The Hillsdale standard. [volume] (Hillsdale, Mich.) 1851-1909, 1879-02-25
The mortality. though no proper es-
innate can be made in the absenoe Of
statistics, was prodigious-
suPRRMRLY TERRIFYING.

mof". III LouuOn lUD,OU SOUS p0rlhn-
ed, and in fifteen Continental cities
about 800. 900. Germany lost il is cal
culated, 1,2H. 434, and Italy one-half
her whole population. 1t is within
bounds 10 say that in all Europe not
less than 5000, 600 people were slain
by the scourge. Africa suffered ter
ribly likewise, and it is believed that
tho globe was deprived during that
century OF fully 100000 to 1000
600 human beings from ravages OF the
plague. The mere facts are appalling
TO the imagination; the scenes of suffer
ing are scarcely credible.
DEATH WAS EvERYwHRRR;
it seemed TO have usurped the place of
life. All animal life was meanced;
birds, beasts, men, women and chill
dren, hosts OF members of every ma
tionality, savages, scholars, peasants,
priests. princes, kings. Of every creed,
cline, and race, were swept from the
face Of the earth. Rivers were conse-
Grated to receive corpses, for which
none dared TO perform the rites OF
burial; bodies we're cast 10y thousands
into huge pits dug for that purpose
Death stalked over sea "a we'll as over
land. The entire crews OF vessels were
killed by the poison-breath that infest-
ed the globe. Ships freighted with
putrefied bodies drifted aimlessly and
on the Mediterranean, Black
and North Seas-not human creature
alive anywhere-and spread contagioh
on the shores whittier the wind or tides
had driven them. Hope, peace, con-
tent, law order, affection, naturalness,
seemed never TO have been.
Ancient custom and the need of com
we're for the time obliter-
ated;
ALL WAS DEATH, AGONY AND DESPAIR,
and by these the infected world APP
peared to be exclusively and shudder-
ingly possessed.
The moral effects OF the plague were
not less dreadful than in it's physical
destruction. Thousands perished from
fear, which dissolved among the living
all ties OF kindred, all bonds of fellow
ship, all links of sympathy. Children
fled from their polluted parents; moth
ers deserted their helpless infants; and
husbands left their wives aud mis-
tresses to die bowling and alone. Ter
ror generated superstition; the virtu-
Gus and vicious alike made distracting
and distracted appeals 10 God, who,
they imagined, had sent the pestilence
to punish them for manifold sins
Crowds rushed 10 sacrifice their world
ly goods to the church; fanaticism
swelled on every hand: women scream
ed to heaven for mercy; men tore out
their hair and scourged themselves un-
til they had tainted from loss of blood
that they might propitiate a deity
whom they actually believed they had
enrsged. The world was
MAD WITH FRIGHT,
suffering. and superstition, and thous-
ands who had tried to stay the pesti-
lence with prayer, declared that God
was dead and hell had begun on earth.
The horrors OF the time were fur
ther heightened by cruel prosecutions
against the Jews, who had been accus-
ed of poisoning the public wells, this
being IN popular belief the cause Of
the pestilence. The people rose in
mad fury 10 eXterminate the unfortun-
ate Hebrew race, and slaughtered them
by tens OF thousands. In the inconsid-
erabls city Of Mentz Germany alone
near Is, 600 fell victims 10 the public
wrath. They were killed with steel
aud club, hanged, drowned, burned,
and often barbarously put TO death by
every kind OF torture. In numberlcss
instances they took their own lives in
masses TO avoid cruelties of the mob,
aGd IN many communities every man,
woman aud child was
SACRIFICED TO NsENsATE RAGE.
To aggrivate the scourge, the panic
about water caused the wells TO be
closed. The people were afraid TO
touch water, and those who escaped
the plague perished of thirst and ter
ror. Society, rude at best in that day
was totally disorganized, and such
means as might have been adopted to
prevent or mitigate the stupendous
evil were either neglected or unthought
OF, in the arrangement aud frenzy that
possessed everybody from the highest
to the lowest. The influence OF the
plague aud its desolation were so over
whelming that 1t frequently destroyed
all honesty and principle among its
survivors. Many were rendered cal
lous and many took advantage OF the
horror to indulge their worst
passions to plunder, murder and per-
petrate the most revolving crimes.
The plague has again and again Wis
tied Western Europe since the four
teenth century, but never has IL been
so baleful as then, continued so long,
or been attended with such
INCIDENTAL HORRORS.
Previous 10 its last outbreak, in 1865,
it invaded England, according to the
celebrated physician, Sydenham, every
thirty or forty years. Although its
symptoms and virulenco have varied
at different times, its general features
have been sufficiently alike TO prove
that it Is always the same terrible dis
ease. Great difference OF opinion still
exists as 10 the cause. Some authori-
ties maintain that il is exclusively pro-
pagated by peculiar contagion; 9TH
ers contend, while admitting its conta-
giousness, that it may also be engen-
dered spontaneously by endemic or ep-
idemic influences; others again deny
its contagiousness altogether, and as.
sert that it arises from local or cpidem-
ic causes. Intelligent opinion favors
the second OF these views, and their is
a mass of sound evidence to sustain it,
Whatever
THE CAUSE,
seems 10 effect il favora-
bly,. In the tropics il is unknown,
aud the cold of northern climates has
been observed 10 check its ravages.
In Europe il has been most fatal dur
ing Summer and Autumn, especially
in September Thus, in London in
1865 the deaths from the pestilence
were, in June. 500; in July, 4,129; in
20,0i6; in September, %, go;
in October, 1879; in November, 3, ,449;
while in December they fell below L.
000 The precise nature Of the distem-
per is still unknown. A poison whose
properties evade all chemical and mi
croscopic detection is absorbed into
the system, and alters at once. or after
a brief period OF incubation. the quail
~ OF
THE BLOOD
and the condition of the tissues.
A report made in Paris, 1876, TO the
Frerch Academy Of Medicine, says:
IL At present the countries where
the plague still originates are, fret,
a. -