a chapter to describe the physical evils, and the miseries of man, in this singular period. He de­clares that almost all Europe perished.—"pasa de ōleto ē Eurōpē." and no small part of Asia and Africa.

In 418 appeared a comet; in 419 several cities of Asia were overturned by an earthquake, and in 420 there was an eruption of Etna. There was also an inundation of the sea in Hampshire, in England, in 419. Famin and pestilence prevailed also in this period.—A great storm of hail is mentioned under the year 418, and deep snow.

The next period of general pestilence commenced in the reign of Theodosius the younger, about the year 445—or a year or two earlier. A comet in 442, ushered in a severe winter, in 443, the snow fell to such a depth and continued so long in Illyri­cum, that multitudes of men, women and children perished. The year preceding, the Huns had ravaged the country and destroyed the provisions, which added to the public calamities. An irrup­tion of the Sea in North and South Wales, 441, preceded the first comet, a second comet appeared in 444. In 445, severe famin and plague distressed Constantinople, and pestilence appear­ed in all parts of the world. In 446, Sept. 17, occured a tre­mendous earthquake, which demolished the greatest part of the walls of Constantinople, with fifty seven towers. The shocks continued unremittingly for six months, and extended to a great part of the globe. Many cities were overthrown, the earth, in some places, was thrown into large hills; in others, it opened and swallowed up whole towns. Islands disappeared and were lost in the ocean: the sea receding, left ships on dry land, springs of water were dried up and new fountains appeared, and in this violent concussion of the elements perished innumerable multi­tudes of fish.

The pestilence attending, and which rarely fails to attend such agitations of the earth, was universal and of several years dura­tion. In this period, the plague in England was correspond­ent [Page 89] to the terrible operations of subterranean fire. In 448 or 9, it carried off incredible numbers of people, so that the living could scarcely bury the dead.—And it must not be omitted that the plague was preceded by the greatest abundance of provisions. This was in the reign of Vortigern, and in time of peace.

An important fact here occurs. In 446, the Picts and Scots had overrun and desolated England, so as to occasion a dearth of provisions. But this famin produced no pestilential disease. It is particularly noticed by the historian, that the plague did not occur, till a year of great plenty had intervened. This is one strong proof among others, that famin is not the cause of plague; but often accompanies, and sometimes increases the disease. It often happens that, during extraordinary agitations of the earth, the elements of vegetable life appear to be defective. The same cause which affects human health, seems to prevent the growth or vitiate the pabulum of vegetables. ^*

The close of this period was peculiarly distressing in Italy, Phrygia, Cappadocia and Galatia, where the famin compelled parents to devour their own children. The pestilence made great havoc, at the same time, and no remedy or alleviation could be found. The body was universally inflamed and cover­ed with tumors. The disease destroyed the eyes. A cough suc­ceeded the eruption, and ended life on the third day.

This was in the beginning of the administration of the Em­peror Marcian, which commenced in 450, in which year anoth­er comet was displayed in the heavens and a singular light or [Page 90] flame, a severe drouth "ingens siccitas," afflicted the earth, and the calamities of this period continued for several years.

It must be remarked here that Functius has placed this comet and the beginning of Marcian's reign, in 454. Such differ­ences in chronology cannot fail to embarrass an inquiry like the present, the results of which depend much on correctness of dates.

Nicephorus and Evagrius give a particular account of an earthquake which laid great part of Antioch in ruins in the sec­ond year of the Emperor Leo, which was A. D. 458. A comet is noted under the preceding year. But they say further, that this event took place 347 complete years after the destruc­tion of the city in the reign of Trajan, which was in 117. Now 347 years added to this number, give 464, for the year of the last catastrophe.

In the 311th Olympiad, which comprehends the years from 465 to 468 inclusive, appeared a comet. Whether the de­struction of Antioch was in 458 or 464, the extent of the shock, through Thrace, Hellespont and the Grecian isles, to­gether with the deluges of rain which are said to have swept away whole towns in Bithynia, leave no room to question the ap­proximation of a comet at or near the time.

This latter period was distinguished for pestilence which raged in Rome, about the accession of Anthemius to the empire, and according to Baronius in the year 467.

In the following year, a number of houses were overthrown by an earthquake at Vienna. Of the extent and dura [...]ion of the pestilence, I have no particular description. A great eruption of Vesuvius is mentioned in 472, and a severe winter of four months duration, in 473 with deep snow.—The plague succeed­ed in Rome.

In the year 480 Constantinople again suffered great damage by an earthquake, which demolished a great number of buildings.

In 480 or the following year another comet was visible; or probably two years later. In 484 occurred a drouth most terri­ble [Page 91] and distressing—not a vine nor an olive branch retained its verdure—the earth was pale and desolate, and the sun assumed a melancholy face. Africa was almost abandoned, in consequence of this event and an attending plague.

Baronius places the earthquake at Constantinople in 477, but others place it in 480, which is most probably correct. The dif­ference in the chronology of different authors, who relate the events of these early ages, is seldom less than two, three and four years.—The plague infested Scotland in 480.

In 494 an earthquake overturned Laodicea, Hierapolis and Tripoli. According to Functius, this event was in 496.

In 499 appeared a comet, which was soon followed by an earthquake which destroyed Neo Cesarea, in Pontus, and an eruption of Vesuvius laid waste all the adjacent country.

A comet is noted in 502, and a severe winter in 507, but I have no account of any public calamity, attending either of these phenomena, except a pestilence among men and cattle in Scot­land, in 502.

In 517 is recorded a five year's drouth in Palestine.

In 518 a comet; and in Dardania, now Maesia, a series of earthquakes demolished twenty-four castles, divided mountains and in one place opened a fissure of thirty paces in length and twelve in breadth.

In 519 two cities in Cilicia were overthrown; Edissa was in­undated and part of its buildings and inhabitants overwhelmed.

Evagrius places the inundation at Edissa, in the following pe­riod, after the destruction of Antioch, and as the historians do not always specify the year in which a particular event took place, I am inclined to believe the account of Evagrius.

In the 7th year of the Emperor Justin, A. D. 525, appeared a comet, and the same year Antioch was again overwhelmed in [Page 92] ruin by an earthquake. Some authors relate that 300,000 per­sons perished in this catastrophe, and among them Euphrasius, the bishop.—This event happened on the 29th of May, about 12 o'clock. A conflagration followed and consumed what was left of the city. In the same shocks, Dyrrachium, now Durazzo, the Epidaurus of high antiquity, Corinth and other cities were greatly injured.

A severe winter happened the same year.

In 528 Antioch was again shaken and suffered considerable injury. An inundation of the Humber in England is noted about this time.

In 531 appeared the resplendent comet, whose revolution is fixed at 575 years, supposed to be the same which was visible in the year before Christ 44, after the death of Julius Cesar. This was the fifth year of the reign of Justinian. Famin and a slight plague prevailed in Wales.

At this period Gibbon commences his lively, but unphilosoph­ical description of the formidable and destructive calamities, which afflicted the whole earth in the 6th century. See his his­tory, vol. 4. ch. 43.

Not long after the approach of the comet in 531, the sun as­sumed a pale color, and shone with a feeble light. In a transla­tion of Cedrenus, this phenomenon is thus described. "Toto anno eo, sol lunae instar, sine radiis, lucem tristem praebuit, ple­rumque defectum patienti similis." During the whole year, the sun gave a gloomy light, like the moon, and appeared as if eclip­sed.

It is remarkable that tradition has preserved a faint account of a similar phenomenon, during the approach of the same comet, at the time of the Ogygean inundation, before Christ 1767. It is said, that the planet Venus changed her color, size and figure. An account is preserved in tradition, of a phenomenon of the same nature, during the approach of the same star, in a subse­quent revolution. Gibbon in the chapter above cited.—Pliny, as I have already remarked, mentions a similar phenomenon, [Page 93] about the time the same comet appeared, soon after the death of Julius Cesar.

The appearance, in the period under consideration, is a well authenticated fact, and witnesses a singular change in the prop­erties, and reflecting powers of the atmosphere, or denotes an essential alteration in the face of the sun, which is improbable. In either case, it seemed a prelude to the most dreadful calami­ties, famin, earthquakes, and pestilence. I am not without sus­picions that Europe might have been overspread with a vapor like that in 1783, during the eruption of Heckla.

In 534 is recorded one of the most distressing famins, that ever afflicted the earth; it continued many years, and destroyed mul­titudes of the human race. Pompeiopolis was this year over­whelmed in ruin by an earthquake, and great numbers of its inhabitants perished.

About this period, Vesuvius began to utter hollow rumbling noises, the precursors of an eruption.

Excepting a slight plague in Wales—no pestilence is mention­ed by the authors I have consulted, until the year 542. But the famin, in great severity, had raged eight or nine years be­fore —a proof that something more than famin is necessary to generate the plague.

In 539 appeared another comet, and the famin now raged with double horror. The country of Italy had been ravaged, the year before by the Goths and Burgundians, and the lands left untilled. This might have contributed towards the dearth which followed. It is recorded that many persons fed on hu­man flesh, some districts of Italy were deserted, 50,000 people perished in Picenum, and greater numbers in other districts. The bodies of the famished people became thin and pale; the skin was hardened and dry like leather, and clave to the bones; the flesh assumed a dark appearance like charcoal, the counte­nance was senseless and stern, the bile redundant.

Among these frightful effects of hunger, no plague yet ap­pears [Page 94] —a circumstance that the philosopher should not pass unno­ticed.

The account which Baronius gives of this famin, is, perhaps more philosophical and deserves notice. He says, the crops failed, corn ripened prematurely, and was thin; in some places, it was not harvested, and that which was gathered, was defi­cient in nourishment. Those who subsisted upon it became pale, and were afflicted with bile. The body lost its heat and vigor, the skin was dried, the countenance stupid, distorted and ghast­ly, the liver turned black. Many perished by hunger; many betook themselves to the fields to feed on vegetables, and being too feeble to pull them, lay down and gnawed them off with their teeth.

This is the most probable account of the famin. Repeated instances are on record, which evidently mark a pestilential state of the elements, as fatal to vegetable, as to animal life. In many periods of the world, there has been a universal defect in the powers of vegetation. This phenomenon in the vegetable kingdom is cotemporary, or nearly so, with pestilence among men; and superficial observers have ascribed the plague to a prior or cotemporary famin. But an accurate survey of facts, will probably convince any candid enquirer after truth, of the fallacy of this opinion. It will be made apparent that famin and pesti­lence are equally the effects of some general cause; a temporary derangement of the regular operations of nature.

In the present instance, the famin could not be exclusively and immediately the cause of the formidable plague that afterwards assailed mankind, for it was most severe in 539, and the next year the crops were good. But the plague did not break out till 542, at least I can find no account of any pestilence, during the famin.

An eruption of Vesuvius is noted under the year 532, the year after the appearance of the great comet.—It is probable that the paleness of the sun was owing to a vapor from some volcanic eruption, as in 1783; and it is remarkable that both of these periods alike produced famin from defective vegetation.

[Page 95]During the remaining p [...]rt of this century, a series of most calamitous events afflicted the earth. A mountain in Rhodes burst open, and a part of it rolled down upon the inhabitants be­low. Many places suffered by inundations, one of which over­whelmed the borders of Thrace for an extent of four miles.

In the year 543, the whole earth was shaken by earthquakes. This was the year in which the plague broke out in Constantino­ple; but it commenced in Egypt, the pre [...]eding year.—In 543 there was a dearth of cor [...] [...]ne and oil. The plague again ravaged Constantinople in 547.

In 545 there was an inundation of the Thracian sea, and a severe winter. A terrible dysentery in France in 548.

In 550 an earthquake convulsed Syria and Palestine; and Greece in 551. In 553 appeared a singular meteor in the north and west, which was preceded by a winter so severe that wild beasts and fowls might be taken by the hand. Inundations marked this period. Constantinople was shaken 40 days in 554.

In 557 Constantinople was almost laid in ruins by an earth­quake. In 558 a comet appeared, a severe winter followed and universal plague, especially in Constantinople, where the living could not bury the dead. This year the Danube was cov­ered with ice.

In 560 an earthquake destroyed Berytus and injured Cos, Tripoli, and Balbus. An excessive drouth in 562, and a plague began which spread over the whole world. There was a dark day in the same year.

The year 565 was distinguished for a calamitous plague, in France, Germany and Italy, which Baronius calls "vehemens pestis inguinaria."

In 580 Antioch was again laid in ruins by an earthquake, and a shock was felt in Scotland. The plague again prevailed, from that year to 583, in Gaul and Germany and other coun­tries. In 587 it ravaged Italy. Earthquakes attended this pe­riod.

[Page 96]In 590 appeared a comet; an inundation, from deluges of rain, overspread Rome, covering the walls of the city, and lodging innumerable serpents on the plains. In the next summer, happened the severest drouth ever known; it lasted from Janu­ary to September; and the most deadly plague ravaged all Italy. In this pestilence, died Pope Pelagius.

This is a general sketch of the phenomena recorded of the period under consideration.

Of the universal and destructive plagues which dispeopled the world in the reign of Justinian I. and the succeeding age we have accurate accounts by cotemporary historians: From two of which, Procopius and Evagrius, I shall transcribe the particulars.

Procopius relates, "That this pestilence, which almost de­stroyed the human race, and for which no cause could be assign­ed but the will of God, did not rage in one part of the world only, nor in one season of the year. It ravaged the whole world, seizing all descriptions of people, without regard to dif­ferent constitutions, habits or ages; and without regard to their places of residence, their modes of subsistence or their different pursuits. Some were seized in winter, some in summer; others in other seasons of the year.

It first appeared in Pelusium in Egypt and thence spread west­ward to Alexandria and all parts of Egypt; eastward towards Palestine, and extended to all parts of the world, laying [...]aste islands, caves, mountains, and all places where men dwelt. If it passed by a particular country at first, or slightly affected it, it soon returned upon it with the same desolating rage which other places had experienced.—It began in maritime towns and spread to the interior country. It seized Constantinople in the spring of 543.

Most persons were seized suddenly without any premonition, nor was there any change of color or sense of heat; for until evening the fever was so slight that the patient was not ill, nor did the physician, from the pulse, apprehend danger. But in some cases, the same day; in others, the next; in others, at a later period, a bubo arose, either in the groin, the arm [...]its, or [Page 97] near the ear, or in some other part. All patients alike had these symptoms.

Some were seized with drowsiness and slumbering; others with furious distraction. The slumberers forgot all things—some would eat if desired; others were neglected and starved.

Neither physician nor attendant caught the distemper by con­tact of the sick or dead; and many, encouraged by their won­derful escape, applied themselves with assiduity to the care of the sick and the burial of the deceased.

Many were seized, they knew not from what cause, and sud­denly died. Some who were given over by physicians unexpect­edly recovered; others who appeared to be in no danger speed­ily expired. Many died for want of relief; others recovered without assistance. No cause of the disease could be devised by human reason—no means of prevention or cure. To some, bathing was beneficial; to others, injurious. Many leaped into water and the sea—In many the bubo, without sleep or delivium, turned into a gangrene, and these died with excruciating torture.

The physicians opened the bodies of some, and found within the sores huge carbuncles. Those whose bodies were spotted with black pimples, of the size of a lentil, lived not a day. Those who had running sores escaped, and these were the most certain signs of recovery. Some had their thighs withered; others lost the use of their tongues.

To women with child, the disease was certain death.

This disease in Constantinople lasted four months, raging three months with extreme mortality. In the beginning, few died more than usual; but the disease gradually increased, till it swept off 10,000 persons in a day."

Procopius calls it arrogance to pretend to assign the natural causes of this pestilence, declaring them to be undiscoverable.

Authors mention the early effects of this disease on the brain; the patients, on the first attack, saw phantoms of evil spirits, which made them imagine themselves smitten by some person.

Evagrius, who felt the effects of the same disease himself and [Page 98] lost many of his family by it, has enumerated so many [...]ngular circumstances, that I [...] offer the reader a translation [...]f his account. When I say, the same disease, I refer however to a subsequent epidemic. Procopius, as an eye witness, described the pestilence of 543 in Constantinople. It did not continue incessantly to rage in every place, for this would have soon left the earth without an inhabitant; but after an interval of a few years, it returned and revisited the same places. The plague described by Evagrius was many years subsequent to that men­tioned by Procopius. He wrote about the year 594. His de­scriptions however are general.

"I will now describe the plague, which has prevailed in these times, and already raged fifty-two years, a thing never before known, and has already depopulated the world. Two years after the taking of Antioch by the Persians, ^* a pestilential dis­ease began to prevail, in some respects resembling that which Thucydides has described, in other respects different. It had its origin in Ethiopia, according to common report, and spread over the whole world, falling on different places by turns, and sparing none of the human race.

Some cities were so severely assailed by this disease, that they were left without an inhabitant. Some districts however were more slightly affected. The pestilence did not always begin its attacks at the same season of the year, nor cease to rage, in all places in the same manner. In some places it broke out in the midst of winter; in others, in the spring; in some, it began in summer; in others, in autumn; and in some cities, it attacked certain parts of the town, and left others untouched.

Very often we might observe, particular families all perished, in a city where the disease did not prevail, as an epidemic. In some places, one or two families only perished, while the rest of the city escaped. But we observed particularly that the families which escaped, the first year, experienced the same calamity in the year succeeding.

But what above all appeared singular and surprising was, that [Page 99] the inhabitants of infected places, removing their residence to places, where the disease had not appeared, or did not prevail, were the only persons who fell victims to the plague, in the cities which were not infected. And these effects were particularly observable, both in cities and in other places, in the cycles of the Indictions. ^* Especially in the second year of each indiction, was the plague extremely mortal. Of this I am myself a wit­ness, for it may not be improper, when the occasion seems to require it, to interweave into this history what concerns myself. At the commencement of this calamity, I was seized with the inguinal plague; and in the diseases, which have at different times prevailed, I have lost many of my children, my wife and great numbers of my kindred, of my servants and laborers: the cycles of indiction parcelling out my calamities among themselves.

At the time of writing this account, the disease had already invaded Antioch the fourth time; the fourth cycle of indiction had passed, after the first invasion of this disease, when I lost a daughter, and her son.

This disease was a compound of various others. For in some persons, seizing the head, it rendered the eyes sanguineous and the face tumid: Then falling upon the throat, soon put an end to life in all that were thus seized. Some were afflicted by discharges from the bowels. In others an abscess formed in the groin, a raging fever followed, and the second or third day, the patient died, with his body and his mind apparently sound, as tho they had not felt disease. Some were seized with delir­ium and expired. Carbuncles also arising on the body extin­guished the lives of many. Others recovered once and again, and afterwards died of the same disease.

The modes of contracting the disease were various and all cal­culation was baffled. Some perished by once entering infected houses, or remaining in them—some by only touching the sick. Some contracted the disease in open market. Others, who fled from the infected places, remained safe, while they commu­nicated [Page 100] the disease to others who died. Many who remained with the sick, and freely handled them as well as dead bodies, wholly escaped the disease. Others who had lost their children and dependents, and in despair sought death, by attempting to throw themselves in the way of infection and assiduously attend­ing the sick, found all their efforts in vain; they could not con­tract the disease.

The distemper has already prevailed fifty-two years, to this time, exceeding all preceding plagues: For Philostratus was surprised that, in his time, that calamity had prevailed for fif­teen years. What will happen hereafter is uncertain, since all things are at the disposal of God who understands the causes of things and the events."

Thus far Evagrius. See also Nicephorus lib. 17. ca. 18.

The reader is desired to attend particularly to the foregoing relation of facts, as some important conclusions will, in the se­quel, be drawn from them, and other authorities hereafter to be cited.

It will be remarked that altho authors speak of this pestilen­tial period, as of fifty-two years duration, as Evagrius and Gib­bon have done, yet this is not accurate. Evagrius, from whom this number is copied, says, the pestilence had then prevailed fifty-two years; but it was still raging, and what was to happen afterwards, he could not determin.

The truth is, plagues were uncommonly frequent during this period; but the disease did not prevail without intervals. On the contrary, the years remarkable for mortality are specified by historians, viz. 542 and 3, 547, 558, 562 to 565, 582 and 3, 587, and finally one of the most destructive periods of all was 590 and the few following years. Altho this was a long and severe period of calamity, yet from the best accounts I can ob­tain, I see no reason to believe the mortality, in any given term of five or ten years, from 542 to 600, to have been greater, than in some other periods of the same duration. More people probably died in a short space of time, in the reign of the An­tonines —in that of Gallus and Volusian—and far more, in the dreadful plague of 1346 to 50.—It is even probable that in the [Page 101] last 50 years of the 16th century, the earth sustained as great a loss of inhabitants as in the same space of time in the 6th centu­ry. General descriptions are rarely correct, and Mr. Gibbon's unphilosophical, tho eloquent flourishing description of the mise­ries of the human race, in Justinian's reign is calculated to mis­lead a careless reader.

Evagrius indeed says, this plague exceeded all preceding ones. This is natural; Thucydides said the same of the disease in his time. But we are more able to form a correct comparison between the different epidemics that have prevailed, than the co­temporaries with any particular one.

Agathius relates that in the pestilence at Constantinople in 558, many died suddenly as with an apoplexy. The most ro­bust constitutions survived only to the 5th day. The critical period in the Athenian plague was the 7th or 9th. Thucydides makes no mention of the stupor at the beginning of the distem­per, nor of the volutatio humi, whirling of the earth, or dizzi­ness, nor of buboes, nor of the effects of the disease on preg­nant women.

Warnefred relates of this pestilence, in Liguria, where it was particularly mortal, that there appeared suddenly certain marks "quaedam signacula," upon the doors of houses, on garments, and utensils, which could not be washed out but grew brighter by washing. The next year, appeared in men's groins, or other delicate parts of the body, tumors like nuts or dates, which were soon followed by intolerable fever, which extinguished life in three days. If the patient survived the third day, he had hopes of recovery.

I should have ranked this account among the fictions of a dis­turbed imagination, had not more recent and well attested facts given me reason to credit it.

The description of the terrible effects of this disease in Italy by the same author, is melancholy and painful to the reader.

The dysentery which raged in France in 548 was accompanied with signs of the plague, and was nearly equal to it in mortality. The plague raged this year at Munster, in Ireland.

[Page 102]The desolating plague of 590 was mortal almost beyond ex­ample, and preceded or attended with extraordinary phenomena. In 588 Antioch was overwhelmed by a violent earthquake, and 60,000 people buried in its ruins. The inundation of the Tyber exceeded all that had been known, as did the drouth of the suc­ceeding summer. The intervening winter was equally remarka­ble for its severity—"qualem vix aliquis prius recolebat fuisse," says Warnefred; such as the oldest persons could scarcely recol­lect. Violent tempests overturned buildings. About the same time, swarms of locusts appeared in Trente and devoured every species of vegetable. In some parts of Italy, they continued their ravages for five years. Cedrenus adds, that fish died, and this mortality he ascribes to the freezing of the waters, page 332. —Modern observations prove the fallacy of the reason here as­signed; fish do not die beneath a cover of ice; but the death of fish by means of earthquakes, and of sickness, is a common event.

The order of the phenomena here related was this—the earthquake at Antioch—deluges of rain and inundations, tem­pests, a most rigorous winter, with a comet, excessive drouth, pestilence.

Africa was almost depopulated by this plague. So sudden and rapid was the disease in its action, that during a procession in Rome, instituted by St. Gregory, on account of that calamity, no less than eighty persons fell dead in the street.

Authors relate that the serpents, washed from the mountains by the flood, and lodged on the earth, putrefied, and contrib­uted to the subsequent plague.

Gregory of Tours relates, that the plague, at that time, was introduced into Gaul by a vessel and her cargo, but it did not spread regularly from house to house, but started up in distant and detached places, like fire in a field of stubble. Marseilles and Lyons were made waste by its mortality. It was most fatal to the poor.

The following facts are related of the pestilence in Rome in [Page 103] 581, in the collection of German writers by Pistorius, page 683. Men died suddenly, at play, at table, and in conversa­tion. Sometimes they fell dead in the act of sneezing, "dum sternutabant," so that when one heard another sneeze, he turn­ed to him and exclaimed, "God help you"—which was the origin of a custom still observed in some countries. ^* Some­times persons expired in the act of nodding or gaping; which gave rise to the practice of making the sign of the cross, on such occasions—a custom not yet obliterated.

In 599, the plague in the east, in Africa and Rome, was dreadful. The death of the Emperor Mauritius, in 602, was preceded by the appearance of a comet. A severe winter, about this time, killed the vines, and grain suffered by frost and blight. The army of barbarians, marching to besiege Constantinople, was so harrassed and weakened by the plague, as to be compelled to abandon the enterprize. Cayanus their commander lost seven sons.

The Magdeburgh History mentions a severe winter in 604, which was followed by excessive heat and drouth in 605. It places the first comet of 606 in April and May; the second in November and December.

The year 615 was distinguished for an epidemic elephantiasis in Italy, and the shock of an earthquake. A comet appeared in 617 and pestilence in 618.

Here is a period in which mention is made in history of com­ets, without all their attendant calamities—one in 625, another in 632. It is the first period of the kind I have been able to find; and whether this silence of history is to be ascribed to the carelessness of writers in that distracted period, when the world was overrun by barbarians, or whether men escaped ex­traordinary maladies, I am not able to decide.

An earthquake in Palestine however marked the approach of the comet in 632.

[Page 104]Short mentions an earthquake at Antioch in 637; and shocks in Palestine in 638 which continued for 30 days—a comet in 639, and the plague in Syria in 640. But I have not the ori­ginal authorities. The Universal History relates that in 639, the plague was so severe in Syria, Arabia and in Medina, that the Arabs call that year the "Year of Destruction."

A general pestilence in Italy is mentioned in history under the year 651, but no particulars. A surprising meteor had passed the hemisphere, in the preceding year. A violent plague in Constantinople in 654.

In 664 pestilence raged in Normandy, England and Ireland; and the historian remarks that the same disease which had af­flicted England, afterwards invaded Italy in 665. Thus it would appear that this epidemic broke out first in the north of Europe.

But the disease appeared in Egypt the same year it did in England and Ireland.

In the same year, in March, appeared a bow, iris, stretching across the heavens, and all flesh trembled, says the pious Diac­on, expecting the last day.

In 669 or 70 appeared a singular meteor or flame in the heav­ens —the next year an unusual storm that destroyed men and cattle; and in 672 the plague raged in England, of which died Bishop Ceadda.

Short mentions a comet in 672, and a severe frost in 670, the year of the celestial flame.

In 678 according to Beda, and in 677 according to Sigebert, in the 9th or 10th year of Constantine Pogonatus, appeared a comet in August, which was visible for three months. The year preceding was marked by most calamitous tempests which cut short the fruits of the earth, except leguminous vegetables [Page 105] which were replanted and come to maturity. About the same time appeared clouds of locusts in Syria and Mesopotamia. Uni­versal pestilence followed these ph [...]nomena, in 679 and 680. England and Ireland were ravaged by it in 679; and in 680, during July, August and September, Rome was laid waste: "parents and children, brothers and sisters, were borne to their graves on the same bier." Multitudes of people fled to the mountains, and the streets of the city were overgrown with grass and weeds. A violent earthquake shook Mesopotamia and other countries in 680. The locusts appeared two years before the earthquake, and in the same year with the comet, ac­cording to Paulus Diaconus. A severe drouth followed the comet, which in England lasted three years.

In 681 famin, says Beda, raged in England, and in 683, pestilence "quae ex more famien secuta est," says Paulus Dia­conus. In this latter year, if this was the sixteenth of Con­stantine, according to Baronius, there was a violent eruption of fire from Vesuvius, which laid waste all the neighborhood.

In the same year Syria and Lybia were afflicted by famin and pestilence.

Other authors place this last pestilence two years later. The disease raged in Ireland in 685, in which year, there was a great inundation of the sea and the island of Inissidda was torn into three parts. In 687, or according to others in 684, appeared a star, which was probably a comet, but without a coma.

Warnefied relates that a singular meteor appeared in 685. ^*

Notwithstanding some differences among authors respecting the time of the events here related, we observe all the violent agit­ations of the elements which introduce and attend great plagues.

In 690 happened in Italy, one of the greatest inundations [Page 106] from rain that was ever known—a severe pestilence followed, "Pestis inquinoria."

In 696, the same disease raged in Constantinople; but no particulars are mentioned.

A severe winter preceded this pestilence, when the Thames was covered with ice for six weeks.

In 707 a terribly severe winter is mentioned and a violent earthquake in Scotland. Short mentions pestilence in Scotland in 703 and in 713, but I have no particulars.

In 717 happened a very severe winter, so that animals died of cold; and the same year, a great overflowing of the Tyber. The Saracens, in an immense army, marching to besiege Con­stantinople, perished with cold, hunger and pestilence, and in the city, the plague extinguished the lives of 300,000 of its in­habitants. An earthquake in Syria in 718.

Here is a chasm in the history of comets of 40 years—at least I can find no mention made of them from 685, to 729. The severe winter and the inundation of 717 however leave very little room to question the approximation of one at that time, and others doubtless appeared, during this period. ^*

There was a great plague in Constantinople in 724.

In the year 725, a vapor like smoke issued for several days, from the sea between Thera and Therasia, the two islands which, many centuries before, had arisen from the bottom of the sea. With this vapor issued dense substances, which, when exposed to the air, grew hard and formed a species of pumice, with which the neighboring sea and the coun [...]ies of Asia Minor and Macedonia were covered. A small island arose at the same time.

[Page 107]In 729 appeared two comets in January; one preceding the sun, visible in the morning; the other following it, was seen in the evening. The same year the plague prevailed in Norwich.

A plague in Syria raged in 732, but no particulars are men­tioned. The following year, the heavens appeared all in a flame.

The next pestilential period is remarkable for the violence of the operations of nature.

In 740 a tremendous earthquake, or rather a continuation of successive shocks for twelve months, announced the commence­ment of a series of calamities. It began on the 7th Kal. No­vember, and demolished buildings, statues and walls in Con­stantinople, with a multitude of cities in Thrace, Nicomedia and Bythinia. Sigibert places these events in 741.

In 742, or as others say in 743, a most severe drouth was followed by most terrible earthquakes. The next year appeared a comet and the year following, another; and the third year af­ter the drouth, which was either in 745 or 6, according to dif­ferent authors, a remarkable thick darkness covered the earth from August to October. At this time the plague was raging at Calabria in Naples, and it continued to spread with dreadful havock for several succeeding years, in the countries of the east. So violent was it in Constantinople in 746, that the living could not bury the dead; but the bodies were carried in cart-loads and thrown into empty cisterns, and any place that would conceal them from the sight. Fatal indeed was the disease, when "eo­dem die aliquis mortuum efferebat, et ipse mortuus afferebatur"— the man who buried a corpse, was sometimes carried, the same day, to his grave.

In the order of the events here related authors agree. Ce­drenus mentions an extraordinary light or flame in the sky in 742, and a similar flame in the north, the year following. He mentions at the same time a famin in Constantinople; and limits the darkness to five days, from the 10th to 15th of August.

At the close of this period and while the plague raged in Con­stantinople, in 749 or 50, Syria was laid waste by an earthquake [Page 108] —whole cities were exterminated—others removed entire from mountains to plains, for a distance of six miles. This catastro­phe corresponded with the approach of a comet. Short men­tions two.

Such was the waste of people in Constantinople by the pre­ceding plagues, that the emperor Constantine repaired the loss by introducing the inhabitants of neighboring countries.

In 760 or 61, for this difference occurs among good author­ities, appeared a comet, or light, called dokites, by the Greeks, from its resemblance to a beam; which was visible 10 days in the east and 21 in the west.—In 762 appeared two other comets and the following winter was the most severe probably on record. It began about the first of October, and lasted till February. The Euxine sea was frozen to the distance of one hundred miles from the shore, and the snow and ice accumulated to the depth of thirty cubits. In this frost, the animal and vegetable king­doms suffered great injury. On the breaking up of winter, the ice from the Danube and the Euxine was forced in huge masses, into the Bosphorus, and against the walls of Constantinople, which were greatly damaged.

In March, falling stars, or meteors were very frequent, and the succeeding summers were remarkable for most terrible drouth, in which all springs were exhausted. Myriads of venemous flies appeared, and a desolating mortality concluded this series of disordered seasons.

Short mentions a fatal pestilence in Wales in 762.

On the authority of Short, I have mentioned a mortality af­ter the severe and unusual seasons of 763 and 4; but the original writers I have consulted do not mention it; tho the fact may be found in others which I have not seen. It is altogether probable that such extraordinary seasons should occasion great sickness; but it is equally probable that if any destructive and general plague had followed them, the writers I have consulted would have mentioned it.

I am led to notice this circumstance, by the consideration that [Page 109] no earthquake is recorded during this period. This circum­stance is of no small consequence in this inquiry; and is a con­firming proof of the justness of my suspicions, that pestilence has an intimate connection with subterranean heat or the action of fire. It appears that the plague, for the most part, is violent and extensive, in proportion to the action of the fire that exists in and about the globe. The preceding pestilential period, be­ginning in 740, is a striking instance of the truth of this remark.

A great mortality happened in 766. In 767 a severe drouth exhausted all springs and rivers and the year following was dis­tinguished by a comet. Pestilence prevailed in England in 771, and in Chichester died 34,000 people.

Short mentions plague and famin in France in 779—a comet, an earthquake at Constantinople, and pestilence in Scotland in 784; but I have no particulars.

In the reign of Charlemagne, about the beginning of the ninth century, commenced a period of great mortality. A comet in 799, was followed by an excessively cold winter in 800. These events were preceded by violent earthquakes in Si­cily and Crete and in 798, an extraordinary darkness in Eng­land of seventeen days. In 801 earthquakes shook Italy, France and Germany, and these phenomena were repeated in 802 and 3. A prodigious tempest in the year 800, levelled a multitude of buildings.

In 802 the plague prevailed in various places, "propter mo­litiem hyberni temporis," says the annalist Bartianus, by reason of a mild winter. This however could not be the true reason.

In 808 a very mild winter was followed by the plague. In 810 happened the greatest mortality among horned cattle that is on record. In some places in Germany, it destroyed almost all the species.

In 811 swarms of locusts from Africa invaded Italy and de­voured every green thing.

In 812 appeared a comet, and after a chasm in the accounts of Etna of nearly four hundred years, that volcano is recorded [Page 110] to have discharged fire in this year. P. Diaconus places the comet in 813, and a violent earthquake.

In 817 was a comet, and a pestilence soon after commenced, which authors relate to have arisen from excessive rains and a humid air. This plague raged in almost every part of France in 820, and crops failing from excess of moisture, a famin ensued. Baronius mentions earthquakes in 820 in those places where the Christians were persecuted. The following winter was so severe that the Rhine and the Danube were covered with solid ice for more than 30 days, and sustained loaded carriages.

In 823 was another most severe winter, in which the snow lay on the earth twenty nine weeks, and occasioned the death of many animals and men. An earthquake and a universal plague in France. The next year fell a shower of hail, which killed men and cattle. Severe drouth the same year.

In 827 the Thames was covered with ice for nine weeks.

In 828 appeared a comet in Libra; and in 829, another in Aries; with many meteors. The earth in France was violently shaken in 329; a violent tempest followed, but no pestilence is mentioned.

In 839 appeared a comet and another in 842. In 840 Con­stantinople was shaken for five days, and some parts of France felt the shock. The rains were excessive, the Rhine overflow­ed, and the storms of hail and wind were unusually severe.

In 850 another comet is mentioned, and in the following year a most severe drouth, which occasioned a famin that com­pelled men to feed on human flesh.—There was a severe earth­quake in Gaul the preceding year.—A pestilence in many parts of Scotland in 853.

It will be observed that no pestilence is noted under some of these last instances of comets and other phenomena. History, during the dark and barbarous ages under consideration, is ex­tremely [Page 111] barren; and the smaller calamities of all kinds have been passed over in silence. Whether any considerable mortality prevailed, at these periods or not, we cannot determin from the silence of the dull annals of the dark ages.

In 855 an earthquake at Constantinople, and in other places, violent tempests. In 856 another earthquake and a tremendous inundation of the Tyber, which was followed by an epidemic disease, called a plague of the fauces, in which the throat was obstructed by defluxions, and sudden death ensued. ^* In 858 a comet, and the succeeding winter was so severe that the Adriatic sea was covered with ice and people walked on it to Venice. This was followed by an earthquake in Constantinople.

Muratori relates that in 855, two unusual stars appeared for ten days, alternately, and that the next year the winter was very severe, dry and pestilential, so that a great portion of men perished. But I suspect he refers to the same years mentioned in the preceding paragraph.

The plague was in Scotland in 863.

The winter of 864 is recorded as very severe. In 867 there were violent tempests, and in the following year a general famin in Europe, severe earthquakes and a comet.

In 872 a comet, and a most excessive heat and drouth, which cut short the grain.

In 874 appeared in France myriads of grass-hoppers or locusts of a remarkable size, with six feet and two teeth harder than stone. They are represented as having leaders, which went be­fore them a days journey, measuring a certain space; the swarm followed about 9 o'clock and there waited for the rising of the sun, obscuring the heavens by their numbers, and with a broad mouth and large intestines, devouring every green herb and tree. Their days journey was four or five miles.

These animals were at last driven into the British channel by the winds, and being washed ashore, their putrefying bodies caus­ed [Page 112] a stench, and sickness, which, with a pinching famin, de­stroyed a third of the people, on the neighboring French coast.

The succeeding winter, 875, was terribly severe and contin­ued from November to the vernal Equinox.

In this or the following year, for authors differ, appeared a comet of extraordinary brightness, and in June following, were deluges of rain, which, in Saxony, swept away a whole village, with its inhabitants and cattle.

In the year 878 a mortal pestilence raged among the cattle, especially about the Rhine. Dogs and birds which at first col­lected round the dead bodies, suddenly disappeared.

In 879 there was an eruption of Vesuvius.

In Feb. 882 appeared a comet with a vast coma preceded in January by an earthquake. In the next year Italy was severely afflicted by famin. In 884 the plague was in Oxford.

In 887 the winter was unusually long and severe; and a pes­tilence among cattle was so mortal, that few survived it.

A comet is noted under 896, and a famin in France and Ger­many, in the following year.—Italy was shaken by earthquakes.

In May 904 appeared a comet, followed by a severe frosty winter of four months, and violent earthquakes with mortal pes­tilence in 905.

In 912 appeared a comet of unusual splendor and the following winter was very cold "acutissimum fuit frigus," and meteors in the air very frequent. A famin followed in Germany, and Italy experienced earthquakes.

The plague was in Scotland in 922.

A severe winter in which the Thames was frozen for 13 weeks in 929, followed by a dreadful famin, is mentioned by the last cited authors. An earthquake is mentioned in 935, and a pesti­lence in 937, but no details.

[Page 113]In 940 there was a severe winter and pestilence among cattle.

In 942 and again 944 appeared a co [...]t, the latter very large with a brilliant coma; followed by se [...]re famin in France and Italy. Some authorities place the latter comet in 945. The winter of 946 or 7 was long and severe, continuing to the ver­nal equinox of the next year.

The same period was marked by earthquakes in France and Germany.

In 954 pestilence invaded the north of Europe, with great destruction—Scotland lost forty thousand inhabitants. The following winter was severe.

In 961 a flame or fiery column appeared in the heavens. In 962 a very severe winter and a famin. In 964 a dreadful plague in the Emperor Otho's army. In 968 a comet, an earthquake and violent winds which destroyed the grain and occasioned famin.

English authors mention a malignant fever in London in 961; at which time there was a large marsh on the south side of the Thames.

In 975 appeared a very large comet in harvest, and the fol­lowing winter was excessively severe. The next year England was afflicted with grievous famin. An earthquake preceded, in 974.

In 981 a comet and in 983 another. In this latter year was an eruption of Vesuvius. Universal famin followed and a plague among the Lacedemonians.

This period was followed by desolating earthquakes in Lacede­mon in 986:—In 987 the season was unfavorable and occasioned dearth—malignant fevers prevailed in England and the cattle died of fluxes.

Meteors and a flaming sky were observed in 993, in which [Page 114] year was a great eruption of Vesuvius. Then followed an ex­cessively severe winter, which lasted from November to May. The rivers were frozen dry, fish perished and a scarcity of wa­ter ensued. In July a severe frost gave to the trees the gloomy aspect of winter.

With these singular seasons prevailed a famin and a deadly plague among men and cattle.

In 995 a comet was seen. The Saxon Chronicle places the foregoing events three years earlier.

In 996 an epidemic flux prevailed with great malignity in England.

The events here related are similar to what are common at the present day; a volcanic discharge of fire being followed by unusual cold and snow. Meteors also are common near the time of such discharges.

Hitherto our accounts of the great volcanoes have been very imperfect. The first instance of an eruption in Iceland, which is recorded, was in the year 1000; and from that period we have a regular history of volcanic discharges in that island, which is one of the principal outlets of fire on the globe, and which, we shall find, has no small connection with the extensive and powerful operations of fire, both in Europe and America. There are many volcanoes in the island of which Heckla is the principal.

In the year 1000, there was an eruption in Iceland, two globes of fire or great meteors were seen, violent earthquakes in England, and a severe winter followed. In the same year ap­peared a comet with a long coma.

In the year following a flux, and fevers with a burning ague, were epidemic and mortal in England.

The next period of general pestilence was remarkable for its extent, violence and attending phenomena.

In 1004, an eruption of Heckla in Iceland, with a violent earthquake announced the approaching calamity. In 1005 ap­peared a comet of frightful aspect, and in the winter Italy was, [Page 115] for three months, convulsed by earthquakes. In the same year commenced a famin, and a plague of three years duration, which desolated the whole earth. Cotemporary authors affirm that more than half the human race perished. The living were fatigued with burying the dead—"ut sepelientium taedio, vivi ad huc spiritum trahentes, obruerenter cum mortuis." Such was the weariness of those that buried the corpses, that the living before their breath had left their bodies, were tumbled into the graves with the dead.

At the close of this horrible destruction, Vesuvius discharged prodigious quantities of lava which laid waste the neighboring country.

In 1009 was seen a comet in May. The beginning of the year the earth was deluged with rain, and a plague among the Saxons followed.

The plague is also mentioned under the year 1012, with vi­olent rains and inundations, followed by an earthquake in 1013. But the necessary materials for a detail are wanting.

In 1015 appeared a comet, attended with violent tempests, and followed by famin in 1016. In 1017 another comet was seen, and the following year is noted as pestilential. But I have no particulars.

In 1020 was seen another comet, and the winter was exces­sively severe, so that men perished with cold. This was fol­lowed by pestilence, in which the bodies of the infected gene­rated "serpents," says the historian; by which he probably means some species of worms. A similar fact will be related from Thuanus in the 16th century.

In 1021 was an earthquake, and the next year, the drouth and heat were extreme.

In 1025 the summer was wet. The plague raged in England, and in other parts of Europe, pestilence with violent earthquakes.

In 1029 was an eruption of Heckla, and pestilence in some parts of Europe.

A comet in 1031 was accompanied, in its passage, through [Page 116] the system, with great storms of wind and rain, producing vast inundations. In France, England and the east raged famin and pestilence. Locusts were added to these calamities, which were so severe in some parts of the world, that multitudes were com­pelled to leave their country Violent earthquakes marked this year, and what is usual in the tempestuous seasons occasioned by comets distinguished by volcanic eruptions, a splendid meteor, or globe of fire.

During an eclipse of the sun in 1032 or 3, authors mention a singular phenomenon—a saffron color in the air, which gave to the human countenance a cadaverous aspect. But it might be merely the effect of a partial darkness, with a hazy atmosphers.

A severe winter in 1035, was followed by an eruption of Vesuvius in 1036. The frequent coincidences of this kind de­serve notice.

In 1037 is noted an igneous appearance in the heavens, like a beam. These phenomena were followed by pestilence in Eng­land and in the Emperor's army, and with earthquakes.

In 1042 commenced another distressing period. A comet in this year was followed by an eruption of Vesuvius in 1043 and snow in harvest. The year 1042 was very tempestuous and rainy; the dykes in Flanders yielded to the swelling ocean, and the low grounds were overwhelmed, with infinite destruction. At this time began a general famin in England, France and Germany. The year 1043 was also distinguished for rains and storms; autumnal snows were early, and an infectious disease carried off vast numbers of cattle. In 1044 there was great mortality among men.

In 1047 fell a deep snow in the west of Europe, which over­whelmed small trees, and lay till March. In March 1048 was a violent earthquake, followed by a tempestuous season and great sickness. There was an eruption of Vesuvius the same year, and an earthquake in October. The reader will remark a very regular connection between eruptions of volcanoes and violent winds.

[Page 117]During this period the countries about the Hellespont were, for three years, ravaged by locusts.

In 1052 a tempest is noted which demolished many buildings. In 1053 a comet which was followed by a famin. But the seasons are not described.

In 1057 severe frost and great quantities of snow ruined the vines. During the following year, a comet was seen, the year after which the winter was very long and severe, and in 1060 prevailed famin, and plague among men and cattle.

In 1062 a trembling of the earth in Constantinople, attended with thunder and lightning, was succeeded by the plague. The next year was distinguished by a comet, visible 40 days, a tem­pest of four days, deep snow, and extreme cold, which proved fatal to vines, trees, birds and cattle.

In 1065 several hundred thousand Scythians, marching to in­vade the Roman empire, perished with pestilential diseases.

In 1066 a comet was seen in May, and a cold winter suc­ceeded. Egypt and Arabia, countries not subject to earth­quakes, were violently convulsed in November, and a plague speedily followed, which, authors affirm, swept away one half the inhabitants. This was attended with famin.

The north of Europe speedily felt similar calamities. Vio­lent earthquakes in 1068, and a comet in May, of apparent di­ameter equal to that of the moon, visible 40 days, were suc­ceeded by famin. The country in England from Durham to York was depopulated. Men subsisted on dogs, cats and every unclean thing; or perished and their bodies were left to putrefy on the earth. The winters were unusually severe.

In 1074 another comet appeared and a hard winter. The winter of 1076 was excessively cold from Nov. to March, so that the roots of vines were killed. In April 1077 appeared a comet, and famin and plague raged in Constantinople with such mortality, that the living could not bury the dead. An earth­quake was experienced in England. Shocks were also felt in 1081 and 1082.

In 1084 raged famin and pestilence; the latter cut off the [Page 118] whole army of the Emperor Henry, in Rome. In 1085, Rus­sia was laid waste by locusts and the plague. The seasons were unfavorable in England, the crops bad and a great mortality among cattle. In 1086, were great inundations in Flanders, Italy and other countries; and in 1087 the fish died in the rivers.

Authors relate that in 1086, domestic fowls left the houses and fled to the woods. The two following years, the same ca­lamities continued—bad seasons, murrain among cattle, and a violent fever, which appeared in the former year, raged in these and affected one half the people of England. In 1089 a burn­ing plague destroyed mankind. Earthquakes distinguished these periods.

In 1091 appeared a comet; another in 1094; a third in 1096, and a fourth in 1098.

In 1091, many violent tempests happened which levelled buildings, 600 houses were blown down in London; swarms of locusts darkened the sun, and the next year a plague raged, which the historian relates to have arisen from the putrefaction of their bodies. The place where the locusts appeared is not named.

A most severe winter in 1093, occured after a very rainy sum­mer in England. The summer of 1094 was also excessively rainy.—The plague at the same time raged in England, Gaul and Germany. A violent earthquake with a tempest in 1094. The comet in Oct. 1096 was attended with great rains, which prevented the sowing of winter grain, and famin followed. Va­rious fiery appearances and meteors were observed, during this period, and the winter of 1095 was severe.

In 1098 a pestilence invaded cattle, from the bad quality of their food, which had been injured by great rains. This was the year of the last comet above named, and in the following year, was a hard winter and a dearth. Syracuse was injured by an earthquake.

To the year 1099 or the following, is to be assigned the ter­rible inundation which spread over the low lands in Kent, be­longing [Page 119] to Earl Goodwin, and which, never having been recov­ered, now form the shoals, called Goodwin Sands, of dange­rous navigation.—A severe winter followed, and pestilence and famin in various places.

It is probable that the events related in the two last paragraphs happened in the same year. The inundation is said to have drowned in Holland one hundred thousand people.

A dark day is mentioned in the year 1099.

In the year 1100 raged a pestilence in Palestine, said to have originated from the stench of dead bodies. In Syracuse, a vio­lent earthquake demolished a tower, with the loss of many lives. In 1101 a singular meteor, and such multitudes of worms, called papiliones, from their resemblance to a pavilion, that they cover­ed two or three miles of country.

In 1103 a new star shone for twenty-five days, and a comet of a bright flaming color.—A great mortality happened this year.

In 1105, there was a discharge of fire from Heckla, and in the same year, a great quantity of snow, a violent earthquake in Jerusalem, about Christmas, and about the same time, a light in the west almost equal to the sun, and two mock suns.

In Feb. of the following year, a comet ^* of unusual splen­dor for three weeks was visible from three to nine o'clock, and two mock suns. A violent earthquake happened the same year. Many meteors were seen and violent tempests and inundations, with myriads of insects in the air, marked the disorder of the elements.—The year was also noted for sterility of grain, and a consequent dearth—men were attacked with plague and unusual diseases—"ignotis morbis, igne, flamma, ardore invisibili homi­nes excruciati et absque ad ustionis nota extincti."

The reader cannot fail to remark how regularly the mention of comets is accompanied with a failure of crops, meteors, and tem­pests. We have proof in modern times that these were not the [Page 120] fictions of imagination. See the years 1769-70—1783-4— 1788-9.

In 1107 appeared a comet with a long coma—another was seen in Normandy in 1108.

In the year 1109 erysipelous diseases were epidemic in England; which afflicted and destroyed many people; their limbs covered with black spots, like carbuncles.

In December 1109 appeared a comet, and in June 1110 another, which spread its coma to the south. A severe winter, with deep snow and long continued cold, followed and sterility of grain. An unusual recess of water in the Trente, severe earthquake in Salop, and a mortality among men and cattle dis­tinguished the year 1111.—An earthquake and severe plague are mentioned under the year 1112; but the year was remarkable for abundant crops of grain.—This year there was an extraor­dinary recess of the water in the British Channel for a whole day, fish died in the water and domestic fowls took flight into the woods.

Here we have an account of a progression in the pestilence— from the eruptive diseases of 1109 to the plague in 1112—This is the modern order.

In 1113 or, as some authorities have it, in May 1114, a comet appeared, and in a period of distressing calamities. In this year there was an eruption from Heckla in Iceland.

In May 1113 an extraordinary snow very much injured trees and vegetables. In June a dreadful tempest laid waste whole countries, and the excessive heat of the summer produced dys­entery and other pestilential epidemics. In 1114 many cities in Syria were prostrated by an earthquake; and its effects were felt in all the oriental countries. In November 1115 many houses in Antioch were swallowed up in a chasm rent in the earth. In January 1116 various places suffered by shocks of the earth, and in 1117 all Italy was shaken for forty days.

In 1113 Flanders was overwhelmed by an inundation, which compelled many Flemmings to abandon their country, and they settled in England.

[Page 121]This event seems to fix the approach of the comet in the year 1113.

Severe drouth and a singular recess of the ocean left rivers dry in 1114. October 15th people walked over the Thames between London bridge and the tower. In December the sky appeared to be in a flame.

The winter of 1115 was most rigorous, and a terrible mor­tality swept away the cattle. A comet appeared this year also.

The year 1116 was rainy and fruits were destroyed. In 1117 swarms of locusts about Jerusalem devoured vegetation, and in England great damage was done by floods.

In 1118 and 1119 earthquakes were violent. In 1120 the locusts and mice overran Judea, and Trent suffered much from earthquakes. A severe winter followed in 1121, and a drouth the next year, which occasioned a scarcity of provision, and men and cattle perished.

In the foregoing period, no great pestilence is mentioned, but such diseases as were occasioned by intemperate seasons, except among cattle.

In 1124 happened a very severe winter, which destroyed trees and vines—succeeded by a cold spring which retarded ve­getation. The following year was noted for a destructive plague among men and cattle, in France and Brabant. Terrible was the famin in Italy, and in England so many people perished with hunger, that dead bodies lay in the highways unburied. In 1125 the famin, accompanied with pestilence, continued in Eng­land, Germany and Italy. The season was excessively wet and all fruits were injured or destroyed. In 1126 appeared a comet in October, followed by a winter excessively severe, and in the following year, violent earthquakes occurred in Syria. Erysi­pelous distempers were fatal in England.

In the pestilence of 1125, it was computed that one third of the people perished.

In 1130, 31 and 32, happened the most destructive murrain [Page 122] among cattle and fowls ever known in England. In 1131 an excessive drouth in France.

In October 1133 appeared a comet. The same year, Eng­land was shaken by earthquakes, and inundations continued a whole month. Authors assert that the sun exhibited singular appearances, changing its figure and dimensions, and that there was a remarkable intemperature in the air. In modern times, the face of the sun is often disfigured with spots, and it is not unphilosophical to suppose that moving vapor in the air may sud­denly change its apparent diameter.

In 1134 the sea broke into Flanders, as it did in the follow­ing year. This year was rainy.

In 1135 the drouth destroyed vegetation and occasioned a dearth. The Rhine was fordable in almost any place. Terri­ble tempests and earthquakes and an eruption of Vesuvius mark­ed this period, and a dreadful plague ensued.

The eruption of Vesuvius was in 1136 and a second in 1139. The summer of 1137 was as remarkable for drouth, as was that of 1135. The plague was universal. The disorders in the elements occasioned a long and desolating famin.

Knighton mentions the sun's changing its form in 1133, and adds that a darkness happened which rendered a candle necessary in the day time.

From this it is probable the sun presented appearances, like those which we observed on the 19th of May 1780, and which are usual in dark days.

The reader will remark the occurrence of such days, in years when electricity shakes the earth, or fire and lava are discharged by volcanoes. He will note also the drouth that preceded the eruption of Vesuvius in 1135 and 1138.

In 1140 was an earthquake in England. In 1141 a very severe winter. In 1143 the air, for a mile in extent, was filled with an unusual insect, with the body of a worm and the size of a fly. A general plague among men and cattle began the same year, and raged with great violence in various countries. [Page 123] In 1144 or as some authors relate in May 1145 appeared a comet, illuminating the heavens, and the same year were violent earthquakes. In 1146 another comet, and the plague incredibly fatal. A famin prevailed with distressing severity, for 12 years, including the years just named.

If men, at this period, had any respite from natural evils, the intervals were very short. In 1150 a very severe winter and severe pestilence are recorded in the Saxon chronicle, together with famin and an eruption of fire in Iceland. Earthquakes, inundations and pestilence marked the subsequent years. The years 1151 and 2 are mentioned to have been very rainy—the winter of 1153 and 4 severe, and the summer of 1156 exces­sively dry. These phenomena follow each other so rapidly, and are related with such brevity and in general terms, that it leaves the mind at a loss to what influence to ascribe the diseases which afflicted nations for a series of years about this period. In this gloomy and barbarous age of the world, history is concise and destitute of accurate observations.

In 1157 there was an eruption in Iceland, with a very cold winter. In 1158 an eruption of Vesuvius, an earthquake in England, and an inudation of the Tyber. Pestilence appeared in Scotland in 1154.

Not long after these events, Antioch, Tripoli, and Damas­cus were convulsed by an earthquake, with the loss of 20,000 lives.

After an interval of more than 300 years, during which I find in history no account of any eruptions from Etna, this vol­cano is introduced to our notice by an almost continual eruption from 1160 to 1169. Earthquakes were violent in 1161—in Sicily an inundation drowned 5000 people—in 1163 one of the greatest inundations in Friesland ever known, preceded by a very severe winter. At this time the plague was raging in Mi­lan, Normandy and Aquitain. Unusual darkness is mentioned in 1164. In England, the sea overflowed twelve miles of country, destroying men, cattle and improvements. In 1165, a comet appeared with a long coma; 12,000 people perished by an inundation in Sicily, and Norfolk and Suffolk in England [Page 124] were shaken by an earthquake. Most of Frederick Barbarossa's army perished by the plague in 1167. This period was remark­able for great wind and hail.

In 1169 the eruption of Etna was very violent; Catana was demolished by an earthquake, and 15,000 people perished —Asia Minor felt the shock. In the next year, so general and tremendous were the earthquakes, that many of the best cities in Syria, Palestine and other countries, were laid in ruins. Germany suffered by earthquakes and inundations. Pestilence marked this period, and in 1172 a malignant dysentery raged in England.

In 1174 mention is made, for the first time, of an epidemic cough or catarrh. There is however no question that influenza and measles always preceded or accompanied pestilence in the ancient and middle ages, as they do in modern times. Authors have neglected to record the prevalence of all the minor epi­demics, or nearly all, until after the invention of printing.

In 1175 history mentions an eruption of Etna, pestilential diseases in England and a famin. In 1176 a long and severe winter, and an irruption of the sea into Holland with immense destruction—a severe drouth followed with a loss of seed time. The year 1177 was distinguished for violent winds.

In 1178 a comet was succeeded by a most rigorous winter, and destructive inundations. On the 11th of September, was a dark day, with singular appearances of the sun and moon. A­nother comet is mentioned in 1179 and a great hail storm.

In 1181 appeared a comet, and earthquakes, with an eruption of Etna, marked this period.—At this time Denmark was al­most laid desolate by excessive rains, famin and pestilence, while Germany lost half of its inhabitants by the plague. Some al­lowance must be made for exaggeration in the accounts of the more destructive plagues. This was an age of superstition, and the imaginations of men were susceptible of strong impressions.

In 1185 is recorded a most violent earthquake, over Europe. Calabria was overturned, and thousands perished. On the Adriatic, a whole city was swallowed up, and the shock was felt to the Baltic.

[Page 125]In 1186 Russia and Poland were desolated by locusts and pestilence. The winter was so mild, that the following harvest was in May, and vintage in August. In Carinthia, the locusts devoured every green thing.

An unusual conjunction of planets happened, this year, in Libra; and so great was the alarm, in that ignorant and credu­lous age, on account of the calamities predicted by astrologers, that a solemn fast of three days was appointed by the Archbishop of Canterbury. Luckily no uncommon event happened in Eng­land, until the next year, when pestilential diseases prevailed a­mong men and cattle. In 1188 the plague was in Rome.

I have no accounts of comets in this period from 1181 to 1211; altho it is probable that several were visible.

How far may we suppose the conjunction of all the planets had any influence in producing the remarkably mild winter of 1186?

In January 1193 was a remarkable aurora borealis.

In 1193 and 4 excessive rains injured the grain and produced a dearth. In England an acute pestilential fever was epidemic and left in health scarcely a number of persons sufficient to tend the sick. The usual forms of burial were neglected, and dead bodies were thrown into graves in piles. A severe winter put a stop to this epidemic. Brompton, with a natural partiality for religious houses, informs us that the only places exempted from the destruction of this pestilence, were the monasteries—Cotem­porary with this disease was an earthquake and a singular fiery appearance in the sky. Short places this fever under the year 1196 and calls it a "burning ague." See the years 1001 and 1723.

The winter of 1200 was cold; the summer of 1201 was very rainy; and the winter succeeding was severe almost beyond example. In 1203 was a sore famin from bad seasons. In 1205 a rigorous winter and a great hail storm; in 1206 an erup­tion of Heckla; but I have no account of any epidemics that prevailed.

