Transcriber’s notes:
The text of this book has been preserved as in the original (including
punctuation irregularities); archaic and inconsistent spellings have
been retained except where obviously misspelled in the original.
Corrected misspellings include the following:
trangressed —> transgressed
espepecially —> especially
oriential —> oriental
Spelling inconsistencies include the following:
medicin/medecine/medicine
monastaries/monasteries
sunset/sun-set
2nd/2d/2dly
Footnotes have been positioned below the relevant paragraphs.
THE
BLACK DEATH
IN THE
FOURTEENTH CENTURY,
FROM THE GERMAN OF
I. F. C. HECKER, M. D.
PROFESSOR AT FREDERICK WILLIAM’S UNIVERSITY AT BERLIN, AND MEMBER
OF VARIOUS LEARNED SOCIETIES IN BERLIN, BONN, COPENHAGEN,
ERLANGEN, HANAU, LONDON, LYONS, METZ, NAPLES, NEW YORK,
PHILADELPHIA AND ZURICK.
TRANSLATED BY
B. G. BABINGTON, M. D.
LONDON:
A. SCHLOSS, FOREIGN BOOKSELLER,
109, STRAND.
1833.
CONTENTS.
TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE i
PREFACE ix
CHAPTER I.--General Observations 1
CHAPTER II.--The Disease 4
CHAPTER III.--Causes--Spread 28
CHAPTER IV.--Mortality 54
CHAPTER V.--Moral Effects 82
CHAPTER VI.--Physicians 128
APPENDIX--
I.--The Ancient Song of the
Flagellants 172
II.--Trial of the Jews accused of
poisoning the Wells 181
III.--Extracts from “A Boke or
Counseill against the Sweate
or Sweatyng Sicknesse” 191
TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE.
In reading Dr. Hecker’s account of the Black Death which destroyed so
large a portion of the human race in the fourteenth century, I was
struck, not only with the peculiarity of the Author’s views, but also
with the interesting nature of the facts which he has collected. Some
of these have never before been made generally known, while others
have passed out of mind, being effaced from our memories by subsequent
events of a similar kind, which, though really of less magnitude and
importance, have, in the perspective of time, appeared greater, because
they have occurred nearer to our own days.
Dreadful as was the pestilence here described, and in few countries
more so than in England, our modern historians only slightly allude to
its visitation:--Hume deems a single paragraph sufficient to devote to
its notice, and Henry and Rapin are equally brief.
It may not then be unacceptable to the medical, or even to the general
reader, to receive an authentic and somewhat detailed account of one of
the greatest natural calamities that ever afflicted the human race.
My chief motive, however, for translating this small work, and at
this particular period, has been a desire that, in the study of the
causes which have produced and propagated general pestilences, and of
the moral effects by which they have been followed, the most enlarged
views should be taken. The contagionist and the anti-contagionist may
each find ample support for his belief in particular cases; but in
the construction of a theory sufficiently comprehensive to explain
throughout the origin and dissemination of universal disease, we shall
not only perceive the insufficiency of either doctrine, taken singly,
but after admitting the combined influence of both, shall even then
find our views too narrow, and be compelled, in our endeavours to
explain the facts, to acknowledge the existence of unknown powers,
wholly unconnected either with communication by contact or atmospheric
contamination.
I by no means wish it to be understood, that I have adopted the
author’s views respecting astral and telluric influences, the former of
which, at least, I had supposed to have been, with alchemy and magic,
long since consigned to oblivion; much less am I prepared to accede
to his notion, or rather an ancient notion derived from the East and
revived by him, of an organic life in the system of the universe. We
are constantly furnished with proofs, that that which affects life is
not itself alive; and whether we look to the earth for exhalations,
to the air for electrical phenomena, to the heavenly bodies for an
influence over our planet, or to all these causes combined, for the
formation of some unknown principle noxious to animal existence, still,
if we found our reasoning on ascertained facts, we can perceive
nothing throughout this vast field for physical research which is
not evidently governed by the laws of inert matter, nothing which
resembles the regular succession of birth, growth, decay, death, and
regeneration, observable in organized beings. To assume, therefore,
causes of whose existence we have no proof, in order to account for
effects which, after all, they do not explain, is making no real
advance in knowledge, and can scarcely be considered otherwise than an
indirect method of confessing our ignorance.
Still, however, I regard the author’s opinions, illustrated as they are
by a series of interesting facts diligently collected from authentic
sources, as, at least, worthy of examination before we reject them, and
valuable, as furnishing extensive data on which to build new theories.
I have another, perhaps I may be allowed to say a better, motive for
laying before my countrymen this narrative of the sufferings of past
ages,--that by comparing them with those of our own time, we may be
made the more sensible how lightly the chastening hand of Providence
has fallen on the present generation, and how much reason, therefore,
we have to feel grateful for the mercy shewn us.
The publication has, with this view, been purposely somewhat delayed,
in order that it might appear at a moment when it is to be presumed
that men’s thoughts will be especially directed to the approaching
hour of public thanksgiving, and when a knowledge of that which they
have escaped, as well as of that which they have suffered, may tend to
heighten their devotional feelings on that solemn occasion.
When we learn that, in the fourteenth century, one quarter, at least,
of the population of the old world was swept away in the short space of
four years, and that some countries, England among the rest, lost more
than double that proportion of their inhabitants in the course of a few
months, we may well congratulate ourselves that our visitation has not
been like theirs, and shall not justly merit ridicule, if we offer our
humble thanks to the “Creator and Preserver of all mankind” for our
deliverance.
Nor would it disgrace our feelings, if, in expiation of the abuse and
obloquy not long since so lavishly bestowed by the public, we should
entertain some slight sense of gratitude towards those members of
the community, who were engaged, at the risk of their lives and the
sacrifice of their personal interests, in endeavouring to arrest the
progress of the evil, and to mitigate the sufferings of their fellow
men.
