FROM A.D. 1616 TO 1704.
A.D. 1616, Germany was greatly troubled with epidemic agues.
Two years after, violent tempests, inundations, volcanic eruptions,
meteors, &c. distinguished this pestilential period or season. A
malignant angina prevailed at Naples: the plague infested Bergen,
Norway, Denmark, Egypt, the Levant, and many other places; and a
terrible yellow pestilence, in both North and South America, swept
away thousands of the Aborigines (Indians). Hutchison says, that the
Massachusetts tribe in North America, consisting of 30,000 persons, was
reduced to 300! Gorges writes, that the disease occurred in the summer
and autumn for several years, commencing A.D. 1618, and ending
in 1623. This distemper the Indians described as a spotted putrid
fever, with ulcers, and yellowness of the skin and eyes, and bleeding
from the mouth and ears. This pestilence must have been of domestic
origin, as no known intercourse had been held with any part of this new
continent; it evidently was endemic--a bilious pestilence.
A.D. 1617, a terrible inundation occurred in Catalonia in
Spain, from continued heavy rains, during which more than 50,000
persons lost their lives: the year following, a comet appeared. From
this time until 1623, Malta, Naples, Hungary, France, and England
suffered from epidemic diseases, such as small-pox, plague, &c. Seville
was visited by gangrenous sore-throat about this time; and in 1619,
many places in the Levant suffered from epidemic pestilence. In 1620,
Antonio de Fonseca, a Portuguese physician of the city of Lisbon, wrote
a work entitled ‘De Epidemiâ febrili, grassante in exercitû Regis
Catholici in inferiori Palatinato.’ During this year a heavy snow-storm
was experienced, which continued for thirteen nights and days; upwards
of 20,000 sheep in one district, Eskdale Moor, were destroyed by it and
famine conjoined.
A.D. 1622, London was visited by epidemic pestilence, which
continued for four years. In the first year there died 8000; in the
second, 11,000; in the third, 12,000; and in the fourth, 35,417. Plague
also broke out about this period in Amsterdam, and persisted, as it is
stated, eight years. Pestilence was prevalent in many parts of Spain.
In July, the Council of One Hundred, at Barcelona, received advice that
pestilence had broken out at Argel; orders were given, in consequence,
for the exclusion of all slaves and goods coming thence.
A.D. 1625, plague broke out in London, and raged with varied
intensity all over England; 30,000 persons were carried off by it in
London alone. Epidemic disease also prevailed in Italy, Denmark, and
Egypt. Inundations occurred in Spain. In the month of January, the
river Tormes departed from its bed, destroying cattle and houses in
Salamanca. Seville suffered similarly from the overflowing of the
Guadalquivir; and in the year following, 1626, pestilence carried off
60,000 persons at Lyons. France continued to suffer from pestilence the
two following years.
A.D. 1629, epidemic pestilence broke out in Narbonne; it also
prevailed at Amsterdam, and at Cambridge in England, where it raged
mortally: yellow pestilence was rife at the same time in America, and
plague raged at Marseilles.
A.D. 1630, the principality of Catalonia suffered from plague
in different parts: Drs. Mas, Mox, and Rosell described the disease in
their works: its symptoms were those of the malady which we now term
Andalusian fever,--a yellow bilious fever. The city of Guadix suffered
from pestilence of the puncticular type at the same time: it continued
there for two years and upwards. Gangrenous ergotism prevailed in many
of the provinces of France, as reported by Dr. Thullier, physician to
the Duc de Sully, the prime minister of Henry IV. The first symptom of
this extraordinary malady was a numbness of the legs, then pain with
slight swelling, devoid of inflammation, to which succeeded rapidly
coldness, lividness, mortification, and dropping off of the limbs. In
many instances, the nose, fingers, hands, arms, feet, legs, thighs,
sphacelated spontaneously, and dropped off. The following extraordinary
account of a similar disease occurring in a family at Watlesham, in
Suffolk, was transmitted to the Royal Society of London, and published
in its ‘Transactions’ for the year 1762. The report was drawn up by
Charlton Wollaston, M. D., F. R. S.: it was as follows:
John Downing, a labourer at Watlesham, in the month of January, 1762,
had a wife and six children; the eldest, a girl about fifteen years of
age, the youngest aged four months; at that time all were very well, as
the man himself and neighbours assured Dr. Wollaston. On Sunday, the
10th of January, the eldest girl complained in the morning of a pain
in her left leg, particularly in the calf, increasing severely towards
evening. The same evening another girl (her sister), ten years old,
complained also of violent pain in the leg. On the Monday the mother
and another child, and on the Tuesday all the rest of the family,
except the father, were affected in the same manner. Their pains were
excessive, insomuch that the whole neighbourhood was alarmed by the
loudness of their shrieks. The left leg only in most of the cases was
affected; but in some, both legs were diseased. The infant was removed
from its mother’s breast as soon as it fell ill, and survived only a
few weeks. The nurse told Dr. Wollaston that it, too, seemed to be in
violent pain, and that its legs became black before death.
