SECTION II.
Of the Countries where the Plague is supposed to originate.—The Influence of Climate in producing Diseases—And of the Moral Conduct of the Human Race in producing and influencing the same.
INconsidering the origin of a calamity so dreadful and so universal, we might reasonably suppose that the fatal spots which gave rise to it would long ago have been marked out and abandoned by the human race altogether. But this is far from being the case. In the accounts already given of various plagues, they are always said to have been imported from country to country, but never to have originated in that of the person who wrote of them. If a plague arose in Greece, we are told it came from Egypt; if in Egypt, it came from Ethiopia; and had we any Ethiopic historians, they would no doubt have told us that it came from the land of the Hottentots, from Terra Australis Incognita, or some other country as far distant as possible from their own. In short, though it has been a most generally received opinion, that plagues are the immediate effects of the displeasure of the Deity on account of the sins of men; yet, except David and Homer (already quoted) we find not one who has had the candour to acknowledge that a plague originated among his countrymen on account of their sins in particular. In former times Egypt and Ethiopia were marked out as the two great sources of the plague; and even as late as the writings of Dr. Mead we find that the same opinion prevailed. The Doctor, who attempts to explain the causes of the plague, derives it entirely from the filth of the city of Cairo, particularly of the canal that runs through it. But later writers, who have visited and resided in Egypt, assure us that the country is extremely healthy, and that the plague is always brought there from Constantinople. It is true that Dr. Timone, in the Philosophical Transactions, No. 364, tells us, that it appears from daily observation, as well as from history, that the plaguecomes to Constantinople from Egypt; but the united testimonies of Savary, Volney, Mariti and Russel, who all agree that Egypt receives the infection from Constantinople, must undoubtedly preponderate.
“The pestilence (says M. Savary) is not a native of Egypt. I have collected information from the Egyptians, and foreign physicians who have lived there twenty or thirty years; which all tended to prove the contrary. They have assured me that this epidemic disease was brought thither by the Turks, though it has committed great ravages. I myself saw the caravelles of the Grand Signior, in 1778, unlade, according to custom, the silks of Syria at Damietta. The plague is almost always on board; and they landed, without opposition, their merchandise, and their people who had the plague. It was the month of August; and, as the disease was then over in Egypt, it did not communicate that season. The vessels set sail, and went to poison other places. The summer following, the ships of Constantinople, alike infected, came to the port of Alexandria, where they landed their diseased without injury to the inhabitants. It is an observation of ages, that if, during the months of June, July and August, infected merchandise be brought into Egypt, the plague expires of itself, and the people have no fears; and if brought at other seasons, and communicated, it then ceases. A proof that it is not a native of Egypt is, that, except in times of great famine, it never breaks out in Grand Cairo, nor the inland towns, but always begins at the seaports on the arrival of Turkish vessels, and travels to the capital; whence it proceeds as far as Syria. Having come to a period in Cairo, and being again introduced by the people of Upper Egypt, it renews with greater fury, and sometimes sweeps off two or three hundred thousand souls; but always stops in the month of June, or those who catch it then are easily cured. Smyrna and Constantinople are now the residence of this most dreadful affliction.”
M. Volney informs us, that the European merchants residing at Alexandria agree in declaring that the disease never proceeds from the internal parts of the country, but always makes its first appearance on the sea-coasts at Alexandria; from thence it passes to Rosetta, from Rosetta to Cairo, and from Cairo to Damietta, and through the rest of the Delta. It is invariably preceded by the arrival of some vessel from Smyrna or Constantinople; and it is observed, that if the plague has been violent during the summer, the danger is greater for the Alexandrians during the following winter.
To the same purpose, the Abbe Mariti says, “The plague does not usually reside in Syria, nor is this the place where it usually begins. It receives this fatal present from Egypt, where its usual seat is Alexandria, Cairo or Damietta. The plague of 1760 came at once from Cairo and Alexandria; to the latter of which it had been brought from Constantinople. When it comes from that capital, as well as from the cities of Smyrna and Salonica, it acquires a peculiar malignity; and its activity never expands itself with more fury than in the plains of Egypt, which it overspreads with incredible rapidity. It is observed, that this plague, so destructive to Egypt, seldom attacks Syria; but that the latter has every thing to dread from a plague hatched in the bosom of Egypt.”
The testimony of these three authors, who have all been lately on the spot, must certainly have very great weight, especially when corroborated by that of Dr. Russel; for which see Appendix, No. V. But still there is some difficulty. M. Savary informs us, that,except in cases of great famine, the disease never breaks out in Cairo; which certainly implies that in cases of famine it does originate in the city itself; and Mariti, by saying that the Syrians have much reason to dread a plaguehatched in the bosomof Egypt, undoubtedly intimates that plagues sometimes do originate in Egypt. Smyrna and Salonica likewise seem to come in for their share of the blame; and Dr. McBride, in his Practice of Physic,informs us, that some parts of Turky are visited by the plague once in six or seven years; and M. Savary says, that Egypt is visited with it once in four or five years; but if Egypt never receives it but from Turky, it would seem that the plague could at least be no more frequent than in that country; or, if the fact be otherwise, that the disease must either originate in Egypt itself, or be brought to it from some other country than Turky. Dr. Timone, in the paper already quoted,26tells us, that the plague has taken up its residence in Constantinople; but that, though the seeds of the old plague are scarce ever wanting, yet a new infection is likewise imported from time to time. Thus, in attempting to find out the countries where the plague originates, we are led in a circle. Constantinople accuses Egypt, and Egypt recriminates on Constantinople. Ethiopia, the most distant and least known of those countries which in former times had any connexion with the more civilized parts of the world, for a long time bore the blame of all; but the Jesuit missionaries who resided long in Abyssinia (the ancient Ethiopia) do not mention the plague as more common in that country than some others; neither does Mr. Bruce, in the accounts he has published, take notice of any such thing. Ethiopia could not speak for itself, by reason of the ignorance and barbarity of its inhabitants; and Constantinople is now very much in the same predicament. The investigation of this subject therefore would require an accurate account of the climates of those countries where the plague is found to commit the greatest ravages, and a comparison of them with those which are now accounted the most unhealthy in other respects, and likewise a comparison of the diseases produced in the latter, with the true plague.
