The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1897-01-23

be thrown into the river without delay, as
the churchyards would no longer hold
them; so likewise in all populous cities,
extraordinary measures were adopted, in
order to speedily dispose of the dead In
Vienna, where for some time 1,200 in
habitants died daily, the interment of
corpses in the churchyards and within the
churches was forthwith prohibited, and
the dead were then arranged in layers, by
thousands, in six large pits outside the city,
as had already been done in Cairo and
Paris. Yet, still many were secretly bur-
led, for at all times the people are attached
to the consecrated cemeteries of their dead,
and will not renounce the customary mode
OF lnterment. In many places it was ru-
mored that plague patients were buried
alive, as may sometimes happen through
senseless alarm and indecent haste, and
thus the horror of the distressed people
was everywhere increased In Erfurt,
after the churchyards were filed, $4,000
corpses were thrown into eleven great pits,
and the like might, more or less exactly,
be stated with respect to all the larger
cities. Funeral ceremonies, the last con-
ISOLATION of the survivors, were everywhere
impracticable.
I'm all Germany, according to proba-
BILE calculation, there seem to have died
only l, PA, 434 inhabitants; this country,
however, was more spared than others;
Italy, on the contrary, was most severely
visited 1t is said to have lost half its
inhabitants, and this account is rendered
credible from the immense losses of indi-
vidual cities and provinces, for in Sardinia
and Corsica, according to the account of
the distinguished Florentine, John VILLAIN,
who was himself carried off by the Black
Plague, scarcely third part of the popu-
lation remained alive, and it is related of
the Venetians, that they engaged ships at
high rate to retreat to the islands so that
after the plague had carried off three
fourths of her inhabitants that proud city
was left forlorn and desolate -
Two-thirds of the population Of Padua
were missing at the cessation of the plague,
says the same authority, and in Florence
the publishing of the mortality figures and
the telling of bells at funerals were pro-
hibited so that those yet alive might not
be driven to despair
Nine-tenths of the population of England
were said to have perished, an estimate,
which, although manifestly too high, none
the less indicates the unparalleled mortal
ity. A single burial ground in London
contained so, 900 bodies arranged in lay
ers in large pits. Scotland was free from
the Black Death until the Scots availed
themselves of the misfortune of the Eng
lsh to make an invasion of their territory.
The Scottish army was almost destroyed
by the plague and the sword, and the sur
yivors spread the plague through the rest
Of the country.
The cold of Greenland failed to exempt
it from the Black Death, and the pesti-
lence made up for its tardy appearance in
Russia by being unusually destructive.
Dr. Hecker thinks the death of fourth
part of the population to be a moderate
estimate for the entire continent of Europe.
He estimates the population at 100, 900,
600, SO that Europe lost through the Black
Death 25, 600, 900 inhabitants.
The pestilenee was followed by remark
able fecundity in women; marriages were,
almost without exception, prolific, and
double and treble births were frequent.