Dr. Wollaston’s inquiries were very minute; he was told that in about
four, five, or six days, the diseased leg became somewhat less painful,
and gradually turned black, appearing at first covered with spots as
if it had been bruised; then commenced the affection of the other
leg, with the same excruciating pains, and in a few days thereafter
that also began to mortify: in a very little time both legs were
perfectly sphacelated: the mortified parts separated from the sound
spontaneously, the attending surgeon having in most of the cases no
other trouble than merely to saw through the bone, with little or no
pain to the patient: the separation took place generally about two
inches below the knee; in some, rather lower, and in one instance the
feet separated at the ankles without any surgical aid; in others the
separation was less perfect. The eldest girl had one leg taken off, and
the other was entirely sphacelated, but the surgeon delayed removing
it, owing to a large abscess which had formed under the hamstrings,
attended with a swelling of the thigh. The mother’s right foot came
off at the ankle-joint, while the other leg, wasted to the bone, was
black and extremely fœtid, what little remained of flesh being quite
putrid and almost dried. In one child alone was one of the legs saved,
but with the loss, however, of two toes even from that. Three of the
children lost both legs, and another child both its feet. The father
was attacked about two weeks after the rest of the family, but in a
slighter degree, the pain being confined to two fingers of his right
hand, which turned blackish and withered for some time, but then got
better, and he recovered the use of them.
It is remarkable that during the time of this dreadful calamity the
whole family are said to have appeared well in some respects; that is
to say, they ate heartily, and even slept well when the pain began to
abate. When Dr. Wollaston saw them, they all seemed free from febrile
symptoms, except the girl already mentioned, who had an abscess in the
ham. The mother looked emaciated, and had but very little use of her
hands. The rest of the family seemed well; one poor boy in particular
looked as healthy and florid as possible, and was sitting on his bed,
quite jolly, drumming with his stumps!
On inquiry, it was evident that this disease proceeded from eating
bread made from spoiled wheat. Another labouring man, who had eaten of
the same bread, was affected with a numbness in both hands for about
four weeks from the 9th of January: they were continually cold, and the
skin peeled off his fingers’ ends: one thumb, he says, remains without
any sensation. A nurse who had lived with them from the beginning of
their illness was not affected.
A.D. 1631, there was an eruption of Mount Vesuvius. An
erysipelatous epidemic was prevalent in various parts of Europe. In
the month of April a decree was published in Spain prohibiting all
intercourse with France, where pestilence was rife. The year following,
1632, a similar decree was published prohibiting intercourse with
Narbonne. Plague broke out at Dresden, and continued until the year
1637. A.D. 1633, Newcastle-upon-Tyne was inundated; many lives
and much property were destroyed. The year following, 1634, plague
raged with great violence at Ratisbon; and in 1635, epidemic pestilence
carried off 20,000 of the inhabitants of Leyden; it also was very fatal
in many parts of Germany.