The most unhealthy climates now existing (those where the plague commonly rages excepted) are to be met with in the hottest parts of the world; the East and West Indies, the wastes of Africa, and some parts of America. In all these, Dr. Lind, who has written atreatise on the diseases incident to Europeans in hot climates, seems to lay the whole blame upon the heat and moisture accompanying it. In the East Indies Bencoolen, in the island of Sumatra, is the most unhealthy of all the English settlements; but he informs us, that by building their fort on a dry, elevated place, about three miles from the town, it became sufficiently healthy. Next to this, Bengal is most subject to sickness; for which he assigns the following reason: “The rainy season commences at Bengal in June, and continues till October; the remainder of the year is healthy and pleasant. During the rains, this rich and fertile country is covered by the Ganges, and converted as it were into a large pool of water. In the month of October, when the stagnated water begins to be exhaled by the heat of the sun, the air is then greatly polluted by the vapours from the slime and mud left by the Ganges, and by the corruption of dead fish and other animals. Diseases then rage, attacking chiefly such as are lately arrived. The distempers are fevers of the remitting or intermitting kind; for, though sometimes they may continue several days without sensible remission, yet they have in general a great tendency to it. If the season be very sickly, some are seized with a malignant fever, of which they soon die. The body is covered with blotches of a livid colour, and the corpse, in a few hours, turns quite livid and corrupted. At this time fluxes prevail, which may be called bilious or putrid, the better to distinguish them from others which are accompanied with inflammation of the bowels. The island of Bombay has of late been rendered much more healthy than it formerly was, by a wall built to prevent the encroachments of the sea, where it formed a salt marsh; and by an order that none of the natives should manure their cocoa-trees with putrid fish.
“Batavia, the capital of the Dutch East India dominions, is annually subject to a fatal and consuming sickness. Here the Dutch, in attempting to make this, their capital in India, resemble their cities in Europe, have adorned it with canals or ditches, intersecting eachother, running through every part of it. Notwithstanding the utmost care to keep these clean, during the rainy season, and after it, they become extremely noxious to the inhabitants, but especially to strangers. It has been remarked, that the sickness rages with the greatest violence when the rains have abated, and the sun has evaporated the water in the ditches, so that the mud begins to appear. This happened in 1764, when some British ships of war had occasion to stay for a little time at Batavia. The stench from the mud was intolerable; the fever was of the remitting kind; some were suddenly seized with a delirium, and died in the first fit; but none survived the attack of a third. Nor was the sickness at that time confined to the ships; the whole city afforded a scene of disease and death; streets covered with funerals, bells tolling from morning to night, and horses jaded with dragging the dead in herses to their graves. At that time a slight cut of the skin, the least scratch of a nail, or the most inconsiderable wound, turned quickly into a putrid, spreading ulcer, which, in twenty-four hours, consumed the flesh, even to the bone. Besides these malignant and remitting fevers, which rage during the wet season in the unhealthy parts of the East Indies, Europeans, especially such as live intemperately, are also subject to fluxes, and to an inflammation, or disease of the liver; which last is almost peculiar to India, and particularly to the Coromandel coast.”
In the same work we have an extract from Mr. Ives’s journal of a journey from India to Europe by land. “Gambroon in Persia, says he, is very unhealthful. Few Europeans escape being seized with putrid intermitting fevers, which rage from May to September, and are often followed with obstructions of the liver. Various authors who have treated of Gambroon, do, as well as the present English factory, impute its unhealthfulness, during the summer months, to the noxious effluvia with which the air is contaminated, from the great quantities of blubber fish left by the sea upon the shore, and which very soon become highly offensive.In the rainy seasons, at the island of Karee, in the Persian Gulf, intermitting fevers and fluxes are the usual distempers. On our arrival at Bagdad (supposed to contain 500,000 souls) we found a purple fever raging in the city; but though it was computed that an eighth part of the inhabitants were ill, yet the distemper was far from being mortal. Here we were informed that the Arabs had broken down the banks of the river near Bassorah, with a design to cover with water the deserts in its neighbourhood. This, it seems, is the usual method of revenge taken by the Arabs for any injury done them by the Turks at Bassorah; and was represented to us as an act of the most shocking barbarity, since a general consuming sickness would undoubtedly be the consequence. This was the case fifteen years before, when the Arabs, by demolishing the banks of this river, laid the environs of Bassorah under water. The stagnating and putrefying water in the adjacent country, and the great quantity of dead and corrupted fish at that time lying upon the shore, polluted the whole atmosphere, and produced a putrid and most mortal fever, of which between twelve and fourteen thousand of the inhabitants perished; and, at the same time, not above two or three of the Europeans who were settled there escaped. The effects of the violent heats we endured were, an entire loss of appetite, a faintness and gripes, with frequent and bilious stools; which greatly exhausted our strength. My stomach was often so weak, that it could receive only a little milk. Several of us became feverish through the excessive heat, and were obliged to have recourse to gentle vomits, &c. Though we were furnished with the most ample conveniencies for travelling, which money, or the strongest recommendations to the principal christians, as well as mahometan chiefs, could procure, and had laid in a quantity of excellent madeira, claret, and other provisions, &c. yet most of us suffered in our constitutions by this long and fatiguing journey.”
On these climates in general Dr. Lind observes, that in well cultivated countries, such as China, the air is temperate and wholesome; while the woody and uncultivated parts prove fatal to multitudes accustomed to breathe a purer air. In all places also, near the muddy and impure banks of rivers, or the foul shores of the sea, mortal diseases are produced from the exhalations, especially during the rainy season. “There is a place near Indrapour, in Sumatra, where no European can venture to remain, or sleep one night on shore, during the rainy season, without running the hazard of his life, or at least of a dangerous fit of sickness; and at Podang, a Dutch settlement on Sumatra, the air has been found so bad, that it is commonly called the Plague-Coast. Here a thick, pestilential vapour or fog arises, after the rains, from the marshes, which destroys all the white inhabitants.”
