FROM A.D. 1705 TO 1795.
A.D. 1705, in the city of Ceuta, an epidemic malignant fever
broke out, and raged with dreadful violence, causing great mortality.
The appearances on dissection, as reported by Don Antonio de la Locha,
proto-medicus of the army, were as follow: “The blood was observed to
be coagulated in the ventricles of the heart, especially in that of the
right side, and also in the vena cava (in the immediate neighbourhood
of the heart); the pulmonary artery was similarly engorged. In the
aorta the blood was also very thick, but in moderate quantity: the
pulmonary veins were nearly empty. These phenomena were not observed in
all cases, since in the majority the blood was only thickened and not
coagulated; and the cause of this difference,” observes the reporter,
“was according to the greater or less degree of power of the malignant
ferment.” In the month of April, pestilential disease broke out at
Tunis: in the May following, Malaga was attacked by it; and in August,
the island of Cerdena suffered greatly from its violence.
A.D. 1706, a comet was visible, and thunderstorms were
experienced in many parts of England. The next year an eruption of
Vesuvius occurred, and an island, five miles round, rose from the
bottom of the sea in the Archipelago:
----“His hand the lightning forms,
He heaves old Ocean, and he wings the storms.”
A.D. 1708, a severe storm, with thunder and lightning, was
experienced at Ipswich and Harrogate. A universal catarrh overspread
all Europe and America, and was followed by pestilential fevers.
Lanciscus relates that a similar epidemic appeared and raged with much
severity in Italy, principally at Rome: he describes the malady as
beginning with a running at the nose, or coryza, attended with pains in
the limbs, extending over the whole body, but felt more especially in
the chest. In the spring, peripneumoniæ prevailed; chills and flushes
suddenly seized persons, and were accompanied by severe cough, spitting
of blood, and turbid, scanty urine; the respiration was laborious, and
a general yellowness of the body was observed. In the years following,
A.D. 1709, 1710, and 1711, various parts of the coast of South
America suffered from putrid or yellow pestilence, especially in the
Brazilian territory; vast numbers were carried off of all complexions,
from the mulatto to the black. Seville and various other parts of
Spain were visited by dire pestilence at this period; it caused great
consternation amongst the inhabitants throughout Andalusia. The
celebrated Spanish physician, Dr. Don Diego Villalon, was famous for
its treatment. Plague or pestilence raged at Dantzic; a prodigious
number of insects, especially of spiders, had been noted in the city of
Seville the year previously. This pestilence continued for some time;
in fact, the five following years may be said to have been remarkable
for general and aggravated epidemic disease all over Europe. Horned
cattle and horses were observed to suffer greatly from an epizootic. In
Holland alone it is reported that 300,000 head of cattle were destroyed
by it.
A.D. 1709, Sologne was again visited by gangrenous ergotism,
a fourth part of the rye crop having been infected with the ergot
or spur. About this period, memorable for hard frosts, this disease
appeared in the cantons of Lucerne, Zurich, and Berne; it also
prevailed in those places in the years 1715 and 1716, and also
epidemically four or five times within the space of ten years at
Orleans.
A.D. 1710. Copenhagen and many parts of Sweden suffered from
sweating sickness this year: its victims at Stockholm were 30,000; and
it is reported that 25,000 died of it in Copenhagen in six months.
Pestilence raged in Lithuania; and the troops under General Nicholson,
destined to cooperate with the fleet of England in the reduction of
Canada in North America, encamped at a place called Wood Creek, in the
province of New York, were affected with a sore epidemic distemper,
which carried off great numbers.
A.D. 1711, a murrain broke out among cattle in Italy and
Germany; the disease was supposed to be a sort of typhus fever, but
was in fact, more properly speaking, a fatal dysentery. The following
year, A.D. 1712, a miliary or sweating pestilence raged at
Mümpelgart. There was an eruption of Vesuvius that year.
A.D. 1713, in consequence of small-pox being rife at
Constantinople, inoculation was practised: the following year, a fatal
epidemic raged among the horses and horned cattle in England, by which
70,000 head were destroyed: it was supposed to have been occasioned by
the excessive heat and drought during the summer months: great numbers
of insects were generated.
A.D. 1715, small-pox and measles were epidemic in many parts
of Europe, and malignant yellow pestilence raged in the United States
of America. Thomas Hacket, of Duck Creek, states that the disease was
equal in intensity to that which raged in London in 1665. Miliary fever
prevailed at Breslau and at Turin.
A.D. 1716, a dreadful storm, with heavy rains, thunder and
lightning, did much damage throughout England. On the 6th of March, an
aurora borealis was visible for three days. The noble city of Aguilar
de Campo, situated on the seashore, having suffered about this time
from cold and damp weather, epidemic variola broke out in the month of
March, and was the prelude to a pestilential sore-throat, or quinsy,
which lasted until December, 1719.
A.D. 1717, there was another eruption of Vesuvius, and
Friesland was again inundated. Half the province of Groningen was
ruined by it, and 2500 of its inhabitants perished: it occurred on the
24th and 25th of December. Various parts of the country suffered: all
the Lower Elbe was under water, and it is stated that fully 20,000
persons were drowned. From this period until the year 1721, according
to Dr. Casal, southern winds prevailed, with dry, cold weather, which
suddenly changed to a dry heat, lasting for weeks; after this, copious
rains fell, accompanied by frequent changes in the direction of the
winds. In the autumn, an epidemic jaundice became so general, that
nearly a tenth part of the population of the Asturias suffered from it.
Pestilence in the shape of the true plague carried off 80,000 persons
in Aleppo. We are told by Didier that this year the fields were barren
and the fruits bad, so that the poor, among whom the disease chiefly
raged at Marseilles, were almost starved during its prevalence. Mr.
Secretary Craggs applied to Dr. Mead to be advised as to the most
effectual remedy for or preventive of the plague.