A.D. 1636, frequent and excessive rains induced epidemic
fevers during the summer and autumn in Barcelona and in other parts
of Spain; plague raged in London, destroying 10,000 persons. Nemiguen
suffered greatly from disease. Epidemic pestilence was also rife in
Egypt; and, according to Diemmerbroeck’s account, also in Holland and
Denmark. Constantinople with Natolia suffered greatly from disease of
a similar kind.--A.D. 1638, malignant fevers with small-pox
prevailed in the United States, and also along the coasts of South
America: and a new disease, which continued for ten years, attacked the
inhabitants, principally on the coasts of St. Andres, Malaga, Puerto de
Santa Maria, and Xeres de la Frontera. Many provinces in the interior
also suffered from it, as Burgos, Nieto, Viana, and other cities of
Navarette. A severe earthquake was felt at Naples and in Sicily; it
swallowed up several towns and more than 30,000 persons: it occurred
in the month of March. The year following there was a severe frost in
England, which continued for nine weeks, commencing on the 24th of
December. London was visited by epidemic pestilence of a severe type; a
similar disease was also rife in other parts of Europe.--A.D.
1640, many portions of South America inhabited by Spaniards suffered
from yellow pestilence.
A.D. 1642, in the month of January, heavy rains fell
continuously for sixteen days at Seville, during which time the
Guadalquivir overflowed its banks, destroying much property in Castile,
as also many of the inhabitants. The settlers at Newhaven, in the
United States of America, and those on the banks of the Delaware river,
suffered from pestilence, during this year. In the subsequent year, the
city of Boston suffered from epidemic disease, as did also many other
parts of the States. A malignant fever broke out in the army of the
Earl of Essex, whilst besieging Reading, in England; the king’s army
also suffered. Great numbers in both armies having died, it ultimately
extended to Oxford and to all the villages within ten miles. It first
appeared like a putrid synochus; after the middle of summer it raged
with increased violence and in a greatly aggravated form; spots began
to appear and pustules, attended with great prostration of strength;
many had buboes as in the true plague. During the dog-days the disease
was considered and treated as a mild form of plague.
A.D. 1644, epidemic malignant disease broke out at Madrid,
causing great mortality. Denmark and England also suffered from
malignant fevers, which were followed by dysentery. The preceding
summer had been excessively hot, and there were also heavy and frequent
showers, with dews at night.
A.D. 1646, inundations took place in Holland, in Zealand, and
in Friesland. Earthquakes were felt in many parts of the world; in
Chili, several mountains of the Andes sunk into the earth, one after
another. A comet was seen about this period. The ravages of locusts
were great during this and the two subsequent years. Pestilence caused
great destruction in Andalusia: plague raged in London, extending
to other parts of the kingdom, especially to Newark, Stafford, and
Totnes. About the same time it likewise occasioned great mortality in
Ireland. Epidemic catarrh prevailed in America, affecting equally the
Dutch, English, and Swiss colonists. Pestilential yellow fever was
rife throughout the West Indies, especially in Barbados and St. Kitts;
it has been computed that in the two islands 12,000 perished. Various
parts of Spain suffered from epidemic pestilence during this and the
following years: the city of Valencia suffered great mortality from an
epidemic; it was of so general a character, that it seized on old and
young.
A.D. 1649, epidemic small-pox prevailed in the city of
Boston, United States; plague revisited London and Shropshire, and was
destructive in Ireland. Spain suffered dreadfully this year, especially
in the southern provinces, where, it is said, disease carried off
200,000 persons. Marseilles also suffered greatly. This year, says
Fray Francisco de Cabrera, was the most tragic ever known in Seville,
at least since 1246; the violence of the pestilence ceased about May,
when the city was one entire hospital. There was great mortality
also at Marbella, a port of the Mediterranean. In France, a very hot
summer, with much thunder and lightning, was experienced, which did
great mischief in Guienne, Bourdeaux, and other provinces, firing
hayricks, granaries, &c. Several of the Members of the Parliament of
Aix were found dead in their beds after a tempestuous night of thunder
and lightning; and the day following, the roof of the house in which
Parliament was assembled fell in, and killed several members.
A.D. 1650, the winter was open, and the spring cold and wet.
