Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-08-10
A PLAGUE OF THE PAST.

Twenty Millions of People Perish from
the ScOurge-SuperstitiO and Fanati-
cism in League with the Pestilence-
The Black Death of the Fourteenth
Century.
The alarm excited by the cholera in
Southern France, says New York letter
to the COurier-.JOurRal, recalls the history
of past epidemics, some of which, especi-
ally 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 it was commonly called,
Of the fourteenth century was the most
terrible scOurge of which any record has
been preserved. To read of it now seems
like some horrible dream, or some monk
ish vision of the Internal world. 1t APP
pals the imagination, and show what
fearful ravages disease could make before
man had become acquainted with bygien-
ic laws. The black death, which was an
Eastern plague, and actually desolated
the woBld, got its name from the black
spots caused by decomposition that APP
peared on the body of the sufferer.
No statistics or health records were
keptin the dark ages; therapeutics was in
its infancy; ignorance and Indifference
universally prevailed. We have very few
data of the plague; we are unacquainted
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 to the worse cOndi-
ton of the people and the lower
forms of civilization. Every
thing connected with the pest
was hideOus and revolving. Those at
tackled 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 a mass of corruption and agony
they often begged to be killed to be re-
lieved of their misery, and when they had
sufficient strength destroyed themselves.
The great majority persisted in two or
three days; medicines were. pOwerless ;
the appearance Of the black spots were
the signs of doom. Nature, cruel as she
is, was never more cruel than at that
frightful period.
While much that has been published con-
corning the plague is vague and obviously
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, tOrnadOes, earth
quakes and volcanic eruptiOns through
out the East, which destroyed vegetable
and animal life far and near. Similar de-
rangements and commissions of nature
were common in Europe. All this up
heaval and disorder, with the attendant
decomposition of matter and animal sub
stance, is supposed to have caused some
extraordinary atmospheric change hostile
t. human life, which acted like poison
upon the respiratory organs-always the
first to be attacked. Some writers of the
time say that the steady progress of the
epidemic, from East to West, could east
" be traced by the Initiated air, which re-
sembled a cloud or haze-the cloud OF
tate, the haze of death. Scarcity of food
and unwholesOme living predispOsed peo-
ple to the disease, which constantly
spread from infection and con-
tagiOn. 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 sea-
ports and throughout Europe, occupying
three years in passing, by a mighty cir
Gle, from COnstantin9ple around to Rus
STA.
The rayages of the plague were fright
full beyond conception. Death stalks
through the world, moving down his vic
tins everywhere. Every form of animal
life was assaulted. Thousands of corpses
were cast into huge pits, dug for the pur-
pose; lakes and rivers were cOnsecrated,
that the dead might be thrown into them,
thus avoiding the dread and danger of in
lection. Passengers and crews were
stricken down at sea often nobody was left
alive on vessels, which, loaded with putre-
fving humanity, were borne aimlessly by
the infected winds, and finally driven to
shore, where they spread the contaglon
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 their wives,
brothers their sisters, mothers their Call
dren: everybody was absorbed 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 were
doomed to destruction; as if despair had
seized and shattered the human heart.
Superstition, offspring of weakness and
fear, also reared its hOrrid crest. Those
who thought themselves religious carried
their gold and jewels to the churches
from eagerness to appease what they i'm
agined to be the wrath of an angry Deity.
But the priests dreaded to touch such
ferings, lest they should be tainted. An
order named the Flagellants, composed OF
the lower classes, arose in Germany and
marched from city to city in sOmbre gar
ments, with red crosses on their breasts,
solemnity chanting, and bearing iron
pointed scourges, with which at intervals
they lacerated their flesh. As they
marched they gathered men and women Oh
the highest rank, who were mad enough
to think they might eXpiate the sins o.
the world by their self-impOsed tOrments
| They wandered to nearly every part o.
| Europe. scattering confusion, dlsmay and
the plague, and became an intolerablt
nuisance. The Pope was finally compelled
to suppress them, so far as their pilgrim
ages were concerned, by threats OF eX
communication.
At the same time the unfortunate Jews
| UNANIMOUSLY treated in the middle ages
were prosecuted afresh, from vulgar be
| lief that they had caused the pestilence by
| poisoning the wells. The sO-called Chris
| tians tried to eXtirpate that ill-starret
! people, who were tortured and slain
| Whenever found as many as $1,000 having
been slain in Hamburg alone. Many o
! the Jews committed suicide to escape thu
torments they knew to be in store fol
! them, and in many communities they were
| every soul of them, destroyed.
The gigantic accumulation of horrors a
| once disOrganized society and diabOlizeC
/ humanity. Superstition and ignorance
/ 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 persisted in China, anC
! elsewhere in the East about $4,000, 00
more. Germany lost nearly 300, 900; tia
/ " half of its entire populations; LOndOI
| alone an excess of 100000. In Europe
| fully thirty millions must have died, anC
| in all quarters of the globe not far from
! seventy millions Of peOple-a number tina
| shocks the senses and well-nigh destroys
ones faith in nature.
Such conditions or such a plague would
| not be possible now. No pestilence car
| be very perniciOus to-day. In this era o
| intelligence, reason and science we know
| how to deal with epidemics, and have lit
| tie cause to dread them. When they visi
us they are resisted with such energy and
| skill that they are soon overcome and eX
| tinguished. The nineteenth century feari
| little because it reasons much.
Spontaneous Combustion.
LOaceH Kdss.l Courier.
A curious incident happened in the yarC
| of the Merrimack Manufacturing Com