A.D. 1718. A comet made its appearance this year, and a severe
shock of an earthquake was experienced in China. In the following year,
an aurora borealis was observed, which was supposed to have been not
more than thirty-eight miles high.
A.D. 1720, Marseilles was visited by a dreadful plague, which
raged with great fury. In order to mitigate the disease, the king’s
ministers commissioned Don Josef Fornés, a native of Hostal-Rich, to
proceed to the university of Montpelier, in order to consult with the
physicians of that university as to the best means of prevention and
cure. All social affection became extinct, the consequences being as
dreadful as those of the disease itself. Husbands and wives, parents
and children, and the dearest friends and connexions, hastened to
escape from each other, and an exclusive selfishness took possession
of every heart. The symptoms of this terrible scourge were variable:
shiverings were often followed by a quick pulse, which soon gave way
under pressure. The warmth of the skin was generally natural, whilst a
burning heat was felt within, and an almost inextinguishable thirst.
The tongue became white, the speech faltering, eyes glaring, face red
or congested, and sometimes livid; pains at the heart were frequent;
nausea and bilious vomitings, with looseness of the bowels and
hemorrhage, were always fatal symptoms. The most characteristic sign
of the malady was buboes in the groin or arm-pit, but these were not
always attendant, especially when the disease proved rapidly fatal, as
was the case in many instances. Toulon, Aix, and Arles also suffered
greatly from this pestilence: the deaths were estimated at one-third of
the whole population! In a district of Provence where the population
amounted to 247,899 persons, 87,659 perished. Miliary fever was
exceedingly prevalent and fatal in the canton de Bray, in Lower Seine.
A.D. 1722, Port Royal, Jamaica, was destroyed by an
inundation. Deadly yellow pestilence succeeded, the year following.
Hoffman, Schenckius, and other authors give an account of an epizootic
which prevailed this year in several parts of Spain. About the same
time, an epidemic pestilence, much more malignant than that which had
occurred in 1706, broke out in Granada, accompanied with exanthematous
eruptions. The city of Placentia was also visited by pestilential
fever, the best remedy for which Dr. Morena found to be stimulants,
such as wine, &c. Inoculation for small-pox was introduced into England
this year by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. The Princesses Amelia and
Caroline were among the first thus treated. A sore throat, attended
with dizziness and pain in the limbs, prevailed in London and was fatal
to numbers; measles were rife in America.
Plague did much mischief at Vienna, Hungary, and in the East: it
continued for two years. Dysentery raged in Upper Saxony, and ergotism
in Silesia.
A.D. 1723, yellow pestilence prevailed in many parts of
Spain, especially in the cities on the coast. Lisbon also suffered
from pestilence, the predominant symptom of which was black vomit.
Miliary fever prevailed at Frankfort on the Maine. Don Vincente Boibid,
a celebrated physician of Madrid, published a work entitled ‘Breve
Reflexion ό crisis medica sobre el Dolor Colico, con animo de remediar
tan continuos y largos tormentos como suele excitar quando molesta por
medio de un anticolico especifico, que le vence en media hora: y á
veces en una.’ This physician attributed the pestilence prevalent in
Spain to the use of fruit and snow-water. The year following, epidemic
catarrh prevailed chiefly amongst children in the principality of the
Asturias. Palermo was nearly destroyed by an earthquake; 6000 persons
perished. From this period unto 1727, malignant fevers prevailed all
over Europe and America. Louis, king of Spain, died this year from
small-pox, as did also the Duchess of Bedford. In the latter year,
inoculation was practised on criminals.
A.D. 1726, a series of anomalous diseases was prevalent in
Granada, and caused great mortality. Leprosy began to spread in the
city of Lebrija, in Andalusia; it lasted until 1764. About this period
a severe earthquake shook Palermo in September, and upwards of 6000
persons were buried in the ruins.
A.D. 1727, epidemic mania prevailed in Spain. Dr. Casal
makes mention of its having carried off many members of the Council
of Pilona. Carthage was visited by pestilence, similar to that which
prevailed in the year 1637.
A.D. 1728, influenza was epidemic in Spain: it was named by
Pedro de Rotundis, ‘un catarro sufocativo.’ Yellow fever was very
fatal to the inhabitants of Charleston, United States: it was termed
‘a bilious plague,’ from its severity. A similar disease carried
off great numbers of the population of Carthagena and Portobello,
in South America: the most fatal symptom was black vomit. This
disease made great havoc among the crews of the vessels under Don
Domingo Justiniani, and of the galleons under Lopez Pintado. Epidemic
pestilence was rife in Poland, Austria, and Siberia. The island of
Bourbon, as described by Don Ulloa, was afflicted with plague, as was
also Tripoli, Damascus, and Aleppo. Scarlet fever raged in Edinburgh,
and chincough in England. About this period, miliary fever, or
sweating pestilence, prevailed, with great mortality, at Chambery,
Annecy, St. Jean de Maurienne (Savoy), at Carmagnola, Vercelli, Ivrea,
and Biella. The seven following years, 1729–1735, pestilence raged in
Vienna, Pignerol, Fossano, Nizza, Rivoli, Asti, Larti, Acqui, Basle,
Silesia, Thrasburg (Lower Rhine), Trino, Frésneuse (Lower Seine),
Vimeux (Seine-et-Oise), Orleans (Loiret), Plouviers (Loiret), Meaux,
Villeneuve, St. George (Seine et Maine), Bohemia, Denmark, Sweden, and
Russia.
A.D. 1730, the Thames rose to an uncommon height, and
inundated Westminster. An earthquake nearly destroyed the whole of
Chili. Epidemic pestilence commenced at Cadiz; the disorder was called
‘el vomito negro,’ and it was supposed to have been imported from South
America; at least so states Dr. Don Francisco Fernandez Navarette:
it extended in all directions to various parts of the Continent, and
persisted unto 1738, in which year a frightful dysentery invaded
the coast of Malaga and Seville, and, in fact, all the seaboard of
Andalusia. During the prevalence of this pestilence, animals were first
affected, especially those that were domesticated; birds which fed on
grain also suffered severely, such as poultry, pigeons, &c. Numerous
insects, called by the Spaniards ‘largostus,’ were generated previously
to the breaking out of this epidemic disease.