Severe influenza prevailed all over Europe, and was succeeded by a
general pestilence during the hot summer and autumn. It prevailed in
the form of ague in Denmark, and of inflammatory fever in France. This
epidemic, in rather a formidable character, called by some writers
‘ignis sacer’ and ‘fièvre St. Antoine,’ and by the French ‘ergot,’
raged during this period with great mortality in Sologne. The disease
was not ascribed so much to the scarcity of food, as to a diseased
state of the rye. It commenced with lassitude and debility, followed
by torpor, swelling, and burning heat, with excruciating pains in
the lower limbs, which became shrivelled and dark, and at length
gangrenous. There was reason, however, to believe that this malady was
the result of insufficient food, amounting almost to starvation, and
not of diseased grain. The lower classes, as is generally the case,
suffered most. Pestilence also caused great ravages in Russia and
Poland. Clouds of locusts were seen to enter the former country in
three different places: they afterwards spread over Poland to Lithuania
in such astonishing multitudes, that the air was darkened and the earth
blackened with their numbers. In very many places they were found
heaped up upon each other to the depth of _four feet!_ in others
they covered the surface of the ground like a black cloth. The trees
bent with their weight; and the damage sustained by the country was
beyond computation.
The city of Carmona was visited by epidemic pestilence, as was also
the neighbouring country. The disease which pervaded Andalusia soon
spread with great mortality through the populations of Catalonia,
Aragon, and Valencia. In the month of February the Council of One
Hundred (Ciento) of Barcelona were occupied with the pestilence which
was ravaging Tortosa. In May the same Council declared Gerona to be
in a pestilential condition. The year following, 1651, the city of
Huesca, as also Alcubierre and a greater part of the population of
Aragon, suffered from pestilence of rather a formidable character.
Barcelona soon became affected; the disease raged there with extreme
violence. Dr. Salvador wrote a work describing this pestilence: it
was entitled ‘Breve Tratado de la Peste y fiebre pestilente, en
el qual se trata de su esencia, causas, dignocion, preservacion y
purificacion.’--A.D. 1652, a comet was seen.
A.D. 1653. In Girona, at present called Gerona y Osterlique,
pestilence broke out, and raged with violence. The year following,
1654, epidemic disease again made its appearance in England and also
in Denmark. In the month of April it broke out in Chester in England.
Pestilential disease at this period was also rife in Turkey, Russia,
Presburg, Hungary, Italy, Egypt, Malta, Sardinia, Leyden, Riga, and
Amsterdam: 200,000, it is stated, died from it in Moscow alone, 9000 in
Riga, 13,200 at Amsterdam, and 13,000 at Leyden.
Two years after (1656), 240,000 persons were destroyed by mortal
pestilence in Naples; a great number--9000--in Benevento, 10,000 at
Genoa, the like number at Rome, and in the Neapolitan territories
generally it is supposed 400,000 perished. Cardinal Gastaldi,
speaking of the pestilence at Rome, states that it was one of the
most horrible diseases Rome had ever suffered from. The same author
eulogizes the precautionary measures adopted by the Spaniards and
the Portuguese. Franco, a physician of Carmona, in his work entitled
‘Elysius jucundarum Quæstionum Campus medicis imprimis utilis,’ lauds
as great alexipharmics the properties of the unicorn and of the bezoar
concretion.
In the spring of 1658, epidemic catarrh prevailed all over Europe, and
in the following autumn degenerated into malignant fever: it caused
great mortality in England and France, where the seasons were very
intemperate. Epidemic disease was also rife in North America during
this period. The fever which prevailed in England was of a peculiar
kind--a pernicious intermittent: it was universal, and raged with as
great destructiveness as the plague. A similar disease, we are informed
by Morton, continued for some years previous to the plague of 1665.
Oliver Cromwell died of it; and Morton states that his own father also
perished by it, and that he himself and his whole family were infected.
“Matrem pientissimam, fratres, sorores, servos, ancillas, nutrices
conductitias, quotquot erant intra eosdem nobiscum parietes, ac fere
omnes ejusdem ac vicinorum pagorum incolas, hoc veneno infectos et
decumbentes vidi.” He proceeds to say that the cold weather afterwards
checked the disease in some measure,--yet the seeds of it seem to have
been by no means destroyed; for it still continued to show itself
under other forms: “durante enim brumâ, intermittentes quartanas,
tertianas, quotidianas, ab ejusdem veneni mitiore gradu oriundas, fere
æque epidemias videre erat ac in autumno συνεχέας seu remittentes;
neque mehercule sæviente gelu penitus defecerunt istæ febres
continentes. Atque equidem hancce febrem hoc pacto sub typo συνεχέος
præsertim simplicis et legitimæ, quotidianæ scilicet, vel tertianæ,
maxime vulgarem fuisse, et tempore autumnalis plus minus epidemiam,
usque ad annum 1664 observavi.” He informs us likewise, that in the
two years immediately succeeding the great plague, dysenteries were
very frequent; so that in the autumn of 1667, “civitas fere universa
hoc morbo correpta videbatur, atque singulis septimanis 345 plus minus
fluxu et torminibus confecti fatis cedebant.”
