News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1884-10-02
THE BLACK DEATH.
A PLAGUE THAT sCOURGED THE
WORLD IN THE FOURTEENTH CEN
TURY4
1t is Estimated that Over Twenty-Five
Million People Perished by 1t.

The alarm excited by the cholera IL
Southern France recalls the history o
past epidemics, some of which, espe
cially those of the middle ages, were 81
virulent and destructive that anything
we have had or could have in this cen
tury would be insignificant. Tie plague
or black death, as it is commonly called
of the fourteenth century, was the mos
terrible scourge Of which any record has
been preserved. To read it now seem:
like some horrible dream, or some
monkish vision of the internal world. i
appalls the imagination, and shows
what fearful ravages disease could make
before man had become acquainted with
hygienic laws.
The black death, which was an East
ern plague, and actually desoiated the
world, got its name from the black spots
caused by decomposition that appeared
on the body of the sufferer. No stats
tics or health records were kept in the
dark ages; therapeutics was in its
infancy; ignorance and indiferences
universally prevailed. We have very
few data of the plague, we are unac.
quainted with its symptoms, its crisis
or the method of its infection. They
must have varied greatly at different
times and in different places. The cases
were more malignant and more widely
fatal in Asia than in Europe, owing tc
he worse condition OF the people and
the lower forms of civiliz ation.
Everything connected with the pest
was hideous and revolving. Those at.
tackled by it suffered terribly. They had
burning and unquenchable thirst, rack
ing pains in the head and breast, boils
and swelIings all over the body, putrid
inflammation of the lungs; they were a
mass of corruption and agony; they often
begged to be killed to relieve them of
their misery, and when they had sufi-
cient strength destroyed themselves.
The great majority perished in two or
three days; medicines were powerless;
the appearance of the black spots was
the sign of doom. Nature, cruel as she
is, was never more cruel than at that
frightful period.
While much that has been published
concerning the plague is vague and OBJ
viously fabulous, there is no rational
doubt that it had its rise in China during
the first part of the fourteenth century,
and that it was preceded by swarms of
locusts, droughts, famines, floods, lorna
does, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions
throughout the East, which destroyed
vegetable and animal life far and near.
Similar arrangements and convulsions
of nature were common i'll Europe. All
this upheaval and disorder, with the at.
tendant decomposition of matter and an.
;mal substance, is supposed to have
caused some extraordinary atmosphere
| change hostile to human life, which
acted like poison upon the respiratory
organs-aIways the first to be attacked.
Some writer's of the time say that the
steady progress of the epidemic from
east to west could be traced by the viii
ated air, which resembled a cloud or
haze-the cloud of fate, the haze of
death. Scarcity of food and unwhole-
some living predisposed people to the
disease, which constantly spread from i'll
fection and contagion. 1t made its way
from China along the caravan routes
westward. From the north coast of the
Black Sea it went to Constantinople,
thence to the italian seaports and
throughout Europe, occupying three
years in passing, by a mighty circle,
from Constantinople around to Russia.
The ravages of the plague were fright
full beyond conception. Death stalked
through the world, moving down his
victims everywhere. Every form Of ami
NAL life was assailed. Thousands of
corpses were cast into huge pits, dug for
the purpose; lakes and rivers were con-
secrated, that the dead might be thrown
into them, thus avoiding the dread and
danger of infection. Passengers and
crews were stricken down at sea; often
nobody was left alive on vessels, which,
loaded with purifying humanity, were
borne aimlessly by the infected winds,
and finally driven to shore, where they
spread the contagion over the land. The
moral effects of the scourge were as bad
as the physical effects. Thousands died
from terror; the ties of humanity and
kindred were broken; husbands deserted
their wives, brothers their sisters, moth
ers their children; everybody was alb
sorbed by a wild desxe to save himself
at all hazards and at any price; and yet
salvation was in most cases impossible,
almost hopeless. 1t seemed as if the
whole race was doomed to destruction;
as if despair had seized and shattered
the human heart.
The gigantic accumulation of horrors
at once disorganized society and diabol-
lied humanity. Superstition and igno-
rance, which are twin brothers, were
scarcely less evils than the plague.
1t is hard to estimate the loss of life
from the scourge; but it is computed
that 100000 perished in China, and
elsewhere in the East about 25,000, 900
more. Germany lost nearly 1000, 900;
Italy half its entire population; London
alone an excess of 100000. In Europe
fully 3O,O00,O00 must have died, and in
all quarters of the globe not far from
70, 900, 900 of people-a number that
shocks the senses and we'll nigh destroys
ones faith in nature.
Such conditions or such q plague
would not be possible now. No pesti-
Ience can be very pernicious to-day. In
this era of intelligence, reason and
science we know how to deal with cpl
denies, and have little cause to dread
them. When they visit us they are re-
sisted with such energy and skill that
they are soon overcome and extinguished.
The nineteenth century fears little, be-
cause it reasons much.
A NEW VICE.-A terrible vice has
crept in among the fair sex of New
York. Fashionable ladies from the
"Fifth" and the adjoining regions OF the
high-toned may be seen entering drug
stores, and calling in silvery accents Tor
n o,Ios. of coda water Into this innocu-