A.D. 1731, a shock of an earthquake was felt, on the 29th of
July, in China; and on the 20th of the March previous, Naples was so
shaken, that many houses were thrown down, and upwards of 2000 persons
were destroyed.
A.D. 1732, 1500 persons died, in London, of pestilential
fever, in one week, during the month of April; yellow fever was
destructive to the inhabitants of many of the States of America. The
year following, influenza overspread Spain and many other parts of
Europe. The island of Mallorca suffered greatly. This epidemic gave
rise to many excellent dissertations, which were published in the city
of Palma.
A.D. 1734, an earthquake destroyed many houses and five
churches in China, and many persons also lost their lives; it occurred
in the month of August. About the latter end of this year, in the month
of October, according to Albrecht, an epidemic dysentery, with swelling
of the head, attacked poultry, especially geese, in the environs of the
town of Coburg: they died with their bills open.
A.D. 1735, plague destroyed thousands in Egypt; various
pestilential epidemics raged for more than ten years, afflicting
France, England, Scotland, Ireland, Holland, Calabria, Switzerland,
New Spain, Aleppo, Tangiers, and Smyrna; yellow pestilence, or fever,
ravaged the United States of America, especially the cities of New
York, Boston, Charleston, Philadelphia, and Albany; it extended also
to the tribe of the Mohigan Indians, and was rife in the West Indies:
in Barbados it caused great mortality. During the winter, in North
America, which was cold and wet, a distemper, affecting the throat and
respiratory organs, nearly exterminated the young children.
A.D. 1736, the lower orders of the population of Seville
suffered from privations and disease, especially in the suburban
districts, at St. Roque, Calzada, and Bernardo. In the same year,
epidemic pestilence raged with great violence, at Grand Cairo, from
the 1st of February to the 12th of March: more than 100,000 persons
were carried off; 7000 were buried daily for some days. On the 24th of
December, the river rose to an extraordinary height. The summer of this
year was intensely hot in England, and swarms of gnats were so immense
all over the country, especially in Salisbury in Wiltshire, as almost
to constitute a plague; they appeared in dense clouds, and ascended
above the height of the steeple of the cathedral. Ergotism again broke
out in Silesia, in Suborth, and at Wealtemburgh, in Bohemia. Dr. Saine
describes the disease as beginning with a disagreeable titillation of
the feet, as if ants were creeping on them (formication), which was
soon succeeded by a violent cardialgia, or pain in the stomach; the
hands were next affected, then the head--many cried out that their
hands and feet were on fire: epilepsy was one of the concomitants of
the disease.
A.D. 1737, a comet was seen, and there was an eruption of
Vesuvius.
A.D. 1738, another comet was seen in February; drought
prevailed in Spain, and famine and pestilence followed: the malady,
however, was not of a mortal character.
A.D. 1740, epidemic disease was rife in Ireland; it proved
fatal to great numbers in the city of Dublin, and continued throughout
the following year. Lord Chancellor Jocelyn, writing from Ireland, in
the year 1741, to his brother Chancellor, Lord Hardwicke, in England,
mentions the distressed state of the country at this period, owing to
the entire failure of the potato crops, which was followed by famine
and disease to a frightful extent: fevers, attended with convulsions,
were epidemic in Germany: and the vomito negro was destructive to the
inhabitants of Spain; it prevailed at Malaga, and in many other of its
provinces. Pestilence broke out at Tobolsk, in Siberia, first attacking
horned cattle and horses, and afterwards human beings; it prevailed in
the form of pestilential carbuncle.
A.D. 1742–3, two comets were seen. In the archives of the
Franciscan Convent of San Diego de Carthagena it is recorded that
pestilence prevailed amongst the members, nearly all of whom suffered
severely, three only escaping.
A.D. 1745, a murrain broke out amongst the cattle in Turkey,
and was succeeded by a dire plague, which raged with great violence,
especially in Constantinople. This murrain among the cattle spread
and afflicted various parts of Europe; it was very destructive in
Switzerland, then diffused itself through Germany, Poland, and
Holland, and ultimately reached England: its progress was marked by
the appearance of a bluish mist in the atmosphere. Professors Sauvages
and Chaumel speak of a murrain as occurring about this period in the
Viverais district of France: puerperal fever was epidemic there at the
same time. An earthquake destroyed Lima and Callao, in Peru, on the
28th of October; out of 3000 inhabitants at Lima, only one individual
escaped.
A.D. 1747, a comet was seen; and on the 14th of October
the Thames rose to a very great height. In the spring of this year,
there broke out in the territory of Huesca of Aragon, an epidemic of
malignant catarrh, which was succeeded by petechial fever. In the
Asturias, in March, the weather was variable and inclement, and an
epidemic icterus, or jaundice, attended with fever of a malignant
type, broke out, and continued unto the following May: it caused great
mortality. Two hundred thousand of the inhabitants were taken off by
pestilence in Constantinople about this time. Dysentery prevailed in
various parts of the United States of America, especially at Hartford
and Newhaven; yellow fever succeeded, and continued unto the year 1755.
A.D. 1748, swarms of locusts settled down in and about London,
doing much damage to the vegetation. Two comets were seen this year.
A.D. 1750, two earthquakes were experienced in London, the one
on the 8th of February, the other a month after, on the 8th of March.
The then lord mayor, one alderman, two judges, and the greater part of
the jury, with a number of spectators, caught the jail distemper in
the month of May at the Old Bailey. About this period, a shock from an
earthquake was felt at Philippoli in Romania, by which more than 4000
persons were destroyed. Two years after, in the month of August, 200
mosques and a great part of the city of Adrianople were destroyed by a
similar catastrophe.