It was during this year (1658) that remarkable phenomena were observed
in various parts of Europe. The most tempestuous and inclement weather
was experienced; and on the day on which Oliver Cromwell died, there
arose a dreadful storm in England, which was felt all over Europe, and
from its severity seemed to threaten all nature.
Two years after, A.D. 1660, there was an eruption of Vesuvius.
A.D. 1661, a comet made its appearance, and an earthquake was
again felt with great severity at Chili: China suffered in a similar
manner the same year, 300,000 persons having been buried in Pekin alone.
The year following, A.D. 1662, great drought was experienced
in England; the springs were dried up, the rivers were very low, and
an epizootic prevailed with great mortality among cattle: it was of
rather a remarkable character, being a disease of the liver; a small
worm (entozoa), especially in sheep, it is said, seemed to prey on
the liver, lungs, and bowels: Venice was also visited by pestilence,
of which it is said 60,000 persons died. Puerperal fever was very
destructive this year at Leipsic and at Copenhagen.
A.D. 1663, severe pestilence prevailed in England. The
illustrious Sydenham graphically describes the various epidemic
maladies which prevailed all over England from the year 1661 unto 1680.
Inflammatory fevers and quinsies, he says, were more frequent in London
than they were ever before known to be. During the summer of 1664, in
the month of May, a comet was seen and a malignant fever prevailed,
which could not in many cases be distinguished from the true plague;
and in the month of June it became greatly aggravated. From the 2nd
of November the true plague raged with violence, and continued with
great mortality for eighteen months, unto May, 1666. Among the signs
foreshowing the advent of the plague, it is said that birds, wild fowl,
and wild beasts left their accustomed haunts, and but few swallows were
seen. In the summer of 1664, there were such multitudes of flies, that
the insides of houses swarmed with them; ants were generated in great
numbers, and might have been taken up from the highways in handsful;
the ditches were filled with frogs and various kinds of insects.
The plague was ushered in with seven months’ dry weather and westerly
winds: it commenced on the highest parts of London, in the parish of
St. Giles in the Fields, whence it extended rapidly to St. Martin’s,
Westminster, Highgate, Hampstead, and Acton; all these parishes and
villages were soon infected.
“The disease,” says Mr. Boghurst, a medical practitioner, who resided
in the metropolis during the whole period of the prevalence of the
disease, “spread not altogether by contagion at first, nor began only
at one place, and spread farther and farther as an eating and spreading
sore doth all over the body, _but fell upon several places of the
city and suburbs like rain even at the first_,--as St. Giles’, St.
Martin’s, Chancery Lane, Southwark, Houndsditch, and some places within
the city, as at Proctors’ Houses.” Boghurst further states that “this
year, 1665, in which the plague hath raged so much, no alteration nor
change appeared in any element, vegetable or animal, besides the body
of man, _except only the season of the year and the winds_; the
spring being continually dry for six or seven months together, there
being no rain at all, but a little sprinkling shower or two about
the latter end of April, which caused a pitiful crop of hay in the
spring: in the autumn there was a pretty good crop, but all other
things were healthy and sound, and all sorts of fruits, such as apples,
pears, cherries, plums, grapes, melons, cabbages, &c.; all roots, as
parsnips, carrots, turnips; all flowers, and medicinal simples, were
as plentiful, large, fair, and wholesome, and all grain as plentiful
and as good as ever.” 68,596 persons are reported to have been carried
off this year by the plague in London alone. A comet was seen in 1665,
and an earthquake shook Oxford. Immediately after the great fire, on
the 2nd September, 1666, which destroyed 13,200 houses, fatal dysentery
was very prevalent. During this period, a plague infested the island
of Malta; yellow pestilence, or fever, prevailed in the island of St.
