Muscatine journal. [volume] (Bloomington, Iowa) 1849-185?, 1853-10-07
ADVANCE,
VOL. VINO, 10. i's'l'
PeStilence al Varioas reri0dS.

i pceliience III It's mufldilly. 91flSs' now
ever, is mistake. y notice. OF some
ot the most remarkable epidemics viii
r,fuie the error
The irsl pestilence OF which we have
a detailed account is that recorded by
| Thucydides, which visited A Athens about
430 years before the Christian era. 1t
! appears TO have been identical in kind
with the great plague Of London III
! 1863, the accounts written Of The one
applying almost exactly 10 the other.
The mortality which attended il seems
almost incredible. 1t was followed at
uneven periods by other visitatons or
pestilenee, which swept of millions Of
The human race, at Rome, Egypt, Syria,
aud finally C,astan,inople. Gibbon re.
iates tha. in I he rel ign Of Justinian, A.
ID. 527. u plague devastated the empire
for finy-,wo years. During a portion
of this time, when Constantinople was
visited by the epidemic, ten thousand
persons died daily. Two centuries
later, two hundred thousand persons
were carried off, in tha. capital, by an
other visitation o! The plague. In the
earlier visitation many smaller cities
were depopulated by it. Whole dis
tricts, devoted to agriculture, were
abandoned, the harvest being left TO
wither on the ground. Gibbon COM
putes the entire mortality, during the
fity- TWO years Of plague, at 100 100000.
During the middle ages, the plague
swept over Europe several times with
lrighllul violence. Boccacio has left
vivid narrative Of lis appearance at
Florence, about the middle of the four
teenlh century Ii bore the name OF The
.'Black Death, aud closely resembled
The old plague Of Athens Visiting
England, it swep. of fifty thousand in.
ia abitanis OF London alone, though the
British capital had not, at that time.
probably more than two hundred thou
sand inhabitants. Fifty years later,
the plague appeared again in London,
when thirty thousand persons perished
OF il within twelse-month.
In 1877, an epidemic called the
Sweating Sichnrss,' broke GU, in Eu-
rope. and extending TO England, depriv-
ed their principal towns, according 10
Stowe, Of half of their inhab abilants. In
lou3, nearly iosty thousand persons
died Of the plague In London. About
the same period, Constantinople is said
10 have lost two hundred thousand OF
its inha bt1n,s by The same disease. As
the age OF official statistics had not yet
arisen, these numbers may have been
occasionally exaggerated; bat the ysry
rastness OF the estimates, even it but
approxlma lions, proves the irightful
rate of mortality. Ii is 10 be regretted
that we have not more exact accounts
OF these epidemics, SO as TO be able 10
determine whether they were identical
IN character, as the best medical writer's
conjecture, or really diierent, as their
names imply.
We now come to the peslilence which
devastated London in 1868, and which
is commonly known as The Great
Plague" II does NOT appear. after all,
10 nave been as fatal as many which
preceded 1t; and really owes It's pre-
emInence TO The vivid descriptions left
OF It. This epidemic appeared in Sep.
tember, 1864, and, after lingering all
winter, began to rage yiolently as early
as May. The summer Sc; in unusually
hot In the week ending the 18th los
June, II had ddiod of the disease; the
neXt week The number rose 10 l6S; the
next 10 267s aud the next 10 40. Ma
caulay computes the population OF
London, al this time, at about half
By the middle OF July, how
eyer, Two hundred thousand had fl d TO
The country. The pestilence now be.
gan 10 increase with appalling IA pidity.
The deaths !or the week ending with
The lst Of A gust, were cole. and they
rose steadily till the STA Of September,
having reached, for the week ending
that date, 69SS. The week following
they were 6545; the week after thai.
1l6o: and the next week, $3.50. The
pestilence NOW rapidly abated. The
mortality :or TIE ensuing liye weeks
Vas, respectiyely, 1929. 1929, 1868,
242l, and 1881. By the 9th of Decem,
ber, the weekly deaths from the plague
had fallen to two hundred and ten
This, after The awful mortality which
had preceded il, was considered a trifle;
the iugitives consequently returned 70
"' S'Ao N"SAHesS as SeNStaiiy re-
sumed.
The fatality Of the earlier epidemics,
Il Is thus seen, far exceeded that OF the
fever now raging al New Orleans The
London plague OF 1865. however, seems
10 have been about as mortal. Esrma.
ting The present population Of The Amer
lcan city at $4,000. and taking the
mortality for the week ending August
l4th. which was 1865, 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
800 900 the deaths for the week end
ing on the 18th OF that month were
about 800; consequently, one person
out OF every sixty-six had died. By the
9th OF September, however, the weekly
had risen TO 69ss, which was
one death 10 every forty three tinhabi-
iants Before The epidemic at New Or
leans can be as fatal. the weekly NOR
tality must rise 10 1860.
Other pes,ilences, since the London
one, have been very fatal. Ia l72O,
$4,000 persons persisted at Marseilles,
or quite half OF the population. In
Egypt, Syria, aud Basbary, the mortality
from The plague has frequently trebled.
and even quadrupied. the present NOR