[Page 126]In 1210 was an eruption of Heckla, and a cold winter. In 1211 appeared a comet, in May, visible for 18 days. Great tempests marked this period with inundations. In 1212 Venice and Damascus were violently agitated by earthquakes, and in Sicily thousands perished by an inundation. These phenomena were the heralds of a severe pestilence, which, in 1213, was so fatal in Italy, that authors affirm scarcely one tenth of the in­habitants survived. In the year following appeared two comets.

The year 1219 was distinguished for the approach of a large comet, distressing inundations, in one of which perished 36,000 inhabitants, an earthquake and a volcanic eruption in Iceland. In 1220 the plague was so fatal in Damietta, that authors re­late three persons only survived out of 70,000. By this we are to understand the disease to have been extremely mortal; but we must reject the literal meaning of such relations. It is doubt­less true that the pestilence of this period has rarely been ex­ceeded in mortality.

This period was very calamitous in the north of Europe. In 1221 Poland was afflicted by excessive rains, and the floods which followed swept away whole villages. The winter suc­ceeding was severe, so that frozen wine was sold by weight, while famin and pestilence almost desolated Europe. In most countries, the living could hardly bury the dead; and in some cities, scarcely a person survived.

In the year 1222 appeared a comet of unusual magnitude and the summer was excessively dry. A frost, with deep snow in April, destroyed the fruits. In autumn the earth was deluged with rains and swept with violent winds. An earthquake shook Germany and Lombardy; in Cyprus two cities were demolished; the shocks were frequent and continued for two months, in Brixia, Venice, England and other countries. The plague raged, for three years, with uncontrolable fury, in Germany, Hungary, France and other countries; falling on cattle as well as man.

During this dreadful period, the discharges of fire and lava, from the volcanoes in Iceland, exceeded what had been before known in the same space of time. There were two eruptions in [Page 127] 1222, one from Heckla; the other from Reikenese; and the eruptions of the latter were repeated in 1223, 1225 and 1226. In 1224 was a severe drouth; in 1225 a rigorous winter, fol­lowed by a dearth, and mortal diseases among sheep.

Let any candid man observe the natural phenomena accompa­nying this desolating period, from 1219 to 1226; and decide for himself how far the fire or electricity of the system is an agent in producing them, and the attending diseases.

We observe here the progress of pestilence to be the same as in modern times. The plague appeared in Egypt almost at the same time with the comet, and first derangement of the elements in 1219 and 1220; but was two, three, four and five years later in the high northern latitudes.

No comet is mentioned in the histories of this dark period, as far as I can find, from 1222 to 1240; but that there was one, in the vicinity of the [...]rth, between 1228 and 1233, is very probable.

In 1228 an inundation in Friesland demolished whole towns, and it was estimated that 100,000 people perished. Great rains in summer and excessive heat were followed [...] severe winter, with deep snow.

In 1230 the waters of the Tyber rose to the stairs of St. Peter's Church, and drowned the lower city. July and August were excessively hot. An inundation of the Danube in 1232, and in 1233 so severe a frost, that rivers were converted into highways in Italy; and earthquakes marked the year, with a dark day.

During this period from 1230 to 1233, France, Denmark and Italy were wasted by dreadful famin and plague. These ca­lamities continued in 1234 and 5, in England and France. In London alone 20,000 people were starved. Worms and locusts devoured the fruits of the earth.

The winter of 1236 was rainy—the following summer ex­tremely dry, and in England most distressing agues were ep­idemic. In 1237 was an eruption of a volcano in Iceland.

In 1239 pestilence again raged—a new star, like Lucifer appeared. Famin was so severe that persons fed on human flesh.

[Page 128]In 1240 a comet appeared in Feb. and was visible a month. Mortal diseases prevailed, and authors relate that the fish, on the English coast had a battle, in which eleven whales and a multitude of other fish were slain and cast ashore. The cause to which this phenomenon is assigned is laughable enough; but the fact is important; for it strengthens modern observations, that when pestilential diseases prevail on the surface of the earth, fish often perish beneath the water. Of this no doubt can re­main; and this alone demonstrates that the pestilential cause is as powerful or nearly so, at the bottom of rivers and the ocean, as on the earth—a fact that reduces the theory of propagating the fomes of epidemic diseases in vessels, clothes and similar articles, from one country to another, to a thing of very trifling consideration.

The winter of 1240 was very severe—the snow was deep and cattle perished. An eruption of fire in Iceland is noted the same year.

In 1242 the Thames rose by means of excessive rains and overwhelmed the country for six miles about Lambeth. The years 1243 and 4 were remarkable for continued drouth, mete­ors and a most fatal plague.—An eruption of fire in Iceland in 1245.

In 1247 a violent earthquake was experienced in England, and in September a fatal plague. The earthquake was in Feb­ruary and followed by a very rainy summer. The winter fol­lowing was so mild, that people wore their summer clothes; but from March to May was cold.

The summer of 1250 was rainy and tempestuous, followed by a hard winter. The summer of 1251 was intolerably hot, and epidemic diseases prevailed, with great mortality.

In 1252 late frosts in spring, and succeeding drouth destroy­ed the fruits of the earth. At the close of July came great rains, vegetation started, but great mortality prevailed among cat­tle. At Michaelmas began the plague in London, which spread o [...]r England, and raged till August following. This is one instance of the plague's appearing in autumn, running through [Page 129] the winter, and ceasing about the time, in the hot season, when that disease usually begins.

The winter of 1254 was rigorously cold, a murrain among sheep was very fatal, and in England and France a mortal dis­temper among horses called the evil of the tongue, but it is not described.

In 1255 appeared a comet; tides rose to an uncommon height; rivers swelled with excessive rains and tempests levelled buildings. In 1256 the rains and tempests were equally violent, and another comet appeared. In 1257 the summer was also excessively rai­ny. From these rains came a dearth of corn in England and France in 1258, which was also rainy; and famin and diseases made havoc with human life. Fifteen thousand persons perished by hunger in London; but I have no account that the plague prevailed at that time.

To this series of wet seasons succeeded severe drouth in 1259 and 1260; and the mortality continued till the summer of 1259 —after which plenty succeeded to want.

The year 1261 was rainy in England and Scotland, and a dearth was the consequence in the following year.

In 1262 an eruption of a volcano in Iceland.

In 1263 a severe frost in winter converted the Thames into a highway for men and horses. In 1264 a comet was visible from June 20th to September 28th and pestilential diseases swept away horses and cattle.

In 1266 swarms of Palmer worms devoured all vegetables in Scotland, and several villages on the Tay and Froth were swept away by floods. These were preceded by a remarkable halo.

In 1268 appeared a comet, and violent tempests and rain are noted, together with sterility of grain and dearth in Austria and Sicily.

In 1269 the winter was extremely severe; horses and car­riages passing on the ice over the Thames. A plague raged among the Crusaders, on their march to the holy land, of which died the French king and his son. Some authors mention a comet of stupendous magnitude under this date; which is prob­ably the same as that noted under the foregoing year.

[Page 130]In 1274 was a great earthquake and a comet of frightful as­pect —an earthquake also in 1275.

In this year, it is related, the rot among sheep was first known in England. As this was said to be an imported disease, it is proper to state how it was introduced. Short on Air, vol. 1. 155, says, "This year, a rich Frenchman brought into North­umberland a Spanish ewe, as big as a two year old calf, which sheep being rotten, soon infected the country, so that the disease overspread the whole kingdom, and lasted 25 or 28 years, till it left very few sheep alive. This was the first rot ever known in England."

The reader will judge which is the greater calf, the man who gravely tells or the man who believes such a tale as this.

Historians fix upon the year 1277 for the formation of the Dollert Sea, between Groningen and East-Friesland, by a great inundation, which overwhelmed 33 villages irrecoverably; with many farm-houses in the open country.

In 1280 a great inundation was followed by a very cold win­ter. In 1281 Poland was afflicted with famin. The winter of 1282 was the severest then remembered; an earthquake shook Italy and a plague raged in Denmark. In 1283 the same mal­ady prevailed in Scotland. In 1284 the winter was one of the mildest ever known; the year was also remakable for great tempests, an unusual darkness and an eruption of Etna. The year 1285 was noted for a similar darkness, most parching drouth and the commencement of a famin in England.

This drouth was followed in 1286, by the approach of a comet. In this year, Prussia was infested with a new species of worms, whose sting was poisonous. Swarms of flies and pesti­lential fevers in Spain nearly destroyed the army of the French king, then making war on Arragon.

In 1287 fifteen islands in Zealand were overwhelmed by an inundation, with the loss of 15,000 inhabitants.

In 1288 the summer was excessively hot and dry Grain was however abundant in this and the preceding year The drouth was followed by great mortality and a severe winter.

In 1293 a comet was visible, and a great snow storm happen­ed [Page 131] in May. Italy was shaken by earthquakes. In the follow­ing year, England was distressed by severe famin, thousands of the poor perishing with hunger. A severe drouth exhausted all the springs and rivers, grass withered and cattle were fed on straw. The winter of 1293-4 was extremely cold, and an eruption of Heckla happened in 1294.

In 1295 and 6 many countries were afflicted with famin, and in 1297 the plague prevailed in Scotland.

A comet of great magnitude appeared in 1298, or as other authors say, in 1299, and others in 1300; whose approximation was attended with violent earthquakes in Germany, and other places in 1299, and with an eruption of Heckla in 1300. The year 1298 was noted for a great mortality among the Jews, and multitudes perished in the east with various diseases in 1299.

In 1305 appeared a comet, attended with fatal pestilence. A hard winter followed, and the Rhine was covered with ice.

In 1311 mount Heckla discharged its fiery contents; in 1312 appeared a comet, and a three years famin commenced in Bo­hemia and Poland, which was exceedingly distressing. Men be­came like wolves and preyed on human flesh.

In 1314 incessant rains destroyed the grain; a comet ap­peared in December following, and in 1316 raged a desola­ting dysentery in England, accompanied with an acute fever, which, like the true plague, left scarcely survivors to bury the dead. The famin continued to rage with all its horrors. Horse flesh was a delicious dish. Wheat sold at forty shillings the quar­ter; equivalent to £30 sterling in these days.

In 1318 the winter was severe, and in 1319 the plague pre­vailed in England. A murrain spread among cattle, at the same time, with fatal destruction. ^*

In 1321 the drouth was extreme, and there was an eruption of Etna. Eruptions of Etna are also mentioned in 1323, 1329 and [...]333, and a severe winter, in the first of these years 1323, which covered the Baltic with ice. The plague raged in 1325.

The year 1330 was rainy and the crops indifferent. The year [Page 132] following, Ireland was distressed by famin, but Dublin was re­lieved by plenty of fish, called Thurlhods, which had not been seen there for ages. In 1332 was an eruption in Iceland.

In 1336 grain was abundant. A violent earthquake shook Venice, and a succeeding plague laid waste the city. This was preceded by numerous abortions. ^†

In 1337 happened a severely cold winter, without snow. Two comets were visible, one four months, the other two. The plague prevailed in Nuremberg and other parts of Europe. The winter following was also severe. Pistorius places these comets in 1336, and mentions an inundation at Florence. At this time, Europe was, for three years, ravaged with locusts.

In 1339 or 40, appeared another comet. Great floods, an eruption of Heckla, and a severe winter followed, which cov­ered the north sea with ice.

In travelling through the dark ages, we find but few interest­ing descriptions; and nothing could have induced me to under­take the tedious detail of detached facts respecting pestilence, but a strong desire to ascertain all that can be discovered of the operations of nature, in producing epidemic diseases. It is of infinite importance, in discussing this subject, to know whether certain phenomena of seasons, of subterranean fire, and unusual animals, uniformly attend pestilence; and to ascertain, if possi­ble, the order in which they proceed, for the purpose of dis­covering whether they are connected with each other as cause and effect. Barren as the history of the barbarous ages really is, we yet find it to contain a great number of facts, that will assist us in developing the causes of epidemics. The subsequent pe­riods of the world furnish more ample materials—we now ap­proach the morning of science, when the clearer lights of more accurate history will illuminate our path.

SECTION IV. Historical View of pestilential epidemics, from the year 1340, to 1500.

THE pestilence next to be described was the most general and awfully distressing that the world ever experienced. The precise year when it appeared in Asia, where it began, is not as­certained; but probably about 1345, perhaps a year or two ear­lier.

The histories of that age [...]elate, that it commenced in Cathay, China, and was preceded by the bursting of a huge meteor or globe of fire; or as others relate, the fire burst from the earth. These accounts were taken from Genoese seamen, and are recor­ded by Villani; bu [...] Dr. Mead, with that obstinacy that rejects truth when opposed to preconceived theory, thinks the report incredible, and questions not the disease originated in Egypt. Had he ever examined the subject, like an impartial man, he would have believed the account of the seamen, for there is not a more certain phenomenon in nature, than the appearance of meteors and the explosion of fire in pestilential periods.

This plague appeared in 1346 in Egypt, Syria, Greece, Turkey; in 1347 in Sicily, Pisa, Genoa and other parts of It­aly; in 1348 it appeared in the south of France, first in Avig­non, which is not a maritime city, but at a distance from the sea, and afterwards in other parts of the kingdom and in all the southern provinces of Spain. At the close of the same year, it made its appearance in England, first in Dorsetshire, and soon travelled over the whole country. In 1349 it overrun Ireland, Holland, Scotland, and in 1350 all Germany, Hungary and the north of Europe.

[Page 134]This pestilence was remarkable for raging in winter as well as summer, even in the north of Europe. In France it first ap­peared at Avignon in February and prevailed there nearly a year.

Short has placed its first appearance in the south of England in September. But Archbishop Parker has placed its origin just after Christmas. His words are, "Ea statim post nativitatis dominicae celebratum festum, ipsa nimirum hyeme et rerum omni­um ad victum necessarium copia, cum vix ulla contagionis suspicio oriri mortalibus potuit, incepit." "Immediately after the feast of our Lord's nativity, in winter and amidst the greatest abun­dance of provisions, when there could be no suspicion that a contagious disease would arise among men, the plague commen­ced." It raged about five months and according to this author ceased in May following; altho other authors relate, that it had not gone through the kingdom till late in the summer.

In the English Annals by William Wyrcester, in the black book of the Exchequer, it is said that this plague prevailed in the parts of London and its vicinity in autumn 1349.

These different accounts of the time of the first appearance of this disease, are reconcileable on the principles which modern observations have unfolded. It is found that the plague is always preceded, for some months, and in some instances, for two or three years, by other malignant fevers, which increase gradually to the violence of the true plague; and often the de­grees of violence are so gradual, tha [...] physicians themselves can hardly determin a line of distinction between the malignant dis­ease, which is the precursor of the plague, and the plague itself. That is, they are at a loss to know where the malignant dis­ease ends and the plague begins. Hence all the disputes, at the commencement of a pestilence, whether the disease i [...] the plague or not—a circumstance which appears to have marked the origin of all great plagues, and yet physicians and philosophers in Eu­rope seem never to have suspected the cause.—These facts will be hereafter demonstrated, and they annihilate at [...] blow the whole doctrine of the propagation of that disease from country to coun­try by infection.

[Page 135]From the uniform operations of nature in the case of epi­demic pestilential diseases of the kind under consideration, there must have been in England, during the summer, previous to the appearance of the plague, malignant fevers, which might ap­proach to the violence and fatality of the plague. This circum­stance might create a small difference in the accounts of the ori­gin of the plague—inaccurate observers mistaking the one dis­ease for the other—or rather naming the previous putrid fever, the plague, before it put on the characteristic symptoms.

It is possible however that these authors may refer to the com­mencement of the disease in different parts of England.

This formidable calamity deserves a particular description, with all the phenomena attending it.

In 1347 appeared a frightful comet, in August. Preceding and during the prevalence of the disease, the whole earth was shaken by most tremendous earthquakes. All Germany was shaken in 1346. In 1349 on the 9th of Sept. Sicily was shaken to its foundation, together with all Italy. In Greece many cities were overthrown, and in many places towns and castles were demolished. Thousands of people were swallowed up and the courses of rivers were obstructed.

Over Avignon was suspended a meteor or pillar of fire for an hour. The heavens were at times illuminated as with flame, and meteors were frequent.

I have no particular description of all the seasons, during the five years, in which this mortal pestilence desolated Europe. But the year 134 [...], the year of the comet, was, in England, excessively rainy, and the air humid. ^* Short, from Johan Cole de Billona, mentions that a hot air, cloudy and moist at­mosph [...]re had continued for some years, and that a malignant, contagious peripneumony followed in all Europe. But unfortu­nately the compiler leaves us in the dark as to the precise time of [Page 136] its appearance, and whether before or after the other forms of this pestilence.

Mezeray relates that in China, the disease originated from a vapor, which burst from the earth, was horribly offensive and consumed the face of the country through an extent of 200 leagues. This account may be inaccurate, but is not to be wholly rejected. That some action of subterranean heat was instrumental in generating the disease, is very probable; or at least that some phenomena of fire accompanied it, because this supposition is consonant to the whole series of modern observa­tions.

The pestilential state of air, in that period, is strongly marked by the appearance of myriads of unusual and loathsome insects, not only in China, but in Europe. They are des [...] as young serpents, or as venemous insects, or as large vermin with tails and eight short legs—in which description, probably, a frightened imagination had some share of infl [...]nce. But of the fact of their existence, there can be no doubt.

In the Ouse there was a great inundation just before Ascen­sion day, and in York began this plague speedily after the flood.

The symptoms of this fatal malady were—violent af [...]ction in the head and stomach, buboes and other glandular swellings; small swellings like pimples or blisters; usually a feve [...] [...] a vomiting or spitting of blood.—The swellings in the glands▪ [...]e infallible signs of the disease; but the most fatal symptom was, the pimples or blisters spread over the whole body. Hemorrha­ges from the mouth, nose and other parts, indicated a universal and sudden disorganization of the blood. The patient usually died in three days or less—which denotes the virulence of the poison, or rather the activity of the disease, which destroyed the powers of life in half the time, which the bilious plague usually employs.

The peripneumony which was epidemic about the same time, appeared in a burning fever, insatiable thirst, a black tongue, anxiety and pains about the heart, short breath, a cough with expectoration of a mixed matter, open mouth, raging delirium, fury, red, turbid or black urine, restlessness, and watchings, [Page 137] black eruptions, anthraces, buboes, and in some, corroding ulcers over the whole body. The disease usually terminated the 4th day, sometimes not till the 7th. The blood was black and thick; but sometimes greenish and watery or yellowish.—Venesection was certain death. The disease baffled medical skill—the only remedies that appeared to relieve, were laxatives early admin­istered, cupping and scarification, leeches applied to the hemor­rhoids, and inwardly, infusions of mild, diaphoretic, attenua­ting, pectoral vegetables.

It will be hereafter proved that malignant pleurisy and peripneu­mony usually form a part of that series of diseases which always occur during a period of general contagion. When plague and yellow fever occur in summer, in northern climates, pleurisy and peripneumony often assume, in winter, great and even pestilential violence.

This plague was so deadly that at least half or two thirds of the human race perished in about 8 years. It was most fatal in cities, but in no place died less than a third of the inhabitants. In many cities perished nine out of ten of the people, and many places were wholly depopulated. In London 50,000 dead bod­ies were buried in one grave yard. In Norwich died about the same number. In Venice died 100,000—in Lubec, 90,000— in Florence the same number. In the east perished twenty mil­lions in one year.—In Spain the disease raged three years and carried off two thirds of the people. Alfonso 2d. died with it while besieging Gibraltar.

In this fatal period, the apprehension of death destroyed the value of property. In England, and probably in other coun­tries, cattle were neglected and they ran at large over the coun­try. The corn perished in the fields for want of reapers; whole vill [...]ges were depopulated; and after the malady ceased, multi­tudes of houses and buildings of all kinds were seen mouldering to ruin. A horse which before had been worth forty shillings, after the sickness, sold for half a mark.

Altho in the year preceding there had been a plenty of pro­visions, yet the neglect of agriculture during the general distress produced a famin. Such was the loss of laborers, that the few [Page 138] survivors afterwards demanded exorbitant wages, and the Par­liament of England was obliged to interfere, and limit their wa­ges, and even compel men to labor.—See 23d Edward 3. A. D. 1350. The preamble states, that a great part of the people, especially workmen and servants had died of the late pestilence, and those who survived, seeing the necessity of men, demanded excessive wages.

This disease was particularly fatal in Denmark—all business was at a stand, towns were deserted, and all was terror and des­pair. It reached the highest northern latitudes; it broke out in Iceland, and was so fatal, that the settlements there are sup­posed not to have since recovered their population. It was cal­led the sorte diod, black death.

In some places people attempted to escape infection by taking their families on board of vessels, and putting to sea; but it was in vain; they were seized in every place, without regard to age or sex.

In 1348 the malady swept away the Greenland merchants and seamen. This disease also, or some other cause destroyed the colony of Danes in that country, for it was extinguished and has never been found or heard of to this day.

This pestilence was remarkably fatal to the monks and regular clergy of all descriptions. In one society at Montpeliers, of 140 members died all but 7: About the same proportion perished in Magdalen Society. In Marseilles, of 140 not one survived. But a circumstance related in Knighton's Chronicon deserves particular notice. At Avignon where the disease first appeared in France, 66 of the Carmelites had died, before the citizens were apprized of the fact; and when it was discovered, the re­port circulated that the brethren had killed each other.

An important consequence results from the fact—that this plague first appeared in a monastery, which might be crouded with lazy, idle, filthy monks; in a city not commercial, nor a sea port. There was no idea of any imported infection; but there must have been strong local causes, which first excited into action the general contagion which, at that time, pervaded the atmosphere over the whole globe.

Such was the havoc made by this pestilence among the clergy [Page 139] in England, says Knighton, that a vicarage which before the plague, might have been supplied for four or five marks a year, or two marks and the man's board, was raised to the price of twen­ty marks or twenty pounds.

This pestilential period was preceded and attended with all the usual phenomena of fatal Epidemics. ^* The earthquakes and the insects have been noticed. Abortions were among the remarka­ble precursors of this malady. The same fact is noticed by Diemerbroeck, before the great plague at Nimeguen, in 1635. The same has been mentioned by the authors he quoted, Fores­tus, Sennertes, and others; and is ascribed to the tenderness and debility of the heart and Viscera. Hence pregnant women first feel the effects of a state of air unfriendly to the support of life, and if they are seized with plague, are always its victims.

Another phenomenon attending this plague was the death of fish. This circumstance, with the bad state of the water, which is often affected by the pestilential state of the elements, and was greatly affected in this period, gave rise to a report that the Jews had poisoned the wells and springs. The prejudices against the Jews, which have marked and scandalized all christian coun­tries, except America, were at their height in the reign of Ed­ward the 3d of England, the period under consideration. These prejudices drove legislators and princes to exercise every species of cruelty upon the Israelites, on account of their usury; and when the report of their poisoning the water circulated, the pop­ulace in some places and especially in Germany, rose and assassi­nated multitudes of these unfortunate men.

The death of animals, particularly of sheep, marked the same period. In England, 5000 died in one pasture. The state of the air and water was so pestilential that it is averred by historians, the fowls and fishes had blotches on them.

[Page 140]It may be remarked that this mortal pestilence raged in Eng­land and France, during peace, or rather during a truce, which had been concluded between Edward III and the King of France in 1347, and which lasted seven years.

Guido, an inhabitant of Avignon, when this malady appeared, and who escaped death by the favorable process of a bubo, re­lates a fact that throws light on this subject. He says that the mal­ady was of two kinds—"the first, and which preceded the other about two mouths, was a fever, with spitring of blood," not un­like that which prevailed in the time of Fracastorius. All who were seized with these symptoms, died in three days.

The other kind, which succeeded the first, came on with con­tinued fever, carbuncles and abscesses, in the glands.—This was as fatal as the other, except near its decline, and the patient died in five days.

It is remarkable, that the disease which is technically called plague, pestis, is always preceded by a similar fever. It is in fact the plague in its first stages, tho it does not exhibit the gland­ular swellings, which modern physicians contend are characteris­tic of true plague, and mark a generic or at least a specific differ­ence between that and any other kind of typhus fever. This fact of a progressiveness in the disease, annihilates the favorite no­tion of deducing all plagues from infection; a notion which is bandied about between physicians and legislators like a tennis ball, tho unhappily for mankind, infinitely less harmless.

At the close of this dreadful period, in 1350, were severe earth­quakes in Italy. In 1356 a violent shock in Switzerland, and in Germany, especially on the Rhine, which did great injury. To this succeeded most violent rains, and famin and pestilence in Germany, with prodigious mortality.

Brabant escaped this terrible pestilence and so did Milan.

In 1352 authors relate that 900,000 people in China perished by famin.

The rainy and humid seasons which introduced the great pesti­lence of 1347-50, were succeeded by drouth in 1350, a comet in 1351, with tremendous storms, and a meteor which burst [Page 141] with a heavy report. The winter following was severe, and in 1354 Africa and Cyprus were devoured by locusts.

In England prevailed epidemic madness in 1355.

In 1358 was a severe winter, followed by an eruption in Ice­land, and a wasting plague in Italy in 1359. According to Bac­cace, Florence lost 100,000 citizens, and Petrarch says, scarce­ly ten of a thousand survived. There was a great mortality partic­ularly among child-bed women, and cattle did not escape.

This pestilence also became nearly general. In 1361 Milan, which had escaped in 1348, was severely afflicted, as was all France, England and Ireland, and it was computed that Scot­land lost one third of its inhabitants. This plague was called the second in the reign of Edward III, and it was in time of peace.

In this pestilential time, occurred a remarkable storm of hail and snow, in April 1360. The tendency of the elements in such periods to generate hail and snow, is a fact that well deserves consideration.

In January 1361, a violent tempest spread desolation over Europe. The winter was severe, and the summer dry. In March 1362 appeared a comet in the North East, with a vast co­ma, and an eruption in Iceland. A dearth and diseases among cattle followed.

This last pestilence differed from that in 1348, in two or three particulars. It raged with most violence, on mountainous dis­tricts, where the air was pure, and where the plague of 1348 did not prevail. It attacked the nobility and gentry with more vio­lence than the poor; contrary to the usual fact; whereas the dis­ease of 1348 was most fatal to persons in the humbler walks of life.

The comet and volcano of 1362 were followed in 1363 by a winter of extraordinary severity, which lasted from September to April. The Rhine was covered with ice for ten weeks.

The year 1365 was rainy, and the plague carried off 20,000 people in Cologne, and the vicinity. In 1366 an eruption in Iceland destroyed 70 farms. The same year was very sickly in England and deaths sudden.

[Page 142]In 1368 was visible in March a comet with a coma, and the crops failed. In this year commenced in England the third great plague in the reign of Edward III.; the reader will note that this was preceded by a sickly year in 1366. The mortal­ity was great, and especially about Oxford. The most fatal year was 1369, and in Ireland the disease raged in 1370. I have no particulars of the progress of the disease on the conti­nent; but it was very fatal.

In 1373 raged an epidemic madness among the lower people in England; and in 1374 a similar disorder prevailed in France and Italy. During pestilential periods, some general cause seems to affect the brain in a powerful manner, even in persons who escape the plague.

In 1374 also was an eruption of a volcano in Iceland. There was also famin, a violent plague in Italy and some parts of France. In 1371 there had been a severe earthquake in the south of France.

In 1379 commenced a great sickness in the north of England, which almost laid waste the country; and in 1380 was seen a comet. The disease is not described, but it was the forerunner of a most dreadful plague. Provisions were good and cheap.

In 1381 and 2 considerable earthquakes were felt in England, and a severe pestilence appeared at Avignon in France, which raged for four or five years, depopulating many cities. It pre­vailed in Italy, France, Germany, England, Ireland, Greece, and the East.

There was an eruption of Etna in 1381, and the year closed with great rains. The year 1382 was without winds. The plague was most fatal to children, and great ravages were made also among the friars. In this pestilence Lubec lost 90,000 people.

In 1388 the drouth was so severe, that the Rhine was ford­able at Cologne. In 1389 violent tempests raged in England, with great destruction; and in the year following, was an erup­tion [Page 143] of a volcano in Iceland. In modern days, we observe the same train of phenomena, evidently depending on one general cause. In 1389 appeared a singular meteor or light in the heavens.

The year 1389 was remarkable for the death of children in all parts of England. From the phenomena that attended and the diseases which followed, compared with the order of diseases in modern days, it appears very probable that this disease was a species of Angina, which almost invariably precedes the plague. In the next year, a deadly plague raged in the north of England. Swarms of gnats and flies marked this period, and some parts of the continent were overrun with locusts.

The reader will remark the excessive drouth preceding the eruption in Iceland and the fiery appearance in the heavens in the year of the tempest. In these phenomena, nature is nearly uniform.

It is a very common event that dysentery of a malignant type succeeds the plague. Such was the case in England, in 1391, when this disease was epidemic and very mortal. A dearth of corn might have contributed to the same event; but it is often the fact, without any scarcity of food.

An uncommon redness of the sun is mentioned in July of 1391, and for six weeks after, thick vapor or clouds. Perhaps these might have been occasioned by the eruption in Iceland, in the preceding year: as it appears to have been a phenomenon somewhat similar to that which Europe beheld with amazement and terror in 1783.—I have however my suspicions that while the central fires expel immense quantities of burning lava, from volcanoes, they may force through the earth in the adjoining continents, a subtle vapor, that is invisible, until it is collected and condensed in the higher regions of t [...]e atmosphere.

The beginning of the 15th century was marked by a severe and desolating pestilence. The disease first appeared in the last year or two of the former century. In 1399 the mortality was such in Spain, especially in Andalusia, that the king was obliged to suspend the law which restrained widows from marrying with­in [Page 144] a year after the death of their husbands. It was preceded by a severe winter.

In 1402-3 and 4 the plague in Iceland carried off multitudes of the inhabitants.

In 1400 epidemic and mortal sickness prevailed in England. A violent earthquake the same year in Persia. In 1401 Flor­ence was nearly dispeopled by the plague. In 1402 in March appeared a comet of a fiery aspect, and coma, which was visible for three months. ^* In 1402 a frost so severe that the Baltic was passable for horses for six weeks. In 1406 the sea broke into Holland, Zealand and Flanders, with prodigious injury. A plague carried off 30,000 people in London; and a comet the same year. The winters following were so severe that most birds died. In Sept. there were great floods from rain. In 1408 there was an eruption of Etna and deep snow.

The summer of 1406, when the plague raged in London, was close, moist and southerly weather.

In 1411 the dysentery carried off 14000 people in Bour­deaux, but I have no account of the seasons. The plague ra­ged in Aquitain and Gascoigne with great mortality. In 1412, there were uncommon tides in the Thames. In 1414 a comet, and in 1416 an eruption of fire from a volcano in Iceland, pre­ceded by great snow.

In 1421, according to some authors, happened the dreadful inundation in Holland, which formed the Zuyder Sea. In 1422 there was an eruption of fire in Iceland, and a severe winter followed. The same year, the plague raged in Poland. From these phenomena, I suspect the approach of a comet, but have no account of one.

In 1426 a comet, an excessively hot summer, and a violent earthquake which overturned twenty cities in Catalonia, in Spain, and was felt in most parts of Europe. In 1427 the seasons [Page 145] were rainy, the winter mild, a dearth and famin followed, and the plague in Dantzick. Epidemics prevailed in England, and the year following, the plague.

In 1430 happened a general earthquake—in 1432 a great in­undation in Germany—in 1433 a comet was visible for three months, in the south, and the winter following was terribly se­vere. The frost began in the last week in November and lasted till the middle of February.

In 1436 there was an eruption of a volcano in Iceland and a severe winter. An epidemic fever prevailed in Venice, which was attributed to the use of stagnant water.

In 1438 and 9 violent storms and great rains injured the corn and a dearth ensued. A comet in 1439 and a hard winter followed. To these phenomena succeeded in 1440 a series of distressing epidemics, severe coughs, small-pox, fevers and dys­entery, which proved exceedingly fatal.

In 1443 Bohemia, Hungary, and Poland were terribly in­jured by an earthquake. In 1444 there was eruption of Etna and Lipari, and the explosion was repeated in 1446 and 7. An epidemic prevailed in 1445, which suddenly ended life, but it is not described. In January 1449 was seen a comet. This year the plague raged in Italy and in 1450 famin and plague. In Milan perished 60,000 people.

This plague of 1450 is said to have arisen in Asia, and after­wards spread over Italy, Germany, France and Spain, leaving alive scarcely a third of the human race.

In 1455 appeared a comet and another in 1456. In this lat­ter year, Italy was violently shaken by an earthquake, and 40,000 people perished.—Pistorius places the earthquake in 1457, and says it demolished 40 towns, and destroyed 60,000 lives. In 1459 a plague began in July and raged six months in Italy.

[Page 146]It will be observed, in this period and in many others, that the plague is not mentioned under the year of the earthquake. Modern observations explain the progress of pestilence, which is most usual, viz. measles, catarrh, angina, and other malig­nant complaints preceding the crisis of the pestilential state of air, or plague. And we find almost invariably some of these diseases to be epidemic, even before the comet, earthquakes and erup­tions of volcanoes, altho the most violent form of the pestilence does not always appear till a year or two after those phenomena. There is also a difference, in the times of the appearance of the plague in various countries. In Egypt, the pestilence usually ap­pears first, and is cotemporary with the comet, or nearly so; and the same year, when the plague rages in Egypt, we find an­ginas and other malignant diseases prevailing in Europe and America, in northern latitudes. This difference in time evin­ces the power of local causes, in aiding the progress of the epi­demic constitution of air, and which produce the most violent diseases in Egypt, one, two or three years, previous to their ap­pearance in cooler latitudes. But it will almost always be found true, that the commencement of a series of epidemics is nearly at the same time in all parts of the world; the precursors of the plague being nearly cotemporary in different countries; altho the pestilential constitution or general contagion arrives to its crisis much sooner in Egypt, Smyrna and Constantinople, than in places less exposed to the influence of local causes of disease.

In 1465 pestilence again appeared in Italy, but I have no particulars. In 1467 a comet, and a mild winter is recorded; a remarkable fact, and the second instance I have found in his­tory. Indeed so uniform are hard winters during the approach of comets, that the accounts of exceptions are to be suspected of inaccuracy in point of time.

In 1468 a most deadly plague raged in Parma of which Short gives a particular description from Rolandus Capellatus.

In 1471 the winter was rigorous and stormy. In 1472 ap­peared three comets; two of them of distinguished magnitude. In 1473 most excessive heat and drouth, and authors relate that [Page 147] the woods took fire by the heat of the sun. This drouth con­tinued three years—all small rivers were dried up—the Danube was fordable in Hungary. In 1475 and 1476 appeared those enormous swarms of locusts, which always denote a state of air highly pestilential, and ravaged Hungary and Poland. In 1474 earthquakes were felt in Germany. In 1475 an eruption of a volcano in Iceland.

These phenomena, in this period, as usual, introduced most terrible pestilence, which began in 1472 and arrived to its height in 1477. It raged in Italy, Germany, France and England, and how much more extensively, my authorities do not inform me. It prevailed several years, with incredible mortality. In Paris perished 40,000; a large number for the population at that time. In England the number of deaths was not estimated; but authors relate that fifteen years of civil war did not carry off one third of the number. This year 1477 was excessively hot. In 1478 innumerable locusts overran Italy.

In 1478 and 9 the plague in England repeated its ravages; beginning like that of 1348, in autumn, raging through the winter until the next autumn.

In 1480 the winter was severe.

In 1481 and 3, a most deadly plague infested Italy and Ger­many.

In 1482 a species of pleurisy was epidemic in Italy.

In 1484 the winter was severe.

In 1483 or 5 appeared in England a new species of the plague called Sudor Anglicus, or sweating sickness of the English, be­cause it was supposed to attack none but Englishmen. This however was a mistake; for the same disease, at different times, appeared in Ireland, Germany, Sweden and Holland.

In the life of Erasmus, it is said to have appeared first in 1483, and to have returned in 1485. John Kay [...], or Caius, a cotemporary physician, says, it first appeared in 1485 in the [Page 148] Duke of Richmond's army, on his landing at Milford Haven, in Wales. But on all hands it is agreed to have had its origin in England, and to have been a species of plague. It is called "novum pestilentiae genus," a new kind of pestile [...]ce; and instead of being peculiar to England or Englishmen, "a B [...] ­annis exortum, incredibili celeritate per orbem longe lateque divagatum est;" it originated in Britain, and with incredible ra­pidity spread far and wide over the earth.

Sir Thomas More, in a letter to Erasmus, declares this dis­ease in London, Oxford and Cambridge to have been more dangerous than a battle. "Minus periculi in acie, quam in urbe esse."

The summer of 1485 was excessively rainy, and an inunda­tion of the Severn made great havoc with men and cattle.

This disease attacked persons suddenly, with a sensation like that of hot vapor running through the part affected. To this succeeded internal heat, unquenchable thirst, and profuse sweat­ing, which often carried off the patient in two or three hours. The violence of the attack was past in 15 hours, and in 24 hours the patient was considered to be out of danger. It was most fatal to persons in high health and easy condition of life. It was attended with most of the symptoms which characterize the plague—anxiety, restlessness, violent pain in the head, de­lirium and excessive drowsiness.

This was a pestilential period, for the plague infested Italy and Germany in 1483, and Denmark in 1484. And it will be found on examination, that when the sweating sickness raged in any part of Europe, that or some other pestilential disease, was in other countries. During the prevalence of this form of the plague in England, at this period, Denmark lost nearly one half of its inhabitants by the common plague; which raged ter­ribly for two years

The author of the Traitè de la Peste, page 23, remarks, "That until the 15th century the plague exhibited the same character; but then "its accidents degenerated," or rather it [Page 149] reigned a new malady, which, under different external appear­ances, committed similar destruction on the human body. It did not any longer show itself by buboes, carbuncles and pim­ples; nor by any of the eruptions which the heat of the viscera pushes out; nor was the skin withered by the parching dryness which accompanies the carbuncular spots; on the other hand, the skin was inundated by torrents of sweat, which seemed to be po [...]d from the whole body, the viscera were dried, and the heat which dissipated the fluids, seemed to disorder all the laws of the animal economy.

About the middle of the 16th century, the plague resumed its former character, but the symptoms somewhat varied and lighter."

The sweating plague at first attacked none but Englishmen. Even Scotchmen escaped, in foreign countries, where English­men were seized. Foreigners in England escaped. This how­ever was on its first invasion in 1485—for, in subsequent years, it spread over other countries. But the fact of its seizing only Englishmen at first, is precisely analagous to what has happened on many other occasions, in other countries. It recurred in England in 1506, 1518, 1528 and 1551.

In 1491 appeared a comet, the season was very wet, an epi­demic swept away cattle, and a famin afflicted Ireland. A se­vere winter is noted in 1493.

In 1495 and 6 the plague raged in Portugal.

In 1496 an epidemic leprosy prevailed in Germany, which covered the body with ulcers from head to foot.

In 1498 the summer was very dry. In 1500 a tempest in Rome did great injury, a comet was visible in Capricorn, an eruption of Vesuvius, and a mortal plague raged which carried off in London 30,000 people. The king for safety retired to Calais. Maitland arranges this plague under the year 1499. This pestilence was preceded by an abundance of provisions.

It is a current opinion that the venereal disease was imported [Page 150] into Europe by the first adventurers to America, with Colum­bus; and that it gradually spread in Spain; from whence it was carried into Italy by some of the soldiers, who were in the siege of Naples in 1494; thence it was propagated rapidly through­out Europe. This subject will be hereafter considered. It is however remarkable, that an epidemic leprosy spread over Ger­many, about the same time, which seems to indicate an unusual tendency in the human body to ulcerous and scorbutic complaints.

SECTION V. Historical view of pestilential epidemics, from the year 1500 to the year 1600.

THE comet of 1500 was followed by an excessively severe winter in 1501, to which succeeded a summer of great heat and drouth in 1502. In this latter year the plague carried off 500 persons daily in Brussels; the city was soon abandoned, the streets were overgrown with grass, and the roofs of houses with moss.

De Pauw vol. 1. 85, mentions a desolating plague in China in 1504. In the same year, the malady prevailed in Ireland.

In 1505 appeared a comet; and another in the following year, in which also was an eruption of Vesuvius, which was succeeded by a severe winter. Pestilential diseases were univer­sal. A fatal spotted fever overspread Europe in this hot, moist summer. The plague raged in Lisbon and London was severely visited by the sweating disease.

In 1508 a great earthquake convulsed Italy and Germany. In 1509 a shock demolished a part of the walls of Constantino­ple, with many buildings, and the loss of 13,000 lives: After which the plague almost dispeopled the city.

These events commenced a distressing period. In 1510 there was an erupti [...]n of Heckla, and universal catarrh or severe influ­enza in Europe. This was called in France cocoluche, from the practice of covering the head of the patient with a cap. It was preceded by a series of moist weather.

In 1511 appeared a comet; another in 1512 and a third in 1513. In 1511 the plague prevailed in Verona, and in 1513 a [Page 152] malignant fever or dysentery, which covered the body with black spots. Bleeding was pernicious; cupping and actual cau­tery were successful.

In 1514 cats perished by an epidemic pestilential disease, says Fernelius; and the plague was in Tournay; while a mor­tal distemper raged among the cattle in England.

In 1515 a malignant catarrh or throat distemper in Holland seized persons suddenly, and if not cured, in a few hours, fell on the lungs and terminated in death in one day. In this year and the next appeared comets, and Germany suffered universally by inundations.

To these disasters succeeded a severe winter in 1517, followed by a very hot summer. Corn was in great abundance, but the sweating plague made great havoc in London, and so malignant a murrain raged among cattle, that ravens and dogs which fed on their carcases, swelled and died.

This deadly sweating plague was preceded, in the spring of the year, by an epidemic inflammation of the throat, so virulent as to destroy life in a few hours. The malignity of this disease has rarely, if ever been equalled in modern times. It seems to have been merged in the sweating plague, about midsummer. Authors relate that half the people of England perished with these diseases.—The disease in the throat seems to have been of an inflammatory diathesis, as early bleeding and purging were the only successful remedies.

In 1518 the plag [...]e visited Lisbon, and the sweating disease prevailed in Brabant.

In 1521 appeared a comet, followed by a cold winter. In­undations are said to have overwhelmed, in this year, 72 vil­lages and 100,000 people. England suffered by dearth and sick­ness, and in 1522 the plague visited Munster in Ireland, and the continent.—The winter following was distressingly severe.

Pestilential fevers prevailed in 1524 and 5. The mortality in London alarmed the people, and the terms were on that ac­count, adjourned. In 1527 appeared a comet, and one in each year, for six years in succession. In 1527, the wetness of sum­mer [Page 153] injured the grain, a severe famin ensued, and many of the poor were starved to death. This year is noted for a great hail storm in Italy.

In 1528 the spotted fever, that almost infallible precursor or companion of the plague, broke out in all parts of Europe; the plague in Italy, and the sweating disease in London with dread­ful mortality, terminating in death in six or seven hours. The same disease prevailed in Cork.

In 1529 the sweating disease seized Amsterdam, raging a few days with great mortality, and passing rapidly to other places.

In 1530 was an eruption of Etna, and an earthquake in Lis­bon demolished 1400 houses. In 1531 was another eruption of Etna, the sweating plague raged in Germany, and pestilence, in some form, was almost universal.—A great hail storm, the same year.

Fracastor informs us that the petechial fever of 1528 was preceded by a mild winter and southerly rainy weather, together with inundations in spring, and unusual darkness. He observes, that appearing in many places, it must have had a common cause.

The last remark is verified by modern observations. The petechial fever is an almost infallible forerunner of the plague in the Levant, in Italy and other countries. It may be laid down as an axiom, on this subject, that altho the appearance of this fever is not always and certainly followed by the plague, yet that the plague, in most parts of the east, is always preceded by a petechial fever.

In 1533 there was a volcanic eruption in South America, but I have no account of the diseases of that year.

In 1534 the plague was in Narbonne.

In 1535 there was a terrible plague in Cork.

In 1538 appeared a comet, which was preceded by eruptions of Etna in 1536 and 7 and a hard winter. In 1539 another comet and in 1541 a third.

[Page 154]In 1538 a mortal dysentery raged all over Europe, as also in the following year. The preceding summer [...] had been moist, and an acute fever, with violent pain about the heart, delirium, moist and black tongue, anthraces and buboes, had been epi­demic. But Fernilius remarks that the unusual dysentery of 1538 and 9 could not be ascribed to any visible cause in the seasons.

In 1538 also was a violent earthquake at Puteoli, near Na­ples and Vesuvius, where there was an immense eruption of fire. This year the plague raged in Constantinople, and in 1539 was still more destructive.

In 1539 the drouth in Ireland was excessive—and nearly dried up the river Lee at Cork.

In 1540 there was a terrible drouth. In England a pestilen­tial ague and a dysentery were epidemic and mortal. Another eruption of Etna happened this year, and the next year a comet.

In 1541 the plague raged in Constantinople.

The year 1543 was very wet and cold, and a great mortality among cattle. In 1542 the plague was in Geneva. In 1543 it raged in London in winter. In 1545 there was an eruption of Etna. The plague again raged in Geneva, and all over Eu­rope a pestilential epidemic, called the Troup Gallant, which seized chiefly the young and robust, with a mortality nearly equal to that of the true plague, of which it seems to have been the precursor. Patients had a violent pain in the head, heat in the kidneys, universal lassitude, continual watchings ending in frenzy, or drowziness ending in lethargy; and worms rising into the throat, with danger of suffocation. Bleeding was the only remedy; then detergents and cordials. The disease terminated on the 4th or 11th day. Charles, duke of Orleans, died of this disease at a monastery in Abbeville.

In 1547 the plague prevailed in most parts of Europe, as in Ireland and in Germany; and in 1548 in London. Here my labors begin to receive aid from that accurate and elegant histo­rian Thuanus, who, in lib. 4, describes the disease as it prevail­ed in Saxony. "Such was its violence that all other distem­pers gave way to it or ran into it. Most of the soldiers in the [Page 155] Emperor's army were seized. They experienced a most intole­rable pain from the heat of the head; the eyes were swelled and fiery; the tongue bloody; respiration difficult and breath fetid; vomitings of bilious matters frequent; finally the body became livid, with pimples here and there scattered over it, which bred worms. Death took place the second or third day."

During this year great rains inundated Tuscany. Locusts in 1547 were unusually num [...]rous.

This pestilential period was long and severe. In 1548 the plague was in London. A contagious peripneumony prevailed over Europe, with spitting of blood and difficulty of breathing. In 1549 the plague prevailed in Prussia and Portugal.

In 1550 a comet in March, and the same year an eruption of Etna and Lipari. The summer was very rainy and the win­ter dry. In 1551 the earth was deluged with rain, and infinite damage was done by floods. The catarrh was epidemic in France. An epidemic pestilential fever raged all over Europe, and the sweating sickness in London. The plague followed in various parts of Europe. In 1552 it raged in Misena, and the patient discharged blood by the pores for three days before death. In 1553 the same distemper raged in Paris, with extreme mor­tality, and to appease the wrath of heaven, many heretics were burnt.

At the same time, pestilence spread over Hungary and Tran­sylvania for two years and suspended the operations of war. This year also there was an earthquake from the Elbe to Saxony.

In 1554 there was an eruption of fire in Iceland and in the same year appeared a comet. In 1555 the summer was exces­sively rainy, and fevers were very mortal in England and France.

In 1556 a comet and a drouth; the fevers of the last season raged with augmented violence; as also the spotted fever and confluent malignant small pox.

This year there was an eruption of Etna, and in China a large district of country was sunk by an earthquake, with all its inhabitants, and became a Lake. These phenomena indicated [Page 156] a great disorder in the elements and introduced most deadly epi­demics.

In 1557 a comet; an inundation of the Tyber; and a vio­lent catarrh was almost universal. The cough was severe, and pain in the side, difficulty of breathing and fever attended. In general bleeding the first or second day was successful; but in a small town near Madrid, bleeding was fatal, and 2000 patients died after venesection.

In Alemar this epidemic assumed the form of a sore throat; 2000 persons were seized almost instantly in October, of whom 200 died. Forestus ascribes it to a vapor, for it was preceded by thick clouds of an ill smell.

In 1556 the plague raged in Vienna.

In 1557 a violent plague broke out in a small inland village between Delph and the Hague in Holland—an instance of its origination at a distance from a sea-port; and it spread over the country, in June. This disease was preceded by meteors in the air, and attended with abortions. Such was the mortality, that the poor fought for coffins for their dead relations. In Delph only, died 5000 of the poor. It continued through the winter to May 1558.

In the same summer pestilential fevers raged with great mor­tality in France, Holland and other countries.

In de Thou's history of his own times, vol. 2. 227, we have an account of the spotted, or petechial fever, which appeared in Spain in 1557, which was nearly as mortal as the inguinal plague. He calls it a "new disease" and unknown to the an­cients. The spots differed from the florid pimples of the purple fever. It was putrid, malignant and much resembling the plague, but "did not carry so pestilent a contagiousness." It [...]as called in Spain the "puncticular disease." Innumerable people perished by it that year. The same fever in Florence "was succeeded by a violent plague," which had raged on the Tuscan coast.

In 1558 appeared a comet. The summer was excessively hot and the winter very cold. Dysenteries raged in France, and in Holland semitertians, which affe [...]ed principally the rich, [Page 157] as the plague, the last year, did the poor. In some places quar­tan agues were fatal, and malignant fevers, in others.

Violent tempests and inundations are mentioned, this year and the last. In 1558 died Charles V. emperor of Germany.

In 1560 a comet, and a dearth of corn in England.

In 1562 and 3 the plague spread over Europe. It broke out in 1562 among the English soldiers, who were sent to garrison New-Haven in France. The next year it raged in London and carried off 20,000 of its inhabitants. Authors say, the sold­iers from New-Haven introduced it into London; but who in­troduced it into New-Haven, we are not informed.

The truth is, this terrible disease appeared in most parts of Europe about the same time. In Frankfort, Nuremberg, Mag­deburgh, Hamburgh, Dantzick, and in the vandalic maritime towns, Wismar, Lubick, Rostock and others, perished by com­putation 300,000 persons in the year 1563.—This disease also raged in winter, for Thuanus mentions the death of Castalion, a literary character of that age, by the plague at Basle in January.

This year was remarkable also for earthquakes. In Sept. was a violent one in England, especially in Lincoln and other northern parts. In January the river Thames was agitated by preternatural fluxes of the tides, which forced back the natural tides, three times. In winter, severe cold rendered that river passable as a highway.

The same year earthquakes were felt in Illyrica, and Dalma­tia, and Catana suffered a great loss of lives.

In 1564 a comet appeared, and remarkable northern lights, or meteors, and a destructive inundation of the Thames.

In 1564 epidemic quinsies were very mortal, and in some places, the spotted fever or the plague.—In winter came on as severe a frost for two months as was ever known.

This epidemic quinsy was a species of angina maligna, and fa­tal as the plague. It spread over Europe.

In 1565 [...]a [...]ce was afflicted by pestilential epidemics, in [Page 158] which bleeding and purging were fatal. The next year appeared the plague in Lyons.—Charles IX. demanded of the physicians the best mode of treatment, and they all decided against vene­section. —One fourth of the inhabitants of France perished.

In 1566 the spring was rainy and the harvest dry. The Hungarian fever broke out in the Emperor Maximilian's army, and as authors affirm, the soldiers, when disbanded, spread it all over Europe, with great mortality. This disease invaded the patient at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, with slight cold and shiver­ering for about fifteen minutes. This was followed by intense heat, and intolerable pain in the head, mouth and stomach, so that the slightest touch of the bed clothes, made the sick utter shrieks: The pain in the mouth and stomach being the pathog­nomonic symptoms of the disease.—The thirst was unquencha­ble, and a longing for wine, which was fatal, if taken. The tongue was dry and lips chopt. Delirium came on the third day. A critical looseness and deafness were favorable—Swel­lings behind the ears were frequent. The most miserable crisis was, tubercles on the top of the foot, which, if neglected, ended in mortification. Many suffered amputation. Spots, like flea bites, appeared on the body, and if livid or black, they were fatal symptoms. Copious bleeding, on the first seizure, was, of all remedies, the most successful.

In the year 1567 was an eruption of Etna, and in Tercera, one of the Azores, fire burst from a lake on the top of a hill, and the water released from its bed, rushed down and swept away part of a settlement below. In 1568 a spotted fever raged in Paris, in which prostration of strength rendered bleeding fatal. The winter of 1567 was very severe, and the summer excessively dry.

In 1569 appeared a comet.—The spotted fever in this year became epidemic in Europe, raging for three years with great destruction. The plague was in London. Short remarks that this spotted fever "in several places turned to the plague, and where the plague raged, it turned to this fever."—Indeed this spotted fever was a milder form of the pestilence, raging as it [Page 159] usually does, for some time, before the glandular plague appears. In this period, it was the herald to announce one of the most general plagues that Europe ever knew. The petechial fever prevailed principally from 1569 to 1574, interspersed with the real plague, in a few places; and the real pestis followed it, with mortal rage, and prevailed for three or four years.

In 1570 a most dreadful earthquake in Chili, S. America, destroyed many villages and buried the inhabitants in their ruins. This is the first occasion I have of introducing America in this history.

Thuanus, whose authority is very respectable, and who was cotemporary with this period, relates that in 1570 the dikes in Holland were broken by a swell of the ocean, and that 400,000 people were overwhelmed in the floods. He says further that similar phenomena were observed, that year, in different places over the whole world. Reggio, Florence, Venice and Modena felt severe shocks of earthquake in 1571, and Ferara was laid in ruins.

The summers of 1570 and 71 were moist and warm; and in gene [...]al the seasons were similar for the two succeeding years. The winters were rigorous. Fluxes, measles, worms and semi­tertians were epidemic in many places. In 1572 appeared a comet or new star, very bright and clear, larger than Jupiter, in the constellation of Cassiopeia, behind her chair. It was stationary for 16 months and by degrees evanished. The winter succeding was remarkable for hard frost and deep snow. The author of Observations de Physique et de Medicine, says, that all maladies in France in 1572 turned to epilepsy and palsy.

This year the plague raged in Poland; and at Basle a malig­nant fever, chiefly fatal to men of robust constitution.

In 1574 the petechial fever, which had spread mortality over Europe, especially in Italy and Spain, began to change into the usual form of the plague. This disease made its appearance in London, in a small degree, in October and November of this year.

In 1575 the plague appeared in many parts of Europe, and [Page 160] [...]ged with incredible mortality for three years. It was reported in Italy to have been imported into Verona and Venice, from Trent. Such was the current vulgar opinion. But men of sci­ence hold the disease to be generated in cities from the filthiness of private dwellings, and not to be produced by the position of the stars or malignant constitution of the air.

The truth was, the disease in Italy first appeared in Trent, an inland town, far from the sea—another instance in which the advocates of importation from Africa or the Levant are silenced. Philosophy disdains to look abroad for the cause of an epidemic, when the strongest of all causes exist in the place. Trent is situated in a valley, on the bank of the Adige, a river which often overflows the adjacent low lands; and after the flood re­cedes, the place is sometimes so sickly that the people are com­pelled to retire to the neighboring hills. Strong local causes therefore account for the first appearance of the plague in that city. The general contagion of the atmosphere, which had produced spotted fevers and other deadly diseases all over Eu­rope for four years preceding, was aided by the local unhealthi­ness of Trent, and here appeared first, the crisis of the pesti­lence, or plague. See the description of that country in Zim­merman on Air.

The disease almost depopulated Trent in 1575, and became mortal in the neighboring Venetian territories. This mortality however was only the forerunner of greater evils. The disease indeed subsided in winter, and the people supposed its violence to be past. They might have known otherwise, had they atten­ded to the progressiveness of the malady, and the certain indi­cations of its increase.

In 1576 the disease appeared in Venice; and as it carried off a few people at first, in scattered situations, opinions were, as usual in all such cases, divided as to the nature of the distem­per. In this state of the public mind, two eminent physicians, Mercuriale of Fo [...]li, and Capavacca of Padua, undertook to assert the disease not to be pestilential. The senate, observing the controversy among the Venetian physicians, as to the nature of the distemper, listened to the two foreigners, who declared [Page 161] they could cure it, and put a stop to the removal of the diseased from the city. By this means, says the historian, the distemper was obviously increased; and it raged with terrible fury, till it carried off 70,000 of the citizens, with fifty-seven valuable physicians and surgeons. The two foreign physicians were dis­missed, with applauses for having preferred the good of Venice to their personal safety.

This account from Thuanus deserves particular notice. We here see the same doubts about the nature of the disease on its first appearance, which prevail in all similar cases—as in Mar­seilles in 1720—in London in 1665—and in America, with respect to the yellow fever, which is only another form of plague. The source of all these doubts and controversies, which have so often embarrassed the citizens and disgraced the faculty, is, the progressiveness of the pestilence. The malignant diseases preceding, slide into the glandular plague so gradually, that phy­sicians themselves do not know precisely when the distemper should lose the name of malignant fever and take that of plague. Sydenham honestly confesses that, in 1665, he did not know whether the malignant disease which appeared in May and be­came epidemic, just before the plague, was the real plague or not. And the truth is, that the disease often assails people, in a few scattering cases, at the beginning of a plague, with a mor­tality equal to the true pestis, and without the distinctive marks of plague, the glandular tumors.

These facts will hereafter, with careful observation, obviate all controversies at the beginning of pestilential diseases; and they will decide infallibly all questions relative to the domestic or foreign origin of such maladies.

This pestilence was severely felt in Padua, Milan, Cremona and Pavia. Vicenza, which escaped this year, was visited the next, with equal severity.

Dr. Mead is puzzled to know why Vicenza, which lies be­tween Verona and Padua, should escape the plague, in the year when both those cities were infested; and yet the next year, should suffer equally with her neighbors, when they were exempt from the calamity. He finds some difficulty in accounting for [Page 162] the conveyance of the infection from one to another, without communicating it to the intervening city. This subject will be considered in a subsequent section; I will only here remark, that nothing is so fatal to truth and science, as for a man of popular talents to espouse an erroneous theory, and then strive to bend facts to its support.

In 1575 multitudes of flies and beetles were found in Eng­land, and in 1576 an earthquake was experienced.

In November 1577 appeared a comet of surprising magni­tude, with a long coma—and most terrible tempests accompani­ed its approach. In 1578 another comet, and in 1579 an erup­tion of Etna. In 1578 were earthquakes in England.

In the great pestilence of the preceding ten years, not only Europe, but Asia was laid waste. So general and severe was the disease that the operations of war, in the Turkish empire, were suspended. Messina in Sicily lost 40,000 inhabitants—and Europe must have lost in ten years, by the pestilence under the various forms it assumed, one third, or more probably one half her people.

In this period we see all the extraordinary operations of nature united. Comets, earthquakes, in Europe and S. America tem­pests, volcanoes, unusual animals, excessive floods from rain or an extraordinary intumescence of the ocean all mark an extreme agit­ation or disorder of the elements.—The vast comet of 1577, the year when the plague was at its height, was calculated to ap­proach within 840,000 miles of the earth. Upon the Newton­ian principles of the power of attraction, the influence of that body on the earth must have been prodigious.