Domingo, as also in many other of the West Indian Islands; Holland and
Prussia suffered from severe epidemic disease: and the year following,
1667, a miliary pestilence raged in Bavaria; Spain suffered from
epidemic pestilence, from which no province escaped: it caused great
mortality, and was rapidly fatal. Don Pedro Vasquez, a physician of
Toledo, describes the symptoms as being those of quinsy, attended with
malignant fever, in his work entitled ‘Morbi Essentia qui non solum
per hanc insignem urbem Tolitanam, sed per totam Hispaniam sparsim
grassatur, quem vulgus garratillo appellat, Apologetica Disceptatio; et
ea quæ in curatione hujus morbi sunt animadvertenda.’
The same year, A.D. 1667, Salamanca and Lisbon suffered from
pestilence. Yellow fever appeared in the United States of America in
A.D. 1668, and was especially destructive in the cities of
New York and Philadelphia; in the subsequent year, the inhabitants of
Norway were visited by pestilence in the shape of malignant measles,
which with small-pox was also rife in England. About this time, a
terrible earthquake occurred at Naples, which destroyed great numbers
of lives and houses in Benevento. The Archbishop was dug out of the
ruins, and became afterwards Pope Benedict XIII.
A.D. 1670, gangrenous ergotism broke out in Aquitaine, in
Sologne, and in the Galinois district; it continued until 1674, by
which time it had extended to Montagris and the neighbourhood.
A.D. 1672, in the month of December, there fell in the West
of England a shower of rain that froze into ice as soon as it touched
the boughs of trees or anything above ground, and by the increase of
size of the icicles, it broke all down with its weight. The ice on the
sprig of an ash weighing three-quarters of a pound amounted to sixteen
pounds. The rain that fell on the snow immediately became ice without
sinking into the snow, so intensely cold was the weather. About this
time, a strange phenomenon occurred; while the English were waiting
for the flow of the tide, in order to land on the coast of Scheveling,
they were disappointed; as the next tide flowed but two hours, when an
ebb for many hours succeeded, which carried the English fleet again to
sea before the return of the flow: the Hollanders were thus preserved
from an invasion, as it were, by a miracle. In Spain, great sterility
of the land and epidemic disease prevailed. In the month of May, the
Council of One Hundred were informed that pestilence had broken out on
the French frontiers. Miliary pestilence prevailed in Hungary; and in
the early part of the year following, 1673, an epidemic of a violent
character broke out in Spain, which continued until 1684; it was
described by Valcarcel as being of a tertiary type. The disease was of
a mild form in the months of May and June, but increased in malignancy
in August, September, and October to such a degree that it destroyed
nearly half the inhabitants of Barcelona.
A.D. 1675 and 1676, virulent small-pox and measles again broke
out in England. In the former year (1675), 11,300 persons were carried
off by plague in the island of Malta: a miliary epidemic was very fatal
in Hamburgh, and, according to Escobar, the inhabitants of the city of
Carthagena suffered from epidemic tertian fevers.
A.D. 1677, a comet was observed. Pestilence again broke out
in Murcia and Carthagena; thousands died of small-pox in Charleston,
Massachusetts, United States, and a plague desolated many parts of
Europe. From this year until 1679, epidemic pestilence overspread
Spain; and, according to the statements of several historians, the
capitals of Granada, Cordova, and Seville suffered greatly.
A.D. 1678. A comet was observed this year also. An inundation
occurred in Gascony, when the water spouted in jets from the sides
of an adjacent mountain in overwhelming quantities. Plagues ravaged
Algeria and Morocco.--The year following, mortal pestilence prevailed
in Vienna, and in Malaga and other parts of Andalusia.
A.D. 1679, pestilence and famine were rife in Germany from
June until the month of December the following year, 1680: two comets
were observed. Dresden suffered from plague, and cholera prevailed in
England.
A.D. 1681, there was a great fire in Southwark, on the Surrey
side of the Thames, and 600 houses were destroyed. Bronchial disease
was prevalent in England: a mortal angina, which caused death in
twenty-four hours, raged in Italy, Poland, Switzerland, and Germany;
and at the same time a petechial fever prevailed in Dublin and in other
parts of Ireland: pestilence was rife in the island of Sardinia and in
different parts of Castile; it also broke out in the city of Esmirna,
and extended to Carthagena, Murcia, and Oran, and soon after to Malaga,
Antequera, Granada, Moron, Ronda, Lucena, Andujar, and other districts;
and thence to Xeres, Santa Maria, and Cadiz.
