A HISTORY
OF
EPIDEMIC PESTILENCES
FROM THE EARLIEST AGES,
1495 Years before the Birth of our Saviour to 1848:
WITH
RESEARCHES INTO THEIR NATURE, CAUSES,
AND PROPHYLAXIS.
BY
EDWARD BASCOME, M.D.
“The all-surrounding heav’n, the vital air,
Is big with death: and tho’ the putrid south
Be shut, tho’ no convulsive agony
Shake from the deep foundations of the world
Th’ imprison’d plagues, a secret venom oft
Corrupts the air, the water, and the land.”
ART OF PRESERVING HEALTH.
LONDON:
JOHN CHURCHILL, PRINCES STREET, SOHO.
1851.
HUGHES AND CO., PRINTERS,
KING’S HEAD COURT, GOUGH SQUARE.
DEDICATION.
TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY,
AND
TO DR. JOHN CONOLLY, M.D.
MY LORD,
MY DEAR SIR,
Inadequate as I feel to the task of conveying to you my sense of
obligation in being permitted the honour of dedicating this work to
persons of your high position and distinguished merit, I feel doubly
so, to express my admiration of your _immeasurable benevolence_,
as portrayed not only in your public capacities in general, but
more especially--the one in emanating, the other in carrying out
the provisions of the law for the protection and kind consideration
of those unfortunates of God’s creatures whom it hath pleased him
to afflict with the direst of human maladies, the privation or
prostration of the noblest of man’s faculties--Reason.
That your labours have been of incalculable benefit to suffering
humanity is too notorious to admit of either comment or eulogy from me.
That you both may live long in health, to see perfected “the good work
begun” by you, and that you may enjoy the satisfaction of a well-earned
reputation resulting therefrom, is the earnest wish of,
My Lord,
and
My dear Sir,
With the highest respect,
Your obedient,
Humble Servant,
THE AUTHOR.
PREFACE.
Feeling it to be incumbent on every one to contribute to the good of
his fellow-men, in as far as his experience enables him--
“Non sibi sed toti mundo se credere natum;”
and presuming on the practical knowledge gained during a sojourn of a
quarter of a century in climes that are not the most hospitable, the
Author has been induced to offer to the public the following pages, as
his professional lucubrations on a subject deeply interesting to every
community,--a subject both comprehensive and obscure,--comprehensive,
inasmuch as it involves the consideration of a vast variety of disease
under the appellation of Epidemic Pestilence,--“The offspring of
inclement skies, and of legions of putrefying locusts,”--and obscure,
as regards the uncertainty which must ever appertain to all that
relates to the phenomena of Life and Death.
The Author has endeavoured to place in fair review the various opinions
of the most eminent historians (professional and otherwise), and
would impress on his readers, that on a subject embracing so wide a
field _as that of atmospheric influence, arising from elemental
disturbance, together with the boundless variety in the circumstances
of human society, as the exciting and predisposing cause of
disease_, the present volume must be read and considered as a whole;
for it is only by comparison of all the phenomena displayed in the
following History of Pestilences, that any thing like just or rational
conclusions can be arrived at,--conclusions such as the remarkable
coincidences of the observations and comments by historians, not only
of the earliest ages of the world, but those of more modern times,
fully warrant.
It has been the Author’s aim, by careful examination, to reconcile the
discrepancies of historians as regards dates,--discrepancies evidently
owing to the varying commencements of the year with different people or
nations.
In conclusion,--however dogmatical the Author may appear to be to
his readers in that which he has advanced as to the NATURE,
CAUSES, &c. of epidemic pestilences, he begs to assure them
that he has written from honest conviction; and with that assurance he
leaves the subject-matter in the hands of those capable of estimating
his efforts in behalf of SANITY.
Ὁ οἴδαμεν λαλοῦμεν, καὶ ὃ ἑωράκαμεν μαρτυροῦμεν.
“We teach that we do know, and testify that we have seen.”
Wyke House, Brentford.
HISTORY
OF
EPIDEMIC PESTILENCES.
CHAPTER I.
FROM 1495 B.C. TO A.D. 540.
Πλείη μὲν γὰρ γαῖα κακῶν, πλείη δὲ θάλασσα·
Νοῦσοι δ’ ἀνθρώποισιν ἐφ’ ἡμέρῃ ἠδ’ ἐπὶ νυκτὶ
Αὐτόματοι φοιτῶσι.
HESIOD.
The earth’s full of maladies, and full the sea,
Which set upon us both by night and day.
It is recorded that in the month Adar,--answering, according to our
computation of time, to the period between the middle of February
and March, the end of the Jewish year,--during the reign of Pharaoh
IV., king of Egypt, in the year of the world 2509 (anno 1495 before
the Christian era), and in the 80th year of the life of Moses, the
sacred historian and great captain of the hosts of Israel, many awful
prodigies in the natural world commenced, especially in commotions of
the elements, which were succeeded by a pestilence destructive both
to men and beasts in the low lands of Egypt. This terrible pestilence
was preceded by fearful commotions of the elements,--hail, thunder
and lightning, heat and drought, the generation of insects, &c.; for
the summer had been hot, and attended with heavy cold nocturnal dews
alternating with rains, after a humid winter. The weather had been very
variable; the excessive heats and hot winds exhausted the inhabitants
by day, and the cold damp dews chilled them by night: the atmosphere
was so filled with fiery elements, and clouds of dust and sand,
that men and cattle were in imminent danger of suffocation, and were
compelled to seek shelter from these dry storms and tempests. On the
10th, universal darkness prevailed, which continued for three days;
and on the 14th, deadly pestilence commenced, which, in one sudden and
universal destruction, swept away millions from the face of nature.
Anno 1471 B.C., by dire pestilence, the murmurers and mutineers in the
company of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram were destroyed in the encampment
at Kadesh, in the desert of Paran, to the number of 14,700 persons;
and nineteen years after (1452 B.C.), by a similar pestilence, of the
riotous and drunken worshippers of Baal-peor, 24,000 men and women
perished.