In this year appeared in Moravia a new disease, evidently dis­tinct in its symptoms from any known malady, and which Thu­anus has described.

This also was the year in which a sudden disease seized the court and attendants at the Oxford assizes in England. Early in July, while the court was sitting, "there arose, says Stowe, amidst the people such a damp that almost all were smothered— [Page 163] very few escaped, that were not taken at that instant. The ju­rors died presently—after which Robert Bell, Lord Chief Ba­ron. There died in Oxford 300 persons—and sickened there, but died elsewhere, more than 200 from the 6th to the 12th of July. After which died not one of that sickness, for one of them infected not another, nor died thereof any one woman or child."

This sudden catastrophe is ascribed [...]o a damp or vapor. But there is no need of resorting to such a cause. The atmosphere, during the period under consideration, was not furnished with the power of supporting animal life, in as ample a manner as it usually is.—This is evident, from the universality of mortal epi­demics. In this state of the atmosphere, a multitude, crouded into a court room, in the hot month of July, must speedily des­troy all the respirable air, and death must ensue. That the prin­cipal cause was not only local, but sudden, is demonstrated by the circumstance, that no infection accompanied the diseased. Had the cause of their illness been long in operation, it would have produced in the body that species of poison, which is nox­ious to persons in health. Persons, suddenly deprived of life, as by damps in wells or the fumes of charcoal, communicate no infection.

It is suggested by some writers, that this disease was occasion­ed by an infected prisoner, who was brought from jail into court; but Stowe does not mention this circumstance. And it is possible the catastrophe might have been owing to a sudden discharge of mephitic vapor.

Scarcely had the last period of pestilence come to a close, when another series of maladies succeeded, and nearly in the or­der of those last described.

In 1580 appeared a comet on the 10th of October which was visible for two months. The preceding summer was very moist and rainy, and about the rising of the dog-star, came on a cold dry north wind. In June began an epidemic catarrh in Sicily, which spread over Europe. In July, it was in Italy; in Au­gust, in Venice and Constantinople; in September, it extended over Hungary, Bohemia and Saxony; in October, on the Bal­tic; [Page 164] in November, in Norway and in December, in Sweden, Poland and Russia.—Its symptoms were nearly the same, as in this country, but the disease was more violent and fatal.—In Rome, died of it 4000 people—in Lubec, 8000; at Ham­burgh, 3000; and multitudes in other places. It appears to have been attended with more fever than in ordinary cases—The fever was continual for four or five days, with a pain in the head, straitness of the breast and cough—it terminated in profuse sweating.—In general bleeding and purging were found to be prejudicial.

In this year and about the time, when the catarrh had over­spread Europe, broke out in Grand Cairo, one of the most des­olating plagues ever known. Prosper Alpinus, who lived in that age, reports the number of deaths, from November 1580, to July 1581 to have been 500,000. It will be found on ex­amination that the plague, in a series of pestilential and epidemic diseases, appears in Egypt, before it does in Europe and Amer­ica, and is nearly cotemporary with the catarrh, angina or other precursor of the pestilence in more northern latitudes. This fact deserves notice. The plague which followed the catarrh in Europe, did not appear in many places, perhaps in none except in France, in the year 1580.—In northern latitudes, the malig­nity of the epidemic constitution does not appear, till the second or third year, after its commencement in catarrh or measles.

In Paris however the plague raged in 1580, the same year it appeared in Egypt, and carried off 40,000 people, mostly of the poorer sort; and at the same time, it prevailed in many of the neighboring towns, especially, says Thuanus, "at Laon in Vermandois, which city is in a position exposed to a hot sun, in which died 6000."

The historian further remarks, that the "crops that year were plentiful, and the sky serene; so that it was thought the disease was produced rather by the influence of the stars, ab astrorum impressione, than by the malignity of a corrupt air." This is another proof that a state of air, as described by Hip­pocrates, is not always the cause of pestilence.

[Page 165]Altho this malady broke out in France in 1580, yet it had been preceeded by the catarrh. The historian remarks, that the catarrh was not so much dreaded for its mortality, tho many died of it, as for the astonishing rapidity with which the contagion spread from place to place. It seized the lower spine of the back with a chill, horrore; to this succeeded gravedo, a dull pain in the head; and universal languor or debility, resolvens membra, loosening or unhinging the joints. If the crisis was not favora­ble in five days, the disease terminated in a fatal fever.

In 1580 considerable earthquakes were felt in Belgium, at Cologne and about the Mediterranean. The same shocks were felt in various parts of England, but Short places them under the following year. The German sea was agitated, and a great swel­ling of its waters was observed.

In 1580 also, the marshes in Essex, and some parts of Kent in England, were laid waste by mice, which were so numerous as to destroy the herbage, and a murrain among cattle succeeded.

In this year was issued a proclamation of Queen Elizabeth, upon the representation of the Mayor and Aldermen of Lon­don, prohibiting any new house to be built within three miles of the gates of the city, and more than one family to reside in a house. The reasons assigned for the prohibition are connected with this subject. The increase of London had long been con­sidered as an evil, by swelling the head too large for the body, and several attempts had been made to restrain the increase. The resort of people to the city from the country was held to be prejudical to agriculture.

But the proclamation states further, that "such great multi­tudes of people, brought to inhabit in small rooms, whereof a great part are very poor, yea such as must live by begging, or by worse means, and they heaped together, and in a sort, smoth­ered with many families of children and servants, in one house or small tenement, it must needs follow, if any plague or popu­lar sickness should, by God's permission, enter amongst those multitudes, that the same would not only spread itself, and invade [Page 166] the whole city and confines, but a great mortality would ensue the same, and the infection be dispersed through all other parts of the realm."

In this paper, we observe some powerful causes of pestilence in London to be explained—and events showed how little good was done by the interference of authority with private rights, and an attempt to check, by positive prohibitions, the natural growth of towns. This proclamation, like all which had pre­ceded it, was useless. The city increased, and the plague con­tinued to ravage it, until the good providence of God arrested the evil, by a general conflagration, and men had become wise enough, to build large, airy houses, and keep them clean.

In 1582 a remarkable te [...]pest is mentioned, and a comet in May. A severe earthquake was felt in South-America, and a small city near Lima was destroyed.

In 1583 several concussions of the earth were experienced in England, and the plague appeared in London. At the same time it appeared in Germany or Holland; as Diemerbroeck mentions this as a pestilential year. The following winter was severe. In Rome there was a famin.

In 1585 in spring appeared very malignant pleurisies. In 1586 Thrace was overrun with locusts, and the plague raged in Hungary, Austria and Turkey. A comet appeared in each of these years, and in 1586 Lima in South-America was nearly ruined by an earthquake. See Ulloa, from whom my accounts of earthquakes in Spanish America, are all taken.

In 1587 a very cold spring, but a plentiful year in most coun­tries. The plague raged in Flanders, which was almost depopu­lated by disease, war and famin. In some parts, the wild beasts took possession of the houses. Dogs ran mad, and did no small mischief, and fields were covered with weeds and bushes. The catarrh appeared in England, this year, but how extensively, I am not informed. An eruption of fire in Iceland is recorded under the same year.

[Page 167]In 1589 the English fleet, returned from Portugal, with the Hungarian fever, says Short, and introduced it into England. What an influence have names, and what mischief is done by ignorance and false philosophy! The Hungarian fever! As tho this fever had been a native of a particular soil, and transplanted from country to country, like a fruit-tree. Names are not al­ways harmless. The name, Sudor Anglicus, given to the sweat­ing plague, because it appeared first in England and was at first peculiar to Englishmen, has led the moderns to suppose, the dis­ease to have been limited to England or to Englishmen, altho it repeatedly spread over all Europe. In the same way, the insect which injures wheat in America, was ignorantly called the Hes­sian fly, and altho the animal was never known in Germany, yet people believe, that, like yellow fever, it was imported. It is thus that ignorance gives currency to an improper name, and the name in turn assists to propagate and perpetuate an error.

The truth, in regard to diseases, is, that they often assume peculiar symptoms; such as are not usual. These are not prop­erly new diseases, but modifications of common fever, proceed­ing from the infinite variety of that cause of sickness, which I denominate general contagion, and which Sydenham called the Epidemic Constitution of the air. This or other causes are per­petually diversifying the symptoms of diseases; so that physicians are often at a loss whether to call a disease by an old or new name. Wherever the peculiar causes first exist, there will the peculiar symptoms of disease first appear—and when similar causes exist in other places, the same symptoms will attend the disease.

In 1590 multitudes of people perished by famin. A comet approached the system, the winter was cold, a violent earth­quake convulsed Hungary, Bohemia and Vienna; near the lat­ter place, the earth emitted an offensive smell. The drouth was extreme. The Azores were shaken by an earthquake, and a tempest in September threatened to overwhelm them in mass.

In 1591 universal catarrh in Europe was a prelude to most destructive pestilence. It is singular also that the plague broke out in Narva and Revel, in Livonia, on the gulf of Finland, in the 59th degree of latitude, and raged through the succeeding [Page 168] cold winter. Six thousand persons perished in Revel. As to its origin, the great Thuanus could not decide whether it was "a belli incommoditatibus, sive caeli inclementia," from the dis­tresses of war, or intemperature of the air. There could have been no suspicion of a foreign origin.

Cotemporary with the catarrh was a malignant spotted fever in Trent. A distressing famin caused a great mortality in Italy.

In 1591 the plague began to show itself in Italy, but attended with peculiar symptoms. A fever, little infectious, seized the head, inducing delirium, and in many patients, was attended with fluxes and flatulent bowels. It terminated fatally on the tenth day. The remedy was bleeding "Secta vena capitis, quae in brachio est, aliisque a capite manantibus," says Thuanus. It attacked chiefly men between the ages of 30 and 50; but was fatal to few women. It raged in Umbria, Tuscany, Romagne and Lombardy, sweeping away, in some towns, almost every man. From August to August, it was computed that 60,000 persons perished.

In 1592 the petechial fever spread over Florence, with a ma­lignity that entitled it to the name of plague. It was most fatal to the nobles.

In England the drouth in this and the former summer was extreme. The Thames was fordable at London. The plague appeared in Shropshire in the west, and carried off 18,000 cit­izens in London. Persia suffered much by an earthquake in the same year.

In the same year a furious pestilence prevailed in Candia. It appeared in spring, increased till July and then abated. On its first appearance, all infected and suspected persons were removed to a distant hospital, but without effect. The disease continued to spread—a proof that it was an epidemic. In September, it was supposed to be extinguished; but in October, it broke out with fresh violence, and the diseased were confined to their houses—a useless and pernicious regulation. The city lost 20,000 inhabitants.

[Page 169]In 1594 was a severe winter. The years 1594, 5 and 6 were very rainy in England and Germany. Crops failed, and in Hungary, the famin was extreme.

In 1596 appeared a comet. Violent earthquakes shook dif­ferent countries, and several cities in Japan were swallowed up.

In 1596 and 7 prevailed in Cologne, Westphalia and other parts of Germany, a singular disease, which authors ascribe to the famin which had preceded. It was a malignant fever, which was attended with convulsions and raving madness, or delirium. Sometimes the convulsions were attended with little or no fever. The patient was contracted into a knot or ball by the violence of the convulsions, or extended to full length, like a dead body— sometimes the extension of the body was succeeded by a con­traction in the same paroxism. The particulars respecting this disease do not fall within the plan of this history, but may be found in Short, vol. 1.

In 1597 appeared a comet, and the same year the catarrh was again epidemic. Malignant fevers, accompanied with worms in youth, were predominant also, and the plague was in Juliers and Geneva. A dearth in England. The winter of 1597 was se­vere, as was that of 1599.

The summers of 1598 and 99 were remarkably dry, and swarms of fleas, gnats and flies abounded. Tertians, with pe­techiae, were frequent, and continual fevers which yielded to bleeding and purging, or went off with a bilious diarrhea.— Small-pox and measles were also epidemic.

These diseases, as usual, were the precursors of a very dis­tressing plague, which, in the autumn of 1598, raged in Lon­don, Litchfield, Leicester and other places in England. It even broke out in the small towns in Wales and the northern counties, as in Kendal in Cumberland, where died 2500—in Richmond, where died 2200—at Carlisle which lost 1196 in­habitants; and at Percrith which lost 2266.

In 1598 Pegu, in Asia, was depopulated by famin, and Con­stantinople was almost stripped of its inhabitants by the plague. [Page 170] Seventeen princesses, sisters of the Sultan, Mahomet III. died in one day. To arrest the progress of this mortality, cannon were fired and aromatics burnt in all parts of the city; but with what success the historian does not inform us.

In Italy an inundation of the Tyber injured Rome.

In 1599 the spring was cold and dry; the summer hot and rainy, with great floods. A very mortal distemper raged among cattle in Italy. In Spain and Lisbon died 70,000 people of the plague. In some places, a fatal dysentery prevailed.

SECTION VI. Historical view of Pestilential Epidemics from the year 1600 to the close of the year 1700.

THE year 1600 was remarkable for pestilence in almost every part of Europe. Spain, where the disease was fatal the year before, was this year almost depopulated. There raged throughout Europe, a pestilential, mortal cholic which destroyed the lives of all whom it seized, within four days. The patient, as soon as he was seized, became senseless—the hair fell from his head—a livid pustule arose on the nose, which consumed it— the extremities became cold and mortified.

In Florence a terrible earthquake destroyed many buildings.

The winter of 1600 was very cold. In the summer of 160 [...] there was a severe drouth of four or five months; and a violent dysentery followed, with double tertians and continual fevers. The plague raged in Portugal, attended with black round worms. At Christmas, there was an earthquake in England. The same year there was an earthquake at Arequipa, in Peru, accompa­nied by an eruption of a volcano.

In 1602 a cold and dry summer and winter, the catarrh was epidemic, and acute fevers prevalent. These diseases and phe­nomena accompanied a series of calamities in all parts of Europe.

The famin that marked this period, for a series of years, ex­ceeded in extent and severity, what had been before recorded. Famins are usually local; but in the present instance, there was a failure of crops for several years, in almost every part of Eu­rope; while the plague committed most desolating ravages.

In Muscovy the famin raged for three years at the beginning of the century under consideration, attended with the plague. Parents devoured their dying children; cats, rats and every un­clean [Page 172] thing was used to sustain life. All the ties of nature and morality were disregarded; human flesh was exposed to sale in the open market. The more powerful seized their neighbors; fathers and mothers, their children; husbands, their wives, and offered them for sale. Multitudes of dead were found, with their mouths filled with straw, and the most filthy substances. Five hundred thousand persons were supposed to perish in Mus­covy, by famin and pestilence.

At the same time, the famin in Livonia, and the cold winter of 1602, destroyed 30,000 lives. The dead bodies lay in the streets, for want of hands to bury them.

At the same time, raged a most dreadful pestilence in Con­stantinople, which also followed a famin.

In England, there was also a dearth, and in 1603 perished 36,000 in London, of the plague, which was said to be imported from Ostend.

Even in this case, the report of imported infection into Lon­don was believed, altho the nation had before their eyes, a de­monstration to the contrary; for the same malady broke out in every part of the kingdom, and had actually prevailed in Chester, in the north-west corner of England, the year preceding.

It is idle to ascribe the plague to infection, communicated from person to person, or from clothes to persons. The disease, in 1602 was in every part of Europe, and appeared nearly at the same time, in the most distant parts. In this case, as in those before related, of 1580 and 1591, it had been preceded by catarrh, and a course of malignant fevers. The malignity of the disease in 1602 resembled that of 1348—persons were seized with spitting of blood, and died in three days.

In August 1603 in Paris died 2000 persons weekly of the plague. This disease was attributed to the diet and filth accu­mulated, under a defective police.

Why the filth of Paris did not produce the plague in other seasons, writers have not informed us.

[Page 173]The period under consideration was remarkable for the uni­versality of the action of subterranean fire. The earthquakes of 1600 and 1601 and the bursting of a volcano in South-A­merica have been mentioned. In 1603 there was an explosion of Etna. In 1604 a second eruption in Peru, and a comet.

The plague abated, in some places, the year following; but London was not free from it for a number of years, and from 1606 to 1609 inclusive the distemper carried off from two to four thousand citizens in each season.

In 1607 commenced an unusual concurrence of great agitations in the elements, and severe pestilence attended.

In this year appeared a comet, and another in 1609. The winter of 1607-8 was the severest that had been known for an age; boats were built on the Thames. And here for the first time, I am able to introduce North-America, into this history; from which will be derived some of the most important evidence in regard to the universality of the causes of pestilential epidemics.

The severity of the winter mentioned was equally great in America, as in Europe. George Popham, and a company of settlers under the patent of king James, to the London mer­chants, attempted a settlement at Sagadahoc in 1607; but Pop­ham, the President, died during the winter, and the extreme cold was one of the discouragements that contributed to break up the settlement.

In this same year was an eruption of Etna.

The comet of this year produced a most remarkable tempest, with a swell of the ocean, that did incredible damage in Eng­land. In the latter part of winter, the tempest brought in a flood into the Severn, which overflowed the country, near Bristol, to the extent of ten miles, with a rapidity, that left no time for the people to save their effects, and many lives were lost. The flood rose above the houses, where people had re­sorted for safety, and overwhelmed them. The loss of cattle and goods was immense.

In Somersetshire, the inundation laid waste an extent of 20 miles by 10; overwhelming five towns. So sudden was the [Page 174] irruption, that laborers were caught in the fields, and were seen floating on the timbers of their houses. In Norfolk, the inun­dation was not less destructive.

In 1608 a very malignant dysentery prevailed.

In 1609 the approach of the second comet produced effects equally remarkable with the last. The action of subterranean fire was extensive. There was an eruption of Etna, and a vio­lent earthquake at Lima in Peru. The winter was so severe, as to convert the Thames into a common highway.

In this year the plague was augmented in London; and it raged in Alemar and Denmark. In the years 1607 and 8, it had been very mortal in Cork.

The pestilential state of air, at this time, was experienced at sea. The people on board the fleet under Sir Thomas Gates and Sir George Somers, bound to Virginia, were seized with the calenture, a spotted pestilent fever, which, on board of one of the ships, was so malignant as to be called the plague. Thir­ty-two dead bodies were thrown out of two ships. Was this disease imported? In the same passage, the fleet met with a tre­mendous storm of four days continuance, and Sir T. Gates was shipwrecked on Bermuda.

In 1610 the catarrh was again epidemic. In some parts of the continent prevailed the Hungarian fever like the plague, and severe bilious complaints. A remarkable fiery bow in the heav­ens was observed in Hungary; and Constantinople was infested with clouds of grass-hoppers, of great size, that devoured every green thing. The malignant sore throat was fatal in Spain, and authors relate that this was its first appearance in that coun­try.

In 1611 the plague carried off 200,000 of the inhabitants of Constantinople. It appeared also in some other places. The summers of the three last years were very hot and dry.

In 1612 appeared a comet. A terrible tempest made great havoc with shipping—2000 dead bodies of sailors were found on the coast of England, and 1200 on that of Holland. Some towns were injured. In the following year, Provence in France [Page 175] was greatly injured by an inundation; and swarms of locusts succeeded, which laid waste the vegetable kingdom.

The summer of 1612 in England was excessively dry, and a malignant fever severely afflicted the nation.

In 1613 the plague appeared in detached parts of France, and in Montpelier, a malignant disease so fatal, as to want only the buboes, to prove it the true plague. It was marked with red and livid spots, swellings behind the ears and carbuncles. One third who were seized died.

The preceding summers, the earth was covered with grass­hoppers, and the air filled with clouds of flies.

In this year also Constantinople was ravaged with the plague; and as cats were supposed to spread the infection, the physicians, who were mostly Jews, advised the emperor Achmet I. and he accordingly ordered all the cats to be transported to a desert island near Scutari.

In 1614 the winter was severe; there was an eruption of Etna, and an earthquake in the Azores. The heavens appeared, at one time in a flame, and afterwards very dark.

This year was remarkable for the most universal small-pox, and most fatal ever known. It laid waste Alexandria, Crete, Turkey, Calabria, Italy, Venice, Dalmatia, France, Germa­ny, Poland, Flanders and England. The mortality equalled that of the plague. In Persia also it raged, with measles.

In 1615 the seasons were cold. In 1616 a very hot and dry summer—quartan agues epidemic—not a family in Germany escaped; but not fatal.

In 1617 the summer was hot and dry.

In 1618 appeared a remarkable comet in November, (Short mentions four) and a town in Rhetia was overwhelmed by an earthquake. Violent tempests, inundations and hurricanes are recorded of the same year, and in Bermuda, the year following, a storm tore up the strongest trees by the roots. In 1619 Heckla discharged her fiery contents.

In 1618 broke out in Naples a malignant Angina which rav­aged the place for many years. The plague appeared at Bergen, [Page 176] in Norway, in Denmark and in Grand Cairo. This was the beginning of a very pestilential period, and here must be intro­duced the terrible pestilence which wasted the American Indians, just before our ancestors landed in Massachusetts. As this is one of the most remarkable facts in history, and one that demon­strates the general causes of plague to belong to other climates, besides those of Egypt and the Levant, I have taken great pains to ascertain the species of disease, and the time of its appearance.

Capt. Dermer, an English adventurer, who had arrived in America, in a fishing vessel, a year or two before, passed the winter of 1618-19 in Monhiggan, an Indian town on the northern coast On the 19th of May 1619 he sailed along the coast, on his way to Virginia, and landed at several places, where he had been the year before; and he found many Indian towns totally depopulated—in others a few natives remained alive, but "not free of sickness;" "their disease, the plague, for we might perceive the sores of some that had escaped, who described the spots of such as usually die." These are his words. He found some villages, which, in his former visit, were populous, all deserted—the Indians "all dead."

Richard Vines, and his companions, who had been sent by Ferdinando Gorges, to explore the country, wintered among the Indians, during the pestilence, and remained untouched, the disease attacking none of the English. Belknap's Life of Gor­ges, American Biography, vol. 1. p. 355, but the year is not specified.

Gookin, in his account of the Indians, Historical Collections, p. 8, places this pestilence in 1612 and 13, about seven or eight years before the English arrived at Plymouth. But this cannot be accurate, unless the disease began to rage for a number of years previous to 1618. Capt. Dermer's letter in Purchas is decisive of the time of the principal sickness, and fortunately we have another authority which is indisputable.

A sermon was preached by Elder Cushman at Plymouth, in 1620, just after the colony arrived, and sent to London to be published. In the Epistle Dedicatory which is dated December, 21, 1621, the author has these words. "They [the Indians] [Page 177] were very much wasted of late, by a great mortality, that fell amongst them, three years since, which, with their own civil dissentions and bloody wars, hath so wasted them, as I think the twentieth person is scarce left alive."

This corresponds also with the accounts in Prince's Chronol­ogy from original manuscripts. This fixes the time in 1618, precisely agreeable to Capt. Dermer's account. This was the year of the principal mortality; but like other pestilential pe­riods, this continued for a number of years; for some of the Plymouth settlers went to Massachusetts, (now Boston) in 1622, to purchase corn of the natives; and "found among the In­dians, a great sickness, not unlike the plague, if not the same." It raged in winter, and affected the Indians only.

The time then is fixed. The disease commenced, or raged with its principal violence in 1618 and through the winter. This was the year of the remarkable comet, when the plague was raging in many parts of the world. So fatal was the pestilence in America, that the warriors from Narragansett to Penobscot, the distance to which the disease seems to have been limited, were reduced from 9000 to a few hundreds. ^* When our an­cestors arrived in 1620, they found the bones of those who per­ished, in many places, unburied.

The kind of disease is another important question. Dermer seems to think it a species of plague, and he saw some of the sores of those who had survived. Hutchinson, vol. 1. p. 34, 35, says some have supposed it to have been the small-pox, but the Indians, who were perfectly acquainted with this disease, after the English arrived, always gave a very different account of it, and described it as a pestilential putrid fever.

Fortunately General Gookin, in the passage above cited, has left us a fact, which leaves no doubt as to the nature of the mal­ady. His words are— "What the disease was, which so gen­erally [Page 178] and mortally swept them away, I cannot learn. Doubt­less it was some pestilential disease. I have discoursed with some old Indians, that were then youths, who say, that the bodies all over were exceeding yellow (describing it by a yellow garment they showed me) both before they died and afterwards."

This account may be relied on for its authenticity and it de­cides the question, that the pestilence was the true American plague, called yellow fever. If any confirmation of this evi­dence were necessary, we have it in Prince's Chronology, where it is recorded that this fever produced hemorrhagy from the nose.

At the time Gookin wrote, about forty or fifty years after the settlement of New-England, the infectious fevers of autumn were called "pestilent," and they were frequent in the country, but had not then acquired the appellation of yellow.

This fever has been frequent among the Indians since the Eng­lish settled the country. Some instances will be hereafter related.

The evidence then of the origin of the yellow fever in this country, between the 41st and 44th degrees of latitude, is com­plete, leaving no room for doubt or controversy. No intercourse existed, in 1618, between this continent and the West-Indies; nor did a single vessel pass between New-England and the islands, till twenty years after that pestilence. Not one of the islands was then settled, except by the Spaniards, with whom our an­cestors had no commerce. Not an European was among the Indians, except a French seaman, who had escaped from a wreck a year or two before, and Mr. Vine's men, who arrived di­rectly from England. These men escaped the disease; none be­ing attacked but the Indians; another evidence of the origin of the malady in the country.

In Gorges' description of New-England, there is the follow­ing account of this pestilence. " The summer after the blazing star, which moved from the east to the west, even a little before the English removed from Holland to Plymouth, in New-Eng­land, there befel a great mortality among the Indians, the great­est that had ever happened in the memory of man, or been ta­ken notice of by tradition, laying waste the cast."

[Page 179]The author further remarks that this star was much noted in Europe. In America it was seen in the south-west, for "thirty sleeps," as the Indians express themselves. The description of the comet here given answers to that of Riverius, who repre­sents it as very splendid, larger than Venus, moving from the east to the west, and visible from Nov. 27, 1618, till the close of December. This was the time the pestilence was raging among the Indians. Gorges indeed says, it was the summer after the blazing star. It is true, that the disease continued not only into 1619, but occurred in autumn for some years subse­quent. We hear of it among the Massachusetts Indians in 1622. From this it appears that this was a long and severe period of pestilence, between 1617 and 1623, or a later year; like the present period in the United States.

It must be remarked that in 1618, the same year when the In­dians in America were falling a prey to this malady, the angina ma­ligna broke out in the kingdom of Naples, and spread mortality over the country, as authors affirm, for eighteen years. This how­ever is not understood, as affirming the disease to have been con­stantly epidemic; but as prevailing at certain times and seasons.

The same destructive principle operated in Virginia. Capt. Dermer relates that when he arrived in the Chesapeek on the 8th of September, "The first news struck cold to our hearts, the sickness over the land." ^* Three hundred of the settlers died in 1619.

It appears from Purchas that the emigrants to Virginia in 1619, 20 and 21, amounted to 3570, in 42 sail of ships. ^† There were 600 souls in that colony before these arrived, mak­ing the whole number 4170. Of these, 349 perished in the Indian massacre of 1622, which would leave 3821 survivors. But in 1624 no more than 1800 were living. Scanty means of subsistence might have contributed to this mortality; but most of it was in consequence of fevers, that were probably the ef­fects [Page 180] of the climate, and a very unfavorable state of the atmos­phere.

In 1620 a comet was followed by a cold winter. In England the year was distinguished by a violent tempest, a preternatural tide, and a very wet summer. The Hungarian fever, so called, spread along the Rhine, and in the next year became infectious. London became sickly. The year 1621 was remarkable for an epidemic malignant small-pox.

In 1622 a [...]omet is noted, and an earthquake in Italy. In New-England the spring was excessively dry, from the third week in May to the middle of July.

In 1623 the epidemic fevers in Europe became more fatal, as the period of pestilence approached. This is obvious from the London burials, which show a considerable increment. Rive­rius, who has written on the epidemic fevers of this period in the south of France, observes that the mortality was great, until he began to bleed and purge, when it abated. He refers to the city of Montpelier, where almost half died who were seized. The disease was a species of pestilence.

This author concurs with the ancients in ascribing pestilence to comets. Speaking of the singular star of 1618, he says, "Hunc vero Cometam, morborum malignorum et pestilentium, necnon etiam bellorum, quibus universa penè hactenus Europa devastata est, praesagium ac prenuntium fuisse, credere non alie­num est."

The author falls into the error, which has brought into con­tempt the opinions of the ancient sages, in regard to the influ­ence of the stars on man, and the state of the elements. He ascribes moral as well as physical effects to that influence. Ad­mitting the distant orbs to have some effect on the air or fire of our system, and through that medium to augment or diminish the stimulus which acts on the human body and of course on the passions, by the exciting powers; yet any moral effects derived from this source, must be so inconsiderable, or so blended with the effects of other causes, as interest, ambition, love, revenge and the like, that the degree of influence could not be ascer­tained, nor the effects of one cause distinguished from those of the [Page 181] other. I reject therefore all moral effects ascribed to comets; but the physical effects are, beyond question, great and extensive.

The diseases of this period continued to multiply and grow more malignant in 1624, when the epidemic assumed the form of the spotted fever. In 1625 this fever turned to the plague, and in 1626 changed back to the spotted fever, says Lotichius, cited by Short. This is not an unusual fact.

The plague in 1625 swept away 35,000 of the citizens of London. It raged at the same time in Italy, Denmark and Leyden, and how much more extensively, I am not informed.

In this year another comet was seen; several cities in Spain were overwhelmed by inundations; the winter was severe; the summer, hot and moist weather; and there was an eruption of a volcano in Iceland. It is remarkable also that, in this year, a volcano burst forth in Palma, one of the Canaries, with a vi­olent earthquake.

The summer of 1626 was very hot, and the plague continued its ravages in many parts of Europe, as in Wittemburg and the vicinity; and in Lyons, which lost 60,000 of its inhabitants. This was the prelude to more general calamity in France; for in the following years the whole country felt the distressing ef­fects of the malady.

In 1627 and 8 the same disease prevailed in various other countries, especially in Augsburg after a famin. In 1629 the pestilence raged in Amsterdam. In 1630 Cambridge in Eng­land was visited. It was a very sickly summer in London, so that the citizens were alarmed and many retired to the country; but finding the country very sickly, they returned.

In 1629 Pola, a town in the Venetian territories, lost 7000 inhabitants by an earthquake.

Of the pestilence in this period, there was hardly a suspen­sion. Particular countries enjoyed short intervals of health; but Europe and America were severely annoyed by pestilential diseases between 1632 and 1637.

In 1630 happened great explosions of subterranean fire. A­pulia lost 17,000 people by an earthquake; and Lima, in South-America, [Page 182] was laid in ruins by the like catastrophe. At this time the plague prevailed in Vienna.

In 1631 happened a memorable earthquake in Naples, with a tremendous eruption of Vesuvius, which continued or was re­peated in 1632. In this eruption, Baglivus assures us, Vesu­vius lost 240 feet of its altitude.

Cotemporary with these discharges of fire and lava, was an erysipelous fever in Europe with inflammation in the jaws, and an increase of mortality, antecedent to a general plague. See the bills of mortality for London, Augsburg and Dresden, where the progress of the malignity in the epidemics, is distinct­ly marked, by an augmentation of the bills, till the plague in 1636.

In 1633 appeared a comet, which was followed by a severe winter. The same winter in America was mild, says Winthrop, p. 61. Southerly winds prevailed till the close of winter, when there were great snows. It is very common that severe cold is progressive, happening in Europe one year before it does in A­merica, as will hereafter appear.

In 1633 the year of the comet, commenced an eruption of Etna, which continued for four or five years, through this whole pestilential period. London was shaken by an earthquake, and at Halifax in Yorkshire raged a very malignant fever.

In this year also a "pestilent fever," invaded the little colo­ny at Plymouth in Massachusetts, and carried off twenty of their number. This was a great mortality for that small settle­ment. It must have been occasioned by a fever of domestic ori­gin, as the colony had, at that time, no intercourse with for­eign countries, except with England. No suspicion has ever been entertained that the disease was of foreign origin.

At the same time, the Indians were invaded by the small-pox which swept them away in multitudes. It spread from Narra­gansett to Piscataqua, and westward to Connecticut river.

The summer of this year was remarkable for innumerable large flies, of the size of bees, which made the woods resound with a humming noise.

We have then a remarkable evidence of the extent of a pes­tilential [Page 183] principle in the elements. The same species of diseases appeared, at the same time, in Augsburg, Dresden, London, and in America. Probably the same species prevailed over most of Europe; for we hear of them in every part of Holland in the following year. The diseases predominant, previous to the plague, are of the eruptive kind: Such was the case in the pres­ent instance. In America, the epidemic among the Indians took the form of the small-pox; and altho it is the current opin­ion that the small-pox is communicated only by contagion, yet my investigations have satisfied me that this is a great error. The small-pox is one of the family of eruptive diseases, which belong to almost every pestilential period. Before its origin and progress had been affected by the art of innoculation, it used to be epidemic, in large cities, under that inflammatory condition of the atmosphere, which originated measles, influenza, anginas and plague, and rarely or never at any other time. This disease therefore, tho communicable at any time by infection, is gene­rated in particular habits without any infecting cause ab extra; and is the offspring of that state of the atmosphere which gen­erates other eruptive epidemics.

In 1634 the plague showed itself at Ratisbon. The summer in America was hotter than usual, and the following winter was very cold.

In 1635 the plague appeared in Leyden and 20,000 inhabit­ants perished. This year was distinguished for an eruption of Vesuvius, violent earthquakes, an inundation in Holstein which des [...]royed 600 people and 50,000 head of cattle, and a terrible tempest in America on the 15th of August O. S. which brot in a remarkable swell of the ocean. It will appear hereafter that most of the violent storms and hurricanes, which sweep the earth, happen during or near the time of the discharges of great quantities of fire from volcanoes. In this year, Etna and Ve­suvius were both in a state of eruption. The plague appeared also in Mentz and other parts of Germany.

In 1636 there was an eruption of Heckla. The pestilence was general in proportion to this universal agitation of the central [Page 184] fires. In London it prevailed in 1636 after a regular increase of previous malignity in diseases.

Of the progress of the pestilence in Holland, and especially in Nimeguen, we have an accurate account in the treatise of the able Diemerbroeck, which is by far the most learned and philo­sophic work on the plague, that I have seen. Not that I believe his opinion of the cause of the plague; but his view of the sub­ject is otherwise correct and worthy of universal attention.

In 1635 when the plague appeared in Leyden, the malignant diseases, its precursors, appeared in various parts of Holland. In Nimeguen, these precursors were measles, small-pox, dysen­teries of the worst type, but especially the spotted fever. The malignity of this fever increased, until it changed into the real plague—"donec in apertissimam pestem transiret," says Diemer­broeck.

The plague appeared, in a few cases, in November 1635, but made little progress, during the winter. In January appearan­ces were more alarming; in March the malady spread rapidly and continued to increase till autumn. Scarcely a house escaped; more than half who were seized, [...]ied; and medical aid was baffled. The disease declined in the following winter, and was extinguished by a severe frost in February 1637.

The summers of 1636 and 7 were warm, the winds constantly from the south and west, "cum magnis aeris squaloribus," says Diemerbroeck.

In 1635 a dysentery prevailed in most parts of Germany. In 1636 the eruption from Etna was augmented, and Rome was severely afflicted with the plague. In 1637 the same distemper raged in some parts of Holland, in Denmark, Constantinople and Natolia; after which year the disease declined or disappeared.

This period of disease was also experienced in Virginia, where, says Winthrop, died 1800 people in the year 1635.

The summer of 1638 was very hot and dry in England, as it was in America, after a very severe winter, and cold spring.

In this year was a most tremendous earthquake in Calabria, memorable for the destruction of whole towns and the loss of 30,000 lives.

[Page 185]On the first of June, between 3 and 4 o'clock in the after­noon, in a clear warm day, with a westerly wind, happened a great earthquake in America, which extended from the Piscat­aqua to the Connecticut, and perhaps over the whole northern region. The year was also distinguished for tempestuous weath­er; not for ordinary storms which occur many times every year, but violent hurricanes of vast extent. On the third of August a tempest raised the tide, on the Narragansett shore, fourteen feet above common spring tides. Autumn was very rainy and considerable snow fell in October, which our ancestors ascri­bed to the earthquake. On the 25th of September, another mighty tempest occurred and the highest swell of the sea that had then been observed in America. If I mistake not, the state of the atmosphere, during earthquakes and eruptions of volca­noes, is peculiarly disposed, not only to produce high winds, but to generate snow and hail.

This year was very sickly in America. In December a gen­eral fast was observed, one reason for which was the prevalence of the "small-pox and fevers."

The spring of 1639 in America was very dry, there was no rain from April 26th, to June 4th, O. S. and from the south­ward came swarms of small flies, which covered the sea, but they did not invade the land.

The plague continued to infest London, without interruption, from 1636 to 1648; see the bills of mortality; but it was not epidemic, nor very fatal.

In 1640 a hard winter, and epidemic pleurisies were fatal in Europe. The following year, a malignant fever was epidemic, in England, and other countries.

In September 11th appeared, in the evening, a remarkable light in the heavens, about 30 or 40 feet in length; it moved rapidly and was visible about a minute. It was seen in Boston, in Plymouth and in New-Haven, and to the spectators every [Page 186] where, appeared to be in the same part of the heavens—of course must have been of a great altitude.

I notice this fact as it confirms the testimony of ancient wri­ters, who, in describing the seasons and phenomena of pesti­lential periods, frequently mention similar appearances. This seems to have been of the figure of a beam, called by the Latin writers, trabs, but it differed from those meteors discribed by ancient writers, in the rapidity of its motion.

In November following a series of tempests took place, and the highest tide ever known at Boston.

This summer of 1641 was remarkably wet and cold, so that a great part of the corn did not come to maturity. Those who fed on it, the year following, were exceedingly troubled with worms, and some persons found a remedy in leaving bread and living on fish.

The following winter was the most severe that had been known for 40 years. The bay at Boston was frozen so that teams and loads passed to the town from the neighboring islands. The snow was deep, and Chesapeek bay was nearly frozen. At Boston, the ice extended to sea, as far as the eye could reach. The following spring 1642 was early, but wet.

The oldest Indians declared they could scarcely recollect such a winter.

This severe winter was followed by a very sickly summer on the Delaware river. Such was the mortality among the settlers from New-Haven, who had not long been in that country, that it broke up their settlement. The Swedes settled there suffered much by the same disease.

The very wet weather of the last year produced a dearth of corn in Boston, in the spring of 1643, and myriads of pigeons appeared also and did no small injury, the same season. It is an old observation, in America, that pigeons are uncommonly nu­merous in the spring of sickly years. The Massachusetts colony suffered also from the number of mice which devoured their grain, and the bark of the fruit-trees.

[Page 187]Several singular meteors were seen this year in the neighbor­hood of Boston. ^*

One fact in the foregoing account deserves notice; the ex­treme winter in America was in 1641-2, one year later than in Europe. Several instances have occurred in other periods, which seem to indicate a kind of progressiveness in great cold from east to west. It often happens however that the winter is severe at the same time, in both hemispheres, as in 1607-8— 1683-4—1762-3—1779-80.

In England, in 1643 a malignant fever was epidemic and few escaped. In autumn, it put on pestilential symptoms and pe­techiae. The same year, an eruption of Vesuvius and of Etna.

In 1644 a malignant fever was epidemic in Denmark.

The summer of 1645 being excessively hot, there prevailed a contagious dysentery, which was fatal in England. For the great mortality in England, through a series of years at this time, see the London bills.

In this year a great sickness prevailed among the Indians on Martha's Vineyard—few escaped.

In 1646 inundations laid a part of Holland, Friefland and Zealand under water so suddenly, as to destroy more than one hundred thousand lives and three hundred villages. Gorges re­lates that two mock suns, with other singular celestial phenomena, were seen this year in America.

In 1647 May 13th, a most tremendous earthquake in Chili, South-America, sunk whole mountains into the earth and nearly ruined the large city of Santiago.

This year appeared a comet. The plague in London also was more severe, and appeared after this year to subside.

In 1646 and 7 the Ukrain was ravaged by locusts.

[Page 188]A. D. 1647. This year appeared an epidemic catarrh in America, and the first of which we have any account. It is not named either influenza or catarrh, but is clearly the same disease. It is thus described in Hubbard's Manuscript, p. 276. "In 1647 an epidemic sickness passed through the whole country, affecting the colonists and the natives, English, French and Dutch. It began with a cold and in many accompanied with a light fever. Such as bled or used cooling drinks died—such as made use of cordials and more strengthening things, recovered for the most part. It extended through the plantations in Amer­ica, and in the West-Indies. There died in Barbadoes and St. Kitts, 5 or 6000 each. Whether it was a plague, or pestilential fever, in the islands, accompanied by great drouth, which cut short potatoes and fruits."

This epidemic was in the same year with the earthquake in Chili, but the date of the disease is not recorded.

In Connecticut prevailed a malignant fever, occasioned b [...] the excessive heat of the summer. ^†

The year 1648 appears to have been less sickly, in London; but in the south of Europe, malignant diseases were the harbin­gers of the plague, which in 1649 carried off 200,000 people in the southern provinces of Spain. In Ireland and Shropshire the plague prevailed in the same year, and a fatal fever in France. The small-pox was epidemic in Boston.

In 1650 was an eruption of Etna, and an earthquake in the north and west of England. In this and the following year the plague continued in Ireland.

In 1650 the influenza spread over Europe. In 1651 many desolating floods happened in Holland and France—in Italy, a quinsy or sore throat proved very fatal to children. These dis­eases were succeeded by malignant fevers, and plague in most parts of Europe, except in England. The summer of 1651 was hot.

In 1652 appeared a comet. A dangerous synochus prevailed in France and a tertian fever in Denmark.

[Page 189]In 1653 a slight earthquake occurred in New-England, in Oct.

The years 1652 and 3 were remarkably dry in England, and in 1654 public thanks were ordered for a supply of rain.

In 1654 the plague made its appearance in Denmark. Some severe epidemic had prevailed in New-England; for in the spring of 1654 a general fast was appointed by the government of Con­necticut, one reason assigned for which was, "the mortality which had been among the people of Massachusetts." What the disease was, I am not informed.

In 1655 occurred the second epidemic catarrh, recorded in the Annals of America. The following is the account of it in Hubbard's Manuscript, p. 285.

"In 1655 there was another faint cough that passed through the whole country of New-England, occasioned by some strange distemper or infection of the air. It was so epidemical, that few persons escaped. It began about the end of June. Few were able to visit their friends or perform the last testimony of respect to any of their relations at a distance. Of this died Mr. Nathaniel Rogers, minister of Ipswich."

It will be observed that this epidemic commenced in the heat of summer, and that its invasion was sudden and universal. In November 1655 occurred an earthquake in South-America.

Of the seasons in America I have no account; but in Europe the winter of 1654-5 was extremely severe. The rivers and harbors in Holland were all made fast with ice; a series of snow storms took place in April, and as late as the 19th there was a severe frost at Brussels.

In March 1655 was an eruption of Vesuvius; it was very sickly in the north of England; and there were great tempests of wind and hail in 1654 and 5.

In 1654 the plague appeared at Chester in England; but did not become epidemic; owing, it was supposed, to the precaution of confining the diseased to their houses. ^* At the same time [Page 190] the disease was raging in Turkey, in Presburg, Hungary and in the city of Moscow, it is alledged, perished 200,000 inhabitants. We have here precise and authentic evidence, that the plague appeared in Chester, in the north-west of England, in Denmark, in Russia, Hungary and Turkey, in the same season. To prove this to be the effect of a general principle, we have numberless authorities, in the Gazettes of that and the next year, that ma­lignant diseases prevailed over Europe. See the paper above cited. Thus when a few cases of plague occurred in Chester, fatal dis­eases prevailed over the north of England. And it is remark­able in this instance, that the epidemic plague appeared in the north of Europe before it did in Italy—an exception to the gen­eral course of that disease.

In 1655 the plague was more general in Europe. It prevailed in Sardinia, Malta, Leyden, Amsterdam, and in Riga, a Rus­sian port at the mouth of the Divina. There died in Riga 9000 —Amsterdam 13, [...]00—Leyden 13,000.

In 1656 the same disease invaded Naples, Rome, Genoa, Candia, Benevento, and most parts of the Neapolitan territories. In the city of Naples, perished three fourths of the inhabitants, and in Benevento, a greater proportion. The numbers of deaths were estimated as follows—

In the city of Naples died 240,000—survived 50,000.

In the Neapolitan territories 400,000.

In Benevento died 9000—survived 500.

In Rome about 10,000.

In Genoa in 1656, 10,000, and in 1657, 70,000, and 14,000 only survived.

In Riga 9000.

In Thorn 8200.

I have not materials for a complete view of the diseases of this pestilential period. But it is to be observed, that influenza prevailed over Europe in 1650, and diseases of the throat in It­aly in 1651—diseases which seem to precede pestilential fevers on most occasions.

The summer of 1656 was hot, and an earthquake in the south of Italy accompanied the dreadful mortality.

[Page 191]The influenza in America was also succeeded by fatal epidemic diseases, altho I have no means of determining what they were. The account recorded is that there "was a great sickness and mortality, throughout New-England in 1658. The season was intemperate and the crops light." Trumbull, p. 244. This year was also distinguished for what is called in our annals, the "Great Earthquake." This is an instance of a violent con­cussion of the earth, in the same year with violent rains; but unfortunately I can find no account which phenomenon preceded the other. The summer was so rainy, that the christianized Indians observed days of fasting, on that account, apprehending that their crops would fail and the world be drowned.

The introduction of the plague into Naples was ascribed to a transport of soldiers from Sardinia. How the disease came to be in Sardinia, we are not informed. But this report, like nine tenths of all the stories about infection, is demonstrably a mis­take. The account given in the history of the disease, is, that it was at first called by physicians a "malignant fever." One of the faculty, a man probably of more observation and firm­ness than the others, affirmed the distemper to be pestilential, and for his audacity, was imprisoned by the Viceroy, who ap­prehended the report might injure the business and reputation of the city.

We have then another instance of the uncertainty in the minds of medical gentlemen, about the nature of the disease, when it first appeared, because it was not characterized by the distinctive marks of the plague, the glandular tumors. This circumstance demonstrates that the disease was not imported, but an epidemic; appearing first, as al [...] great plagues first appear, in the form of catarrh, inflammatory fevers, affections of the throat, and typhus fevers.

There cannot be a more clear and demonstrable truth, than that a disease of specific contagion, must communicate a disease of the same specific character. If the plague has this species of contagion, it cannot communicate another disease, a malignant fever, for instance, which has a different character or type, and [Page 192] is destitute of the distinctive marks of the plague. A single in­stance might occur, in which the disease might not bear the character of its original; but it is absurd to suppose, that a plague with glandular tumors, can communicate and render epi­demic a fever without glandular tumors.

Yet all severe plagues first appear in the form of such fever, or other diseases without tumors. I challenge the followers of Mead to produce an exception. Hence the uncertainty that per­plexes the physician and the magistrate at the commencement of the plague—an uncertainty that has originated in the errors re­specting the specific nature of the disease and its propagation by infection—errors as fatal to great cities, as to truth and philoso­phy.

Had the real origin of this disease been known, the certainty of the existence of it in Naples, Venice, Rome, Vienna, Am­sterdam and London, would have induced the citizens to aban­don the places, before the distemper had made much progress, and multitudes of lives would have been saved—an expedient practised in America, with the most salutary effects.

In Genoa, the disease manifested a more distinct progression; 10,000 died the first year, and about 70,000 the second.

When this distemper appeared in Malta, Candia and Sardinia, every possible precaution was taken to prevent its introduction in­to Genoa, by stopping intercourse with those places; but in vain.

When the report of a malignant infectious fever in Naples prevailed in May 1656, an alarm was excited in Rome; a com­mittee of health watched over the safety of that city; four of the gates were shut and barred; the others were guarded with vigilance to prevent any person from entering who could be sus­pected of infection; but all efforts were useless. The real truth was the disease was an epidemic, no more under the control of health laws, than the influenza and sore throat which had pre­ceded it.

The summer of 1657 in England was very hot, and succeed­ed by a long severe winter and deep snow.

In April 1658 commenced in Europe an epidemic catarrh, which was so sudden in its attack as to seize a whole village in a [Page 193] night. It was severe and fatal to old people—its course was fin­ished in about six weeks. The summer was hot and fevers with vertigo and delirium, were epidemic.

It will be remarked that the year 1647 when the influenza invaded America, was a sickly year in Europe. In 1655 when the plague was epidemic in Europe, the influenza again prevailed in America. In 1658 when the influenza invaded Europe, great sickness and mortality occurred in America. These alter­nations of epidemic diseases will be observed in the subsequent stages of this history.

In 1659 prevailed the Cynanche Trachealis in America—the first instance mentioned in our annals. Magnalia, b. 4. 156.— This disease was also succeeded by malignant diseases, for the Legislature of Connecticut in October 1662 appointed a day of thanksgiving, two reasons assigned for which were, the "abate­ment of the sickness in the country, and a supply of rain in time of drouth."

This was the commencement of a very sickly period in Europe. In 1660 occurred an eruption of Vesuvius, and of a volcano in Iceland. The year was very tempestuous, and earthquakes shook England, France and America. In 1661 appeared a comet.

In 1662 another considerable earthquake happened in New-England; and in this year was the drouth above mentioned.— In 1663 Canada was convulsed for five months by a series of successive shocks—small rivers and springs were dried up—the waters of others were tinctured with the taste of sulphur—an immense ridge of mountains subsided to a plain. Such were the phenomena in America which marked this pestilential period.

In 1663 a malignant disease seized the inhabitants of the Ve­netian territories and 60,000 perished. The country, at the same time, was overrun by innumerable small worms.

In the same year, a memorable mortality occurred in England, among the cattle and sheep, by means of a disease in which the [Page 194] liver was eaten by small worms, and in some cases, the lungs. These phenomena were the precursors of the plague in many parts of Europe. In England, all diseases assumed new violence, as early as in 1661, preparatory to the great plague. See Sy­denham. In Holland, the plague appeared at Heusden, in 1663.

The winter of 1663-4 was mild. In the following summer, Prussia was afflicted by a malignant purple fever, attended with tumors or inflammation in the throat, very fatal to the young. Bonnetus. Med. Septen. p. 206. A species of scarlatina.

In 1664 appeared a comet; another in 1665, and a third in 1666. In 1664 began an eruption of Etna, which lasted, with various degrees of violence, till the year 1669, when it ended with a most dreadful explosion. This period corresponds with the epidemics described by Sydenham.

In 1664 the summer in England was wet, and cattle died of diseases. In New-England commenced the mildew of wheat, which has rendered it impossible to cultivate that grain, on the Atlantic coast of the three Eastern States. The winter of 1664-5, was terribly severe in England; the Thames was a bridge of ice, and in January happened earthquakes, in Coven­try and Buckinghamshire. During this winter inflammatory fevers and quinsies, says Sydenham, were more frequent in Lon­don, than were before known. These gave way in May to a malignant fever, which could hardly be distinguished from the plague, which, in June, became the controling epidemic.

Such were the phenomena of the pestilential period under con­sideration; and at this time, the plague appeared in Holland, and in England. English authors all agree that the disease was imported into England from Holland in some bales of cotton! O fatal bales of cotton! says Short. This tale has been record­ed and repeated by every writer on the subject, without a single document in evidence to prove that any cotton was imported, or that the first persons seized had ever seen such cotton. The whole tale rests on assertion. That the seeds of the distemper were not imported is evident from the acknowledged facts relative to its origin; and is demonstrated by the history of the prece­ding diseases found in the works of Sydenham.

[Page 195]The origin of the pestilence, which arrived to its crisis in 1665, is to be traced back to the year 1661, when malignant dis­eases began to appear in different and [...]istant parts of the world. In London, the intermitting tertian [...]er, says Sydenham, be­came epidemic, and differed from the same disease in other years, by new and unusual symptoms, which in short, amounted to this, that they were " all more violent." In winter, the disease yield­ed, as usual, to cold, but continued fevers prevailed every win­ter. These fevers, with some variations, continued until the spring of 1665, and the bills show how much they augmented the mortality in London. This increased malignity in usual dis­eases, with an increase of the number and mortality of epidemics, is the constant precursor of the plague or other pestilential fevers.

Notwithstanding the clear evidence of these facts, authors have conjured up a tale of importation which would disgrace a school­boy by its inconsistency. ^* The account states, "That a violent plague had raged in Holland in 1663, on which account, the importation of merchandize from that country was prohibited by the British Legislature in 1664. Notwithstanding this prohibi­tion, it seems the plague had actually been imported; for in the close of 1664, two or three persons died suddenly in Westminster, with marks of the plague on their bodies.—Some of their neighbors, terrified at the thoughts of their danger, removed into the city; but too late; for they soon died of the plague, and communi­cated the infection to others. It was confined however through a hard, frosty winter, till the middle of February, when it again appeared in the Parish of St. Giles, to which it had been ori­ginally brought; and after another long rest, till April, showed its malignant force afresh, as soon as the warmth of spring gave it opportunity. At first, it took off one here and there, without any certain proof of their having infected each other.

In the substance of the foregoing statement, all authors are agreed, and I want no other proof that the report of the impor­tation of the disease is all a vulgar, childish tale, the propagation [Page 196] of which is a disgrace to philosophy and to the faculty of that age.

In the first place we have no authentic evidence in any author, that any bales of cotton were brought from Holland to London, at that time. The whole assertion rests on vulgar report, and is wholly unsupported by proof—had the report been well founded, the fact might have been ascertained, and in an affair of such magnitude, probably would have been. The importation of goods from Holland was prohibited by act of parliament.

In the second place, the disease first appeared in Westminster, not in the commercial city of London, but in a place where bales of cotton would be the least likely to be deposited and opened; Westminster being the residence of the nobility and gen­try, rather than a place of commerce.

In the third place, no proof is stated that the persons first seized had any connection with bales of cotton.

In the fourth place, the death of two or three persons, with the plague-marks on their bodies, in December 1664, is no evidence of any imported infection at that time; for the bills of mortality show, and the reader is desired to turn to them, to be satisfied, that a smaller number died that year of the plague, than had died of it in any of the six preceding years. In the year 1659 died of that disease 36—in 1661 died 20, and every year more or less. In 1664 died but 6 of the plague, and yet this number, small as it was, must be proof of the importation of infection, that year, when greater numbers, in preceding years, are passed over in silence! In such accounts, there must be want of knowledge, or want of honesty. The plague imported from Holland! when the city of London had not been free from it, for 28 years preceding! See the bills of mortality!—

Besides, why in the name of common sense, should "two or three," infected persons in 1664, spread the plague over Lon­don, and desolate the city, when twelve, fourteen, twenty and thirty-six infected persons, who died in preceding years, produced no ill effects? To account for such effects on the principle of in­fection, is not possible; and men of science ought to be ashamed of such absurdities.

[Page 197]In the fifth place, the suspension of the disease, during six weeks, is evidence, that infection had no agency in spreading the disease. It is a fact known and acknowledged, that infection cannot be preserved, for a tenth part of that time in the open air. Air dissolves the poison of any disease, in a very short time. Infection can only be preserved in confinement, as in close ves­sels or packages of goods. The walls of an infected house will be cleansed by the action of air, in a very few days, so as to be perfectly harmless. During the six weeks suspension of the plague in London, where was the infection concealed to preserve it from air and frost?

Was the fomes shut up by design for a few weeks and then set at liberty? Had the persons who were first seized in Febru­ary, any access to the infected houses or clothes of those who died in December? Is this probable? There is no suggestion of this sort.

Then again another interval of several weeks elapsed from the death of those in February, before others were feized. It is not solely improbable; but I aver, that the fomes or infecting principle of no disease whatever, can be suspended in a state of inaction, in the open air, and afterwards give rise to disease. Unless therefore it can be proved that the persons who died in April had access to infection, which had been closely confined from the air, they could never have received the disease from the virus generated in February or December. Now it appears from the statement, that the persons, seized in February, lived in a different part of the city, from those who died in December, and no suggestion that they had an intercourse with any infected object.

But the last sentence of the statement disproves fully all asser­tions and suspicions respecting infection. It seems that when the disease showed itself in spring, it seized one here, and another there, in scattered situations, "without any certain proof of their having infected each other." This is usually the case in the plague, and in the yellow fever, in the ulcerous sore throat, the dysentery and other contagious, epidemic diseases. The whole mystery is, that any disease will first seize the constitutions least [Page 198] capable of resisting that state of air, from which the disease pro­ceeds. One person will sust [...]n a vitiated air, for one day only; another for two days, and a t [...]rd for a week, before his consti­tution yields to the destructive principle. It is precisely with the access of the plague, in a city, as with a company of men going from a healthy situation, into a marshy place—one man will be seized very speedily with the ague and fever; another will sustain his health for a week or two, and some perhaps es­cape unaffected. This example explains the phenomena which attend the invasion of pestilence, as related by Evagrius, Die­merbroeck and others, and which will be more fully discussed in a subsequent section.

The account therefore of the origin of the plague in London in 1665, not only does not prove the disease to have proceeded from imported fomes, but actually demonstrates the impossibility of the fact.

But we have better evidence than the popular accounts afford us, that the disease was generated in the city of London. Sy­denham has left facts on record, which place this point beyond controversy.

After describing the multiplied diseases of increased malignity, which prevailed in London, from 1661 to 1665, and which swelled greatly the bills of mortality in that city, he informs us that in May 1665 he was called to assist a woman of a sanguine habit, who was seized with violent fever and frequent vomitings. He was surprised at the singularity of the symptoms, and puz­zled to know how to treat the disease. The woman died the 14th day. He observed her face, during the fever, to be red, and that a little before her death, a few drops of blood issued from her nose. These and other circumstances suggested to him the use of bleeding, and his next patient recovered.

This species of malignant fever soon spread and towards the close of May and beginning of June, became epidemic. Soon after appeared the true plague with its characteristic symptoms. After stating these facts, Sydenham says, "Whether the fever under consideration deserves to be entitled a plague, I dare not positively affirm; but this I know by experience, that all who [Page 199] were then seized with the true plague, attended with all its pe­culiar concomitants, and for some time afterwards, in my neigh­borhood, had the same train of symptoms, both in the beginning and through the course of the disease."

He then observes that he attended some persons with the true plague, and afterwards, he saw several cases of a similar fever.

Had not the faculty been blinded to truth by their theory of specific contagion, it would not have been possible so long to over­look the progressiveness of the plague, which not only Sydenham, but many physicians of the 16th and 17th centuries observed and recorded.

The malignant diseases which prevailed from 1661 to 1664 marked a pestilential state of air in London. We now know what Sydenham could not know, that this unhealthy state of air extended not only over Europe, but over Persia and America. But the malignant fever which appeared in May, as described by Sydenham, was the first stage of the plague, or mild form of the disease, which always precedes that state of it which is char­acterized by buboes. This form of the disease appears before the season or state of the atmosphere is advanced sufficiently to give the destructive principle its full force.