In treating of the diseases of Africa, the same author takes notice of those of Egypt; which country, he says, is rendered unwholesome by the annual inundation of the Nile, and being surrounded on three sides by large and extensive deserts of sand, by which means it is exposed to the effects of that noisome vapour, which, during the summer months, arises from sultry, hot sand. He doth not, however, say, that the true plague originates in this country, either from the inundation of the Nile or any other cause. On the climate of Egypt I shall once more quote M. Savary, who is a strenuous advocate for its healthiness, and is at pains to confute the opinion of Mr. Pauw, and others, who assert the contrary. “Mr. Pauw (says he) pretends, that at present Egypt is become, by the negligence of the Turks and Arabs, the cradle of the pestilence; that another epidemical disease, equally dreadful, appears here, by the caravans of Nubia; that the culture of rice engenders numerous maladies; that the want of rain and thunder occasions the air of the Thebais to acquire a violence that ferments the humours of the human body, &c.” “These assertions (M. Savary observes) have an air of probability, which might impose onpeople who have not lived in Egypt; but Mr. Pauw has ventured opinions in his closet, without the guidance of experience. In vallies, indeed, enclosed by high mountains, where the atmosphere is not continually renewed by a current of air, the culture of rice is unwholesome, but not so, near Damietta and Rosetta. The plains are nearly on a level with the sea; neither hill nor height impedes the refreshing breath of the north, which drives the clouds and exhalations off the flooded fields southwards, continually purifies the atmosphere, and preserves the health of the people; so that the husbandmen who cultivate the rice are not more subject to diseases than those who do not. The heats of the Thebais certainly surpass those of many countries under the equator. Reaumer’s thermometer, when the burning breath of the south is felt, sometimes rises to thirty-eight degrees above the freezing point,27often to thirty-six. Were heat the principle of diseases, theSaid(Upper Egypt) would not be habitable; but it only seems to occasion a burning fever, to which the inhabitants are subject; and which they cure by regimen, drinking much water, and bathing in the river: in other respects they are strong and healthy. Old men are numerous, and many ride on horseback at eighty. The food they eat in the hot season contributes much to the preservation of their health; it is chiefly vegetables, pulse and milk. In Lower Egypt, the neighbourhood of the sea, the large lakes, and the abundance of the waters, moderate the sun’s heat, and preserve a delightful temperature. Strabo and Diodorus Siculus, who long lived here, did not think the country unhealthy. There is, indeed, an unwholesome season in Egypt. From February till the end of May, the south winds blow at intervals, and load the atmosphere with a subtile dust, which makes breathing difficult, and drive before them pernicious exhalations. Sometimes the heat becomes insupportable, and the thermometer suddenly rises twelve degrees. The inhabitants call this seasonKhamsin, fifty; because these winds are most felt between Easter and Whitsuntide; during which season they eat rice, vegetables, fresh fish and fruit; bathing frequently, and using plenty of perfumes and lemon juice; with which regimen they prevent the dangerous effects of the Khamsin. But it must not be supposed that this wind, which corrupts meat in a few hours, blows fifty days. Egypt would become a desert. It seldom blows three days together; and sometimes is only an impetuous whirlwind, which rapidly passes, and injures only the traveller overtaken in the deserts. When at Alexandria a tempest of this kind suddenly arose, driving before it torrents of burning sand, the serenity of the sky disappeared, a thick veil obscured the heavens, and the sun became blood-coloured. The dust penetrated even the chambers, and burnt the face and eyes. In four hours the tempest ceased, and the clearness of the day appeared. Some wretches in the deserts were suffocated, and several I saw brought to appearance dead; some of whom, by bathing in cold water, were restored to life.”
The internal parts of the continent of Africa are but little known. The northern parts, containing the States of Barbary, are sufficiently healthy; the middle parts of the western coast, known by the names of Negro-land, Guinea, &c. are extremely unhealthy and pernicious to strangers. Dr. Lind informs us, that, at a distance, this country appears in most places flat, covered with low, suspended clouds; and on a nearer approach heavy dews fall in the night time; the land being every morning and evening wrapped up in a fog. The ground is clothed with a pleasant and perpetual verdure, but altogether uncultivated, excepting a few spots, which are generally surrounded with forests or thickets of trees, impenetrable to refreshing breezes, and fit only for the resort of wild beasts. The banks of the rivers and rivulets are overgrown with bushes and weeds, continually covered with slime, which sends forth an intolerable stench. All places however are not equally unhealthy; nor is any place equally unwholesomeat all times of the year. It is only with the rainy season that the sickness commences. But as it would be tedious, and not answer our present purpose, to enumerate those places which are healthy, and those which are not, I shall only extract from Dr. Lind’s work an account of one which seems to be as bad as can well be imagined. It is calledCatchou, a town belonging to the Portuguese, and situated in 12 degrees N. lat. “I believe (says the author of this account) there is scarce to be found on the whole face of the earth a more unhealthy country than this during the rainy season. We were thirty miles distant from the sea, in a country altogether uncultivated, overflowed with water, surrounded with thick, impenetrable woods, and overrun with slime. The air was vitiated, noisome and thick, insomuch that the lighted torches or candles burnt dim, and seemed ready to be extinguished; even the human voice lost its natural tone. The smell of the ground, and of the houses, was raw and offensive; but the vapour arising from the putrid water in the ditches was much worse. All this, however, seemed tolerable, in respect of the infinite numbers of insects swarming every where, both on the ground and in the air; which, as they seemed to be produced and cherished by the putrefaction of the atmosphere, so they contributed greatly to increase its impurity. The wild bees from the woods, together with millions of ants, overran and destroyed the furniture; while swarms of cock-roaches often darkened the air, and extinguished even the candles in their flight; but the greatest plague was the musquetoes and sand-flies, whose incessant buzz and painful stings were more insupportable than any symptom of the fever. Besides all these, an incredible number of frogs, on the banks of the river, made such a constant and disagreeable croaking, that nothing but being accustomed to such an hideous noise, could permit the enjoyment of natural sleep. In the beginning of October, as the rains abated, the weather became very hot, the woods were covered with abundance of dead frogs,and other vermin, left by the recess of the river; all the mangroves and shrubs were likewise overspread with stinking slime.”
No doubt these accounts are calculated to inspire us with dreadful ideas of the countries mentioned in them. What could be done by the putrefaction of dead animals and vegetables, certainly would be done here; the produce, however, was not the true plague; not even inCatchou; but “a sickness which could not well be characterised by any denomination commonly applied to fevers; it however approached neared to what is called a nervous fever, as the pulse was always low, and the brain and nerves principally affected,” &c. Certainly if in any country heat, moisture and putrefaction could produce a plague, it would be in this. Yet, in all the places we have mentioned, whether India, Arabia, Egypt, or Guinea, (and we might go through the whole world in the same manner) we have not been able to find either moist heat or dry heat, even when aided by putrefaction, insects, and nastiness of all kinds (not justly chargeable upon any climate;) I say, we have not found the united powers of all these able to produce a plague. Nay, it is even doubtful whether climates can produce those inferior diseases above mentioned. Even Dr. Lind, who appears to be so willing to ascribe every thing to climate, seems embarrassed in this respect. “There are many difficulties (says he) which occur in assigning a satisfactory reason, why in some countries, as in those between the tropics, heavy and continual rains should produce sickness; while in other places, especially in the southern parts of Europe, a want of rain for two or three months in summer brings on diseases almost similar. Upon this occasion (adds the Doctor) I cannot help observing, that there is hardly a physical cause which can be assigned for the produce of any disease, that will not admit of some exceptions: thus, not only the woods and morasses in Guinea are tolerably healthy, with some exceptions, in the dry season; but a few instances might be produced of towns surrounded with marshes and a foggy air, where the inhabitants sufferno inconvenience from their situation, even during the rainy season. Do the impetuous torrents of water poured from the clouds during the rainy seasons, in tropical countries, contain what is unfriendly to health? Thus much is certain, that the natives of such countries, especially the mulattoes, avoid being exposed to these rains as much as possible, and when wet with them immediately plunge themselves into salt water, if near it. They generally bathe once a day, but never in the fresh water rivers, when overflown with rains, preferring at such times the water of springs. Is the sickness of these seasons to be ascribed to the intense heat of the then almost vertical sun; which frequently, for an hour or two at noon, dispels the clouds, and with its direct beams instantly changes the refreshing coolness of the air into a heat almost insupportable?