In the year 1310 B.C., sixty years previous to the Trojan war,
the island of Ægina was visited by an epidemic pestilence, which was
fatal to great numbers.
Anno 1141 B.C., the people of Ashdod, a place lying on the seashore
between Gaza and Joppa, which is called in the New Testament Azotus,
were visited by an epidemic pestilence termed EMERODS--an affection of
the bowels, or malignant dysentery.
In the time of David, 1017 B.C., there broke out a pestilence
which in three days destroyed 70,000 persons. About the period of
this infliction, the first dreadful epoch of Spanish epidemiology is
recorded. The period, however, has been variously given; by some, it
is fixed at 1100 B.C., while other writers mention it as
having occurred during the great plague or dearth in Egypt. There were,
without interruption, _twenty-five years_ of drought in Spain;
springs were dried up, rivers became fordable, their waters becoming
almost stagnant; there was neither pasture for beasts nor fruit for
man; so great was the barrenness of the land, that there was scarcely
any green thing to be found, except some olive-trees on the banks
of the Ebro and the Guadalquiver. Such, says the historian, was the
melancholy state of our ancient Spain; “full of dreadful mortalities,
plagues, and miseries of every description, which, with emigration to
other lands, nearly depopulated our country.”
Plutarch mentions the occurrence of a great pestilence that happened in
Rome in the year 790 B.C., soon after the murder of Tatius: it was so
rapidly fatal that it is represented as killing almost instantaneously;
cattle as well as men were swept away, and all nature appeared one
desolate and abandoned waste: during this awful period it is said to
have rained blood, or crimson insects which turned the waters to the
colour of blood, as happened in Egypt during the reign of Pharaoh: the
crops failed, and the country of Campania may be said to have been
ravaged by the sword, famine, and pestilence. Plutarch also gives an
account of an epidemic pestilence which afflicted the inhabitants of
Italy, especially the capital of the empire, during the reign of Numa
Pompilius, of Hezekiah over Judah, and of Sennacherib over Assyria in
the year 710 B.C.: by this pestilence 185,000 of the Assyrian armies
perished at the siege of Jerusalem, which compelled the assailants to
raise the siege and to return to Nineveh, even after they had taken
all the principal cities of Judah, including Libnah, a city situated
about twelve miles south-west of Jerusalem. It was at this period that
Numa Pompilius instituted the Salii, a college of priests of Mars, who
carried the sacred shields in procession, to stop the pestilence.
Livy describes another pestilence which occurred at Rome during
the reign of Tullus Hostilius, 694 B.C. Zosimus, an officer during
the reign of Theodosius the Younger, speaks of the prevalence of a
pestilence in the city of Rome during the reign of Tarquin, anno 671
B.C.; and Dionysius Halicarnassus, Murator, and Functius have also
mentioned the occurrence of a great famine and pestilence in Rome, anno
545 B.C., which nearly depopulated Velitræ, an ancient town of Latium
on the Appian Road, about twenty miles to the east of Rome. A murrain
prevailed about this time among their cattle, which destroyed vast
numbers, and such havoc was made among the inhabitants of Latium that
the Volsci were necessitated to apply to the Romans to re-people their
cities. Rome also suffered the year subsequently, as did Campania,
celebrated for its lake Avernus, which emitted such poisonous vapours
that birds would not go near its banks: this pestilence spared neither
age nor constitution, and yielded to no remedies. It appeared suddenly,
destroyed its victims rapidly, and on the approach of continued cold
weather disappeared as suddenly as it came.
Anno 594 B.C. There perished this year a third part of the
inhabitants of Jerusalem by a severe pestilence.
Herodotus and Justin have recorded the destruction of the army of
Xerxes, when retreating into Asia after his defeat at the battle of
Salamis, by a grievous pestilence, which attacked both land and sea
forces, especially the army under the command of General Mardonius,
anno 480 B.C.: the victims were numbered at 150,000. During
this period Diodorus Siculus writes that the ancient Spanish troops
were the most faithful and courageous, and constituted almost always
the strength of the Carthaginian armies: he continues,--They (the
Carthaginians) took treasure and soldiers, who by their valour aided
the republic in their most critical times of war. The Spanish soldiers
endured hardship with indomitable courage, and, being naturally of a
robust make, were not intimidated by the pestilence which destroyed
others of the Carthaginian army of that time, nor by the 150,000 dead
bodies--plague-victims, which without burial strewed the plains. All
these circumstances did not prevent their appearing in arms, and
demanding the capitulation of Syracuse from its first tyrant, whilst
at the same time the other troops, shamefully abandoned by their
chiefs, took to a precipitate flight, and surrendered at discretion.
History says nothing of the means taken for the curing of this
horrible pestilence at Syracuse, nor shows clearly why the Spaniards
alone enjoyed an immunity from this pestilence, which was worthy of
being perpetuated in history. Villalba however mentions some physical
causes which he considers contributed to the remarkable exemption of
the Spaniards from the dire pestilence: he states that the ancient
Spaniards were a sober race; and, according to all authorities,
sobriety is a powerful means of protection against disease. Filarcus,
a citizen of Athens, was singularly struck with this fact: among the
rich who lived frugally, drank water alone, and were clothed with the
richest garments, moderation and bodily cleanliness were observed to be
of the highest importance in maintaining the sensible and insensible
perspiration; these functions of secretion and of excretion being
essential in order that the integral parts of the blood should preserve
its purity, its weight, its normal state of electricity, and natural
fluidity, upon which depend the preservation of health and the power
of resisting disease in times of epidemics, as is affirmed by medical
jurists, and as the ancient Spaniards practised. He continues,--Bathing
is also an efficacious means of removing the impurities that opposed
the sensible and insensible perspiration; and it would appear that in
Spain, long before the Second Punic War, bathing was in general favour.