A.D. 1751, there was an eruption of Vesuvius; famine and
pestilence were rife in the kingdoms of Isen and Cordova; the breaking
out of the pestilence being attributed to the arrival of mendicants
at the ports of Malaga. The year following, a terrific storm was
experienced in Charleston, South Carolina, United States, on the 15th
of September, during which the town and neighbourhood were inundated,
from which there resulted much loss of life and destruction of
property. Two years subsequently, there was an eruption of Vesuvius;
and on the 15th of July, a severe earthquake was felt in the Morea:
it swallowed up many villages and their inhabitants. Constantinople
and Grand Cairo suffered from a similar catastrophe on the 2nd of
September; two-thirds of their houses were destroyed, and upwards of
40,000 persons. A mortal distemper seized on cattle in England; 30,000
cows were reported to have died of it in Cheshire alone. From this
period until 1760, epidemic pestilence prevailed in various parts
of the globe; dysentery of a malignant type in the Northern States
of America, malignant fever in Normandy, gangrenous sore-throat in
Ireland and France, and a petechial fever in Constantinople, which
destroyed 150,000 persons. Famine and plague carried off great numbers
in Syria, Smyrna, and Cyprus: in the latter place disease destroyed
30,000 victims; Aleppo, Jerusalem, and Damascus also suffered from
epidemic pestilence. In the former place (Aleppo) the winter had been
severe, and had destroyed all vegetation; the cold was very intense;
the mercury in Fahrenheit’s thermometer, exposed in the open air,
sunk entirely into the ball of the tube; millions of olive-trees that
had hitherto withstood the blast of fifty winters were blighted, and
thousands of persons perished from cold. The failure of the crop in
the succeeding harvest occasioned a universal famine with all its
attendant miseries. In many places the inhabitants were driven to
such extremities, that women ate their own children as soon as they
had expired in their arms from the want of nourishment; and numbers
of persons from the mountains and adjacent villages came daily to
Aleppo to offer their wives and children for sale for a few dollars,
to procure a temporary subsistence for themselves, and dogs and
human creatures might hourly be seen scratching together on the same
dunghill, and contending for a bone or a piece of carrion. Pestilence
followed closely on the heels of this famine, which lasted till 1758;
60,000 persons were swept away by it in the city and its environs.
Vast numbers of horses during this year died in London and in the
neighbourhood from a murrain. Yellow fever of extreme malignity swept
the West Indian Islands and the coast of Africa, as recorded by Lind,
who describes the mortality to have been produced by a pestilential
vapour, which arose in the south-east of the Guinea coast, and
traversed immense swamps: in several towns, among the negro population,
the mortality was so great that there were not sufficient left to bury
the dead, and the gates at Cape Coast Castle were shut for the want of
sentinels to guard them, the whites suffering equally with the blacks
from the fatal scourge. Yellow fever was also rife in the United States
of America during this and the following year, especially in New York
and Philadelphia. An atrabilious fever raged at Senegal.
A.D. 1755, on the 24th of April, an earthquake was felt
in Peru; it destroyed the city of Quito and great numbers of its
inhabitants. On the 27th of the following May, the island of Mitylene,
in the Archipelago, was destroyed by an earthquake, and about the same
period the city of Lisbon was shaken, and 70,000 persons perished in
the ruins. Half the island of Madeira was laid waste by an earthquake.
This awful commotion extended 5000 miles, even to Scotland.
A.D. 1757, on the 29th of October, an earthquake was felt in
the island of Malta: a severe frost was experienced in England during
this and the following year; a comet was also visible. About the same
time a severe shock of an earthquake was felt in the Azores. The year
following, 1759, three comets were seen; an earthquake on the 5th of
December destroyed Tripoli, and was as severely felt at Balbec.
A.D. 1760, a violent earthquake occurred on the 30th of
October in Syria; it did a great deal of mischief: there was an
eruption of Vesuvius. Until this time, extraordinary as it may appear,
there was not any such thing as a privy in Madrid: it was customary to
throw the ordure out of the windows at night, and it was removed by
scavengers the next day. An ordinance having been issued by the king
that every householder should build a privy, the people violently
_opposed_ it as an arbitrary proceeding, and the _physicians_
remonstrated against it, alleging that the filth absorbed the
unwholesome particles of the air, which otherwise would be taken into
the human body! His Majesty, however, persisted, but many of the
citizens, in order to keep _their food wholesome_, erected their
privies close to their kitchen fireplaces.
During this year the city of Carthagena again suffered from epidemic
pestilence, which persisted until 1763; the disease was a tertian
fever, which became very virulent during the dog-days, and caused
great mortality amongst the inhabitants of that city and the adjoining
provinces. The island of Cyprus suffered from plague about this time.
It also prevailed generally over the Ottoman empire; Constantinople,
Aleppo, Smyrna, Salonica, Broussa, Aden, Antioch, Antab, Killis Ourfah,
Diarbekr, Monsol, and many other large towns and villages experienced
its severity. Scanderoon, for the first time this century, suffered
considerably; the other Frank settlements on the sea-coast of Syria
being exempt, with the exception of Tripoli.
A.D. 1761, in the northern parts of the United States of
America, severe catarrh or influenza prevailed in the spring; it
changed its character to malignant yellow fever during the summer
and autumn. This disease was also prevalent in the West Indies. The
symptoms were slight cold, followed by extraordinary prostration of
strength, laborious respiration, cough, obtuse pains at the precordia
and in the chest and limbs. The malady presented the signs of a bilious
distemper, the countenance becoming yellow; insensibility or coma, and
sometimes delirium, supervened, when the patient was taken off with
all the symptoms of a regular bilious plague or yellow fever. About
this period a deadly epizootic broke out among the dogs in Madrid; it
extended over the entire kingdom: the disease, it would appear, was
confined to the canine race, no other kind of domestic animal having
suffered from it.
