The Camden weekly journal. [volume] (Camden, South-Carolina) 1853-1861, 1853-09-20
Misrellanfon5.
Pesti!ence as.d ..leir Effects.

The awful mortality produced by the epidem-
ic at New ORLEANS has given occasion to the re-
mark, in various quarters, that Its ravayeS arc.
unparalleled. The history of the past, however,
furnishes many instances of more terrible de
struction of human life by various peStilences.
The Philadelphia Ledger notices the following,
among the many that in measure have desc
lated the cities of the earth:
The first of which we have detailed account
is that recorded by Thucydides, and which visit
ed Athens about four hundred and thirty years
before the Christian era. 1t appears to have
been identical in kind with the great plague Of
London in 1866, the accounts written of the one
applying almost exactly to the other The NOR
ta!ity which attended it seems almost incredible.
1t was followed, at uneven periods, by other vi<i
tations Of pestilence, which swept off millions Of
the human race, at Rome, Egypt, Syria, and
finally Constantinople Gibbon relates that in
the reign of Justnan, a. d. 527, plague de-
vastated the empire for tifty-two years. During
portion of this time, when Constan'iaople was
visited by the epidemic, ten Thousand persons
died daily. Two centuries later, two hundred
thousand persons were carried of, in that capi
tai, by another visitation of the plague. In the
earlier visitation many smaller cities were de-
populated bv it. Whole districts, devoted to
agriculture, were abandoned, the harvest being
left to wither on the ground. Glbbon computes
the entire mortality, during the fifty two years
of plague, at one hundred millions.
During the dark ages, the plague swept over
EuroDe several times with fri ghttul Violence
Boccacco has left vivid narrative Of its appear
ance at Florence, abolt the middle of tie four
teentll century. 1t bore the name of the Black
Death," and closely .resembIed the old plague Of
Athens. Visiting England, it SWEPT off fifty
thousand inhabitants Of Lo"don alone, though
the British capital had not at that time probably
more than two hundred thousand inhabitants.
Fifty years later, the plague appeared again in
London, when thirty thousand persons pcri>hed
OF it within .twelvemonth. In l5l7; an cpl
demic called the Sweating Sickness" broke out
in Europe, and extending to England, deprived
the principal towns, according to Stowe, Of half
thee Inhabitants. In 1908, nearly forty thou
sand persons died of plague in London. About
the same period, Con>tantinople is said to have
lost two hundred thousand of its inhabitants by
the same disease. As the age Of official Sta,is-
tics had not yet arisen, these numbers may have
been occasionally exaggerated; bnt the very
vastness of the estimates, even If but approNima
tions, proves the frightful rate Of mortality. 1t
is to be regretted that we have not more exact
accounts of these epidemics, so rs to be able to
determine whether they were Identical in char
acter, as the best medical writers conj' cture, or
really diaerent, as their names imply.
We come now to the pcstience which devas-
tatcd Londnn in 1865, and which is comnonIy
known as The Great Plague" 1t does not ap.
pear, after all, to have been fatal us many
which preceded it; and really owes its pre-cmi-
inence to the vivid descriptions left of it. This
epidemic appeared in September, 1864, and af-
ter lingering all winter, began to rage violently
as early as May. The summer set in unusually
hot. In the week ending the 18th June, II
had died of the disease the next week the
number rose to l69; the next to 201; and the
next to 40. Macauley computes the popula-
ton of London at this time at about half Il mil
lion. BY the middle Of July, however, two hun
dred thousand had fled to the country. The
pestilence now began TO increase with appalling
rapidity. The deaths for the week ending with
the lst Of August were 20l0, and they rose
steadily in numbers till the fifth of September.
having reached, for the week ending at that date,
69SS. The week following there were G544;
the week after that GIGS; aud the next week
5533. The pestilence now rapidly abated. The
mortality for the ensuing five weeks was, respec-
lively, 1920, 1927, 2GG5, 1927, and 1881. BY
the 5th Of December, the weekly deaths from
the plague had fallen to 2lo. This, after the
awful mortality which had preceded it, was con-
sidered a trhe; the fugltives consequently re-
turned to town, and business was generally re-
sumed.
Other pestilences, since the London one, have
been very fatal. In 1920, 10000 persons per-
ished at MarseiIles, or quite half Of the popua-
ton. In Egypt, Syria and Barbary, the NOR
tality Of the plague has frequently trcblcd, and
even quadrupled, the present mortality at New
Orleans. In the Great Plague" London lost
100000 Of her inhabitants, or one.thirl Of those
who stayed to encounter the pcStilence. New
Orleans must lose 27.0O0 to attain like NOR
tally; but God forbid that she should
Good Manners.