The unmeaning sneer of Diodorus Siculus at the habit of the Spaniards
of washing their entire bodies with urine, will be recollected, whilst
Galen says that in Syria they avoid the plague by simply drinking
that liquid excrement. That the Spaniards used urine advantageously
as a topical lotion we shall find in the treatises on baths and other
subjects of ancient Spain. Drs. Ribeiro and Sanchez assert, with some
foundation, that the use of linen in Europe has caused pestilence to
be less frequent; thus, as it were, contributing to the cleanliness
which the ancients obtained by the use of their public baths. To a
similar cause we may attribute the rarity with which the Spaniards
were attacked by the aforesaid frightful pestilence. Catullus, Silius
Italicus, and Gratius Faliscus eulogize the vapour baths of the ancient
Sætabi: in fine, says Villalba, the sobriety, personal cleanliness,
bathing in common water, washing with urine, vapour baths, and the
wearing linen garments, with fortitude, concurred powerfully to the
immunity enjoyed from disease by our Spanish ancestors.
Anno 476 B.C. During this and the succeeding years, says
Florian de Ocampo, there prevailed in Spain from time to time a
series of pestilences and other minor diseases, by which a multitude
of persons perished. The Carthaginians, to appease the ire of the
gods to whom they attributed these fatal visitations, offered up
human sacrifices, and made incisions on their arms and legs, and on
other parts of their bodies: they also immolated cattle of all kinds,
according to the severity of the pestilence.
Orosius, another Spanish writer, and also Dionysius, relate the
occurrence of a terrible plague at Rome, which caused great mortality,
463 B.C. This was a grievous time, says the historian, men
and beasts being equally afflicted. The disease was preceded by great
heat and drought, and the calamities and fatigues of war, which were
greatly augmented by crowds of countrymen and herds of cattle received
within the walls of the city, in order to avoid the ravages and
plunderings of the Latins and Hernici, who then desolated the country.
The epidemic first seized on horses and horned cattle, then on man,
the poorer people being the chief victims: it began about the calends
of September, and raged until the end of November. The two consuls
Servilius and Æbutius, and many other illustrious Romans, fell victims
to the disease.
Livy and Dionysius inform us that, anno 452 B.C., nearly
one-half of the inhabitants of Rome were destroyed by the pestilence
_loimikié_, which was also communicated to the Æqui, the
Volsci, and the Sabines, and caused a great mortality amongst them.
The distress and consternation being general, the land was left
uncultivated, and the miseries of famine threatened to overwhelm those
who survived the epidemic. This pestilence was succeeded by another,
which, if possible, was more grievous; it lasted from 443 to 438
B.C. In time, so frequently had Rome been scourged by repeated
epidemic pestilences, that Livy styled it “urbs assiduis exhausta
funeribus.”
In the second year of the Peloponnesian War, 435 B.C., epidemic
pestilence broke out at Athens, where the inhabitants of the Athenian
territory were crowded together into the city to avoid the ravages of
the Lacedemonians: it destroyed 5000 of the prime of their armies,
and an immense number of the poor, and continued without interruption
for five years. It began towards the close of an open spring, after
a severe winter, raged the four following summers and autumns, was
especially fatal to their armies at the siege of Epidaurus and Potidea,
and continued all through the severe winters. Thucydides, Lucretius,
Anacharsis, Plutarch, and Hippocrates give an account of a similar
pestilence which ravaged Persia about the same period. Artaxerxes,
the king of Persia, sent for the great physician of Cos and Greece
to come and arrest its progress, but Hippocrates nobly answered the
Persian monarch in these words, addressing Hystaspes, prefect of the
Hellespont: “To the epistle which you have sent, and you have asserted
to come from the king, write to the king as I briefly answer,--We
enjoy victuals, clothing, homes, and everything necessary for life
in abundance; and it is neither right for me to use the wealth of
the Persians, nor to liberate barbarians from diseases while they
may be the enemies of Greece. Farewell.” Thucydides describes the
symptoms of the disease in a cursory manner; Lucretius more minutely;
and from these historians we infer the following morbid phenomena.
The invasion was sudden and unexpected; the disease commenced with a
violent headache, fiery redness of the eyes, succeeded by pains and
inflammation of the throat, difficulty of breathing, and offensive
breath, a sneezing and hoarseness, violent fever with insatiable
thirst supervening: watchfulness and delirium or stupor, vomiting of
bilious matter, utter prostration of strength, and urgent flux of the
bowels, were noticed in the second stage of the disease. In the first
stage, the stools were dark and fœtid: there were hiccough, bleeding
at the gums, throat, nose, stomach, and bowels,--convulsions: pustules
or sores of a livid hue were also observed about the bodies of those
affected. This bilious plague or pestilence of Athens exhibited, from
the foregoing accounts, symptoms analogous to those of the bilious
remittent or yellow fever of America and the West Indies, and would
appear to have arisen from similar causes.
The historian, in speaking of the calamity, brings the causes of the
pestilence to our view. He says, “As they had no houses, but dwelt in
booths all the summer season, where there was scarcely room to breathe,
the pestilence destroyed with the greatest confusion, so that they
lay together in heaps, the dying upon the dead, and the dead upon the
dying: they were tumbling one over the other in the public streets, or
lay expiring round every fountain, whither they had crept to assuage
the intolerable thirst which was consuming them. The temples of which
they had taken possession were full of the dead bodies of those who had
expired there.”
Anno 427 B.C. a cruel pestilence or plague spread almost
through the world. Mariana and other Spanish writers say that it
commenced in Egypt, and, travelling through all the intervening
countries, reached Spain: the mortality in most places began among the
cattle. From various accounts it would appear that the country people
were first affected with this pestilence; afterwards the inhabitants
in the towns. Anno 404 B.C. Carthage was almost depopulated,
as recorded by Justin and Diodorus Siculus. The Carthaginians sent on
an expedition under Himilco to reduce revolted Sicily to subjection,
were destroyed in great numbers by pestilence; it was so fatal that,
according to one writer, Ocampo, there did not escape either Mallorcan
slingers, Celts, Andalusians, or Africans; many fell dead as soon as
they took the disease. The bad policy of leaving their dead bodies
unburied on the plains, a prey to dogs, &c., contributed in no
small degree to the propagation and virulence of the epidemic. This
pestilence was distinguished by the remarkable symptoms of violent
dysentery, severe fever, acute pains in all parts of the body, anguish,
and great depression of both mind and body. Similar disasters have
attended expeditions and long campaigns in warm climates within our
own time, as our expeditions into Egypt, Flanders, Brabant, the West
Indies, &c. testify.
