Shoshone journal. [volume] (Shoshone, Idaho) 1884-1931, 1911-10-20

graphic uJle OF ulSdu pSSti
lence. The word plague" has some
how come to be identified almost sole
ly with the great plague OF 1865, pos
sibly by reason of the many records
and histories of that particular vista
ton. Yet for hundreds of years the
plague paid England periodical visits
coming from no one anew where
For century, perhaps. the country
would go free. The plague might De
heard of in other countries. now In
the east. now threatening so near as
Amsterdam And then, when the peo-
pie had come to feel safe, suddenly
there would come the pestilence,
striking down it's thousands.
plaques First Visit to Britain.
OF the first visitation of the black
death in 134S many terrible things are
related. 1t broke out in Dorsetshire
in August of that year. From there
it moved on to Bristol and Gloucester
shire. Then it made sudden ap-
pearance in Oxfordshire. From there
the infection was carried to London,
and. while that city was busy with the
burying of it's dead. the black death
was sweeping its way almost over the
entire country.
1t is curious to note in connection
with the recent outbreak in Suffolk
that it was the eastern counties which.
after London. suffered most severely
from the visitation The parsons of
more than 500 parishes in East Anglia
were counted among the victims. and
in some cases these clergy had to be
replaced not once. but two or three
times. Nineteen of the religious
houses in Norfolk and Suffolk lost
their abbots and priors.
Appalling as these figures may be,
they are as nothing to the toll taken
by the black death from the inhabit-
ants of London Details of that time
of terror are sparse enough. but such
records as exist tell a grim story.
Stow. in his Chronicle" says that
the pestilence $50 waste( the people
that scarce the tenth person of all
sorts was left alive, and churchyards
were not sufficient to receive the
dead" Still more startling figures
were set down by the same chronicler.
and he states that more than $4,000
bodies were buried in one piece OF
ground. bought for the purpose by one
Sir Walter Nanny. in Spittle Croft.
now known as the Charterhouse.
The number. no doubt. was exag-
gerated. Indeed. such a death roll
would almost have depopulated Lon
don; but it is likely enough that one
third of the population of the whole
were carried off by the pesti
lence.
Four scourges in 18th Century.
After that first visit four more out
breaks of plague swelled the tables of
mortality during the fourteenth cen
fury. Between 1880 and 1440 it came
again four times. and there were two
or three more epidemics before the
great plague of 1865.
With these recurring yisitations
some measures of precaution came
into use. In it's earlier stages the
plague probably had much T., own
way.
1t was not until 1543 that there is
any evidence Of an organized attempt |
70 prevent the spreading of the infec- J
ion. The first plague order was is
sued in that year, among other things |
, forty days quarantine for any house
where there was case of plague. I
Those of independent means should
xeep within doors for one month after
from plague. Others who
,ould not live without their daily la
,or should refrain as much as possible
rom going abroad. and for forty days,
Ehen out and abroad. had to carry . |