NoIV.
Account of the Plague at Marseilles in 1720:—From the Periodical Publications of the time.
SOmuch hath been said concerning this plague, in the first part of this treatise, that no particular detail is requisite here. In its symptoms it differed little if any thing from the plague of London, described in the former number. Many died without any previous sickness, and, while the distemper continued severe, few outlived the third day; and so infectious was its nature, that one person in a family was seldom attacked without its successively attacking all the rest. The bodies were said to putrefy in 24 hours. Very considerable sums of money were collected here, as well as in London. The conduct of the bishop on this melancholy occasion has been greatly celebrated by many; among others by Dr. Darwin, in his Botanic Garden, in the following lines:
“So when Contagion, with mephitic breath,And wither’d Famine, urg’d the work of death;217Marseilles’ good Bishop, London’s gen’rous Mayor,With food and faith, with med’cine and with prayer,Rais’d the weak head, and stay’d the parting sigh,Or with new life relum’d the swimming eye.
“So when Contagion, with mephitic breath,And wither’d Famine, urg’d the work of death;217Marseilles’ good Bishop, London’s gen’rous Mayor,With food and faith, with med’cine and with prayer,Rais’d the weak head, and stay’d the parting sigh,Or with new life relum’d the swimming eye.