The same species of fever preceded the terrible plague in Ve­nice and in Naples, as before related; and this is always the cause of uncertainty and controversy respecting the nature of the disease, at its commencement. And it is remarkable that this milder form of the plague, often rages for many months, before the disease arrives to its crisis. Thus in London, the pestilen­tial principle produced a few cases of real plague, in the winter of 1664-5. The cases must have occurred in constitutions more irritable, or susceptible of the cause, than bodies in gene­ral; or the persons must have been exposed to the action of pow­erful local causes, or to extreme debility. The severe frost doubtless suspended the operation of the pestilential principle— but on the opening of spring, the operation began, and pro­ceeded from the malignant epidemic of May to produce the most deadly effects.

[Page 200]I have one observation further to make on this subejct. It has been alledged and generally admitted that the plague was intro­duced into Amsterdam, in 1663 by a vessel from the Mediter­ranean. It is probable that if this question could be fully can­vassed, the popular belief would appear to have had no better foundation, than many opinions in America, in regard to the importation of the yellow fever, which are proved to rest merely on conjectures, suppositions, and vague reports. But in regard to the origin of the pestilence in Holland, in this instance, it is wholly immaterial, whether popular opinion was well founded or not; for we have the express authority of Diemerbroeck, that anterior to the arrival of the ship, with the supposed infec­tion, the plague broke out in Heusden, a town on a branch of the Meuse, surrounded by a morass, not a maritime place. Be­sides the spotted fever, which precedes the plague and turns into it, had been prevailing in all parts of Holland in the preceding year. The pestilence therefore originated in Holland, before the infection arrived; and the tales of importation vanish in smoke.

According to the bills of mortality, London lost upwards of 68,000 inhabitants by the plague in 1665, and more than 28,000 by other diseases. As the 28,000 deaths by common diseases must have occurred mostly in the six first months of the year, before the plague raged, this circumstance shows what a great increase of mortality preceded the plague. With such evidence before their eyes, how can discerning men look abroad for the sources of the malady!

It should also be remarked that this calamity among the hu­man race was preceded by a great mortality among cattle in 1664.

It must not pass unobserved that the summer of 1665 in Eng­land was very temperate, the weather fine and the fruits good. All the writers of that day agree, that no cause of pestilence could be observed in the visible qualities of the season.

This was the last plague that has appeared in London, or in Great Britain. The disappearance of the plague in that and other countries, is a most consoling fact, and one that has not a little engaged the minds of philosophic men, to discover the [Page 201] cause. The causes usually assigned are, the destruction of the city by fire in 1666, the more airy, convenient construction of the modern city, the introduction of fresh water, with more cleanliness, and improved habits of living.

These reasons would have more weight in my mind, if the other large cities in England, in France, Spain, Holland and Germany, which have neither been burnt nor improved in their general structure, had not also escaped the ravages of pestilence. But as the plague has not visited Paris and Amsterdam, which retain their ancient construction, no more than London, which has been improved, we must resort to other circumstances for the causes of this exemption. The consideration of this subject will fall under another part of this work.

In 1666, appeared a comet, the summer was very hot, and a tremendous hurricane, tore up a thousand trees in Nottingham forest, and of 50 houses in one village, seven only were left standing. In this tempest fell hail-stones, as large as hens eggs. An earthquake occurred in Oxfordshire. Persia did not escape the effects of this pestilential constitution. In 1667 prevailed famin and epidemic diseases, and an earthquake demolished great part of Teflis, the capital of Georgia, and four villages, with the loss of 30,000 lives; and another city with the loss of 2,000 lives.

In 1666 dysentery prevailed over England and many parts of Europe and in St. Domingo. This disease seems to be the suc­cessor of the plague, and other epidemics. During the inflam­matory stage of an epidemic constitution, evidenced by measles, influenza, a mild small-pox, we rarely hear of destructive dysen­tery. But after those diseases have run their course, dysentery appears in many parts of a country, and sometimes becomes al­most universal. It would be a curious question, by what means the inflammatory diathesis, so to speak, of the epidemic period, acts upon the nerves, muscles and intestines, to give to the sub­sequent autumnal fevers this particular direction.

During the foregoing series of epidemics in Europe, America did not escape. Slight shocks of earthquake were felt in 1660, [Page 202] and in 1665. Great sickness prevailed at this period also, but I am not informed of the species of disorder, except the small­pox in Boston in 1666.

In 1668, appeared a comet with a stupendous coma. This was attended by an excessively hot summer, and malignant dis­eases in America. In New-York the epidemic was so fatal, that a fast was [...]ppointed in September, on that account. This was undoubtedly the autumnal bilious fever in its infectious form. In this same year was an earthquake in America, and a meteor in the west, in form of a spear, pointing towards the sitting sun, which greadually sunk and disappeared.

This year was marked also by violent earthquakes in Europe and Asia. The winter of 1668-9 was very severe, and ice was seen in the Bosphorus; that of 1670 covered the Danube with a bridge of ice.

In winter appeared in Hungary two mock-suns of resplendent brightness—the infallible forerunner of great discharges of elec­trical fire, or of violent tempests.—On the 11th of March 1669, the eruption of Etna which had commenced in 1664 redoubled its fury, and by immense discharges of lava laid waste the coun­try below. Its violence subsided in July; but tremendous hurri­canes marked the year. The summer of this year also was ex­cessively hot.

In this year, the cats in Westphalia died with an eruption on the head, accompanied with drowsiness. In England prevailed a dangerous fever, with slimy tongue and sore mouth.

In Norway prevailed measles of a malignant kind, attacking old and young. Bonetus, Med. Sept. 223.—In the two fol­lowing years measles was epidemic in London alternating with the small-pox.—See Sydenham.—In 1673 winter was cold; and catarrhs were frequent with spotted fevers—A comet appeared in the preceding year.

In 1675 a wet and cool summer, the influenza prevailed in Europe with the usual symptoms. In Italy was seen a meteor or fire ball, from the north-east; and the following winter in America was colder than usual.

[Page 203]The summer of 1676 in England was cold. Measles and small-pox prevailed in some places.

In 1677 was seen a comet in April and May; an earthquake was experienced in England; and in Charlestown, Massachu­setts, raged the small-pox with the mortality of a plague.

The summer of 1678 was very hot and dry. There was a comet and an earthquake in Lima. Fevers and affections of the throat were epidemic in the north of Europe. The plague raged with most desolating fury in Algiers and Morocco. Authors re­late that four millions of people perished, and that the waste of population has not since been repaired.

On the 12th of January occurred in England a most extraor­dinary darkness, at noon.

Notwithstanding the barrenness of my materials, this pestilen­tial period may be very clearly distinguished, by the measles from 1669 to 1672 with the small-pox, the catarrh of 1675, the subsequent malignant fevers and affections of the throat, and finally the pestilence of 1678.

The same deleterious principle extended to America. Our annals relate that the seasons were unfavorable and the fruits blasted, while malignant diseases prevailed among the people. The sickness and bad seasons were attributed, by our pious an­cestors, to the irreligion of the times, and to their disuse of fast­ing. On this occasion, a synod was convened to investigate the causes of God's judgments, and to propose a plan of reforma­tion. The small-pox prevailed at Boston in 1678, and a singu­lar epidemic in England, France and Holland.

The comet of 1678 was followed by a very cold winter, after a rainy autumn, with an epidemic cough. A comet is mention­ed in 1679, and the plague was in Vienna.

The year 1680 was distinguished also for a severe winter, and the noted comet that had appeared in Justinian's reign. In Dresden raged the plague. The summer was hot and sickly. [Page 204] A large meteor was seen in Germany, descending to the north and leaving behind it a long luminous stream.

The summer of 1681 was excessively dry. This was the forerunner of violent earthquakes, which, in 1682 shook all Germany, Italy and Switzerland. In some places, the shocks were preceeded, for four nights, by lights or flame, like ignes fatui, on the mountains. The convulsions were attended with a disagreeable sulphurous smell. In this year also was visible a comet, and an eruption took place, both of Etna and Vesuvius.

In this year 1682 a mortal disease spread among the cattle in Italy, Switzerland and Germany, that was called the angina ma­ligna, and of which cattle died in 24 hours. Authors relate that a blue mist appeared on the herbage of pastures. The dis­ease moved about two German miles in 24 hours, and spread over Germany and Poland. Cattle at rack and manger were affected equally with those that grazed.

At Halle in Saxony prevailed the plague; and at Dublin, a petechial in which the brain was severely affected, and bleeding pernicious.

The discharges of fire already mentioned were productive, as usual, of violent winds. In Sicily, a tempest, preceded by great darkness, almost laid waste the island.

In 1683 was an earthquake in England, in September, pre­ceded by meteors or lights and fetid exhalations. A comet ap­peared in this year, and another in the following.

The winter of 1683-4 was the coldest that could be recol­lected by the oldest men living. Trees of large size split with the frost. The same winter was excessively severe in America, and from a passage in a letter of the Rev. John Eliot, the sea­son appears to have been sickly.

The year 1683 was also remarkable for general sickness in Connecticut, and in some places, unusual mortality. Some towns suffered by excessive rains.

These unusual seasons were accompanied with singular diseases. In Leyden in 1683 prevailed what was called the hungry fever, which came on with a chill, succeeded by ravenous hunger. [Page 205] To gratify this appetite was fatal. When the hot fit came on, th [...] [...]unger subsided. In 1684 was a terrible earthquake in St. Domingo.

After the severe frost in 1684, a malignant dysentery raged over Europe. This and the two succeeding summers were hot and dry. In 1685 Languedoc in France was overrun by grass­hoppers, and the petechial fever was prevalent.

In September 1686 was seen a comet. At Lille in France, fell a storm of hail, the stones of which were of a pound weight. There was an eruption of Etna, in this year also, and a meteor was seen at Leipsick on the 9th of July, which was stationary for 7 minutes, at the height of 30 miles. It is curious to re­mark the coincidence in time between the phenomena of the electrical fluid, tempests, snow and hail.

The summer of 1687 in Europe was very rainy. In Octo­ber the city of Lima in Peru, was demolished by an earthquake.

The winter of 1688 was cold, and in the summer following epidemic catarrh spread over Europe. This was preceded by a disease of the same species among horses, attended with a de­fluxion of rheum from their noses. Swarms of [...]nsects in some countries announced a pestilential period. In the interior of Germany were some dysenteries. An earthquake was experi­enced at Naples, and Smyrna was laid in ruins.

In 1689 appeared a comet, and both Etna and Vesuvius dis­charged fire. The autumn was very rainy, and the spotted fe­ver prevailed in some parts of Germany. In Boston the small-pox was epidemic.

In 1690 the summer was rainy, frogs were in unusual numbers in Italy, and corn was cut short by mildew. Rainy seasons gen­erally succeed great eruptions of volcanoes and earthquakes.

The year 1691 commenced with severe frost, followed by a hot dry summer. The spotted fever prevailed in Italy, in which bleeding was fatal. There was also great mortality among cat­tle and sheep.

The seasons in this year were peculiarly unfavorable in Amer­ica, altho I am not able to describe them. It appears from the journals of the assembly of New-York, that upon an address of [Page 206] the house to the governor and council, a monthly fast was ap­pointed to be observed from September 1691 to June 1692; the special reasons assigned for which were, "a burthensome war, and a blast upon the corn." This is a remarkable fact, and not unfrequent, that at one and the same time, the powers of veget­ation fail in the most distant parts of the earth. Perhaps we shall be able to account for this instance of a deranged state of the elements by the universal explosions of fire in the two fol­lowing years. St. Domingo experienced a severe earthquake in 1691, in the year of this blast on the corn.

On the 7th of June 1692 after a series of dry, hot, calm weather, a most dreadful earthquake suddenly sunk the town of Port-Royal in Jamaica, and demolished most of the buildings on the island, with the loss of 2000 lives. After the earthquake, the heat was still more intense, musquetoes were innumerable, and a malignant fever fell upon the inhabitants in all parts of the island, with which 3000 perished.

In the same year, a similar disease invaded Barbadoes, and afflicted the island for many years. Indeed the whole world was sickly.

On the 8th of September England, Holland, France and Germany were convulsed by an earthquake, and Switzerland felt a shock in October. In the same year was an eruption of Etna, and great snows followed.

The spotted fever continued its ravages; and it was remarked to be much more malignant and fatal in the wane of the moon. During an eclipse in 1693 the sick almost all died. The disease was more fatal in town than country.

I have no account of the diseases in Egypt or the Levant, during this period; but it will be found on examination that great pe [...]ilence raged in those places, about this time, or between 1639 and 169 [...].

On the 10th of January 1693 happened a most terrible earth­quake in Sicily and Naples. On the preceding evening, was observed a great flame or light, apparently at the distance of an Italian mile, and so bright as to be m [...]st [...]en for a fire. The spectators attempted to approach it; but [...] appeared still at the [Page 207] same distance. As soon [...] the earth began to shake, the flame disappeares.

It is not within my limits to enumerate the miseries occasioned by this concussion of the earth. Suffice it say that many towns were laid in ruins and 60,000 people perished. During the con­vulsion a fountain discharged its waters as red as blood. This calamity was preceded by a serene sky, and followed by dark­ness or vapor of a reddish or yellow hue.

The effects of this earthquake were remarkable on the human body. Among these were malignant fevers, small-pox fatal among children; madness, dullness, sottishness and melancholy, with deliria and lethargy. Are not these effects produced by an excess of stimulus, occasioned by the superabundance of electricity?

The summer following this convulsion of the earth, was in­temperately wet and cool, and corn was mildewed. Another account says the summer in Italy was very hot and dry. The spotted fever, and in some places dysentery were very morta [...] Wounds degenerated into ulcers, and blisters were followed by mortification which proved fatal to many.

In this year also Etna in Sicily, and Heckla in Iceland dis­charged fire and lava; a new volcano was opened in Asia, and an island, called Sorea, near the Moluccas, was ruined by its volcano.

Most dreadful storms marked the same year; one in America, on the 19th of October, was memorable for its violence.

An epidemic catarrh began in Europe in October, being pre­ceded by a similar disease among horses.

The preceding winter was probably very mild in America; for on the 13th of February, Gov. Fletcher, with a body of troops, sailed from New-York for Albany.

In 1693 the seamen and soldiers, under Sir Francis Wheeler, who was sent to conquer Martinico, were seized with the plague of America, and three fourths of them perished. Hutchinson, vol. 2. 72, relates that this fleet came to Boston and introduced the disease into that town, where it occasioned a deplorable mor­tality. Douglas relates the same fact.

[Page 208]This account seems to be contradicted by Mather, in his Mag­nalia, b. 1. 22. In a sermon delivered on lecture day, April 7, 1698, it is asserted in so many words, that "An English squadron hath not brought among us the tremendous pestilence, under which a neighboring plantation hath undergone prodigious desolations. Boston, 'tis a marvellous thing a plague has not laid thee desolate."

By comparing the date of this sermon, with other events re­lated in it, I find there is no mistake in the date; and as the author lived in Boston, and was cotemporary with these events, and personally acquainted with Sir Francis Wheeler, I conclude it was not Boston, but some other sea port town, which suffered by the arrival of a fleet.

In the 2d book of Magnalia, p. 71, the same author men­tions this expedition and the terrible mortality. He says the distemper was "the most like the plague, of any thing that had ever been seen in America, whereof there died before the fleet could reach to Boston, as I was told by Sir Francis himself, 1300 sailors out of 2100, and 1800 soldiers out of 2400."

In book 7. 116, the same author says, "there was an En­glish fleet of our good friends with a direful plague aboard in­tending hither. Had they come, as they intended, what an horrible desolation had cut us off, let the desolate places, that some of you have seen [...]n the colonies of the south, declare unto us. And that they did not come was the signal hand of heaven." This passage is in a lecture preached on the 27th of September, 1698.

From this authentic history, written by a cotemporary clergy­man, we infer that Hutchinson must have made a mistake. Sir Francis Wheeler's fleet arrived at Boston, most dreadfully in­fected, but no disease was propagated in Boston. Some other fleet, it seems, had introduced the disease into a "colony of the south," perhaps Newport or New-York, but I have no in­formation on the subject.

The great discharges of fire and earthquakes of 1693, were followed, as usual, by an intensely cold winter. The succeed­ing summer of 1694 was not and excessively dry in Italy, till October, when the earth was deluged with rain.

[Page 209]In May was a violent earthquake and volcano in Banda, an island in the Indian seas. Fire issued from the neighboring seas, the air was impregnated with the smell of sulphur, and sickness prevailed. An eruption of Vesuvius happened the same year, and violent earthquakes in Sicily and Calabria. In this year the agitations of fire seem to have subsided; and as usual, a series of rainy cool summers succeeded, in which corn perished or was blasted, crops failed, and universal dearth ensued.

One of the most remarkable effects of the late agitations of the elements, was the frequency of apoplexies in Italy. So common were they in 1695, as to be called epidemic, and oc­casion general consternation. This is not an infrequent conse­quence of the high excitement that takes place in pestilential times, ending in extreme debility in the brain. Something of this kind has been observed in America, within the last few years.

I have very few facts in regard to the seasons and diseases in America, during this period, from 1689 to 1695. It appears however that the disorders of the elements were experienced in America.

In 1695 prevailed a mortal sickness among the Indians in the eastern parts of this continent.

A contagious fever prevailed in Bermuda, the same year.

In Europe many malignant fevers prevailed, but no epidemics, except measles and chin cough of a bad type. In Ireland ap­peared offensive fogs, a thick clammy dew on the herbage, of a yellow color, and consistence of butter. A similar substance was observed at Middletown, Connecticut, on the morning after the earthquake, May 17, 1791.

The year 1696 was cool and wet—summer in Britain, resem­bled winter, and winter was like summer. Corn was mildewed. Dysentery fatal among children.

In America the winter of 1696-7, according to Hutchinson, was very severe. Loaded sleds passed from Boston to Nantasket. Food was scarce and losses at sea very great. I am not without suspicions however, that the author has here described the fol­lowing winter, which was as severe as he has represented it.

[Page 210]In 1697 the weather in Europe was mostly cool. An earth­quake at Lima in Peru shook the country with terrible violence.

In a diary kept by Daniel Fairfield, of Braintree, in Massa­chusetts, an unlettered man of good understanding, I have a particular description of an influenza that prevailed in America in the severe winter of 1697-8. ^* This catarrh began in No­vember and prevailed till February. Its violence was in Janu­ary, when whole families were sick at once, and whole towns were seized nearly at the same time. It appears to have been an epidemic of the severe kind; and the epidemics which fol­lowed it in America were of correspondent severity.

In the same winter a mortal disease raged in the town of Fairfield in Connecticut, which was so general, that well per­sons could scarcely be found to tend the sick and bury the dead. Seventy persons were buried in three months, altho it may be doubted whether the town then contained 1000 inhabitants.

In the same winter raged a deadly fever in the town of Dover, in New-Hampshire.

This disease was doubtless that species of inflammatory fever, attacking the brain and ending in typhus, which has often pro­ved a terrible scourge to particular parts of America, during the rage of pestilence in the east, and of other epidemics in this country. We shall hear of it in the following century, and especially in 1761.

On the 20th of June 1698 the town of Latacunga, in the province of Quito, nearly under the equator, was laid in ruins by an earthquake, as were Riobamba, Hambato and other towns in the same district. In one place a chasm of five feet broad and a league in length, was opened, and on a mountain happened a volcanic eruption, from which issued ashes, cinders and flames.

[Page 211]The malignant fever already mentioned, whatever might have been its precise symptoms, was soon followed by more general sickness. In 1699 raged in Charleston South-Carolina and in Philadelphia, the most deadly bilious plague that probably ever affected the people of this country.

Mr. Norris of Philadelphia has kindly favored me with a sight of a number of M. S. letters of his grand-father Isaac Norris, written during the sickness, to his correspondents. This worthy gentleman was then in trade, and well acquainted with the facts respecting the disease, as his own family suffered a loss of several of its members.

In a letter dated August 15, 1699, he mentions, that a ma­lignant fever broke out about the beginning of August, which he describes as the "Barbadoes distemper," tho he gives no intimations of its being communicated from countries abroad by infection. He says the patients "vomited and voided blood."

On the 24th of August, arrived the Britannia from Liver­pool, which had been 13 weeks on her passage; she had 200 passengers on board—had lost fifty by death, and others were sickly.

September 1st, he writes that the distemper appeared to abate at one time, but afterwards revived. He mentions the summer to be the hottest he ever knew; men died at harvest in the field. All business in the city was suspended.

During the yearly meeting the disease abated, but the meeting was thinly attended. Afterwards the disease returned in all its violence.

October 9th, he writes that he had hoped the cool weather would have relieved the city, but it did not.

October 22d, the disease had abated. Of this epidemic, died two hundred and twenty, of whom eighty or ninety be­longed to the society of friends.

The population of Philadelphia at this time, is not exactly ascertained; but as the city had been settled but seventeen years, the number of people could not have been great. If we con­sider that the city was thinly inhabited, and that no considera­ble artificial causes of disease had been accumulated; together [Page 212] with the fact of the patient's vomiting and voiding blood, we must admit the disease to have been extremely virulent, beyond any thing that has marked its returns in subsequent periods.

In the same letters, Mr. Norris, October 18th, mentions that he had information from Charleston of the great mortality by the same fever—150 had died in a few days, and the survivors mostly fled into the country.

In a history of South-Carolina, lately published, there is a more particular account of the calamities that befel Charleston in this year 1699. A most dreadful tempest, a common event after excessive heat, threatened a total destruction of the town. The sea swelled and rushed violently into the town, compelling the people to fly to the tops of their houses for safety. A fire broke out and laid most of the town in ashes. The small-pox proved fatal to many of the youth, and to fill the cup of calam­ity, the bilious plague broke out with such irresistible mortality, that the principal officers of government, one half of the mem­bers of assembly and multitudes of the citizens fell victims. These calamities came near to dissolve the settlement.

I find no suggestion that any vessels had arrived from the West-Indies at these places, or that any suspicion existed of the im­portation of this terrible disease. At that time, there was very little intercourse directly between Philadelphia or Charleston and the West-Indies.

But it will be remarked, that the disease first appeared about the "beginning of August," as in modern times—that it once abated, as it did in New-York, both in 1795 and 6, so as to be extinguished in the latter year, and that for two or three weeks.—That in 1699 as in later returns of it, it yielded not to cool weather, until late in October. It will be further re­marked, that a severe epidemic catarrh preceded this plague, about eighteen months, as it did in 1789-90.

During this period, other parts of the earth did not escape affliction. A comet appeared in 1698 and another small one in 1699; and in this latter year, Lima suffered considerable damage by an earthquake, as did some parts of Batavia in the East-Indies.

[Page 213]In October 1698 began a fatal spotted fever to prevail over all England. In the spring of 1699 a severe and fatal catarrh was epide [...]ic, which carried off the young and robust, together with hard drinkers. A cough was epidemic among horses in England and France. In this period the catarrh in America preceded that in Europe, one whole year.

The seven last years of this century, the period under con­sideration, were distinguished for a severe and continued famin in Scotland. The general cause was, the wet and cold sum­mers which prevented crops from arriving to maturity. Vast multi­tudes perished with hunger—the dead bodies lay scattered along the highways. See Sinclair's Statistical account of Scotland in a great number of passages, and especially vol. 6. 132, 189. It does not appear that, during this long period of distress and want, any pestilence prevailed in Scotland.

At the same time, famin afflicted Finland and carried off one tenth of the inhabitants, and a greater proportion in the less fertile provinces of Sweden.

The same period was remarkable for failure of crops in A­merica. In a sermon preached in Boston on Lecture Day, Sept. 27, 1698, we have the following account of this subject. "The harvest hath once and again grievously failed, in these years, and we have been struck through with terrible famin.— The very course of nature hath been altered among us; a la­mentable cry for bread, bread, hath been heard in our streets."

In the preceding page, of this sermon, it is also remarked, that "Epidemical sicknesses have, in these years, been once and again upon us," and it is mentioned that Boston lost, in one year, six or seven hundred of its people, by one contagious dis­ease. The year is not specified.

It will be observed that in the history of the last two centu­ries few instances of the plague in Egypt and the Levant are mentioned. The reason is, that I have no regular series of ac­counts of plague in Egypt or Constantinople, for the last two or three hundred years. One remark however I will hazard, on [Page 214] the strength of facts within the present century, that whenever malignant epidemics prevail generally in Europe or America, the plague ra [...]es in Egypt and Constantinople, or rather a little before; the commencement of the pestilential state of air in those unhealthy cities being a little anterior to its principal ef­fects in the north of Europe.

At the time of the dreadful bilious plague in Philadelphia and Charleston just before described, the plague was raging in the Levant, and for a year or two after.

During this period, in 1700, the same pestilential constitu­tion displayed itself in a most destructive sore throat in the island of Milo, in the Levant. It is thus described by Tournefort, vol. 1. let. 4. He says it appeared in a "Carbuncle or plague­sore in the bottom of the throat, attended with a violent fever." It carried off children in two days, but spared adults. He calls it the "child's plague." There appears to be some pro­priety in giving the disease this appellation. It has some resem­blance to the true pestis, the ulcer being formed in the throat in­stead of the glands. The insidiousness of the distemper is another circumstance of resemblance—persons in both diseases often walking about, a few hours before they expire. But this is a most prominent fact, that the ulcerous sore throat, or ma­lignant anginas are rarely or never epidemic, except in periods when the plague and yellow fever prevail in places where they usually appear. In no instance has the sore throat been epidemic in America, except when the plague has been raging in Egypt and Constantinople. At least I can find no exception to this remark; and what is more, the virulence of the one disease in one country, corresponds with the malignity of the other disease in the other countries. Thus, as the plague in Egypt in 1736, was far more destructive than the same disease, at other times, so was the angina maligna of that period in America.

When observation and philosophy shall prevail over the preju­dices of men in regard to the origin of these diseases from in­fection, it will be found that the angina, in its various forms, is only a particular stage or modification of the pestilence, which spreads over the world at certain unequal periods. The milder [Page 215] forms of the pestilence appear in catarrh, measles and chin cough; which usually appear together, or nearly so, at the beginning of the more virulent general contagion; the later and more fatal stages are marked by anginas, cynanche maligna, petechial fe­ver, bilious and glandular plague in summer; and pestilential pleurisies in winter.

There are certain times, when the constitutions of men in all parts of the world, contract a poison, which nature makes an effort to expel; and the different epidemics that accompany or follow each other, in rapid succession, appear to be the differ­ent modes by which nature strives to rid the human body of the virus. These modes depend on the season of the year, the con­stitution or age of the patient and a multitude of subordinate circumstances.—Whether this poison is a positive substance in­haled by the lungs and pores, or is the effect of mere debility, which unfits the several parts of the body to perform their func­tions, is a question of a curious nature.

It is remarkable that in this year 1700, when this ulcerous sore throat was raging in the Levant Isles, small children in the north of Europe were seized with a suffocating catarrh or catarrh­ous fevers. These were followed by mild epidemic measles.

In the same year the small-pox was confluent and malignant. The winter of 1700 was very mild.

In this year fell a meteor in Jamaica, which entered the earth, making considerable holes, scorching the grass, and leaving a smell of sulphur.

SECTION VII. Historical view of pestilential epidemics from the year 1701 to 1788.

THE year 1701 appears to have been excessively dry in America. Dr. Rush relates that during the dry summer of 1782, a rock in the Skuylkill appeared above the surface of the water, on which were engraven the figures 1701. How little do men suspect the value of this inscription! To this alone I am indebted for the fact of extreme drouth in that year—and the fact is among the proofs of an extraordinary evaporation, before dis­charges of fire and lava from volcanoes. In 1701 was an erup­tion of Vesuvius; in 1702 of Etna. It will hereafter appear that a similar dry season in 1782 preceded the great eruption of Heckla in 1783. Indeed it is a general fact, and as far as I can learn, such seasons seldom occur, except during the approach of comets, or antecedent to volcanic eruptions.

This was a pestilential period. In 1701 Toulon lost two thirds of its inhabitants by the plague, and the Levant was se­verely affected about the same time. See the bills of mortality for Augsburg, Dresden and Boston.

In 1702 appeared a comet; Etna discharged its fires, and in Boston raged a malignant small-pox, attended, in many cases, with a scarlet eruption, which was mistaken for the scarlet fever. It appears from Fairfield's diary that this disease appeared in June and was at first mild, not fatal to any of the patients. In August died one patient—in September it became very mortal, and in this month was attended with a "sort of fever called scarlet fever." In October, many died of the "fever and the small-pox, and it was a time of sore distress," on which account the general court sat at Cambridge. In December "the fever [Page 217] abated;" but the small-pox continued to be mortal, till the month of February 1703, when it began to subside.

I have already remarked that eruptive diseases seem to belong to one family. Physicians will observe [...]he alliance in their symp­toms; but I would observe that the progressiveness in this disease of 1702 and the variations in its symptoms, prove it to have been an epidemic, and not the effect of mere infection, or spe­cific contagion.

In this year also the drouth was extreme. In New-York ra­ged the American plague, which was said to have been imported from St. Thomas's. By the accounts, this was more fatal than any disease since that period. It was called the "Great Sick­ness" and hardly a patient survived. On account of it, the assembly was held at Jamaica on Long-Island.

Such were the epidemics in America which followed the in­fluenza of 1698—malignant pleurisies in 1698—plague in 1699 and in 1702, with virulent small-pox—all of unusual severity. Let the reader compare these facts with the accounts from Eu­rope and the bills of mortality.

The winter of 1702-3 was variable—severe frost and great snows, with intervals of warm weather. In spring catarrh prevail­ed in England, followed by a sickly summer, with earthquakes.

In January and February 1703 were severe shocks of earth­quake in Rome, Naples and other parts of Italy. In October a memorable tempest or hurricane, which did great damage at sea, and injured buildings on land.

In 1704 the summer was very dry, and a most malignant spotted fever raged in Augsburg and in Prussia. Flies were in great abundance, and there was an eruption of Vesuvius. The last eruption of the volcano in Teneriffe was in this year, since which it has discharged smoke, but no fire.

Note. A late arrival from Teneriffe brings an account of the bursting forth of a volcano, in June last, which continued, till the vessel left the island in August.

In December 1705 were many most violent tempests and in­undations. The tide rose in the Loir in France 25 feet beyond [Page 218] its usual height. Half of Limerick in Ireland was laid under water. These storms indicated the approach of a comet, which appeared in the following year.

In 1706 coughs and coryzas prevailed, and dysentery fatal among children.

A small shock of earthquake was felt in America in 1705.

In 1707 appeared another comet and subterranean fire was uncommonly agitated. Vesuvius discharged fire, and a new island was thrown up in the Archipelago, with an earthquake and volcano. The seasons in this and the following year were variable.

In November 1708 began a most severe and universal catarrh in Europe, which was speedily followed by a series of pestilen­tial diseases. Of this catarrh, of the seasons, and the plagues that followed we have from Europe very correct accounts; but, with the utmost industry, I cannot learn whether the catarrh extended to America.

The explosion of subterranean fire in various places in 1707 seems to have been the commencement of this period; altho there was a plague in the eastern parts of Europe, most of the preceding years from 1700. A meteor passed over England, near the mouth of the Thames, July 31, 1708, a few months before the catarrh.

The winter of 1708-9 was the severest that had happened, af­ter 1683-4. But it appears that the catarrh commenced two months before the severe cold began. At least this epidemic appeared in the north of Europe, as early as November; whereas the autumn was one of the mildest, till January, that was ever known. Then the weather changed sudde [...]ly to most severe cold and continued for a number of weeks.

This catarrh is carefully described by Lanci [...]ius as it appeared in Italy. In Rome it commenced in January, but increased afterwards, as the cold abated. It began with coryza, rheumata and slight cough, and was attended with pains in the breast, angina, pleurisies and peripneumonies, which prevailed greatly in the spring, among those who neglected the cough, or used a full diet.

[Page 219]Symptoms of this catarrh were, lassitude, fever with chills, wandering pains in the breast, continued cough, hard pulse, flame-colored or turbid urine, spitting of blood and difficult res­piration. The cheeks were red and the body suffured with a yellow color, like that of the jaundice.

Persons shut up in prison, escaped the disease. ^* Fewer wo­men than men were afflicted, and persons in easy circumstances, who could take care of themselves, suffered less than the poor. Many recovered by means of sweats or hemorrhagy at the nose, or discharges from the bowels, or copious discharges of urine, or by all these evacuations, accompanied by spitting a thick phlegm. Venesection was beneficial, especially in robust consti­tutions. On dissection, the precordia appeared of a reddish color, extending to the diaphragm—and discolored by spots of blackish thick blood—polypusses were discovered in the great ves­sels of the heart.

This disease did not entirely disappear till June.

In the summer of 1708 preceding the severe winter and ca­tarrh, gnats appeared in prodigious swarms.

The winter of 1708-9 killed fruit-trees, vines and corn. After this excessive cold, multitudes of people died of apoplex­ies, and others were seized with vertigoes, arthritics, pleurisies, inflammatory fevers of all kinds, and consumptions. This se­verity of cold extended over America as well as Europe, in the same winter.

A pestilence raged in the north of Europe from the years 1702 to 1711, of which we have an account in Philosophical Transactions, No. 337.

It has been observed already that the plague raged in the Le­vant, in the first years of the present century. In 1702, the same year, it will be noted, in which the terrible small-pox raged [Page 220] in Boston and bilious plague in New-York, the plague broke out in Poland, near Pickzow, soon after an unfortunate battle be­tween the Swedes and Saxons. No suggestion appears that the disease was caught by infection from a distant country, nor that the fetor of dead carcases was supposed to generate the distem­per. On these important points we are left in the dark. All that is recorded is, that it first began near Pickzow in Poland, soon after a battle. It spread in 1703, 4 and 5 over Poland, and into parts of Hungary and Russia, sweeping away vast num­bers of inhabitants. In 1706 we hear nothing of it. In 1707 it broke out in Warsaw, with great mortality. In 1708 it ap­peared in Thorn, and parts of Polish Prussia.

This approach of the disease alarmed the people of Dantzick —public prayers were ordered in the churches—all commerce and communication with infected places were forbid—no mer­chandize from infected or suspected places was permitted to enter the city, and the magistrates neglected no measure that could guard the public safety. All travellers and strangers were strict­ly examined, and none permitted to enter without sufficient proofs that they came from healthy and uninfected places. These and other strict regulations were enjoined in July 1708; but notwithstanding these precautions, "the distemper gradually insinuated itself, for in March 1709, there died out of one dis­trict in the old town seven persons, and another person, being ill, was sent to the hospital, where the disease soon spread." Dr. Gottwald, the author of this account, visited the hospital on the 16th of the same month, and found many persons ill—"some had buboes, others carbuncles, others gangrenous ulcers, which he could not determin to be pestilential, but which he judged to be symptoms, if not of the plague already commenced, at least of something, but little inferior to it, and certain forerunners of that destructive distemper."

In the preceding account, we observe the utter insufficiency of laws and regulations to prevent the introduction of the plague into cities; and the uncertainty of physicians at first as to the nature of the disease. The facts stated prove the disease to have been generated on the spot, and to have been progressive from [Page 221] malignant fevers to the real plague. I have no bills of the mor­tality in Dantzick for the preceding years, but if any such are on record, it will appear, that the approach of the plague was indicated in that city by malignant diseases and increased mortal­ity, for some months or perhaps a year or two preceding.

The disease spread slowly at first, but in July and August be­came general—it was at its height in September, and gradually declined till the close of the year. The number of victims was nearly 25,000.

From the very accurate history of this pestilence by Dr. Gottwald, the following circumstances are to be collected.

1st. That the distemper first made its appearance in a part of the old town, called Raumbaum. What its situation is, may be seen in Busching; a part of the city built on a stream which falls into the Vistula—low of course—a place of business, and its streets dirty.

2d. The disease, after its first appearance, lay lurking for a long time, in the suburbs of the city, and its progress was not perceivable, for two or three months. This corresponds with its phenomena in London and other places; and proves that cold or favorable weather suspends or checks the action of the pestilential principle.

3d. It was most fatal to the poor—people in good condition mostly escaped. The same was observed at Copenhagen in 1711.

4th. Its decrease was gradual, as well as its increase.

5th. Many of the inhabitants, tho they took never so much care to avoid the distemper, kept at home, suffered no infected person to approach them, and used all manner of preservatives, "yet caught the infection."

6th. The disease was preceded, in 1708, by extraordinary numbers of spiders. The same presage has been observed on other occasions.

7th. While this distemper was raging, on the 11th of Au­gust, an offensive mist was observed, like a thick cloud, but of short duration. It returned in the afternoon, from the north­west, so thick as to darken the air. Its color was that of the effluvia from the [...]ffervescence of the oil of vitriol with oil of tartar, a blackish yellow.

[Page 222]8th. In the beginning of October appeared over the city a blue fiery globe or meteor, which came from the north west, in the night, shot towards the town rapidly, illuminating the city, and fell to the south.

9th. Crows, sparrows and other birds did not make their ap­pearance during the pestilence.

In 1708 and 9 the plague desolated Livonia. In 1710 the disease appeared in Sweden; 30,000 persona perished by it in Stockholm, and other parts of the kingdom did not escape. Historians relate, that in the latter part of the last century and beginning of the present, the sweating sickness and great plague in Sweden destroyed several hundred thousand lives, in conse­quence of which Sweden is less populous than formerly.

In 1710 also the territory of Lithuania was ravaged by pes­tilence.

In 1711 Copenhagen lost 25,000 citizens by the same mal­ady.

It is proper to remark how extensively pestilence prevailed af­ter the great catarrh and terribly severe winter of 1709.

Nor did America escape the operation of the general princi­ple. A body of troops under Gen. Nicholson, destined to co­operate with a fleet from England, in the reduction of Canada, e [...]camped near Wood Creek in the province of New-York, and in July and August were attacked with a distemper which made dreadful havoc and obliged them to decamp. Some of the men died as if they had been poisoned. This circumstance gave rise to a report which Charlevoix gravely relates, that the In­dians had poisoned the water of the creek, by throwing into it all the skins of beasts they had taken in hunting. The disease was probably the lake fever or a malignant dysentery. This happened in 1709.

England also felt the influence of the same general principle, as appears from the bill of mortality for 1710. In France, England and the Low Countries raged a catarrhous fever to [Page 223] which was given the name of Dunkirk rant. In some places prevailed a spotted fever, as at Norwich.

In 1712 prevailed catarrh in Europe, with sore throats. Whether catarrh prevailed in America also, I can obtain no in­formation. The seasons in England were excessively wet, and corn was rotten or mildewed. The winter was severe, there was an eruption of Vesuvius and an earthquake. From these circumstances, I suspect the approach of a comet, but have found no account of any. ^*

In October 1712 commenced a mortal sickness in the town of Waterbury, in Connecticut, which raged for eleven months. It was so general that nurses could scarcely be found to tend the sick. What the disease was, I am not informed; but not im­probably it was that species of putrid pleurisy, which has so of­ten made dreadful havoc in America.

In the same year, prevailed a sore throat in London, accom­panied with dizziness and pain in the limbs.

In 1713 prevailed the measles in America, cotemporary with epidemic pestilence in Europe.

In 1712 and 13, the plague was epidemic in Vienna, Hun­gary, Stiria and other eastern countries. This disease was pre­ceded by the spotted fever, which gradually changed to plague. At the same time, whole countries were overrun with insects.

In England prevailed a fever which Mead has pronounced to have been of the same kind, as the sweating sickness in the six­teenth century.—He says it was imported from Dunkirk, but how it came to be in Dunkirk, he does not inform us.

During these calamities among men, the beasts of the field did not escape. A fatal distemper among cattle broke out in 1711 and raged with such violence, in Italy, as almost to destroy the species. It spread for three or four years, and horses perished by a similar pestilence. The writers who describe the disease, [Page 224] represent it as a kind of plague; and all agree that it sprung from a single infected cow from Dalmatia. How this cow be­came infected, they do not inform us. The truth is the disease was an epidemic, tho very infectious; and that it did not ne­cessarily originate in infection, is proved by its appearing in many other parts of Europe.

The disease began with rigors, which were followed by vio­lent fever, with eruptions like those of the small-pox, and ter­minated in five, six or seven days.

In 1714 began in Europe a series of dry summers. This year was rather sickly in England, and cattle also perished by an infectious distemper.

In 1715 the small-pox and measles were epidemic in England. In the same year, Plymouth in Massachusetts lost 40 of its in­habitants by a malignant disease, but no particulars are known.

In 1716 the winter was excessively severe, and a fair was held on the Thames. The rivers in Europe, even in Italy, were covered with ice.

In America, the 21st of October O. S. was so dark that peo­ple used lighted candles. Lima, the same year, was shaken by an earthquake.

In 1717 appeared a comet, and there was an explosion of Vesuvius. Holland and Germany suffered severely the same year by inundations. In America the winter was terribly se­vere, and remarkable for "prodigious storms of snow," says Mr. Winthrop of New-London in a letter to Dr. Mather, Hist. Col. vol. 2. 12. One hundred [...]heep belonging to that gentle­man were buried in the snow on Fisher's Island, and 28 days af­ter, were dug out, when two of them were found alive; and they both lived and thrived. The snow was accumulated over them to the height of sixteen feet.—This snow storm is distin­guished in the Annals of America, as by far the greatest ever known.

[Page 225]This year was remarkable also in America for the death of many old people, says

In Europe catarrh was prevalent, and malignant small-pox among children. At Underwald in Switzerland prevailed a tertain, so violent as to destroy life at the second attack. The plague made its appearance in some part of the Turkish domin­ions.

In 1718 the winter was cold in Europe, the season in Eng­land hot, and a comet was seen. The plague advanced.

In 1719 malignant fevers were prevalent in many parts of Eu­rope, marking a pestilential principle of great extent. The win­ter of 1719-20 in America was very cold.

In these last years raged malignant pleurisy in Hartford, in Connecticut, with great mortality.

In March 1719 an immense meteor passed the heavens, illu­minating the earth and bursting with a tremendous report. Its diameter was calculated by Dr. Halley at a mile and a half.

At this time the plague appeared in Aleppo, and carried off by report 80,000 people. Russel agrees that this disease came from the north, altho he has given us few particulars. It raged, as usual, for two or three years.

In 1718, 19, 20 and 21, says Dr. Rogers, the greater num­ber of those who lived near the slaughter-houses at Cork, died.

In 1720 happened the last great plague in Marseilles, on which occasion has been published "Traité de la peste," a treatise in quarto, by Chicoyneau, under the sanction of the French king, in which great efforts are made to prove the disease to have been imported from the Levant.

The proofs of importation stand thus. "Capt. Chataud left Said in Syria in January 1720, with a clean patent. The plague was not then in Said, tho it broke out soon after. On the passage, several persons died, and the physicians at Leghorn, where the ship stopped, pronounced their disease to be "a ma­lignant pestilential fever."

[Page 226]The ship arrived at Marseilles, and some persons who had concern with the goods, died in May. The suspected goods were subjected to fifteen days retreat and purification—they were forbid to be introduced into the city—the porters were shut up; but all regulations were fruitless. In June, deaths appeared in the city with distinctive marks of the plague."

On such flimsey evidence do the sticklers for the sole propa­gation of the plague by infection, ground all their assertions res­pecting the disease at Marseilles!

But it happens in this case, as in most similar instances, that the pretended proofs of infection carry refutation in the very face of them.

In the first place, it is an acknowledged fact, that at the time the ship left Said, the plague had not appeared in that port, or town. It was at Aleppo and in other places far distant in 1719, but had not broke out in Said. How, in the name of reason, could men or goods be infected, when the disease did not exist in the place?

To overcome or rather to evade the force of this objection, the writers on the subject are compelled to resort to supposition. They say it is possible, the plague might have been in the place, tho not known or generally admitted. And here rests their whole argument!

It is true, that some of the seamen or passengers died on the passage, with a malignant pestilential fever. But in this case, the malady originated on board the ship—and the infection is not traced to the Levant ports. There is an end of the chain—the disease began without infection, on board the ship, as malignant fevers have done in thousands of other ships.

Again, it is admitted by Dr. Mead himself, p. 255, that from the time of the sailors' death, after the ship arrived, it was full six weeks before the disease was known in the city of Mar­seilles; a circumstance that renders it nearly impossible that there could have been any propagation of the distemper by infection. To remove this objection, the advocates of infection again resort to supposition. They suppose it possible some latent seeds of the disease had been concealed in goods, or clothes—and such ridic­ulous suggestions are made the grounds of assertion.

[Page 227]But what completely refutes all these idle suppositions, is, that we have full evidence, that the plague in Marseilles was generat­ed in the city, and gradually arose from milder diseases. In the beginning of the "Traitè de la peste," it is stated from Mon. Didier and not denied, that "the preceding year 1719 was a barren year—the corn, the wine and the oil, were defec­tive. The heat of spring was excessive and followed by great rains, with westerly winds—the fruits were bad. In this year a pestilential fever appeared in Marseilles, of which many died, and in some, appeared buboes, carbuncles and paroitides."

Here we observe facts that always exist, before the plague, and which demonstrate the uniform operations of the laws of nature. The year 1718 began to exhibit malignant diseases in greater numbers than usual. In 1719 the plague broke out at Aleppo, and in the north and west of Europe, malignant fevers became in many places, epidemic and pestilential. In 1720, the pestilential state of the air, arrived at its crisis in Marseilles. The pestilence in Europe exhibited a regular progress, from or­dinary typhus fever to the plague. A fatal small-pox and spot­ted fever prevailed in Piemont.

To demonstrate this fact, the reader will only turn to the bills of mortality in London, Amsterdam, Vienna, Dresden, &c. for the years under consideration, and observe every where the effects of a general unhealthy state of air, in the increase of the number of deaths.—The bills of mortality in Boston and Phila­delphia also prove this state of air to have extended to this coun­try; and the malignancy of it seems to have abated in America after 1721, in which year the small-pox was very mortal in Boston.

The accounts of diseases in America, at this period, are few and imperfect. Tradition has preserved the memory of desola­ting sickness, at various times and in various places, some of which, I suspect, refer to this period, but I am not able to as­certain the dates, with any certainty. ^* By accident however, [Page 228] I am able to determin positively the pestilential state of air in America in 1720. A genuine letter is extant, from Thomas Hacket of Duck Creek, now in the state of Delaware, dated April 10th 1720, in which he states that a mortality prevailed in that place, which exceeded that in London in 1665, and al­most depopulated the village. I have seen the letter in possession of Dr. Rush.

In 1721 there was an eruption of a volcano in Iceland. A dreadful dysentery raged in Upper Saxony.

In 1720 there was a great earthquake in China, and in 1721 shocks were felt in the Mediterranean, by Dr. Shaw who was then on his travels to the east.—In October 1720, fire arose out of the sea near Tercera, one of the Azores, and a small island arose.

In 1722, the seasons were cold, wet and rainy. In August happened a most violent storm in Jamaica and S. Carolina. In May an earthquake in Chili.

The winter of 1722-3 was cold and dry in England. In 1723 appeared a comet, and on the 24th of February, O. S. a mighty tempest which is recorded among the memorabilia of America. The wind blew violently from the southward, then veered suddenly to the eastward and northward, bringing in a tide which rose two or three feet above the Long Wharf in Boston, and flowed over all the lower part of the town, filling cellars and destroying property to a great amount. Immense damage was sustained in all the maritime towns.

The confluent small-pox raged in England See the London bill of mortality for 1723. Dysenteries, pleurisies and other inflammatory complaints prevailed in the different seasons.

The bilious plague prevailed in Barbadoes, said to be import­ed from Martinico. We are not informed from whence it came into Martinico. In these accounts of infections, we are not led to the end of the chain.

In the same year 1723 prevailed in many parts of the colony of Rhode-Island, a fatal disease called the "burning ague." It was particularly fatal, near Providence, between Pautucket [Page 229] and Pautuxet. In proportion to its patients, no disease in A­metica, was ever more mortal. It did not prevail in a large town, but in villages, and perhaps the clearing of some neigh­boring swamps might have been one cause of the disease. The year however was less healthy than usual. A disease of the same name is noted once or twice in ancient history. See the year 1001.

The year 1724 in England was mostly wet and cold; the whooping cough prevailed; but the year was generally healthy.

The summer of 1725 was also wet and cold in England. In January a severe frost produced many inflammatory complaints. In this year happened violent earthquakes in South-Amer­ica, and eruptions from two volcanic mountains in Iceland. I have no account of the weather and diseases in America. I only learn from an old gentleman, that one of the winters be­tween 1722 and 1725 was called, "the hard winter."

The winter of 1726-7 was changeable in England, but mostly cold with great snows. Remitting fevers prevailed in summer and inflammatory, in winter, which swelled the bills of mortal­ity to an unusual degree. At the same time the plague raged in Egypt.

The same winter in America was milder than usual—the sum­mer of 1727 was very hot and dry. See Dudley's account of the great earthquake.

In 1727 appeared a comet—an explosion of fire took place from Vesuvius and a volcano in Iceland. The interior counties of England were shaken by an earthquake; and on the 29th of October of the same year happened one of the most extensive and violent earthquakes ever known in America. A malignant dysentery was epidemic in Bern. In America, the summer was very hot.

This was a sickly year; see the bills of mortality for London and Amsterdam, Boston, Philadelphia Christ's Church and Dub­lin. The prevalent diseases in London were fevers of a malig­nant [Page 230] type. What the disease was in Philadelphia, I know not; but the greatest mortality was in February, March and April.

In 1728 putrid fevers were frequent—the summer was cold in England and the following winter severe. The year 1727 was unproductive; corn in England was scarce and the scarcity continued into this year. An eruption of a volcano in Iceland and the plague in Egypt marked this year, 1728. The eruption in Iceland continued till 1730.

This year, 1728, the summer weather in South-Carolina was unusually hot and dry. The earth was parched and the springs exhausted. In August a violent hurricane occasioned an inun­dation, which spread over the low grounds and did incredible damage to the wharves, houses and corn fields. The streets of Charlestown were covered with boats; the inhabitants were driven to the upper stories of their houses; twenty-three ships were driven ashore and thousands of trees were levelled. The same season, the bilious plague raged in Charleston with great mortality.

In 1729 appeared a comet, and in autumn a universal catarrh in Europe, and perhaps over the globe. This was preceded by measles. It seized with a slight chill, a slow fever, weari­ness, continual hoarseness, pain of the head, and difficulty of breathing. The suddenness of the attack was astonishing, and it proved fatal to many aged and phlegmatic people. Many pleurisies and peripneumonies followed. Its first appearance was in Poland, Austria and Silesia, and it marched over Europe in five months. At the close of this epidemic in 1730, Vesuvius discharged its contents of fire.

In this year 1729 the plague was in Aleppo, and it will be seen that the bills of mortality in the north of Europe exhibit a sickly state, through a period of many years at this time. The measles prevailed in America, and in Farmington, Connecticut, a malignant pleurisy.

The summer of 1729 was in most parts of England, very wet, in other parts, dry; but this made no difference in the prevalence of the catarrh. The small-pox was very frequent in England.

[Page 231]This year also is remarkable for the first appearance of the yellow fever or black vomit at Carthagena, in South-America, where it made dreadful havoc among the crews of the fleet un­der Don Domingo Justiniani. The same fate attended the crews of the galleons under Lopez Pintado in 1730.

The winter of 1729-30 was very mild in Europe. There was a small eruption of Vesuvius in 1730 and in Iceland, and an earthquake in South-America, on the 8th of July totally de­molished the towns of Conception and Santiago, in Chili. This dreadful calamity was soon followed by an epidemic disease which swept away greater numbers than the earthquake.

The plague was in Cyprus about this time, and was preceded by an earthquake.

In January 1729, the rivers and canals in Holland were cov­ered with ice, from 12 to 20 inches thick. Measles and angi­nas prevailed, and in autumn the small-pox made great havoc.

It will be observed that these eruptive diseases in Holland were cotemporary with the measles in America, and the malig­nant pleurisy in winter, which was the predominant symptom of a pestilential constitution of air, in America, until the year 1761.

The winter of 1730-31 was very severe in Europe.

It appears from the bills of mortality in Boston and Philadel­phia, that the years 1730 and 31 were sickly. What the mal­ady was which swelled the mortality in Christ Church to double the usual number in 1731, I am not informed; but the greatest mortality happened in March and April. The small-pox was the disease which augmented the bill in Boston in 1730.

In 1731 the small-pox spread in New-York, and occasioned an adjournment of the legislature in September.

In 1732 appeared a comet, and in America the following winter was very severe, continuing from the middle of Novem­ber to the end of March. In Europe, the winter was mild.

Lima in South-America was shaken, this year, by an earth­quake; [Page 232] a shock was experienced also in England; and in No­vember the same was experienced in Canada and New-England. On the 9th of August happened a remarkably dark day.

In this year, the plague prevailed at Tripoli, Sidon and Da­mascus; and the American plague at Charleston, S. Carolina.

Towards the close of the year, in October, commenced in America a severe universal catarrh, which appeared in Europe also in December. It spread over all Europe, in the beginning of 1733, and probably over the earth, as it was experienced at the isle of Bourbon, in the Indian Ocean.

This epidemic seems to have been the precursor of the most pestilential period of this century. The summer of 1733, in England, was dry and pleasant. The winter following was very mild. The plague raged at Aleppo.

The scarlatina appeared in Edinburgh; and the chin cough also began in England in 1734, continuing to prevail in 1735.

This period also was noted for meteors. In June 1734, a ball of fire passed through two opposite windows of a steeple at Air, in Scotland, broke one end of the bell-joist, and descended to the earth, without doing further harm. A boy in the neigh­borhood was killed by another ball of fire.

On the 2d of February 1735, Popayan in S. America, was nearly ruined by an earthquake.

The summer of 1735, was very wet and cold. In Europe in 1734 commenced a slow putrid fever. An anginous fever be­came epidemic among children, and quinsies or swellings of the throat, with contagion, and great mortality. Small-pox of a malignant kind prevailed at the close of the year. The pestilen­tial state of the air is said to have affected birds, which died in the cages. Canine madness prevailed.

In 1735, prevailed a spotted fever of a fatal kind, and other [Page 233] malignant disorders, with hydrophobia. In Scotland, the mea­sles became epidemic, and fevers of a bad kind.

Earthquakes were felt in England in 1734 and 1736.

In 1736 and 7 a fatal ulcerous sore throat and malignant perip­neumonies, prevailed in France.

In 1735 or 6, three or four thousand people, in the Orkney Islands, perished with famin. The scarcity there in 1782 and 3 was also deplorable, but none perished.

While these epidemics were prevailing in Europe, America felt the pestilential state of air. In May 1735, in a wet cold season, appeared at Kingston, an inland town in New-Hamp­shire, situated in a low plain, a disease among children, commonly called the "throat distemper," of a most malignant kind, and by far the most fatal ever known in this country. Its symptoms generally were, a swelled throat, with white or ash-colored specks, an efflorescence on the skin, great debility of the whole system, and a tendency to putridity.

It first seized a child, who died in three days. In about a week afterwards, three children, in another family, at a distance of four miles, were successively seized and all died on the third day. It continued to spread, and of the first forty patients, not one recovered.

In August, it appeared at Exeter, a town six miles distant. In September, it broke out in Boston, fifty miles distant; altho' it did not appear in Chester six miles west of Kingston, till Octo­ber. —It continued its ravages, through that year into the next, and gradually travelled southward, almost stripping the country of children. Very few children escaped, for altho' the disease was very infectious, yet its propagation depended very little on that circumstance. It attacked the young in the most sequester­ed situations, and without a possible communication with the sick. It was literally the plague among children. Many families lost three and four children—many lost all.

In some places, this distemper was more fatal than in others— [Page 234] country towns suffered more than populous cities. And it should be here remarked, that the virulence of this species of disease seems at times to be greatly augmented by cold and wet weather —it is most mild in cities where the air is, in a degree, correc­ted of its rigor and moisture.—To this observation however there are exceptions.

Scorbutic people and those who lived on pork, and of course the poor, suffered most. In some families, it was comparatively mild—in others it was malignant like a plague. This disease gradually travelled westward and was two years in reaching the river Hudson, distant from Kingston, where it first appeared, a­bout 200 miles in a strait line. It continued its progress west­ward, with some interruptions, until it spread over the colonies. Few adults were affected; its principal ravages were among per­sons under age, or rather under puberty. For many years after it was epidemic, it frequently broke out in different places with­out any apparent cause, but did not spread—a striking proof that such diseases will not become epidemic by the sole power of in­fection, but that some general cause must aid its propagation, or it will perish in its cradle. This is probably true of every species of pestilential disease.

From an elderly lady of great observation in New-Haven, I have learnt that persons who, recovered of this distemper, were subject, all their lives, to sore throat and quinsies, and what is perhaps more remarkable, that few or none of them have lived to be old. It is at least apparent, in the sphere of her observa­tion, that those persons have died at an earlier age than others. These facts are striking proofs how much the whole system, and especially the seat of the disease, was impaired in strength and firmness, by that distressing malady. A gentleman still living, who was affected with the same disease in 1742, informs me that his constitution has never recovered from the shock it received from that malady.

The invasion of this distemper was gradual, and for some time before its attack, children appeared to languish. It was not always attended with great prostration of strength, for per­sons [Page 235] were often walking, an hour or two before their death. The same happened in the angina of 1794.

Diseases among cattle in New Hampshire marked this period.

In 1736, and during the rage of the ulcerous sore throat in America and in England, the plague made terrible havoc in E­gypt —authors relate that Cairo lost 10,000 persons in a day.— In Nimeguen raged a malignant dysentery.

In 1737 while the angina maligna was spreading over the northern parts of America, the bilious plague prevailed in Vir­ginia. In England and Scotland, the measles broke out and prevailed in 1735 and 6, cotemporary with the angina in Amer­ica. Dr. Short relates that the first person seized was a woman in her child-bed illness.

At the same time prevailed miliary fevers in Cornwall, ac­companied with glandular swellings. Coughs, defluxions and catarrhs were frequent. A pestilential disease in Devonshire swept away cattle and swine.

In 1737 a very severe influenza invaded both hemispheres. It commenced in November.

In 1737 also appeared a comet; Constantinople was shaken and Smyrna half destroyed by an earthquake. A small shock was felt in Boston. In October of this year, a storm or hurri­cane in the East-Indies, destroyed 20,000 vessels of different sizes, and 300,000 people. There was a great eruption of Ve­suvius in the same year. In Iceland also was an eruption be­tween 1730 and 1740, but the year is not specified.

A most singular meteor in the same year, followed by a very severe winter.

This pestilential constitution did not produce the same diseases in England, as in France and America. The fatal ulcerous sore throat was cotemporary in America and in France in 1737; but that disease did not appear, in its formidable array, in Eng­land until 1742. In 1734-5 appeared its sister-malady, the scarlet fever in Edinburg; but it subsided; and the epidemic [Page 236] took the form of measles of a bad type, with hoarseness, defluxions and catarrh. The catarrh prevailed also in Barbadoes in the close of this year and beginning of the next, and in New-England was a great death of fish and water fowl.

In 1738 sudden deaths, vertigoes and apoplexies followed the preceding epidemics in England. The plague raged at Ockza­kow, at Barbadoes, and in New-Spain the pestilence was so gen­eral and mortal, as to threaten the country with depopulation.

In 1739 the small-pox prevailed in New-York, and some dysenteries, but I hear of no remarkable occurrences in this year; except that angina maligna appeared in England in a few sporadic cases, but did not spread at that time; and an infect­ious fever prevailed at Charleston.

