Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1884-09-26
Instantaneous
The Black Death.
THE ScoURGE OF THE FOURTEENTH CEN.
TURY.

Julias H. Browne, in the Courier Jour-
nal says: The alarm excited by the chol-
era in Southern France recalls the history
of past epidemics. some of which, espec-
tally those of the middle ages, were so
virulent and destructive that anything we
have had or could have in this country
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 appals
the imagination. and shows what fearful
ravages disease could make before man
had become acquainted with hygienic
laws. The black death. which was an
eastern plague, and actually desolated the
world. got its name from the black spots
caused BY decomposition that appeared on
the body of the sufferer. No statistics or
health records were kept in the dark ages
therapeutics was in its infance; Ignorance
and indifference universally prevailed.
We have very few data of the plague !;
we are unacquainted with its symptoms,
it's crisis, or the method of its infection.
They must have varied greatly at differ
ent times and 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 hideous and
revolving Those attacked by it suffered
terribly. They had burning and unquench-
able thirst. racking pains in the head and
breast, palsied tongue, boils and buboes
all over the body, putrld inflammation of
the lungs they were mass of corruption
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 perish
ed 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 frightufl period. While much
that has been published concerning 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 pre-
ceeded by swarms of locusts, drouths,
famines, floods. tornadoes, earthquakes,
and volcanic eruptions throughout the
east, which destroyed vegetable and
animal life far and near.
Similar arrangements and commissions
of nature were common in Europe. All
this upheaval and disorder, with the at
tendant decomposition of matter and ami
NAL 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 to be attacked. Some
writers of the time say that the steady
progress of the epidemic, from east to
west, could easily be traced by the Initiated
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 wav 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 mighty circle
from ConstantinOple around to Russia
beyond conception. Death stalked through
the world moving down his victims
everywhere. Every form of animal
lite was assaled. 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 de-
serted their wives. brothers their sisters,
mothers their children; 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. it 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 re-
ligious carried their gold and Jewels to
the churches from eagerness to appease
what they immagined to be the wrath of
the angry Deity. But the priests dreaded
to touch such offerings, least they should
he tainted. An order named the Flagel-
lants, composed of the lower classes,
arose in Germany and marched from city
to city in somber garn ents, with red
crosses on their breast, solemnly chanting
and bearing iron-pointed scourges, with
which at intervals they lacerated their
flesh. As they marched they gathered
men and women of the highest rank. who
were mad enough to think they might
expiate the sins of the world by their
self-imposed torments. They wandered
to nearly every part of Europe, scattering
confusion, dismay and the plague. and be-
came an intolerable nuisance The pope
was finally compelled to suppress them,
so far as their pilgrimages were con-
cerned, by threats of excommunication
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 pestience by
poisoning the wells. The so-called Chris
tians tried to extirpate that starred
people. who were tortured and slain when
ever found. as many as fifteen thousand
having been slain in Hamburg alone.
Many OF the Jews committed suicide to
escape the torments they knew to be in