CHAPTER VIII.

FROM A.D. 1795 TO 1848.

A.D. 1795, a severe earthquake was felt on the 17th of

July at Manchester and in its neighbourhood: there was a second

shock afterwards on the 18th of October. On the 6th of November,

in the same year, a violent storm destroyed many lives and much

property in England. On the 24th of the following month, December,

a severe frost set in, and continued until the 23rd of January.

Murrain committed great ravages in Lombardy amongst horned cattle.

Professor Count Moscati and Drs. Deho, Bonvicini, and Gherardini

published a description of its symptoms, amongst which were observable

great rigidity and tension in the necks of animals, and also great

sensibility along the spinal column, towards the termination of the

malady. Two years after, 1797, a similar epidemic prevailed in the

Venetian States, especially in Friuli: horses, sheep, and poultry

suffered from this malady, as well as horned cattle. A severe

earthquake, this year, 1796, destroyed the whole country between Santa

Fé and Panama, including the cities of Cusco and Quito; 40,000 of the

inhabitants were in one second hurled into eternity. The seasons were

intemperate in the United States. Bilious remittent or yellow fever

prevailed at New York, Charleston, Boston, Newburyport, Philadelphia,

and in various others of the States. The year following, 1797, the

epidemic continued to cause great mortality in the States, especially

in Norfolk, Providence, Portland, and Savannah, and it extended thence

to New Orleans: it commenced with the symptoms of common remittent

fever, and increased progressively in violence, carrying off numbers of

the inhabitants.

A.D. 1798. The preceding winter was severe and long. The

summer, this year, was remarkably dry and sultry; the rivers afterwards

inundated the adjoining country, heavy rains falling at the same

time. Catarrhs, pleurisies, and sore throats prevailed, with bilious

fevers. In the autumn, grasshoppers infested the country round about

Pennsylvania and New England, and a pestilential fever commenced and

spread dismay among the inhabitants: many were carried off by it.

The citizens of New York, Philadelphia, Wilmington, Newport, Albany,

Boston, Portsmouth, and New London, suffered greatly from this disease,

which exhibited both bubo and carbuncle, with many other symptoms of

the true plague. A peculiar fog or vapour was observed in New York

during the most fatal period of this pestilence, especially in the

month of September. Lake and marsh fevers prevailed also about this

period in the low and swampy districts, such as Milford, &c. This

yellow pestilence was less generally characterized by inflammatory

action, and venesection was attended with less salutary effects than on

former occasions.

A.D. 1799. In Barbary, 3000 died daily from severe pestilence:

at Fez alone, 247,000 persons are said to have perished in consequence.

In Morocco, pestilence was preceded by famine, induced by extreme

elemental disturbance. At Mogador it broke out, in April, in the form

of virulent small-pox; by July it had assumed the type of the most

deadly species of plague: this fatal disease ceased in October, after

carrying off numbers. At a small village called Diabet, situated about

two miles south-east of Mogador, it raged with great violence for

twenty-one days, carrying off during that period one hundred persons

out of one hundred and thirty. Many populous villages, in the extensive

Shellah province of Haha, suffered in a similar manner. The birds

deserted their former abodes during the prevalence of this pestilence.

The Emperor, it is reported, had the plague twice during the time.

The summer in the United States of America, this year, 1799, was sultry

and dry, with much thunder and lightning, succeeded by deluging rains;

the autumn was variable, and the winter severe; the following spring

was cold and late, and yellow fever showed itself to a certain extent

in many of the States.

A.D. 1800, malignant yellow fever commenced at Baltimore,

and raged in Boston, and in various other of the principal districts

of the Union. In the autumn of this year, Cadiz became desolate from

a similar pestilence; by the middle of September the deaths amounted

to 200 daily: at this period the air, from its stagnant state, says

Arejula, became so vitiated, that its noxious qualities affected even

the lower orders of animals: canary birds died with blood issuing

from their bills; and in none of the neighbouring towns, which were

afterwards infected, did any sparrows appear during the epidemic. We

saw, continues Arejula, many of the domestic animals die with some

of the same symptoms as those presented by persons labouring under

the disease. Dogs were affected by the epidemic more than any other

animals; the cats next, and the horses, then poultry and canary birds;

dogs and cats were also subject to hemorrhages, but more so to the

black vomit, and to dark fœtid evacuations. The horses which I saw die,

he says, had that marble coldness of the extremities, or the general

convulsions, so remarkable in this disease. Another author, Fellows,

states that all the physicians in Cadiz and in Malaga who have written

on this disorder, and with whom he had conversed, confirmed to him

the facts as detailed by Arejula. The inhabitants of Xeres suffered

greatly from this yellow pestilence; it also prevailed at Malaga, and

in various other parts of Spain: it persisted unto 1804.

A.D. 1801, anginas, pleurisies, and yellow pestilence

continued to prevail for several years in the United States of America,

and in other places: typhus was rife in Ireland and England, especially

in London, from which city and countries it is scarcely ever absent.

A.D. 1802, a very hot and dry summer was succeeded in November

by incessant heavy rain: thick fogs spread over the country, and

enveloped such places in central Germany as were inaccessible to

ventilation; amongst others, the small Franconian town of Roettingen,

situated on the river Tauber, and surrounded by mountains. Towards

the end of the month an extremely fatal disease broke out, which

was without example in the memory of its oldest inhabitants, it

being totally unknown to them previously. The young and strong were

suddenly seized with pain and anguish at the heart, with violent

palpitations, and lacerating pains in the nape of the neck; profuse,

sour, ill-smelling perspiration broke out over the entire body, and

a suffering, as though a violent rheumatic fever had seized on the

tendinous expansions, accompanied this terrible malady: in the worst

cases a spasmodic trembling ensued, the patient fainted, the limbs

became rigid, and death closed the scene, frequently within twenty-four

hours from the commencement of the attack.

A.D. 1803. Influenza overspread the British Isles in the

spring of this year, causing great mortality: in severity it was

similar to those prevalent A.D. 1762 and 1782, as described by

Sir George Baker.

Tommasini describes a yellow pestilence which raged at Leghorn and at

Lucca A.D. 1804. A similar disease was also prevalent in the

West Indian Islands about this period, especially in the islands of

Martinique and Grenada. The year following, 1805, spotted typhus, or

petechial pestilence, was rife in various parts of the United States,

and caused great mortality.

A.D. 1809, epidemic pestilence suddenly made its appearance

amongst the British troops occupying Portugal.

A.D. 1810, in the month of October, yellow pestilence appeared

at Gibraltar: of the population of this fortress, amounting to 14,000,

only twenty-eight escaped the malady; twelve of these had had the

disease previously in the West Indies and elsewhere. A.D.

1811, puerperal fever was prevalent and lethal in Somersetshire.

A.D. 1812, Constantinople suffered dreadfully from plague,

which carried off 160,000 persons. Since the severe winter of 1794–95,

this country (England) had not experienced such an intense and

continued cold as occurred during the present season, from the 30th of

November, 1813, to February, 1814. The early part of December was raw,

chilly, and occasionally foggy; frost, which was severe, commenced the

day after Christmas-day: on the 27th it was accompanied by a thick fog,

which, towards noon, became so dense as to render all objects invisible

at a short distance, even with the aid of torches, so as to prevent the

departure of mail-coaches and of other carriages; numerous accidents

occurred in and near London. This singular and dark state of the

atmosphere, which was extremely offensive both to the eyes and lungs,

continued for the space of seven days, with scarcely any change, even

at noon, except the appearance of a dim light during the latter; and

as the frost increased, the houses, shrubs, and trees became thickly

covered with the freezing humidity of the fog. This state of things

terminated at the end of the week with a heavy fall of snow, which

continued until the streets were covered to the depth of several feet,

to the great interruption of all communication with the country for

several days. In the last week of January, from a partial thaw, immense

masses of ice were brought down the Thames, which, on the recurrence of

frost, became so united as to be capable of supporting the weight of

great multitudes of people, who were entertained in the booths erected

upon the ice during the fair near Blackfriars Bridge. The wind blew

almost invariably from the east and north-east, and was frequently very

high, rendering the cold more intense: on many days the temperature was

as low as 15° of Fahrenheit, and it was said to have fallen on some

nights as low as 11°, and even lower. The effects of this severity of

the cold were aggravated amongst the lower orders by the difficulty of

procuring fuel, in consequence of the great scarcity of coals, which

cost double the usual price. Persons of all ages suffered from severe

influenza, attended with fever of a rather malignant type: children,

and persons who had passed the middle period, as usual, suffered the

most, from their vital powers being less energetic than during the

intermediate periods of existence. During the months of October and

November (1813) typhus fever became more frequent than it had been for

several years previously: it prevailed mostly in the filthy courts

of Saffron Hill, near Hatton Garden, which are almost exclusively

inhabited by the lowest kind of Irish labourers. Scarlatina was also

rife, but was not very fatal. These diseases were not, however,

confined to the places where they first appeared; they soon showed

themselves in the crowded districts in the eastern and north-eastern

parts of the town, and in the Borough, and were greatly prevalent in

the alleys about Essex Street, in Whitechapel, near Golden Lane, Old

Street, and in many filthy courts about Cow Cross and Chick Lane,

in the vicinity of Smithfield: they were also rife in the districts

near Kent Street, in the parishes of St. George and St. Saviour, in

Southwark, in the courts running into Shoe Lane, Clare Market, the

Strand, at Somers Town, and, singular to say, they broke out last of

all in St. Giles’, the district proverbially the receptacle of beggary

and vice.