The Paving Act, which may be regarded as a useful sanitary measure,
was passed in England. A tremendous shock of an earthquake, attended
with volcanic eruptions, was experienced in the Azores in the month of
April.
The year following, A.D. 1762, a comet was visible; and on the
9th of February the river Thames rose to a very great height. The heat
and drought this year in the United States of America exceeded all the
extraordinary seasons hitherto noticed. The inhabitants were greatly
distressed for want of water; bilious remittent fever raged in many
of the States in the following autumn, especially in Philadelphia. At
the Havannah, about the same period, great mortality was occasioned by
a similar epidemic. Pestilence also raged in Siam and in Bengal, in
Syria, and in various parts of Egypt. The influence of similar seasons
was experienced in England and Ireland, and also in France, where
pestilence was rife.
The summer of 1763 was moist and sultry; the Indians of Massachusetts
and at a place called Martha’s Vineyard in the United States of America
were swept away in vast numbers by a yellow or bilious pestilence. An
epidemic catarrh called ‘the snuffles’ was very destructive to cattle,
especially to horses, in Denmark. Pestilence again prevailed among the
canine race at Madrid; the poultry died of it at Genoa, and horned
cattle in France, as also in Sweden. This extensive prevalence of
epizootic disease indicated a pestilential condition of the atmosphere
and a disturbed state of the seasons: the disease first attacked and
proved fatal to dumb animals, and afterwards man became its victim: its
ravages were attended with great mortality.
Malignant fever at this period assailed all Naples, destroying, as
has been asserted, 20,000 inhabitants: it was preceded by famine. An
earthquake was felt at Comorra, in Hungary; 1500 houses were thrown
down, and many lives were lost, the sufferers being buried under the
ruins.
A.D. 1764, on the 26th of December, a severe shock of an
earthquake was felt at Lisbon: a comet was visible. The treatment of
small-pox was greatly modified about this time by the introduction
of the cooling regimen, which was first recommended in England by
the Suttons. In the same year epidemic pestilence broke out in the
principality of Estremadura, and was very fatal: various other parts
of Spain suffered from the invasion of a similar disease; it carried
off great numbers at Cadiz, and its outbreak was attributed in a great
measure to the distresses occasioned by the Portuguese war; it was
a miliary fever, attended with glandular swellings, especially of
the parotids. Rain fell heavily during the months of April and May
in Carthagena, and consequently tertian fevers were prevalent; and
there perished of that disease upwards of 2000 persons in the city
during those two months. Pestilential disease ravaged Suabia, and
both Scotland and Ireland suffered greatly at this time from epidemic
pestilence.
Lethal epidemic disease prevailed in Austria; and in the greater part
of the United States of America bilious remittent fever, similar to
that prevalent in the West Indian Islands, carried off vast numbers.
The pestilence in Ireland was marked by all the symptoms of bilious
remittent or yellow fever.
A.D. 1765, on the 4th of June, an earthquake was felt along
the banks of the Ganges: a shock was experienced on the 19th of May
previously in the Pyrenean mountains. A severe storm occurred on the
east coast of Britain, and many seamen perished in consequence. Spital,
near Berwick, suffered greatly from this catastrophe.
A.D. 1766, there was an eruption of Vesuvius: earthquakes were
felt in various quarters this year; at Constantinople on the 22nd of
May, when 880 persons were buried in the ruins of the fallen houses;
a severe shock was experienced at Cuba, and St. Jago was completely
demolished, on which occasion hundreds lost their lives. The earth
opened in the Abruzzi in Naples, and many thousands were engulphed. The
river Taina on the 14th of November overflowed its banks, and destroyed
more than 12,000 houses with their occupants at Montauban in France.
Two comets were visible about this period. The summer was hot and dry
all over Europe, and in both the Americas; vegetable productions
were scarce in all these countries, and the winter following was
severe in both hemispheres; the mercury fell in many places 20° below
zero. Malignant catarrh swept over Europe; a murrain destroyed cattle
in the United States of America, the horses and horned cattle, &c.
perishing, especially in New England and New Jersey. A similar murrain
attacked cattle in Pomerania, Brandenburg, and Mecklenburg in Germany.
The following year, puerperal fever was fatal in Normandy. Small-pox
carried off at Pekin nearly 100,000 persons, principally young
children. There was about this period an eruption of Vesuvius; Spain
suffered from severe epidemic pestilence. In the month of December a
catarrh of a peculiar type broke out in Madrid, extending far and wide
over the Continent: it was not particularly fatal.
A.D. 1768, a severe storm destroyed ninety-six public edifices
and 4048 private houses on the 25th of October at the Havannah; many
lives were lost in the ruins. Pestilence again broke out in the city of
Carthagena, and raged with great violence and fatality. Vast numbers
of caterpillars infested Northampton and Massachusetts, in the United
States, and destroyed all traces of verdure. The summer following
was hot and rainy; small-pox, dysentery, and hydrophobia prevailed
in Boston and in other parts of the States: anginas were also rife.
Yellow pestilence raged in the island of Jamaica. In Holland, about
this period, 30,000 head of horned cattle and sheep were destroyed by a
murrain.
Irregular seasons deteriorated the produce of the earth, and famine
and pestilence were the consequence. A dreadful famine and pestilence
in the year 1769 carried off, as has been recorded, _three millions
and upwards_ of the inhabitants of Bengal. The falls of rain had
been unfrequent and of short duration, so that every thing in the shape
of vegetation was parched up and unproductive. The grain crop was
almost a total failure, and as the two former crops had been scanty,
the unfortunate people in the hour of extremity had no resource; they
were driven by the cravings of hunger to the woods, where they perished
in thousands, after devouring the bark of trees and the remains of
putrefying vegetables.