“Further: As the season of those sudden and terrible storms, called the hurricanes, in the East and West Indies, and tornadoes on the coast of Guinea, partly coincides with that of the rains, do these dreadful tempests in any measure contribute to produce the prevailing sickness at those times? It was remarkable one year at Senegal, that, in the beginning of the rainy season, in the night succeeding one of these tornadoes, a great number of the soldiers, and two thirds of the English women, were taken ill, this garrison before having been uncommonly healthy.
“Lastly: Is it not more probable, as in those countries the earth for six or eight months in the year receives no moisture from the heavens but what falls in dews, which every night renew the vegetation, and reinstate the delightful verdure of the grass, that the surface of the ground in many places becomes hard and incrustated with a dry scurf, which pens up the vapours below, until, by the continuance of the rains for some time, this crust is softened, and the vapours set free? That these dews do not penetrate deep into the surface of the earth, is evident from the constant dryness and hardness of such spots of ground, in those countries, as are not covered with grass andother vegetables. Thus the large rivers, in the dry season, being confined within narrow bounds, leave a great part of their channel uncovered, which, having its moisture totally exhaled, becomes a hard, dry crust; but, no sooner the rains fall, than, by degrees, this long parched up crust of earth and clay gradually softens, and the ground, which before had not the least smell, begins to emit a stench, which in four or five weeks becomes exceeding noisome; at which time the season of sickness commences.”
From these quotations it must certainly appear, that the author himself is dissatisfied with his theory; and that, though in the outset he thought heat and moisture, assisted by the exhalations from putrid animal and vegetable substances, sufficient to produce the disorders of which he treats, yet, on a more minute investigation, he is obliged to acknowledge, that something inexplicable still remains. This he now wishes to solve by unknown properties in the water, by confined exhalations, &c. But as the consideration of these things belongs properly to the next section, I shall here only remark, that there hath not yet been given any satisfactory account of the origin of epidemic diseases of what I call theinferiorkind, much less of the true plague, which stands above them all, as I have already said, like the serpent Python above other serpents.
To what has been quoted from Dr. Lind, I shall here subjoin the testimony of Dr. Clark, who had an opportunity of observing the epidemic diseases which raged at Bengal in 1768 and 1769. These were, “the remittent fever and dysentery, which begin in August, and continue till November. During the beginning of the epidemic, the fever is attended with extreme malignity and danger; frequently carrying off the patient in twelve hours; and, if not stopped, generally proves fatal on the third or fourth day. In August the remissions are very imperceptible; in October they become more distinct; and, as the cold weather comes on, the fever becomes a regular intermittent. At that time, too, the putrid dysentery begins to ragewith the fever. These diseases were very fatal to many Europeans, particularly new comers, in 1768. But in the year 1770, when there was a scarcity of rice, it was computed, that about eighty thousand natives, and one thousand five hundred Europeans, died at Bengal. The streets were covered with funerals; the river floated with dead carcases; and every place exhibited the most melancholy scenes of disease and death. During the sickly seasons at Bengal, the uncertainty of life is so great, that it frequently happens that one may leave a friend at night in perfect health, who shall not survive next day. There have been several instances of persons who have returned home in a state of perfect health from performing the last duties to a deceased friend, and have next day been numbered with the dead. But the cool, agreeable season, from December to March, is productive of no prevailing diseases. The complaints to be met with are in general the consequences, or remains, of the diseases of the former period. The complaints which the Europeans are subject to in the dry months are, the cholera and diarrhœa. Fluxes and fevers are then seldom epidemic; and, when they do happen, are not attended with much danger.
“At Batavia the rainy season is from November to May, during which time malignant, remitting and continued fevers and the dysentery rage with great fatality. Captain Cook, in his first voyage, arrived here in October 1779; the whole crew, excepting Tupia, a native of Otaheite, being in the most perfect health. But, in the course of nine days, they experienced the fatal effects of the climate, and buried seven people at Batavia. On the 3d of December, the ship left the harbour. At that time the number of sick amounted to forty; and the rest of the ship’s company were in a very feeble condition. When the ship anchored at Prince’s Island, in the Straits of Sunda, the sickness increased, and they buried twenty-three persons more in the course of about six weeks. The Grenville Indiaman, which touched at this islandin 1771, suffered equally from the malignity of the air. A few were taken on board, when the ship sailed from Batavia, ill of a malignant fever; which spread by contagion at sea, and carried off great numbers. I visited several in this ship, when she arrived at China, who were reduced to mere skeletons, by the duration of the fever and dysentery; both of which were most certainly propagated by contagion.
“Those parts of Sumatra lying immediately under the line are continually subject to rain, and the ground near the shore is low, and covered with thick trees and underwood. The heat being intense, noisome fogs arise, which corrupt the air, and render the country fatal to foreigners. The land of North Island, which lies on this coast, near the beginning of the Straits of Sunda, appears at a distance finely variegated; but at the place where the wood and water are to be got it is low, and covered with impenetrable mangroves, and infested with a variety of insects. It is here that most of the East India ships take in wood for their homeward voyage. A Danish ship, in 1768, anchored in this island, and sent twelve of her hands on shore to fill water; where they only remained two nights. Every one of them was seized with a fever, whereof none recovered: but although the ship went out to sea, none, except the twelve who went on shore, were attacked with the complaint.”
With regard to China, this author says, that the “port of Canton is by no means so healthy as is generally represented. The comparative degree of health which Europeans enjoy here has been ascertained from the instances of the supercargoes, which is, however, a very erroneous standard. The generous and regular way in which these gentlemen live, for the most part, exempts them from diseases; and, being but few in number, no great mortality can take place among them. But seamen, who never observe much regularity in their way of living, who work hard in the day time, are but badly clothed, and not provided against the damps and cold north-easterly winds atnight, seldom fail to be afflicted with the diseases already mentioned (fevers and fluxes.) Even the factors of different nations, who reside here for any considerable time, experience all the inconveniences peculiar to any sultry climate: florid health is a stranger to their countenances; their constitutions are soon weakened and enfeebled; and they become subject to habitual fluxes and other complaints, the usual consequences of too great relaxation.”