During this year (1813), yellow pestilence again made its appearance

at Gibraltar; it raged from October till the month of December, when

it subsided, after causing great destruction of the troops then in

garrison. The civilians suffered an equal mortality. In the year

following (1814), this epidemic again broke out in the month of August,

and disappeared about the end of October; it was not again heard of on

the rock until 1828.

A.D. 1813, plague made its appearance in the island of Malta,

where it had not been known previously for 138 years,--not since the

year 1675. From the month of April to that of November, 4483 persons

were carried off by it; it also raged at Gozzo, Corfu, &c.

A.D. 1815, the harvest was unfavourable all over Europe, and

several provinces of Naples were threatened with famine. On the 27th

of December, a suspicious epidemic broke out at Noya: it consisted of

a hot nervous fever, rapidly running its course, with gangrenous and

malignant boils and carbuncles; women were the first and most frequent

victims; children also suffered in a similar proportion; old persons

were more exempt. The disease soon afterwards appeared at Cagliari,

and it is stated not to have presented any of the characteristics of

the plague, although it was very fatal. This pestilence was preceded

by a famine, which commenced among the poor: other diseases prevailed

at the same time: the prevalence of a south wind seemed to increase

its propagative powers; it continued about six months, when it ceased

suddenly in the following year, 1816.

About this period, A.D. 1815, pestilential disease was

developed in the island of Corfu; it first made its appearance at

a little village called Marathea, in the district of Lefchimo.

Tully states that nothing could equal the wretched appearance of

the village,--poverty, with all its miserable train of attendants,

presenting itself to view at every step. Near this village stagnant

pools and marshes everywhere presented themselves: rains set in earlier

than usual, and were followed by a long drought and heat, unnatural for

the advanced season of the year, with a constant sirocco or south-east

wind: so rapidly fatal was this pestilence, that more than a fourth

part of the inhabitants were carried off in a few days. It is recorded

that out of 700 seized in this small village, only 78 recovered!

During the same year, the fall of rain in the East was remarkable,

especially during the rainy season, when it was indeed excessive,--and

that which rendered it the more worthy of notice was, that the Ganges,

the Soane, and the Coossee rivers burst their boundaries, and destroyed

a vast extent of agricultural property in the neighbouring districts.

The cold season that followed was also damp, and not bracing; and again

the hot or summer season that followed was also moist. The winter

which followed was unfortunately also damp, and the atmosphere during

the subsequent summer, A.D. 1816, was exceedingly loaded

with moisture in the shape of dense fogs; drought followed, for the

heat was intense; few north-westers, it is said, occurred to temper

the air, and those which did were accompanied with little or no rain:

towards the end of the month of May, the thermometer had risen to

98° in the shade,--a very uncommon height in Bengal. This scorching,

burning weather continued uninterrupted unto the middle of June. In

the remaining portion of June and in July the rains fell moderately

in Calcutta and in its vicinity; but in the month following, August,

the showers became scanty and rare, while the days and nights were

oppressively hot. In the western part of the provinces the great

drought which succeeded dried up the rivers, so that apprehensions

were entertained for the safety of the rice cultivation. The 1st of

September ushered in a most unexpected change: rain came down in

deluges, and continued unabated during the entire month: it caused a

greater and more extensive inundation than had happened within the

recollection of the oldest inhabitant.

The morbid effects of a long train of anomalous weather then became

evident amongst the people. Low fevers of a typhoid character

prevailed, accompanied by a malignant sore-throat,--a disease

previously unknown there, according to the Bengal Report.

A.D. 1817 was the commencement of a pestilential period,

during which disease raged rampant all over the habitable globe, and so

continued for a series of years: yellow pestilence prevailed with great

violence, and caused great mortality at Savannah, New Orleans, Mobile,

Natchez, the Havannah, Baltimore, Charleston, and elsewhere in the

United States.

Pestilential cholera commenced and committed great ravages, especially

in India, where it prevailed with an intensity and fatality equal to

those of a similar malady which was fatal to thousands of the human

race A.D. 260. This pestilence broke out in the month of

August, it is said, at a place called Jessore, a populous town in the

centre of the Delta of the Ganges, the capital of the Sunderbunds,

distant from Calcutta about sixty English miles, and there it caused

great mortality, proving fatal to almost all on whom it seized.

Jessore is described as being a crowded, filthy place, surrounded by

impenetrable and marshy jungles, and consequently exposed to all the

horrors of a malarious and ill-ventilated atmosphere. In the course

of a few weeks, 10,000 of the inhabitants perished in this district

only. In the September following, it broke out in Calcutta, where it

committed great ravages. It spread thence along the banks of the Ganges

in a north-westerly direction, not then extending further to the east

than Muzufferpore. It also attacked with great violence the English

army assembled in Bundelcund, under the Marquess of Hastings, on the

banks of the Sinde, in the most central part of India. Five thousand

men perished between the 15th and 20th of November, 9000 of the troops

dying altogether during this attack of the epidemic. The roads were

covered with the dying and the dead.

A.D. 1818. This dreadful epidemic extended to Jaulnah, on the

Madras side of the Indian peninsula, and in August of the same year

it reached Bombay; in fact, it may be said to have extended itself to

every part of India, and to many of the neighbouring countries, which

are to this day suffering from it, but in a mitigated degree. In March,

10,000 perished from it in Banda and its environs. Hutta, Saugur,

Ougein, and Kotah also suffered in a similar proportion. An equal

number died of cholera in the same month in Allahabad. In April and

May, Cawnpore, Meerhut, Agra, and Delhi were attacked, and the disease

raged in these towns with great severity. About the same time, Lucknow

and Fyzabad, cities in Oude, were ravaged by it, and 30,000 perished in

Goruckpore alone. In October, the disease broke out in Madras, and in

Ceylon in the following December. During this period, it proved very

destructive to the inhabitants of the Mauritius, raged violently in

the Burmese Empire, in the kingdom of Aracan, and in the peninsula of

Molucca. Yellow pestilence also raged at the same time in the United

States, and continued the two following years, 1819 and 1820, carrying

off great numbers in many of the States, especially in New York and

Philadelphia; it was also rife in the West Indian Islands, in Bermuda,

in British Guiana, and in various parts of the South American continent.

The year 1819 was marked by great commotions of the elements, and

a general spread of epidemic pestilence all over the world; its

prevalence was remarked in all the four quarters of the globe, each

portion having been visited by the forms of disease peculiar to its

several climates. A tract of country, the Ullah-Bund, in the Delta

of the Indus, extending nearly fifty miles in length and sixteen

in breadth, was upheaved ten feet; while adjoining districts were

depressed, and the features of the Delta completely altered. The island

of Penang, Sumatra, Singapore, the kingdom of Siam, and the isles of

France and Bourbon were infected with pestilential cholera. In the

single town of Bankok, the capital of Siam, 40,000 persons perished by

this dire destruction.

During the year 1820 cholera extended to Tonquin, Cambogia,

Cochin-China, Southern China, Canton, the Philippines, &c.

A.D. 1821, Xeres was visited by yellow pestilence; the British

troops suffered severely, and the civilians in greater proportion;

it prevailed also with great destruction at Cadiz, a city which

had suffered between the years 1800 and 1821, from eleven epidemic

pestilences of a similar type. (_Vide_ Professor Salva, of

Barcelona, on Yellow Fever.)--Sir James Fellows, in his reports on

the pestilential disorders of Andalusia during these years, asserts,

as before remarked, that the air from its stagnant state became so

vitiated that its noxious qualities affected even dumb animals. The

winter in America this year was mild until the end of December; the

spring was wet and cold, and the summer dry and sultry, with uncommon

heat; all vegetable productions seemed to wither, and the drought was

so great that the wells or springs were dried up; the thermometer rose

to 90° and 100° in May; and intermittent, remittent and bilious fevers,

with dysenteries, prevailed in the swampy districts. In the month of

August, yellow pestilence made its appearance at New York, and was soon

rife at Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and at Charleston; it was also

prevalent at New Orleans, Natchez, Mobile, Alabama, and the Havannah,

and extended along the low banks of the Mississippi river. From this

period until 1822, the disease, although diminished in severity, yet

carried off great numbers in the various districts.