Various parts of Spain suffered from epidemic pestilence this year. Don
Manuel Antonio Bela, a physician of some eminence, wrote and published
a work entitled ‘Una Disertacion sobre los cometas que no causan ni
anuncian enfermedades publicas,’ for the purpose of refuting the idea
that comets and other meteoric phenomena influence the production of
epidemic disease.
A comet was noticed this year; and the year following, 1770, was
remarkable for the severity of an earthquake which was experienced in
the island of St. Domingo. There was also an eruption of Vesuvius, and
deadly pestilence raged in many parts of Europe, carrying off great
numbers. The mortality from murrain at this period was great among
cattle in Sardinia, Holland, Flanders, &c. In Poland and Russia alone
upwards of 20,000 persons died of famine and disease: it is recorded
that 168,000 fell victims to a dire pestilence which prevailed in
Bohemia. In the city of Constantinople, during this year, 1000 bodies
were buried daily for some weeks. During this and the following year,
1771, a singular epidemic destroyed the foxes in the United States of
America. Tertian fevers of a malignant type again broke out in the
city of Carthagena, and the persons residing in the convent of St.
Diego again suffered from pestilence, which continued the two following
years: out of fifty-three padres of the convent, one only escaped.
Puerperal fever was fatally epidemic at Vienna.
A.D. 1771, there was an inundation in the North of England,
and there occurred also an eruption of Vesuvius. A.D. 1772,
strange phenomena were observed with regard to the body of Thomas
Beaufort, Duke of Exeter, which had been buried 345 years in the
abbey at St. Edmund’s Bury; when the leaden coffin was opened, the
flesh, hair, and toe and finger nails appeared perfect and sound,
as though he had not been interred many hours. On an incision being
made on the breast, the flesh cut as firm as in a living subject,
and there was even an appearance of blood. A similar phenomenon was
observed A.D. 1494, when the body of one Alice Hackney,
which had been interred 175 years, was accidentally dug up in the
churchyard of St. Mary’s Hill, London: the skin was whole, and the
joints of the arms, legs, &c. were pliable, the parts exhibiting a
natural appearance, as though she were but recently dead. A dreadful
hurricane happened this year in the Caribbean Islands. Plague raged at
Moscow, and, it is stated, carried off 133,299 persons within eighteen
months. Epidemic catarrh and measles prevailed in the United States
of America; small-pox was rife in Scotland; and the pestilence, which
was still raging in Carthagena, extended to other provinces of Spain.
Plague carried off great numbers in Bassora; 80,000 persons are said
to have fallen victims to the frightful pestilence; in short, famine
and disease about this time, induced by long and continued drought
and excessive heat, destroyed an incredible number of lives in the
peninsula of the Ganges. Baraillon gives an account of a most singular
pestilence with which France was afflicted in the year 1774: it was
termed Epidemic Convulsions, ‘sur une epue d’epilepsie qui reconnoit
pour cause le virus exanthematique malaire.’ A similar malady about
this period was rife in the United States of America. In England,
epidemic catarrh prevailed to a great extent; it was attended with sore
throat. Blight or mildew destroyed the oats in Scotland, and in the
United States of America wheat suffered from blast or blight; a bed of
oysters perished from disease at Wellflat Harbour, at Cape Cod, and
the lobsters disappeared from York Island, in the United States. In
the month of July, a murrain broke out among the horned cattle in the
province of Labourd, in France, and proved very destructive. It was
a sort of ramollissement of the brain, according to the authority of
Ignacio de Michelena, Juan de Ordoi, and Martin de Lorz. Dr. Alsinet,
a celebrated physician of Aranjuez, wrote a work this year on the
treatment of the tertian fever, which had been so prevalent all over
Spain: his plan of treatment consisted in giving emetics during the
intervals of the paroxysms, and bark immediately on the approach of the
cold fit; in cases of pernicious and malignant tertian, he gave double
doses. Puerperal fever was again epidemic at Vienna, and was attended
with great mortality.
A.D. 1773, the town of Guatimala in Mexico, with all its
riches and eight thousand families, was swallowed up by an awful
earthquake, and every vestige of its former existence obliterated, the
spot being now indicated by a frightful desert four leagues distant
from the nearest town.
The Severn this year was turned from its natural course by a great mass
of land moving from its place across the current near Bildewas Bridge
in Shropshire: this happened on the 27th of May. The year following,
a severe earthquake was felt at Altdorf in Switzerland on the 10th of
September.
A.D. 1775, on the 8th of September, a severe earthquake shook
Wales and its neighbourhood. On the 19th of October, thunderstorms did
much damage in the North of England; it was about this time that the
three Dublin packets foundered at sea: and on the 14th of November, a
tremendous hurricane was experienced on the coast of Holland.
A.D. 1776, on the 10th of July a shock of an earthquake
was experienced at Andries in Italy, which overthrew the town, and
destroyed vast numbers of its inhabitants.
A.D. 1777, a dreadful hurricane visited St. Petersburgh; it
was attended by an inundation on the 14th of September, which did much
damage.
A.D. 1778, an earthquake did much harm at Smyrna on the 3rd
of July. This same year, after the British army had vacated the city
of Philadelphia, United States, bilious, yellow, or remittent fever
prevailed to a great extent amongst the inhabitants. The plague was
rife at Constantinople; an epidemic angina ravaged Manchester and
various other parts of England, and the city of Carthagena in Spain
again suffered from pestilence, similar to that which was observed
A.D. 1771; it continued, in fact, in an aggravated form, the
following years until 1779, and caused great mortality.
A.D. 1780, the winter was severe, both in Europe and America.