The climate of the southern part of China, according to the same author, is excessively hot during the summer months. Even in September and October, when the nights are cold, the days continue to be sultry. The cold months are, December, January and February; “and during this time the vicissitudes of the weather are more quick than in any other part of the world. When the wind is northerly, and the thermometer at 46, upon a change of the wind to the south, it is next day up to 60 or 70. People who reside here are always at a loss with regard to their clothing; one day finding a silk coat sufficient; and the next, upon a sudden change of wind, finding it necessary to wear a flannel waistcoat.”
On the subject of climate, therefore, I must conclude with the following observations:—First: That, as the diseases above mentioned are produced both in moist and dry countries, in those in the torrid and those in the temperate zone, they can neither be the offspring of moisture or drought, of heat or cold, of septics or antiseptics, but of something not yet discovered. Second: That, upon fair investigation, it does not appear, that ancient historians have been able to ascertain the origin of any plague whatever: they have universally ascribed it to the anger of the Deity, while their own pride would never allow it to have originated in any country with which they were connected. Third: It doth not by any means appear, that the climates of those countries, where the plague is known to be most common, are at all inferior to those already described, excepting the very circumstance of having the plague frequently in them:nay, indeed, that they are equally bad. Nobody will pretend to argue, that the climate of Asia Minor, of Greece, of the Morea, or of any of the countries most infected with the plague, was, or is, worse than that ofCatchouin Africa, already described; yet it is certain, that we have a number of testimonies that the plague has ravaged Asia Minor, while we have not one of its visitingCatchou. Ancient Greece, the Peloponnesus (Morea) and Asia Minor, were accounted healthy and fine countries; and modern travellers assure us, that they have not degenerated in this respect; yet these countries are desolated by the plague, while the unwholesome regions above described are entirely free from it, unless imported from some other quarter. To give this matter, however, as fair a discussion as possible, I shall here consider the account we have of the climate of Bassorah, given by the gentleman residing there in 1780; whose case, in the remitting fever, is given, Appendix, No. VI. “The overflowing of the Euphrates, and its waters stagnating in the desert, have always been accounted primary causes of epidemical diseases at Bassorah. The great floods from the melting of the snow on the mountains of Diarbekir, the ancient Assyria, happened in the year 1780, early in the month of May, when the heats in Persia and Arabia begin to be excessive. The desert, which reaches to the gates of Bassorah, is, for many miles, incrusted with a surface of salt; which, when mixed with the stagnated waters, and exposed to the sun, produces the most noxious effluvia. As early as the 25th of May, the town was surrounded by a salt marsh, the heated steam arising from which was, at times, almost intolerable; but the canal that runs through a great part of the city being filled with the bodies of animals, and all kinds of putrid matter; and, at low tides, all these substances exposed to the sun, made the air in the town scarce supportable; and, being totally destitute of police, the streets were in many places covered with human ordure, the bodies of dead dogs and cats, &c. which emitted a stench moredisagreeable and putrid than any thing I ever experienced in my life. As to the degree of solar heat, it far exceeded what I conceived the human frame to be capable of bearing. The sensation under this heat was totally different from what I had ever experienced; it resembled the approach of an heated substance to the body. The quicksilver, in Fahrenheit’s thermometer, rose to between 156 and 162 degrees.28From the 30th of May I never saw it so low as 156, but generally between 158 and 160. After I left Bassorah I was told that it rose still higher. In the coolest part of the house, with the aid of every invention to decrease the heat, the quicksilver rose to 115; but after I came away, I was informed that it rose still higher, even at seven in the morning, the hour which we accounted the coolest in the day. Once the heat was said to be so intolerable, that no one could expose himself to it long enough to observe the thermometer in the sun. Some of the oldest inhabitants of Bassorah said that they never remembered to have heard of such a heat in any part of Persia or Arabia. The natives of the country appeared more alarmed at the heat than the Europeans: nothing could induce them to expose themselves to the sun after ten o’clock. I left Bassorah for Aleppo on the 30th of May. On our arrival at Zabira, the heat was so intense, that even the Arabs sunk under it.”
From this account it was natural to expect that violent sickness would ensue. This was the opinion of the inhabitants, and they were not deceived. The sickness, however, was not the true plague, but a violent remitting fever; and even this did not originate in the city itself, but was observed to approach from Asia Minor, ravaging Diarbekir, and keeping the course of the Tigris, to Bagdad, where many died. From thence it followed the course of the Euphrates to Bassorah, and for about twenty miles lower. The opposite, or Persian shore, though within a few miles, was exempted,and it did not spread more than twenty miles into the desert.29
I might now proceed to give an abstract of what has been said of the power of climate in producing diseases on the Western Continent, and West India islands; but as this belongs more especially to the second part of this Treatise, I shall here pass it over, as well as what Dr. Smith has said of the climate of Greece, in the Medical Repository, and which he endeavours to prove to be similar to the climate of North America. But, before we proceed to consider what diseases may be produced byclimatealone, it is proper to discuss the question, how far man is naturally subject to diseases of any kind? Many, no doubt, will be apt to suppose this a very absurd question; for as man is now, by nature, subject to death, it seems to follow, that he is also naturally subject to disease, as the means of bringing on death. But, however plausible this may appear, experience shows, that disease and death are not always connected. Many people die of mere old age; the powers of life being exhausted, and the system so far decayed, that the various parts of it can no longer perform their offices. On the other hand, a disease destroys by attacking some particular organ, and either totally consuming or altering it in such a manner, that it disturbs the vital operations, while yet strong and vigorous. We may therefore compare the death of a person from mere old age to the natural extinction of a candle when the tallow is totally consumed; and death from disease, to the blowing out of a candle while a part of it remains, and might have burned for a considerably longer time. Thus I am inclined to consider all diseases as merely accidental; and this with the greater certainty, because, though, in common with other believers in revealed religion, I think that death is the consequence of Adam’s transgression, yet I do not find that disease of any kind was threatened except in cases of positive transgression, long after the days of Adam.