Annis 393 and 383 B.C. the armies of Gaul and Rome were afflicted with
sore pestilence. In the latter year, there were many months of severe
drought in Andalusia and along the southern coasts, from the Pyrenees
as far as Cape St. Vincent; great famine ensued, with pestilential
diseases.
Rome was revisited by pestilence anno 366 B.C.: it raged
dreadfully for three years, and swept away the great Camillus with
multitudes of his people. When the disease was at its height, it is
reported that 10,000 citizens died daily: it prevailed terribly in the
months of September, October, and November, and the Sibylline books and
Lectisternium were resorted to in vain. To add to their calamities and
distress, the earth opened in the midst of Rome, giving rise to the
tragical and superstitious decease of Marcus Curtius, by his throwing
himself, for the salvation of the city, into the awful chasm on the
site of which the lake Alba soon after arose.
Orosius in describing this pestilence says, “This was such a pestilence
as generally proceeds from irregular seasons, extreme drought, heat
of the spring, moisture in the summer and autumn;” which implies
that irregular seasons inducing a pestilential constitution of the
atmosphere, according to the doctrines of Hippocrates, who dictated
medicine to all the world in those days, were productive of pestilence.
Anno 362 B.C. The war of Sicily being ended by the death of
Dionysius the greater, the Republic of Carthage sent a captain named
Bostan as the governor of Mallorca, Minorca, Iberia, and Formentera, in
order that he should negociate with the Saguntians, and draw them over
to their side.
The city of Saguntum, now called Murviedro, was visited by an epidemic
pestilence. There was a great scarcity of provisions, and many deaths
occurred, even among the nobles. The people became sorrow-stricken and
disheartened, as reported by the magistrates to their new governor.
It may be inferred that the pestilence raged with severity, from its
having affected the higher orders.
Annis 346 B.C. and 405 from the foundation of Rome,
extraordinary inundations, with great damage to the cattle, fields,
and buildings, occurred. All the cities along the coasts on the
Mediterranean Sea suffered also from earthquakes; Saguntum, a principal
city, having suffered the most. Annis 332, 296, and 291 B.C.
Rome was again visited by pestilence, which was particularly fatal to
breeding women and to breeding cattle. A similar visitation affected
Rome anno 272 B.C.
Anno 237 B.C. the commotions of the elements in the shape of
earthquakes, severe drought, with the want of sufficient food, caused
great mortality among cattle and men in Spain, especially at Cadiz.
Anno 218 B.C. the toils of war and the forced marches of
the Carthaginian armies on their route to besiege Saguntum, and
the unflinching and brave defence by wearying out the assailants,
(says Mariana,) caused great pestilence among them. There were also
earthquakes and pestilence in several provinces of Spain, also great
storms at sea, throwing on the land quantities of fish, some of which
were unknown until this occurrence. There was also a fatal epizootic
among the dogs and birds.
Anno 216 B.C. In the summer of this year a fatal pestilence
began in the vicinity of Carthage. It was supposed that this putrid
disease arose from the crowded state of all places, from the multitude
of sailors and soldiers there at the time, the country being in a badly
cultivated state, the scarcity and bad quality of provisions, and
from the stagnant lake, which had always been viewed as a source of
disease. For a considerable period it was limited to the place where
it originated, but after a time other provinces became affected. Both
rich and poor fell victims to this dire disease: some of the principal
families suffered; and Hamilca, the wife of Hannibal, and their
offspring, were among its numerous victims.
Anno 206 B.C. a vast pestilence, preceded by immense swarms
of locusts, occurred in the land near Capua. The same historian, Livy,
relates that the Roman and Rhodian fleets, anchored at Phaselis in
the Gulf of Pamphylia in the midst of summer, and in an unwholesome
situation, suffered from pestilential diseases,--especially the rowers,
who were subjected to hard labour, and exposed to the burning rays
of the sun. He continues, that violent pestilence ravaged all Italy
annis 182 and 181 B.C. This continued for several years;
severe drought for six months, and consequent dearth of corn happened,
followed by terrible storms, pernicious seasons, and awful commotions
of the elements, coldness, dampness, moisture and dryness, noxious
vapours, and putrid exhalations. This extraordinary season was followed
by a great pestilence among cattle and among the inhabitants of Rome,
in the summer and autumn of the year 177 B.C. This pestilence
continued for four years, from 177 to 173, during which period swarms
of locusts deluged Apulia, as the Pontine provinces were covered the
previous year. So destructive were their ravages, that Sicinius the
prætor was commissioned with an army to drive them away!
“Pestilentia quæ priore anno ingruerat in boves, eo verteret in hominum
morbos; qui inciderant haud facile septimum diem superabant: qui
superaverant longinquo, maximæ quartanæ implacabantur, morbo. Servitia
maxime moriebantur, eorum strages per omnes vias insepultorum erat.
Ne liberorum quidem funeribus subficiebat. Cadavera intacta a canibus
ac vulturibus tabes absumebat; satisque constabat, nec illo, nec
priore anno in tanta strage boûm hominumque vulturiûm usquam visum.”