A.D. 1682, there was an eruption of Vesuvius, and the city of
Catania was destroyed by an earthquake; there was also an eruption of
Etna, which destroyed 60,000 of the inhabitants. A comet was seen this
year.
A.D. 1683, there was a comet seen, and earthquakes were felt
in many parts of England. The winter was very inclement; and the frost
was so severe at Christmas, that the river Thames was frozen over below
Gravesend for thirteen weeks. Epidemic pestilence broke out in Argel
and other parts of Berberia. The winters of this year and the following
were the coldest ever experienced by the oldest inhabitants in Europe;
the summers were rainy, and the autumns cold: epidemic disease spread
over both continents--Europe and America. Pestilence, say Drs. Sastre
and Puiz of Spain, prevailed over nearly the entire world; the city of
Vich was greatly afflicted. Epidemic pestilence also prevailed with the
greatest violence on the coasts of Spain; the Hungarian fever did much
mischief in Leyden. The three following years the summers were hot and
dry; grasshoppers overspread Languedoc in France, the subsequent autumn
being cold and wet. Malignant fevers were very destructive in Europe
and America.
A.D. 1686, Friesland was inundated, and thousands of men and
cattle were drowned. The following year, an earthquake shook the island
of Jamaica and Lima. There occurred also an inundation in Yorkshire; a
rock opened visibly, and water was thrown into the air to the height
of an ordinary church steeple: a comet was observed. Yellow pestilence
caused great mortality in the West Indies, especially in the island of
Martinique, where it was called ‘Maladie de Siam,’ from the supposition
that it had been imported from that country.
A.D. 1688. Catarrhs, pleurisies, and dysentery were epidemic,
this year, both in Europe and America; and during the following years,
1689–90 and 1691, pestilence prevailed with great severity in Germany,
Italy, various parts of Spain, and in the United States of America: it
was preceded in America by hot and moist weather.
A.D. 1690, about the beginning of June, all the legumina and
springing corn were spotted with mildew; grapes and other fruits were
destroyed, or rendered unfit for use, and the leaves of herbs, shrubs,
&c., were eaten to the stems by various insects. Much rain fell during
the first seven months of the year and after the autumnal equinox in
Lombardy. “All the animals suffered,” observes Ramazzini; “even bees
and silkworms perished; and the cicadæ did not sing this year; swine
died of suffocation,--but the greatest destruction was among cattle.”
He applies the title ‘pestilential’ to the disease affecting men in the
season which proved so fatal to cattle. Miliary or sweating pestilence
committed great ravages in Stuttgart, Dusseldorf, Erfurt, and Jena.
Bilious remittent or yellow fever was prevalent in the United States of
America; it raged with great violence in Charleston. Various parts of
Spain, about this period, suffered from epidemic pestilence, especially
Perpignan and Bellagardi; disease was also rife in Italy. A severe
earthquake was felt this year all over Ireland.
A.D. 1692, the summer was hot and dry, and on the 7th of
June an awful earthquake swallowed up Port Royal, Jamaica; Lima also
suffered from a similar shock: 2000 citizens were drowned in the former
place:
“Earthquakes, Nature’s agonizing pangs,
Oft shake th’ astonish’d isles.”
Mosquitoes and flies were generated in great numbers, and yellow
malignant or bilious remittent fever carried off 3000 of the
inhabitants of Port Royal, Jamaica. The same year, yellow fever was
also very fatal at Barbados, and continued to be so for several years.
The year following, 1693, an earthquake was felt in England, France,
and Germany; 60,000 persons, out of 254,000 inhabitants, perished about
the same period from a shock in Sicily.