Every one allows, that, though some diseases are natural, some are likewise artificial; but nobody hath attempted to draw the line of demarcation between them. Every thing is charged upon climate, heat, moisture, drought, vapour, &c. and yet, upon examination, we shall find the utmost difficulty in deriving a single disease from the causes we assign. No person in his senses will say that Adam, in consequence of eating the forbidden fruit, became liable to the venereal disease. As little can we say for the gout, the stone, or the dropsy; and if we cannot particularize the diseases to which he became naturally liable, we have no right to say that any kind of disease became natural to him in consequence of his transgression. If, therefore, death itself, originally not natural to man, did yet take place in consequence of his moral conduct; and if diseases, without number, have arisen among his posterity, though not natural to him in consequence of his first transgression, we have equal reason to believe that these diseases have taken place among them in consequence of their moral or ratherimmoralconduct, in totally deviating from the line prescribed them by their Maker, and following others of their own invention; and this will appear the more probable, when we consider, that, long after mankind became subject to death, we find diseases, particularly the pestilence, threatened as the consequence of subsequent transgressions.
If, without taking scripture into consideration, we attend only to what may be gathered from profane history, we find the testimony of all the ancients concurring in one general point, viz. that in times of great antiquity men were more healthy, and even stronger, than in the times when those authors lived. This is taken notice of by Homer, when comparing the strength of men in the time of the Trojan war with those in his days, about two centuries later.30Virgil, who lived in much moremodern times than Homer, carries his ideas of the degeneracy of man much farther; and informs us, that Turnus, when fighting with Æneas, took up and threw a stone which twelve men of that time could not have lifted. Now, though we know that both these accounts are fabulous, yet they perfectly coincide with the voice of historians of all nations; for we are universally told, that the first inhabitants of countries were a brave, hardy people, living according to the simplicity of nature, free from diseases, and attaining to a good old age.
This is so conformable to what is generally said at present, probably very often by rote, without regard to rational evidence, that, were we so inclined, ample room might be found for declamation against modern luxuries, particularly the practice of drinking ardent spirits, as pernicious to health, and destructive to the human body. On this subject, however, we may once for all observe, that, although we find ample evidence of the baleful influence of these liquors in producing other diseases, yet we find none of their ever having had any share in the production of an epidemic or general disease among mankind. In ancient times the art of distillation seems to have been unknown; so that whatever mischief was done in those days must have been done by wine, or other fermented liquors. In modern times, though the use both of fermented liquors and ardent spirits is undoubtedly carried to excess, yet there is no evidence of their producing an epidemic, or even making it more violent or general than it would otherwise have been. Dr. Cleghorn, having spoken largely of the manner of living of the natives in Minorca, proceeds thus: “I should next give a circumstantial account of the diet and way of life of the British soldiers in this island; but as this would be a disagreeable task, I shall only observe, that the excess of drinking is among them an universal vice, confirmed into habit. But, however different the Spaniards be from the English, in their meat, drink, exercise, affections of the mind, and habit of body; yet the health of both nations is equally influenced bythe seasons. An epidemical distemper seldom or never attacks the one class of inhabitants without attacking the other also; and, surprising as it may appear, it is nevertheless true, that the peasants, remarkable for temperance and regularity, and the soldiers, who, without meat and clothes, frequently lie abroad drunk, exposed to all weathers, have diseases almost similar, both as to their violence and duration.”
There can be no doubt that excess in drinking hath put an end to the lives of many individuals; and it hath been observed, that such as attempt to preserve themselves from the plague by the use of strong liquors, have generally fallen sacrifices to it;31but this cannot prove that such excess would have brought on the distemper without some other cause. It hath been certainly found, that excess in drinking or eating, excess in venery, excessive fatigue by labour, watching, study, &c. will all make an epidemic disease more violent when it attacks a particular person; but no experience hath yet shown that thefirstperson seized with an epidemic always fell under this description. All that can be said on the subject is, that, by such excesses as have already been described, the body is prepared for receiving the disease, by an exhaustion, or evaporation (if we please to call it so) of the vital principle; as wood is prepared for burning by the evaporation of its moisture; but as wood, however dry, will not burn without the contact or application of fire, so neither will the body, though ever so well prepared, be attacked by any epidemic, unless the true cause of that epidemic be also applied.
Thus we are still disappointed in our attempts to discover the origin of the plague. We have seen that the most unhealthy climates in the world do not produce it of themselves; neither can the conduct of any individual bring it upon himself, without an unknownsomething, which nobody has yet found out. It was this difficulty of finding out the natural cause, which certainly induced by far the greatest number of writerson the subject to ascribe it to Divine Power; and even as late a writer as Dr. Hodges tells us, that he believes in theto Theion, the “finger of God,” in the plague, as much as any body. As for those who have endeavoured to account for the origin of this distemper from an inquiry into natural causes, and conclusions drawn from the late experiments on air, they have totally failed; as will be fully elucidated in the following section.
If then we are to believe that diseases, especially those called epidemics, among which the plague holds the first place, have arisen in consequence of a certain line of conduct adopted by the human race, or have been inflicted by the Deity as punishments on that account, we are to look for their origin among those to whom the Deity principally manifested himself; that is, the Jews, and nations who interfered with them. Among the Jews we hear of the first general plague distinctly mentioned; viz. the three days pestilence of David, and to which it is possible that Homer alludes in his Iliad. Next to this is the great plague of 767 B. C. said to have spread all over the world. This coincides with the time of Pul, king of Assyria; who, having overthrown the ancient kingdom of Syria, turned his arms against that of Israel, and no doubt extended his conquests among the eastern nations, as we know very well the Assyrian monarchs did. As the ten tribes, ever after their separation from the house of David, had in a manner totally given themselves up to idolatry, we are not to wonder if the pestilence, so frequently threatened by Moses, was very common, or, as physicians term it,endemic, among them. Thus, whatever enemy invaded the country, would almost certainly carry the disease along with them, and spread it among the other nations with whom they afterwards had any connexion. At this time, or even before this, during the wars of Syria with Israel and Judah, this dreadful pestilence might begin; but, as to its being all over the world in any particular year, I do not see how it can be ascertained; because there are no general histories of the world in those early times. It appears more probable that thisgeneral pestilence took place at the time that Sennacherib’s army was destroyed. I have no doubt, indeed, for the reasons already given, that the plague had infected Sennacherib’s army before he went into Ethiopia. In that country, in all probability, he would leave it; and, after his return to Judea, when the dreadful catastrophe befel him of an hundred and eighty-five thousand of his men being destroyed in one night, there can be no doubt that the remains of his army would carry with them the seeds of a most malignant pestilence, capable of spreading destruction far and wide. It is true, we are not directly told, in Scripture, that the Assyrian army was destroyed by a plague, but that the angel of the Lord destroyed them; but, as this expression is quite similar to what we read of the pestilence in David’s time, there can be but little doubt that the means of destruction made use of in both cases were the same. Josephus expressly says, that Sennacherib’s army was destroyed by a pestilence. Neither are we to conclude, because this pestilence was miraculous, that it therefore certainly killed every one on whom it fell; or that it would not infect those who came near the sick, as any other disease of the kind would do.