The translation of this pithy passage conveys that the pestilence
which first attacked cattle, fastened upon men,--those who survived
the seventh day did so with great difficulty, and were subsequently
afflicted by disease (or fever) of a quartan form. The poor and lower
classes were those who suffered most, their dead carcases lying about
the highways,--dogs and vultures left the carcases untouched which were
consumed by corruption,--neither in this nor in a former year was
there a vulture seen. From this graphic detail we may infer that the
beasts of the field were first attacked, then mankind; that the disease
underwent a sort of crisis on the seventh day, terminating either
in death or chronic distemper, as we see to be the case in our own
days; viz. consumption, dropsy, diseases of the liver and spleen, and
ague;--that it was most fatal among the lower orders, who are generally
more distressed in times of scarcity, and from other causes more
susceptible of disease, such as cold, damp abodes, and poor diet;--that
carnivorous animals were sick themselves, refusing to touch the carrion
carcases; in fact, the infected provinces were entirely deserted by
vultures;--lastly, that the malady was similar to our yellow, bilious,
remittent fever, in all its symptoms, as we see it occurring amongst us
in various places--the West Indies, America, &c.
Orosius gives us an account of another pestilence, which devastated
Rome, anno 144 B.C.
In the year 140 before the Christian era, the war of Viriathus having
been concluded, the proconsul Q. Pompeius Rufus commenced blockading
Numantia (now Algeria). The plan of his operations being to charge the
air with mephitic vapours, he determined on turning the course of the
river Douro, and inundating the country round about by means of its
waters, which would have the effect not only of spoiling the atmosphere
by its moist exhalations, but of inducing famine also, by the
destruction of all vegetation. These attempts were, however, fruitless,
inasmuch as the Numantians, being a robust and warlike people, resisted
the consequences of the proconsul’s attempts against them. Having
foreseen his intentions, they had supplied themselves with abundant
provisions, which they had intercepted from the Roman legions; while,
on the other hand, the Roman soldiers themselves fell victims to their
own measures, pestilence having broken out among them--a malignant
dysentery, equal in severity and fatality to that which formerly had
laid waste the army of Lucullus.
After this period to about that of 134 B.C., Scipio Æmilianus,
called the Numantine, organized his army, and having established
admirable rules of hygiene and semeiotics, whereby he preserved his
former strength and health, began to devastate the plains of Numantia,
of Vacca, and Palestine. The want of water which was experienced in the
latter place (Palestine) forced them to make wells to obtain drinkable
water, but unfortunately the water thus obtained proved to be of a
character productive of a malignant epizootic, which destroyed their
horses and other beasts of burthen: the pestilence among their cattle
increasing, obliged them to change their quarters to the plains of
Numantia in order to winter there.
Anno 130 B.C. The famous Numantines, so much dreaded by the
Romans on account of their valorous resistance, were not less feared by
the Greeks, than the horrible pestilence which prevailed in Numantia.
The Greek, Appianus Alexandrinus, speaks of them with admiration and
dread. The Numantine people, who had hitherto resisted the corrupted
condition of the air, ultimately suffered such exhaustion for want of
food, their stores having been consumed, that after having subsisted on
dressed skins of animals for several days, they fell into the frightful
necessity of becoming anthropophagi, so that from feeding on the bodies
of those who fell defending their country, pestilence arose, which
hastened the downfall of their city.
Anno 126 B.C. Epidemic pestilence prevailed with great
mortality in Africa. Orosius, Justin, and Livy, who have described
it, attribute this pestilence to the stench arising from the putrid
carcases of dead locusts, which were brought over by a strong east
wind in such multitudes that they devoured every green thing, even
to the bark of trees; they were subsequently driven by a south wind
into the Mediterranean, and being again washed on shore in the warm
season of the year, putrefied, and produced this awful pestilence,
which destroyed 800,000 in Numidia alone. On the sea-coast of Carthage
200,000 perished. Of such terrible visitations by insects, which to
this day exist in the East at particular seasons, carrying destruction
in their course, Lord Carnarvon gives a description in his ‘History
of Portugal and Gallicia.’ It will convey a pretty good idea of their
destructiveness and of the distressing consequences. Speaking of
natural exhibitions, of which he was an eye-witness in Africa, he
writes thus: “A fall of locusts is beyond description the most awful
imaginable--a most dreadful scourge, which is considered in eastern
and northern countries the most unfailing manifestation of the wrath
of God. Travelling along the western coast of Africa, I once beheld
this terrible infliction. These creatures fell in thousands and tens
of thousands around us and upon us along the sands on which we were
riding, and on the sea that was beating at our feet; yet we were
removed from their most oppressive influence; for, a few hundred yards
to our right, darkening the air, the great innumerable host came on,
slowly and steadily advancing in a direct line and in a mighty moving
column. The fall of locusts from this central column was so great, that
when a cow directly under the line of flight, attempting ineffectually
to graze in the field, approached her mouth to the grass, there rose
immediately so dense a swarm, that her head was for the moment almost
concealed from sight, and as she moved along, bewildered by this worse
than Egyptian plague, clouds of locusts rose up from under her feet,
visible even at a distance, as clouds of dust when set in motion by
the wind on a stormy day. At the extremity of the field I saw the
husbandmen bending over their staffs, and gazing with hopeless eyes
upon that host of death which swept like a destroying angel over the
land, and consigned to ruin all the prospects of the year; for wherever
that column winged its flight, beneath its withering influence the
golden glories of the harvest perished, and the leafy honours of the
forest disappeared. There stood those ruined men silent and motionless,
overwhelmed with the magnitude of their calamity, yet conscious of
their utter inability to control it, while further on, where some
woodland lay in the immediate line of the advancing column, heath set
on fire, and trees kindling into a blaze, testified the general horror
of a visitation which the ill-fated inhabitants endeavoured to avert by
such a frightful remedy. They believed that the smoke arising from the
burning forest, ascending into the air, would impede the direct march
of the column, throw it into confusion, and drive the locusts out to
sea, and thus deliver the country from their desolating presence.”
During the civil wars which were excited by Sylla and Marius, the Roman
armies lost 10,000 men by plague in the year 89 B.C.
Anno 60 B.C. Spain, according to the opinion of several
ancient and modern writers, both foreign and national, was one of
the countries most subjected to the frightful disease of leprosy.