A.D. 1694, an eruption of Vesuvius took place, and Messina was
destroyed by an earthquake. Epidemic catarrh raged among men and horses
in various parts of Europe. The seamen and troops under Sir Francis
Wheeler, sent to conquer the island of Martinique in the West Indies,
suffered dreadfully from yellow pestilence, which, during the same
year, was rife in the United States of America; the inhabitants of
Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, were carried off in great numbers:
a Dr. Gamble strangely describes it as being a new disease; it was
called ‘the new distemper, or Kendall’s fever,’ at Barbados, where it
prevailed, causing great mortality. Miliary fever broke out in Berlin,
and continued for some time: it was not very fatal.
A.D. 1695, pestilence broke out amongst the American Indians.
The inhabitants of the island of Bermuda suffered from yellow fever;
and the following years, a similar disease prevailed in the United
States of America, especially in Connecticut, New Hampshire, &c.
A.D. 1698, a comet was seen. Spain suffered again from
epidemic disease; it was very fatal in Cerdena: Don Manuel de Alsivia
wrote a work describing the malady. The disease was supposed to have
been taken out to South America; various parts of the coast having
suffered severely from this pestilence, Buenos Ayres especially, it
spread to a considerable distance, and Lima was nearly depopulated by
it; for it nearly devastated the country, sparing neither Spaniard,
white, creole, mustee, mulatto, nor negro. North America also suffered
from pestilence: at this period, a dreadful disease affected the
Anglo-Americans; the inhabitants of Charleston and Philadelphia
suffered in the following year, 1699. There was an awful earthquake in
China, and nearly 400,000 persons were destroyed. A comet was seen this
year. The disease which affected the Anglo-Americans was considered
to be similar to, and as severe as the epidemic which had devastated
Barbados a few years previously. Fatal catarrh prevailed in England,
and plague in various places in the Levant: France also suffered from
pestilential catarrh, and an epizootic among the cattle, especially
among horses. Capmany describes the disease as being a bilious plague,
which at this time prevailed in Liorna, Geneva, Cerdena, Narbonne, and
Nismes.
A.D. 1700. Upon the death and in accordance with the will
of Charles II., and in obedience to the orders of Maria Theresa of
Austria, the celebrated and spirited Don Felipe VI. was invited to
Spain. The civil wars, which arose in consequence, produced great
devastation and ruin in the land, and were succeeded by an epidemic
of a severe type: it is supposed to have originated from the corrupt
and irregular habits of the soldiery, who were composed of different
nations; its form was that of a malignant exanthematous fever, attended
with delirium. Escobar speaks of the disease as being contagious.
Pestilential angina, says Bruno Fernandes, in his recent observations,
was so fatal to children, that at the commencement of this century but
few escaped its ravages, and the disease was in every way the most
fatal that had been experienced for a long time: it was called miliary
or sweating pestilence, at Breslau; and was very destructive to the
inhabitants of the island of Milo, in the Levant. In the North of
Europe it was followed by small-pox. During the subsequent seven years
of this century, epidemic pestilence prevailed in various parts of the
world,--England, Scotland, Friesland, the United States of America, &c.
A.D. 1701, there happened an eruption of Vesuvius: the year
following, 1702, the family seat of Borge, near Frederickstadt, in
Norway, sunk, with all its towers and battlements, into an abyss one
hundred fathoms deep, and its site was instantly filled with water,
which formed a lake three hundred ells long and one hundred and thirty
broad. Many persons, together with upwards of 200 head of cattle,
perished. A comet was seen about this period; and in the next year,
1703, small-pox and scarlatina raged at Boston, United States; in other
of the States they were attended with fever of a most malignant type.
During this period the drought was extreme; the autumn was sultry, with
cold damp nights, north winds, and frequent showers; bilious plague
broke out in the city of New York, and was more fatal than at any other
previous period; it was termed ‘the great sickness.’ Ergotism prevailed
throughout the whole country of Freiburg. A dreadful thunder-storm was
experienced in England on the 26th and 27th of November of this year,
which frightened the whole kingdom; the houses in London were violently
shaken, and many fell; the water rose to a great height at Westminster
Hall, and London Bridge was choked up with the wrecks of boats, &c.;
fourteen ships of war were lost during the storm, with great numbers
of seamen. The damage done by it in London alone was computed at
one million pounds sterling: at the same time Rome was shaken by an
earthquake, and the city of Aquila, in the kingdom of Naples, was
destroyed; many thousand persons were buried in its ruins. The year
following, 1704, there was an eruption of Vesuvius.