From the same source may we derive the propensity in the Carthaginian armies to pestilential disorders. Carthage was a colony of Tyre; and the Tyrians were in close alliance with the Jews, during the reigns of David and Solomon, and very probably afterwards; so that from them the distemper might be communicated in such a manner as to be almost endemic; and thus hardly an army could be sent out but what would have the infection with it, breaking out with violence now and then, as occasional causes tended to give life to the contagion. It is impossible, however, from the source just mentioned to trace the plague of Athens, or the first plague in Rome; but it is very natural to suppose that the violent one which raged in Rome, during the reign of Titus, came from Jerusalem. That city had sustained a most dreadful siege, and the obstinate and wretched inhabitants had endured such calamities ashave scarcely been recorded in the history of nations. Among these calamities was a pestilence, which, in all probability, would be conveyed to Rome, and there occasion the destruction already mentioned.
But what seems to render this account of the origin of the plague more probable is, that the Jews are to this day accused of propagating the disease in those countries where it is most frequent. Baron de Tott is of opinion that the plague in Constantinople originates among the Jewish dealers in old clothes; for these avaricious dealers, purchasing the infected goods, sell them indiscriminately to every one who will buy, and that without the least care taken to remove the infection from them; by which means it is no wonder to find the plague, as well as other diseases, disseminated among them in great plenty. Dr. Russel informs us, that the Jews are most liable to the plague, the most fearful of it, and the most ready to fly from the infection. The Abbe Mariti agrees in the same accusation against this unfortunate people. “The Jews (says he) purchase at a low price the goods and wares which remain when most of the family are deceased, and then store them up; which, when the plague is over, they sell at a dear rate to those will buy, and thus propagate the pestilential poison: again it kindles, and presently causes new destruction. Thus this opprobrious nation, preferring gold to life, sell the plague to mussulmen, who purchase it without fear, and sleep with it, till, renewed of itself, it hurries them to the grave.” M. Volney, though he does not mention the Jews in such express terms as Mariti and Russel, yet agrees as to the mode of its propagation in Constantinople, and the reason of its continuance in that city. “It is certain (says he) that the plague originates in Constantinople, where it is perpetuated by the absurd negligence of the Turks, which is so great, that they publicly sell the effects of persons dead of the distemper. The ships which go to Alexandria never fail to carry furs and woolen clothes, purchased on these occasions, which they expose to sale in the bazar of the city, and thereby spreadthe contagion. The Greeks who deal in these goods are almost always the first victims.”
Thus the account we have of the origin of the plague at present is, that the city of Constantinople, having been long and deeply infected, the infection is stored up through the avarice of the Jewish merchants, who buy the goods and clothes of the infected. The stupidity of the Turks allows these goods to be sold in Constantinople, or exported freely to all parts to which their vessels sail, particularly to Alexandria; where the avarice of the Greeks prompts them to buy without examination or precaution, to the destruction of their own lives, and of multitudes of others. Egypt being the principal place of traffick, the plague is more frequent there than in other parts of the empire. Syria is comparatively free from it; which M. Volney supposes to be owing to the small number of vessels which come there directly from Constantinople.
In this way we may, in a pretty plausible manner, account for the origin of this distemper; viz. that it originally fell upon the Jews as a punishment for their iniquities; that from the Jews it has been at different times conveyed to other nations; and, by a mixture of those nations, has, at times, become general all over the world. At last it has, by the avarice of that people who first had been the occasion of its being introduced into the world, become permanent in Constantinople, whence it is still diffused among different nations in proportion to their dealings with that capital.
But it may now be said, ‘Allowing the positions contended for to be true in their utmost extent, how comes it to pass that the plague hath not been general in every age and in every country? Since the destruction of Jerusalem, the Jews have been dispersed over all nations: if nothing then were wanting to produce a pestilence but Jews and old clothes, no age or country ought to have been free from it; nevertheless it is certain that violent plagues take place only at particular times, with long intervals between; and of late the pestilential disposition seems to have become much lessfrequent than formerly; the western parts of Europe, particularly Britain, having been free from it for a great number of years. There must therefore be some cause, different from what has yet been mentioned, by which the infection is occasionally roused from inactivity, and excited to spread desolation all around.’
That there are predisposing causes to epidemic disorders, especially to the plague, the most fatal of them all, is not denied. These prepare the body for receiving the infection, but they will not, without that infection, produce the disorder. Of these causes so many are to be found in the conduct of mankind themselves, that we scarcely need to look for them any where else. In looking over the histories of plagues, we find them in an especial manner connected with famines and wars. The former sometimes take place in consequence of the failure of crops through natural causes; but, considering the general fertility of the earth, we must certainly account it owing to bad management, in some respect or other, that every country hath not as much laid up within itself as would guard against the consequences of at least one or two bad crops. Yet we believe there is not, at present, a country upon earth in this predicament. If a crop fails any where, the inhabitants must import largely, or they must starve. This is the case even in the fertile regions of the East, where the earth produces in excessive abundance,32and there is little or nothing of any kind of provision exported to other countries. A remarkable instance of this occurred in the plague at Aleppo, a history of which is given by Dr. Russel. He tells us, that the winter of 1756 proved excessively cold, which was followed by a famine next year. This account is confirmed by Mr. Dawes, in a letter to the bishop of Carlisle.33He tells us, that in the course of the winter many perished through cold; that the inhabitants were reduced to such extremities, by the single failure of the crop in 1757, that womenwere known to eat their own children as soon as they expired in their arms with hunger; and that human creatures might be seen contending with dogs, and scratching for the same bone with them in a dunghill. A dreadful plague followed; which, the two succeeding years, swept off not fewer than sixty thousand in the city of Aleppo.
It is probable that in this case the famine either produced the plague, or made it worse than it would have otherwise been; and it is not denied that the cold and bad season was the direct cause of the famine. But as little can it be denied, that had the people, or their governors, been so provident as to have laid up stores sufficient to supply the country for one year, this famine would not have been felt. As far, therefore, as the plague was connected with the famine, we must own that it was chargeable on the human race themselves; not the sins of this or that particular person, but a general deviation from the task assigned them by their Maker, viz. that of cultivating the ground; and, instead of this, spending their time in folly and trifling, to say no worse.
