Connecticut western news., 1884-09-10
THE BLACK DEATH.
A PLAGUE THAT sC0uRGED THK WORLD IN THE FOURTEENTH CEN- FURY.
It is Estimated that Over TwenIy-Rive
 Million People Psrished by tt.

The alarm excited by the cholera in Southern France recalls the history of past epidemics, some of which, .espe- cially those of the middle ages, were so virulent aud destructive that anything we have had or could have in this cen- tury would be insignificant. The plague, or black death, as it is commonly called, of the fourteenth century, was the most terrible seourge of which any record has been preserved. To read it now seems like some horrible dream, or some monkish vision of the internal world. It appalls the imagination, and shows what fearful ravageH disease could make before man had become acquainted with hygienic laws.
 The black death, which was an East ern plague, and actually desolated the world, got it's name from the black spots caused by decomposition that appeared on the body of the sufferer. No statis- tics or health records were kept in the dark ages; therapeutics was in it's infancy; ignorance and indiferences universally prevailed. We have very few data of the plague, we are unac- quainted with its symptoms, it's crisis. or the method of it's 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 to the worse condition of the people and the lower forms of civilization.
 Everything connected with the pest was hideouH and revolting. Those at. tackled by it suffered terribly. They had burning and unquenchable thifet rsnk- ing pains in the head and breast, boils and swellings 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 suffi- 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 ob- viously fabulous, there is no rational doubt that 1t had its rise in China during the first part of the fourteenth century. and that it was preceded by awarms of locusts, droughts, famines, floods, torna- does, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions throughout the East, which destroyed vegetable and animal life far and near.
 Similar Arrangements and conyulsions of nature were common in Europe. All this upheayal and disorder, with the at- tendant decomposition of matter and an- imal substance, is supposed to have caused some extraordinary atmospheric change hostile to human life, which acted like poison upon the respiratory organs-always the first te- be attacked. Some writers of the time say that the steady progress of 1he epidemic from east to west ooulds be traced by the viti- ated air, which reseu1baed cloud or haze-the cloud. oEs fate, the haze of death. Scarcity of food and unwhole- some living predisposed people to the disease, which constantly spread from in- lection and contagion. It made it's way from China along the caravan routes .w-.~l Isw1x.. tb. ,,s~th n,asA yf fha Black Sea if 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 ful beyond conception. Death stalked through the world. moving down his victims everywhere. Every form of ami nal life was assailed. Thousands of corpees 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 aimlessIy 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 CTS their children; everybody was ab. sorbed by wild desire 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- ized humanity. Superstition and igno- rance, which are twin brothers, were scarcely less evils than the plague.
 It is hard to estimate the loss of life from the scourge; but it is computed that 13, GOO, 900 perished in China, and elsewhere in the East about 25,000, GOO more. Germany lost nearly 1000, 900; Italy half it's entire population; London alone an excess of 100000. In Europe fully 30,000, 900 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 one's faith in nature.
 Such conditions or such a plague would not be possible now. No pesti- lence can be very pernicious to-day. In this era of intelligence, reason and l |. A..