Destructive cholera, which may be said not to have subsided at all,

visited, this year, 1821, the island of Java, Bantam, Mendura,

Borneo, and various other parts in the Indian Archipelago. In Java

it is reported that 102,000 persons were carried off by it, 17,000

of whom belonged to the town of Batavia, one of the most unhealthy

towns in the East. This same year, this dreadful pestilence, in the

month of July, reached Muscat in Arabia, in its western course, where

10,000 persons lost their lives, and during the remainder of the year

committed great ravages in various places in the Persian Gulf. In the

following month, August, it appeared in Persia, and raged with violence

at Bassora and at Baghdad. In Bassora, 18,000 lives, being one-third

of the population, were sacrificed in eleven days, and a similarly

fearful destruction befel Baghdad. In Bushire, where it broke out in

July, 1821, its ravages were most fearful. The bazaars were closed, the

houses abandoned, the unburied dead lay in heaps in the streets, and

the surviving population sought safety in flight. In Shiraz one-eighth

of the population perished.

In the years 1822–24, it revisited Tonquin and also Pekin, Central

and Northern China, the Moluccas or Spice Islands, Amboyna, Macassar,

Assam, and most of the other eastern countries. In Ispahan the epidemic

did not inflict much damage, but at Erzeroom it attacked the army of

the victorious Abbas Mirza, and swept his ranks from front to rear,

the terror-stricken soldiery throwing away their arms, and flying from

before the invisible destroyer. During these years, 1822–24, extending

to 1827–29–30, this pestilence prevailed in many of the principal

cities of Persia, and also in Chinese Tartary: it ravaged most of the

populous cities of Mesopotamia, Syria, and Judæa, and reached within

150 miles of the Georgian frontiers of Russia: it was also rife at

Orenburg and Astrachan, beyond which it seems not to have extended

until the years 1828–29, when it appeared at Orenburg, the capital of

the province of that name, situated on the Tartar frontier, 400 miles

north of the Caspian Sea. During this period, disease was rife in

various other parts of the world.

There was a great scarcity, A.D. 1822, and epidemic typhus

prevailed to a great extent in the west of Ireland, involving other

parts of that unfortunate country. An awful earthquake occurred about

this period at Chili, by which an immense tract of ground, 1000 square

miles, was elevated from two to six feet above its original level, and

a great part of the bottom of the sea remained bare and dry at high

water, with beds of oysters, mussels, and other shellfish adhering to

the rocks on which they grew. The fish being all dead, and exhaling

most offensive effluvia, disease consequently ensued. Ordinary typhus

prevailed in Paris, during which time many cases of spasmodic yellow

fever, as it was termed, were observed.

A.D. 1823, the Laplanders are stated to have suffered greatly

in their cattle from murrain; upwards of 5000 head were carried

off,--wolves even being destroyed by it, so intense and general

among the lower animals was the distemper. Yellow fever this year

prevailed in Lisbon and in the Island of Ascension, and also in various

settlements on the African coast, especially at Sierra Leone. The

two years following, 1824–25, pestilence was rife in Lisbon. Yellow

pestilence, in the latter year, devastated many places on the coast of

South America, especially in the Brazils. Yellow fever prevailed at

Rio de Janeiro. The drought was excessive, but was succeeded by heavy

rains, common in this quarter of the globe. At one settlement alone,

Aracaty, the mortality in a short time was estimated at 30,000. Great

numbers died during their efforts to reach the coast for water; wild

as well as domestic animals perished. The drought, with its attendant

misery and deadliness, was so great, that to this day the inhabitants

speak of the calamity with horror. About this period, small-pox

committed great ravages in Hamburgh; and at Grand Cairo 30,000 persons

died of pestilence.

A.D. 1826, epidemic typhus prevailed all over Ireland, and

caused great mortality. Dr. Graves, in his Lectures, refers to very

many well-marked cases of yellow fever. He says, “We have had this year

numerous cases which in their symptoms and their morbid anatomy agree

essentially with yellow fever,--yellow skin, black vomit, &c.”

A.D. 1827. In the early part of this year, Groningen,

Friesland, North Holland, Belgium, and Lower Germany suffered from

epidemic influenza. The previous summer (1826) was followed by moist

weather, and the countries were damp from inundations. The epidemic

raged with such mortality, that the Dutch Government found it necessary

to adopt strong measures to relieve the sickness which affected nearly

the whole population.

Yellow fever was prevalent in the United States; remittent fever

was also rife in various parts of England; the symptoms amounted in

severity to those of pestilence, and were such as had scarcely been

seen in England since the days of Sydenham.

This year, a singular malady--a sort of rheumatic fever, occasioning

great agony,--broke out in the island of St. Thomas, in the West

Indies, and affected almost every one of a population amounting to

12,000 persons. It obtained from the negroes the cognomen of ‘dandy

fever.’ It proved to be an exceedingly painful disease, crippling

persons for weeks and months, and obliging them to move about on

crutches; it was, however, rarely fatal: it spread generally all

over the West Indian Islands. A similar disease prevailed the year

following, A.D. 1828, in Paris, and was considered by the

Parisians as being of an extraordinary character. A writer thus

describes the malady:--It was generally unaccompanied with any great

degree of fever, but affected the whole nervous system in a most

peculiar manner; especially by a most painful sense of formication

in the hands and feet, as well as a degree of numbness which seized

first upon the members, and thence extended over the whole body.

The formication and painful numbness of the extremities were so

characteristic of the complaint, that at Paris and elsewhere in France

it was known by the name of ‘mal des pieds et des mains.’

The cellular tissue, in this disease, became affected after a while;

the hands and feet swelled, and œdema attacked the face and several

other parts of the frame: immense numbers suffered from it in France.

The sensations were compared to those caused by the punctures from

the points of a thousand needles, or of some such sharp instrument;

an intense degree of heat aggravated the sufferings, and many could

scarcely move their body or extremities without great agony; cramps and

spasmodic contractions were present in many cases; the digestive organs

were greatly disordered, and symptoms of cholera morbus were sometimes

developed in the course of the disease; eruptions of various kinds

occurred on the body; sleep was prevented by excessive pain and general

disturbance of the system; delirium sometimes supervened; the sight

and hearing, and the sense of smell, were altogether lost in some, but

in others only partially impaired. In some, convalescence followed in

a few weeks; in others, not until several months had elapsed. Great

numbers fell victims to the malady, and many perished ultimately from

its sequelæ.

This year, A.D. 1828, Gibraltar was again visited by yellow

pestilence, which attacked both the military and civilians; it

commenced in the month of September; it broke out among, and was

for some time confined to, the filthiest and most crowded parts, or

districts, on the rock, but it ultimately seized on all ranks and

classes of society. It was observed to prevail to a greater extent and

more severely in some situations than in others, particularly along

the line of wall facing the sea,--few of the soldiers stationed there

escaping an attack, so that it was soon found necessary to withdraw

the sentries stationed in the neighbourhood. From this period to 1834,

there was great famine in Italy; the seasons were moist and hot;

repeated inundations occurred there, and south winds and summer fogs

prevailed. The French army encamped before the city of Naples lost

great numbers by pestilence. A disease called ‘la trousse galante’

carried off immense numbers in France. There were during this period

great failures of the crops in England and elsewhere in Europe,

occasioned by wet and mild winters, followed by hot summers: epidemic

pestilence was the consequence.

The breaking out of epidemic pestilence in Orenburg, in August, A.D.

1829, was attended with some extraordinary phenomena,--the atmosphere

was suddenly filled with dense masses of small green flies, which

in Asia are looked upon as the forerunners of pestilence, and are

therefore called plague-flies; the streets swarmed with these insects,

and on quitting their houses, the inhabitants were literally covered

from head to foot with them.

A.D. 1830. A blight or disease, this year, made its appearance

in the potato and other crops in various parts of Germany, in Ireland,

and in America. In 1832, it was more general and severe in some

situations than in others.