In England, on the 14th of January, the mercury fell 26° below zero,
and in Glasgow 46° below the same point. The summer of this year was
very hot; bilious remittent fevers raged in Philadelphia and in other
parts of the States; a ‘break-bone fever,’ as it was called, also
prevailed extensively, but was not fatal. The thermometer at times
stood at 102°. At this time cholera prevailed in the East Indies, and
is reported to have carried off at Hurdwar, during a festival which
is annually held there, some 20,000 persons, and during the following
year, 1781, to have assailed, in its most malignant form, a division
of the Bengal troops stationed at Garigani. During the summer of
1780, epidemic pestilence broke out in various parts of Spain: it
first made its appearance in a village of Passages in the month of
May, and continued for some time; it was supposed to have arisen from
intramural burial, the stench from the overcrowded graveyards being
intolerable. The burning heats, this year, may be said to have caused
much suffering in several parts of Europe, there having been scarcely
any rain; the summer having been succeeded by a heavy, cloudy winter,
predisposed the inhabitants of various parts of Europe to catarrhal
fevers: pernicious epidemics also prevailed in many parts of Spain; and
a malignant fever was rife amongst the inhabitants of Pampeluna: the
city of Olite was also similarly affected; after a time it extended to
Bericayú, Andosella, Mendaira, Toledo, Vidaurreta, and other cities and
places. In Pampeluna it persisted for six years, until 1787. A disease
termed ‘Andalusian fever’ prevailed this year in South America among
the Spanish colonists, and also at Rio de Janeiro and other Brazilian
settlements. At Tauris, 15,000 dwellings were demolished, and vast
multitudes were swallowed up by an earthquake.
From the year 1781 down to 1789, epidemic pestilence committed great
havoc in various parts of the world. In England, an epizootic was fatal
to horses and horned cattle: of one hundred and sixteen horses located
in one barrack stable, all but thirteen were attacked; seventy-eight
died. The Channel fleet were great sufferers from epidemic disease;
11,732 sick were sent to Haslar Hospital; 1457 had scurvy; 240
dysentery, and 5539 suffered from severe fever. This may be taken as
a specimen of the health of the British navy down to the close of the
eighteenth century. Epidemic puerperal fever, about this period, was
very fatal in London. Measles raged in New York, Philadelphia, and in
other parts of the United States; and numerous cases of hydrophobia
occurred in the more southern States. In the month of July the weather
was so hot that the thermometer in the shade stood at 103°. In the
state of Maryland there was great mortality among horses and horned
cattle; and fish at this period died in vast quantities on the coasts
of Lapland and Norway.
A.D. 1782, in the month of July, there was a dreadful fire
at Constantinople, which destroyed upwards of 7000 houses; and in the
following month, a similar catastrophe caused the destruction of 20,000
more, many lives being lost: from the consequent crowding together
of the inhabitants, and from other suffering, famine and pestilence
followed. The epidemic pestilence which attacked the Bengal troops the
year previously at Garigani, extended to Sir E. Hughes’ squadron then
stationed in the East, and caused great mortality. The inhabitants
of the provinces of Languedoc and Roussillon were attacked with a
terrific epidemic, which caused great devastation. The governor of
Catalonia, in consequence of the great mortality, sent Dr. Masdevall
to inquire into the character of the epidemic, whether it was, as
it was publicly reported to be, the true plague, and whether it was
or was not contagious. Earthquakes during this year were frequent
in Calabria; they continued from time to time for four years, until
the end of 1786, producing many fissures, landslips, lakes, ravines,
falls of the sea-cliffs, and other changes, which taken together
afford one of the finest examples of the complicated alterations which
may result from a series of subterranean movements, even though of no
great apparent violence at the time. During this calamitous period, the
city of Messina in Sicily was destroyed, and 40,000 persons perished
by an earthquake; the city of Thessalonica suffered from a similarly
severe shock. A most intense frost commenced this year in England on
Christmas-day; it continued until the end of February in the following
year. A frightful epidemic broke out in the city of Lerida, which ran
rapidly through the extent of Tarragona, Manresa, Llasanes, Solsona,
Igualada, and Villafranca del Panades; it soon after prevailed over
nearly the whole of Catalonia. Pestilence broke out also in Tortosa and
in several of its districts; it soon extended all over the kingdom of
Aragon. This disease was principally variola.
A.D. 1784, nearly all the districts in the province of
Alcarria, especially Pastrana, suffered from pestilence,--an epidemic
tertian fever, which commenced in the month of November. About this
period, there was a great scarcity of water occasioned by the previous
hot and burning weather during a dry summer. The following spring was
rainy and damp, and there broke out exanthematous fevers, rheumatisms,
and intermittent quotidians, throughout all Spain; the small-pox,
which had prevailed the year before, and which at first appeared in a
benign form, soon degenerated, and assumed a malignant character. Dr.
Don Felix Ibañez, a physician of the city of Huete, but long resident
at Pastrana, describes the various diseases of this period in a work
entitled ‘Topographia Hipocratica ó Descripcion de la Epidemia de
Calenturas, tercianas intermittentes, malignas, continuo-remittentes
perniciosas, complicadas que re han padecido en la provincia de la
Alcarria desde el año 1784, hasta 1790, y 1791, y riguentes,’ &c.
The following year, 1785, epidemic tertian prevailed in Andalusia.
Dr. Don Juan Manuel Alvarez, of Constantina, wrote a work on the
pernicious intermittent fevers of this and the previous years, which
had been so extensively prevalent in the Peninsula: the disease was
felt more severely in Carthagena than during any other previous year;
it was exceedingly malignant, and destroyed vast numbers. Intemperate
seasons were attended with inundations from rains, so heavy as to form
lakes in some places. The city of Lerida suffered from variola.
A.D. 1786, in the city del Viso, on the confines of the
province of La Mancha, a frightful epidemic broke out, and destroyed
great numbers of the inhabitants. The city of St. Roque suffered
in the autumn from a similar pestilence: it proved to be a form of
pernicious intermittent. Dr. Don Josef Masdevall’s practice was
adopted in its treatment, and proved as successful as it had hitherto
done; it consisted of what he termed ‘la opiata antifebril y mixtura
antimonial.’ This year, Brother Miguel de Acero y Aldovera wrote a work
on the pernicious effects of intramural interments. The vomito negro
prevailed this year in the Havannah; its outbreak was attributed to the
emanations from putrid hides. In the Madras Reports, it is stated that
pestilential cholera was very destructive at Arcot.