A comet was seen in 1739, and the winter following in Eu­rope was the severest known since 1716 or perhaps since 1709. The cold continued till June and was succeeded by a dry season; then a wet, cold autumn. A dearth succeeded in Scotland, and measles spread over America.

In England spread the whooping cough in December 1740. The small-pox prevailed and in 1741 that disease, with the spot­ted fever were very mortal.

In Bristol and Galway, in Ireland, the fevers fell little short of the plague.

It was computed that in 1740 and 41, Ireland lost 80,000 people by famin, dysentery and spotted fever.

Amsterdam experienced the same pestilential constitution.

Not less remarkable were the seasons in America. In 1740-41, a year later than in Europe, the winter was of the severest kind. Many cattle perished for want of food.

During this winter measles prevailed in Connecticut. The American plague appeared in Philadelphia and Virginia. In Scotland many perished by famin.

[Page 237]Don Ulloa relates an opinion among the Spaniards in South-America, that in 1740, the black vomit was first introduced into Guayaquil by the galleons from the south seas. They aver the disease not to have been known there, anterior to that year. It was most fatal to seamen and foreigners, but the natives did not escape. Here we have a new source of yellow fever!

In 1742 the ulcerous sore throat of a malignant kind appear­ed in England, and continued to prevail more or less for many years, and in 1745 became very infectious.

The summer of 1742 in England was dry.

In America, the same angina prevailed in 1742. From 1740 to 1744 pestilential diseases prevailed in all parts of the known world.

In Syria, the winter of 1741-2 was very severe. In March began an acute fever in Aleppo, attended with a severe pain in the right hypochondrium. The plague had previously shown it­self on the sea coast. In April, says Alex. Russel, some reapers brought the infection into the neighbourhood of Aleppo. In the city, no notice was given of the plague, till the 18th of May; but on strict enquiry, it was found that cases had occur­red before that time. Whether the "reapers" introduced the fomites into the city, the author does not inform us.

The distemper made no great havoc in this season. It abated in July, and nothing is said about infection, till November, when a few more cases occurred. In February 1743 a few cases ap­peared and in March an alarm was given. It was more general in this year, but disappeared in 1744.

When the disease subsided in Aleppo, it was followed by di­arrhaeas and dysenteries with petechiae; and some obstinate in­termittents.

In December 1742 and January 1743 were earthquakes with great snows, violent rains and frost.

In 1742 a mortal fever prevailed at Holliston in Massachu­setts, in which died Mr. Stone, the minister and fourteen of his congregation. In this year was seen a comet.

In the spring of 1743; a smart shock of earthquake convul­sed [Page 238] Sicily, Naples and Malta. A catarrh prevailed at the same time. These were the precursors of the dreadful plague which raged, in the following summer, at Calabria, Reggio, and es­pecially at Messina in Sicily, where perished 46,000 inhabitants out of 72,000. The summer was violently hot, and dysentery prevailed in other parts of Italy.

At the same time, New-York was severely afflicted by the bil­ious plague, where died, in one season, 217 of the inhabitants —a considerable number for the population of that day. ^*

I know not what diseases prevailed in Boston, but the bill for that year shows it to have been sickly.

The year 1743 was distinguished for a tremendous eruption of fire at Cotopaxi, a mountain in the province of Quito, five leagues north of Latacunga; all the neighboring villages were ruined by floods from the melted snows of the mountain. The eruption was repeated in 1744.

Venice suffered by an inundation in 1743, and the year was remarkable for violent storms, at Boston, Jamaica, and in many countries.

In December 1743 appeared a comet of distinguished magni­tude, which was visible till February of the following year. This was probably the same which appeared in 1401, and in both instances attended with pestilence.

In 1744 severe catarrh spread over Europe. It was at Rome in February; at London in March; and in a few weeks per­vaded England.

[Page 239]In June of this year, was an earthquake of considerable vio­lence in New-England.

In 1745 Lima was shaken by an earthquake. An infectious fever broke out among the troops employed in the expedition to Louisbourg. A similar fever prevailed at Boston; and how far the health of the town was affected by the returning troops, I am not informed. This was a time of general sickness.

In Charleston prevailed the infectious yellow fever, while Egypt and Smyrna were suffering the ravages of the plague. The bilious plague prevailed, at the same time, in New-York.

In this year, the town of Stamford in Connecticut was se­verely distressed by a malignant dysentery, which swept away seventy inhabitants out of a few hundreds. The disease was confined to one street.

The year 1746 was probably still more unhealthy. An earth­quake laid Lima and Calao in ruins. The concussion began on the 28th of October, about six hours before the full of the moon; and at intervals, the shocks were repeated for four months, in which time they amounted to four hundred and fifty. During these convulsions, fire burst forth in several places of the distant mountains. Many days before the shocks began, hollow rumbling noises were heard in the earth, at times resembling the discharge of artillery. Similar sounds continued for some time after the earthquake.

Albany was, in this year, visited by a malignant disease called by Colden, a nervous fever; and by Douglas, the yellow fever. From an old citizen, who was living in 1797, my friend Dr. Mitchell obtained the following particulars relative to that disease. The bodies of some of the patients were yellow—the crisis of the disease was the ninth day; if the patient survived that day, he had a good chance for recovery. The disease left many in a state of imbecility of mind, approaching to childishness or idio­cy; others were afterwards troubled with swelled legs.

The disease began in August, ended with frost, and carried off forty-five inhabitants mostly men of robust bodies. It was said to be imported.

[Page 240]As this was unusual disease in Albany, ingenuity was occu­pied to find out its origin. It was reported that a like disease pre­vailed in New-York, and that it had been imported in a vessel from Ireland. Nervous, yellow fever imported from Ireland! Such are the vulgar tales that disgrace this age of science and philosophy. From what fairy land were imported the malignant diseases, which every where swelled the bills of mortality in the same year?—Not that I would insinuate that diseases of a certain kind are not infectious. A pestilential fever originated in the Chebucto fleet, under the Duke D'Anville, which landed an ar­my on our shores in this same year, and one third of the Indians who visited the cantonments, died. There the disease subsided, without becoming epidemic.

But what I severely reprobate is, the disposition of men to trace all the evils of life to a foreign source; when the sources are in their own country, their own houses, and their own bo­soms.

A similar disease raged, the same year, among the Mohegan Indians.

At Zurich in Switzerland and in Saxony prevailed a very ma­lignant dysentery. Indeed for a number of years, at this peri­od, dysentery was epidemic in many parts of Europe and A­merica.

In 1747 prevailed epidemic catarrh in America and Europe. In the same year the bilious plague prevailed in Philadelphia.—In 1748, in Charleston. The same years were sickly in Boston.

In 1747 appeared a comet, and Etna, which had been quiet more than forty years, commenced her discharges of fire and lava. In the West-Indies, a tremendous hurricane laid waste the Islands.

Two comets appeared in 1748; the winter was severe, and two or three excessively hot and dry summers succeeded. In England the summer of 1747 was very dry. In 1748 a fast was appointed in Massachusetts on account of the drouth.

In England the angina maligna continued its ravages with in­creased mortality. The same malady prevailed in France in 1749, and there was an earthquake at London. The 18th of [Page 241] June was a noted hot day, and Mars was as near to the earth as her orbit will permit.

In 1749 the dysentery and nervous long fever visited many towns in Connecticut with distressing mortality. Waterbury sus­tained a loss of about 130 of her inhabitants principally by dysen­tery. Cornwall, then a new settled village, on high mountains, lost twenty of her citizens. Hartford was severely visited with in­termittents, for the last time. The summer was very dry, and locusts or grass-hoppers overrun the fields and devoured the her­bage.

I am authorized to say that the terrible dysentery in Woodbu­ry did not appear to be very contagious—it excited great alarm; every one avoided the sick, if possible; but many who lived re­mote and never came near the sick, were seized, and suddenly died. ^†

In 1749 and 50 the dysentery, according to Zimmerman, made great havoc in the Canton of Berne. It is remarkable that this formidable disease should be thus prevalent in both hemispheres at the same time, and for a series of years. About this time measles prevailed in America.

In 1750 appeared a comet, and the summer was excessively hot. In Philadelphia, the heat raised the mercury to 100 deg. by Farenheit. The plague carried off 30,000 people in Fez, and one third of the inhabitants of Tangiers.

Violent tempests marked this year, in America, and an unu­sual swell of the Severn in England. Earthquakes happened in England, Jamaica, Peru, Leghorn, Rome, Sicily and Lapland.

At Beauvais, 50 miles from Paris, broke out a pestilential dis­ease, called la Suete, resembling the sweating sickness, termina­ting fatally in three days.

At Bethlem in Connecticut raged a mortal fever, which swept away between thirty and forty of the inhabitants. The exci­ting cause was supposed to be the exhalations from a swamp which [Page 242] had been drained. It is not improbable that this might have aid­ed the general principles of disease.

The winter of 1750-51 is mentioned as extremely severe in America. Vesuvius discharged fire and lava, in 1751, and on the 7th of March, a most dreadful tempest at Nantz in France, destroyed 66 ships, with 800 lives. On the same day, a tempest at Jamaica did damage to the amount of a million of dollars. A storm at Cadiz on the 8th of December destroyed 100 sail of shipping. On the Adriatic coast was an earthquake.

In this year Constantinople lost 200,000 inhabitants by the plague.—The preceding winter was cold in Turkey, and the old people predicted a severe plague from the quantity of snow that fell in Constantinople. This prediction was founded on long observation; and I am able to confirm the justness of it, by discovering that those years which produce the most violent ac­tion or discharges of electrical fire, generate most snow, hail and cold.

In America the spring flights of pigeons were unusually large. The dysentery was epidemic and mortal, in the same year, at Hartford and New-Haven; probably in many other places.— With this fatal dysente [...]y prevailed a mortal angina for several years. The same concurrence of these diseases will be mention­ed under the year 1775.

In England, the summer of 1751 was cold and wet; and a mortal distemper prevailed among horses and cattle, in most parts of the country. In Cheshire died 30,000 cows. In Glasgow the seasons were very sickly.

Great and uncommon inundations occurred in the same year, in France, England and Scotland. In Cork the water was three feet deep in the midst of the city.

The dysentery and ulcerous sore throat were very fatal, this year in Guilford.

In 1752 the summer in South-Carolina, and probably in all parts of America, was distinguished for intense heat. The ther­mometer, for nearly twenty days successively, varied between [Page 243] 90 and 101.—The effects of this heat were visible in a number of sudden deaths by apoplexies. There were some cases of bad fever, but no epidemic. In September a violent tempest laid the city under water. The dysentery was still prevalent in the north­ern parts of America.

In Ireland prevailed angina of such a malignant type, as to kill the patient sometimes in eight or ten hours. See Rutty on weather. The plague raged in the East.

In this year Adrianople was nearly destroyed by an earthquake. In Hinsdale, on Connecticut river, in the state of New-Hamp­shire, was an eruption of fire from a volcanic mountain, called west river mountain.

In America the winter of 1752-3 was long and severe.

I have no account of any general epidemic in 1753; but particular places were visited with distressing sickness. A singu­lar instance of a local pestilence occasioned by vapor deserves to be related.

In autumn 1753 after a dry season, arose in Rouen, the chief city of Normandy, a thick fog, with the smell of sulphur, which increased to that degree, that in the evening, lights could not be distinguished at any considerable distance. It did not wholly disappear, till the next day. It was more dense in some streets than in others.

In three or four days after, began an epidemic sickness which seized both sexes, with chills, lassitude, loss of appetite, slight pains in the arms and legs. These symptoms were followed by bilious looseness, nausea and vomitings. Most patients bled at the nose, frequently in small quantity. The head-ache then be­came violent, with a small, hard pulse—a high fever followed. The region of the stomach and hypochondria was tumefied; this symptom was succeeded by a tension of the belly—and a slight delirium followed. The tongue was brown or black, but moist; sometimes with green ulcers or apthae. The patient died the 5th, 7th, or 11th day; but not in every case. Some were [Page 244] thirty, or forty days in recovery; many were left with a puffi­ness of the face, hands and legs.

In some other parts of France appeared peripneumony and in­flammation of the pericordium, which was called a new disease.

In December 1753 and January succeeding, the small town of Holliston, in Massachusetts, lost forty-three of its citizens, by a fever. The disease began with a violent pain in the breast, or side, not often in the head; then succeeded a high fever, but without delirium. The critical days were the 3d, 4th, 5th, or 6th. Some of the patients appeared to be strangled to death. The town contained no more than 80 families.

The winter of 1753-4 in Europe was very cold. In 1754 was a great eruption of Vesuvius which lasted several weeks, and violent earthquakes in England, Constantinople, and Amboyna, in the Eastern Ocean. The heavens appeared to be in a flame, and Egypt, which rarely feels earthquakes, was severely shaken, and 40,000 of the inhabitants of Cairo, perished in the ruins of two thirds of the city.

The gangrenous sore throat was very mortal in Ireland, and prev [...]lent in England. See Rutty on weather. The same spe­cies of angina was, at the same time, very fatal in America.

In Maryland, the earth was deluged with excessive rains, and intermittents were unusually obstinate.

At this time there were two or three very mild winters in America. In 1754-5 and 1755-6 sloops sailed from New-York for Albany in January and February. Smith's Hist. N. York, 82. In this instance, America is an exception to the general rule, that severe winters extend over both hemispheres, about the time of great volcanic eruptions. The severity was limited to the other continent.

The year 1755 was remarkable for violent earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions from Etna and the mountains in Iceland. In April, Quito in South-America was demolished.

Portugal had suffered for three or four years, most excessive [Page 245] drouth, by which all springs were exhausted. But the year 1755 was rainy. On the first of November, a tremendous con­vulsion laid Lisbon in ruins, with the destruction of 50,000 lives. This shock was felt on the whole Spanish coast, and 10,000 people perished on one of the Azor [...]s. In Mitelene, an island in the Archipelago, 2000 houses were destroyed. The day preceding this concussion was remarkable for a haze or vapor that obscured the sun.

On the 18th of November, America sustained a violent and extensive shock; but its effects were not very calamitous. The fish in the ocean did not escape without injury. Two or three whales, and multitudes of cod were seen, a few days after, floating on the surface of the water.

In the remarkable year 1755, the most prevalent epidemics seem to have been angina maligna, and catarrh, which spread over France and England. The angina maligna was very mor­tal in some parts of America. In one town on Long-Island, two children only, under twelve years of age, survived.

In this year also prevailed a petechial fever in Ireland, and according to Baron de Tott, Constantinople lost 150,000 in­habitants by the plague.

The winter of 1756-7 in Syria was excessively severe; the fruits were destroyed, olive-trees, which had withstood the weath­er for fifty years, were killed, and thousands of poor people per­ished with cold.

In the following summer, crops failed, a dearth ensued, and so severe a famin that parents devoured their own children; the poor from the mountains offered their wives for sale in market, to procure food.

This winter was also very severe in Europe. In 1756 ap­peared a comet and there was an eruption in Iceland. A mete­or was seen in France, and earthquakes were experienced in va­rious places.

[Page 246]In 1756-57 the catarrh was very prevalent in America, fol­lowed by an earthquake in July. This catarrh preceded the same eipidemic in Europe by one year.

In 1758 catarrh spread over Europe, and the plague began to show itself in Egypt and Smyrna. In November, a large meteor was seen in Great-Britain, and is described by Sir John Pringle in the Philosophical Transactions. ^* In this year also, the pe­techial fever, the precursor of the plague, began to show itself in Aleppo.—The summer in America was extremely hot.

In 1759 appeared two or three comets; and in November a most tremendous eruption of Vesuvius. In August was an earthquake at Bourdeaux—and one at Brussels. The winter following 1759 was excessively cold in both hemispheres. In Leipsic, centinels froze to death; and in South-Carolina, the snow covered the earth to the depth of nearly two feet. In England, the cold was less severe.

The year 1759 was memorable for violent earthquakes, in Syria. Buildings were demolished and Damascus was buried in ruins. The shocks were repeated for many weeks. In Novem­ber, Truxillo in Peru was swallowed up by means of an earth­quake. It will be observed that this happened in the month, when Vesuvius was in eruption. These great phenomena an­nounced a general and severe pestilence, and the effects of the general principles of disease were soon felt over Europe, Asia and America. Annual Register, 1761. 96 and passim. The earthquakes in Syria were preceded by drouth and followed by excessive rains.

In 1759 the plague began to appear in Cyprus, and at Acre and Latakia on the Syrian coast. In Copenhagen raged small-pox with great mortality.

In New-England were shocks of earthquake in February, at Boston and Portsmouth. An, Regis. 1759. 88. In Au­tumn an unusual tempest and tide at Nova Scotia.

[Page 247]In America, cotemporary with the commencement of the plague in Egypt, appeared the measles, in 1758, and the year 1759 appears, by the American bills of mortality, to have been very unhealthy. The predominant diseases were the measles and dysentery. M. S. le [...]er from Dr. Betts of Norwalk. The measles appeared in 1758, but was most extensive in 1759. This is an instance of the prevalence of dysentery and measles in the same year.

In this year also th [...] scurvy, an endemical disease in Canada, was unusually mortal.

At Bombay, a meteor of extraordinary brightness was seen on the 4th of April, 1759.

After the severe winter of 1759-60, happened in America, a snow storm on the 3d of May, when the apple-trees were in blossom. The disposition of the elements to generate snow and hail, during pestilential periods, has already been remarked. M. S. of Mr. Whitman. The spring of 1760 in America was very dry.

In 1760 earthquakes were repeated in Syria, and the plague appeared at Aleppo, Jerusalem and Damascus. It continued to extend and increase, until the summer of 1762; after which it declined. In Holland and Belgium were small shocks of earth­quake —preceded by flashes of light. Annual Register 1760. 70. Russel on the plague at Aleppo. Indeed earthquakes were felt in most parts of Europe.

Cyprus, which had been free from pestilence for 30 years pre­ceding, lost 20,000 inhabitants by the malady. On the first appearance of the plague in Egypt, the magistracy published as ordinance to prevent the introduction of the disease by infection; but it was of no use. The disease was preceded, as usual, by a petechial fever.

In England, the summer of 1760 was dry and autumn wet. In this year occurred another discharge from Vesuvius.—A comet was seen in January, and a distemper made great havoc among horses in and about London. Annual Register 1760. 67. Immense damage was sustained by tempests. Ibm. 73.

[Page 248]The principles of disease in 1760 began to exhibit themselves in the West-Indies, and the ordinary fever of the climate assum­ed new and malignant symptoms, with contagion.

In this year also the northern parts of the American conti­nent, which had been [...] by measles, began to feel more se­verely the violence of the epidemic constitution.

In November, the town of Bethlem was assailed by an in­flammatory fever, with symptoms of typhus, which in the c [...]urse of the following w [...]ter, carried off about 40 of the inhabi­tants. The disease as extremely violent, terminating on the 3d or 4th day; in some cases, the patient died within 24 hours of the attack. It seems to have been that species of winter fever, which occurs in pestilential periods, mentioned under the year 1698. During this epidemic, a flock of quails flew over the chimney of a house, in which were several diseased persons, and five of them fell dead on the spot. This was thought ominous; but was a natural event, which may rationally be ascribed to de­leterious gas emitted from the chambers of the sick.

This disease was ascribed to the draining of the pond or swamp, mentioned under the year 1750. But to this explana­tion, there are strong, if not insuperable objections.

First. The fever began in November; but this is the month when the marsh fevers of our climate disappear. I doubt whether the effluvia from marshes ever act upon the human body, so as to produce disease, without a greater degree of heat than Con­necticut ever experiences in the month of November. Cold puts an end to all marsh fevers, but this disease continued to in­crease in December, and did not cease till late in the winter.

Secondly. This disease was called a malignant pleurisy; but marsh effluvia are not known to produce fevers of that descrip­tion. They are common on high, as well as on low grounds, as I can prove by facts in America.

Thirdly. There is no necessity of resorting to marsh exha­lations for the source of this malady. The same species of fever prevailed in that winter and the spring following, in many other parts of Connecticut, where no marsh existed. In Hartford it [Page 249] carried off a number of robust men, in two or three days from the attack. ^* In North-Haven it attacked few persons, but ev­ery one of them died. In East-Haven died about forty-five men in the prime of life, mostly heads of families. The same disease prevailed in New-Haven among the inhabitants, and stu­dents in college.

It is obvious then that this was an epidemic, very well known in sickly periods, and not dependent on local causes. From Dr. Trumbull of North-Haven I have the following remarks on the disease.

The blood was very thick and sizy; often issuing from the nose and sometimes from the eyes. The inflammation was vio­lent, and soon produced delirium. The most robust bodies were most liable to the disease. A free use of the lancet, in the early stages of the disorder, was the only effectual remedy; where the physicians were afraid to bleed, the patients all died. ^† This malady prevailed from November 1760 to March 1761.

I cannot learn that this species of inflammatory fever, has ever been epidemic in the northern parts of America, since this period. But it is a common winter fever, in the Carolinas, af­ter sickly summers; and in the northern states, sporadic cases of it occur with all its formidable symptoms. Instances will be hereafter mentioned. It is the pestilence of winter, and rarely, if ever appears, except when pestilential epidemics are current in summer. And I am not without suspicions that the debility occasioned by marsh effluvia in summer may predispose the system to that fever in winter, tho not necessary to produce it.

In March 1761 was a small shock of earthquake in New-England, and the same occurred in Iceland, Hamburg, Syria, England and South-America.

[Page 250]In the winter and spring of 1761 a severe influenza attacked the northern parts of America. In Bethlem it was cotemporary with the fever just mentioned. In Philadelphia it prevailed in the winter, and in Massachusetts, in April. From Dr. Tufts, a respectable practitioner of medicin in Weymouth, I have the following description of the disease.

"The distemper began in April, and in May ran into a ma­lignant fever, which proved fatal to aged people. It spread over the whole country and the West-India islands. It began with a severe pain in the head and limbs, a sensation of coldness, shiverings succeeded by great heat, running at the nose, and a troublesome cough. It continued for eight or ten days, and generally terminated by sweating.

In May, the aged who had before escaped, were seized with an affection like a slight cold; this, in a day or two was fol­lowed by great prostration of strength, a cough, labo [...] of breath­ing, pains about the breast, praecordia, and in the limbs, but not acute. The countenance betrayed no great marks of febrile heat. The matter expectorated was thin, but slimy. As the disease advanced, the difficulty of breathing encreased; the ex­pectoration was more difficult; the matter thrown off more viscid; at length the lungs appeared to be so loaded with tena­cious matter, that no efforts could dislodge it, and the patient sunk under it.

This disorder carried with it bilious appearances—the coun­tenances of some patients were of a yellowish hue. In some, there was an appearance of indifference or insensibility; and at night, a slight delirium."

In the spring of 1761 earthquakes were felt in many parts of Europe. See an account of them in An Register, 1761. 92. Shocks also were felt in the Azores and West-Indies. These agitations were precisely cotemporary with the epidemic catarrh in America. Scarcely any country escaped the convulsions of nature. During the pestilence in Thessalonica, shocks were felt almost every day. Ibm.

In the summer of 1761, I am informed, the infectious bilious fever prevailed in Charleston, but I am not possessed of the details. [Page 251] In May happened a most extraordinary typhon or whirlwind, which swept Ashly river to its bottom. Five vessels were sunk and eleven dismasted. Annual Register, 1761. 93. In Italy a woman was killed by a sudden eruption of vapor under her feet. Ibm. 95. The summer in America was very dry.

In the spring of 1762 the influenza was epidemic in Europe. It appeared at Edinburgh in April in a few cases; at Dublin in May; and in June was general and severe. It was therefore a year later than in America.

In March was an earthquake in Ireland, and in autumn a con­siderable shock in Spain. On the 11th of June was seen a me­teor, pas [...]g from north to south, which met a dark cloud and exploded. Another as large as the moon, and bright as the sun descended slowly on the 4th of December, and dissipated.

In 1762 appeared a comet, and in America the heat and drouth exceeded what was ever before known. From June to September 22d, there was scarcely a drop of rain, almost all springs were exhausted, and the distress occasioned by the want of water was extreme. The forest trees appeared as if scorched.

The winter following was equally remarkable for severity, both in Europe and America. The Thames was a common highway for carriages, and the poor perished in the streets of London.

In America the snow fell on the 8th of November and con­tinued till about the 20th of March. These extraordinary phe­nomena were followed by an eruption of Etna in 1763, of three months continuance.

In the extremely hot summer of 1762, the bilious plague pre­vailed in Philadelphia. The same disease swept away most of the troops in the expedition to Havanna. The plague raged in Constantinople and in Syria; while the yellow fever spread mor­tality in Bengal.

In this year the plague in Aleppo came to its crisis. In 1760, died about 500 persons; in 1761, 7000, and in 1762, 11000; after which year it subsided.

[Page 252]The bills of mortality will best show how severely the princi­ples of disease were felt in London, Amsterdam and Dublin in 1762 and 3.

No part of the earth seems to have escaped a share of unusual mortality in the period between 1759 and 1763. In the latter year, the bilious plague in Bengal carried off 800 Europeans and 30,000 natives. Lind, p. 82. In the year preceding, a vio­lent earthquake occurred at Chitacong in the territories of Bengal.

On the 19th of October 1762, happened a remarkably dark day at Detroit, and the vicinity. While at dinner, the inhabi­tants found it necessary to use candles. The darkness continued, with little interruption, during the whole day.

During this pestilential period, fatal diseases carried off the cattle on the continent of Europe, and Toulon lost one third of its inhabitants by an epidemic.

The summer of 1763 was a moist and unkindly season. In August the Indians on Nantucket were attacked by the bilious plague, and between that time and February following, their number was reduced from 358 to 136. Of 258 who were af­fected, 36 only recovered. The disease began with high fever and ended in typhus, in about five days. It appeared to be in­fectious among the Indians only; for no whites were attacked, altho they associated freely with the diseased. Persons of a mixed blood were attacked, but recovered. Not one died, ex­cept of full Indian blood. Some Indians who lived in the fam­ilies of the whites, escaped the [...]isease; as did a few that lived by themselves on a distant part of the island. I am informed, by respectable authority, that a similar fever attacked Indians on board of ships, at a distance of hundreds of leagues, without any connection with Nantucket.

In December of the same year, the Indians on Martha's Vine­yard, distant eight leagues from Nantucket, were invaded by a like fever; not a family escaped, and of 52 patients, 39 died.

In this instance, disease discriminated as nicely between the Whites and Indians, as in 1797, it did between men and cats, [Page 253] and as exactly as the plague in Egypt, between the Israelites and Egyptians.

Some suspicions were suggested that the disease at Nantucket might have been received from a ship which put in there, with sick passengers, from Ireland bound to New-York; but there is no foundation for this opinion, as the disorder broke out be­fore the arrival of the ship.

In 1764, just after this fatal pestilence among the Indians, a large species of fish, called blue fish, thirty of which would fill a barrel, and which were before caught in great numbers, on ev­ery side of Nantucket, suddenly disappeared, to the great loss of the Inhabitants.—Whether they perished or migrated, is not known.

In Europe, the year 1763 was remarkable for diseases among various species of animals. In Denmark, an epidemic catarrhal disorder affected horses. In Madrid, a pestilence among dogs swept away multitudes—900 died in one day. In Genoa, the poultry perished in a similar manner. In Italy, horses and swine fell victims to the pestilential principle. In France, horses and mules; in Sweden, sheep, horses and horned cattle perished under the influence of the general cause.

The summer was remarkable for hail storms, one of which totally ruined 36 villages in Maconnois in France. See the ac­count of these and of the earthquakes in that year in An. Regis. Chronicle. Hail stones fell of sizes from three to ten inches in circumference. These storms were numerous and many fire balls fell in various parts of England and a globe of fire was seen in Sweden.

These hail storms occurred during or near the time of the e­ruption of Etna. In 1764 was another eruption of Etna. In most parts of Europe and America, this period of pestilence ap­pears to have closed with the years 1762 and 3. But in Naples spread a malignant fever in 1764, preceded by famin, by which disease it was supposed 200,000 people perished. The disease [Page 254] was marked by petechiae and glandular tumors and was a mild species of plague. The season was excessively hot, and the bil­ious plague prevailed in Cadiz. Lind, 189. 122. An earth­quake occured in Portugal and Siberia. In the February follow­ing occured a degree of cold, rarely known in England. The mercury in Farenheit fell to 7 deg. and in one place, within the ball. An. Reg. 1765-66. A remarkable high tide in China in May swept away a whole city. The cause is not mentioned.

To the epidemics above mentioned, succeeded a series of dys­enteries, in the hot summers of 1765 and 6. In 1765, the ma­lignant dysentery raged in Berne and other parts of Switzer­land, in Suabia and Austria. The invasion was, in many cases sudden, says Zimmerman, without any preceding symptom; but more generally its approach was indicated by chills, lassitude and other premonitory signs. In its progress, it exhibited most of the symptoms of the yellow fever of America. It was pre­ceded by a putrid fever, which yielded to the dysentery in June.

This epidemic was followed by violent and malignant pleuri­sies; a circumstance that marks its alliance with the pestilential fever of America, and probably of all temperate climates, which is also succeeded by pleurisy or peripneumony in winter.

In 1765 were many earthquakes in Italy, and Sweden, and a volcanic eruption at Truxillo in Spanish America. Dysentery prevailed in Scotland, and intermittents in Pennsylvania and Georgia, were universal.

In 1766 the summer was every where hot and in Europe ex­cessively dry. In Germany, the Rhine was lower than in the terrible drouth of 1476, and in many places, was forded. In Scotland, the people were compelled to kill their cattle for want of fodder. The heat and drouth produced great hail storms, and in autumn, were followed by inundations, one of which at Montauban, in France, swept away 1200 houses. Terrible tem­pests marked the year, and in the West-Indies, those hurricanes which lay the islands waste, and are recorded among the memo­rabilia of the climate. In August, the planet Mars was nearer [Page 255] to the earth, by two millions of miles, than it had been for many ages, and in the spring appeared a comet.

The winter preceding this remarkable summer, was extremely cold in Europe. At Ratisbon, Reaumur's thermometer was two degrees lower, than in the noted year 1709, and birds per­ished with cold. At Naples, the snow lay in the streets, to the depth of 18 inches, and Vesuvius began to discharge smoke, the harbinger of an explosion. At Lisbon, Reaumur's ther­ [...]ometer was 3½ degrees below the freezing point, and at Mad­rid, people skated on the ice.

These remarkable phenomena preceded and attended a gene­ral discharge of fire and lava, from the three well known volca­noes, Etna, Vesuvius and Heckla, which took place in 1766. This is one of the few instances on record, in which these vol­canoes have been in eruption, nearly at the same time. The eruption of Heckla continued from April to September. These phenomena account for the excessive drouth in Europe.

In this year 1766 was an earthquake in New-England, and a violent shock at Constantinople. Vegetation failed in some parts of Europe and America, and grain was very scarce in Italy, Great-Britain and the Carolinas. In 1767 a million sterling was paid in England for imported grain.

The winter of 1765-6 was not severe in America and there was little snow; but in this remarkable period, as in many oth­ers, the severity of the seasons commenced in Europe one year before it did in America. The winter of 1766-7 was terribly severe in both hemispheres. The cold was as intense as in 1740; the Rhine at Cologne became a bridge of ice, and supported laboring artificers, as in 1670. In Italy, [...]he poor crouded to the cities for aid, and perished with cold. In Russia, both rich and poor perished. The wolves became ravenous, entered towns and destroyed people. In England, the larks took refuge in hay-carts and the market; the snow fell to the depth of many feet and buried thousands of sheep. In America, the cold was [Page 256] very severe, and at Brandywine, the mercury fell in Farenheit to 20 deg. below cypher—an unexampled degree of cold in that latitude. In January happened a thaw, which broke up the riv­ers in Connecticut, and left scarcely a bridge over the rivers. The cold in France in 1767-8 was more severe than in 1740 and within a degree of that in 1709. In Constantinople snow and hail fell as late as March 16.

Every thing indicated uncommon agitations in the elements. Pages would be necessary to enumerate the tempests and hail storms of these years. In January 1769 fell two fire balls in England; one of them on Tower hill. At Amiens, a man his wife and his horses were killed by a discharge of subterrane­ous vapor. A violent storm in Virginia on the 11th of Septem­ber tore up trees, stranded ships and demolished houses; Bag­dadt was almost ruined by an earthquake, and Cuba was desola­ted by a hurricane in 1768. An. Register, 1769. 67. 146. These last years in England were rainy.

In 1767 epidemic catarrh prevailed in Europe, and diseases among horses in New-England and Ne [...]-Jersey. The summer was remarkable for hail storms; Cephalonia was ruined by an earthquake, and Vesuvius, from this year to 1777 never ceased to discharge smoke, and frequently scoriae, stones and cinders.

In 1768 vast multitudes of caterpillars devoured the grass in the fields at Northampton, in Massachusetts.

The summer of 1768 was hot, but I have no account of the diseases in America in this and the preceding year, ex [...]ept of a disorder in the head and throat among horses.

In 1769 the summer was very hot, and in autumn appeared a comet with a vast coma. Venus passed over the Sun's disk on the 3d of June; there was a small earthquake in New-England and a great tempest. Among the diseases in America is men­tioned a fatal angina in Boston, and other towns, but I am not furnished with its history. The same distemper prevailed in 1770, and in Jamaica occasioned considerable mortality.

[Page 257]In Holland 32,000 cattle perished by a pestilential distemper. An. Reg. 1769. 166. Great sickness prevailed at Rome. Ibm. In America some cases of canine madness were observed. The meastes prevailed in America, but I have no details of its origin and progress. The dysentery was epidemic and fatal in 1769.

In July 1770 appeared also a comet. There was an eruption of Vesuvius in 1770, and another in 1771. Flames issued from Heckla in 1771 and 72, but no lava. An earthquake was felt in New-England in 1771, and Italy was repeatedly shaken. On the 17th of July was seen a meteor or fire ball.

These two years were distinguished by the most terrible earth­quakes, storms, rains and inundations, accounts of which fill the gazettes of those years. In 1770 the floods in England, Holland and France exceeded any that could be recollected. In France the vintage was greatly injured. In 1771 the terri­tory of Honduras was wasted by locusts and famin.

In 1771 great rains continued to occasion floods. In Vir­ginia, a flood in the Rappahannock filled the warehouses and ruined the tobacco, which occasioned public prayers to be or­dered. Similar inundations happened in Germany.

There were earthquakes in Hispaniola, St. Maure, England, and in Ternate, a Molucca island, where was an eruption of fire.

In 1771 a mortal distemper swept away great numbers of foxes in America.

In Italy the harvest failed, and in Sardinia, Holland, Flan­ders, and some parts of England, the cattle were swept away by an infectious disease. The number of cattle that perished in Holland, was stated, in Sept. 1771, to amount to 171,780.

In Constantinople raged the plague in 1770; and one thousand bodies were, for some time, buried daily. In 1771 this malady prevailed in Poland and Russia, and 200,000 people perished, The number that died in the Russian dominions was 62,000.

[Page 258]In the East-Indies the disorders in the elements at this period produced still more deplorable effects. The excessive heat and want of rain, which usually precede or attend the approximation of comets and volcanic eruptions, occasion a failure of crops in countries, where the grain which is the principal food of the in­habitants, depends on water from inundation. Such is the fact in India and in Egypt, where rice is the great article of food.

The heat and drouth of 1769 cut short the rice crops in the territories of the Ganges. The consequence was a famin, which, in 1770, destroyed incredible numbers of the natives. The streets were filled with dead carcases, and such numbers were thrown into the river, as to render the water and the fish unfit for use.

In 1771 disease was added to the calamities of the miserable inhabitants, a million of whom were supposed to perish by the bilious plague.

In 1770 the atmosphere at Calcutta was filled and clouded with flies of a large kind, which never descended to the earth, but came so near that they could be distinguished with glasses. It is remarkable that the appearance of these animals was cotemporary with the millions of worms which overra [...] the northern districts of America. Encyclop. Article Bengal. The Bramins mentioned that a similar phenomenon occurred a­bout 150 years before, which must have been during the pestilence among the Indians in America from 1618 to 1622. At this time also began a disease among the potatoes in Scotland, which has been gradually extending itself to this time. The leaves con­tract and shrivel; and just below the surface of the earth, there appears on the [...]alk a scar of some length, or groove corroded through the rind, of the color of ocher. The fruit on the roots is small and of an unpleasant taste.

In 1771 anginas, in some parts of America, occasioned a considerable mortality.

Catarrh prevailed in 1771, but was epidemic in America in 1772. The winter of 1771-2 was very severe in Europe. In [Page 259] America the month of March 1772 was distinguished for great falls of snow, beyond what was ever before known. In Bohe­mia, it was computed that 168,000 persons perished in that year by epidemic diseases. An. Reg. 152. A tempest in China de­stroyed 150,000 lives in Canton River.

In 1770, cotemporary with the clouds of flies in India and a most fatal pestilence among men and cattle in Europe, appeared in America a black worm about one inch and a half in length, which devoured the grass and corn. Never was a more singular phenomenon. These animals were generated suddenly in the northern states of America, and almost covered two or three hundred miles of country. They all moved nearly in one direc­tion, and when they were intercepted by furrows, in plowed land, they fell into them in such numbers as to form heaps. They sought shelter in the grass, a hot sun being fatal to them. They disappeared suddenly about the close of June and beginning of July.

This species of worm has been seen at other times, and in 1791, in great multitudes. No account can be given of their origin and they seem not to have regular periods of return. In July 1791, the late governor Huntington, a gentleman of care­ful observation, informed me, he had exposed some of these an­imals to a hot sun on a dry board, and in a few hours, found them dissolved into mere water. They seem to be generated by some elementary process, and to be the harbingers of pestilence; at least they have preceded diseases in America.

In February 1772 prevailed in America epidemic catarrh.

In this year, the measles appeared in all parts of America, with unusual mortality. In Charleston, S. Carolina, died 8 or 900 children.

A mortal fever prevailed also in Wellfleet on Cape-Cod, which proved fatal to forty of its inhabitants. Hist. Col. vol. 3. 118. The mortality in Bohemia has been mentioned, and the sickness in London appears by the bill of mortality.

[Page 260]This year, 1772, was distinguished for a great hurricane in the West-Indies, like those of 1766 and 1780.

The anginas of the preceding year continued to prevail in 1772.

The winter of 1772-3 was moderate in England, but on the continent more severe. In February, occurred in America, a remarkable day, still known by the name of the cold Sunday.

This year, 1773, was in general sickly. In America, the mea­sles finished its course and was followed by disorders in the throat. After the measles left the patient, came on a secondary fever, which, in some cases, proved fatal. Those who survived, lay ill a long time, troubled with an excessive expectoration. It seem­ed as if the patient discharged the amount of his weight.

But the most mortal disease, was, the cynanche trachealis or bladder in the throat. In general, there was little canker, but an extreme difficulty of breathing; the patient being nearly suf­focated with a tough mucus or slime, which no medicin could attenuate of discharge, and which finally proved fatal. All med­ical aid was fruitless, and scarcely a child that was attacked in some towns, survived.

This disease was speedily followed, in some places by the dys­entery of a peculiarly malignant type, occasioning mortification on the third day. This disease was prevalent and very fatal in New-Haven and East-Haven, in Connecticut, and in Salem, Massachusetts.

In Philadelphia, the measles appeared in March, attended with efflorescence about the neck; at the same time, catarrh which could hardly be distingushed from the measles.

Cotemporary with these diseases in America, were the small-pox and a fatal fever in some parts of Scotland, and a plague which carried off 80,000 people in Bassora, a town in Persia, near the Euphrates.

In this year, an earthquake sunk the town of Guatimala in New-Spain.

The year 1774 was more healthy than the preceding; but the scarlatina anginosa began to show itself in Edinburgh, and in [Page 261] some parts of America, especially at Philadelphia. On the 4th of May was a fall of snow.

The winter of 1774-5 began on the continent of Europe with unusual severity. The rivers in Germany were frozen, early in December, and there was deep snow at Bologna in Italy in October. But in England, the winter was not severe—an in­stance which is sometimes observed in both hemispheres, that cold and falls of snow run in veins. ^*

In 1775 happened a great eruption of fire from a volcano in Guatimala. An. Reg. 136. The summer was remarkable for thunder and lightning.

A halo and mock suns were observed in England, and a me­teor in America. In Sweden and England, the summer was dry. In Holland happened a great tempest and high tide, Nov. 14th.

In 1775 prevailed in England epidemic catarrh, preceded by mild serene weather.

In America prevailed cynanche maligna, with considerable mortality. It seems to have invaded all the northern parts of America, and in many places it continued to be current with dysentery for three years. This was the case in Middletown on Connecticut river. In other places, it disappeared in the winter following.

This pestilential period seems to have commenced with the great agitations of the elements in 1769 and 70, and to have been first displayed in the drouth and f [...]min in India, the plague in Turkey, and the insects and distempers among cattle in Eu­rope and America; to which may be added anginas. The pro­cess was marked by a comet, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and tempests, with measles, influenza and angina, and a series of most fatal dysentery closed the period.

[Page 262]In 1775 an eruption of water took place from mount Etna, and Lipari, a neighboring island, discharged fire.

In this year began or very much increased the mildew of oats in Montquitter in Scotland. About the beginning or middle of August, the plant assumes a fiery red color; then black spots burst forth near the roots, and ascend to the fibers that support the ear; circulation then ceases, and the grain advances no fur­ther in maturity. Sometimes it yields a little fruit; at other times none. This disease of the oats still continues to be very injurious to the parish; but in 1789, a year of unusual commo­tion in the elements in the north of Europe, as will hereafter be related, it spread to a greater extent than was ever before known. This phenomenon has been a subject of great research among farmers and philosophic men; but no satisfactory cause has yet been discovered.

It is remarkable that the prim in America began to decay and perish about this period; and near the same time, the wheat insect first appeared on Long-Island.

I would just observe that the disease among the oats, and the death of the prim, with the wheat insect, may be new phenom­ena in the natural world; or certain revolutions which unusual causes may have induced in animal and vegetable life.

About this time, for the year is not recollected, there was an eruption of fire at Derby, in Connecticut, a few rods from Nau­gatuck river; the only instance ever known in that place. It happened on a steep bank where it made a large excavation in the earth, throwing trees and stones to some distance. A light was seen on the spot in the evening before the explosion. It was accompanied with a loud report, and some fossil substances were ejected, which were analized by Dr. Monson of New-Haven, and found to contain arsenic and sulphur.

In 1775 also perished a bed of excellent oysters in the har­bor of Wellfleet, on Cape-Cod, twenty leagues south of Boston. These oysters had been in great plenty, and furnished the in­habitants with no small portion of food; but in this year from [Page 263] some unknown cause, they sickened and perished, and have never since grown in that harbor.

During this sickly period also, the oysters on the shores of Connecticut were in an unhealthy state, and sometimes excited vomiting in those who ate of them.

It is remarkable also that in 1776 the lobsters in the vicinity of York-Island, all disappeared. This event has generally been ascribed to the firing of cannon in the summer of that year. But the place where they lived being many miles from the British shipping, this explanation is not satisfactory. It is more proba­ble that they perished, or abandoned the ground, on account of the bad state of their element.

The winter in 1776 was severe in Europe. The cold ex­ceeded that of 1740. In Denmark the sound was frozen and crossed on sledges. The Thames was also frozen.

The summer of 1776 in America was hot and in the northern states rainy. The dysentery was prevalent in all parts of the country, and was terribly fatal to the American troops in New-York and at Ticonderoga. I was at Mount Independence in October, and witness to the ravages of the disease. Of thirteen thousand troops, it was said that one half were unfit for duty.

It has been customary to ascribe the prevalence of this mortal disease to infection spread by the soldiers who returned home from the armies. It is certain that the disease was thus introdu­ced into particular families; but infection was the smallest among the causes of the epidemic. In most places, it originated with­out any communication from the army; and I was a witness of such instances. The disease was the effect of a particular state of the atmosphere, aided by the seasons.

To prove how unfounded is the opinion that the disease ori­ginated in the army alone, and spread from that as from a focus, it will be sufficient to mention two facts. The first is, that this epidemic commenced in 1773, two years before the war, in which year it was more malignant and fatal, in some places, than in any subsequent year. Witness New-Haven, East-Haven and Salem in Massachusetts.

[Page 264]In 1775 a remarkable fact occurred. About one hundred men belonging to Danbury, in Connecticut, went to join the army on Lake Champlain; they performed their duty and all returned in good health. While they were absent, the dysen­tery invaded the town and carried off more than one hundred of the inhabitants. In this instance, not a soldier returned from the army, until the disease had subsided.

The second fact is, that the same disease has before raged gen­erally in this country, with all its horrors, in time of peace. Witn [...]ss the epidemic at Georgetown in Maryland in 1793, at Derby in 1794 and at New-Haven in 1795. In an especial manner, I ought to mention the distressing dysentery, between 1749 and 1753, a time of profound peace, when not a soldier was seen in the country; a period when the disease was as mor­tal and as general, as between 1773 and 1777. A like epi­demic prevailed in many countries in Europe at the same time.

I have also taken pains to enquire of physicians in the country, as to the propagation of this disease from the army, and am in­formed that the disease was as fatal in villages where no inter­course was had with the troops, as where there was intercourse.

The acquiescence of all descriptions of men, learned and un­learned, in the opinion that epidemic diseases are to be ascribed solely to infection or specific contagion, has proved extremely injurious to philosophy and to medicin. ^* The disease is infec­tious, but it originates in any place, in particular seasons, whether in peace or war; and ends at the command of the elements and seasons. It ceased at the close of 1777 in the army as well as country, and without any effort which had not been made in pre­ceding years. It may be observed further that the dysentery was and always is, most prevalent among old people and chil­dren who have least intercourse with the sick, especially in the country, where no artificial causes of disease exist.

[Page 265]In 1777 there was a small earthquake in the interior of Eng­land, and the London bill of mortality was higher than usual. A volcano in Ferro discharged discolered water, but no lava. The measles appeared in some parts of America, the same year.

The summer of 1778 was excessively hot in America, and fevers of a typhus kind were frequent. In Philadelphia an in­fectious bilious fever marked the summer and autumn after the British army left the city. Rush, vol. 3. 162. In general how­ever the year was more healthy than the preceding summers.

In 1778 the plague was severe in Constantinople. It was pre­ceded by a great earthquake at Smyrna. An. Reg. 1778. In the same year an epidemic angina was mortal at Manchester in England.

In the beginning of the winter succeeding 1778, there occur­red some cold weather; but the latter part was the mildest ever known. In February 1779, many people along the river Con­necticut plowed their fields; and in Pennsylvania the peach blos­somed. The summer succeeding was one of the healthiest ever known in America.

In August 1779 happened a most tremendous eruption of Ve­suvius; and about the same time, the ships of Capt. Cook, then in a high northern latitude between Kamschatka and America, were covered with ashes which were supposed to be discharged from a volcano on the neighboring continent. In the succeeding winter, Tauris, the capital of Persia, was laid in ruins by an earthquake.

The winter following these eruptions and commotions was, in America, the severest that had been known since 1741. From Nov. 25th to the middle of March, the cold was severe and al­most uninterrupted. The following was the state of the mercu­ry in January by Farenheit's scale—at Hartford in Connecticut, lat. 41. 44.

[Page 266]

Mean temperature in January at sunrise 4 deg.—almost 20 de­grees below the temperature of the same month in ordinary win­ters.

Not only all the rivers, but the harbors and bays in the Uni­ted States, as far southward as Virginia, were fast bound with ice. Loaded sleds passed from Staten-Island to New-York; the sound between Long-Island and the main land was frozen in­to a solid highway, where it is several miles in breadth. Ches­apeek bay at Annapolis, where the breadth is 5 and an half miles, sustained also loaded carriages.—The birds that winter in this climate, as robbins and quails almost all perished; and in the succeeding spring, a few solitary warblers only were heard in our groves.

The snow was nearly four feet deep, in Atlantic America, for at least three months. The winter was severe in Europe also; and on the 14th of January, the mercury at Glasgow fell to 46 deg. below 0.

[Page 267]On the 19th of May 1780 occurred a day of singular dark­ness, in New-England, and it was perceived, in a smaller degree, as far south as New-Jersey. The heavens were obscured with a vapor or cloud of a yellow color or faint red. The cloud which occasioned the principal darkness, passed over Connecticut about the hours of 9 and 10, and continued till after twelve. In the greatest obscuration, a candle was necessary to enable persons to read. For some days before, the atmosphere was fil­led with vapor.

On the same day that this lurid vapor overspread several hun­dred miles of country in America, Etna began to discharge lava from a new mouth, between two and three miles from its crater. The lava divided into three streams of a quarter of a mile in breadth, and in a few days ran fourteen miles. Violent earth­quakes accompanied and followed the eruption. The coinci­dence of these events, in point of time, well deserves notice. The great discharges from Vesuvius and a volcano in the Arctic regions in 1779, the terrible earthquakes, severe cold and erup­tions of fire that followed, may perhaps lead us to a rational so­lution of the phenomenon of the dark day—which has not hith­erto been explained.

The plague broke out in Smyrna in the spring of 1780 but I have no account of its progress.

The spring was cool and dry, and catarrhous complaints were prevalent among children, says Dr. Rush, vol. 1. 123. The summer following was hot, ^* and a bilious remittent was epidem­ic in Philadelphia, accompanied with such acute pains in the back, hips and neck, as to obtain the name of the break-bone-fever.

In the midst of summer, but I do not recollect the precise time, appeared the most singular halo about the sun which I ever beheld. I wrote a particular description of it, at the time, which is mislaid, and therefore I shall not attempt to describe it [Page 268] from recollection.—Haloes are among the most certain forerun­ners of tempestuous weather.

On the 2d of October the leeward West-India islands expe­rienced a most dreadful hurricane; and on the 11th the wind­ward islands were almost laid waste by a similar calamity. Bar­badoes which is least subject to these tempests, was laid desolate; and it was estimated that 6000 souls perished. Houses, planta­tion-buildings, wharves, piers, shipping were all overwhelmed in one general ruin. It is said that, during the tempest, some of the islands experienced an earthquake. Courant, Dec. 12, 1780. Jan. 9, 1781 and Jan. 23, 1781. As hurricanes are occa­sioned by discharges of electricity, some trembling of the earth almost always attends those which are violent, and flashes of fire are visible. Indeed the atmosphere appears to be a sheet of fire. Similar discharges of electricity attended the tempestuous earth­quake that destroyed Nicomedia in 358—that which defeated Julian's attempt to rebuild Jerusalem in 362—the hail-storm in Egypt, in the time of Moses—and that which happened at Man­tua in 1785, to be hereafter related.

The canker-worm made extensive ravages in this period; but I cannot state their rise and decline in different parts of the coun­try. The winter of 1780-81 exhibited nothing worthy of par­ticular notice.

In the spring of 1781 prevailed the influenza, or epidemic catarrh. It began with a severe pain in the head, prostration of strength, coldness and chills, the pulse not quick nor tense. The pain in the head lasted about twenty-four hours, and was succeeded by a pain in the side, not pointed nor acute, extend­ing to the hips, accompanied with a soreness, and resembling a rheumatic pain. The cough was troublesome, full, and the mat­ter discharged of the glandular kind, not well concocted. Res­piration was difficult, and a considerable defluxion on the lungs. In a few cases, the disorder terminated in 7 or 8 days; but usu­ally not till the 13th or 14th; altho the patient was seldom con­fined to his bed. The disease left a sore [...]ess and weakness in the side, which continued after the strength was recovered. Vene­section had little effect on the pain in the side. Epispastrics ap­plied to the part gave relief. The disorder was seldom fatal, but [Page 269] its effect were very visible in the multiplied cases of pulmonary consumption, in the following year.

In the summer following no particular phenomena occurred; the elements were in their usual state, so far as my information extends; and in general the country enjoyed good health. A malignant fever prevailed, in some degree, in New-York, but excited no great alarm.

One year after this influenza in America, the same disease pervaded the eastern hemisphere. Its progress was from Siberia and Tartary westward; and it reached Europe in April and May 1782: I have no account of its course in America, but it seems to be probable, that it took its direction from America westward, and passing the Pacific in high northern latitudes, invaded Asia and Europe from the east. This must have been the case, if the epidemic in Europe was a continuation of that in America. For an account of this epidemic, see the publications of that year.

In 1782 happened considerable earthquakes in Calabria, du­ring which the mercury in the barometer in Scotland sunk within the tenth of an inch of the bottom of the scale, and the waters in many locks in the highlands were greatly agitated.

In Britain the summer was universally wet and cold, and crops failed, in consequence of which a distressing dearth afflicted Scot­land in the following year.

In America also the summer was cool. Two or three torna­does happened in Vermont and New-Hampshire, with deluging rains, and in one place hail of enormous size—the gazette ac­counts say, pieces of ice were found of 6 inches in length.

The latter part of summer was excessively dry. In New-Jer­sey, a cedar swamp of 20 miles in length and 8 in breadth, taking fire by accident, was totally consumed. The fire penetrated among the roots to the depth of 6 feet.—Corn, grass, and the very forests withered. The air was loaded with a thick vapor, for some days in September. ^*

[Page 270]In autumn happened the violent tempest which dispersed the English fleet from the West-Indies, and in which two or three of the French ships, taken by Admiral Rodney, foundered.

The winter of 1782-3 was more variable than usual; and extreme drouth cut short the crops in the West-Indies.

On the morning of the 5th of February 1783, a thick vapor or fog was observed over the island of Sicily, indicating the agit­ation of the element of fire or electricity; and about 12 o'clock, a violent shock of earthquake laid many houses in ruins. This was but a prelude to more terrible calamities; for about seven o'clock P. M. a tremendous shock laid in ruins the greatest part of Messina, Calabria and many towns and villages. From 30 to 40,000 persons perished in the ruins. On subsequent days, many shocks were felt, but of less violence. During the con­vulsions on the 5th, flames were seen to issue from the neighbor­ing sea.

On the evening of the 10th, a dense fog or vapor spread over some parts of New-England, having the smell of burnt leaves. The ground, at the same time, was covered with snow.

About this time, for the gazette accounts are not particular as to the month, commenced a most distressing famin in the Car­natic, which afterwards extended to most of the European set­tlements in the East-Indies. At Madras hundreds of the na­tives perished daily, and the streets were filled with dead bodies. The cause was a four years drouth; for during the approach of comets, and the action of subterranean fire in other parts of the world, that country is subject to excessive drouth, as happened in 1769 and 70.

In the evening of the 29th of March the heavens were illu­minated with a most splendid lumen boreale.

The summer of 1783 was variable in the northern parts of America; in England, it was hot.

In June commenced a most formidable discharge of lava from Mount Heckla in Iceland, which continued till the middle of [Page 271] August. The country around the mountain was covered with burning fluid, to the extent of 40 miles, and in some places, to the depth of 40 feet. The lava spread over 3600 square miles.

Previous to this eruption, all the springs and streams of water in the neighborhood had been dried up; a sure forerunner of the discharge of fire; and for some months before the eruption, the atmosphere over the island was filled with a dark, bluish, sul­phurous vapor or cloud, which was stationary in calm weather, but which was sometimes dispersed by winds, and spread over Europe. See Encyclopedia, article Iceland. During this erup­tion, a new island was thrown up, at some distance from Iceland. On the 18th of August, soon after the eruption of Heckla ceas­ed, an immense meteor or globe of fire shot through the heav­ens, from north to south, passing the Orkneys and the island of Great-Britain, and bursting with a loud report.

A part of the summer was excessively hot in America. No less than thirty persons in Philadelphia, killed themselves by drinking cold water. Many putrid fevers were the consequence of the heat in various parts of the country; as also tornadoes and thunder gusts of unusual violence, with hail of uncommon size, in all parts of America. Rarely indeed has so much in­jury been done by hail in the same space of time.

On the 31st of May a large meteo [...] or fiery globe was seen at Richmond in Virginia, shooting from north to south. It burst with a heavy report. It will be remarked that this meteor oc­curred about two weeks before the eruption of fire from Heckla, but while the fires or electrical causes were in agitation, as ap­pears from the cloud of vapor, that was suspended over the island.

During the immense discharges of fire and lava from Heckla, all parts of Europe, Great-Britain, Italy, Sicily, France and even the Alps were overspread with a haziness in the atmosphere. This caused universal consternation, as a similar appearance had preceded the earthquake in Sicily on the 5th of February. The churches were crouded with supplicants. The French astrono­mer La Lande attempted to quiet the popular fears, by ascribing the phenomenon to a superabundance of watery particles in the [Page 272] earth, from the moisture of the preceding year, which were then exhaled by the summer heats. But this solution is not satisfact­ory. It was more probably the smoke from Heckla, wafted by northerly winds and dispersed over Europe, in an attenuated form.

It is still more probable that this vapor was the effect of in­sensible discharges of electricity, combined with aerial substan­ces; as in Sicily on the 5th and in America on the 10th of February.

In October occurred tremendous gales of wind and high tides which did no small damage in the seaports of the United States. The first, on the 15th and 16th, occasioned the highest water at New-Haven, which had been known in 40 years. Many other tempests occurred in September and October; and from Vermont to Georgia, the gazettes were filled with accounts of disasters from the violence of the winds and rains.

On the 29th of November, a considerable shock of earth­quake was felt in all the northern states; and New-York expe­rienced two or three shocks in the morning of the next day.

Some of the West-India islands were severely shaken, about the same time, and especially on the 4th of December.

In autumn 1783 some parts of Europe were deluged with continual rains, and at Rome 5 or 6000 children died of the small-pox. About Grenoble raged an epidemic fever.

A distemper among the cattle in Derby in England, occasion­ed no small alarm, and a royal proclamation was issued enjoin­ing certain precautions to prevent the propagation of the disease.

Cotemporary with these convulsions of nature, was a most desolating plague in Egypt, the Grecian Isles, Dalmatia, Con­stantinople, Smyrna and in the Crimea. It is not possible, with the general accounts given of such an epidemic, in the public prints, to state, with any precision, its origin and progress in the east. It is mentioned to have appeared in Smyrna, in the spring of 1783, and it certainly raged in Constantinople, and many [Page 273] other parts of Turkey in the following summer, as well as on the north of the Euxine.

In Egypt the same disease committed most terrible ravages in 1783-4 and 5. It began in November 1783. To this calami­ty was added a severe famin; the inundation of the Nile, in the summer of that year, having proved insufficient. So severe was the plague, that in the winter after 1783, fifteen hundred dead bodies were carried out of Cairo in a day; and the plague and famin of that and the succeeding year, was supposed to car­ry off one sixth of the inhabitants of Egypt. See Volney's Travels, vol. 1. 192 and 3, and Courant, Oct. 28, 1783, and Oct. 17, 1785, in which it is said that in Cairo 3000 perished in a day in April, 1785.

We have then an exact general view of the phenomena which introduce and accompany pestilence in Europe, Africa and Asia —terrible earthquakes and eruptions of volcanoes; excessive drouth in America, India and Egypt, failure of crops and famin —meteors, great heat and deluges of rain, in other countries. Let us now see what followed these abovementioned agitations of the elements, in our country.

In August 1783, the scarlatina appeared in Philadelphia and in September it became epidemic. It appeared about the same time in Salem, in Massachusetts. It was in Charleston, South-Carolina in 1784, in which year, it appeared in the interior of the northern states, as in Vermont and New-Hampshire, and in Middletown, on Connecticut river. It continued to prevail about five years; but was not severe in general and many towns wholly escaped its attacks.