Cholera about this period showed itself on the borders of the Black

Sea, penetrating thence into the centre of European Russia, where it

continued throughout the winter. Towards the beginning of autumn, it

commenced with great violence in the Georgian frontier of Persia,

having appeared in June, 1830, in the Persian province of Ghilan,

on the Caspian shore; from the southern parts of which it extended

northward, along the west Caspian shore, until it reached Baku, Tiflis,

Astrachan, and numerous other places, in its progress into the very

heart of the Russian empire. At Astrachan, from July to the end of

August, 4000 died in the city, and 21,270 in the entire province. 2367

persons died of it in Saratov; and shortly afterwards, of 1792 Don

Cossacks attacked, 1334 perished. At Penza, situate about 140 miles

north of Saratov, 1200 of the population were seized in the course of

a fortnight, and 800 sunk under it. At Nischnei Novgorod, where the

epidemic soon afterwards broke out, 1863 persons were taken ill, of

whom nearly a thousand died. The mortality in Bessarabia and Moldavia

was appalling: Jassi, the capital of Moldavia, was almost depopulated.

This insatiable malady continued to spread, carrying death in its

course westward and northward, through Russia, Poland, Moldavia, the

duchy of Posen, Silesia, and Austria, visiting Warsaw, with other towns

in Poland, and extending, May, 1831, to Riga and Dantzic; and in June

and July to St. Petersburgh and Cronstadt: it reached Berlin on the

last day of August, Vienna in September, and Hamburgh on the 7th of

October.

A.D. 1831, cholera followed the Russian army employed in

the subjugation of Poland; it also proved very destructive in Warsaw

and in many other places during the months of April and May. In June

it prevailed in Cracow and other adjoining places, extending in its

course to Gallicia, Hungary, Smyrna, and Constantinople; it raged with

such intensity at Cairo, that 10,400 Mahomedans, besides Jews and

Christians, were carried off. During this year, whilst cholera was

progressing over the continent of Europe, it appeared at Mecca, where

it proved very destructive to the ‘Hadji,’ or pilgrims. In August, it

broke out at Alexandria, and nearly at the same time all the towns in

the Delta of the Nile suffered from its violence. This year, when the

pestilence was at its height at Baghdad, the population of the city was

computed to be 80,000; of this number, 7000 perished during the first

fortnight: the epidemic continued to increase in severity, until the

maximum rate of mortality for some days was 5000 daily: 50,000 are

supposed to have been carried off in this devoted city during the two

months it was devastated by this awful pestilence. In destructiveness

it was equal to any former visitation on record; it was, however, to be

attributed, not so much to the effects of pestilential miasmata, as to

concurring circumstances which obliged the inhabitants to congregate

densely in particular parts of the city. The rivers Euphrates and

Tigris are flooded twice in the year, first in the spring, from the

melting of the snow in the mountains of Armenia, and afterwards in

the autumn, from the periodical rains. The country round about was

inundated, this year, to an uncommon degree, beyond any traditional

example,--the lower part of the country particularly. At Baghdad the

waters were for a time kept from bursting into the town by means of

the walls, but on the night of the 26th of April a part thereof on

the north-west side of the city was undermined, and fell. The waters

immediately rushed in and caused the destruction of about 7000 houses,

burying 15,000 persons in the ruins: many of these were lying sick

of the pestilence; and there was besides a large number of unburied

dead. In consequence of the daily fall or partial ruin of houses from

the encroachments of the waters before their subsidence occurred, the

inhabitants were crowded together, and from being deprived of their

usual resources for the disposal of their dead, the sickening horrors

of the pestilence were accumulated tenfold before the eyes of the

unfortunate survivors, and thus constituted an additional aggravation

of their sufferings. The burial-places were laid under water, and while

the disposition and power lasted to bury their dead, every open space,

says an eye-witness,--the streets, the courtyards of mosques, and even

stables,--were turned up to furnish graves. In one stable-yard, which

the terrace of our house overlooked, says the same writer, nearly one

hundred graves were opened, and filled in the course of one day and a

half; it was a fearful sight indeed to see the uncoffined dead brought

in barrows and on the backs of asses, and laid upon the ground, till

the graves were made ready for them. As the mortality increased, the

dead were thrown out into the streets, and were greedily devoured by

the ravenous dogs which swarm in all the cities of the East. He did

much, then, who took the dead of his household to the river side and

threw them in. The pressure of famine was also greatly felt,--the

inundation cut off all supplies from the country round about; no fresh

provisions of any kind could be had, and although the higher classes,

who generally had a stock of corn on hand, were preserved from absolute

want, nevertheless respectable persons were seen in crowds begging from

door to door for food.

To continue: about the month of May, an epidemic disease made its

appearance in Paris, which on comparison presented symptoms analogous

to those of the epidemic pestilence described by Sauvages as occurring

A.D. 1743, and also to that described by Ruyoux, A.D. 1762. The term

‘la grippe’ was thought applicable to it.

As occurred in the epidemics of which we have spoken, and as has been

observed in former times, and noted by Rivére, Senertus, Sydenham,

Loes, Huxham, and many others, a remarkable analogy was noticed between

the ‘medical constitution’ which had existed for some months past,

and the development of this epidemic. All authors who have given

descriptions of catarrhal epidemics similar to that of which we are

writing, agree in saying that they have almost invariably followed cold

and moist seasons, and that they seemed more immediately to be produced

by sudden atmospheric vicissitudes.

These facts harmonize with those observed in Paris. The malady

commenced with symptoms of coryza, attended by cough and snuffling;

dyspnea, with severe bronchial irritation, supervened, when the

paroxysm all at once became greatly aggravated. One symptom was

remarked as being pretty general and prominent, viz., a feeling of

lassitude and fatigue of the limbs, with more or less great moral

prostration: the disease was not very fatal, and generally lasted

for eight or ten days. During this period an extraordinary epidemic

prevailed at a village called Mandroros, in Russia,--gangrene of the

spleen. From the singular nature of this disease, a description will

probably be found interesting. It commenced without any premonitory

symptoms; the patient was suddenly seized with a feeling of burning

at the pit of the stomach, accompanied by an insupportable pain in

the left hypochondria; lassitude, with vomiting of a greenish bitter

fluid, bowels naturally active, urine scanty, loss of appetite, and

laborious respiration. Putrid appearances supervened in the course of a

few hours, followed by meteorismus, borborygmi, yellowness of the skin,

and of the scleroticæ; facies Hippocratica, cramps, cold extremities,

and death. This disease, it is said, was not contagious, but epidemic,

and it is further stated to have resembled that which was called ‘the

plague of Siberia.’ After death, decomposition of the corpses took

place rapidly, a black spot first appearing over the splenic region.

Necrotomy showed the spleen in an engorged and gangrenous condition.

In October, 1831, cholera made its appearance in Sunderland, and a

month after in Newcastle-upon-Tyne; it visited Houghton-le-Spring,

North Shields, Tynemouth, South Shields, Gateshead, and other places.

The first appearance of it in London is reported to have taken place in

the following year, 1832, in the month of February, in the immediate

vicinity of the shipping; but solitary cases were met with in the close

filthy quarters of the very poor, early in December. In Scotland it had

made its appearance previously about Christmas; and in the following

January, Leith and Edinburgh suffered greatly. During this period

it broke out in France, Holland, and in the peninsula generally. In

the summer of 1832 cholera prevailed throughout England, Scotland,

Ireland, and Wales, and in the Channel Islands, Jersey, Guernsey, &c.,

and also among the emigrants arriving at Quebec; from the latter city

it extended to Montreal, Kingston on the Lake Ontario, and to the

surrounding neighbourhood. Soon afterwards, New York and Albany, in

the United States, were attacked, and in due time the disease extended

to Philadelphia, to Newcastle on the Delaware river, and to many other

parts of the United States; it raged at New Orleans, as did also yellow

fever: it made its appearance at the Havannah in the month of July,

1833. During the spring of that year influenza spread over every part

of Great Britain and Ireland: it had raged previously in Russia and the

northern parts of Germany, where it had inflicted great mortality in

its course.

On the 26th of March, Paris was again invaded by cholera, and the

inhabitants of Calais also suffered greatly; in Paris, at least 20,000

persons had fallen victims to this scourge by the end of September.

During this year and the following, it raged throughout Spain, and was

especially destructive in Madrid. Numerous places on the borders of the

Mediterranean were visited by this pestilence, and it re-appeared in

London and in other places in this country, as well as in North America.

From the year 1833 to 1838, plague raged with great violence, carrying

off vast numbers, in Constantinople, Cairo, Alexandria, and Smyrna.

