Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-01-14

poor, largely accounted .IoT the NdilouS
outbreaks. OF domestic drainage or sew
erage there was absolutely none, either
! in castle or hovel. Every village had It's
fostering heaps of ordure, sometimes III
the main street; stagnant and putr1d Wa
ter accumulated in pools every Where. and
the sense of smell was assailed by foul
odors which the well-to-do endeavored to
dispel, along with the BODY emanatiohs
due to personal uncleanness, by the laV-
ish use Of artificial scents and perfumery.
such as musk, ambergris, bergamot and
civet. Fit conditions these for the preed-
ing of deadly fevers
The name sweating sickness" was de-
rived, in the quaint language of the time,
because it did most
Description of consist in sweating
from the beginning un-
the Disease. til the endynge," and
| because it first beganne IN Enslanae
was named in other countries We Eng
lyshe sweat.
It was also known as the "pestllent
sweat" and 1.-The English ephemera Ine
symptoms of the attack began with 1e'er
and intense pains in the back. lolns'
shoulders and limbs; then came nushes OF
heat. oppression in the abdomen, head-
ache. delirium, palpitation Of the heart
drowsiness, coma and death. Occasional
| Nv profuse sweating set In midway, Wn'en
in some cases led to convalescence anu
recovery. Those stricken were iidoie ~
one or more relapses. a.,
Nearly all those infected died, and the
consequent mortality was appanils'
Scarcely one in q hundred that were at
| tackled escaped with life, but where death
did not result in twenty-four hours the
danger from that attack ceased. and epl
denies rarely lasted more than thirty
DAYS. It was called "a rheumatic FEVER
| in the most exquisite form that has ever
been seen yet in the world. others
claimed that it was form OF influenza
| or catarrhal fever. while DR.. Guy de-
fined it as being of malarial nature.an
ague with short febrile and sweating
stages. often malignant ana 1atal IN ene
first or congestive period. The treatment
consisted OF rest, blanketing, warm ar
and warm drinks to promote and hasten
persipration. Though the patients SUI
fered untold agonies from internal 1eVer
| and burning pains, anything In the shape
of refrigeration, either by cooling drinks
or bandages brought on immediate col
lapse and death.
! The sweating sickness first appeared in
the sultry month of August, 1885, in the
| army of Henry VII,
First then encamped near
Milford, South Wales
appearance. shortly after the arrival
of the troops from France. In few
| weeks the pest spread to London. Two
lord mayors of the city and six aldermen
/ died within a week. Raging all through
the autumn months. many thousands died,
| the physicians and leeches Of the time
being powerless to check its ravages. New
| Year day, 1885, q violent tempest swept
over the south of England, which was
popularity supposed to have blown the
pestilence out to sea.
! Another visitation of the sweating sick
ness came in the summer OF 1903. but this
time the mortality was not very serious
| 1t reappeared in England in 1911, break
ing out in London in most virulent
form This time the scourge was SO
rapid and deadly that it carried off those
| who were attacked in twenty-four hours.
Among the poor few escaped and the
| ranks of the ruling classes and the no
bility were greatly thinned. Scarcely a
| town in England escaped; in many OF
| them fully a third and even half Of the
inhabitants were swept away during the
/ six months reign of the terror.
| Again, in May, 1923. the sweating sick
ness broke out in London. spreading rap
idly over the whole kingdom
| Fourteen months later 1t brought a
| scene of horror upon all the nations Of
northern Europe scarce
The Continent ly equaled during any
..., other epidemic. This
0IsoCAou' seizure was called 1.-The
great mortality" by the chroniclers of the
| time. but what was the percentage of
deaths is unknown. King Henry VIII
showed his heroism by personally visiting
| the most sorely stricken districts Of his
realm and heartening his afflicted sub
| jects.
| In the ensuing summer of 1923 the
scourge died out in England. but suddenly
appeared in Hamburg, where $500 died.
The cities of Lubbock. settin, Cologne.
| Strasburg and Hanover were next at
| tackled. In September Holland, Denmark.
Norway and Sweden were scourged,
whence the sickness spread into Russia.
Poland and Livonia. But In three months
| the disease disappeared, although even
| in that short time the mortality had been
enormous.
For twenty-three years the sweating
| sickness lay dormant or entirely disap-
| peared Then. in April OF 1881, it sud
denly burst forth with great fury at
Shrewsbury, England. and with such viru-
lence that within a few days nearly l,UO
robust men, heads of families, We're car
ritd off, Again the disease spread over
l
ing the valleys OF the great rivers such
| as the Severn, the Ouse, the Thames anu
| the Avon. The historians declare that
| this time the disorder caused a depopula-
| ton Of the kingdom, yet by September all
/ danger seems to have passed, and by
| the late autumn had vanished forever
from the earth. 1t has never reappeared.
| The curious fact remains to be chron-
| icled that 1t IVES observed during this
| latter visitation that the sweating sick
ness invariably spared foreigners s0journ-
| ing In England, while of Englishmen
| abroad few escaped infection or death.
| symptom Of other diseases, such as fever
| and ague cholera and yellow fever
| There are also still occasionally met with
| cases of blood sweat, which, as the name
| implies. consists of thin exudations of
| blood and water through the pores of the
| skin Sweating is also often brought
on methodically and medically by means
| Of sudorifics for purely benign purposes,