In 1787 the cynanche maligna was epidemic at Northampton, in Massachusetts.

The measles appeared in America in 1783; at Salem as early [Page 274] as May. I find it in all parts of America, in that year, but cannot trace the progress of the epidemic.

During this period neither dysentery nor pestilential autumnal fevers made any considerable ravages in America, as far as I can learn; except at Fell's-Point in Baltimore, where the bil­ious pestilential fever occasioned a mortality in 1783. Many sporadic cases of a similar fever appeared in various parts of the country, and almost a whole family in New-Jersey perished by it in the autumn of that year. Fortunately however the consti­tution of the elements was corrected, without producing its most fatal effects. Even the scarlet fever, with the exception of a few places, was less malignant than it has been in the last period.

This pestilential constitution was felt also in the north of Eu­rope. The scarlatina broke out in Edinburgh in the winter of 1782-3, a few months before it did in America; but of its progress I have no account. It appears to have been epidemic in London in 1786; so that its period was of about the same duration as in America. The cotemporaneousness of this species of disease in Great-Britain and America, deserves particular no­tice.

In December happened a fog in Amsterdam of such density as to occasion complete obscurity for three hours in the middle of the day. It was not possible for persons to find their way in the streets, and many passengers and some carriages fell into the canals.

The severity of the winter succeeding these phenomena, both in Europe and America, corresponded with their extraordinary number and violence. The weather was less uniformly cold than in 1780, but the frost, in some parts of the winter was most intense. The following was the state of Farenheit's ther­mometer, at Hartford.

On the 20th of January was discovered a comet in Pisces, which was involved in a luminous atmosphere. It was visible about four weeks.

The severe cold commenced early; the Delaware at Philadel­phia was closed at the beginning of December, and continued bound with ice till the middle of March; notwithstanding a re­laxation of cold and a heavy rain in January. The gazettes state that such intense cold had not been known in that city, since 1750-51.—The Missisippi was reported to be covered with ice, as far south as New-Orleans. At the breaking up of winter, the thaw was sudden, and immense bodies of ice, floating down the rivers, which were greatly swelled, spread ruin along the low lands on their banks. Great damage was sustained on the banks of the Schuylkill, Susquehanna, Potomack and James rivers.

In Europe, the winter was no less severe—an instance in which a severely cold winter in Europe coincided in time, with the same in America. It may be remarked also that this win­ter was just one century after the coincidence of like events; the winter of 1683-4 being equally severe in both hemispheres.

In 1783-4 the river Liffey in Ireland, the Thames in Eng­land, and all the rivers in the interior of Holland, were cover­ed with solid ice. In Holland, the ice gave way about the first of March, and the rivers being greatly swelled, the adjacent country was inundated, with immense loss of lives and property. The river Waal, near Nimeguen, broke through its dikes and overwhelmed 34 villages. The Rhine from Cologne and Man­heim, exhibited similar scenes of devastation.

In January a terrible tempest spread desolation along the coast of France from Rochelle to Bourdeaux; vessels at sea shipwreck­ed, and houses on land blown down. This happened on the night of the 17th. Its violence extended along the coast of Spain and Portugal. An earthquake accompanied this hurri­cane. [Page 276] The coast of Italy did not escape, and so high was the swell of the ocean, that fish were lodged on the houses in Syra­cuse.

This remarkable tempest happened just before the appearance of the comet.

The spring was wet and cold; and repeated snows fell in April.

The heat of some part of the succeeding summer in America was extreme. The following observations were made at Hart­ford.

This extreme heat, as usual, produced most violent hurricanes or thunder gusts, with hail of unusual size. In May, pieces of ice fell in South-Carolina of nine inches in circumference. On the 17th of August the southern part of Connecticut was swept by a tornado, which levelled trees and buildings and did great in­jury. The beginning of summer was very dry; but frequent powers afterwards refreshed the earth, and good crops succeeded.

A great eruption of Vesuvius happened on the 10th of May. Sickness prevailed in Leghorn and other parts of Europe. The plague raged this year also at Smyrna, Constantinople and in Dalmatia. Spolatro was nearly dispeopled. The heat in Eu­rope was great and Hungary was overrun by locusts, which de­voured the fields of grass and corn. A severe earthquake at the [Page 277] same time, shook the country of Armenia, and its vicinity, and a town was demolished with the loss of 6000 inhabitants, on the 21st of July. The plague raged also in the regency of Tunis on the African coast.

On the 30th of July a tremendous hurricane laid waste a con­siderable part of Jamaica, sweeping away buildings, canes, fruit­trees and overwhelming all the shipping in the harbors.

In October, according to the public prints, Barbadoes was se­verely shaken by an earthquake.

On the 25th of November was a very violent tempest from the N. E. and S. E. by which means, a most extraordinary tide was brot into our harbors from the St. Lawrence to New-York, and probably further to the south. Great injury was sustained by loss of shipping, and of property stored near the wharves.

The great rains swelled Connecticut river to the height of usu­al spring floods.

A meteor was seen in New-England on the evening of De­cember 13, 1784, passing rapidly from south-east to north-west, and bursting with a loud report.

The winter following exhibited nothing very worthy of re­mark. In Europe it was colder than usual, and in America, it produced great snows, the melting of which in the spring swelled Connecticut river to an unusual height.

On the 13th of March 1785, there was an eruption of fire in the river Majaro, in the province of Palermo, in Sicily, which occasioned a large chasm in the earth.

In America canine madness began to rage and spread in all parts of the northern states. The gazettes of 1785 abound with accounts of the dreadful effects of this singular disease. It will be remarked that epidemic madness of dogs is one of that se­ries of diseases which belong to every pestilential period. When­ever the human race are generally afflicted with epidemics, the canine species rarely escape the effects of the general principle; and not unfrequently foxes, wolves and other wild animals, ex­perience [Page 278] its malignant effects, and run mad. In 1785, the scar­latina anginosa was prevalent in the northern states. This was in the midst of the period, and almost every gazette announced some new case of hydrophobia.

The wheat-insect, which has been ignorantly and improperly named the Hessian Fly, committed uncommon ravages in this year. The precise time when this insect originated, is not ascer­tained, probably about the year 1776, or a year or two earlier. Little notice was taken of it, for two or three years. In 1780, Mr. Underhill of Long Island lost his wheat crops by the in­sect; and in subsequent years, it penetrated into New-Jersey, travelling, according to common opinion, about 15 or 20 miles in a year. In 1785, it occasioned unusual destruction of wheat —and such was the alarm in England, for fear it should prove infectious, and be introduced into that country, that the King is­sued a proclamation dated June 25, 1788, prohibiting the im­portation of American wheat.—This event excited no small un­easiness in America, especially in the states, whose staple is wheat. Whereupon the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania re­quested the opinion of the Agricultural Society, as to the man­ner by which that insect is propagated. To this request, the So­ciety returned for answer, their decided opinion that it is the plant alone which is injured by the insect; that the grain is sound and good, and that the insect is not propagated by sowing wheat which grew on fields infected with it.

The prohibition by the King and Council of Great-Britain was deemed a judicious precaution; but was the fruit of an error that pervades the world, respecting the powers of infection and contagion. The opinion of the Agricultural Society is well foun­ded, but it remains for time and the force of truth to convince the people of Philadelphia, that the yellow fever can no more be transplanted and rendered epidemic by infection, than the wheat-insect. Both are diseases, originating where they have a suitable aliment, and ceasing to exist, when that aliment fails.

The prohibition of the British government was repealed the next year; under the apprehension of a dearth.

[Page 279]The summer of 1785 was excessively dry in France and Eng­land and fevers very prevalent in France. In Holland such a drouth could not be recollected by the oldest man living. The canals, rivers and wells were almost totally exhausted. In the first part of summer, there was not a drop of rain for three or four months, and cattle were fed upon the leaves of the trees. The drouth was nearly as severe in the West-Indies.

In North-Carolina, the fields were overrun with bugs, which threatened a destruction of the grain.

The summer contained some excessively hot days in America, as well as in Europe.

On the 25th of August happened in the West-Indies one of the most dreadful hurricanes ever known, and equal to that of 1772 or that of 1780. This tempest was preceded by very sultry heat, and the phenomenon called looming, by which distant ob­jects at sea appear to be raised higher or brot nearer than at other times, I have often noticed this singular effect of the powers of refraction in the air, previous to storms, of which it is the usual forerunner. Guadaloupe, St. Croix and the other wind­ward islands were laid desolate by this tempest. On the 27th of August, the leeward islands suffered a similar calamity. On the 24th of September, an easterly storm brought into the riv­ers in the southern states, as high a tide as ever was known.— Norfolk was inundated, with great loss.

Sickness was very general in many parts of the United States. The scarlatina was prevalent, and the gazettes mention a pre­cinct in Ulster in which died almost every child under six years of age. Many adults also fell victims to this or other maladies.

On the 9th of August happened a memorable tempest at Mantua, in Italy, and the neighboring country. The wind was a hurricane, and accompanied with rain and hail-stones of the weight of 18 ounces. The accounts state that visible flames issued from the earth, and scorched people's legs and clothes; other accounts mention that the fire ran along on the [Page 280] surface of the earth. The reader will call to mind the relation of the like fact, in the terrible hail-storm which constituted one of the ten plagues of Egypt in the reign of Pharaoh.

The autumn was uncommonly sickly in Jamaica. Kingston was a general hospital.

On the 9th of October there was an uncommon darkness in Canada; while the atmosphere was of a siery luminous appear­ance. This was followed by squalls of wind and rain, with se­vere thunder.

On the 15th occurred a still greater obscurity, succeeded also by lightning, thunder and rain.

On the 16th the morning was calm and foggy. At 10 o'clock arose a wind from the east, which partly expelled the fog; and soon after, commenced the darkness of midnight. The people dined by candle-light. Soon after the darkness fell a meteor or fire-ball.

A slighter degree of obscurity on the 15th extended over New-England: but the 16th was a fair day.

The year 1786 exhibits fewer of the great phenomena of nature, than the preceding year; but it commenced with a de­gree of cold rarely known in this country. State of the ther­mometer at Hartford,

The frost of the whole winter was however far less severe than in 1784. The summer following was cool.

One or two violent tempests occurred during the summer, par­ticularly one on the 23d of August, which passed over Wood­stock, in Connecticut, with fatal violence.

[Page 281]The scarlet fever and hydrophobia continued to prevail in this year.

The plague prevailed on the Barbary coast; and several thou­sand people in Carthagena and Malaga, in Spain, perished with yellow fever.

In June 1786 was a smart shock of earthquake in the north of England. In August a second shock of considerable extent. In January 1787 a shock was felt in Scotland, on the night pre­ceding which, a piece of ground, near Alloa, on which was a mill, suddenly sunk a foot and a half. The waters of rivers receded and left their channels dry, before the concussion.

The winter of 1786-7 began early and with great severity.— On the 28th of November, the temperature at Hartford was at 10 deg. by Farenheit, through the day. At sunrise on the 29th, it was at cypher; and the cold continued to be extreme for two weeks. It did not rise above the freezing point till the 13th of December. The cold then abated, but the winter, on the whole, was more severe than usual. Courant, Dec. 4, 11 and 18. The winter was also severe in Europe.

The sore throat was fatal in some parts of the eastern states. One man in Newton, Mass. lost three children after 30 hours illness.

The plague continued to prevail on the Barbary coast, and in this winter and the spring following seventeen thousand inhabi­tants of Algiers perished. It made great havoc also in the do­minions of Morocco, as it did in Aleppo.

The wheat-insect continued its ravages in the United States.

Two or three violent tornadoes are recorded to have occurred in the summer of 1786—one at Wethersfield, which overset a house and killed several persons; and another at Northborough in Massachusetts.

About the close of August a celestial phenomenon of a sin­gular kind appeared at Portsmouth, New-Hampshire. A small [Page 282] light cloud was seen, from which issued repeated reports, like the bursting of crackers, or an irregular discharge of musquetry— supposed to be the explosion of a meteor or succession of meteors. The wind was high at north-west, with flying clouds.

A dreadful hurricane almost destroyed the settlements at the bay of Honduras on the 2d of September. The hurricane was followed by fatal diseases.

About the close of 1787 Vesuvius discharged a large quantity of lava. In the same year was an eruption of Etna, in the month of July.

A most extraordinary tempest and inundation desolated the Coromandal coast on the 20th of May. Whole towns were overwhelmed, and more than 10,000 people perished.

This year was in general healthy in America and in the north of Europe. In some towns in New-England prevailed angina, but it was not general.

SECTION VIII. Historical view of pestilential epedemics, from the year 1788 to 1798 inclusive, comprehending the last epidemic period in America.

THE winter of 1787-8 was colder than usual in America, but not of great severity.

In Europe prevailed epidemic catarrh in 1788. It appeared at Vienna in April—was in Poland and Russia in May—at Lon­don in June—and at Paris in August. In St. Luke's Hospital, it began on the 16th of July, and a few cases occurred till Nov. 10th; but only twenty-five persons out of 190 were affected; a proof that it has little contagion. Gent. Mag. 1789. 346. The invasion of this epidemic was less sudden than usual.

On the 22d of July was a violent tempest from the N. E. which occasioned a very high tide in the Chesapeek, and no small damage. This is a singular occurrence. A north-east gale in June or July on the American coast, must be attributed to some extraordinary cause; and perhaps this may be ascribed to the approach of a comet, which appeared in October and No­vember following. This comet was predicted by Mr. Herschel, who made previous preparations for examining it.

The summer was remarkably tempestuous. On the 29th of August, a severe gale of wind did great damage in many of our ports. Of 30 sail of vessels, in certain rivers and bays of North-Carolina, 26 were destroyed. A tempest in the begin­ning of the month had been terribly destructive. No one event is more certain, than a vast increase of tempestuous weather du­ring the approach of comets. The tempest of the 19th exten­ded over the whole face of the country, penetrating to Vermont, levelling buildings, trees and corn. Many cattle and one child [Page 284] was killed by falling timber and trees. To enumerate the par­ticulars, would fill many pages.

It is remarkable that this tempest in the United States was but two or three days after a tremendous hurricane among the windward islands, which was supposed to do more injury than the great tempest of 1766. At the leeward also the same calamity befel the islands. In Martinico the barometer fell nearly to 27 inches.

About the same time similar disasters befel France and Eng­land. A tornado of great violence occurred about Paris, in which, the gazettes declare, fell hail-stones of 8lb. weight. Du­ring a tempest in London, a fire ball entered a house and struck down two persons.

In the West-Indies hurricanes were repeated in September with destructive rage.

On the evening of the 17th of October 1788 was seen, at various places, in Connecticut and New-York, a meteor or fire ball, whose apparent diameter was equal to that of the sun in the meridian. It passed from the eastward to the westward with amazing rapidity, illuminating the earth, and approaching near the western horizon, it burst with a heavy report. ^*

The comet already mentioned first appeared about this time. It rose about 3 o'clock in the morning in the north-east. A violent north-east gale occurred on the 11th of November.

This summer in America was very rainy; earthquakes hap­pened in Italy and Mexico; and a shock was felt in July in the isle of Man.

The thermometer on one day in July rose to 103 in Colum­bia College, in New-York; but the general heat of the sum­mer was not excessive.

[Page 285]In November 1788 appeared the measles in New-York. On its first invasion, it appeared with great malignity. The same distemper appeared in the northern liberties of Philadelphia, in December; and spread till it became epidemic in February and March.

The eastern parts of Europe were sickly during the summer of 1788. The immense armies on foot, in the war between the Austrians, Russians and Turks, contributed to increase the mortality. It was estimated that 80,000 Austrians perished, mostly by disease. The year however was generally healthy.

The winter of 1788-9 was colder than usual in the United States. On the morning of the 2d of February, the mercury in Farenheit fell to 28 deg. below cypher; 4 degrees lower than had before been observed in Hartford. The season how­ever was on the whole less severe than in 1780 and 1784.

In Europe, the winter appears to have been unusually severe. The frost penetrated to the southern parts of Spain and Portu­gal; and the rivers in Estremadura and Alantejo were covered with ice. The Pyrenees were involved in deep snow in March.

It should have been related under the year 1788, that almost all the cod-fish taken on the banks of Newfoundland, in that year, were thin and sickly; when dried, they were of a dark or bluish color, little better than skeletons, and not well received in foreign markets. This condition of that fish was confined to those banks; as the cod taken at other places were in their usual state.

On the 28th of May 1789, appeared in Connecticut a most singular halo, of which the public prints contain a particular de­scription. This phenomenon seems to indicate the approach of tempestuous weather, and was in this instance, followed by a heavy wind and rain. But when this appearance is of singular brightness or extent, it indicates a state of the atmosphere highly electrified perhaps and certainly tempestuous, and storms are numerous and violent. Thus the remarkable hurricanes of [Page 286] 1780 were preceded by as remarkable haloes. The halo of May 28th was preceded by a most splendid lumen boreale.

The instance under consideration was surprising and to gloomy minds, awful. A clergyman, since dead, wrote a moral essay on the occasion in which he predicted great calami­ties to happen; and he mentioned other events, of that period, as unusual numbers of flies, caterpillars, locusts, and dearth of corn, in confirmation of his opinion that the arm of the Lord was extended in wrath over our land.

It is true that our crops had been thin, in the preceding year, and the northern states, in the spring of 1789, experienced a dearth, approaching to famin. In Vermont, people were re­duced to the necessity of feeding on tad-poles boiled with pea­straw. In one instance four potatoes sold for nine pence. None of the human race were actually starved to death, but a few died of a flux in consequence of bad diet. ^* Cattle however perished in considerable numbers. Such were the gazette ac­counts of the day. It is certain that a similar scarcity had not been experienced in America for many years. Whether the failure of crops and the sickly state of the cod-fish marked a de­rangement of the elements, let the philosopher determin.

The spring of 1789 was cold and vegetation tardy, beyond what could be recollected by the oldest persons living. Part of the summer succeeding was excessively hot. For nine or ten days successively, in August, the heat was above 90 deg. and in the midst of the day, it rose nearly to 100 deg. The mean temperature of the summer was however not much above what is usual. Rush, vol. 2. 234. Courant, Aug. 24 and 31. On the 4th of June ice at Wioming was as thick as window glass.

The failure of crops in the Carnatic in 1788 occasioned a se­vere famin, by which thousands perished in the succeeding year.

The hydrophobia showed itself in America early in 1789.

[Page 287]A man in Coeyman's precinct, state of New-York, died in July of that dreadful malady, taken as was supposed, by skinning a cow that died of the disorder in the April preceding.

In Maryland, the autumn was distinguished by an unexam­pled mortality among horses.

In Europe also crops had failed, and England, Holland and France apprehended the most calamitous effects. In Paris the cry of bread, bread was every where heard, and many riots and mobs marked the distress of the inhabitants.

The empire of China experienced the same calamity, and the people suffered indescribable distress from famin and disease. In Madras died 30,000 people by famin in 1788. Courant, April 27, 1789. In this instance, crops failed over the whole earth, in the same year.

On the 10th of July a most tremendous earthquake convulsed Iceland. Large chasms were opened in the earth, and some mountains were rent asunder. Several shocks happened on sub­sequent days, and a violent shock in September is mentioned in the 6th volume of Sinclair's Statistical works, 625.

On the 30th of September occurred a violent earthquake in Tuscany, by which some villages were destroyed and several thou­sand lives. On the same day, but not at the same hour, a small shock was felt at Edinburgh. On the 5th of November, a shock was felt at Crieff, 50 miles from Edinburgh; and on the 10th and 11th, severe shocks were felt at other places.

On the 4th of December arrived at Lieth, Capt. Stewart of the ship Brothers, from Archangel in Russia; who informed that on the coast of Lapland and Norway, he sailed many leagues among multitudes of dead haddock floating on the water. He spoke several ships which also passed among them.

Whether these fish were killed by an earthquake or a discharge of subterranean vapor or heat, or died by sickness, is not known. [Page 288] If they were killed, it would seem probable that other fish in the same seas, would have shared the same fate; which does not ap­pear to have been the case; for the accounts make no mention of the death of other kinds. And what renders it probable that they died of disease, and a disease peculiar to that kind of fish, it, that for some years after, no haddock came to the markets in Scotland, as before that mortality. That species appeared to be almost extinct; whereas there is no mention made of a failure of other kinds of fish. Careful observations and precise dates would assist our researches into the causes of these wonderful phenomena.

In October, Vesuvius was in a state of eruption for several weeks, and discharged small streams of Lava. The plague pre­vailed at Constantinople and Smyrna.

On the 29th of October from 2 o'clock P. M. to half after 4, Kentucky was enveloped in thick darkness, so that people were obliged to use candles.

It will be observed that this darkness, and the beginning of the influenza in America coincide nearly in time with the erup­tion of Vesuvius, and many earthquakes.

Such universal disorders in the elements never fail to produce epidemic diseases; and those here related were the heralds of the most severe period of sickness that has occurred in the United States for 30 years.

The first appearance of that series of epidemics to be hereaf­ter described, seems to have been in the measles at New-York in November 1788, and at Philadelphia in December following. This disease became epidemic over the northern states in 1789, but I have not the means of describing its progress. I find, in bills of mortality, from various places, deaths by measles are mentioned in 1789 and 90.

In autumn 1789 appeared the influenza or epidemic catarrh. The precise time and place of its appearance, are not ascertained. Some accounts say, it originated in Canada. But I shall con­fine my observations to its progress in Atlantic America. It was first observed about the close of September 1789, in New-York [Page 289] and Philadelphia. Dr. Rush informs me, that it was brought to Philadelphia by the members of Congress, who returned from New-York, about the first of October. Another account, writ­ten by one of the faculty in Philadelphia, and published in the 7th volume of the Museum, mentions its first appearance there, about the time of the Friends Yearly Meeting, in September. The precise time is probably not ascertainable; the opinion of its propagation by infection is very fallacious, as I know by repeat­ed observations. It probably appeared in detached cases, some days before it became a subject of observation.

From the middle states, it moved rapidly over the whole coun­try. It appeared in Hartford, where I then resided, about the middle of October. On the 19th of that month, I left Hart­ford for Boston and arrived the next day in good health. I was seized with the influenza on the 23d, and by the aid of a dilu­ting regimen, recovered in four days. No person who attended me was seized with the distemper, sooner than the other inhabi­tants of that town. I mention this to disprove the common opin­ion of its infection; not that I deny it to be in a degree, infec­tious; altho my own observations do not warrant that conces­sion; but I aver that its propagation depends almost entirely on the insensible qualities of the atmosphere. Two ladies who left Boston with me on the second of November, before the disease had appeared in their family, and before it was a subject of con­versation, were seized with it in Hartford, at the same time, that it became epidemic in Boston, one on the 8th and the other on the 12th.—The disease had then passed Hartford, and there is no evidence of their being exposed to any person infected. This fact shows a regular progress in the state of air producing the dis­ease —as persons leaving Boston and travelling one hundred and twenty miles distance, were effected precisely at the time the disease became epidemic in that town.

This disease pervaded the wilderness and seized the Indians— it spread over the ocean and attacked seamen a hundred leagues from land, and as to infection, entirely insulated—it appeared in the West-Indies nearly at the time it did in the northern [Page 290] states. It overspread America, from the 15th to the 45th de­gree of latitude in about 6 or 8 weeks; and how much further it extended, I am not informed.

It should have been mentioned that, in September, anterior to the invasion of the catarrh, the scarlatina anginosa appeared in Philadelphia; but in October it yielded to the influenza, the controlling epidemic. The scarlet fever re-appeared in Decem­ber, and became epidemic; often blending itself with the influ­enza. It exhibited one predominant feature of the whole series of succeeding epidemics, a prevalence of bilious matter, which was often discharged by purging and vomiting. This disease con­tinued to prevail in Philadelphia, and if my information is cor­rect, in some parts of New-Jersey, till the spring of 1790. The measles occurred in some cases, but was not epidemic.

It is remarkable that the scarlatina anginosa was cotemporary in Edinburgh with the epidemic measles in America in 1789, and nearly so, with the death of the haddock on the coast of Norway.

It will be observed that the scarlet fever, tho epidemic in Philadelphia, did not spread over the country in 1790. It was little known in the northern states, till two years after—this is among the proofs that this disease does not depend on infection for its propagation. If infection was its only or principal means of propagation, the fomites existed in great abundance, in par­ticular places in 1790, and sufficient to have spread it over the United States. But a disease however infectious, will not spread far in an atmosphere that will not generate it. Indeed scarcely a year passes in which sporadic cases of scarlatina, or anginas of other kinds do not appear in particular places; but they never spread without some uncommon concurrence of causes.

The winter of 1789-90 was one of the mildest that is ever known in this country; there being little frost, except for a few days in February. There fell frequent snows and in great abun­dance; but they were immediately followed by warm southerly winds, and dissolved.

Early in the spring of 1790 we had a second epidemic ca­tarrh. I was attentive to its origin and progress. I found it at [Page 291] Albany in the last week in March, and heard of it in Vermont about the same time. I returned to Hartford, but altho exposed repeatedly to its infection on my journey, I was not seized earlier than others in Hartford, where the disease appeared about the middle of April. It spread to the southward, arrived at Phi­ladelphia near the close of that month, and disappeared in that city about the middle of June. In the northern states, as far as my knowledge extends, the disease was more violent, than in the preceding autumn. Many plethoric persons of firm habit almost sunk under it; while consumptive people and hard drink­ers fell its victims.

The spring and summer of 1790 were mostly rainy; but oth­erwise seasonable weather. No remarkable epidemics prevailed, except those already described, but an increase of mortality, in some places, is visible in the registers of deaths. Severe earth­quakes occurred on the African coast.

Let it be observed that the measles appeared in autumn 1788, just after great volcanic eruptions, and a most tempestuous sum­mer, when the element of fire appeared to be in universal com­motion; just after the meteor, and during the appearance of the comet. ^* Let it be observed also that the harvest failed, at this time, in China, India, Europe and America, and let any man deny the all-controlling influence of the elements in producing these events.

The winter of 1790-91 commenced early and with severe weather. The last week in November was cold; Connecticut river at Hartford was closed with ice on the 9th of December, and not open till the 12th of March. On the whole, the season was not of unusual severity. The spring and early part of sum­mer were, in most parts of the country, very dry, until the middle of June.

On the 15th of January, a considerable shock of earthquake was experienced at Richmond in Virginia. At the same time catarrhs were so prevalent in that state and in Pennsylvania, as to excite an apprehension of another visit of the influenza. [Page 292] Inflammatory diseases were very frequent during the winter. In Philadelphia the scarlatina anginosa appeared late in January and was very prevalent in February. In the interior of Carolina it was sickly, but I have no particulars. The whooping cough prevailed in many parts of the country.

In the month of April, some fishermen at the Narrows, near New-York, caught fourteen thousand shad at a single draft; to secure which, it was necessary to add several seines, one upon the other. This circumstance is mentioned, because several medical authors have related that an extraordinary abundance of fish is among the precursors of pestilence. It will be noted that the pestilential fever, which has prevailed for many years past, first appeared in New-York, in the autumn succeeding this sin­gular draft of fish.

On the 16th of May, at half past 10 o'clock P. M. in a serene, moon-light night, an extensive earthquake was felt in the northern states. It was preceded, a few seconds, by a rat­tling sound; its duration was short; its course as usual in Amer­ica, from N. W. to S. E. No injury was sustained.

On the morning after the earthquake, was observed at Mid­dletown in Connecticut, a substance like honey or butter, cov­ering the grass and earth for a considerable extent. See an ac­count of a similar phenomenon in Ireland under the year 1695.

To these phenomena succeeded in Connecticut the generation of millions of that species of black worm, described under the year 1770. I believe they were far less numerous than in 1770; they however appeared in Hartford and in Norwich, and dis­appeared at the same time. They were very destructive to the grass and corn, but their existence was short; all dying in a few weeks.

[Page 293]A paragraph in a Maryland paper dated June 1, 1791, men­tions animals, there called caterpillars, but evidently the same species of worm. They are represented as marching in legions from place to place, and devouring the grass.

About the same time appeared at Lansingburg on the Hudson, a species of worm that greatly injured the fruit-trees.

But the most extraordinary phenomenon was the existence of the canker-worm, in numbers before unexampled. Whether these animals had made their appearance in the preceding year or not, I do not recollect But in 1791 they devoured the or­chards over the New-England states; and their ravages were re­peated in the two following years. Orchards, standing on stiff clay and in low grounds which are wet in spring, escaped; but on every species of light and dry soil, the trees were as dry on the first of June, as on the first of January. Many trees have never recovered from the effects of their ravages.

Another worm of a distinct species, and called at the time, palmer-worm, overspread our forests in this or the next year, devouring the leaves of oak and other species of wood.

It is a prevalent opinion that uncommon flights of wild pigeons in America, indicate the approach of a sickly season. I am not inclined to credit any popular opinion, without good grounds; but this seems to have been formed on a long series of observa­tions. Certain it is that pigeons in the summer of 1791 were unusually numerous. In Maine, there were tracts of forest of miles in extent, the trees of which were covered with their nests.

The summer of 1791 was excessively hot. At Salem the thermometer was at and above 80 deg. no less than 55 days, and above 90, twelve days—an instance that had not happened in many years, in that cool place; altho it often happens in the middle states.

On the 27th of November Lisbon sustained severe shocks of earthquake.

[Page 294]In autumn, bilious remittents assumed, in Philadelphia, the inflammatory diathesis, so predominant in the last pestilential constitution. Dr. Rush, in his public lectures, mentioned this fact at the time, altho he little suspected what effects that con­stitution was to produce in subsequent years. It was found ne­cessary to bleed from one to three times. In most cases, the liver was affected with all the symptoms of Hepatitis.

At this period the pestilential or epidemic constitution of the atmosphere began to show itself in the infectious yellow fever. It appeared in New-York, in autumn, along the east river, and carried off about 200 persons. This gave some alarm, which soon subsided.

It must be noted that the measles in 1788, the disease which marched in the van of this series of epidemics, appeared first in New-York—this was probably the fact also in regard to the in­fluenza of the succeeding year—and the scarlatina anginosa at the close of 1792. The scarlatina of 1789 and 91 in Philadel­phia was local, or if it appeared in a few other places, it did not spread over the country. All the last great epidemics have ori­ginated nearly in the same longitude between Connecticut and Pennsylvania. It is not to be concluded from this fact that they have been propagated by infection from one spot, as from a cen­ter; we know this is not the fact; the same diseases originating in remote places. ^* But it serves to show that the cause or prin­ciple of disease in the elements is of various force, and will first show its effects in places where it has the most strength.

In the same summer of 1791, the pestilential principle began to exhibit its effects in the increased malignancy of the tropical fevers. The "unusual epidemic fever" in Grenada, described by Dr. Chisholm, in the Edinburgh Medical Commentaries for 1793, and which was the occasion of no small surprise, was the commencement of that series of fatal diseases, which, in subse­quent years, made dreadful havoc in the Islands. This fever became so violent and infectious, contrary to the common fever [Page 295] of the tropics, that a labored attempt was made to trace it to fomites from the coast of Africa. The truth is, the fever was nothing more than the common fever of the climate, with the super added malignancy derived from the existing constitution of the elements. The same fact took place on the African coast; that is, the usual fevers of the climate became more malignant.

This idea is suggested by a series of similar events in other cli­mates; all the diseases of America, at the same time, assuming a similar augmented violence, and sporadic cases of malignant fever appearing in all parts of our country. Such has been the fact in all other epidemic periods.

To confirm this idea, let it be observed that in the same year, when this malignant fever appeared in the African Seas on board of ships, in Grenada, and in New-York, as well as in sporadic cases in other parts of America, the plague carried off two or three hundred thousand people, ^* in Egypt, and raged in Constan­tinople with great mortality. In all these distant countries, the same or similar effects were nearly cotemporary. The plague in Egypt continued into the next year; but I have no details of its progress and termination. The same general principle was ex­perienced in Great-Britain, and the bills of mortality in London continued to swell, till the year 1793.

The winter of 1791-2 was somewhat colder than usual. The month of January was remarkable for severe weather of three weeks duration. In March a slight earthquake was felt in the middle states, but I have no particulars.

The spring months were very rainy in the southern states and the islands, which experienced distressing inundations.

In the northern states there was a period of singularly cold weather in the beginning of June, occasioned by a dry N. E. wind. Some persons used fires as late as the tenth day of that month. The heat of the following summer, in general, was not extreme.

[Page 296]In May and June, a species of locusts appeared in the north­ern parts, of the state of New-York, which committed ravages among the grain. The wheat-insect continued its ravages, and appeared this year as far southward as Elk Ridge in the state of Maryland. On Long-Island the destruction of wheat was great and distressing.

In July happened at Philadelphia [...] violent tornado; but the summer was not distinguished for the number of this species of tempest. In one instance, in Vermont, the hail-stones which fell are said to have been from 3 to 6 inches in circumference.

About this time, a malignant fever began to rage in Charles­ton, South-Carolina, carrying off the patient in three days, and occasioning a considerable mortality.

In the following winter, Egypt was a prey to famin; and the streets of Cairo were filled with dead bodies.

In November 1792 several smart shocks of earthquake were felt in Perthshire, a county in Scotland.

In Philadelphia appeared an insect in the form of a fly, which generated a small worm or caterpillar, that attacked the tree, called Lime Tree, which is there used for shade. From that year to the year 1798, this insect has ravaged those trees, and destroyed some of them. Just philosophy will not hesitate to believe the cause of this phenomenon and of the pestilence suc­ceeding, to be connected.

In this year, 1792, commenced that scarlatina anginosa which became epidemic, with great mortality. I regret that a want of exact registers, will not permit me to trace it to its sources with the precision desireable in all such cases. I am informed that well defined cases of the disease were observed in New-York, as early as the month of August. But it occasioned no considera­ble mortality in that city, until the following winter.

At Bethlem, in the western part of Connecticut, there were five deaths in this year by the cynanche trachealis. I have not heard of any other instance. In August, there were seven or eight cases of the scarlatina anginosa, but so mild as not to prove mortal. The reader will note the last circumstance; for I am [Page 297] able to prove, that this disease in Connecticut, was progressive in a remarkable manner, and from the fact, which I believe is not uncommon, will be drawn most important consequences.

The autumn was one of the mildest ever known, November was so warm that we sat with open windows, at Hartford, on the 19th of the month. This moderate weather was succeeded by severe cold, and Connecticut river was closed by ice on the 10th of December. The latter part of winter however was not very severe, except a week or two in February.

On the 11th of January 1793 appeared a comet in the con­stellation of Cepheus. It was seen for the last time by Mr. Rit­tenhouse on the 8th of February.

In the course of this winter and the spring succeeding, the scarlet fever raged in New-York, with considerable mortality. It became epidemic also in Philadelphia, in the course of the spring months.

Catarrh was very prevalent in the northern states, at the same time; and the small-pox by inoculation at Hartford proved un­usually obstinate and fatal; indicating an insalubrious state of the atmosphere.

In February 1793 the scarlet fever invaded the town of Beth­lem, like "an armed man," says Mr. Backus, Medical Reposi­tory, vol. 1. 524. He calls the disease angina maligna, and it doubtless put on the symptoms of i [...] in many places. It seized almost every family and child. It abated in May, disappeared in November, and re-appeared in January 1794 with nearly its former violence. Nineteen children died in the first invasion, and fourteen, in the second.

We have here distinct marks of progression. The disease in a mild form appeared in August 1792, then disappeared. In February following, it invaded the town in its worst form. Six months therefore intervened between its precursor, or mild form, and its invasion with full force.

The same disease appeared in the neighboring district of coun­try and in distant parts, in nearly the same longitude, in the course of this year; but I have not materials for a detail of facts.

[Page 298]I find however, it prevailed in Litchfield in 1793, and was supposed to be imported into that town from Vermont. It was also very mortal in New-Fairfield, the same year. I therefor [...] presume the disease to have been very general through the western districts of Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont, and to have prevailed as far westward as Pennsylvania, in this year. Of its progress beyond that state, I have no information.

In September and October of this year, about the time the distemper subsided in Bethlem, it began to exhibit appearances of approach, in the maritime towns of Connecticut. Its precur­sors at New-Haven, as described by Dr. Monson, a good judge of the subject, were "slight influenza, slinging pains in the jaws and limbs, soreness in the muscles of the neck, with a slight fever."

In November and December following, several cases of ulce­rous sore throat occurred, but they had a favorable issue, and the symptoms were not alarming.

In January 1794 arrived the crisis of this disease; it put on its malignant symptoms, and in the course of the six following months, seized more than seven hundred persons, principally youth, of whom died fifty two.

Here again is distinctly marked a regular progression of symp­toms from September to January; the precursors being four or five months in advance of the disease in its most violent form.

In Hartford, on Connecticut river, about thirty miles east of Litchfield and Bethlem, I had an opportunity to make per­sonal observations on the origin and progress of this epidemic.

I do not know the date of the first case: but in my own mem­oranda, its appearance in my eldest daughter, then in the 3d year of her age, is noted under the 12th of May 1793. The attending physician informed me, that the disease was then epi­demic. Its first appearance therefore must have been a week or two earlier.

This disease was a mild scarlatina anginosa. The patient had considerable fever—the parosisms were daily, and terminated in prosuse sweats—there was a partial efflorescence of the skin about the neck and breast, and some affection of the throat. Its crisis, [Page 299] if I do not misremember, was about the eighth day. I was inform­ed that in no case, did this disease prove mortal, during this in­vasion.

The reader will observe the dates—this mild angina invaded Hartford in April and May, about the time, the severity of the disease began to abate in Bethlem.

Nine months after the invasion of this mild angina, that is, in February 1794, this disease appeared in Hartford in its formida­ble array, and many children became its victims.

Nothing can prove more clearly that infection had no concern in the origin of this distemper, than this gradual augmentation of its symptoms. If any fact were necessary to demonstrate the all-controlling influence of the elements, in the propagation and ter­mination of the disease, this progression alone would be sufficient. The mild epidemic of May 1793, was the same species of disease with that which was then destroying life, in the western parts of the state, and in New-York and Pennsylvania; but the condition of the atmosphere at Hartford was not, at that time, fitted to give the disease its full degree of violence. The summer season perhaps suspended the operation of the general cause, by means to us unknown. In February following arrived the crisis of the disease.

I know not whether other epidemic anginas have been charac­terized by the same progressiveness in the symptoms. It is not improbable that they have; and that age after age has passed away, without noticing the circumstance; a circumstance that throws more light on the origin, causes and philosophy of epi­demics, than all the dissertations on the subject, since the days of Hippocrates.

My own children were affected with the mild angina in May. I removed, with my family, to New-York in November 1793, before the fatal angina invaded Hartford, and after it had finished its course in New-York; my children escaped its violence, and probably in consequence of this removal. This was an acciden­tal circumstance in my family, but I suspect a similar removal of children, during the progress of that malady, might save a mul­titude of lives; altho the circumstances of many people will not [Page 300] permit them to avail themselves of the expedient; and in some cases probably it would fail of success. It however deserves con­sideration. The angina had completed its course in New-York in 1793 or nearly. It did not invade Boston till 1795. A re­moval of the children from the atmosphere of Boston in 1795, to an atmosphere where the disease had ceased, would probably have secured most of them from an attack.

The summer of 1793 was excessively hot, after a dry spring, and produced a great number of violent gusts, with rain and hail. The autumn was very dry. A fatal dysentery prevailed in Georgetown, on the Potomak, and in the vicinity, which swept away many hundreds of the inhabitants. The same disease prevailed in Coventry, in Connecticut, and killed almost every person whom it seized. A nervous or long fever prevailed in Wethersfield. In short, in most parts of the United States, the pestilential principle exhibited its effects, in some form or other, and every where swelled the bills of mortality. It extended to the West Indies, and so violent was the epidemic at Grenada, that the physicians and inhabitants, unable to account for it, re­ally supposed it an imported disease. The treatise written by Dr. Chisholm to prove it imported, is satisfactory evidence to me that the disease was an epidemic. The disease corresponds in its prin­cipal character, with the pestilential fevers of this country, many of which are known to be generated in our own climate.

In August 1793 commenced in Philadelphia that dreadful pestilence which alarmed the United States, and spread terror and dismay over that city. The spring diseases, which ushered in this malady, were influenza, scarlatina and mild bilious re­mittents. See Rush's Treatise on that fever. These are the most certain and immediate precursors of pestilence, in this country; and the influenza seems to be so, in all countries.

During this epidemic, the weather was very sultry and dry. A­bout the 12th of September, fell a meteor between the city and the hospital. The number of victims to this disease was 4040.

A controversy arose among the physicians in Philadelphia, relative to the origin of the plague, one party tracing the dis­ease, as they supposed, to infected vessels from the West-Indies; [Page 301] the other ascribing it to exhalations from damaged coffee and filthy streets. This controversy has occasioned an unhappy schism among the medical gentlemen, and the citizens of Phi­ladelphia.

It is greatly to be regretted that gentlemen of the faculty committed themselves, by prematurely giving positive opinions on that important question, and thus laying the foundation for permanent evils to the country. It would have been wiser to have instituted a regular enquiry into historical facts, relating to pestilential diseases, antecedent to any positive decisions on the subject.

By an account of the deaths in Algiers, kept by Capt. O'Brien, while a prisoner, I perceive that 4893 persons died in 1793 by the measles and plague. There was a considerable increase of mortality in that year; and we observe the measles and plague prevalent in the same year—an evidence that on the Barbary coast, as well as in Europe and America, these epidemics are allied.

By this account also it appears that in 1789 a number of per­sons died by the asthma. It is not probable this was epidemic, and I suspect by this name was intended catarrh or influenza. As this disease was then epidemic in the United States, it would be gratifying to know whether the same epidemic prevailed on the African coast, at the same time.

It is remarkable that in the spring of 1793, when the scarla­tina anginosa had first commenced its progress in America, it began also in England. It appeared first in the villages about London, and afterwards descended into the city. Med. Mem. vol. 4. It continued to prevail for several years, with different degrees of violence, at different times. See the Monthly Mag­azines.

The winter of 1793-4 was milder than usual in America. The thermometer in New-York, in a northern exposure, descen­ded no lower than 13 deg. above 0, and but twice to that degree.

On the 17th of May was a singularly severe frost in the northern states of America, which destroyed garden vegetables and the leaves of trees. The wheat, oats and flax in many places turned yellow, and fruit was destroyed.

[Page 302]This frost was preceded by a few remarkable hot days, such as we usually have in June; and speedily followed by a long se­ries of rains, with easterly winds.

This frost has been supposed to kill the canker-worms, which had ravaged the orchards, for some years preceding. Another opinion is, that a hard frost in April, destroyed them, just after they were hatched. A third opinion is, that they had run thro their period of existence, and perished in a natural way. In confirmation of which opinion, it is said they were evidently declining in the preceding year. There is probably truth in both the latter opinions.

The summer of 1794 was, on the whole, not intemperate. We had hot weather, but frequently was the earth refreshed by showers, and cool westerly winds. The whooping cough pre­vailed in New-York.

The scarlet fever, in the course of this year, spread over Con­necticut. Its effects are very apparent in the bills of mortality.

It appeared in 1795 in Boston, in the spring or early in sum­mer, and continued to prevail in Massachusetts and New-Hamp­shire in 1796. Its progress from New-York to Maine, about 300 miles or perhaps 400, was run in about four years. It trav­elled therefore about 100 miles in a year. Such also was the fact in the preceding period; as well as in 1735. It should be observed also that its direction, in the two last epidemic periods, has been opposite to that of the disease of 1735. The latter began in New-Hampshire and marched to the westward; the former began in the middle states, and advanced to the eastward.

On the 10th of June 1794, the bilious plague made its ap­pearance in New-Haven, a seaport in Connecticut. The person first seized with the disease was, the wife of Isaac Gorham, liv­ing on the wharf, and the nature of her complaint was not un­derstood, nor suspected, till near the time of her death, on the 15th.

No sooner was it known that a pestilential fever was in the city, than the inhabitants took the alarm, and directed an exam­ination to be made into the causes. On enquiry, the following appeared to be the sources of the disease, or were reported to be the probable causes.

[Page 303]In the beginning, of June, Capt. Truman arrived from Mar­tinico, in a sloop, which was hauled up by the store of Mr. Eli­jah Austin, a few rods from the house of Mr. Gorham. This sloop was supposed to be infected with the pestilential fever of the West-Indies. From this sloop was landed a chest of clothes, which had belonged to a seaman who died with the fever in Martinico; which chest was opened and the contents inventoried by Mr. Austin, in his store, in presence of Capt. Truman, of Henry Hubbard, a clerk in the store, and of Polly Gorham, a niece of Isaac Gorham. Mr. Austin and his clerk were seized, a few days after the opening of this chest, (but how many days is not stated) and died about the 20th of June, Polly Gorham was seized on the 12th and died on the 17th of June.

These circumstances appeared to the people at that time, to be clear and decisive evidence of the importation of the fomites of the disease; and especially the fact, that Mr. Austin and his clerk were attacked with the symptoms, nearly at the same time. This acquiescence in an opinion so important to society and truth, renders it necessary to state the result of more careful enquiries.

In the first place, the opinion that the sloop could communi­cate the infection, is unfounded; for it does not appear that any person, ill with yellow fever, had been on board—there cer­tainly had not been any sick on board, after her leaving Martin­ico. The sloop was taken by the British troops, when they took that island, and lay in port some weeks, unoccupied; until Capt. Truman had an opportunity to purchase her. In the mean time, some of the crew, to keep themselves employed and procure bread, went in the business of droging; that is, trans­porting goods from place to place. One of them died with the fever, but on shore, and he had not been on board of the sloop, after his illness. On the passage home, the seamen were all in good health. Then, is therefore not the least ground to suppose the sloop contained any infection, and no part of her cargo was supposed to be in a bad state. The external parts of a vessel or house cannot retain or communicate infection.

Secondly. As to the chest of clothes, it is probable it con­tained no infection from diseased persons; for by the affidavit of [Page 404] Capt. Truman, taken before Alderman Furman of New-York, at the request of Dr. Baily, the Health Officer of that port, which affidavit I have consulted, it appears that the clothing, worn by the seaman who owned the chest and died at Martinico, was all wrapped in his blanket with his body and buried. As Capt. Truman is a man of good character and has made his affi­davit, four years since the disease at New-Haven, when all ap­prehensions of injury from declaring the truth, have subsided, there seems to be no reason to question the fact.

But as men, who have not attended to the great operations of nature in producing epidemic diseases, naturally look for the causes among visible and tangible substances, they still found a resource in a British regimental coat, which was in the chest, and which, it was supposed, might have belonged to a soldier who might have died of the yellow fever. In consequence of these suspicions, the contents of the chest were all burnt.

On examination it appears that the coat was new—and the mate of the sloop has sworn that he saw the coat plundered by the seaman from a bale of goods, and he believes it had never been worn. It was taken by the seaman in the business of drog­ing, from among the packages of clothing sent by the British government for the use of the troops. But had we no such evi­dence, common sense might inform us, that a man, laboring un­der a fever in the sultry climate of the West-Indies, would not wear his regimental.

In the chest the [...], as in the sloop, we can find no infec­tion of yellow fever. If Mr. Austin and his clerk received the seeds of disease from the clothing in the chest, as it is possible they did, the sources of the disease must have been the fetid effluvia or dirty clothes, which had been kept a long time, close packed in a chest, in a sultry climate. It is not necessary to sup­pose the clothes to have been worn by a diseased person. The sweat and filth from a body in health, if confined in the hot sea­son, will ferment and produce a poison injurious to health, and productive of yellow fever or other disease. ^*

[Page 305]But as some reports have been circulated, in contradiction of the testimony of Capt. Truman, and as there is a possibility that he might have mistaken the facts, I lay out of this question all the evidence respecting the sloop. For whether the trunk con­tained infected clothes or not, is wholly material; and with­out any reference to that point, the evidence that the fever in New-Haven did not spring from any imported source, is complete.

Mr. Austin went on business to New-York, was seized with fever and died. His body was conveyed in a sloop to New-Haven, and buried. It is an agreed point, that no friend, nurse or other person took the fever from him.

Mr. Hubbard went on business to Derby, ten miles distant, was taken ill and died. His body was carried to New-Haven, and buried. It is agreed that no person took the disease from him.

It is not known that Polly Gorham was ever near the trunk of clothing—the report of her being present rests on the story of a child. But if she was, it makes no difference, for no per­son who attended her was affected, except her mother, who had a slight fever. She lived and was ill, a mile from the wharf, and no person in that neighborhood was afterwards affected. In short, it is not pretended that the infection proceeded from either of these persons—the only persons who could possibly have taken the disease from the trunk of clothing.

It is admitted on all hands that the infection must have pro­ceeded from the house of Isaac Gorham. Now it happens that Mrs. Gorham who was first seized and five days before Mr. Aus­tin and his clerk, had never been near the trunk of clothing, nor was an article of clothing from the sloop carried into the house. For this assertion, I have the authority of Mr. Gorham himself, who is admitted to be a man of veracity.

Had the origin and phenomena of epidemic diseases ever been understood, the people of New-Haven would have foreseen, with [Page 306] a good degree of certainty, that they could not escape pestilence. This will appear from the following facts.

In the winter and spring of 1794, the scarlatina anginosa pre­vailed generally in New-Haven and the neighboring towns; manifesting a highly pestilential condition of the elements. One case of bilious fever, attended with a vomiting of black matter, occurred as early as the last week in March.

For many months preceding the invasion of the fever, the oys­ters, on the coast of Connecticut, were in a very sickly state. Many people can testify to the truth of this fact; but I have an account of it recorded at the time by the late President Stiles. In a letter to his son-in-law, the Rev. Mr. Holmes, of Cam­bridge in Massachusetts, dated Sept. 25, 1794, be writes, that for twelve months past he had eaten very few oysters, as they were diseased, poor and dropsical. He remarked this of the oysters from New-York to Boston. Those caught on the shores of Branford, Killingworth, and at Blue-Point on the south side of Long-Island, were intolerable. At the date of the letter they were recovering and becoming more palatable. This is a striking proof of the derangement of the elements.

Further evidence of this fact was furnished by the multitudes of caterpillars which overran the city of New-Haven, in the sum­mer of 1794. ^* In such numbers were these insects, that they almost covered the trees, fences, and houses to the tops of chimneys. The preceding history furnishes many instances of this phenome­non, preceding and accompanying pestilence.

Had these phenomena been understood, the people of New-Haven would have had no occasion to appoint a committee to ex­amin into the causes of the fever. It was hardly possible, in the nature of things, that the human race should escape the calamity of epidemic diseases, under the operation of cause so general and powerful.

But these were not all. Mr. Gorham, whose [...]ily first suf­fered by the fever, had, in the month preceding the invasion, cleaned a great number of shad, upon the wharf by his door, [Page 307] and thrown the garbage, to the amount of a car [...] load perhaps, in­to the dock.

The alternate washing of the tide, and action of a hot sun, had rendered the putrefaction of this mass of filth extremely ra­pid; and there being no current to remove it, the stench be­came intolerable. On the other side of the wharf, a few rods distant, a boat load of clams had been deposited an the mud, that the water, during the slux of the tide, might preserve them; but a great part of them were soon spoiled, and added to the fetor of the atmosphere.

To complete the list of nuisances, some barrels of damaged pickled cod-fish had been thrown from a store into the dock, and the whole was left vncovered during the recess of the tide. So noisome was the air of the place, for sometime before the fever appeared, that the proprietor of the wharf desisted from his usual morning visits before breakfast. For all these facts I have the declarations of the persons concerned and eye witnesses.

The putrefaction of flesh, from thirty years observations, I can testify, will not always produce disease. But in a pestilential state of air, the dissolution of flesh is unusually rapid, and the acid evolved, peculiarly noxious. In such circumstances, putres­cent substances of all kinds appear to be powerful auxiliary cau­ses of disease. The condition of the elements accelerates putre­faction, and that putrefaction in turn increases the deleterious quality of the air. ^*

Under the operation of so many causes of disease, instead of being surprised at the appearance of a pestilential fever, we are rather to wonder that its ravages were not more extensive.

That the putrefaction of the fish was an exciting cause of the fever in New-Haven, is probable from the early appearance of it in summer. The first cases occurred about the 10th of June, which is earlier than the epidemic pestilence of America usually occurs; and which indicates the existence of strong local causes. What further confirms this opinion, is, that after a few weeks [Page 308] the distemper was nearly or wholly extinct. In July died only three persons, and for about two weeks, no new case occurred. But in August, the usual time of the appearance of this disease in this part of America, it broke out with fresh violence. It is probable therefore that the morbid local causes induced the fever in one small spot, before the proper season for it to prevail. These causes being gradually extinguished by the tides and a hot sun, the disease subsided, until the usual season for such fevers. The same took place in New-York in 1795—in 1796—and 1798.

That the plague in New-Haven was the effect of a condition of the elements united with local causes, is proved by subsequent events. In the following year, a malignant dysentery originated and prevailed in New-Haven, destroying more lives than the bil­ious plague of 1794. This disease is acknowledged by able phy­sicians to be of the same species as the yellow fever. See Lind on that point, and Rush's Works vol. 5. 5, where it is stated, on the authority of Dr. Woodhouse, that several persons took the yellow fever from soldiers, laboring under the dysentery. It is well known also that an epidemic yellow fever has been converted, by a sudden change of weather, into an epidemic dysentery, and vice versa; as at Baltimore in 1797. It is also true that the yel­low fever in autumn passes off in dysentery, as in New-London in 1798. The same is at times true of the plague in Asia.

This disease in 1795, as well as a similar dysentery in Derby in 1794, demonstrated the deleterious condition of the elements in that region or vicinity.

If further evidence was necessary, we have it in the bad state of the water in some of the wells in New-Haven, during the preva­lence of these diseases, in which, one of the physicians of the city has informed me, were animalcules visible to the naked eye. This fact corresponds with what occured in Athens, during the plague, where the badness of the water, it is supposed, led the people to ascribe the disease to the poisoning of the wells by the Lacede­monians. A similar fact probably led the Germans, in 1349, to suspect the Jews had poisoned the wells, and on suspicion alone to massacre them without mercy. This state of the water, and the sickness of the oysters alone decide the point, that the princi­pal sources of the epidemics of 1794 and 5, were in the elements.

[Page 309]It has been asserted that no person in New-Haven was affected by the fever, without intercourse with the sick or with infected clothing. On careful enquiry, I find this is not true. Several persons were affected who were not in the rooms, nor even in the houses of the sick, and who could not be exposed, other­ways than by passing along the streets. But such persons could not take the fever from the effluvia of the diseased. Men who suppose this, are unacquainted with the powers of infection. Dr. Chisholm states expressly that the infection of that disease in Grenada never exceeded ten feet; that it was easy to avoid it, and many who lived in the houses of the diseased, escaped. Med. Repos. vol. 2. 288. Dr. Lind, the ablest writer on the subject, who spent his whole life in jails and hospitals, has ad­vanced the same doctrin. A great number of sick in a narrow close built street, may render the air of it infectious, but a few diseased persons in the wide streets of New-Haven could not produce this effect. In general however the disease in this place was propagated by infection; the pollution of the atmos­phere being confined to a small district on and near the wharf, on low ground, to the leeward of the putrid substances before mentioned, and near the creek.

But there is one fact that will decide the question relative to the origin of the pestilential fever in New-Haven, and every other place. It is stated by the physicians that all other diseases yielded to this fever. After it appeared in June, the scarlatina subsided, and "in September, when the fever was most preva­lent, the inhabitants in general were almost entirely free from every other complaint."

Here we have an infallible criterion by which to determin whether a disease is an epidemic of the place, or introduced and propagated solely by infection. A disease of mere infection can never extinguish other diseases of the place. The small-pox introduced by variolous matter, and communicated to every fam­ily would not absorb a dysentery or scarlet fever prevailing in the same place; every hospital will demonstrate this principle. A disease of mere infection would not affect another disease even [Page 310] in the next house. Every disease that extinguishes another dis­ease current in a town, is an epidemic originating in that place. It not only proves that the atmosphere will produce that distem­per, but it proves that it will produce no other. On this princi­ple I will rest the question, as it regards not only the fever in New-Haven, but every pestilence that ever existed.

The summer of 1794 was, in most places, less sickly than in 1793 and 1795; yet the scarlatina extended its ravages over Connecticut, and Philadelphia and New-York experienced the predominant epidemic constitution. In Philadelphia died from 70 to 100 persons of the bilious plague; in New-York twenty or thirty cases of the same disease indicated the same condition of the atmosphere. It was the general opinion in New-York, that the city was remarkably healthy; but this opinion, so flat­tering to the people, was a fallacy. The bills of mortality were higher than in healthy years, and this augmented mortality was a prelude to the epidemic of the succeeding year.

On the 15th of June was a great eruption of Vesuvius, nearly equal to that of 1779. The lava ran down the mountain on the west and extended to the sea, overwhelming the town of Tome del Greco.

In this year the bilious pestilence prevailed in Baltimore. No suggestion has been made that it was imported, and the physi­cians and inhabitants seem to admit the disease to have been on­ly a more malignant form of the ordinary autumnal remittent.

In the succeeding winter, the epidemic of the summer and autumn changed, in Philadelphia, into the form of catarrh or pleurisy, and in many cases, was attended with delirium and mania. See Rush on this subject.

Pestilential epidemics, or rather the state of the atmosphere which produces them, usually affects the brain, in a most sensi­ble degree. This is obvious from the vertigo, so frequent during sickly periods; pains in the head, dizziness and nervous debility often complained of by studious men. In some periods, this affection of the brain has appeared in epidemic madness. See the years 1355; 1373 and 4.

[Page 311]A few cases of a disorder of this species appeared in New-Haven and its vicinity in the winter after the pestilence. The patient was seized with a violent pain in the head, between the Os frontis and the Coronal Sutures, which was periodical, com­mencing about 11 o'clock A. M. and increasing till 2 P. M. In some cases, the paroxism was accompanied with delirium; but the pain was limited to the head, and unattended with fever. Bleeding, purging and opium produced no alleviation; but a blister on the forehead or temple, soon relieved the patient, and effected a cure. This account is taken from Dr. Hotchkiss, the attending physician.

The winter of 1794-5 was very cold in Europe, and in January 1795, the French troops marched into Amsterdam, over the rivers and canals, on the ice. This severity was to be expected from the great eruption of Vesuvius in the preceding summer.

The catarrh was epidemic in January and February, in the British channel fleet. In one ship it assumed the symptoms of a pure typhus.

In America, the same winter was milder than usual. Per­sons walked on the battery at New-York, for pleasure, on Christmas day, with no covering but their ordinary autumnal clothes; and vessels sailed up the Hudson and Connecticut till January. In the latter part of the winter, we had some cold weather, and a cool late spring.

About the 20th of July, began a series of hot, damp, rainy weather, with light southerly winds; a season answering to the description which Hippocrates has given of a pestilential consti­tution. Heavy rains were followed by a humid, close, sultry air; no thunder and lightning; no north-westerly winds to cool and refresh the fainting bodies of men. For many weeks the atmosphere was so loaded with vapor, that no electricity could be excited with the best instruments. Fruit perished on the trees and fell half rotten and covered with mold. Sound potatoes from the market perished in my cellar in thirty-six hours. Cab­bages rotted off, between the head and the stalk, as they stood [Page 312] in gardens. The moisture penetrated into the inmost reces­ses of desks and bureaus, covering books, papers and clothes with mold, under two locks. The walls of houses, and the paper of inner apartments became white with mold and required scraping. This state of the air produced also musketoes without number; while flies disappeared. It is observable that these two kinds of insects thrive in different conditions of the air— flies in a hot, dry air; musketoes, in a hot, moist air.