A.D. 1834, cholera was rife at Gibraltar; it extended to the rock, and

no one seems to have escaped the disease. A singular phenomenon, a

shower of fish, was noticed on the 17th of May in the neighbourhood of

Allahabad. The zemindars of the village have furnished the following

particulars, which were confirmed by other accounts:--About noon, the

wind being from the west, and a few distant clouds visible, there was

a blast of high wind accompanied with much dust, of a reddish yellow

colour, with which the atmosphere was greatly charged. The blast

appeared to extend in breadth about 400 yards; immense trees and large

buildings were thrown down, and when the storm had passed away, the

ground all about the village was found strewed with small fish to the

extent of two bijahs: the fish were all of the chalwa species (_clopea

cultrata_, Shakespeare Dictionary); they were a span or rather less

in length, and from one sear to one and a half in weight; when found

they were all dead and dry. The Jumna runs about three miles south of

the village, and the Ganges fourteen W. by E. The fish were not fit

for eating, and it was said that when put in the pan for dressing they

turned into blood!

The writer of a history of cholera, published in the ‘Lancet,’ says:

“From the earliest times it has been a matter of common observation

that plagues and murrains among the lower animals not unfrequently

either preceded or accompanied the visitations to which mankind were

subjected. Thus, at the siege of Troy, we are told by Homer:

μετὰ δ’ ἰὸν ἔηκε·

Δεινὴ δὲ κλαγγὴ γένετ’ ἀργύρεοιο βιοῖο.

Οὐρῆας μὲν πρῶtον ἐπῴχετο, καὶ κύνας ἀργούς·

Αὐτὰρ ἔπειτ’ αὐτοîσι βέλος ἐχεπευκὲς ἐφιεἰς

Βάλλ’.”

In India, we are informed that poultry and dogs frequently perished

during the prevalence of cholera, and with similar symptoms. At

Marienburgh, in Prussia, in the year 1831, the fish in the large ponds

in that government are all said to have perished during the prevalence

of the epidemic, and forty tons of them were buried from the single

pond of Dinperburgh. In Warsaw, some examples of a disease resembling

cholera were also noticed among the lower animals.

In the beginning of this year, A.D. 1834, the Egyptian

dominions of the Pasha suffered greatly from the ravages of pestilence

or plague. It first appeared in Alexandria, where it was reported to

have been brought from Malta: sanitary precautions were adopted, but

the prejudices of the people rendered them unavailing, and they were

consequently abandoned as being useless. By the end of February, the

deaths in Alexandria amounted to 200 daily. The disease then extended

to Grand Cairo, and soon after stretched up the valley of the Nile,

sweeping off the greater part of the population. In the month of March,

the deaths were computed to be from 300 to 400 daily at Cairo; in

May they had increased to nearly 2000. The town of Fua, situated on

the banks of the Nile, containing a population of 2500 inhabitants,

was stated to have lost 1800 in a very short period. The distemper

disappeared as the year advanced, but its ravages, together with the

long-continued military exertions of the Pasha, left Egypt almost

depopulated.

In the early part of the year 1835, there happened an eruption of

Vesuvius, which has been thus described by an eye-witness:--A new

crater having burst out, a stream of red-hot lava issued therefrom, in

the direction of Castelmare, spreading itself over several miles in a

few hours’ time, its course being marked by flames rising in volumes

from the ground over which it flowed. The intense heat occasioned by

this body of fire was felt at Sorrento. The same year, an earthquake

was experienced in South America on the 20th of February; it caused

the destruction of the cities of Talar and Carico, with the towns of

Conquenes, Linares, and Chillian: not a house was left standing in a

place called Conception, and the workmen who were engaged repairing

the cathedral of that city were buried in the ruins. In the month

of June, hail and thunderstorms did much damage in various parts of

England; on the 9th, 10th, and 11th, different parts of the country

suffered greatly; the destruction of glass in the neighbourhood of

Cambridge, on the 9th, was estimated at £2000. In Newmarket a similar

loss of property occurred. In Durham the lightning struck the western

tower of the cathedral, and hurled down an immense mass of stone,

which, alighting upon the pavement beneath, was dashed into innumerable

fragments, at the moment when a party of students belonging to the

university, who had been inspecting a monument recently erected,

alarmed by the crash, rushed from the cathedral; two of the party were

killed instantly by the falling ruin, and ten others were severely

wounded. About this period, in the month of January, the little village

of Raffhaten, on the frontiers of Wallachia, was the locality in which

there occurred the singular phenomenon of a shower of meteorolites:

about 6 A.M., on the 29th of January, the inhabitants were

aroused from sleep by a noise as of a heavy shower of hail, which was

immediately succeeded by a violent crashing of windows; great was the

astonishment subsequently to find that the earth, for the space of

nearly two leagues in circumference, was covered with a vast number of

small stones, the smallest of them being about a quarter of an inch

in diameter, while the largest were about the size of a marble; they

were of a light slate colour, and very heavy, as much so as pieces of

metal of the same size; when put into the fire, they burnt like coal,

emitting a considerable quantity of gas at the same time.

On the 10th of August the shock of an earthquake was felt in different

parts of the county of Lancaster: at Clitheroe two shocks were

experienced,--the first, occurring about twelve at night, was slight;

the second happened about half-past three in the morning; a rumbling

noise like distant thunder was first heard, and was instantaneously

followed by a violent shaking of the doors, windows, and furniture in

all the houses in the district; many persons started from their beds

in great terror, and rushed into the streets. It was felt at Downham,

Wisewell, Pendleton, Milton, Waddington, and in all the surrounding

villages to Blackpool. The shock was also felt at Liverpool, at

Ulverstone, Kendal, Garstang, Preston, and Blackburn, where it caused

serious and general alarm.

Cholera, this year, 1835, was rife at Leghorn, where it carried off

sixty or seventy persons daily. On the 25th of August, Odessa suffered

from a severe shock of an earthquake; it was first felt about five

in the afternoon, when a thick smoke of vapour arose at the foot of

Mount Ard-scheh (on the side of which Kassarich is situated), from

which columns of flames burst with a tremendous noise; it was like the

eruption of a volcano. At the same moment the earth was felt to rock,

and a terrible earthquake began, the shocks of which continued for

seven successive hours, accompanied with heavy thunder; persons felt

as though they were on the ocean when agitated violently by a storm:

about two thousand houses were thrown down; confusion and terror were

at their height; the inhabitants fled into the country, but many were

overtaken in their flight and buried in the ruins: an incredible number

thus perished. Up to the 1st of September, there were three or four

shocks daily, but of a trifling nature, doing but little mischief.

About this time the inhabitants of Kassarich, who had taken up their

abode in the fields, or fled into the villages, were able to return

to the town; all the villages to the distance of more than 140 miles

had suffered dreadfully; a great number of lives had been lost in

most of them, and many houses and other property had been destroyed.

The following are those who suffered the most;--at Tanlusia upwards

of sixty houses were thrown down, and many lives lost; great numbers

were killed at Tapirarchi, and Kerwer suffered greatly. The village

of Mantzofir was that which suffered the most. In Welekes only one

house was left standing, and great numbers lost their lives. Wersan

was completely swallowed up, as was also Kumetzi, on the site of which

a great lake afterwards arose. This year, 1835, may be said to have

been marked by a series of commotions; for in the month of November, in

the middle of the night, an earthquake was felt generally throughout

Calabria, Citra, &c.; it was followed by ten shocks at intervals. In

the midst of these commotions, Castiglioni, a commune in the district

of Cosenza, was levelled with the ground, and the greater part of the

population met an untimely death. The small village of Bonello shared

a similar fate. In Leppano, in Ronda, in Casole, and various other

places, great sufferings from the falling of the houses were endured.

Epidemics were prevalent all this year and the year following, 1836,

in various parts of the globe. In Europe, America (North and South),

and in the greater part of the West Indian Islands, an apoplectic,

pernicious fever, as it was termed, was prevalent in the northern

hemisphere.

A.D. 1836. For two days the weather was exceedingly

boisterous, and the wind blowing hard from the north-east. On Sunday,

the 1st of May, the stormy winds increased, the land was darkened with

heavy clouds of dust, and the Thames all day appeared as rough as a

troubled sea. The effects of the storm were visible both on the land

and sea: numbers of houses were unroofed, and nursery gardens, with

other property, destroyed.

On the 18th of October, at about eight in the evening, the heavens

presented one of the most splendid of those phenomena known as the

‘auroræ boreales,’ or northern lights. There first appeared a large

luminous arch extending nearly from north to south, from which

streamers extended very low in the sky, running from north-east to

south-west, and increasing in number until they began to approach the

zenith, apparently with an accelerated velocity. Suddenly the whole

hemisphere was covered with them. This splendid scene, however, lasted

only about forty seconds: the variety of colours disappeared, and the

beams lost their lateral motion, and were converted, as is usual, into

flashing radiations, which kept diminishing in splendour until the

whole disappeared, leaving only a pale white light near the horizon.

