Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1884-08-21
A PLAGUE OF THE PAST.
The Black Death oI the Fourteenth
Century - superstition in League
with PestIleuce.


Century - superstition in League
with PcstIlcnce.
NEW York, Aug. Is The alarm
excited by the cholera in Southern
France recalls the history of oast epi.
denies, some Of which, especially
those of the middle ages, were SO vira-
lent and destructive that anything we
have had or could have IN this cen
fury would be insignificant. The
plague, or black death, as it was com
monty called, of the fourteenth cen
turv was the most terrible scourge of
which any record has been preserved.
TO read of ltnow seems like some hor-
rible dream, or some monkish vision
of the internal world 1t appalls the
Imagination, and shows what fearful
ravages disease could make before
man had become acquainted with by
gienic laws. The black death. which
was an eastern plague, and actually
desolated the world, got its name from
the black spots caused by decomposi
ton that appeared on the body of the
sufferer.
No statistics or health records were
kept in the dark ages therapeutics
was in It's infancy; ignorance and in
difference universally prevailed. We
have very feg data Of the plague we
are unacquanted with its symptoms,
its crisis or the method of its infection,
They must have varied greately at
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 Every
thing connected with the pest was
hideous and revolving. Those attack
ed by it suffered terribly. They had
burning and unquenchable thirst,
racking pains in the head and breast,
palsied tongue, boils and buboes all
over the body, putrid inflammation Of
the lungs; they were mass OF cor.
ruptlon and agony they often begged
to be killed TO be relieved of their
misery, and when they had sufficient
strength destroyed themselves The
great majority persisted in two or
three days medicines were powcrless;
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 had been publish
cd concerning the plague is vague and
obviously fabulous, there is no ration
al doubt that 1t had its rise in China
during the first part Of the fourteenth
century. and that it was preceded by
swarms Of locusts, droughts, famlnes,
floods, tornadoes, earthquakes, and
volcanic eruptions throughout the
east, which destroyed vegetable and
animal life far and near. Similar de
rangements and commissions of ma
ture were common in Europe. All
this upheaval and disorder, with the
attendant decomposition Of matter
and animal substance, is supposed to
have caused some extraordinary at
mosp. eric change hostile to human
life, which acted like posion upon the
respiratory organs always the first TO
be attacked Some writer's Of the time
say that the steady progress Of the
epidemic from east to west could east
~ be traced by the vitiated air, which
resemblcd cloud or haze--the cloud
Of fate, the haze of death Scarcity of
food and unwholesome living predis- !
posed people to the disease, which con 4
stantly spread from infection and I
contagIon. 1T made its way from (
China along the caravan routes west .
ward. From the north coast of the /
Black sea it went 10 ConstantInople, /
thence TO the Italian scaports and
throughout Europe, occupying three
years in passing, by a mighty circle,
from Constantnople around to Rus
STA.
The ravages Of the plague we're
frightful beyond conception. Death /
stalked through the world moving /
down his victims everywhere. Every /
form Of animal life was assaied I
Thousands Of corpses were cast INTO .
huge pits, dug for the purpose, lakes,
aed rivers were consecrated, that the .
dead night be thrown into them, thus .
avoiding the dread and danger Of in
lection. Passengers and crews were .
stricken down at sea often nobody 4
was left alive on vessels, which loaded .
with putrefyiny humanity, were borne /
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 tho physical effects. Thous
ands died from terror; the ties Of hu
and kindred were broken
is deserted their wives, broth
ers their sisters, mothers their chll.
dren; everybody was absorbed by