It is necessary here to correct a mistake of Dr. Currie on bil­ious fevers, page 12, where he mentions the years 1795 and 7 as "wetter and cooler than many preceding seasons." The truth is, the latter part of the summer of 1795, was on an average three degrees by Farenheit, warmer than the weather had been in the ten preceding years. See a letter from Professor Kemp in Dr. Bailey on yellow fever, p. 54. In the course of my life, I never experienced a state of air so debilitating and un­friendly to animal spirits, as the month of August 1795. The effects of it are very visible in the bill of mortality for that year in Philadelphia, which contains double the usual number of deaths.

In July of this year appeared the bilious plague in New-York. The first case that excited public attention was that of Dr. Treat, the Health Officer of the port, who fell a victim, on the 29th of the month. His disease has been ascribed by some persons, to infection taken on board a vessel from the West-Indies, the brig Zepher in which a person died, whom Dr. Treat assisted in burying. But it is not probable, that this was a just opinion; as many other persons visited the same vessel, and the wardens of the port were on board, while a part of her cargo, some damaged coffee, was thrown into the stream, without the least inconvenience to their health. The plethoric habit of Dr. Treat, and his great fatigue in an open boat and in a burning sun, are sufficient to account for his disease.

But admitting him to have taken his disease from the fomes of a sick or dead person, or from the foulness of the brig, the fact does not in the least aid the advocates of infection, for no per­son, nurse, attendant or visitor, received the distemper from him, [Page 313] nor did the disease prevail, in the street where he died, during the subsequent season.

It was said that three or four seamen, belonging to the ship William, were seized with the distemper in consequence of visit­ing the brig Zepher. But on enquiry, it was found, that these men only came along side of the brig and purchased some fruit. To suppose these men should all take a disease from the brig, when two or three wardens of the port, who were some hours on board, while a damaged cargo was discharged, escaped without the least affection, is ridiculous.

But what cuts short all controversy on this subject, is, that fourteen days at least before the death of Dr. Treat, a man in the hospital died of a similar fever; and the late Dr. Pitt Smith, in­formed me in the autumn of 1795, that he visited another patient a blacksmith, with a similar disease, early in July. In fact then, the disease was in New-York before the arrival of the supposed infected vessels; and the cases which occurred early in July, were precursors of the epidemic which was to follow.

It must also be observed that the disease in New-York never spread over the whole city. It ran along the low streets on the East river, in what was formerly the swamp and in the narrow alleys. The high grounds in the center of the city, and the wes­tern side of the island, were healthy as usual; and the disease, when carried from the infected streets, upon the elevated parts of the city, exhibited no contagion, but disappeared.—A small part only of the citizens fled; most of them remained, and pur­sued their occupations, in the greatest part of the city, with per­fect safety. The deaths were about seven hundred and thirty; among which at least five hundred were foreigners, most of whom had recently arrived from Scotland and Ireland. ^* The mortal­ity in New-York was mostly owing to this influx of foreigners, not seasoned to our climate.

This fever in New-York was preceded in spring by epidemic measles, which disappeared totally during the three months, when [Page 314] the fever was the ruling disease, and re-appeared in November— a decisive evidence that the fever was produced and controlled by the same cause, as the measles.

In this year also appeared the same disease at a landing, called Mill-river four miles from Fairfield, in Connecticut, and about sixty miles from New-York—a small village, near the water. It was reported that this distemper was propagated at Mill-river, by infected persons from New-York. I have taken pains to en­quire carefully of both the attending physicians and the clergy­men, who visited the sick, who all agree, that one man from New-York had died of the fever in the village, that summer, and he was dead, three weeks before, Mr. Tharp, the first man seiz­ed, was taken ill.

The disease affected others of his family, but spread no fur­ther; and the gentlemen above-mentioned do not believe it to have been derived from imported infection.

The bilious remittent fever, is annually the disease of autumn in some parts of the southern states; and strangers, visiting that country from the Delaware to Florida, in the hot season run the hazard of a fever. Drs. Taylor and Hansford, two old practitioners in Norfolk, Virginia, speaking of the yellow fever of 1795, say, "The same fever, with all its malignant and uncontrollable symptoms, occurs every year, in scattered in­stances, and about the same season."

But during pestilential periods, this disease in that unhealthy country, takes a wider spread, and becomes infectious.

In 1795 this was the case at Norfolk—a town that is situated on low flat land, a few feet only above high-water, and subject to autumnal fevers. The disease prevailed most in the narrow streets and poor small houses, and was most fatal to strangers.

Two remarkable facts occurred there and are related in the account last cited, to prove that the disease was occasioned solely by a general state of the atmosphere in and about the town, without a dependence on infection. The first is, that traders who visited the port, altho they were not known to have had in­tercourse with the sick, took the disease and died on their re­turn into the country. But a more remarkable fact is, that the [Page 315] seamen of a ship from Liverpool, which did not approach near­er than five miles distance from the town, and which had no communication with the shore, except by means of the health-boat, were almost all attacked with the disease, in ten days after their arrival. This was late in the season, and when the disease had nearly disappeared in town.

In the year 1794 several cases of the same disease had occur­red in Norfolk. In 1797 the disease was again frequent. In 1795 and 7, the disease was supposed to have been augmented by the great rains and floods which had preceded, and which had brought down the river and spread on the shores, large quan­tities of vegetable substances.

The extreme unhealthiness of the summer of 1795, was man­ifested by unusual mortality in various other parts of the country. On the level plains of Duchess county in New-York state, pre­vailed a mortal dysentery and typhus fever. At Coxsakie on the west of the Hudson, raged similar diseases with fatal effects. In some western parts of the state, near the marshes which border the waters of the country, a malignant bilious fever was more terribly fatal, than the fever in New-York.

In Sheffield, a western township of Massachusetts, near two large ponds which form marshy grounds, bilious fevers, which had not been known there for many years, before, prevailed and in some cases were mortal.

In that town, the progressiveness of the morbid principle of this pestilential period, was clearly discoverable. Many cases of intermittents occurred in 1793; and a few instances of bil­ious remittents. This was during the plague in Philadelphia. In 1794, early in spring, inflammatory diseases of the pneumo­nic kind, were unusually frequent. These were succeeded by intermittents, which were more frequent than in the preceding year. In July, the bilious remittent appeared, and 80 inhabi­tants out of 150, who lived within a mile and a half of the south pond, were affected. In 1795, of 200 inhabitants within three fourths of a mile distant from the north pond, 150 were affected with the same disease—but few died.

[Page 316]In 1796, the dysentery, which had not appeared in many preceding years, began its attacks on children, and not long af­ter adults were taken either with the same disease or with the bil­ious remittent. Of one hundred families living within a mile and a half of one of the ponds, not ten escaped sickness—more than half of the inhabitants were, in the course of the season, attacked with one or other of the abo [...] mentioned diseases. Of 150 persons who lived nearest to the pond, not ten escaped. The deaths by these diseases were forty-four. Here then was a regular increase of malignancy in the autumnal diseases, from in­termittents, to the worst form of dysentery and bilious remittent.

In the preceding period, great mortality prevailed among the geese in some parts of our country; and in the year 1796, a similar mortality among other fowls. I have not been able to ob­tain a particular description of the symptoms, but it was observed the transition from apparent health to death, was very rapid.

In 1796 the measles which commenced in New-York in 1795 was epidemic in Connecticut; and unusually prevalent in London.

In 1796 also the bilious plague again appeared in New-York, but in a different quarter of the city from that which was princi­pally affected, the year preceding. In 1795, it began and was most general in the north-eastern part—in 1796, in the south-western part, near the battery; and in both summers, its seat was along the wharves on the East river, and in the adjoining streets and alleys. All this part of the city is a level, formed by extending the land and wharves into the East river. The land is of course loose and porous, admitting, in many places, the wa­ter of the sea into the cellars of the houses; some of which are penetrated, on every flux of the tide. These artificial streets, Front and Water streets, are not easily washed clean, on account of their level position, and they receive the filth washed from the higher grounds of the city. To these streets, and similar ones in the swamp on the north-east, was the malignant distemper principally limited.

In 1796 a new wharf below Exchange slip, which had been timbered the preceding autumn, and left unfilled, had become a [Page 317] reservoir for all kinds of putrid, filthy substances, and was sup­posed to be a powerful cause of disease.

Besides, the quarter in which the disease raged this year, is al­most wholly covered with old wooden houses, and many of them, built before the raising and paving of the street, have their lower floors two or three feet below the surface of the pavements. In this district appeared the yellow fever in June; but a series of rainy weather and cool westerly winds, suspended its action, in the beginning of July. Succeeding hot weather renewed it, and in the limits above described, extending about forty or fifty rods, about seventy persons fell victims. The other parts of the city remained in the usual autumnal state of health, with only a few scattering cases of the plague.

At Wilmington, North-Carolina, prevailed a similar disease. It was preceded by the dysentery, in July, after a very wet spring. When the bilious fever commenced in August, the dysentery declined, and those who had been affected with it es­caped the fever. About one hundred and fifty deaths, by these two forms of disease, occurred in 130 families. Different opin­ions were entertained about the origin of the fever; but the phy­sician who gives this account has no doubts of its domestic origin. He informs us further that a few cases, in that town, occur annu­ally, which assume all the symptoms of a violent yellow fever.

In this year, the disease occasioned a considerable mortality in Charleston, South-Carolina, and in Newburyport, in Massachu­setts. It appeared in Boston also, but was not general nor severe.

In Charleston, it succeeded one of the most destructive fires, ever known in that city; and was in part ascribed to the stagnant water which accumulated in the open cellars.

In Newburyport, there was no plausible pretext for ascribing the disease to imported infection; and the general belief was, that the immediate exciting cause, was, the remains of large quanti­ties of fish which had been left to corrupt on the wharf, near which the distemper originated, and which occasioned an intolerable stench. But in that town, a previous increase of mortality indi­cated a sickly state of the elements; as in all other places, where [Page 318] the pestilence has made its appearance. In none of the northern states, which are usually healthy, has the bilious plague occurred without other diseases for precursors.—The disease in Newbury­port was confined to a low street or two, and when carried upon the high grounds, it exhibited little or no infection, but disap­peared with the death or recovery of the patient.

In Boston, the disease spread only in a small part of the town, adjoining the water. The physicians were unanimously of opin­ion, that it was not occasioned by any fomites from infected arti­cles imported, but generated in the town.

The pestilential state of the elements was strongly marked, this year, by the poorness of the shad brought to market in New-York. These were all thin, lean and small; and for this reason, I pur­chased none for my own use, during the season. Other persons observed the fact; and I am since informed that such of those fish as were pickled, perished in defiance of all human care to pre­serve them. The same state of the shad was observed in Con­necticut.

Some cases of yellow fever occurred in Philadelphia in 1796; catarrh was frequent in the winter, followed by measles of a most inflammatory nature. A remarkable halo appeared on the 25th of July.

It has been already observed that the winter of 1795, was remarkably severe in Europe. In America the same winter was as mild as usual. But in the summer and autumn of 1796, the northern states experienced a most severe drouth.

The following winter was very severe; the cold exceeding what is usual, and being of long duration. The summer of 1797 was cool and wet. The winter of 1797-8 was severe— and the cold of very long duration. It commenced early in No­vember and continued till March. The Hudson and Connecti­cut were closed in November; a very rare occurrence. For several weeks in November and December, the wind, without much snow on the earth along the Atlantic coast, was from the north-west and intensely dry and cold.

[Page 319]In August 1797 appeared a comet, which, according to cal­culations of astronomers, passed near the earth, altho it was of small apparent magnitude, and seen by few people.

The influence of this species of bodies in occasioning great tides, and violent storms, has been already mentioned, and of that influence, in the present instance, I was a witness. In 1797 my residence was, as it had been the preceding year, on a height of York Island near Corlaer's Hook to the northward of which is a flat, which is never covered with water by a common tide, but is overspread by spring tides, or any unusual swell in consequence of easterly winds. I observed, as early as the last week in May, high tides were unusually frequent and the swell extraordinary. In the city of New-York, the same fact was observable; and the inhabitants about Beekman slip will recol­lect how often the wharves and street were covered with water. These tides were not to be accounted for, on any known prin­ciples of lunar influence, and I frequently mentioned the phe­nomenon to my friends, but without suspecting the cause. The same phenomenon was noticed at other places. In Norfolk, the epidemic fever was, in part, ascribed to unusual tides; as I was afterwards informed. On the Delaware, the overflowing of the low lands, below Philadelphia, was extraordinary, and some physicians ascribe to this cause the yellow fever, which swept away most of a family by the name of Whitall.

I was lately mentioning these events to a respectable gentleman in Stamford, ^* who instantly recollected a fact which confirms the foregoing account. He remarked that the common practice in that town, is to mow the salt meadows, at the quadratures of the moon, on account of small tides; but in 1797, the calcula­tions failed, and the people were much troubled to collect their hay, on account of high tides—a circumstance that was very surprising to him at the time, but he did not advert to the prob­able cause. This was in August; about the time that the comet was first observed. The fact then of the influence of comets, in raising the waters of the ocean, is well established; and the [Page 320] appearance of a comet in autumn explained the phenomena of the tides to my satisfaction.

The influence of comets in augmenting tempests is equally certain and remarkable.

On the 19th of August, a storm and whirlwind in South Prussia tore up forests carried trees along like sheaves of wheat, and levelled several villages.

In Rome and Naples happened a most extraordinary tempest on the 25th of September, such as the oldest man could not re­collect. It took up men and carried them some distance. The astronomers were consulted and they ascribed it to the approxi­mation of the comet.

A storm of hail in the province of Macconnois, in France, and on the borders of Burgundy, destroyed the vines and fruits of the earth in thirty-four villages. In the appropriations made afterwards by the councils of France, four millions were granted to repair the losses by hail, inundations and other disasters.

On the 7th of September, a considerable shock of earthquake was felt in the Western Pyrenees. On the 28th of the month was a volcanic eruption in Guadaloupe; and many earthquakes occurred during the autumn.

In England, the summer was so rainy and wet, as to injure the corn and threaten the inhabitants with scarcity. It would require pages to relate all the accidents by floods in Great-Brit­ain from August to the close of the year.

During the autumnal months, the Black sea also was unusu­ally tempestuous, and the loss of shipping alarmed Constantino­ple, with apprehensions of a scarcity of provisions.

In February, 1797, South-America was terribly convulsed. Quito and the neighboring provinces suffered, by the destruction of almost every house. Mountains were detached from their stations and rolled against each other, burying villages in ruin. Volcanoes emitted fire, lava, and rivers of water. It is said, that 40,000 inhabitants perished.

On the 11th of January 1798 a shock of earthquake was felt in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and the neighboring towns, during which appeared to issue from the earth a flame or blaze, like the burning of a chimney.

[Page 321]In this month, the severe cold reached the West-Indies, and frost appeared, for several mornings, on the windows in Port Royal Parish, in Jamaica. A small earthquake was felt there in January.

In February 1797 also violent earthquakes were experienced on the western coast of Sumatra, in the East-Indies.

This year, 1797, was remarkable for other singular phenom­ena in Europe and America.

In England a pestilence among cats swept away those animals by thousands. It seems that this disease began as early as April, and succeeded an epidemic catarrh among the human race. The same cat-distemper was afterwards epidemic in France. A so­ciety at Montpelier instituted an enquiry into this remarkable phenomenon.

The cat-distemper appeared in Philadelphia, as early as June, and proceeded northward and eastward, like the catarrh of 1789. In August it was very fatal in New-York, and in the course of the summer and autumn, it spread destruction among those ani­mals over the northern states.

In August, dead fish, in great numbers, were seen to float down James' river, in Virginia, for many days in succession.

Canine madness, during the same year, was unusually epidemic and attended with fatal effects, of which full accounts may be seen in the first volume of the Medical Repository.

These phenomena indicate an unhealthy state of the elements. But it is a remarkable fact that, in some places and seasons, the principal force of the epidemic constitution seems to be spent on one species of animals, while others are exempt. Thus in Eng­land, the catarrh, which had affected mankind in 1797, ceased, before the epidemic seized the cats. In America, the northern states, with the exception of a few places, were remarkably healthy, in 1797, while cats died in multitudes. And it is a frequent occurrence in Europe, that while the plague or some other malignant disease is afflicting [...] human race in one coun­try; in another country, mankind w [...] escape, and a most terri­ble mortality will occur among cattle, horses or sheep.

[Page 322]In 1797 the bills of mortality in the northern states, which had been swelled very high by angina and malignant fevers, fell nearly to the standard of health. There are a few exceptions.

The plague appeared in Philadelphia, Baltimore, Norfolk and Charleston. In the two latter cities, it is considered, as the usual autumnal fever, with aggravated symptoms, from sea­son or other local or temporary causes.

In Baltimore, the disease appeared first in the form of a com­mon remittent, but increased in malignancy till late in aut [...]mn and became infectious. The history of this epidemic is minutely stated by the magistracy of Baltimore, and is too interesting to be passed with a slight notice. The following is a correct ab­stract of the statement made and published by authority.

The commissioners state to the mayor of the city;

That the first appearance of the fever was near the end of June in two young men, Parkin and M'Kenna, who occupied a ware­house in South-street and who died in a few days. The ware­house was examined, and was found to contain nothing which could be the special cause of the fever; nor is it suggested that they were infected from abroad. No person received the disease from them. From this time till the close of August, West Baltimore remained in a state of unusual health.

In East Baltimore (Fell's Point) a bilious fever had showed itself early in the season, and gradually spread and grew worse; but was supposed to be no other than the common sickness of the season. It therefore excited no alarm, till the 26th August, when a rumor prevailed, that the fever was something more than common. The chairman of the board addressed a letter to each of the physicians in that part of the city, requesting to be informed whether any case of contagious disease had come under his observation.

Dr. John Coulter wrote for answer that since the third week in June, a fever had prevailed and become epidemic, affecting all descriptions of people, but mostly those who labored hard, in the heat of the sun, intemperate persons and those who expo­sed themselves to night air after the labors of the day. The disease was violent, and unless speedily assailed with powerful [Page 323] remedies, proved fatal. It had on that day, August 26th, be­come general, and "assumed to itself the sole government of the diseases," in that part of the city. "During the wet weather, in the last of July and beginning of August, it yielded, for near two weeks, to the dysentery," which aftewards gave way to a recurrence of the yellow fever. [The reader is desired to note that fact.]

Dr. Coulter calls the fever an epidemic, in contradistinction to imported contagion, and says, "it is in the locality of our atmosphere, the source of which I can perceive in every ten steps I take in our streets, ponds of stagnant water, and sinks of putrid animal and vegetable matters, exhaling perpetually under a hot sun the most offensive effluvia." The conclusion he draws is, that the disease was not individually infectious. He then men­tions the uniformity of the symptoms, and the correspondence of the fever with the diseases which have prevailed in that city and in other parts of the continent for a number of years past. He enumerates the symptoms, which are exactly the same, as observed in New-Haven, New-York and Philadelphia.

Doctors Alexander and Jaquitt agree in the facts that the disease was not imported nor specifically contagious.

The board of health then called a meeting of the physicians in West Baltimore, and inquired whether any contagious sick­ness had come under their knowledge. They answered in the negative. Three of their number, at the request of the meeting, went to East Baltimore and visited a number of the sick. They reported on the 29th of August, that the disease was not a ma­lignant, contagious or yellow fever, but the bilious remittent. Their report quieted the alarms of people.

On the 2d of September the commissioners were alarmed with the opinion of the physicians in that part of the city, that the disease was something more than common.

Five members of the board, with Dr. Moores, went to the point to examin for themselves. They found the disease had spread, chiefly among the poor, who lived in confined dwellings —a few persons were dangerously ill; but on the whole, were convinced that the disease was not contagious.

[Page 324]The next week, the disorder assumed a more threatening aspect. The launching of the frigate on the 7th of September, col­lected many people together, who were exposed to a hot sun and fatigue, which spread the disease to West Baltimore. The next day the board of health received regular information that there was contagion in the disease. A meeting of the faculty was cal­led, and suitable directions given to check and alleviate the ca­lamity.

The whole number of interments in the city and precincts from August 1 to October 29th—Adults 408; children 137. Total 545. Number of inhabitants at Fell's Point (where the disease principally raged) who removed during the sickness 671. Those who remained were 2679. Total 3350.

This plain and candid narrative of facts, which is certified by the presidents of both branches of the city council and by the mayor, Mr. Calhoun, does great honor to the integrity and dil­igence of the commissioners; and if the laws of nature are to be relied on as uniform in their operation, this report alone will de­cide every disputed point relative to the origin and phenomena of the yellow fever.

It is here decided by unequivocal evidence; evidence that precludes the carping of prejudice and the casuistry of interest, that the yellow fever and the bilious remittent are the same dis­ease, differing only in degrees of violence; and it is agreed on all hands that the remitting and intermitting fevers are the same disease, with a similar difference in violence.

The disease began at Baltimore early in the season, in June, and for more than two months, prevailed as a remitting fever of the common kind, without infection, and it is agreed on all hands not to be of imported origin. During a wet season, the damp weather cast the disease upon the intestines, and it appear­ed in the form of a dysentery—a most important fact, which proves what Dr. Lind has asserted, that a dysentery is a yellow or malignant fever seated in the bowels. The wet weather ceas­ing, the fever resumed its former appearance, and gradually in­creased, till it exhibited its worst forms and became infectious.

Had the advocates for the domestic origin of this fever con­trived and directed a series of facts, to prove their own doctrines, [Page 325] it would not have been possible to collect stronger evidence in their favor, than the report of the board of health in Baltimore.

In Philadelphia, the disease in 1797 appeared, in a few cases, as early as June—one on the 5th—one on the 9th—one on the 15th and another on the 22d. These cases, instead of being considered as proofs of a pestilential air, and precursors of more general sickness, are thrown entirely out of the question, by the advocates of imported fomites. The division of opinions, which originated in 1793, relative to the causes and origin of that dis­ease, was revived with asperity. One party among physicians contended that the distemper was introduced into the city by the ship Arethusa, which arrived from Jamaica and Havanna, on the 23d of July. Another party believed the sources of the disease to have been, noxious exhalations from putrid substances in the city, with an augment from the foul air of the snow Nav­igation from Marseilles. The evidence to support each of these opinions, is published in the proceedings of the College of Phy­sicians, and of the Academy of Medicin.

The city of Philadelphia was deserted by a great proportion of its inhabitants, and thus the mortality was limited to about one thousand victims. It prevailed principally in the suburbs.

This epidemic was followed as usual by the influenza.

By foreign publications, it appears that the catarrh was epi­demic in England in the four first months of 1797. I have no particulars of the violence or extent of this disorder; but if it was severe and general, no event is more certain than that sickly seasons will follow.

What confirms this opinion, is, that in the following summer, the plague raged in Constantinople, on the Barbary coast, and in Corsica. It appears by an official letter of the French min­ister Sotin, that there was a difference of opinion in regard to the epidemic in Corsica—some calling it the plague; others, a malignant fever. Those who called it the plague, were prepar­ed to account for it, by the tale of a Turkish vessel wrecked upon the island, with diseased people on board. But the disease subsided without very extensive ravages.

This malignant fever however occasioned no small alarm in England. The government sent orders to ships cruising in the [Page 326] Mediterranean to have no communication with vessels from Cor­sica, and a proclamation was issued ordering strict quarantine to be performed by all vessels from Corsica, Minorca, Gibraltar and Spain within the Mediterranean.

In 1797 the bilious plague carried off forty-five of the in­habitants of Providence. Of this disease, I have a minute and judicious account from Mr. Moses Brown, which is here a­bridged.

In 1791, the year when the disease first appeared in the West-Indies and New-York, several persons died of a similar fever in Providence. Two women died in one family, near the centre of the town, after three days illness. They vomitted bilious matter, and were yellow, with livid and purple spots. The second, being seized two days after the death of the first, might have taken the disease by infection; but no suspicion ex­isted that the first had access to any infecting cause.

On the 14th of August died another person in a different part of the town, and on the 21st of September, a fourth, with similar symptoms. As no alarm had then been excited by yel­low fever, little notice was taken of these cases; but the attend­ing physician, a respectable character, who visited many patients in 1797 and was affected with the disease himself, has since pro­nounced the disease of 1791 and of 1797 to be the same.

A case very similar to these occurred in September 1792; and on the west side of the river, prevailed a singular epidemic, in which persons became yellow, with black urine, costive bow­els, pains in the right hypochondrium, without fever. Some had petechial spots, and one person, petechia, vibices and hemhor­age, yet the disease was not mortal, nor malignant.

In 1793 a person from Philadelphia was ill and died of the yellow fever in Providence, but no other was infected.

In 1794 several persons had the same disease, but they took it probably in Carolina, where they had been on a voyage; the disease did not spread by infection.

On the 11th of July 1795, died Capt. J. Gifford, a respect­able man, of the same disease. No infection was supposed in the case—he was buried under arms, but no inconvenience was experienced from it, at the time. Yet two years after, viz. in [Page 327] 1797, his family were affected with the disorder, at the time when it became epidemic in the neighborhood.

Several other cases occurred, in the same year, and one of them exhibited infection.

These cases demonstrate a pestilential principle existing in that town, in every season from 1791 to 1795 inclusive; at the time when other parts of the United States were more severely afflicted. They were the distant precursors of a more general calamity in that town, which did not arrive till 1797.

Sporadic cases of pestilential fever do not render it certain but probable, that the disease will, in a future season, become epi­demic. In 1796 cholera infantum and dysentery were prevalent.

In 1797 the hydrophobia was prevalent in the state of Rhode-Island, as well as in other states. One T. Lyon was bitten by a dog, the wound healed, and he was seized four months after, and died. The pestilence among cats prevailed also in Provi­dence.

In this year also prevailed at Westport in the same state, and on Nantucket island, a very malignant epidemic dysentery. At Westport died 30 patients of 79 who were seized. On Nan­tucket the disease was less mortal; about 100 died out of 2000 patients. On examination, it was found that under the house of the family first seized, there were some barrels of putrid fish, and other nauseous matter.

It was supposed also, that the disease might have been aug­mented by the effluvia of a large pond, at some miles distance, which had become stagnant, filled with grass, and the shores strewed with dead fish. A number of men, on this discovery, opened a trench to drain off the water, and let in the tides, af­ter which, it was supposed, the disease assumed a less malignant aspect.

The pestilential condition of the air at Providence in 1797, manifested itself very early in the season; the first death occur­ring as early as May 5th—the next on the 25th of June—the third on the 4th of July—the fourth on the 27th—the fifth on the 29th, and the sixth on the first of August. The symptoms in all these cases, were the predominant ones of the true yellow [Page 328] fever; and the bodies exhibited more or less petechiae and bices. These cases occurred before the arrival of the schooner, to which popular clamor afterwards imputed the whole evil. These were the scattered precursors, which, had the subject of pestilence ever been investigated, with philosophical ingenuity and Christian candor, would have rendered the epidemic a prob­able event to the citizens of Providence, as early as July and would have taught them to use all human means to avoid or miti­gate the calamity.

On the 8th of August arrived the schooner Betsey, Capt. Barton, from the Mole of Cape Nicholas, after 24 days pas­sage. Her cargo was only a few hogsheads of coffee. She lay at the wharf, till the 20th, when an increasing alarm from new cases of the fever induced the police to order her to be removed and cleansed.

On enquiry, it was found that three of the schooner's people had been ill in the West-Indies, but no one died. One of these only had been ill on the passage, but had recovered so as to do duty, seven days before her arrival. There were five per­sons on board, during the passage, none of whom were affected by disease from infection or other cause.

The death of Mr. Arnold, the custom-house officer, who was said to have visited the schooner, and several of his family, gave rise to the report that the fever began from fomes on board of her. This point will be hereafter disproved. Certain it is, that another officer of the customs slept on board of the schoon­er seven nights; another five, and another young man two nights, with Brown, the owner of the blankets hereafter to be mention­ed; all of whom escaped disease of any kind.

It was also said that the woman who washed two blankets, belonging to a diseased seaman, took the fever and died. On investigation, this proved to be an idle tale. The blankets were owned by one Brown, who had not been sick; and not having any use for them in warm weather, they had lain in his chest. On his arrival, they were carried home, spread out on the fence to air; they were then carried to his sister's to be washed and lay two days before the work was undertaken. The day [Page 329] after the washing, the women were taken ill; which was two early for the operation of infection, unless highly concentrated. But in fact the blankets were not infected; never having been used by any diseased person; and the mother and others who handled them, when first opened, never had the disease.

But stronger circumstances attended this case. The blanket belonging to Rophy, the only sick man, on the passage, and his other clothes, worn during his fever, and colored yellow, by his perspiration, were carried to his house; the blanket spread out for children to play on, before it was washed; afterwards washed by his wife; and no person took any disease from his clothes or blanket.

Such are tales of imported diseases, raised by ignorance and propagated by interest, pride or credulity, to which the business of the merchants and the commerce of the country are to be sacrificed!

Many other reports were spread about the infection from this schooner which, upon strict enquiry, were found to be equally groundless. Such as the introduction of the fever into Warren, where the vessel stopped, on her way to Providence. The case was, one Cole, an officer of the customs, sculled a large boat a mile or two, against the tide, in a foggy evening; went on board, wet and fatigued; without refreshment or change of clothes, slept in a cabin with broken windows, took a severe cold; repeated his visit to the schooner the next day; on the third day went to Providence, a distance of ten miles in the rain; tarried two nights without a change of clothes; returned on foot, and was taken ill of a bilious fever and died in about seven days. Yet after all this fatigue and imprudence in the man, enough in all conscience to kill him, men are found weak enough to charge his disease to the schooner.

But it happens, that other similar cases of fever occurred in Warren, in persons who had never visited Cole or the schooner; and one at the distance of three miles from the town. The whole tale therefore comes to nothing.

One fact more, and I will quit the subject of correcting the popular errors on this head. The men belonging to the schooner [Page 330] were dismissed at Providence and returned to their families, with their sea clothes of course. My informant took pains to enquire of every family, whether any of them had been infected; and he found not one instance, altho the families consisted of about forty souls!—The case of the unfortunate family of Mr. Arnold would a ford some slight ground to suspect the infection to be communicated from the schooner to him or his son, the latter having visited her; ^* but it happens that Mr. Arnold's wife, who had not been on board, nor otherwise exposed, was seized fifty-six hours before her son and more than three days before her hus­band. Thus the reports of infection from abroad, when well sifted, vanish into smoke; and I am persuaded this would gene­rally be the result, if men would be faithful to themselves, to truth and their country.

On the 12th of August, the fever took a more rapid spread, probably from a sudden alarm by the burning of two tons of hemp, by means of a spark from a blacksmith's shop, as it was passing the door. This was four days after the arrival of the schooner, and occasioned the popular clamor which was raised about her infection. But the appearance of the disease long before her arrival is decisive of the question.

This disease had its own atmosphere; raging mostly in a part of Providence much exposed to the effluvia of great collections of filth in vaults, from a distillery, and in other places. Some cases however occurred in other situations; and many parts of the state exhibited the pestilential principle, in sporadic cases, or local epidemics, as at Bristol, Warren, Greenwich, Indian Point, Gloucester, Warwick, &c.

In Providence, the disease affected fifty-six families—8 before the arrival of the schooner, and 48 afterwards. In 33 of these families, only one person in each, had the fever; and as some of the families are large, the infecting principle could not have been very powerful. In the large house, where lived the women who were first taken ill, after the schooner arrived, resided 9 [Page 331] families, consisting of 37 persons, only 12 of which were af­fected. In the hospital the nurses and attendants all escaped.

Some instances of this disease appeared in the following win­ter; and there were cases also of the ulcerous sore throat. In the north part of the town, some cases of the yellow fever oc­curred in the last summer—1798.

In 1797 a malignant fever is said to have been introduced in­to a village in Chatham, on Connecticut river, by a vessel from the West-Indies. I understand that it was confined to a cluster of houses by the water; but I have not been able to collect the facts in detail, altho I have written letters for the purpose.

During the late pestilential period, the state of the atmosphere produced its usual effects in winter; which appeared in the ex­traordinary symptoms of pleurisy and peripneumony.

It has already been remarked that in periods when plague and other mortal epidemics rage in summer, the diseases of winter assume new symptoms. The pleurisy, at such times, has often become epidemic and even infectious. It is in fact a modification of the same pestilential principle, as that which renders bilious fevers in summer epidemic and infectious. The fatal effects of this species of pleurisy in Connecticut, in the winter of 1761, have been mentioned.

In the winter of 1795-6, after the epidemic in New-York, several cases of a similar kind occurred, and an able physician of plethoric habit and strong fibres, fell a victim to a peripneumony, with anomalous symptoms.

In the following winter, a similar disorder attacked many people in Connecticut. Three men in Hartford, of one family, two brothers and a cousin, all men of robust health, were at­tacked and carried off in the compass of a few days. Others of the same family, and several persons of a similar habit were affected, but recovered. It was far less general than in 1761.

This species of pleurisy appeared in Philadelphia as early as September 1791, the month when the malignant fever prevailed in New-York. A patient of Dr. Rush had a "red face, infla­med eyes, a perpetual tossing and sighing, strong animal powers, but weak pulse and sizy blood." In February 1792 many cases of similar pleuritic fevers occurred in Philadelphia—diseases as­sumed [Page 332] the inflammatory diathesis which has remarkably charac­terized the epidemic of the last pestilential period.

In the spring of the year 1798, a mortal fever raged in Fred­ericktown, Maryland, beginning with lassitude, chills and pain in the head, and producing, on the third day, vertigo and spasm in the breast.

In summer and autumn of 1797, a malignant fever, attended with dysentery, was epidemic in Portland and its vicinity, in the district of Maine. The dysentery subsided in October, but the fever continued. It appeared in the country, as well as town; and was usually conquered by the use of alkaline reme­dies. Many of the patients had a yellow skin and the predomi­nant symptoms of the yellow fever of our cities. In one instance, this disease put on the form of pestilence. A merchant, in a country village, where no suspicion of infection could be enter­tained, was seized with a malignant fever; he lingered till the 36th day, and died highly putrid. His nurse was seized and died; after death appeared livid spots on the body. A servant also took the disease and died. The nurse communicated the disease to three persons in the family where she lay ill.

This last instance is decisive evidence that the pestilential yel­low fever not only originates in our country, but in villages, in the 44th degree of latitude, a more temperate climate than that of New-York and Philadelphia.

In the winter succeeding, the pestilential principle still exhib­ited its effects. The fever continued to prevail, being ushered in with nausea, vomiting and chills succeeded by heat; but it was generally accompanied with a sore throat and scarlet efflo­rescence. It prevailed in almost every town in the county.

The year 1798 was remarkable for the most general preva­lence of the plague of our climate, that has been known; and in some cities, the disease was peculiarly malignant.

The preceding winter had been unusually long and cold—the May following was dry beyond what is recollected in any former years—June was remarkable for deluging rains, which occasioned floods in the Connecticut, Delaware and Susquehannah rivers, [Page 333] which did no inconsiderable injury. Two or three of the first days of July were excessively hot, and succeeded by twenty days of very cool weather—then commenced a long period of the most sultry weather ever known in our climate, accompanied, in some places, with great rains.

Catarrhous fevers were frequent in the spring, the constant forerunners of autumnal sickness. Bilious fevers also occurred, in a few cases very early, indicating the predominant condition of the atmosphere. In summer and autumn, the grass-hoppers multiplied to such a degree from Pennsylvania to New-England, as to devour vegetables, and essentially injure the pastures and grass fields.

The pestilential fever in Philadelphia appeared early in the season—a number of cases in June, and still more in July. In August early, the city was alarmed and soon deserted by at least three fourths of its inhabitants. The disease was unusually mor­tal; and extended to the remotest parts of the city, where it had not formerly prevailed. Owing to this circumstance, some families suffered, which had escaped in former years. The num­ber of deaths amounted to about 3440. The disease, as usual, abated with the appearance of frost; but individuals were at­tacked with it, and carried off, in the midst of the following winter.

It is alledged by some persons that the fever was introduced into Philadelphia by the ship Deborah, which arrived from Jer­emie, and anchored near Race-street wharf, on the 18th of July. It is admitted that persons who went on board, soon af­ter sickened and died; and so did others sicken and die, without going near that ship. The truth is, many cases of the disease had occurred three or four weeks, before her arrival. The ship had lost people by fever on her passage and might be infected; and persons visiting her might receive that infection; but these facts do not reach the point. The epidemic began in all parts of the city, in scattering cases, previous to the arrival of this fo­mes, and had the ship never arrived, that epidemic would have ravaged the city. This is evident from the number of its pre­cursors.

This pestilential fever carried off fifty-seven persons in the [Page 334] village of Marcus Hook, where the first persons seized were a shallop-man and others from Philadelphia. But many cases oc­curred which could be traced to no infection. See Dr. Sayre's letter in Currie's Memoirs, p. 136. In Chester died 50 of the same fever.

At Wilmington, in the state of Delaware, thirty miles from Philadelphia, the same disease raged with more than its ordinary mortality. Its victims amounted to 250. It appears that the disease was introduced by the fugitives from Philadelphia, and by watermen who ply between Wilmington and Philadelphia.

The fever also prevailed in New-Castle and at Duck creek in the same state.

Letters from respectable physicians, in the public prints, have informed us that this disease prevailed also in some parts of New-Jersey, as at Bridgetown and Woodbury; and especially near the meadows on the borders of the Delaware. From careful examination, it was found that the disease must have originated where it existed; no intercourse having been held with infected places. In some instances the fever was probably infectious.

At Norwalk in Connecticut several persons died of the same distemper. The physicians are doubtful as to its origin; as some cases may be traced to a diseased person who had been in New-York. Three cases however occurred at some miles distance from the heart of the town, in persons who had not been in the least exposed to infection.

In the first week of August, appeared a bilious fever in New-York, between Old slip and Coenties slip, in the street next to the water; a place remarked for great accumulations of filthy substances. By the exertions of the Health Commissioners, in covering these nuisances with fresh earth, this alarming fever subsided in that neighborhood, and disappeared by the 26th of that month.

But on the 12th, the pestilential fever appeared in other parts of the city, and about the 20th, began to extend and assume a more formidable aspect. The district of the city, subjected to its most deadly effects, was that section comprehended between [Page 335] John-street and Beekman-street, particularly in Cliff-street and its neighborhood. The probable cause of this effect, was the fetid air from large quantities of spoiled beef, stored in the cel­lars in Pearl-street, on the windward side of this section. The cellars were filled with water by heavy rains, or were other­wise damp; which circumstance, added to the extreme heat of the season, occasioned a greater loss of salted provisions, than perhaps was ever before known. To augment the effect, large quantities of pickle had been discharged, in the process of re­packing beef not yet spoiled, but in a bad state, which pickle had been carried by the gutters into a sewer in Burling slip, from which issued a very offensive smell. ^*

About the last of August, the inhabitants of New-York were greatly alarmed; some removed from the east to the west side of Broadway, a part of the city which has hitherto been exempted from the violent effects of the yellow fever; but a great pro­portion of the people deserted the city. The disease was more malignant, than in its preceding visits, and exhibited more fre­quently the bubo and carbuncle. It extended over two thirds of the city, and numbered with the dead about two thousand of its inhabitants. I am informed the disease was less generally characterized with the inflammatory diathesis, and that venesec­tion was less generally attended with salutary effects, than in for­mer years.

This disease exhibited little infection, beyond the limits of its own amosphere. In the hospital, at a little distance from the [Page 336] city, were admitted about 300 patients, ill with that disease; yet sixteen nurses, seven washerwomen, and the boatmen who conveyed the sick from the city to the hospital, all escaped. Dr. Douglass, the attending physician, escaped the disease, until October, when he visited his friends and slept in the city, three days after which he was seized with the fever.

The last fact is very important towards correcting the popular errors respecting the contagion of this fever. In the city per­sons took the fever—in the hospital they did not. That is, the distemper has an atmosphere, in which it is readily contracted— beyond that atmosphere, it is not infectious. In other words, it is a condition of the atmosphere, and not the effluvia from the sick, which is to be dreaded.

Thus, in 1797, the fugitives and sick from Philadelphia did not spread the fever in Wilmington—in 1798, they did. That is, in 1797 the atmosphere of Wilmington would not generate and nurse the disease—in 1798, it would.

In Boston, the disease began near the town dock and the neighboring wharves, in the month of June; but its most vio­lent effects were experienced on the south side of Fort-Hill, an elevated part of the town and exposed to free air. This cir­cumstance has occasioned no small surprise; but as the fever of 1796 began in that part of the town, perhaps we may find the cause in the very extensive flat, between Boston and Dorchester point, which is uncovered at low water; perhaps in the expo­sure of that hill to the direct rays of the sun; perhaps in the na­ture of the soil which is clay of a solid texture, and fitted to re­tain on its surface whatever impure substances are thrown from houses.

The fever afterwards invaded the north part of the town, and a street near the pond; supposed to be excited by noxious exha­lations. Some parts of the town, which are low and filthy, es­caped the fever.

At first it attacked the most robust young men, and the diath­esis was highly inflammatory. Later in the season, it attacked [Page 337] persons of all ages and habits. At first it was not infectious, but in the later stages of its progress, it exhibited infection. Is disappeared with the arrival of frost, after carrying off nearly 200 patients.

See a full account of the disease in a letter from Dr. Rand, published by order of the Academy of Arts and Sciences. This gentleman observes that no infection appeared, except in places where the disease was originally contracted. ^*

The same malady appeared in Portsmouth, New-Hampshire, with equal mortality, as far as it extended; but its progress was limited to one street near the water.

New-London, in Connecticut, is situated in a very healthy part of the country, on a harbor, whose shores as well as the surrounding lands, are dry and rocky—its population about 3000 inhabitants.

In the last week in August 1798, t [...] town was suddenly in­vaded by the plague of our country, which began in the family of Mr. Bingham, keeper of the Union coffee-house. No ves­sels from the West-Indies, no sick from other places, occur, in this instance, to help out popular credulity. The idea of im­portation is abandoned by the citizens of the town. The fever was very fatal within its atmosphere, which was confined to Bank street and its vicinity; a part of the city well built, clean and airy as any street in the town. Within a small space, were fifteen houses, inhabited by ninety-two persons—of which ninety were affected with the disease; thirty-three of this number died, and two only escaped the fever. The disease prevailed about eight weeks and destroyed eighty-one lives.

On enquiry I find that this disease in New-London had its precursors, in sporadic cases of the same fever, in the three pre­ceding summers. In 1795, died Dr. Joseph W. Lee with all the symptoms of the yellow fever. Some instances occurred in [Page 338] 1796; and in 1797 died of the same, Matthew Griswold, Esq. and soon after his mother; indicating the communication of in­fection. Yet in these years, it did not spread and become epi­demic. The pestilential period however was progressing in that town, as appears by the bills of mortality; for the ordinary number of deaths does not exceed 60 in a healthy year; but in 1795, the number amounted to 86—in 1796, to 80—in 1797, to 101—in 1798, to 133. Here we observe a great augmenta­tion in the mortality of the town, several years before the crisis of pestilence, and especially in the year next preceding it. The importance of this fact towards a right understanding of the causes of epidemic pestilence, cannot be mistaken.

Considerable quantities of salted fish, which lay in certain stores in New-London, and which had not been well cured with the usual quantity of salt, became fetid and offensive, altho not pu­trid, and assumed a red cast with a slimy feeling—it also lost its texture and firmness. This was opened and spread in the streets for the purpose of being dried; and from its offensiveness and vicinity to the place where the disease first appeared, it is suppo­sed to have been an exciting cause of the fever. This opinion has doubtless some foundation; but putrid fish will not always occasion disease. It is probably true that the bad state of the fish was partly owing to a previous bad state of the air; altho it afterwards became a cause of a worse state of the air.

What seems to put this beyond doubt, is, the unusual number of musketoes, in the adjacent country, and the multitudes of flies of uncommon size, exceeding what had been before obser­ved. With these phenomena before our eyes, we can be at no loss to account for the pestilential fever of New-London.

The usual lake and river fever prevailed in the same season, in many of the interior parts of the country; as at Royalton in Vermont, on the Grand Isles in Lake Champlain, at New-Mil­ford in Connecticut, and in various parts of the state of New-York; in which places, it was attended with considerable mor­tality. Sporadic cases occurred in all parts, and in the healthiest situations, of the country. In many places, intermittents and dysentery were unusually violent and obstinate.

[Page 339]I have no account of the temperature of the weather in any part of Europe, during the summer of 1798; except that in some parts of Sweden, the first months of the summer were ex­cessively dry, as the month of May was in America.

A pestilential fever appeared in Italy in June; but I have no details of its progress. It is however to be observed that this fever was preceded by a violent earthquake in some part of the Tuscan territories, in the month of May, which did no small injury.

In autumn broke out a pestilential fever on the Baltic, in Dant­zick or its vicinity. The government of Denmark, in conse­quence of official information of the prevalence of this disease, directed all ships from Dantzick and the neighboring ports to be watched with vigilance, and appointed a committee of quarantine.

According to the report of a master of a vessel, there was an eruption in Teneriffe in the summer of 1798, which lasted sev­eral weeks. This volcano had been quiet for 94 years.

In November and December, the pestilence in America was succeeded as usual by influenza, which was very prevalent in all parts of the country, and in the southern states attended with some mortality. This was merely a change of the form of the epidemic.

The winter of 1798-9 was very long and severe in both hem­ispheres. In the United States, it began about the middle of November, with snow, and a heavy fall of snow on the 18th and 19th was followed by severe cold that lasted till the second week in January. From this time, there was a relaxation of cold for about three weeks, and the ice in Connecticut river gave way. But in February commenced severe cold, which contin­ued, for the most part to the vernal equinox. April was also cold; severe frosts occurred often, and checked vegetation. On the 2d and 8th of May were considerable falls of snow, followed by frost. On the morning of the 4th and 5th, we had ice at New-Haven as thick as window-glass. Peaches blossomed about the middle of May, and apples were not in full bloom, till the 22d. This long duration of cold exhausted all the barns of hay and other fodder, and multitudes of cattle perished in various parts of the country.

[Page 340]In Europe, the winter was equally severe. The rivers in England, Germany, Holland and France were covered with solid ice, and at the breaking up of winter, the Rhine rose and burst its barriers, inundating many parts of Holland with terri­ble destruction. The severity of the winter was felt even in the south of Italy, and the French and Neapolitan troops suffered greatly from snow on the Appenine, in the vicinity of Naples. In Siberia, we are informed by the public prints, perished whole villages of men and cattle by the severity of the frost.

In America, the diseases of the winter were characterized by the predominant diathesis of the reigning epidemic constitution, a yellow skin and bilious discharges. An earthquake of consid­erable extent was felt in the Carolinas on the 12th of April. What will be the state of health in the ensuing summer, must be left to be determined by the event. The present pestilence has been long and severe and the citizens look with impatience, for the usual salubrious state of their atmosphere.

In August, about the time the pestilence began to show itself in New-York, immense numbers of flies died suddenly, and oc­casioned no small speculation and alarm. Some were found on the floors; others adhering to the ceilings of rooms, and what is singular, their bodies became whi [...]. A pestilential air usually generates flies in unusual numbers; but on this occasion, some sudden change in the elements, destroyed their lives. How little do we know of the powers of the elements, and the nature of the alterations in them which produce such astonishing effects. Will imported infection account for such phenomena?

This is the best statement of facts I have been able to make from sixteen months investigation. It is not improbable that some mistakes have occurred, which more time and more ample materials, would enable me to correct. But I trust that the substance of the statements is accurate, and that no error of con­sequence will be found to result from them, to impeach the gen­eral principles suggested in this work.

SECTION IX. Bills of mortality for the two last centuries, with the principal phenomena of the elements.

OUR accounts of diseases and the phenomena of the world, which appear to be connected with them, are altogether imperfect. But in the two last centuries, we have a tolerable history of dis­eases, and occasionally an account of the seasons, and remarka­ble occurrences. In the following tables, the reader will find the bills of mortality for London, Augsburg, Dresden, Boston, one Church in Philadelphia, with a few bills of Paris and Dub­lin; to which are prefixed such of the remarkable phenomena of the elements, as I have been able to collect. As winter makes a part of two years, the word severe is set against the year which preceded the winter. Thus against the year 1607, the word severe refers to the winter of 1607-8. The blanks denote, ei­ther that nothing singular occurred in those years, or that I have no account of the occurrences. Further enquiries might proba­bly enable me to fill many of those blanks.

Bills of mortality do not exhibit a complete view of epidemics; as some of the more remarkable, especially influenza, destroy but few lives, and the bills of the years when that disease alone prevailed, are remarkably low. It is often the immediate pre­cursor of pestilential diseases in autumn; in which cases, the bills of the year are very high.

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SECTION X. Remarks on the preceding History and Tables.

IMPERFECT as ancient history is, in regard to the accounts of diseases, and the extraordinary phenomena of nature, we find that between the year B. C. 480 and the Christian era, a num­ber of violent plagues occurred, most of which coincided in time with the following phenomena, comets, eruptions of vol­canoes, earthquakes, drouth, severe winters, diseases among cattle. Of thirteen comets mentioned in the foregoing history, which are all whose dates I am able to ascertain, eight of them coincide with volcanic eruptions of Etna, the only volcano of any note, which the history of that period has recorded; and ele [...] of them coincide in time with pestilence. If we con­sider the scarcity of our materials for a history of these phenomena, at that period, and make due allowances for the uncertainty of chronology, we shall find reason to be surprised at such a number of these coincidences. In several instances we find extreme drouth and very severe winters to correspond in time with comets and eruptions of Etna, conformable to facts in modern days.

On this subject, history is barren also for many centuries after the Christian era. Yet in every period, even in the dark ages, we find numerous coincidences of the great phenomena above mentioned. All the great plagues that have afflicted mankind, have been accompanied with violent agitations of the elements. ^*

[Page 11]This observation rests particularly on the events that preceded and attended the pestilences of the following periods. A. D. 80—167—252—375—400—445—542—558—590—639— 679—682—745—762—802—905—994—1005—1031— 1044—1069—1106—1135—1142—1162—1181—1222— 1242—1300—1347—1368—1400—1477—1500—1531— 1577—1602—1625—1636—1665—1699—1709—1719— 1728—1743—1751—1760—1770—1783—1789. Many facts in other periods concur to prove the truth of the remark.

The phenomenon most generally and closely connected with pestilence is an earthquake. From all the facts that I can find in history, I question whether an instance of a considerable plague in any country, can be mentioned, which has not been immediately preceded or accompanied with convulsions of the earth. If any exceptions have occurred, they have escaped my researches. It does not happen that every place where pestilence prevails, is shaken; but during the progress of the diseases which I denominate pestilence, and which run, in certain periods, over large portions of the globe, some parts of the earth, and espe­cially those which abound most with subterranean fire, are vio­lently agitated.

By adverting to the foregoing history, the reader will find that all those years, in which considerable earthquakes have oc­curred in America, have been remarkably sickly. These years are 1638, 1647, 1658, 1662 and 3, 1668, 1727, 1755, 1783. See the history and the bills of mortality. Even the slighter shocks, have been attended with considerable sickness, or have introduced a series of epidemics, being cotemporary with the measles, influenza or sore throat; as in 1669, 1720, 1737, 1757, 1761, 1769, 1771, 1791, 1797.

To enumerate the instances in Europe and Asia, would be a useless repetition of the events related in the preceding history, to which the reader is referred.

Another phenomenon, which, next to earthquakes, appears [Page 12] to be most closely connected with epidemic diseases, is the erup­tion of fire from volcanic mountains. In this article, history is deficient, or I have not been fortunate enough to find the works necessary to furnish a complete view of these phenomena. There are whole centuries in which the books I have consulted, men­tion no eruption of Etna and Vesuvius. The account of erup­tions in Iceland, from the year 1000, taken from Pennant's Arctic Zoology, vol. 1. 331, is probably complete, or nearly so. Of the volcanoes in the Andes, we have very few accounts; as well as of those in the Moluccas. Of those in the Arctic regions of Asia and America, we know very little.

Notwithstanding these defects, we are able, by the eruptions in Italy, Sicily and Iceland, to arrive to some very important conclusions. The reader must have noticed, in the preceding history, the coincidences in time between volcanic discharges, and winters of unusual severity. These discharges either precede or follow the winter. Thus the eruptions of 1766, 1779 and 1783, were immediately followed by intensely cold winters. The severe winters of 1762-3 and 1779-80, were speedily fol­lowed by eruptions. These instances will serve as samples of the ordinary course of these events. Sometimes the eruptions continue or are repeated, for a number of years in succession; but the eruptions when continued are moderate and the seasons variable. When the volcanoes have been, for some years, quiet, and that suspension is followed by a great discharge, it appears to me that severe winters invariably follow or precede the dis­charge, within a few months. So also when an eruption is con­tinued for a number of years, if at any time the discharge be­comes violent, a severe winter attends it; as in 1669. Etna was in a state of eruption from 1664 to 1679; but in 1669, the discharge was immensely augmented, and the winters next preceding and following, were very severe.

There are some years in which eruptions are noted, of which I find no account, respecting the seasons. Perhaps some of these will, on further investigation, be found to be exceptions.

It is to be observed that, in some cases, a severe winter ex­tends to both hemispheres, sometimes to one only, and in a few [Page 13] cases, to a part of a hemisphere only. Thus in 1607-8—1683-4 —1762 [...]3—1766-7—1779-80—1783-4, the severity extended to both hemispheres. In 1640-41—1739-40, and in other in­stances, the severe winter in Europe preceded, by one year, a similar winter in America. In a few instances, severe frost takes place in one hemisphere, during a series of mild winters in the other; but this is less common. In general, the severity hap­pens, in both hemispheres at once, or in two winters in imme­diate succession; and as far as evidence has yet appeared, this se­verity is closely attendant on volcanic discharges, with very few exceptions.

Another phenomenon which usually coincides in time with se­vere winters, is the approach of comets. I have been struck with surprise at the coincidences of this kind. There are a few instances on record of mild winters, during the appearance of these bodies; but in these cases, the comets have appeared to be small, or to pass the system at an immense distance from the earth. The large comets and those which approach near to the earth, seem to produce almost uniformly great heat, excessive drouth, followed by very cold winters, tremendous storms of wind, rain, snow and hail, unusual tides or swell of the ocean, and usually, volcanic eruptions. How far these phenomena are connected, as cause and effect, future observations may de­termin. Some of them occur so uniformly in the same year, that I cannot resist the evidence of their connection.

After a volcano has been many years quiet, its discharges are, I believe, always preceded by extreme drouth; and this defect of water is not only observable in the vicinity of the volcano, but often extends over a whole continent, if not over the world. Many instances have been related; it is sufficient here to men­tion the excessive drouth in 1762 and 1782, preceding eruptions of Etna and Heckla. In these years, almost all springs were exhausted over a great portion of America.

Cold winters sometimes follow wet seasons, but more gene­rally a very hot summer or very dry autumn. Sometimes two or three severe winters occur in succession, as in 1766, 67 and 68 —and in America from 1796 to 1799.

[Page 14]The years when comets approach, or volcanoes discharge fire, and when the atmosphere exhibits fiery appearances, as meteors, streams of light, and mock suns, are, beyond comparison, the most tempestuous. Witness the years 1766, 1771 and 72, 1780, 1783, 4 and 5, 1788, 1797. In such years, the risk on ves­sels at sea, is greatly increased.

As dry seasons usually precede volcanic eruptions, so very wet seasons often follow them. This seems not to be the inva­riable course of events; but there are remarkable instances of deluging rains after these discharges. Witness the seasons follow­ing the universal convulsions of the earth in 1692 and 3, and 1766. Thus, the electricity is re-conducted to the earth.

In every case, I believe this remark will be found t [...]; that the approach of comets, and volcanic eruptions distu [...] the regu­lar course of the seasons. The heat of summer and the cold of winter are in extremes; more snow is generated in winter, and more hail in summer; tempests are more violent and frequent; meteors more numerous, and rain more unequally distributed over the earth.

A series of epidemic diseases, measles, influenza, affections of the throat, followed by pestilential fevers, appear generally to commence and take their departure, from some of the great agi­tations of the elements above recited. This at least has been the case in America in the four last periods, beginning with 1756-7, 1769 and 70, 1782 and 3, 1788 and 9. This fact will want no authority but a bare inspection of the preceding history, and tables.

The continuance and the varieties of the diseases seem to de­pend on similar disturbances in the elements; and as the dis­charges and motions of the electrical fluid depend on no certain laws that are known, they are irregular, and may contribute to vary the order, and the nature of diseases. In some cases, there has been a continued series of epidemics, for twenty years, in which the common order is not exactly observed; but this is not frequent. A remarkable instance occurred between 1727 and 1744.

Those periods in general have been most distinguished for [Page 15] sickness over the world, in which the fire of the earth has exhib­ited the most numerous and violent effects. Witness the period from 1631 to 1637, when the three most noted volcanoes dis­charged immense quantities of fire and lava; and severe pesti­lence extended over all Europe and America. A similar re­mark may be made concerning the period of the last universal pestilence in Europe from 1663 to 1666—also from 1691 to 1695—from 1727 to 30—1759 to 1764—1769 to 1772—1774 to 1777—1783 to 1786—and concerning some shorter periods, all of which produced epidemics in both hemispheres.

Slighter eruptions and earthquakes, which are almost annual, seem to have less effect. The fire of the globe is in perpetual motion or action, and to this great agent, philosophers are agreed, are to be ascribed the changes of seasons, and the generation of rain, hail and snow. Its operations however are not all of them visible, nor even perceptible, until they appear by their effects. It is probable that the invisible operations of the electrical fluid produce more effects than those which are seen. Indeed, we may question whether most of the visible phenomena of that principle, are not mere effects of that action which influences the vegetable and animal world. It is probable to me that neither seasons, earthquakes, nor volcanic eruptions, are the causes of the principal derangements we behold in animal and vegetable life, but are themselves the effects of those motions and invisible operations which affect mankind. Hence catarrh and other epi­demics often appear, before the visible phenomena of eruptions and earthquakes.

P. S. After this work was prepared for the press, I was fa­vored by Dr. Mitchill, with some extracts from a paper of Mr. Holm, a Swede, on the subject of a volcanic eruption in Ice­land, in 1783, by which it appears that the atmosphere is ren­dered pestilential by discharges of fire and lava from the earth. This effect is supposed to be wrought by a combination of the septous and oxygenous parts, and may confirm and improve Dr. Mitchill's theory of pestilential air.

[Page 16]This eruption I understand to have been a bursting of fire from the earth, in a place distant from Heckla. In the neighbor­hood of the column of flame were generated snow, hail and ex­treme cold. The water that fell in rain was acid and corrosive; destroying cattle and men—covering the bodies of cattle with pustles and ulcers, and excoriating th [...] hands and faces of men when it fell on them. It also killed vegetables. The effects were felt not only in Iceland, but in Norway, and other parts of Europe.