A.D. 1837, cholera prevailed at Rome, causing great mortality,

from 200 to 300 dying daily. Of the frightful mortality of this dire

scourge one writer states, that in the Indian peninsula, from the years

1817 to 1830, of a population numbering somewhat more than 4,000,000,

1,800,000 became victims. Another author gives the following summary of

the numbers carried off during this pestilential period:--

At Erivan and Tauris one-fourth of the population were destroyed. In

Syria its ravages were extremely varied; in some localities, one-half

of the populace were carried off; whilst in others, as in Tripoli,

only one in about 200 died. At Tiflis, three-fourths of those seized

perished; at Astrachan, two-thirds were carried off. Out of 16,000

attacked in the province of Caucasus, 10,000 fell victims; at Moscow,

one-half, and at Orenburg only one-fifth of the inhabitants perished.

Out of 54,000 and upwards attacked in the Russian provinces, more than

31,000 died. In Hungary, 400,000 were said to have been seized, and

more than half were destroyed. In this country (England) and in Wales,

according to the Tables furnished by Dr. Merriman, from the Reports

sent in for the Privy Council, out of 62,000 attacked, 20,578 died.

In Ireland, out of 54,552 who were taken ill, 21,171 fell victims.

In the countries of Asia not subject to European dominion, the data

respecting the ravages of this disease were extremely vague and scanty,

although there is reason to believe that in some of them they were more

extensive than in India.

Yellow fever prevailed in various parts of the United States from

the year 1834 until 1839, especially in Charleston. The causes were

supposed to have been dependent on the extreme heat of the summer,--the

elevation of temperature having been greatly beyond what was ever

before known. The town was also crowded by strangers, who were employed

to rebuild the city after its conflagration: they were badly lodged;

and, in consequence of the high wages that were given, an immense

number of dissolute and intemperate persons were attracted to the city.

It was chiefly among this class that the disease prevailed.

A.D. 1837, influenza appeared in London in the first week

in January, the weather during the preceding four months having been

singularly wet, cold, and stormy; large quantities of snow having

fallen and collected on the ground, even in the streets of London,

where it lay for weeks together. The evaporation of the cold water,

the result of the succeeding thaw, rendered the air cold and damp

for a long time. In the month of November, this year, a hurricane of

great violence occurred from the south-west. On Christmas-day there

was a storm of wind and snow simultaneously all over the west of

Europe,--snow having fallen even in the streets of Lisbon and Palermo:

it fell so heavily in England, that it impeded intercourse throughout

the country. It was remarkable that snow fell at Canton in February, a

thing unknown to the oldest inhabitants. The French army marching upon

Constantina, in Algiers, suffered severely from three days of incessant

snow. Tremendous hurricanes were experienced about this period over

every part of the European and American seas. The weather in England

was uncertain and fluctuating from Christmas to the middle of February,

when influenza broke out: its duration in London was six or seven

weeks; half the population were attacked, and the ordinary rates of

mortality during this time were very nearly doubled. The aged and the

very young were those who principally suffered. The inhabitants of

Russia, Sweden, and Denmark suffered greatly. In Copenhagen, according

to Dr. Otto, at least 30,000 were labouring under the disease at one

time, in the month of January. Influenza was rife also in Scotland,

where it was observed earlier than in England, and it broke out

generally in the northern and eastern parts of England before it showed

itself in the southern and western. Paris was visited by this epidemic

a month later than London, the disease having previously prevailed in

Calais and other intervening places. It broke out with great severity

in the northern coast of Spain, being aggravated by the events of the

civil war then raging in Biscay and Navarre. An epidemic having the

character of the influenza of the northern hemisphere was also rife at

Sydney and the Cape of Good Hope in the latter part of the year 1836.

Towards the latter end of March, 1838, yellow fever broke out among

the garrison and the inhabitants in the island of Ascension, and

committed great ravages. The disease was preceded by heavy rains for

several days: large collections of water formed in consequence, which

evaporated under the influence of a burning sun. One of the most

extensive of these occurred in a foul and offensive site, surrounded

by low dwelling-houses occupied by Portuguese prisoners, the majority

of whom were attacked. The men employed in pumping out this water,

complained much of its offensive effluvium; they also suffered from

the fever, and that most severely. The epidemic extended to the crews

of several ships of war which touched at the island, and many of the

seamen and officers perished.

A.D. 1839. In the month of February, an epidemic pestilence

broke out, and proceeded with the rapidity of lightning at Mount St.

Bernard. It was characterized by typhoid symptoms, and attended by a

lengthened delirium, with occasional short, lucid intervals; out of

one family consisting of twenty-one individuals, three only survived:

it was confined exclusively to those living on the mountain. Epidemic

erysipelas raged with great intensity at Algiers during this period;

epidemic disease also prevailed in the district of Coulommiers in

France, termed ‘sudor miliaris.’ The premonitory symptoms varied very

generally: some of those attacked, when they awoke, found themselves

inundated with perspiration; in some, the disease was preceded for

some days by prostration of strength, with pains in the joints, &c.:

a prominent symptom was a pain and sensation of smothering in the

epigastric region; this feeling was greater or less in proportion

to the quantity of perspiration, which in some was so profuse that

on lifting up the bed-clothes a dense vapour was seen to arise: an

eruption appeared after the third or fourth day; ten days after,

the epidermis became wrinkled and fell off in the shape of scaly

furfuraceous matter. The most fatal cases were those in which agonizing

pains were experienced at the epigastrium. The autopsiæ exhibited

vesicular eruptions in the intestinal canal. Petechial fever was very

prevalent at St. Petersburgh this year (1839); it affected persons

in a peculiar manner; during their illness, there was no delirium or

appearance of disorder of the intellectual faculties; they spoke and

acted sensibly, but after the subsidence of the malady, towards the end

of the third or fourth week, they awoke as it were to a consciousness

of their condition. Measles also raged epidemically. Yellow fever,

this year (1839), was very destructive at Galveston in the republic of

Texas.

A.D. 1840, blight appeared in Germany among the crops,

especially the potato; it prevailed to so great an extent, Dr. Martius

reports, as to cause a very serious alarm, and even to threaten the

total extinction of that esculent. At the same time, the island of

Arran, with other parts of the Highlands of Scotland, suffered from a

similar disease among the potato crops: it prevailed there from 1839 to

1842, destroying at least half the vegetation.

A.D. 1841, plague raged in Syria, and at Erzeroum with great

violence. During this period, extending to the year following, 1842,

an epidemic religious ecstasy, as it was called, prevailed in Sweden.

This singular epidemic malady was distinguished by two prominent and

remarkable symptoms,--one physical, consisting of spasm, or involuntary

contractions or contortions, &c.; the other, mental, being an ecstasy,

more or less involuntary, during which the patients fancied themselves

divinely inspired, and felt impelled to speak of supernatural things

which they fancied they saw; they were occasionally moved to preach. It

was the female portion of the community that suffered most. Anything

offensive to the mind re-acted convulsively on the body, causing a

sort of chorea, which it was attempted to distinguish or divide into

two distinct forms of the disease, called mental and physical chorea.

Several thousand persons were attacked by the disease; it was rarely

fatal. Persons who had been affected, when convalescing, felt languid

and debilitated, both in body and mind. Yellow fever at this period

was fatal at Key West, East Florida, in the United States. Early in

1841 remittent fever occurred among the crew of the ‘Wanderer’ a ship

belonging to the Royal Navy, chiefly among the boats’ crews who had

been employed in the rivers Nunez and Pongos. Seventy persons were

taken ill, and nine died. In the course of this year, remittent fever

prevailed in many other Queen’s ships employed on the African coast to

put down the slave trade.

A.D. 1843. Blight seized on the potato crop this year

throughout the United States, and also in British America. Epidemic

erysipelas, known by the popular name of ‘the black tongue,’ broke

out in November, 1843, in Ripley county, United States, and traversed

most of the townships of the Delaware, Dearborn county, &c. This

disease, Dr. Sutton says, “has either assumed several characters, or

we have several epidemics traversing the country together: one was

erysipelas connected with cynanche tonsillaris, or swelling of some

of the lymphatic glands in the throat; and another was considered to

be a typhoid pneumonia, sometimes accompanied by enlargement of the

axillary glands. These two diseases,” continued the writer, “have

been so intimately connected in my practice, that it has been a

question to me whether the last was not a pulmonic erysipelas, the

premonitory symptoms in each disease being alike, the character of

the fever in each being the same, and it was often the case that one

form of the disease changed into that of the other. The disease was

not generally fatal.” Boston, in the autumn of this year, was visited

by an epidemic fever; it prevailed also at a place called Erie in

the county of New York, during the months of October and November.

