Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine [557]
of the plague, but it is not written in a true scientific spirit; and Caius, in 1562, gave us a primitive treatise on the sweating sickness. It is due to the translation of Hecker's "Epidemics of the Middle Ages" by Babbington, made possible through the good offices of the Sydenham Society, that a major part of the knowledge on this subject of the English-reading populace has been derived.
The Black Death, or, as it has been known, the Oriental plague, the bubonic plague, or in England, simply the plague, and in Italy, "la Mortalega" (the great mortality) derived its name from the Orient; its inflammatory boils, tumors of the glands, and black spots, indicative of putrid decomposition, were such as have been seen in no other febrile disease. All the symptoms were not found in every case, and in many cases one symptom alone preceded death. Although afflicted with all the manifestations of the plague, some patients recovered. According to Hecker the symptoms of cephalic affliction were seen; many patients were stupefied and fell into a deep sleep, or became speechless from palsy of the tongue, while others remained sleepless and without rest. The fauces and tongue were black and as if suffused with blood; no beverage could assuage the burning thirst, so that suffering continued without alleviation until death, which many in their despair accelerated with their own hands. Contagion was evident, for attendants caught the disease from their parents and friends, and many houses were emptied of their inhabitants. In the fourteenth century this affection caused still deeper sufferings, such as had not been hitherto experienced. The organs of respiration became the seats of a putrid inflammation, blood was expectorated, and the breath possessed a pestiferous odor. In the West an ardent fever, accompanied by an evacuation of blood, proved fatal in the first three days. It appears that buboes and inflammatory boils did not at first appear, but the disease in the form of carbuncular affection of the lungs (anthrax artigen) caused the fatal issue before the other symptoms developed. Later on in the history of the plague the inflammatory boils and buboes in the groins and axillae were recognized at once as prognosticating a fatal issue.
The history of this plague extends almost to prehistoric times. There was a pest in Athens in the fifth century before Christ. There was another in the second century, A.D., under the reign of Marcus Aurelius, and again in the third century, under the reign of the Gauls; following this was the terrible epidemic of the sixth century, which, after having ravaged the territory of the Gauls, extended westward. In 542 a Greek historian, Procopius, born about the year 500, gives a good description of this plague in a work, "Pestilentia Gravissima," so called in the Latin translation. Dupouy in "Le Moyen Age Medical," says that it commenced in the village of Peleuse, in Egypt, and followed a double course, one branch going to Alexandria and the other to Palestine. It reached Constantinople in the Spring of 543, and produced the greatest devastation wherever it appeared. In the course of the succeeding half century this epidemic became pandemic and spread over all the inhabited earth. The epidemic lasted four months in Constantinople, from 5000 to 10,000 people dying each day. In his "History of France," from 417 to 591, Gregorius speaks of a malady under the name inguinale which depopulated the Province of Arles. In another passage this illustrious historian of Tours says that the town of Narbonne was devastated by a maladie des aines. We have records of epidemics in France from 567 to 590, in which bubonic symptoms were a prominent feature. About the middle of the fourteenth century the bubonic plague made another incursion from the East. In 1333, fifteen years before the plague appeared in Europe, there were terrible droughts in China followed by enormous floods in which thousands of people perished. There are traditions of a plague in Tche in 1334, following a drought, which is said to have carried off
The Black Death, or, as it has been known, the Oriental plague, the bubonic plague, or in England, simply the plague, and in Italy, "la Mortalega" (the great mortality) derived its name from the Orient; its inflammatory boils, tumors of the glands, and black spots, indicative of putrid decomposition, were such as have been seen in no other febrile disease. All the symptoms were not found in every case, and in many cases one symptom alone preceded death. Although afflicted with all the manifestations of the plague, some patients recovered. According to Hecker the symptoms of cephalic affliction were seen; many patients were stupefied and fell into a deep sleep, or became speechless from palsy of the tongue, while others remained sleepless and without rest. The fauces and tongue were black and as if suffused with blood; no beverage could assuage the burning thirst, so that suffering continued without alleviation until death, which many in their despair accelerated with their own hands. Contagion was evident, for attendants caught the disease from their parents and friends, and many houses were emptied of their inhabitants. In the fourteenth century this affection caused still deeper sufferings, such as had not been hitherto experienced. The organs of respiration became the seats of a putrid inflammation, blood was expectorated, and the breath possessed a pestiferous odor. In the West an ardent fever, accompanied by an evacuation of blood, proved fatal in the first three days. It appears that buboes and inflammatory boils did not at first appear, but the disease in the form of carbuncular affection of the lungs (anthrax artigen) caused the fatal issue before the other symptoms developed. Later on in the history of the plague the inflammatory boils and buboes in the groins and axillae were recognized at once as prognosticating a fatal issue.
The history of this plague extends almost to prehistoric times. There was a pest in Athens in the fifth century before Christ. There was another in the second century, A.D., under the reign of Marcus Aurelius, and again in the third century, under the reign of the Gauls; following this was the terrible epidemic of the sixth century, which, after having ravaged the territory of the Gauls, extended westward. In 542 a Greek historian, Procopius, born about the year 500, gives a good description of this plague in a work, "Pestilentia Gravissima," so called in the Latin translation. Dupouy in "Le Moyen Age Medical," says that it commenced in the village of Peleuse, in Egypt, and followed a double course, one branch going to Alexandria and the other to Palestine. It reached Constantinople in the Spring of 543, and produced the greatest devastation wherever it appeared. In the course of the succeeding half century this epidemic became pandemic and spread over all the inhabited earth. The epidemic lasted four months in Constantinople, from 5000 to 10,000 people dying each day. In his "History of France," from 417 to 591, Gregorius speaks of a malady under the name inguinale which depopulated the Province of Arles. In another passage this illustrious historian of Tours says that the town of Narbonne was devastated by a maladie des aines. We have records of epidemics in France from 567 to 590, in which bubonic symptoms were a prominent feature. About the middle of the fourteenth century the bubonic plague made another incursion from the East. In 1333, fifteen years before the plague appeared in Europe, there were terrible droughts in China followed by enormous floods in which thousands of people perished. There are traditions of a plague in Tche in 1334, following a drought, which is said to have carried off