A.D. 1787, there took place on the coast of Coromandel an
inundation proceeding from a severe hurricane; a district called Uppora
was overflowed by the sea on the 20th of May, when upwards of 12,000
persons lost their lives, and much property in cattle and houses was
destroyed. There was a violent storm that did much damage in England
and Ireland. There was also an eruption of Vesuvius.
A.D. 1788, severe frost occurred in England, commencing in
November, and continuing till the following March.
In the month of October, A.D. 1789, an almost universal
darkness overspread the land in America, and the most severe
pestilences on record occurred all over the United States, in the form
of anginas, croup, ulcerated sore-throat, putrid bilious fevers, &c.
Dr. Manson describes one of the epidemics thus; “slight influenza,
stinging pain in the jaws and limbs, soreness of the muscles of the
neck, attended with severe fever.” The measles, which occurred the year
previously, appear to have been the prelude to a series of epidemics
which raged for thirty years. Influenza was very severe in the cities
of New York and Philadelphia, and rapidly affected the other parts of
the States, wherever the same conditions of weather and atmosphere
prevailed: this disease also traversed the barren wilderness, seizing
on the Indian population, attacked seamen at sea, and raged with great
mortality through the western hemisphere, from the 15° to 45° of
northern latitude. Scarlet fever was also prevalent at Philadelphia,
and carried off great numbers of the young. These epidemics generally
exhibited as the predominant feature the superabundance of biliary
secretions, which were vomited.
A.D. 1790, the winter was very mild in America, there having
been but little frost until the month of February. In spring, catarrhs
prevailed; plethoric and consumptive persons suffered most, and were
the principal victims: measles appeared in autumn. The year following,
1791, the winter commenced early, and was very severe; the spring and
summer were dry and cold: catarrhs again prevailed: yellow fever broke
out in New York, and carried off numbers: scarlatina and hooping-cough
were also rife. About this period a kind of black worm, resembling a
caterpillar, appeared in Maryland, and destroyed the grass and corn;
they were represented as appearing in legions. At the same time a
blight destroyed the fruit and other vegetable productions; and another
distinct species of worm, called the palmer-worm, answering to the
description given in Sacred History, infested the land, devouring even
the forest trees, and destroying all woodwork. The thermometer at
Salem rose to 80° for fifty days, and for twelve days stood at 90°:
in various other parts of the States it varied from 90° to 102°. The
bilious plague, as reported by Dr. Rush, prevailed at Philadelphia.
The island of Grenada in the West Indies suffered from a similar
pestilence. Bilious remittent fever was also prevalent on the coast
of Africa: the plague raged in Egypt, and typhus fever committed great
ravages in England: yellow pestilence laid waste the Havannah; and a
severe murrain afflicted the horned cattle in Hungary, Servia, and
other European countries.
A.D. 1791, a tremendous earthquake was felt in Sicily, which
destroyed many lives and much property; it was equal in severity to
the shock experienced the year before at Borgo di San Sepolcro, during
which an opening in the earth swallowed up many houses with their
inhabitants. On the 2nd of February, this year, the Thames rose to an
extreme height, and overflowed many parts of Westminster.
A.D. 1792. This was a pestilential year in Egypt; it is
recorded that 800,000 persons died from plague. The winter of the
previous year, 1791, was very severe, and the spring wet and rainy
in the southern parts of the United States; the summer was cold up
to June, cold north-west winds prevailing. In May and June, locusts
appeared in the State of New York, and devoured the grain; the wheat
insect continued its ravages with great destruction to the crops in
Long Island and also in Maryland and north of the Elk ridge. In the
month of July, yellow fever raged terribly, causing great mortality in
the city of Charleston. A kind of caterpillar destroyed the lime-trees
in Philadelphia, and in the month of August, scarlet fever carried off
numbers in that city, as well as in New York, and in a place called
Bethlem.
A.D. 1793, the spring was dry, the summer intensely hot and
showery, with hail, and the autumn dry and cold. A fatal dysentery
swept off vast numbers in Georgetown, Coventry; a nervous fever was
prevalent at a place called Fairfield. Yellow fever raged to an
alarming extent in Philadelphia, carrying off in the course of four
or five months upwards of 4000 persons: it was also fatal in Boston.
In the following year it prevailed in Baltimore, and at Norfolk in
Virginia. About this period a similar epidemic caused great destruction
in the island of Dominica and other of the West Indian islands: in
Dominica it continued for three years, until 1796.
A.D. 1794, an awful earthquake was felt at Naples, and
Vesuvius, pouring forth its flames, overwhelmed the city of Torre del
Greco. The following year, the weather was uncommonly bad, the spring
cold and late, the summer suffocatingly hot, damp, and rainy, whilst
south winds were prevalent,--the fruits perished from mould. There was
a disease among vegetables, especially the potatoes and cabbages. A
dense moisture penetrated into the inmost recesses of the houses, even
into desks, bureaux, &c., and the walls appeared covered with a damp
white mould, which destroyed the paper-hangings. Millions of mosquitoes
and other insects were generated; in fact, a pestilential constitution
of the air, answering to the description given by Hippocrates and
other writers, was evidenced by these signs. Yellow fever raged with
great violence in many parts of the United States of America, viz. in
Philadelphia, New York, Charleston, &c., and continued until 1800. “In
the whole course of my life,” says Professor Kemp, writing to Dr. Baily
on yellow fever, “I never experienced a state of air so distressingly
debilitating, and unfriendly to my spirits.” On the 6th of February,
this year, a severe shock of an earthquake was felt at Vienna. At this
period 10,000 persons lost their lives in three towns of Turkey by a
similar catastrophe.