Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1853-09-14
Pestilences at various Periods.

In more than one quarter it has been remarked
that the fever attn Orleans equals fitdoes not SUI
pass. all former pestences in its mortality. This
however, is a mistake. A notice of some of tn
most remarkable epidemics will refute the error.
The first pestilence of which we have detail
ed account is that recorded by Thucydldes, am
which visited Athens about four hundred and thlr
ty years before the Christian era. 1t appears t
have been Identical in kind with the great plagu
of London in 1865, the accounts written of the ON
applying almost exactly to the other. The NOR
tality which attendedit seems almost incredible
1t was followed, at uneven periods, by other visl
tatons of pestilence, which swept off millions G
the human race, at Rome, Egypt, Syria, and fl
nally Constantinople. Gibbon relates that in th'
reign Of Justinian, A. d. 527, plague devastee
the empire for ffiy-two years. During portion
of this time, when Constantinople was visited by
the epidemic, ten thousand persons died daily
Two centuries later, two hundred thousand per
sons were carried off, in that capital. by another
visitation of the plague In the earlier visitation
many smaller cities were depopulated by it
Whole districts, devoted to agriculture, were a
bandoned, the harvest being left to wither on the
ground. Gibbon computes the entire mortality
during the ftty-two years Of plague, at one hun
dred millions.
During the middle ages, the plague swept over
Europe, several times with frightful violence
Boccaccio has left vivid narrative Off appear
ance at Florence, about the middle of the four
teenth century. 1t bore the name of the 'Black
DEATH" and closely resembled, the old plague of
Athens. Visiting England, itswept off fifty thou
sand inhabitants of London alone, though the Brit
ish 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 ,perisfed of it with
in a twelve month In 1917, an epidemic called
the "Sweetening Sickness" broke out in Europe,
and extended to England, depriving the principal
towns, according Stowe, of half of their inhab-
tants. In 1903, nearly forty thousand persons died
of plague. About the same period Constantinople
is said to have lost two hundred thousand of its
inhabitants by the same disease. As the age Of
official statistics had not yet arisen these numbers
may have been occasionally exaggerated but the
very vastness of the estimates even if but approx
imations, proves the frightful rate of mortality
1t is to be regretted that we have not more exact
accounts of these epdemics so as to be able to de-
termine whether they were identical in character,
as the best medical writers conjecture, or really
different, as their name simply.
We come now to the pestilence which devasted
London in 1858, and which is commonly known
as ..The Great Plague" 1t does not appear, af-
ter all, 10 have been as fatal as many which pre-
ceded it; and really owes its preeminence to the
vivid descriptions left of it. This epidemic appear
ed in September, 1864, and after lingering al.
winter, began to rage violently as early as May.
The summer set in unusually hot. In the week
ending the 18th of June, | IL had died oc the dis
ease the next week the number rose to l6S; the
next to 267 and the next to 470. Macaulay COM
putes the population OF London, at this time, at a.
bout half million. BY the middle Of July, how
ever, two hundred thousand had fled to the coun-
try. The pestilence now began to increase with
appalling rapidty. The deaths for the week en-
ding with the 1st of Aug. were 2,0l0, and they
rose steadily in numbers till the fifth of Septem-
Der, having reached, for the week ending with
that date, 69S6. The week following they were
6544; the week after that 7l65; and the next
week 5533. The ,pestilence now rapidly abated.
The mortality for the ensuing FIVE weeks was re
spectively, 1929, 1927, 1865, l42l and l03l.-
BY the 5th Of December, the weekly deaths from
plague had fallen to 2l0. This, after the awful
mortality which had preceded it, was considered
tr.fe; the fugitives consequently returned to
town, and business was generally resumed
The fatality of the earlier epidemics, it is thus
seen, far exceeds that of the fever now raging at
New Orleans. The London Plague of 1868, how
ever, seems to have been about as mortal Esti-
mating the present population of the American
city at 900 and taking the mortality of the
week ending August the 18th, which was 1868
we find that one person died out of every sixty
three. In August, 1865, the population of Lon
don, as we have seen, did not exceed 100000
the deaths for the week ending the 18th of thai
month were about 4,500; consequently. one per.
son out of every sixty-six had died. BY the 5tf
of September, however, the weekly mortality hat
risen to 6,9SS which was one death for every for
ty-three inhabitants. Before the epidemic at New
Orleans can be as fatal the weekly mortality mus
rise to 1860. 1t is possible this may yet occur
When it does, "The Great Plague" may be con
sdered to have been rivalled, but not before.
Other pestilences, since the London one, have
been very fatal. In 1920, 10000 persons perish
ed at Marseiles, or quite half of the population
In Egypt, Syria and Barbary, the mortality from
plague has frequently trebled, and even quadru
pied, the present mortality at New Orleans. Ii
the "Great Plague" London lost 100000 of he
inhabitants, or one-thrd of those who strayed tt
encounter the pestilence. New Orleans mus
lose II 900 to attain like mortality; but Goo
forbid that she should philadelphia Ledger.
A Curious Fact in Legislative History.
| 1t cannot have escaped the observation of thos