Thibodaux minerva., 1853-10-08
Pestileoces at Various PERIODS.

In more than one quarter it has been remark
ed. that the fever at New Orleans equals, if it
does not surpass all the former pestiences lnlts
mortality. This, however, is mistake. A no.
tee of some of the remarkable epidemics will
reflte the error.
The first pestilcnce Of which we lave de-
tailed account is that recorded by Thucydides,
and which visited Athens about four hundred
and thirty years before the Christian era.s 1t
appears to have been identical in kind with the
great plague Of London i'll 1866, the accounts
written Of one apply almost exactly to the other
The mortality which attended 1t seem almost in
credible. 1t was followed, at uneven periods,
by other vsitations Of pestilence, which swept
off millions of the human race, at Rome, Egypt,
Syria, and finally Constantinople. Gibbon re-
lates that inthe reign Of Justinian, \. ID. 527,
plague devastated the empire for fifty-two
years During q portion Of this time, when Con
stantinople was visited by the epidemic, ten
thousand persons died daily. Two centuries
later, two hundred thousand persons were car
ried 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 abandon
ed the harvest being left to wither on the ground
Gibbon comprehensive entire mortality, during
the ffty-two years Of plague at one hundred
millions IL
During the middle ages, the plague swept over
Europe several times. with frightful violence.
Boccaccio has left vivid narrative of its ap-
pearance at Florence, about the middle OF the
fourteenth century. It bore the name OF the
Black Death" and closely yresembled the OLD
plague Of Athens. Visiting England, 1t swept
off fifty thousand inhabitants of London alone,
though the British capital had not, at that time
probably more than two hundred thousand in-
labitants.s. Fifty years later the plague appear
ed again in London, when thirty thousand per-
sons perished of it within twelve month. In
1917, an epidemic called the .ssSweating Sick
ness,' broke out in Europe, and extending to
England, deprived the principal towns, accord
ing to Stowe, of half of their inhabitants. In
1903, nearly forty thousand persons died of
plague in London. About the same period, Con-
stantinople 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 have been occasionally ex-
aggeratea; but the very vastness of the esti-
mates, even if but approximations, proves the
frightful rate of mortality. 1t is to be regretted
that we have. not more exact accounts OF these
epidemics, 50 as to be able to determine whether
they were identical in character, as the best
medical writers conjecture, or really different,
as their names imply.
We come now to the pestilence which deyast
ated London in 1865, and which IS commonly
known as ''The Great Plague" Itdoesnot ap-
pear, after all, to have been as fatal as many
which preceded it; and really owes its pre-em-
nenee to the vivid descriptions left of it. This
epidemic appeared in September, 1904, and af-
ter lingering all winter, began to rage violently
as early as May. The summer set in unusually
hot. In the week ending 18th of June, 112 had
I;c1 Of tho disea tho neyf week the number
rose to 1853; the next to 367: and the next to
40. Macauley computes the population of Lon
don, at this time, at about half a million. by
the middle Of July, However, two hundred thou
sand had fed the country. The pestilence now
began to increase with appalling rapidity. The
deaths for the week ending with the first of Au-
gust were 2O1o, and they rose steadily in num-
bers till the fifth of September, having reached,
for the week ending with that date, 1888. The
week following there were 6544; the week after
that 7165; and the next week 5533. The pes
thence now rapidly abated. The mortality for
the ensuing five weeks was, respectively, 1928,
1927, 2665, 1921 and 1881 By the 9Th Of De-
cember, .e weekly deaths froaa the plague had
fallen to 210 This after the awful mortality
which had preceded it, was considered a trife;
the fugitives consequently returned to town, and
business was generally resumed.
The fatality of the earlier epidemics, it is thus
seen, far exceeded that Of the fever in New Or
leans. The London Plague Of 1865, however,
seems to have been about as mortal Estimating
the present population of the American city at
$4,000, and taking the mortality Of the week
ending Aug. the 14th which was 1868, we find
that one person died out of every sixty-three
In August, 1665,othe population of London, as
we have seen, did not exceed 30O, 600; the deaths
for the week ending on the 10th of that month
were about 4,500; consequently, one person out
of every sixty-three had died BY the 9TH Of
September, however, the weekly mortality had
risen to 6988, which was one death for every
forty three inhabitants. Before the epidemic
at New Orleans can be as fatal, the weekly NOR
tality must raise to 1860. 1t is possible this
may yet occur When it does, sThe Great
Plague may be considered to have been rivalled,
but not before.
Other pestilences, since the London one, have
been very fatal. In 1720, 10000 persons per-
ished at Marseilles, or quite half Of the popula-
ton. In Egypt, Syria and Barbary, the NOR
tality from plague has frequently trebled, and
even quadrupled, the present mortrity in New
Orleans. In the "Great Plague" London lost
100, 900 Of her inhabitants or one third Of those
who stayed to encounter the pestilence. New
Orleans must lose $1,000 to attain like NOR
tality; but God forbid that she should!
Philadelphia Le0gcr.
mi 1N