The sun. [volume] (Morris, Stevens County, Minn.) 1882-1895, 1884-09-11
4 PLAGUE OF THE PAST.
The Black Death that Scourged the World
in the Fourteenth Century.

The Black Death that scourged the World
in the Fourteenth Century.
Chicago Herald
The alarm excited by the cholera in
Southern France recalls the history of
the past epidemics, some of which, es-
pecially those of the middle ages, were
SO virulent and destructive that
anything we have had or could
have in this century would be
insignificant. The plague, or black
death, as ID was commonly called, of the
fourteenth century, was the most terri
BILE scourge of which any record has
been preserved. TO read of it now
seems like some horrible dream, or
some monkish vision of the Internal
world. It appals the imagination. and
shows what fearful ravages disease
could make before man had become &C
quainted 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 Stats
tics or health records were kept in the
dark ages therapeutics was In it's In
fancy; ignorance and Indifference uni
versally prevailed. We have very few
data of the plague; we are unacquainted
with it's symptoms, it's 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 to the worse con-
dition of the people and the lower forms
of civilization
Everything connected with the pest
was hideous and revolving. Those at
tackled by it suffered terribly. They
had burning and unquenchablet thirst,
racking pains in the head and breast,
boils and swe1lings 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 sufficient strength destroyed them
selves. The great majority persisted in
two or three days; medicines were DOW
erless; 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 dur
ing the first part of the fourteenth CEN
tury, and that it was preceded by
swarms of locusts, droughts, famines.
floods, tornadoes, earthquakes and
volcanic eruptions throughout the East,
which destroyed vegetable and animal
life far and near. Similar derange-
ments and commissions of nature were
common in Europe. All this unheaval
and disorder, with the attendant de-
composition of matter and animal
substance, is supposed to have
caused some extraordinary atmos-
pheric change hostile to human life,
which acted like poison upon the res
piritory organs-always the first to be
attacked. Some writer's of the time
say that the steady progress of the cpl
demic from east to west could be traced
by the vitiated air, which resembles
cloud or haze the cloud of fate, the
haze of death. Scarcity Of food and
unwholesome living predisposed people
to the disease, which constantly spread
from infection and contagion. 1t made
its way from China along the caravan
routes westward. From the north
coast of the Black Sea ii went to Con-
stantinople, thence to the italian sea-
ports and throughout Europe. occupy
ing three years in passing, by a might
circle, from Constantinople, thence
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 an
imal life was assailed. Thousands of
| corpses were cast into huge pits, dug
for the purpose; lakes and rivers were
consecrated, that the dead might be
thrown into them. thus avoiding the
dread and danger of infection. Passen-
| gers and crews were stricken down at
sea; often nobody was left alive on YES
sells, which, loaded with putrefying hui
manity, we're borne aimlessly by the in
fected 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 eff
fects. Thousands died from terror; the
ties of humanity and kindred were
broken; husbands deserted thei; wives,
brothers their sisters, mothers their chill
dren; everybody was absorbed by wild
desire to save himself at all hazards and
at any price; and vet salvation was in
most cases impossible, almost hope
less. II seemed as if the whole race
was doomed to destruction; as if de-
spair 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.
It is hard to estimate the loss of life
from the scourge. But it is computed
that ID 900. 900 persisted in China. and
elsewhere in the East about $4,000 ,00C
more. Germany lost nearly 300, 900:
Italy half its entire population; London
alone an excess of 100,0 1000. In Europe
fully $4,000, 900 must have died. and IN
| all quarters of the globe not far from
| 10000, 900 of people, number that
| shocks the senses aud we'll nigh destroys
ones faith in nature.
Such conditions OF such a plague
would not be possible now. No pesti,
lence 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.