Had this treatise fallen into my hands some months ago, I might have been able to illustrate particular parts of my theory by authentic facts, taken from that work. As it is, I must content myself with observing, that Mr. Holm's observations verify my ideas, respecting the agency of electricity in producing pestilence, and extremes in the seasons. On this theory not only pestilence, but severe cold, and extreme heat, hail and snow are all familiar­ly explained, and their connection with volcanic eruptions, and other electrical operations, visible and invisible, demonstrated.

SECTION XI. Pestilential periods exhibited by means of an increase of mortality in distant parts of the world.

AS there are certain periods when particular epidemics pre­vail over the world or over a hemisphere, and when all other diseases assume peculiar malignancy, I have here subjoined a num­ber of bills of mortality, for different and distant places, to show the effect of the general principle of disease in remote countries or towns.—Some of these periods appear in the foregoing tables, as that between 1623 and 1627; and between 1631 and 1637.—

The plague raged in Turkey and Syria in 1718-19 and 20, also at Marseilles in 1720, in which years or one of them, the bills of mortality were swelled, even in the north of Europe. I regret that some of the bills are deficient.

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Plague in Levant, Italy and America.

From the year 1744 to 1757 there were many sickly years, out no one distinct period when an increase of mortality is observ­able in all parts of the world, at the same time.

Plague in Egypt and the Levant from 1758 to 1763. Yel­low Fever in Philadelphia in 1762.

Plague raging in the east.

[Page 19]The series of epidemics, in this period, measles, influenza and sore throat, were followed by dysentery in America from 1775 to 1777 inclusive, the mortality of which will appear from the following bills.

It is probable the mortality in the northern states of America was every where in that proportion. The same disease made similar ravages between 1749 and 1753—in 1759—1765 and 6 —in some places in 1769.—It was remarkably mortal in 1773. This latter year was in America unhealthy. In Salem, Mass. the bill of 1773, was raised to 208, (double the usual amount) by the dysentery. The bill for St. Petersburgh in Russia, was swel­led in 1773, one fifth, and in 1777, one fourth.

The last epidemic period, save one, was from 1781 to 1787 inclusive. The diseases were influenza, measles and scarlatina. These were in general lighter than usual. In the interior of New-York state, Vermont Massachusetts and New-Hampshire, the scarlatina was more severe and mortal; but on the sea board and especially in Connecticut, it was milder, and many places wholly escaped it. Yet every where the bills of mortality were swelled in 1783, 4, 5 or 6, when the plague was raging in the Levant and Egypt. This period was closed by remarkably cool summers, and no dysentery or pestilential fever of any considerable violence or extent, succeeded.

The scarlatina and measles produced their principal effects, it will be observed, in Philadelphia and Boston. The plague raged in Egypt principally in 1783 and 4, and the scarlatina appeared in Britain, but without very considerable mortality. In 1787 the plague prevailed in Egypt and on the Barbary coast; and diseases of the throat were prevalent in England and some parts of America.

The results above are not perfectly accurate, for the bills in Philadelphia, it is understood, are from August to August; those in New-York commence with the year. The bill of the Presbyterian Church in New-York, for 1797, is by estimate; the others are taken from registers.

View of this epidemic period in Connecticut:

It will be observed that the principal effect of the epidemics, was in 1794, except in Litchfield, in the western part of the state.

Let it be noted that the effect of the scarlatina was here in 1795 and '96. The progress of the disease is distinctly marked to be from New-York eastward, from 1793 to 1796. The scarlatina in 1785 and 6, was most severe in Massachusetts—that in 1794, in Connecticut. The bills in Boston for 1792 were swelled by the small-pox by inoculation, which is not to be taken into this account of epidemics. The year selected was rather unfavorable, as the condition of the atmosphere was inflammatory, and incli­ned to produce eruptive complaints. The scarlatina was then making its appearance in the middle states. The spring of 1793, when inoculation was begun at Hartford, was still more unfa­vorable; and the small-pox was so unmanageable as to surprise the faculty. The principles unfolded in this treatise will solve the difficulty.

By a bill of mortality for Madeira, it appears that the pestilen­tial principle of the years from 1760 to 6 [...] extended to that healthy island.

The following bills for several religious societies in Con­necticut, will exhibit a general view of epidemics from the year 1750.

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[Page 26]From the bills of mortality and preceding history may be de­duced some interesting observations.

1. We observe an order and progression in the epidemics, which is in a degree uniform. Periods of pestilence, with some exceptions, seem to be introduced by measles and influenza; then follow diseases of the throat, or anginas; lastly pestilential fevers. During the whole period, the measles, influenza and angina, occa­sionally appear in spring, autumn and winter; and rarely, if ever, does a pestilential fever, as plague and yellow fever, occur in a particular city or country, without influenza, angina, measles or inflammatory fevers in the spring preceding, for immediate pre­cursors. This is true in the tropical climates, in cases of epidem­ics; and so uniform has been the fact in the temperate latitudes, that I am nearly prepared to say, that if none of those precursors appear in winter and spring, no pestilential fever will be epidemic in the following summer and autumn, unless the dysentery may be excepted. It holds true in every case of great pestilence.

2. The progressiveness in the pestilential principle is obvious in the augmented bills of mor [...]ality, which immediately precede the plague. This arises from the number and violence of the ma­lignant diseases which always precede an epidemic pestilence. This augmentation is visible some times two years before the plague appears, and almost always in the spring months preceding. See the London bills in the years preceding the plague in 1625 —1636—1665 The same is observable in other bills, both in Europe and America. In a few instances, the bill of the prece­ding year is low; but in this case, some other epidemic has usually gone before, and finished its course; or the plague is preceded by influenza only, which does not swell the bill of mortality.

3. Sometimes a series of epidemics falls with more violence on one hemisphere than on the other; but perhaps in no instance has a course of diseases spread over one continent, without show­ing themselves on the other. I have not been able to find an in­stance in which the plague has made great ravages in the east, ex­cept when the American continent has been more or less affected by the epidemics above mentioned; and in some instances it is proved that the violence of the sore-throat, influenza, measles or [Page 27] yellow fever, in America, has corresponded with the violence of pestilence in Egypt and the Levant. The commencement of each period of epidemics is nearly cotemporary, in both hemis­pheres. ^*

Thus the great plague in Constantinople was cotemporary with the fatal angina and dysentery in America in 1751—also in 1755. Cotemporary with the measles in America in 1758 and 9, was the commencement of the extensive Levant plague of 1760. Pes­tilence in Persia was cotemporary with the epidemics of 1773— In 1783 commenced plague in the east and epidemics in America —the same in 1792 and 3. Diseases of the throat in almost every instance prevail at the same time in Europe and America.

4. In two periods within half a century, a severe angina and dysentery have been epidemic together and once for a series of years, as in 1751, and from 1773 to 1777. This is an excep­tion to the usual order, and other deviations sometimes occur.

5. As catarrh precedes, so it follows every severe epidemic pestilence, and the persons who have been affected with a pesti­lential fever in summer, are most apt to be affected by catarrh at the commencement of cold weather.

6. After severe pestilential fevers in summer, the inflammatory fevers of winter, wear the livery of the summer fevers. They generally carry with them bilious discharges, and a yellow skin. They have also this remarkable character, that they speedily run through the inflammatory diathesis, and become typhus. They are the pestilence of winter; and sometimes appear before the pes­tilence of summer. This fact alone decides the question, that pestilential fevers of summer are generated on the spot where they exist; and derive their malignant and infectious quality sole­ly from the state of the elements.

This species of inflammatory fever has occurred in many cases during the winter months, since the year 1790. In some cases it has extinguished three four and five members of a family; as [Page 28] in Hartford and New-Haven. But it is a most consoling reflec­tion, that it is less frequent than formerly in this country. It has not been epidemic in the northern states since [...]61, as far as I can learn. Formerly it was as frightful a calamity as the yellow fever is in this age. In the foregoing history, many examples have been mentioned—as at Fairfield in 1698—at Waterbury in 1713—at Hartford and Duck Creek in 1720—at Farmington in 1729—at Bethlem, Hartford, East-Haven and New-Haven in 1761—at Holliston in 1753, &c. Whether the disappear­ance of this disease is owing to the clearing of the country, by which the quantity of debilitating miàsmata of summer has been diminished, or whether it is the consequence of other alterations in our climate, is not easily determined.

The disappearance of the Long Fever, so called, is another most consoling circumstance. This species of typhus fever was formerly one of the most terrible diseases of our climate. At present i [...] is a rare occurrence.

On the whole, we have very clear proof that the quantity of disease in this country, has been diminished, within half a century. The yellow fever, that is, the pestilential fever of summer and autumn, was formerly as frequent and as malignant as in this age; while the inflammatory fevers of winter, and the long fever, have almost disappeared as epidemics. The intermittents and remit­tents of autumn, are greatly decreased in the northern states; and the dysentery has not increased in frequency or virulence. Anginas have never been so fatal as they were between 1735 and 1743.

It is probable that some of these changes in the character of diseases may be ascribed to alterations in our climate, or modes of living—and therefore may be permanent. In some cases, im­provements in medical science and the practice of physic may have disarmed diseases of their terrors. But it is possible that some of the changes mentioned are only revolutions in disease, occasioned by temporary causes, and that the same disorders may, in future periods, recur, with the whole train of formidable symp­toms.

[Page 29] Note.—It has been observed that the long fever, so called, has nearly disappeared from our climate. On further enquiry, it appears that this observation must be restricted to the maritime states. The bilious remitting fever that prevailed in Vermont and New-Hampshire in 1798, and which has re-appeared in this summer (1799) is of that species. See Medical Repository, vol. 3. 5. In the interior of our country, this is a new disease; while on the sea-coast it has become extinct. Shall we conclude from these facts, that the disease follows or springs from a par­ticular state of cultivation? In the interior, where the disease is now prevalent, the clearing and cultivation of the country were begun about 30 years ago. On the sea-coast, where the disease has disappeared, the country has been settled 150 years, and is generally under cultivation.

SECTION XII. Of the Influenza, or Epidemic Catarrh.

AS the catarrh appears to be the disease which is most close­ly connected with pestilence, and the least dependent on local causes or the sensible qualities of the air, I have collected all the well-defined instances of this epidemic which have occurred to my researches, and arranged them in chronological order; pla­cing against the year the most remarkable physical occurrences, and mentioning those which fell within the years next preceding and following:

The accounts of the seasons are mostly from English writers, and refer to England, with some exceptions. In regard to heat and cold, the seasons are generally uniform in most countries, on the same continent; but not in regard to drouth and moisture.

Of these forty-four instances of influenza, it may be observed, from the preceding history.

[Page 33]1. That most of them happened, after or during severe cold, or during moist weather, and in spring, winter or autumn. Some however, occurred in dry hot seasons, and others in mild winters.

2. Nineteen instances occurred in years when there was a vol­canic eruption in Italy or Iceland, and eleven others, though in different years, were within a few months of eruptions; making 30 out of the 44. Two or three others happened near the time of volcanic discharges in South-America.

3. Almost all happened in years of earthquakes, or within a few months preceding or following them.

4. Thirty instances occurred within the year, or a few months preceding or following the appearance of comets.

It is further to be observed that some of these epidemics have been limited to the American hemisphere, at the distance of three, four or five years from an epidemic of the same kind in Europe. Such as those of 1647—1655—which coincide in time with violent earthquakes in South-America.

In other instances this disease spread over the whole globe; usually beginning in America: That is, in the instances of which I can obtain any correct information. Thus in four instances, viz. in 1698, 1757, 1761 and 1781, it spread over the Ameri­can hemisphere one year prior to its pervading the other hemis­phere. And the universal catarrh of 1733, which encircled the globe, commenced in America two months before it appeared in Europe. The epidemic of 1782 invaded Europe from the side of Asia, the year after it appeared in America. In 1788, the influenza in Europe preceded the same disease in America.

I regret my want of materials to complete a view of this sub­ject. No regular register has been kept in America, of the sea­sons, diseases and phenomena, from the first settlement, and whe­ther any notices of all the catarrhs in this country, are in exis­tence, I do not know. I have found no account of any, between 1655 and 1698—nor between the latter year and 1733. One of these instances, that in 1698, came to my knowledge by acci­dent, as I have mentioned under that year, in the foregoing his­tory. From the uniform appearance of this epidemic as often as [Page 34] once in ten or twelve years, in other periods, we have ground to believe, it has always occurred in nearly the same periods.

This epidemic is evidently the effect of some insensible qualities of the atmosphere; as it spreads with astonishing rapidity over land and sea, uncontrolled by heat or cold, drouth or moisture. From these circumstances and its near coincidence in time with the violent action of fire in earthquakes and volcanoes, there is reason to conclude the disease to be the effect of some access of stimulant powers to the atmosphere by means of the electrical principle. No other principle in creation, which has yet come under the cognizance of the human mind, seems adequate to the same effects. I do not consider earthquakes and volcanic erup­tions as the causes of this epidemic, but as effects of the common cause and evidences of its existence.

The courses of this epidemic are very various. That in 1510 proceeded from Africa to Sicily, Italy and the north of Europe. This disease could not be the effect of the eruption in Iceland; for it appeared first in southern latitudes. If there was a volcanic discharge about that time in Africa, we might be inclined to as­cribe the disease to that cause; but it is more probable that it is to be ascribed to an insensible action of atmospheric fire, ^* which is more general and violent, about the time of eruptions; and which fire is probably agitated in all parts of the globe, although it produces visible effects in explosions, in some particular places only. I think no man can question the fact, after reading the preceding history.

The course of the epidemic in 1551, I am not able to ascer­tain; nor that in 1557. This invaded Spain in August.

The severe catarrh of 1580 began in the south of Europe, in the heat of summer, and proceeded to the north. The season in general was temperate.

From that year to 1708—9, I find no account of the course of the epidemic catarrh; but that in 1708—9, began in the north of Europe and proceeded to the south.

The epidemic of 1729—30, proceeded from Poland and Si­lesia, [Page 35] to the west and south, and ended about the time of an explo­sion from Vesuvius.

The universal influenza of 1733, began in America in the au­tumn of 1732. It appeared in Europe in December. That of 1788 appeared in April, May, June and August, in different places.

The epidemic in America in 1789, began in the middle states, and spread southward and eastward. In 1790, it began in about the same longitude, but in the interior country, and spread east­ward and southward.

The influenza of 1782 in Europe, came from Asia. Possibly it might have travelled from America, across the Pacific to Chi­na and Kamschatka; as it was epidemic in America in 1781.

This is all I am able to discover of the origin and direction of this singular epidemic. It is greatly to be desired, that we might learn precisely the dates of its appearance, the place, the direction of its progress, in all cases, and compare these circumstances with the extraordinary agitations of the elements, which occur about the same time. But for this purpose my materials are incomplete.

It is observable, however, that the influenza is closely allied to the measles. Sometimes the symptoms are combined in the same attack, and rarely does one disease become epidemic, except just before or after the other. This proves their alliance: indeed I consider them as different modifications of the same epidemic.

Catarrh is also closely connected with pestilential fevers, and sometimes this is true of the measles. It is rare indeed that epi­demic plague and yellow fever do not begin and end in catarrhal affections—that is, catarrh precedes in spring, and follows in au­tumn. Sometimes pestilence is preceded and followed by mea­sles and angina.

Every epidemic constitution seems to commence with measles or influenza. To these succeed angina, in some of its various forms, which are all the offspring of the same parent. Then fol­low pestilential fevers, in the form of dysentery, yellow fever and plague. Whenever the epidemic constitution is manifested by measles, influenza and affections of the throat, common diseases, [Page 36] even in places apparently healthy, become more malignant, and sporadic cases of pestilential fever occur in almost every situation.

These facts are curious, and without attending to them, the philosophy of epidemics cannot be understood.

P. S. After writing the foregoing history, I was able to ascer­tain further particulars of a severe influenza in America in 1737. Warren, on the yellow fever, mentions this catarrh in Barbadoes in the winter preceding the bilious plague in that island in 1738. I have now learnt from two elderly gentlemen, who were then arrived to adult years, that in November 1737, this epidemic in­vaded all parts of the country, so suddenly and severely that neighbors could not visit each other, and that there were scarce­ly people in health to perform the ordinary domestic labors neces­sary to support life.

If my informants are correct as to the time, this epidemic inva­ded Europe and America in the same month—the only instance that I have found; and an exception to the foregoing remarks. It will be observed also that this instance coincides with an erup­tion of Vesuvius, and the most tremendous tempest in the East-Indies ever known. Let it be noted also, that this catarrh was the immediate precursor of the most fatal pestilential fever in the West-Indies, and one that nearly depopulated Mexico. The catarrh commenced with or a little before a most severe winter.

It is remarkable that the extent and violence of this distem­per mark exactly the severity of the pestilential fevers which pre­cede and follow it. The two epidemic catarrhs of 1733 and 37, invaded the whole globe in the same year. They were very severe, and so were the anginas and plagues of this period; far beyond what has occurred at any other time, during this centu­ry, until the last period.

SECTION XIII. Of the order, connection and progression of pestilential epidemics.

IN the early periods of the world, little notice appears to have been taken of a connection between epidemic diseases; nor have modern writers supplied this defect in the history of medicin. Hippocrates and Sydenham seem to have been aware of such a connection, and the latter author has laid broad and firm foun­dation for a complete system of truth, on the subject of epidem­ics. His observations were confined to the city of London. Had he extended his view to all parts of Europe, and general­ized his observations, he would have found a multitude of facts to justify his theory, and probably would have raised it above the reach of that obloquy and ridicule, which succeeding professors of physic, of less genius and learning, have c [...]t on his occult qualities of air.

Indeed, it is surprising that medical men have not pursued the ideas suggested by these great fathers of their science. Hippo­crates led the way, unlocking the great doctrin of a constitution or state of the atmosphere, calculated to produce particular epi­demic diseases; a doctrin which Sydenham has pursued with wonderful success. Any man who reads the history of diseases, must see that certain species of them appear nearly together in time and place. The order in which they appear, may not be exactly the same at all times, and in all countries; but they oc­cur so nearly together, as evidently to prove their alliance, and their dependence on the same general causes.

All popular diseases must have, for their causes, some princi­ples as extensive as the effects. These causes most probably exist in the elements, fire, air and water; for we know of no other medium by which diseases can be communicated to whole com­munities of people▪

[Page 38]Bad food indeed is a fruitful source of diseases; but this must always proceed from the qualities of the elements which enter into its composition. A defect therefore in the nourishing powers of food, is a consequence of a defect or superabundance in the elements, or in their combination in animal and vegetable produc­tions. It may be considered as a disease in the animal and veg­etable kingdom, which most probably proceeds from the same causes, as epidemic distempers among mankind.

The principal epidemic distempers which invade mankind, are, catarrh or influenza, measles, whooping or chin cough, the dif­ferent species of angina, small pox, bilious fevers, petechial fe­ver, dysentery, plague. Of these, catarrh is the most decided­ly an epidemic dependent wholly on a particular state of atmos­phere. Cullen calls it "catarrh from contagion," to distinguish it from sporadic cases of the same disease; but, after careful ob­servation, during the progress of it in the United States in 1789, and again in 1790, I am confident the progress of the disease de­pends very little on a communication from person to person. It has been doubted whether it is an infectious disease; and I have some evidence to prove it not so; but certain it is, that its sud­den invasion of whole families, whole towns and even whole countries, and the rapidity of its progress over sea and land, ab­solutely preclude the supposition of its dependence on specific contagion.

The other diseases above enumerated may arise from both cau­ses—infection and a peculiar state of air. Some of them de­pend mostly on a constitution of air, fitted to produce them; others are seldom produced without a connection with diseased persons. It is however proper to observe that the small-pox, dys­entery and plague are not usually, and in strictness of language, epidemic diseases. They seldom invade whole countries. They are more properly endemic; yet this epithet is not strictly appli­cable to them; being used more properly to denote a disease which is peculiar to a particular place, whereas those diseases may invade any place on the globe. The elephantiosis is an endemic in Egypt and certain other places in warm climates; the small-pox, dysentery and plague usually appear in cities, camps, or [Page 39] other unhealthy situations, without affecting neighboring places, which contain not the same local causes of disease. They might therefore, in strict propriety, be denominated temporary endemics, in opposition to epidemics which spread to all places alike; and to endemics, which constantly or usually appear in particular parts of the world.

This distinction however is not very material; and I shall therefore speak of the small-pox, dysentery and plague, as epi­demic diseases; meaning by this epithet, that they, at certain times, spread generally over a particular town or region.

The nature and kinds of contagion will be more particularly considered, in a subsequent section; the present subject, is, the order, connection, and progression observable in pestilential epi­demics.

The influence of a certain state of air in generating epidemics was observed by Hippocrates, who has described the prevalent diseases, in different seasons. In his second section on epidem­ics, he describes what he calls "Katastasis loimodes," a pesti­lential state of the air or seasons. He does not indeed in this passage mention the plague, but he speaks of those malignant dis­eases which are, in modern times, the precursors of the plague, and which are now produced by the state of weather which he describes.

This state of the seasons he represents thus, "The year was austrinus, remarkable for southerly breezes, rainy and without winds. The first part of the year dry, and autumn rainy, with southerly winds, humid and cloudy. In winter, southerly winds, moist and mild weather. About the vernal equinox, se­vere cold, but the north winds, with snow, were of no long du­ration. Spring was again calm, southerly weather—great rains continued till August—then clear hot weather—the cool Elesian winds blew but little and for short periods. A rainy autumn, with north winds."

The southerly, hot, humid air here described, whenever of long continuance in summer, proves the cause of numerous ma­lignant diseases, in the United States, as well as in Europe, al­tho not certainly productive of pestilence.

[Page 40]Hippocrates proceeds to mention the diseases which prevailed in this state of seasons. "Before spring, even during the cold weather, appeared many erysipelous diseases of a malignant type. Diseases of the fauces, accompanied with hourseness, ardent fe­vers, with phrenitis; ulcers in the mouth; inflammation of eyes, carbuncles, &c. These diseases spread and became epidemic and mortal." The author then proceeds to describe the erys [...]pelas and other diseases here named. These cases differ from the plague in Athens; and prove that the pestilence in Thasus, where he wrote, was of milder symptoms, though probably cotemporary with that epidemic in Athens.

My particular reason for reciting these passages from Hippoc­rates, is, to prove a progressiveness in a pestilential state of air, and the diseases which it produces. The diseases here mention­ed are the same, substantially, as those which precede the plague in modern times, in the countries bordering on the Mediterra­nean, and with little variation, the same with those which pre­cede the plague in all parts of the world. Erysipelous, or other eruptive diseases, catarrhous affections, or ardent fevers, are the constant precursors of the plague, wherever it appears. Hip­pocrates does not mention any fatal plague, in the state of air described; and it often happens, at this day, that the strength of the pestilential principle is arrested in its progress, and the ep­idemics are limited, in their violence, to diseases of a type less malignant than the true plague, or arising to the plague only in a few scattering cases. But whatever may be the degree of the pestilential state of the air, or at whatever point, it may be des­tined to cease, and yield to a more salubrious constitution, the class of diseases which mark its rise and progress, are always simi­lar, or the same, modified only in the violence of their symptoms, by accidental circumstances.

A careful attention to these facts, cannot fail to convince the observer of the justness of Sydenham's doctrines, in regard to constitutions of air; and the facts themselves demolish, at one stroke, all the common medical doctrines of the communication of pestilence from place to place by contagion, or fomites.

Unfortunately, the histories of ancient plagues furnish but [Page 41] little light on this subject; yet the barren annals of antiquity and the middle ages, are not wholly destitute of evidence to this point. The progression of the plague in Rome, growing more general and fatal to the second and third year, is a fact re­corded by Livy, and is related in the preceding pages.

The remark of Dion Cassius, that the ashes from Vesuvius, in the great eruption of 79, produced, that year, only slight diseases, but the next year, an epidemic, has already been no­ticed. It leaves no room to question, that the destructive plague of the year 80, was preceded by epidemic disorders of a less ma­lignant type.

The middle ages furnish facts in confirmation of this doctrin. Witness the great plague in 1112, which was preceded by ery­sipelous diseases in England in 1109, and great mortality in 1111. The plague of 1242, which was preceded by great mortality in 12 [...]0—the same fact is observable in the pestilence of 1252, 1368, 1379, 1390, 1517, 1527, 1575, 1636—and in many other instances.

This fact did not escape the notice of that accurate observer of nature, Lord Bacon, who lived at a period when the plague frequently infested England. He says, "The lesser infections of the small-pox, purple fever, agues, &c. in the preceding sum­mer, and hovering all the winter, portend a great pestilence the fol­lowing summer, for putrefaction rises not to its height at once." Works, vol. 3, p. 59.

That state of air which produces pestilential diseases, Lord Bacon denominates putrefaction; but whatever appellation we may give to the cause of pestilence, the remark is demonstrably well founded, that this "rises not to its height at once." It is progressive; producing first the "lesser infections." The plague is rarely, if ever, an original, distinct, isolated disease; but the last or most mortal form of a series of malignant distempers. The purple fever mentioned by Lord Bacon is nearly allied to the petechial fever, which is the usual precursor of pestilence in the Levant.

The universal plague of 1635, 6 and 7, was preceded by the [Page 42] usual diseases, and the progress of them is distinctly traced by the learned Diemerbroeck. He remarks, chap. 3 de peste, that "the spring of 1635, was warm and moderately humid, to which succeeded a very hot, dry season, in which appeared many ma­lignant epidemics. In the first place, a severe plague broke out at Leyden, and destroyed more than 20,000 lives. At Ni­meguen, in Gueldres and other regions, a certain pestilent fe­ver spread with dreadful mortality. In autumn, the severe heat still continuing with excessive drouth, many other malignant dis­eases appeared, as small-pox, measles, diarrhea and dysentery of a very bad type; but above all, the above mentioned pestilential purple fever, called in Italy petechial, increased daily in extent and violence, until it turned into the true plague—"donec tandem in apertissimam pestem transiret."—The author goes on to remark that from November through the winter, scattering cases of plague occurred in Nimeguen. In January 1636, it increased, and in March spread and became epidemic—rose to its height in April, and continued till October. See pages 5 and 6.

This passage contains a number of important facts. First—the seasons were insalubrious. Secondly—the pestilential state of air extended to many places at the same time: In another page, the author says the pestilence spread over almost all Germany and the low countries. Thrdly—this state of air was of different de­grees of malignity or violence, in different places at the same time. Thus, the plague appeared at Leyden early in 1635, but cotemporary with this, was the appearance of the purple fever in Nimeguen and in other places; and during the summer and au­tumn, this and other epidemics continued to rage with great mor­tality, and at last, the strength of the pestilential principle increa­sing, the fever changed its form, and appeared in the true plague.

Now, the modern way of accounting for the plague in Nime­guen, would be to allege or suppose some infected goods to have conveyed the contagion from Leyden, where it first appeared; and then to suppose the infection to be carried to Leyden from the Levant.

The philosophic Diemerbroeck, who was present and observed all the circumstances, supposes nothing. He relates plain facts [Page 43] just as they occurred, and admits that the plague must have ori­ginated in the country.

By considering the malignant epidemics that prevailed at that time, as connected and depending on the same general cause, we solve all the difficulties attending the origin of the plague. The petechial fever, which appeared at Nimeguen and other places, in 1635, was one of the forms in which the general contagion of the period, exhibited its effects on the human constitution. It was a part of the pestilence—it could not be conveyed from Ley­den, for it appeared in most parts of the low countries and in Ger­many, at the same time. The same general cause, an indisposi­tion in the elements to support healthy life, produced various pes­tilential diseases, according to place, season, age, habit of body and constitution, until its strength and violence arose to their height, and gradually introduced the worst form of pestilence.

The idea of Diemerbroeck, that the purple fever "turned to the plague," must give great offence to the followers of Mead and Cullen, the advocates for the doctrin of the propagation of the plague solely by specific contagion. It opposes efficaciously their whole theory, and levels it with the earth.

The fact is however indisputable. In the distressing period from 1569 to 1577, when Europe was almost depopulated by the spotted fever, physicians observed that this disease frequently turned into the plague, and the plague into the spotted fever. The same fact was often noticed by writers of the 16th and 17th cen­turies, in which the plague frequently overran Europe.—These two diseases, are therefore two distinct forms or modifications of pestilence—probably bearing an affinity to each other, like that between the distinct and confluent small-pox. This fact shows that the distinction made by medical writers, between pestis and pestilentia, the plague and other pestilential distempers, however useful in practice, is not authorized by truth and philosophy. The ancients classed all contagious epidemics together, and de­nominated them pestilence; and this distribution, in regard to their causes and origin, was doubtless most philosophical. The distri­bution made by modern physicians, seems to have arisen out of differences of symptoms, and to be best adapted to practice. At [Page 44] the same time, it has probably been the occasion of the common error of considering different species or forms of pestilence, as diseases of generical difference, and proceeding wholly from dis­tinct causes, when in fact they all have one general cause in com­mon, and the varieties of their symptoms proceed from distinct lo­cal and temporary causes.

On this subject the learned Riverius, in his Praxeos Medicae, lib. 17. has many judicious remarks. He observes, "That authors, who wrote on fevers, distinguish a pestilent from a ma­lignant fever—by pestilent fever they understand the true plague; by a malignant one, the fever vulgarly called purple, or other fe­ver, which tho epidemic and contagious, is less dangerous, and in which more patients survive than perish—whereas the essence of the true plague consists in this, that it destroys more than half who are seized with it." He however considers these fevers as differing mostly in degree of malignity, and therefore treats of them under one head.

A pestilent fever this author considers as not proceeding solely from intemperate heat, or putridity; but from a malignant and poisonous quality; and whenever this quality appears in a fever, whether quotidian, hectic or putrid, he thinks it ought to be de­nominated pestilent. A pestilent fever differs from the plague as species from genus because there may be plague without fever.

This author remarks also the connection between certain epi­demics. "Many deadly diseases accompany the prevalence of pestilence—as phrenitis, anginas, pleurisies, peripneumonies, in­flamations of the liver, dysenteries and many others." He as­cribes epidemics to the state of air, as a common cause, to which he adds the usual local or particular causes, which modify its in­fluence.

Prosper Alpinus informs us that these diseases prevail also in Egypt, at certain times; but he gives no account of their order or connection. Vol. 2. p. 73.

Bellinus describes the phenomena which precede the plague, which he calls its antecedents. After mentioning food of a bad quality, impure air from exhalations, intemperate seasons, va­pours emitted during earthquakes and the like, he says, "Mox [Page 45] terraemotu Achaia universa commota est, et duae tunc civitates, Bura et Helice, abruptis locorum devoratae."

Other authors refer this catastrophe to the period of pestilence last mentioned, which some writers place in the year of Rome 388, and others, in 384; but all agree that it was during the approximation of a comet. This last pestilence was dreadful in the extreme, sparing no age or sex. The year after it, the earth opened and exhibited a vast chasm in the midst of Rome, into which M. Curtius precipitated himself for the salvation and prosperity of the city.

P. Orosius and P. Diaconus, followed by Muratori, place the commencement of this plague in the year of Rome 384. Orosius says that "in the 103d and 105th Olympiad, Italy was shaken a whole year, by tremendous earthquakes. The hundred and third Olympiad, according to our common chro­nology, comprehends the years of Rome from 386 to 389, in­clusive. It is probable that in one of the shocks of this series of earthquakes, the chasm was made in Rome as already related. It will be observed that this event followed the pestilence.

The comet that appeared, during this calamity, was probably that mentioned by Aristotle, Meteorol. lib. 1. ca. 6, of which he was an eye-witness.

But I must not omit what authors relate concerning the pe­culiar character of this plague. Orosius says, it was not such a pestilence, as usually proceeded from irregular seasons, extreme drouth, sudden heat of the spring, unseasonable moisture of sum­mer and autumn, or the impure air blown from the Calabrian groves; but severe and continued, attacking all descriptions of people, and either destroying their lives, or leaving them in a weak and miserable condition.

The winter when the comet appeared Aristotle relates to have been cold; but the severity and duration of the plague cannot be accounted for on the principle of changes or irregularities in the seasons. It was one of those violent epidemics which never afflict mankind, without some essential alteration in the invisible [Page 46] began to appear, six months before the arrival of the infection from Syria!

In Aleppo, the plague which appeared in 1742, was preceded by an acute fever; and after the disease abated in July, appeared diarrheas and dysentery of a malignant type, attended in many cases with petechae, and intermittents which often proved fatal. These diseases, in their acute forms, prevailed also with the plague, which in this year was not severe, nor wholly the predominant epidemic.

This continued acute fever and pleurisies, ran through the win­ter. In November appeared a few cases of the plague. Where the infection had lain dormant from July to November, the author of this account, Alexander Russell, has not informed us.

In the spring of 1743, the plague again appeared and spread in the city, and at the usual time in summer subsided, being again succeeded by other acute disorders, which by bleeding and pur­ging, were formed into tertians, double tertians and quotidians.

Here again we have the same progression in the state of the pestilence, which had been remarked by Hippocrates, Bacon and Sydenham. During the existence of this pestilential constitu­tion in Aleppo, all the ordinary diseases of the country assumed a more malignant type; or as Sydenham remarked of the dis­eases which preceded the plague of 1665, they "differed from the same diseases in other years, by new and unusual symptoms, which in short amounted to this, that they were all more violent." See vol. 1, p. 20.

The diseases changed their form with the seasons—the acute fever preceding ran into plague, and plague ran into malignant dysentery, tertians, and other acute distempers.

Similar facts are observed in America. The plague has been preceded by acute diseases, as anginas, remittents of a bad type, &c. and followed by remittents, dysentery and malignant pleurisy.

The dreadful plague at Messina in 1743, which destroyed two thirds of its inhabitants, was introduced by a malignant fever. One physician alone out of thirty-three, pronounced it the plague; the others denied it, because the disease was not attended with glandular swellings.

[Page 47]A similar fever preceded the severe plague at Venice in 1576, and the same uncertainty at first embarrassed the physicians and magistracy.

The terrible pestilence at Naples in 1656, was announced by the usual herald of the disease, a malignant fever. One physi­cian alone pronounced it the plague, and for his audacity was im­prisoned by the Viceroy.

The extensive pestilence which spread over all the Levant countries and islands, from 1759 to 1763, was every where pre­ceded by a similar increase of malignant diseases, and especially by the petechial fever, which appeared, at Aleppo, in the year next previous to the plague. Yet the author of this account, Patrick Russel, labors very gravely to trace the disease to Turks from Egypt and their old clothes.

The uncertainty among physicians, at the commencement of a plague, with respect to the nature of the disorder, is a strong proof of the doctrin for which I contend. Van Helmont, Diemer­broeck and others have found it necessary to lay down rules with a great degree of care and caution, to enable themselves to de­termin, whether a malignant disease is the plague or not. Van Helmont observes, p. 1138 that he could perceive no difference in the pulse, in plague and continual fevers of the malignant kind —that buboes in the groin, paroitides, &c. are not unfrequently found in fevers free from plague; and sometimes spots and car­buncles. But, says he, if many of these appearances do concur, there is no difficulty in pronouncing it the plague, especially if they appear before or early after the fever.

Diemerbroeck declares, that no one symptom determines a disease to be the plague—neither fever, buboes nor carbuncles are essential to that disease, for it often passes off without either— many of its symptoms are common to that and other distempers— the existence of the disease therefore is to be determined by a view of all the circumstances, and one criterion, he remarks, is, the prevalence of the plague in neighboring towns.

This last remark indicates that the author had observed the existence of pestilence in various places at the same time, to be a common event.

[Page 48]The difficulty at first in ascertaining the existence of the plague, proceeds wholly from the progression in the series of dis­eases—the malignant fevers, preceding gradually incr [...]asing in violence, and changing their form.

It has been the same in the United States. The first cases of the bilious plague have occured early in summer, usually in July, sometimes in June. These have not excited much alarm, for they have not usually prov [...] [...]fectious; and they have theref [...]e been classed among the ordinary diseases of the hot season. This however has ever been a mistake; they were the less malignant forms of approaching pestilence; yet five or six weeks after their appearance, when the epidemic has showed itself in its formidable array, our citizents have hunted out some vessel from southern climates and palmed the evil on her seamen or cargo.

Van Swieten, Comment. vol. 16, 3. remarks, "that the plague has sometimes lain concealed under the mask of other dis­eases. When the plague raged at Vienna in 1713, it frequently assumed the appearance of a pleurisy, catarrh, or quinsy, but soon after, broke out buboes and carbuncles, most certain signs of the plague, accompanied with the usual symptoms."

Here we observe the usual precursors and companions of the plague and the progression of the pestilential principle.

Hippocrates has remarked the augmented violence of diseases, in particular periods. He says, "There are times when almost all the diseases that occur, are extremely malignant, and in gen­eral, fatal, so that coughs, phthisis, angina, are all equally mor­tal. He assures us, that the truth of his observations had been confirmed, in countries very different from each other, and in a variety of seasons and climates." See the passage cited in Zim­merman on physic, p. 163.

We have multiplied proofs of the justness of these remarks. During the periods which I call pestilential, the common diseases of a country, as dysentery, and intermittents, become more obstinate and mortal; and even the pleurisy and peripneumony, acquire unusual violence. And it may not be improper to re­peat an observation before made, that the malignant or epidemic pleurisy never appears, excep [...] during these pestilential periods. [Page 49] It precedes or follows, in winter, spring or autumn, those sum­mers alone when pestilence invades our cities. Such was the dreadful disease in America, in 1697-8—in 1761—and which has showed itself, in several towns, during the present pestilential constitution.

But a most satisfactory proof of the progressiveness in a pesti­lential state of air, and in the corresponding malignity of dis­eases, is found in the bills of mortality. Thus, before the Lon­don plague in 1625, the bill of mortality rose from 8 or 9000, the standard of health, to 11,000 in 1623, and to 12,000 in 1624. The approach of pestilence was clearly announced, two years before it appeared. And as the time of its appearance drew near, the extension or malignity of the preceding fevers was greatly augmented; for in the year of the plague, almost nineteen thousand persons died of other diseases than the plague. As the plague usually prevails from June or July to November, and other diseases are mostly merged in it, almost all the deaths by common diseases must have been in the beginning of the year, from January to June or July. Now, eighteen thousand deaths in the six months preceding the plague, or even two thirds of the number, mark a prodigious increase of mortality—the common sign of approaching pestilence.

In the pestilential period in London, from 1634 to 1636, the bill of mortality rose two years previous to the plague.

The last great plague, in 1665, was announced by unusual malignity in diseases, four years before its appearance. In 1661, according to Sydenham, began a series of epidemics, which greatly swelled the list of burials. There was however some a­batement in 1663; but in 1664, and the first five months of 1665, the mortality again increased with rapidity, till a dread­ful pestilence laid waste the city.

A similar increase of mortality is observable in the bills for Augsburg, previous to the plague in 1628, and in 1635—in Dresden, in 1632 and 3—in Philadelphia in 1793, in New-York in 1795, and in New-London in 1798.

It must however be observed, that the bills of mortality will [Page 50] not, in all cases, exhibit the augmented number and malignancy of the diseases which precede pestilence; for it sometimes hap­pens that the year next preceding the plague, is very healthy, and the malignancy in the distempers, which mark the beginning of the pestilential state, does not appear till the winter or spring previous to the plague. In this case, the augmented mortality falls within the year and the same bills, as the deaths by the plague. This was the case in Augsburg in the year 1535. In such cases, there is an interval between the preceding epidemics and the plague; such as we have observed in the New-England States, between the influenza and the scarlet fever, and the lat­ter disease and the yellow fever.

Monthly bills will exhibit the progress of pestilential epidem­ics, with more accuracy.

Fernelius remarks page 161, that "infection is to be perceiv­ed in the air, when it produces fevers not pestilent, but which are at the threshhold of pestilence,"—plainly intimating that cer­tain malignant diseases precede the plague. He speaks of the fact as general and well understood.

Even in the West-Indies, the infectious yellow fever has its pre­cursors. That fever in Barbadoes, in 1738, was preceded by catarrh and suffocating cough in 1737 and spring of 1738. Yet authors pretend the disease to have been imported from Martinico!

The different modes in which pestilence invades mankind, seem to depend on different causes. Sometimes, the principal cause seems to be an essential alteration in the invisible properties of the elements; in which case, the diseases of a particular con­stitution, tho somewhat modified in their symptoms, are not con­trolled or arrested by the seasons. On the contrary the atmosphere continues to be pestilential, and to multiply disorders of a ma­lignant type, through every variety of seasons and of weather. Thus, we observe many instances of violent plagues in the most pleasant, and to all appearance, the most salubrious seasons. Several instances have been mentioned in the preceding history, and we have demonstration of the fact in the United States. The present pestilential state commenced with the measles and [Page 51] catarrh of 1789 and 90.—The summers of 1794 and of 1797 were apparently temperate and salubrious; yet in both these summers, the plague renewed its ravages in some towns, tho with less mortality than in the sultry and unhealthy summers of 1793-95 and 98.

On the other hand, pestilence sometimes proceeds principally from excessively intemperate seasons, as in severe heat, after a cold winter. In this case, the pestilence may invade a city very suddenly and without a regular augmentation of mortality from previous diseases. But even in this case, the plague has its precur­sors, which appear at leas [...] a few weeks, if not two or three months previous to its attack.

Thus the plague in Aleppo in 1742, first showed itself in the suburbs in April; but was preceded by an acute fever in March. The bilious plague in Philadelphia in 1793, according to Dr. Rush, was preceded by the influenza, scarlatina and bilious re­mittents. The same disease in 1797 appeared, in scattering ca­ses, as early as June.

In New-York, the epidemic of 1795 was preceded by an­gina trachealis with anomalous symptoms, some cases of obsti­nate dysentery, at a premature stage of summer, and by febrile complaints accompanied with bilious evacuations. At a meeting of the medical society, early in July, these facts were mentioned, as denoting an uncommon state of air, and the society came to a resolution, to make particular observations on the diseases that might occur, before their next meeting. But, in the interval, the crisis of the pestilence arrived, and removed all doubts.

The severe pestilence of the year 1798 doubtless owes its vio­lence to a series of most intemperate weather—most excessive heat, following a long and severely cold winter. Yet this dis­ease was preceded by premonitory signs, especially catarrhal fe­vers. Of all the disorders to which mankind are exposed, none seem to indicate a pestilential state of air, with so much certainty as catarrhal affections. They almost always precede the plague —usually accompany it, and sometimes tread close upon its heels.

In addition to the numerous authorities already cited, in proof [Page 52] of the progression of pestilence, let me mention Skenkius, who, in speaking of the diseases of 1564 and 5, observes, that angi­nas, pleurisies and peripneumonies became epidemic; abortions were frequent, pains in the joints, small pox and measles "quos tanquam praecursores sequebatur epidemica lues, incredibili gras­sationis saevitia," depopula [...]ing towns and country, in Turkey, Egypt, France, England and Germany. Observations, p. 748.

Skenkius remarked that the plague followed the other epidem­ics, as its precursors.

The same author takes notice of a malignant angina, in 1564, which often proved fatal in a few hours, like the plague. I men­tion this, because the learned Dr. Fothergill, and tribes of mod­ern physicians who follow a celebrated name, have alledged that the angina maligna is a new disease, not known in Europe till a­bout the year 1610, altho it never was more fatal, than in England in 1517.

In 1573 prevailed dysentery, measles, and purple fever, which in 1574, says Skenkius, changed into the plague. His words are remarkable. "Dudum sane praesagiebat animus mihi, malignum hoc febrium genus, quod toto biennio Europae partem non mini­mam peragravit, velut sparsis quibusdam praeludiis, in pestem aper­tissimam transiturum. Neque me adeo mea fefellit opinio." Ob­serv. p. 761. This author foresaw the plague, by means of its precursors.

"Eodem modo variolae, morbilli, dysenteriae grossantes, sae­pissime sunt praecursores internuncii pestis." Epidemic small-pox, measles and dysentery, are very often the forerunners of the plague.

It is a common remark that the reigning epidemic subdues all other diseases, or compels them to assume its character. This re­mark, as a general one, is just; and is of no small weight, in proving the connection between certain species of epidemics. In the spring of 1795, the measles prevailed in New-York, but of a mild type. In August, this disease disappeared, being com­pletely merged in the bilious fever that spread from August to November. No sooner had the fever subsided, than the measles [Page 53] re-appeared, and was of a less favorable type. This is a con­tagious disease, and yet how impotent was its contagion, in the instance related, under the all-controlling influence of the season and the elements.—It disappeared in summer in defiance of the powers of specific contagion, and was reproduced in autumn, with­out its assistance.

This fact demonstrates that a general cause operated in the production of that disease; which general cause, in summer, was controlled, by the heat of the season and local causes in that city; these temporary and local causes operated during a particu­lar time, and gave a different complexion to diseases; when they gave way, at the approach of winter, the general cause again as­sumed its empire and reproduced the measles, which is a disease little affected by local causes.

But while local causes predominated, in producing bilious plague, the general cause was not altogether inefficient; no bil­ious pestilence ever becoming epidemic and infectious, but un­der the influence of a pestilential constitution.

A fact related in Fairfield's diary, relative to the small-pox in Boston in 1702, is very much in point.

This disease appeared in June and gave much alarm; but prov­ed to be of a mild type, and none died of it for several weeks. It continued to be favorable, till September, when it assumed a more formidable aspect; being attended with what the writer calls a scarlet fever. The season was excessively dry. In De­cember, the scarlet fever abated, but the small-pox continued to be very mortal, till the following spring. These facts are relat­ed by an unlettered, observing man; but they are evidence of a progressiveness in the disease. The efflorescence that accompa­nied the disease from September to December was only a partic­ular, malignant symptom or modification of the small-pox, pro­duced by season or other temporary cause.

The measles often exhibits a similar progression. This cir­cumstance explains the difficulties mentioned by medical writers. Dr. Rush mentions the circumstance of persons in 1789, who had a fever, cough and all the symptoms of measles, except a general eruption. Some had a trifling efflorescence about the [Page 54] neck and breast. The same happened in 1773 and 1783. Vol. 2. 238. The fact is also mentioned in Edinburgh Medical Es­says, vol. 5. Persons thus affected have the measles, months or years afterwards. This lighter species of the measles is pro­duced by the same general cause which produces the disease in full force; but the constitution, at that time, resists the further operation of the cause. At a future time the cause will produce the disease complete.

Under the history of the diseases of 1792 and 3, I have re­lated the progress of the late scarlatina in this country. There cannot be stronger evidence of the progression of an epidemic in­fluence in the atmosphere than the history of that distemper has furnished. The violent stage of that disease, was preceded four, five, and in some places eight months, by a milder species of the disorder; and this mild form was, in some places, an epidemic. These facts entirely overwhelm all the pretended influence of in­fection, in originating the disease. They prove incontestibly that a state of air suited to the production of that disease, was not the effect of any sudden, visible change in the seasons; for the mild form of the scarlatina appeared indifferently, in any season of the year; as at New-York in August, at Hartford in May and at New-Haven in November; but that it was a progres­sive change, gradually inducing debility in the human body, or whatever else may be its predisposition to a particular disease.

Whether the scarlatina appeared, in any part of the country, without being announced by this slight form of the disease, is a question that cannot be solved, without particular information from every town. And very possibly the fact itself may have passed, in some places, unobserved. But the progressiveness of the distemper was distinctly marked in New-York, in Fairfield, in New-Haven, in Bethlem and in Hartford.

The same phenomenon was observed in the same disease, in 1786, in London. The first case appeared in March, was of a mild kind and excited no great apprehension. No other case oc­curred to the knowledge of the physician, except in the same family, till May, when another case appeared, but of a light kind. In June, the disease became epidemic and malignant. [Page 55] Here we observe the progress of the pestilential principle, in England, like that which has been observed in America.

A remarkable fact mentioned by the great Mr. Boyle, in the fifth volume of his works, p. 724, serves to show the regular progression of that state of air which produces the plague. In 1665, three months before the plague broke out in London, a man sent for a physician, complaining of [...] swelling in his groin, from which circumstance he predicted the plague which was to follow, and said he had experienced the same swelling in the former plagues, which he considered as the certain forerunner of the dis­ease. Boyle took this account from the physician himself.

This was no whim, for it is perfectly philosophical. It is a common fact, that, during the plague, in a city, persons in health experience severe pains in the glands, as in the groin and under the arms, those sensible parts which are peculiarly affected by the disease. Sorbait mentions that he felt such pains, during the plague in Vienna in 1679, and others did the same, but without any tumor. Dr. Gothwald experienced similar pains in the plague at Dantzick in 1709.

Boyle, vol. 6. 429, relates that one Beale knew a woman who could certainly tell when the plague was in the neighboring country, by a pain in the wounds of three sores she had, when affected by the plague in her youth. The relation is altogether credible; for we know that the state of air producing the dis­ease, occasions pains in the glands of persons in health; much more therefore would the same parts, after being rendered more sensible by plague sores, be affected with pain, during a similar state of air. The facts demonstrate that the plague is produced by a peculiar state of air, which may be perceived before the dis­ease appears; and much more, during its prevalance, by persons in health.

Another fact demonstrative of the same doctrin of a progres­sion in the pestilential principle, is, the unusual number of abor­tions, which precede the invasion of a severe plague. This fact was observed by Diemerbroeck, previous to the plague in Ni­mueguen, [Page 56] in 1636, and is numbered by him among the presages of the disease. De peste page 11. Other authors have record­ed the same fact, among whom Diemerbroeck cites Alexander Benedictus, Forestus and Seunertus.

The cause assigned for this phenomenon, is, "the debility of the heart and other viscera, which renders the tender body of the foetus incapable of resisting the malignity of the pestilential poison, and which exposes the woman in a pregnant state, to continual irritation."

In confirmation of this principle, we may cite the facts, so fre­quently mentioned by writers on this subject, that the plague rarely or never spares pregnant women. This was remarked by Livy and Dionysius in Rome—by Procopius and Evagrius, in the plagues of 543 and 590, and by subsequent writers.

The fact authorizes the supposition, that a pestilential state of air induces extreme excitement or irritability, and consequently indirect debility, especially in the nervous and vascular systems. The effect of this general cause must of course be first visible in persons most susceptible of excitement—among whom are preg­nant women, which is obvious from the facility with which they receive impressions from the sight of unnatural objects. The ap­pearance of the effect of the pestilential state of the atmosphere, on such persons, previous to its fatal effects on other persons, leaves no room to question its gradual increase in strength.

Of the progressiveness of pestilential epidemics therefore we can have no doubt, nor of their connection through a common cause. The order i [...] which they show themselves is not exactly the same; being varied by a multitude of subordinate causes, as seasons, weather, noxious exhalations, and sometimes perhaps by infection.

The accounts of diseases in the two or three last centuries are recorded with so little regard to just arrangement, that it is no [...] easy to collect from them the exact order in time, in which the epidemics of any particular period have appeared. Sydenham however has left an admirable sample of the hi [...]ory of epidemics in London from 1661 to 1680—a samp [...]e that throws im­mense light on the principles here maintained—a sample which [Page 57] ought to be well studied, and which it is inexcuseable in medical writers not to imitate. Let any man observe the regularity with which certain eruptive diseases, as the measles and small-pox, appeared and subsided, according to the seasons, during the con­stitution of air fitted to produce them, until both yielded to a different constitution, and then say, whether he can question Sydenham's principles, or the existence of a general contagion, operating in the production of a particular class of diseases. Un­der a philosophical view of such facts, into what trifles will dwindle all the formidable vulgar doctrines about infection!

It must however be remarked, that the small-pox, in modern times, will not exhibit similar effects as formerly; since the art of inoculation has nearly banished the disease as an epidemic, from our cities, where alone it used to prevail to any considerable extent.

Let us then attend to the order of the epidemics which have marked the latest periods of pestilence in America; many of which are within the memory of the present generation.

A. D. 1733

influenza.

A. D. 1734

unknown.

A. D. 1735

angina maligna.

A. D. 1736

angina maligna.

A. D. 1737

severe influenza.

A. D. 1738

pestilence in Barbadoes, Charleston and Mexico, measles New-England.

A. D. 1739

pestilence in Barbadoes, Charleston and Mexico, measles New-England.

A. D. 1740

measles America.

A. D. 1741

angina, pestilence Philadelphia and Virginia.

A. D. 1742

anginas.

A. D. 1743

pestilence in New-York.

A. D. 1745

dysentery, pestilence New-York and Charleston.

A. D. 1746

pestilence at Albany and among the Mohegans.

A. D. 1747

influenza.

A. D. 1748

measles, dysentery and angina.

A. D. 1749

measles, dysentery and angina.

A. D. 1750

measles, dysentery and angina.

A. D. 1751

measles, dysentery and angina.

A. D. 1752

measles, dysentery and angina.

A. D. 1753

measles, dysentery and angina.

A. D. [Page 58]1754

angina.

A. D. 1755

angina.

A. D. 1756

dysentery in some places.

A. D. 1757

influenza.

A. D. 1758

measles.

A. D. 1759

measles, dysentery, fevers.

A. D. 1760

unknown, till autumn, then

A. D. 1761

influenza and inflammatory fevers very fatal.

A. D. 1762

pestilence in Philadelphia.

A. D. 1763

pestilence among the Indians on Nantucket.

A. D. 1764

 

A. D. 1765

dysentery.

A. D. 1766

dysentery.

A. D. 1767

unknown.

A. D. 1768

unknown.

A. D. 1769

measles, angina.

A. D. 1770

angina, fevers.

A. D. 1771

catarrh, angina.

A. D. 1772

influenza and measles, angina.

A. D. 1773

angina, dysentery.

A. D. 1774

angina, dysentery.

A. D. 1775

angina and dysentery very fatal.

A. D. 1776

angina and dysentery very fatal.

A. D. 1777

angina and dysentery very fatal.

A. D. 1778

fevers, but no epidemic.

A. D. 1779

health.

A. D. 1780

health.

A. D. 1781

influenza.

A. D. 1782

influenza Europe.

A. D. 1783

measles, angina.

A. D. 1784

anginas and bilious fevers.

A. D. 1785

anginas and bilious fevers.

A. D. 1786

anginas and bilious fevers.

A. D. 1787

anginas and bilious fevers.

A. D. 1788

measles began in autumn.

A. D. 1789

measles, influenza.

A. D. 1790

measles, influenza.

A. D. [Page 59]1791

pestilence began in New-York, but not severe.

A. D. 1792

angina began in New-York.

A. D. 1793

angina, plague, dysentery.

A. D. 1794

angina, plague, dysentery.

A. D. 1795

angina, plague, dysentery, measles.

A. D. 1796

angina, plague, dysentery, measles.

A. D. 1797

plague, dysentery.

A. D. 1798

plague, dysentery, typhus mitior.

A. D. 1799

plague.

Such has been the general course of epidemic diseases in Ame­rica, as far as I can obtain information. Further enquiries may render the account more accurate, and more nearly perfect.

It will be observed that the order is not quite uniform; nor is this to be expected, considering the various causes which concur in the production, and diversification of diseases. In general, measles and catarrh precede anginas, dysentery and pestilential fevers. And it is remarkable that these diseases belong to the class of inflammatory diathesis: So does the mild small-pox, which, before the practice of inoculation, was almost regularly a precursor of the plague in the cities of Europe.

In general then epidemic diseases first attack the brain and the throat, before they seize the whole nervous system and the abdo­minal viscera. It is observable also, that winter, spring and autumn, produce mostly diseases of the stenic diathesis, as measles, catarrh, and inflammatory fevers; and summer, diseases of astenic diathe­sis, as typhus fevers, dysentery of a malignant kind, and plague. Indeed the plague seems to begin and end in catarrh—that is, it begins in catarrh in winter and spring, takes the form of plague, during the hot season, and re-assumes the catarrhal and inflamma­tory form in the succeeding winter. The measles and influen­za, however, prevail at any season.

When I arrange epidemics under particular years, I speak of those diseases which extend over a whole country, or occur in ma­ny places. If we look into large cities, we shall find some of these diseases, almost every year. But my observations relate on­ly to those diseases when they become general, or occur in vari­ous parts of a country in the same year.

[Page 60]When I place angina, plague and dysentery against a particular year, it is not intended that these diseases were all epidemic in the same place. Thus, while in 1793 the plague was in Phila­delphia, the scarlatina began to prevail in New-York and the wes­tern part of Connecticut. For it must not be overlooked, that although measles and influenza appear nearly at the same time in all parts of the United States, yet the pestilential fevers that fol­low them first show themselves in the larger cities in the southern latitudes. Thus the measles and influenza were universal in 1789 and 90, at least this was the case with the influenza; but the bili­ous plague broke out in New-York, Philadelphia and Charleston, before it did in Boston and Newburyport. The same is observa­ble in the other hemisphere. The influenza spreads over Asia, Europe and Africa, in a few weeks, but the following pestilence first appears in Egypt or the Levant, or in Turkey, then in the northern parts of Europe. To these remarks there are few ex­ceptions.

It is also observable, that the pestilence in cities takes the form of petechial fever and plague; but in country towns, more gene­rally terminates in dysentery.

It is a popular opinion that measles and small-pox never origi­nate in the human constitution, without contagion. The palpable absurdity of such an opinion has not prevented its propagation and belief, among even well-informed men. So far is this opinion from truth, that the first cases of these diseases in every epidemic period, are always generated in the human body, without conta­gion. When the condition of the elements is fitted to produce these diseases, they appear in all parts of a country, without con­tagion, they spread rapidly, and decline when the general causes cease to operate. During this period, contagion is efficacious in propagating them, and no longer. When the condition of the elements is not fitted to produce them, if sporadic cases appear in particular habits of body, they will not always spread the diseases. ^* Sydenham long ago taught this truth, in describing the changes [Page 61] in the epidemics of 1670—1672. Measles and small-pox came and went with the seasons and condition of the air.

The truth is, that certain conditions of the elements tend to produce eruptive diseases, and before the practice of inoculation, the small pox was almost regularly one of that series of epidemics which I class together, as of one family, and the precursors of plague. It is nearly allied to the measles, and appears usually about the same time. I am convinced that catarrh, measles, mild small-pox and whooping cough, are but varied forms of dis­ease, occasioned by modifications of the same elemental causes.

Certain it is, they are all predominant about the same time, and as a general remark, they precede the invasion of diseases which bear the character of typhus.

I have never conversed with a physician who could not name instances of small-pox, originating without any known contagion, and generally medical gentlemen admit the disease to be generated in the constitution. This principle is unquestionably just, and ought to be known, and received as truth; for the belief that con­tagion is necessary to the existence of the disease, has produced most mischievous consequences. An instance happened in Shar­on a few years ago, in which a woman was seized with the small-pox; but as she had not been exposed to contagion, her disease was mistaken, till just before her death; and twenty or thirty persons were supposed to have taken the disease before the true nature of it was understood.

In the winter of 1797-8, occurred in Hartford two sporadic cases of measles, which could not possibly be traced to contagion. At another time, a family was infected by means of a stranger; but in neither of these cases was the disease propagated to others, who were exposed to the breath of the patients. See Dr. Cogs­well's letter, Med. Repos. vol. 2. 301. Innumerable similar in­stances may be mentioned.

In the same manner the various species of angina and the plague occur in sporadic cases under the operation of powerful local and constitutional causes, which, if not favored by the condition of the elements, will not spread and become epidemic.