The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-08-11
GREAT EPIDEnICS in GREAT BRITAIN
Awful Ravages Wrought By the Black Death and Sweating
Sickness Long Ago.

mendations from which even in modern
days many towns might take hints,
with advantage to the public health.
The report states that the sewers and
bitches were not properly cleansed-
Ponds which should have been filled
up were left to collect refuse. The
streets were not swpet as they should
be- Corn, meat and fish unfit for con-
sumption were sold to the poor"
Throughout the various epidemics
there was a close similarity in the
symptoms which manifested them
selves in the fated individual He was
first conscious of great WEAKNESS and
langour, confusion of ideas and giddi-
ness, upon which stupor and delilium
rapidly supervened. Darling pains
were felt in the groins and armpits, and
swellings formed in the Emphatic
glands. and carbuncles all over the
body From two to six days sufficed to
exhaust the vitality of the healthiest
and strongest.
The great plague of London took its
origin from very simple incident a
bale of goods imported from Holland,
which had come from the Levant, car
ried the seeds of death to a house in
Long Acre, near the end of Drury Lane.
Four persons in that house soon sue
cumbed to the fell disease, and Wis
itor to one of these earlier victims car
ried the infection to her own house, and
she, with all her househ hold, died; and
a minister of religion who visited her
during her brief illness also fell a vic
tim a few days afterwards. BY this
time the germs of the terrible scourge
had had ample opportunity to multiply
and they were soon sown broadcast
over the Inflated city.
In Peny'S Diary we have some
glimpses of the horrors of the time. On
April 80 he writes: Great fears of sick
ness here in the city, it being said that
two or three houses are already shut
up. God preserve us all!' And later
he writes: Lord, how everybedy's look
and discourse in the streets is of death,
and nothing else; and few people going
up and down, that the town is like a
place distressed and forsaken.
The desperation of terrible despair
soon seized the stricken people, for
death was everywhere throughout the
city: the king had He'd with his court
to Salisbury, strict Gordon was drawn
round the city, and no inhabitant dared
to break through the barrier that shut
out the plague from the rest OF the
country, but shut in the inhabitants OF
the capital with disease and death.
A red cross and the words Lord
have mercy upon us.'' were branded on
the door of every infected house. At
night carts went round and collected
the dead bodies. without reference to
sex, or age or station, and they were
tossed. one after another, into yawn-
ing pits, without any attempt even at
decent burial or funeral rites. Trade
was at a standstill. and the scarcity
of provisions soon added another hor-
ror to the situation.
Tears and lamentations, says De-
foe. were seen in almost every house,
especially in the first part Of the vista
ton, for toward the latter end mems
hearts were hardened, and death was
so always before their eyes that they
did not so much concern themselves for
the loss of their friends, expecting that
themselves should be summoned in the
next hour"
In one week 10000 persons died, and
for a long time the weekly death total
was over 5000.
During August and September the
epidemic was at it's height, but as
colder weather came the death rate
rapidly declined Whether much of the
improvements was due to the efforts
of the city officials and college of ply
sicians is doubtful. The plague had
spent itself, and by the end of March,
1866, it was almost extinct. 1t was
long time, however, before London re-
covered from the terrible havoc of that
sadly-memorable great plague.