Sauvages has asserted that there were no lepers in France, save those
that came from Spain and America. Senertus states that in Spain and
Africa elephantiasis (leprosy) is more frequent than in any other
part of the world. Dr. Casal coincides in this opinion, as may be
seen in his ‘Natural and Medical History of the Principality of the
Asturias;’ and, finally, the Academic Memoirs of Seville speak of its
existence in those countries, as owing to their communication with
the Arabs and Jews, without denying, however, that the prevalence of
the disease may have been influenced by the peculiar constitution of
Spain. Accordingly its dry and burning temperature has contributed
considerably, as it would appear, to locate this terrible disease,
especially in the kingdom of Andalusia, and in the principality of the
Asturias. The use of pork and other salted provisions, so commonly
employed as articles of diet in ancient Spain, is supposed to have
acted powerfully in perpetuating the disease, inasmuch as the opinions
of Ubilis and other physicians go to show that these sorts of aliment
are powerful generators of the malady. The first appearance of leprosy
in Spain coincides with its introduction into Italy, after having been
prevalent in the army of Pompey the Great about sixty years, more or
less, before the coming of Christ. The sons of the celebrated general
proceeded with the army of their father from Italy to Spain, to stem
the invasion of Cæsar, and this was in all probability the cause of its
first introduction into that country,--at least, it is so considered by
some writers.
Anno 49 B.C. The continued heavy rains and tempestuous
seasons, the like of which had never been seen by the oldest
inhabitants, caused frightful inundations of the rivers Cinca and
Segre. Epidemic pestilence, peculiar to an atmosphere surcharged with
moisture and poisonous exhalations, appeared immediately after. The
shepherds were obliged to withdraw their flocks in order to save them
from the waters, which, together with the increased price of corn
and of other food amongst the neighbouring populace, multiplied the
misfortunes of the army of Julius Cæsar, who had not only to combat
against the bravery of the Pompeians, but also against the trials of
famine and pestilence. Their distress would have been greater and more
lamentable, had not some of the neighbouring tribes, who had recently
become their allies, succoured them with the necessaries of life, which
were sent in under the escort of 500 Ilecaones, a tribe who occupied
the banks of the Ebro.
In the time of Mark Antony, anno 30 B.C., a pestilence of so
general a character prevailed, that it seems to have spread over the
whole world. Dion Cassius mentions this pestilence, which continued for
five years, destroying vast numbers of the inhabitants of Jerusalem:
it was also very destructive at Rome and in Palestine. The celebrated
triumvir died about this period of the pestilence, as mentioned by
Nuestro Alonso of Freylas in his ‘History of Pestilences.’
The next account of epidemic pestilence we have, is given by Tacitus,
who relates that in the East, in Asia Minor, fourteen years after the
commencement of the Christian era, pestilence prevailed; a severe
earthquake about this time was experienced; a comet is also mentioned
as having been seen, whose tail, it is said, with one fell swoop
hurled down a dozen cities at once. Another pestilence is recorded by
Suetonius as having raged with great mortality at Babylon: it caused a
multitude of Jews to remove to Seleucia. This year was marked by great
famine, in fulfilment of the prophecy of Agabus (Acts xi. 28). During
the reign of Claudius Cæsar, at this period, pestilence was rife in
Greece and Italy.
Pliny and Tacitus both give an account of those periods of mortality
from the year of our Lord 40 to 53 and 54, when most of the officers
of Rome died of pestilential disease: “ex omnium magistratuum genere
plerique mortem obierunt.” It was during the year 40 that the great
eruption of Etna occurred, which frightened Caligula from Sicily.
Dire famine was also experienced, which, with pestilence, extended
from Italy almost to India. Babylon was almost depopulated about
this period.--A.D. 88, pestilence carried off 30,000 of the
people of Rome. Tacitus gives an affecting account of the ravages of
this plague. The houses were filled with dead bodies, and the streets
with funerals; neither age, sex, nor condition were exempted from
it; slaves and plebeians were suddenly carried off by it amidst the
lamentations of their wives and their children, who were also seized
with the disease while administering to the sick and mourning over the
lifeless bodies of the dead. Pliny, Orosius, and other writers describe
this pestilential period as exceedingly fatal. Earthquakes, eruptions
of volcanoes emitting sulphureous vapours, inundations, tempestuous
seasons, and other awful commotions of nature, characterized this
period all over the inhabited globe. In June, a comet appeared; on
the 1st of November following, a tremendous ebullition of burning
lava issued from the crater of Vesuvius, deluging the country, and
Herculaneum and Pompeii sunk in a moment: these cities, with their
inhabitants, were buried in one universal mass. Thunder and lightning
pierced the heavens, and the ashes and smoke from the burning gulf
discharged into the air were wafted to Rome, Syria, and Africa, the
inhabitants whereof trembled lest the world should be destroyed or
turned into chaos; the fish in the neighbouring seas were killed.
These calamities were preceded by a long drought in Italy during the
summer; and in the autumn of A.D. 80 a terrible pestilence
broke out in Rome, and destroyed for some time 10,000 citizens daily.
Eight years after, A.D. 88, an epidemic pestilence appeared in
the north of England, and continued for some time; in 92, it carried
off 150,000 persons in Scotland.
Philo, the Jewish philosopher, gives a description of a ‘loimic’
pestilence which occurred during that century, and appositely conveys
the mode of diffusion and the circumstances of the confluent small-pox.
He says, “The clouds of dust suddenly falling on men and cattle
produced over the whole skin a severe and intractable ulceration; the
body immediately became tumid with efflorescences (ἐξανθήσεσιν) or
purulent phlyctenæ, which appeared like blisters excited by a secret
fire beneath. Men necessarily undergoing much pain and universal
soreness from ulceration and inflammation (φλογώσεως) suffered not
less in body than in mind by the severe affliction, for a continuous
ulcer was observable from head to foot.” These observations of Philo
are intended as a comment on Exodus, ch. ix. v. 9: it shall be “a boil
breaking forth with blains.” He finishes by observing, that it should
rank among pestilential diseases (ἐν τοῖς λοιμώδεσι νόσοις), or as
the infliction of a tainted atmosphere (πληγὴ ἀπ’ ἀέρος καὶ οὐρανοῦ).
