Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1865-07-25

malady, neither medical knowledge nor th
power Of drugs was of any effect whether be
cause the disease was in it's own nature mortal
or that the physicians the number of whom
taking quacks and women pretenders iato u
account, was grown very great) could form n
idea OF the cause nor consequently devlse
true method of cure whichever was the rea
son few escaped but nearly oil died the thir'
day from the first appearance Of the symptoms
some sooner, some later, without any fever o
other accessory symptoms. What gave th
more violence to this plague was, that by beinl
communicated from the sick to the hale j
spread iaily like fire when it comes into contac
with large masses of combustibles. Nor was !
caught only by conversing with OF coming ncal
the sick, but even by touching their clothes o,
anything that they had before touched
Some breathed their last in the streets, and 9th
eTs shut up in their own houses, where til,
stencil that came from them mado the first dis
covery of their deaths to the neighborhood. And
indeed, every place was filled with tho dead
Hence it became a general practice for th'
neighbors to clear all the houses and lay I'll,
bodies at the doors; and every morning grea
numbers might be seen brought out in thi,
manner to be carried away on biers or tables
two or three at time. . The consecrate5
ground no longer containing the numbers whici
were continually brought thither, they were
forced to dig trenches and to put them in BY
hundreds, piling them in rows as goods art
stored IN a ship, and throwing in little earth
till they were filled to the top.
Between March and July following, accord.
ing to authentic reck0nings, upward Of hun
dred thousand souls reIshed in the city ol
floreoce Whereas before that calamity il was
not supposed to have contained 50 many inhabi.
tants.
We are told that eighty thousand died at ST.
emma, sky thousand at Naples one hundred
thousand at Venice forty thousand 1T Genoa
seven in ten at Pisa, and at Irapani, in Sicily
not human being survived
THE PLAGUE IN WESTERN AND NORTHERN EUROPE.
1t was the period Of the {" Seventy Years cap
tiyity," and the Papal Court was At Ayignon.
Ihlther came the pestilence, deadly as simoonI
Of the desert M1titudes fell dead on the spo,
where they were attacked, as il they had beer
struck with lightning. The living were unable
to bury the dead finally the Pope, Clement VI
oonsecfated the river khone as "a hallowed rest.
ing place for deceased Christians
The other cities of France were visited in turn
and depopulated Thence the ulaeue FASTENED
to England and Germany, wher3 its ravagcs were
almost incredible. In London more than one
hundred thousand perished; half that number
being buried in the Carter House yard. Norwich
lost fifty thousand three fourths OF the popu-
lation Of the kingdom fell victims, and indeed
sOme annaists ceclare that no more than one.
tenth escaped Many died within few hours
after the attack few lived three dave.
Germany had already experienced fearful
earthquake on the 25th Of January, which had
overwhelmed cities and villages bnryng the in
habltants under their runs The plague came
some months later. 10 the large olues tie dead
were numbered by hundreds Of thousands, and
IN many cases the survivors, scarcely amounted to
u tenth part Of the previously existing popula-
ton. Thousands Of families became wholly ex-
tinct, whole streets uninhab!tei and laid waste
no living being nor even domestic animal was to
be found and travellers going from Italy to
Bohemia found whole cities and villages without
a single living inhabitant OF any sor.
The plague was carried from London to Ber-
gen IN l34J by ship, the crew vi which every
man had p rished rhe cargo was laudei and
introduced the pesilence into Norway, which
swept oftwo.thrds OF the whole population. The
contagiOn spread into Sweden. Many districts
were utterly depopul ted and many years
afterwards churches We're found in the midst OF
forests remote from human dwellings, their wor-
shippers having all fallen victims to the Black
Death"
In 1852 Western Russia hal been reached
The northern countries were subjected for cen.
tury to its recurrence. Holland and Deumar K
were not excepted, nor even Iceland, in spite OF
It's secluson in the distant Artio seas Having
finally made a full sweep over Europe, destroy
lng more than twenty-five millions ol the iuhab-
itants, it passed over Russia back to the region
from which 1t 0ams.
After that period the plague visited different
parts OF Europe at intervals during the mex,
three hundred years, London appears 20 have
been scourged about Us BADLY as StamLoul.
10000 dying OF the pestilenoe in li0f 3O000i in
1899 a fourth Of the entire population in 1904
IS, 400 in 1925 and IS 900, about ono.thrd OF
the population, in 1868.
TnE GREAT PLAGUE IN LONDON.
Sir Gilbert Blame has calculated that there
were no less than iorty-hye epidem,cs OF plague
in the seventeenth century. Fourteen OF thesa
occurred IN Holland, and were supposed to have
been imported by ships engaged IN the Leyant
trade, Twelve were carried over from Holland
to England the last of which was termed the
Great Plague aud prevailed in Amsterdam,
Rotterdam, and other large towns of the Meth
erlands during the years 1863 and 1861.
The British government took extraordinary
pains to avoid the pestllenoe, breaking of com.
nerclal intercourse with Holland, and actually
declaring war. This proved successful Tor more
than u year, but hnally the disease appeared IN
December, 1904 at house in Drury Lane, 10 thu
parish OF 81. Giles. Several cases occurred.
and then Tor time there was a cessation, bat
in April it broke out anew together with spot
ted fever, which was regarded as another orin
of the same malady. Tho number OF deaths
rapidly increased; being imputed Tor somJ time
to other complaints But IN May the mortality
in st, Giles and other parishes was SO grca, as
TO demand investigation when il was dis10y
cred that the pestllenco was abroad and spread.
ipg with ouch lntolerable Infection " that / &
rayagcs could not be abat,d. The dea lhs in a
slnge.parish ran up from fifty to over hundred
aweek by the ith Oi July. IL then passed aside
the wallis OF London, and in the secoud wets Of
August, Ctippl ogata parish alone buried elgh,
hundred aud eighty six pors ms. Multitude, led
from the city, and King Charles II, removed hi.
court to Oxford.
The usual steps were taken by the authorize,
to prevent the spread Of the epi iemlo beglars
were forbidden to ply their vocation, plays pr.
hibIted, injected houses shut up, and a general
destruction Of cats aud dogs commanded. phsi
clans and surgoopa geso often worse than moth
ing. The pain of the swellinya were yerJ We.
lent often unendurable sticking -plasters w,t,
employed to bring thCm to head they wat,
cut opon or burnt cut with causiic, thus tortur
ing the wretehed persons exerucia,ingly withou
oOnterng the least benefit. Some lied raylnl
mad with the tormont olhers iald ,ioisa, asua
upon themselyes