I have added, at the close of the Appendix, some extracts from a scarce
little work in black letter, called “A Boke or Counseill against the
Disease commonly called the Sweate or Sweatyng Sicknesse,” published by
Caius in 1552. This was written three years before his Latin treatise
on the same subject, and is so quaint, and, at the same time, so
illustrative of the opinions of his day, and even of those of the
fourteenth century, on the causes of universal diseases, that the
passages which I have quoted will not fail to afford some amusement as
well as instruction. If I have been tempted to reprint more of this
curious production than was necessary to my primary object, it has been
from a belief that it would be generally acceptable to the reader to
gather some particulars regarding the mode of living in the sixteenth
century, and to observe the author’s animadversions on the degeneracy
and credulity of the age in which he lived. His advice on the choice of
a medical attendant cannot be too strongly recommended, at least _by a
physician_; and his warning against quackery, particularly the quackery
of _painters_, who “scorne (_quære_ score?) you behind your backs with
their medicines, so filthy that I am ashamed to name them,” seems quite
prophetic.
In conclusion, I beg to acknowledge the obligation which I owe to my
friend Mr. H. E. Lloyd, whose intimate acquaintance with the German
language and literature will, I hope, be received as a sufficient
pledge that no very important errors remain in a translation which he
has kindly revised.
PREFACE.
We here find an important page of the history of the world laid open
to our view. It treats of a convulsion of the human race, unequalled
in violence and extent. It speaks of incredible disasters, of despair
and unbridled demoniacal passions. It shews us the abyss of general
licentiousness, in consequence of an universal pestilence, which
extended from China to Iceland and Greenland.
The inducement to unveil this image of an age, long since gone by,
is evident. A new pestilence has attained almost an equal extent,
and though less formidable, has partly produced, partly indicated,
similar phenomena. Its causes and its diffusion over Asia and Europe,
call on us to take a comprehensive view of it, because it leads to an
insight into the organism of the world, in which the sum of organic
life is subject to the great powers of Nature. Now, human knowledge
is not yet sufficiently advanced, to discover the connexion between
the processes which occur above, and those which occur below, the
surface of the earth, or even fully to explore the laws of nature, an
acquaintance with which would be required, far less to apply them to
great phenomena, in which one spring sets a thousand others in motion.
On this side, therefore, such a point of view is not to be found, if
we would not lose ourselves in the wilderness of conjectures, of which
the world is already too full: but it may be found in the ample and
productive field of historical research.
History--that mirror of human life in all its bearings, offers, even
for general pestilences, an inexhaustible, though scarcely explored,
mine of facts; here too it asserts its dignity, as the philosophy of
reality delighting in truth.
It is conformable to its spirit to conceive general pestilences as
events affecting the whole world, to explain their occurrences by the
comparison of what is similar, by which the facts speak for themselves,
because they appear to have proceeded from the higher laws which govern
the progression of the existence of mankind. A cosmical origin and
convulsive excitement, productive of the most important consequences
among the nations subject to them, are the most striking features to
which history points in all general pestilences. The latter, however,
assume very different forms, as well in their attacks on the general
organism, as in their diffusion; and in this respect a development from
form to form, in the course of centuries, is manifest, so that the
history of the world is divided into grand periods in which positively
defined pestilences prevailed. As far as our chronicles extend, more or
less certain information can be obtained respecting them.
But this part of medical history, which has such a manifold and
powerful influence over the history of the world, is yet in its
infancy. For the honor of that science which should everywhere guide
the actions of mankind, we are induced to express a wish, that it may
find room to flourish amidst the rank vegetation with which the field
of German medical science is unhappily encumbered.
THE BLACK DEATH.
CHAPTER I.
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS.
That Omnipotence which has called the world with all its living
creatures into one animated being, especially reveals himself in
the desolation of great pestilences. The powers of creation come
into violent collision; the sultry dryness of the atmosphere; the
subterraneous thunders; the mist of overflowing waters, are the
harbingers of destruction. Nature is not satisfied with the ordinary
alternations of life and death, and the Destroying Angel waves over man
and beast his flaming sword.
These revolutions are performed in vast cycles, which the spirit of
man, limited as it is, to a narrow circle of perception, is unable
to explore. They are, however, greater terrestrial events than any of
those which proceed from the discord, the distress or the passions of
nations. By annihilations they awaken new life; and when the tumult
above and below the earth is past, nature is renovated, and the
mind awakens from torpor and depression to the consciousness of an
intellectual existence.
Were it in any degree within the power of human research to draw up,
in a vivid and connected form, an historical sketch of such mighty
events, after the manner of the historians of wars and battles, and the
migrations of nations, we might then arrive at clear views with respect
to the mental development of the human race, and the ways of Providence
would be more plainly discernible. It would then be demonstrable, that
the mind of nations is deeply affected by the destructive conflict of
the powers of nature, and that great disasters lead to striking changes
in general civilization. For all that exists in man, whether good or
evil, is rendered conspicuous by the presence of great danger. His
inmost feelings are roused--the thought of self-preservation masters
his spirit--self denial is put to severe proof, and wherever darkness
and barbarism prevail, there the affrighted mortal flies to the idols
of his superstition, and all laws, human and divine, are criminally
violated.
In conformity with a general law of nature, such a state of excitement,
brings about a change, beneficial or detrimental, according to
circumstances, so that nations either attain a higher degree of moral
worth, or sink deeper in ignorance and vice. All this, however, takes
place upon a much grander scale than through the ordinary vicissitudes
of war and peace, or the rise and fall of empires, because the powers
of nature themselves produce plagues, and subjugate the human will,
which, in the contentions of nations, alone predominates.