From a passage in Dion Cassius’ Roman History, it would appear that
some mode of inoculation had been attempted in the reign of Domitian,
A.D. 92, and revived in that of Commodus.
A.D. 110, a severe earthquake was felt in Shropshire, in
England. Four years after, 114, a similar shock, but more extensive,
was experienced in China, which caused the destruction of much property
and of many lives. During the same period a pestilence prevailed in
Wales, which carried off 45,000 of its inhabitants, after a hot summer
and an inclement autumn. In fact, in those days there frequently
happened great inundations, especially of the river Severn: at one time
immense numbers were drowned in their beds, when 5000 head of cattle
were destroyed. A.D. 115, a tremendous earthquake laid waste
the city of Antioch. Five years after, A.D. 120, Nicomedia and
several neighbouring cities were swallowed up; and, A.D. 128,
Cæsarea and Necropolis met with a similar fate from a severe earthquake.
A.D. 133, a great drought existed in England, and the Thames
was almost dried up. This condition of the seasons was followed by
pestilence; and thirteen years after, Scotland was visited with an
epidemic, to the great destruction of its inhabitants.
Arabia was ravaged by pestilence in the year of our Lord 158. The
disease appeared in Rome during the reign of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus
and Lucius Verus, preceded by a more destructive plague in Asia, which
the great Ammianus Marcellinus, the philosophic hero, asserted arose
from the foul air of a small box which a Roman soldier had opened
at the capture of Seleucia. This opinion was in accordance with the
superstition of the times. At that period the elements were greatly
deranged: commotions of the physical world, inundations of rivers,
agitations of the earth, devastations from locusts, caterpillars,
and every variety of the insect tribe, famine, putrid vapours, with
great inclemencies and irregularities of the seasons, foretold the
approach of the awful pestilence which in the same year desolated Rome:
its symptoms were, a burning fever and gangrene of the extremities,
particularly of the feet. These times were also distinguished by wars
and rumours of wars: 450,000 Romans were butchered in Syria and in
Cyprus by the Jews. Fourteen cities were destroyed by earthquakes,
amongst which was Antioch, with 100,000 inhabitants: 580,000 were
supposed altogether to have perished by the sword, famine, and
pestilence.
Aurelius Victor, speaking of the emperor M. Antoninus, gives a lucid
description of those calamitous times. He says, “Unless he had been
born for these times, all the affairs of the Roman empire would have
been ruined assuredly as if by one fall; for there was rest no where
from arms, and wars burned through all the East, Illyricum, Italy, and
Gaul. The motions of the earth, with annihilation of cities, inundation
of the rivers, thick pestilences, species of locusts infested the
fields; indeed, nothing can be said or conceived, by which mortals used
to be wasted with the severest agonies, which have not raged during his
administration.”
A.D. 173, there was a severe winter, and consequently a famine
in England; a pestilence broke out the summer following, and continued
to the autumn and subsequent winter. In this year, as also in 175 and
178, Rome was visited by epidemic pestilence, which committed great
ravages among the soldiery. Five years after, it was again afflicted
with disease; and in A.D. 195, plague prevailed in all Italy.
“A great pestilence,” says the historian, “raged in all Italy, and
became most violent in Rome by reason of the great concourse of people
assembled from all quarters of the world. The emperor, by the advice of
his physicians, retired to Laurentum, a cool place beautifully shaded
with laurels, on the supposition that the sweet smell of those plants
counteracted contagion. The people of the city were also advised by the
physicians to fill their noses and ears with sweet-smelling ointments,
and to use perfumes, in order to prevent the action of human effluvia
and of the contagious air. These precautions, however, as might
have been expected, proved of little avail: the distemper proceeded
unchecked, and men and cattle continued to perish therefrom in
multitudes. Five thousand died daily in Rome for a considerable time,
and famine with pestilence persisted for three years.” (See Herodian,
Dion Cassius, &c.)
A.D. 203, there was an eruption of Mount Vesuvius.
In the year 211, a plague, preceded by an earthquake and a great
inundation of the river Trent, appeared in the British Isles.
A.D. 218, the river Tweed overflowed; and dire pestilence
followed four years after, destroying 100,000 lives in Scotland.
Mortal pestilence affected the whole world A.D. 250. Italy,
Ethiopia, Egypt, Asia, France, Spain, and various other parts suffered
great ravages from disease. “For twelve years subsequently,” says
Zosimus, “a pestilential fever followed the Scythians, and devoured the
scanty remains of the human race.” “Pestilence has contaminated the
face of the earth,” says Jornandes, a learned historian.
A.D. 252, Alexandria and other districts suffered from
epidemic pestilence, which continued its ravages with great fury
for twelve or fifteen years. This pestilence was not, however, one
uniform disorder, but was comprised of several different kinds, such
as dysentery, ignis sacer, or scurvy, typhomania, remittent fevers,
&c. According to Cedrenus, there were at the time singular exhalations
and dews, which resembled the ichors of dead bodies: “hence,” he says,
“constant loimoi, with other severe and unmanageable disorders (βαρέα
καὶ ἀνίατα νοσήματα), which destroyed multitudes of the people.”
A.D. 262. During the reign of Gallienus 5000 citizens of Rome
perished daily. Cyprian, a bishop of Carthage, a man of erudition (see
reprint, Fell, fol. Oxon. Amst. 1700), in detailing the symptoms of
this horrific pestilence, thus writes: “The symptoms were, a dejection
of spirits, exhaustion of strength, incessant involuntary evacuations,
violent fever of the bowels, with destruction of the sight, hearing,
and feeling.” Aurelius Victor asserts of this pestilence, that it
spread rapidly all over Rome, and arose from heavy cares and depression
of mind, as well as from a pestiferous state of the atmosphere. We may
here recognize all the terrible symptoms of that devastating disease
Cholera, which, beginning in the year 1817, ravaged the four quarters
of the globe, and continued for a series of years. Several earthquakes
were experienced this year in Europe, Asia, and Africa, with three
days’ darkness. A.D. 272, there was another eruption of
Vesuvius.