This little town, or rather settlement, Erie, is made up of some

half-dozen houses, containing a population of forty-three persons, of

which number twenty-eight were seized between the 19th November and

7th December, ten of them dying of the disease. Some disputes existed

in this little community, and the generality of them were of opinion

that the wells had been poisoned by some evil-disposed persons: there

was not, however, the least foundation for any such supposition. The

disease commenced with rigors, chills, pain in the loins and head;

typhoid symptoms supervened, the tongue becoming brown and dry; low

muttering delirium was noticed, also a cough, with expectoration of a

muco-purulent character. Another small town which about this period

was visited by a very fatal disease, yellow fever, is an inland

settlement in Wilkinson county, Mississippi, containing a population

of 750 inhabitants. It is situated about forty miles from Natchez, on

high ground, 340 feet above the level or bank of the Mississippi with

a gradual slope in all directions; there is no creek, pond, or low

land near the town,--in short, on a review of the town and surrounding

country, it would be pronounced to be one of the most eligible sites

in the south for a healthy settlement. At the time there was no yellow

fever prevalent at New Orleans,--in fact, there had not been any case

of the disease in any place along the river; consequently it could not

have been imported. Nearly every one in the town was seized; and the

mortality was great, seven to ten dying daily in so small a population

for the first week. The disease was very rapid in its progress; the

patients were suddenly seized with violent pains in the head and loins,

and with burning fever; in a short time vomiting of a blackish fluid,

similar to coffee-grounds, ensued, and in a few hours death closed the

scene.

A.D. 1842 and 1843, cholera in a sporadic form raged with

considerable violence in many parts of Persia, continuing at intervals

during the two subsequent years.

A.D. 1844, yellow pestilence committed great ravages at Goree,

in Senegal.

During the year 1845, the blight among the potatoes spread rapidly

through Germany, Holland, Belgium, the northern parts of France, and

over the greater portion of England, Scotland, and Ireland. This

pestilence re-appeared the year following, 1846. A phenomenon worthy of

notice was observed during the prevalence of this disease,--to wit, the

existence of a mist or fogs immediately previous to the blight in the

crops. In Holland, a thick stinking mist, which extended very widely,

was observed in 1845, antecedent to the potato blight. M. Petit states

that it was generally remarked in France that the disease made its

appearance after a fog. In England the same phenomenon was observed.

In the spring of 1845 remittent fever broke out on board the ‘Eclair,’

while on the coast of Africa; the first persons attacked being those

who had been engaged in boat-service. The vessel at the time lay off

the Sherbro’ river, and the boats had been employed for some time

exploring its creeks, and those in the Seabar branch of that river.

The disease continued to spread among the boats’ crews; and after a

while those seamen who had not been out of the ship became subject to

the fever, which committed such fearful ravages among them that at

last the ‘Eclair’ was ordered home as a _dernier ressort_. The

disease then presented all the characters of genuine yellow fever. On

the voyage, the ‘Eclair,’ after having been refused pratique at Goree,

put in at Boa Vista, one of the Cape de Verd Islands, where the crew

were landed, and stayed some days; but the epidemic continued to seize

its victims, and the crew consequently, both the sick and sound, were

again received on board, and the vessel got under weigh for England.

Before she reached Madeira, Captain Estcourt, Dr. M’Clure, and Mr.

Hartmann, the assistant surgeon, died, Mr. Machonchy, the surgeon to

the ship, expiring the day after. Mr. Sydney Bernard, assistant surgeon

of the ‘Growler,’ having volunteered his services, was appointed in

Mr. Machonchy’s place, and performed his duties to the last. On the

arrival of this floating pest-house in England, pratique was refused,

and the healthy, the sick, and the dying were all kept on board. The

result was the loss of several more lives, the disease not ceasing

until about a fortnight after her arrival at the Motherbank. Mr. Sydney

Bernard and Lieutenant Isaacson, the officer in command, were among its

latest victims. The deaths on board from the endemic, from first to

last, amounted to seventy-four. Fever prevailed very extensively in Boa

Vista, after the departure of the ‘Eclair,’ and was very fatal; great

numbers of the inhabitants were attacked.

In 1846, during the march of the Mormon worshippers across the desert,

on their road to the new state of Deseret or Utah, after their

expulsion from Nauvoo, they were greatly afflicted by endemic disease,

chiefly remittent and yellow fevers. In one camp alone, 31 per cent.

suffered, and the road was marked throughout with the graves of those

who perished. They also suffered much from a kind of strange scorbutic

disease, which they named the ‘black canker,’ and which was frequently

fatal.

At this time it was remarked, a few days before disease fastened on the

potatoes, that a dense cloud, resembling a thick fog, overspread the

entire country; it differed from a common fog in being quite dry and

having a disagreeable odour.

To continue: this year and the following, 1847, epidemic remittent

fever was prevalent in Scotland. In Glasgow it was noticed that a

remarkable change had taken place in the epidemic constitution.

Exanthematous typhus--a sort of continued fever, characterized along

with other symptoms by an eruption over the body resembling measles,

running a course on an average of twenty-one days, carrying off

about 10 per cent.,--was supplanted by a remittent fever, sometimes

attended with petechiæ, but not with the measly eruption: it was also

often accompanied by jaundice. Epistaxis was very frequent; when the

disease occurred in women about the menstrual period, the discharge was

universally copious, and very many women in a state of pregnancy, who

were seized with the malady, aborted; a crisis generally was formed on

the seventh day; relapses were frequent,--in fact, almost invariable

under any and every precaution: the mortality amounted to about 3½ per

cent.; about 15,000 persons fell victims to this disease, principally

those residing in the ill-ventilated and filthy parts of the town,--the

poor and distressed. The smallness of the mortality compared with the

severity of the symptoms, and the debility it left behind, was a matter

of surprise. This malady appears to have been very similar to that

which prevailed in Dublin in 1826. Rutty, in his diseases of Dublin

during forty years, mentions several epidemics which resembled the

malady at Glasgow. They occurred in 1740, 1745, 1764, and 1765. There

is also some resemblance between this fever and that which prevailed in

Dublin in 1816, as reported by Dr. Stokes.

In the early part of 1845 cholera prevailed with great violence

along the banks of the Indus, and about the same period proved very

destructive in Afghanistan. Thence it extended into Persia, traversing

that country from east to west, spread northwards into Tartary, and

southwards into Kurdistan, and also into the pashalic of Baghdad. In

September it prevailed at Herat and Samarcand, and in the November

following at Bokhara. The extreme malignancy of the disease may be

understood by the description given of many of the cases. “Those who

were attacked dropped suddenly down in a state of lethargy, and at the

end of two or three hours expired without any convulsions or vomiting,

but from complete stagnation of the blood, which no remedies could

restore to circulation.”

During this period there took place in Kurrachee, near the mouth of

the Indus, the most terrific outburst of the pestilence that can be

conceived, which in the course of a few days swept off 8000 victims.

The description given by an eye-witness of the scene at Kurrachee, as

Dr. Gavin Milroy says (in his very excellent pamphlet on cholera), is

so full of fearful and instructive interest, as regards some of the

most striking characters of pestilential visitations, that we cannot

withhold a brief account of its leading particulars:--

The heat had been intense during the first fortnight in June, but the

station remained tolerably healthy. On Sunday, the 14th, the atmosphere

was more than usually stagnant and oppressive; one correspondent

who was present says, “The very heavens seemed drawn down upon our

shoulders; the feeling was suffocating.” A dark portentous-looking

cloud crept up the sky as the troops were proceeding to church, and

a sudden gust of wind threatened the building: it passed away almost

as suddenly as it came; and when the worshippers retired, the air was

as still as when they assembled. At the same hour did the pestilence

appear; before midnight nine soldiers of the 86th regiment were dead,

and men began to be brought to the hospital in such numbers, that

it was difficult to make arrangements for their reception; it was a

fearful night. With morning, came the tidings that the pestilence

was overspreading the town, and that fifty persons had already fallen

victims to its deadly poison. How awful must have been the rapidity

of the attack, when we learn that sometimes, within little more than

five minutes, hale and hearty men were seized, cramped, collapsed,

and dead! Men attending the burial of their comrades were attacked,

carried to the hospital, and were themselves buried the next morning.

Pits were dug in the churchyard, morning and evening; sewn up in their

bedding, and coffinless, the dead were laid side by side, one service

being read over all! For the next five days it raged with appalling

fury; it then abated in its intensity, but continued to hover about the

place for another week. Within less than a fortnight, 900 Europeans,

including 815 fighting men, were swept away. Besides these, 600 native

soldiers and 7000 of the camp-followers and inhabitants of the town had

been hurried into eternity. About this time, a virulent fever raged at

Sukkur, about 180 miles from Kurrachee, which proved fatal in a few

hours. Hyderabad, intermediate between the two places, was visited

almost immediately afterwards by cholera. Mr. Alexander Thom, surgeon

of the 86th regiment, at the time of the explosion at Kurrachee, thus

expresses himself: “I have witnessed disease of a severe and fatal

kind, and cholera itself in an apparently grave form, but I never could

have anticipated, even in India, its appearance in so appalling a

shape as that in which it was recently developed in the 86th regiment:

it burst forth almost literally like a thunder-clap, followed by a

lethiferous blast, proving almost instantaneously fatal.”

A.D. 1846, fearful mortality from famine and epidemic

pestilence occurred in Gallicia: during the first half-year, 1234

deaths occurred, and for the like period in the subsequent year the

mortality was 5188! During this time the weather was distressingly hot

in Canada, North America, the thermometer frequently standing 96° and

98°; numbers were carried off daily by fever. Epidemic cholera, after

raging with very great violence for two years in Persia, towards the

end of the summer of 1846, broke out at Tauris and Teheran, and during

the autumn advanced to places nearer to the Russian frontiers. On the

16th of November, 1846, cases occurred at the village of Ialiany, and

also in the same month at Leukoran; and it is worthy of remark, that

these were the places first attacked in 1830. The disease also appeared

at Bakrou, and advanced in December to Schêmakha and Derbent; and in

the month of February, 1847, to the town of Konba. Its appearance at

Ialiany and in the district of Talysch was marked with that malignity

which for the most part characterizes the commencement of cholera. We

observe at Ialiany a remarkable instance of the influence of the trade

and locality tending to foster it, selecting for its victims those who

had but recently recovered from the fever of the country: the cholera

almost invariably carried off every one attacked, nine-tenths falling

victims to the disease. In the localities of the trans-Caucasian

provinces, the attacks became less violent, and without the towns

the disease no longer presented a malignant type. Towards the end of

February, it was supposed that the disease had ceased, but in the

following month, March, it recommenced with redoubled violence, and

in April spread destruction with fearful rapidity. Traversing the

shores of the Caspian sea, it reached Tiflis in May. It also appeared

in this month on the other side of the Caucasus, at Kizliar, whence,

re-ascending the Terek, it penetrated to Mozdok, at the end of June to

Piatigorsk and to Georgierk, and entered Staowpol in the first week of

July.

From October, 1846, to June, 1847, there occurred in the Caucasus and

trans-Caucasian provinces no less than 17,055 cases of cholera, of

which 6318 died. Astrachan suffered greatly from cholera, great numbers

of the inhabitants having been carried off, as was also the case in

Moscow. From official accounts received from St. Petersburgh, it

appeared the inhabitants of the western town Alexandrof were attacked

with cholera, and also the district of Olgapol, in Podolia. The latter

is about thirty miles distant from the Austrian frontiers.

A.D. 1846 and 1847, an epizootic or murrain destroyed much

cattle in Europe, principally oxen; dogs, horses, and sheep suffering

comparatively less. Great numbers of horned cattle were destroyed in

Wallachia. A kind of pleuro-pneumonia afflicted both men and beasts in

various parts of Scotland, principally in East Lothian, as well as in

Aberdeenshire, extending throughout the North; it also prevailed in

Ayrshire to some extent.

In the month of January of the latter year, 1847, influenza prevailed

on the coast of Portugal and in the south-east of Spain: it also

appeared in Newfoundland and in New Zealand; and in the month of March,

in Valparaiso; in April, on the coast of Syria: in July, August, and

September, it broke out on the west coast of Africa, south of the

equator; during which time (in August) it raged at Hong-Kong. In the

month of December, Paris was assailed by this malady, which was also

rife at Madrid; it was termed ‘la grippe,’ and seized more than half

the population: five thousand persons were said to have been laid up by

this wide-spreading disease at one time in Paris. About this period,

the island of Java was visited by epidemic diseases. Virulent small-pox

committed great havoc, and then typhus prevailed in Ireland; the

mortality among the medical profession was great, it being calculated

that one-fifteenth of the entire medical community died there during

the year. There was great mortality from typhus at Prague, between the

16th of December, 1846, and the 16th of December, 1847; the deaths

during that time amounting to 5192. During the latter year, 1847,

cholera was rife in Moscow, Stockholm, St. Petersburgh, and Cronstadt;

various parts of Europe were visited by influenza, the greater part of

the inhabitants of Copenhagen having suffered therefrom: the disease

also prevailed at Marseilles, attacking half the population of 80,000

persons; its character, however, was mild.

During the last fortnight of November, 1847, an epidemic of rather a

remarkable character broke out, and prevailed in the North of Scotland,

commencing in Dundee, travelling over the entire coast as far as

Kinnaird’s Head, and extending westerly, involving Huntly, Keith,

Elgin, and Inverness; it first affected the system by pain in the

throat, followed by headache, sickness at stomach, and expectoration of

a dark, bilious-looking substance. To such an extent did this malady

prevail, that the University and King’s College, then in session, were

closed; half the students at Marischal College and the university

were laid up; those at the grammar schools were afflicted in the

same proportion. At Edinburgh and Montrose the malady prevailed to

an alarming extent, the schools generally having been visited; 810

scholars belonging to the schools in the latter place suffered at one

time. The weather, which had been damp and rainy, was considered to

be the principal cause. Yellow fever prevailed at New Orleans, from

the 5th of July to the 22nd of October; it carried off 2544 persons.

Cholera this year prevailed at Trebizond, situated on the oriental

shores of the Black Sea. An author of eminence states that the

inhabitants of this city suffered cruelly: Constantinople was afflicted

about the same time by dire pestilence, which was fatal to numbers. We

have also an account of famine and pestilence in Silesia. The famine

and distress at Rybensk and Plesg were appalling; in many parts of the

latter place 4500 died more than in the preceding year, which was also

very fatal; from 15 to 20 per cent. of the inhabitants were cut off

by disease. In Rybensk great numbers died daily from famine, and the

Committee of Relief stated that hundreds of orphan children were seen

standing beside the corpses of their parents crying for bread.

During the last two years, epidemic pestilence was rife and fatal in

various parts of the world. In the latter year, 1847, influenza raged

all over England; and with the following observations, taken as the

substance of the Registrar-General’s Report, dated January 30, 1848,

this History of Epidemic Pestilences will conclude:

The meteorological phenomena were particularly remarkable prior to

the breaking out of the influenza. The population were inadequately

supplied with potatoes, from scarcity caused by the disease which had

existed the previous years,--a sort of blight. Scurvy became prevalent

at the beginning of the year. In April, typhus became epidemic, and

the mortality was increased. Diarrhea, dysentery, and cholera also

prevailed. The wind blew, from the first week in October, S. S. W.

and S. W. The weather was universally warm; a brilliant aurora was

observed, and shook the magnets, October 24th. It appeared eight times

during the quarter. On Tuesday, November 16th, there was a remarkable

darkness; the wind changed to N. W., and amidst various changes still

blew from the north over Greenwich at the rate of 160 and 250 miles a

day. The mean temperature of the air suddenly fell from 11° above to

10° below the average. On Sunday, it was 54°; Friday, 32°; on Friday

night, 27°. The earth was frozen; the wind was calm three days, and

on Saturday evening a dense fog lay over the Thames and London for

the space of five hours. No electricity stirred in the air during the

week,--all was still, as if Nature held her breath at the sight of the

destroyer come forth to sacrifice her children. On Monday, the sky

became overcast, the air damp; the wind changed in the night to S. by

E., and passed for four days over Greenwich at the rate of 200 and 300

miles a day. The temperature suddenly rose, and remained from 2° to 9°

above the average throughout the week ending on the 27th of November.

Influenza broke out: in the first week in December, 2454 persons

died; the week following, 2416 persons, and in six weeks, 11,339. The

epidemic in that time carried off 5000 over and above the mortality of

the season. The country districts do not appear to have been affected

to any extent,--a fact which shows how much purity of the air has to do

with the outbreak of epidemic diseases.

Influenza, it has been observed, is often associated with other

epidemics: it preceded and accompanied the plague or ‘black death’ in

the fourteenth century; it preceded the great plague in London, A.D.

1665; it followed epidemic typhus A.D. 1803; preceded typhus A.D. 1837,

and occurred in the midst of the typhoid epidemic in the year 1847.

Influenza also preceded and followed epidemic cholera, 1831 to 1833. In

short, it may be said that influenza has from time immemorial pretty

generally preceded and accompanied epidemic pestilence in every quarter

of the globe, as is noted by the Registrar-General to have been the

case in England, A.D. 1728, 1733, 1743, 1758, 1762; five years after,

A.D. 1767, 1775, 1782; again, A.D. 1788, A.D. 1803, 1831, 1832, and

following year, 1833, as also A.D. 1846 and 1847.