A.D. 292, pestilence and famine prevailed in England
and Wales; it also raged with great intensity in those places,
A.D. 310, carrying off, in the latter, 40,000 persons.
A.D. 302, epidemic pestilence (_loimos_), preceded by
famine, broke out in Syria. The account of this pestilential disorder
by George Cedrenus appears to be similar to that by Eusebius; he
says: “At this time almost every evil that can be enumerated fell
upon men--famine, loimos, and drought, with misfortune of a certain
disorder; it was an ulcer, the denomination of which was answerable to
its affinity with the fiery anthrax, spreading over the whole body: it
proved highly dangerous in all respects to the persons affected, but
by a particular determination to the eyes in most cases, it produced
blindness in thousands of men, women, and children.” Nicephorus says of
this disease--“It originated in famine, and was called anthrax; it was
an ulceration attracting or draining out humours, with an intolerable
stench, which, in spreading over the bodies, extended to and affected
with violence the eyelids (κανθοὶ), and occasioned blindness both in
males and females.” We are further informed by Eusebius and Cedrenus
that the army of Gallienus, in Armenia, was affected with pestilence,
which extended to every city in the eastern provinces, and even to
villages and lone houses. The great mortality among the poor was
attributable more to famine than to the disease; they were obliged to
eat hay, grass, roots, &c. The rich, however, were not exempt from this
pestilence, but were also carried off in great numbers. The emperor
Diocletian, according to Cedrenus, died of the malady: “he was affected
with severe pains over the whole body,--a violent phlogosis preyed upon
his inward parts, and his flesh melted like wax. In the progress of the
complaint, he became totally blind; his throat and tongue putrefied,
so that worms came from his mouth, and he emitted an odour not less
offensive than that of dead bodies in the sepulchres.” This malady was
evidently confluent small-pox.
A.D. 325, epidemic pestilence, preceded by famine, prevailed
all over Britain, and in many other parts of the world. During the
years 336, 355, 358, 362, 367, 368, and 375, deadly disease, with
famine and earthquakes, were again experienced in the British Isles. In
Wales alone, in the latter year, 43,000 persons died from pestilence.
A terrible earthquake was felt in Macedonia, and 150 cities were
swallowed up in Asia and Greece. Ammianus Marcellinus mentions a plague
which broke out in Amida, a city of Persia, during its siege by Sapor,
which was attributed to the distresses of war, and to the corruption of
unburied bodies lying about in the streets, plains, &c.
A.D. 361, there was a terrible famine in Italy. Four years
after, 365, severe shocks of an earthquake, with inundations round
the Mediterranean, did much damage. 50,000 persons were drowned at
Alexandria in the month of July. Italy and Syria suffered from plague,
which continued until 394. An inundation of the Nile nearly destroyed
the cities of Alexandria and Libya; and rain, storms, and drought
were experienced in Judea, which was also visited by immense swarms
of locusts. These phenomena were succeeded by dire pestilence. There
were several earthquakes at intervals between the months of September
and November, which destroyed many places in Europe. During the years
400, 407, 417, and 419, pestilence desolated Asia, Africa, and Europe;
a severe earthquake shook Cibyra, and destroyed many villages in its
neighbourhood: in 419, an earthquake swallowed up several cities in
Palestine. A.D. 442, pestilence swept away great numbers in
England this year. A.D. 446, on the 17th of September, at
Constantinople, a severe earthquake, attended with fire, pestilence,
and famine, caused great misery. The walls of the town with seventeen
towers were thrown down. A.D. 458, an earthquake destroyed
nearly all Antioch on the 14th of September. Pestilence, about the same
period, again broke out in England, and in various other regions, as
related by Echard. The Greek ecclesiastical historian Nicephorus, and
other writers, state that it prevailed more remarkably in Cappadocia,
Galatia, and Phrygia. Isodorus tells us that so great were the famine
and disease in Spain, in A.D. 443, that men fed with fury upon
each other.
From the year 450 until 467, pestilence raged in Rome; it revisited
the city A.D. 473. The year previously, 472, on the 11th
of November, at noon, there occurred an eruption of Vesuvius, which
ejected flames that were seen at Constantinople, obscured the sun at
noon day, and ravaged all Campania: there were ashes four inches deep
on the tops of houses many miles distant. A.D. 480, a severe
earthquake was experienced at Constantinople, which lasted forty days,
causing much destruction of life and property. Epidemic pestilence
infested Scotland; and Asia and Africa were nearly depopulated by
epidemic disease.
A.D. 502, Scotland was visited by epidemic disease, which
destroyed both men and beasts. A.D. 512, there was an eruption
of Vesuvius. A.D. 517, Palestine suffered from pestilence,
as did the inhabitants of Wales ten years after, in 527. The year
previous, 526, Antioch with several other cities was nearly destroyed
by an earthquake; it also suffered from a similar visitation two years
after, 528, when 4800 of its inhabitants were buried in its ruins.
A.D. 540, so dire a famine was experienced in Italy, that
parents were reduced to the cruel necessity of eating their children.
About the same period, during the reign of Justinian, a destructive
pestilence ravaged the greater part of Europe and Asia for more than
half a century. It was at first observed to be plague in its usual
form only, attended with tumours in the groin or axillæ, or behind the
ears; but in its progress it was found to consist of various disorders,
corresponding, in their leading features, according to the description
by Evagrius, to “the true pestilence.” These disorders consisted of
pestilential or scarlet sore throat, and dysentery, with small-pox and
measles. This fatal epidemic is shown to have continued in Asia until
the year 590. Some authors have computed the number destroyed during
this pestilential period at two millions.