But famines are occasioned not only by natural causes, but by wars; in which mankind, acting in direct opposition to the laws of God and nature, destroy and lay waste the earth, taking every opportunity of reducing to extremity both those whom they call innocent and those whom they call guilty. Thus vast multitudes are reduced to want, to despair, and rendered a prey to grief, terror, and every depressing passion of the human mind; they are exposed to every inclemency of the weather; to the scorching heats of the day, and the chilling damps of the night; in short, to every thing that we can conceive capable of predisposing the body for the reception of diseases of the very worst kind. No wonder therefore that war and pestilence go hand in hand; and, by taking a review of the history of mankind, we shall see, that, always at those times when the nations have been most actively employed in the trade of butchering one another, then, or very soon after, they have been afflictedwith pestilence. To begin with the great plague of 767 B. C. which coincides with the rise of the Assyrian empire: Till this time, though there had been numberless wars, yet they were carried on upon a much smaller scale than now, when great empires were to be set up, and when the most distant nations were to be assembled in order to gratify the pride and ambition of an individual. The Assyrians, we know, penetrated into Ethiopia; but how far east or how far west they went, we are not certainly informed. To their wars, however, we may with reason ascribe the desolations occasioned by this first plague. From Thucydides’s account of the plague at Athens, it seems plain that it was occasioned, or at least rendered more violent, by the wars of the Greeks with one another at that time. Had the Carthaginian army staid at home when they went to war with Dionysius, tyrant of Syracuse,34it is very probable that the pestilence would not have broke out among them. The like may be said of the plague which broke out among them in the time of Marcellus.35That in the time of Jugurtha, indeed, is said to have been occasioned by locusts; but, had not vast bodies of men been collected together for the purposes of war, the plague could never have committed such ravages. The plague in the time of Titus could not have been brought from Jerusalem, nor perhaps would it have existed there, had not Titus made war against that city; and so of others.
The plague which began in the reign of Justinian, as it was more violent than any recorded in history, so it was preceded by wars equally unexampled. The Romans had indeed for ages employed themselves in war; but, by their constant superiority to every adversary, their empire had become so amazingly extensive, that, whatever wars were carried on in the remote provinces, the great body of the empire always remained at peace; and this was the case even in their most violent civil wars. On the accession of Alexander Severus, about the year 232, they began to encounter enemies so numerous and formidable, that all their power proved insufficient to repel them. In the tenth year of Alexander’sreign, the Persians, having overthrown the ancient empire of the Parthians, turned their arms against the Romans, and, though frequently defeated at that time with great slaughter, renewed their incursions in the reign of Gordian, about the year 242, when they were in like manner defeated and obliged to retire. As these defeats, however, did not at all affect the strength of the Persian empire, the Romans still found them as formidable enemies as ever; while the Goths, Sarmatians, Franks, and other northern nations, harassed them in other parts. In the reign of Decius, who ascended the throne in 249, they became extremely formidable, insomuch that the emperor himself, with his whole army, was at last cut off by them. The consequence of this was, that the empire was instantly invaded in many different parts, and, though the barbarians were at times defeated, we never find that the empire regained its former tranquillity. The Persians and Scythians, taking advantage of the general confusion, invaded the provinces next them, while the finishing stroke seemed to be given to the Roman affairs by the defeat and captivity of Valerian by the Persians.
This disaster, as may well be imagined, produced an immediate invasion by numberless barbarians, while such multitudes of pretenders to the imperial crown were set up, each asserting his claim by force of arms, that the whole Roman territories were filled with bloodshed and slaughter. At this time Gallienus, the son of Valerian, was thelawfulemperor, if indeed we may apply the word to the domination of such a monster. His mode of government may be imagined from the following letter written to one of his officers in consequence of a victory gained over an usurper namedIngenuus. “I shall not be satisfied with your putting to death only such as have borne arms against me, and might have fallen in the field: you must in every city destroy all the males, old and young; spare none who havewishedill to me, none who have spoken ill of me, the son of Valerian, the father and brother of princes.Ingenuusemperor! Tear, kill, cut in pieces, withoutmercy: you understand me; do then as you know I would do, who have written to you with my own hand.” In consequence of this horrible order, not a single male child was left alive in some of the cities of Mœsia, where this inhuman tragedy was acted.
In the midst of this dreadful commotion, we find the pestilence contributing its share to the common work of desolation. In Alexandria in Egypt, says Dionysius, bishop of that place, “fury and discord raged to such a degree, that it was more easy to pass from the east to the remotest provinces of the west, than from one place of Alexandria to another. The inhabitants had no intercourse but by letters, which were with the utmost difficulty conveyed from one friend to another. The port resembled the shores of the Red Sea strewed with the carcases of the drowned Egyptians: the sea was dyed with blood, and the Nile choked up with dead bodies. The war was attended with a general famine, and the famine with a dreadful plague, which daily swept off great numbers of people, insomuch that there were then in Alexandria fewer inhabitants, from the age of fourteen to that of eighty, than there used to be from forty to seventy.” It was not in Egypt alone that this calamity prevailed. It raged with great violence in Greece, and at Rome itself; where, for some time, it carried off five thousand persons a day. Many terrible phenomena of nature took place at the same time. The sun was overcast with thick clouds, and great darkness took place for several days, attended with a violent earthquake, and loud claps of thunder, not in the air, but in the bowels of the earth, which opened in several places and swallowed up great numbers of people in their habitations. The sea, swelling beyond measure, broke in upon the continent, and drowned whole cities.36
At last the civil commotions were settled by the accession of Claudius to the empire in 268. He found the Roman force so exhausted, that, when marching against the Goths, he wrote to the senate in the followingterms: “If I should not be attended with success, you will remember that I fight after the reign of Gallienus. The whole empire is quite spent and exhausted, partly by him, and partly by the many tyrants who, during his reign, usurped the sovereignty, and laid waste our provinces. We want even shields, swords and spears.” In this miserable plight, however, he gained a most extraordinary victory; three hundred thousand of the enemy being killed or taken. But, while Claudius thus carried on the work of death successfully against the barbarians, he was attacked from a quarter where he could make no resistance: a violent plague broke out in his army, and carried off himself and a vast number of his men.
The dreadful defeat given to the Goths did not long preserve the tranquillity of the empire. New invasions took place, and new massacres ensued. At last, on the accession of Dioclesian to the empire, it was thought proper, on account of the present emergences, to divide such wide-extended territories into four parts, to be governed by four emperors of equal authority. By the activity and valour of these, particularly of one of them, named Galerius, the northern barbarians were repressed, and the Persians reduced so low, that they were obliged to yield up a great part of their territories; and it is said that their country might even have been reduced to a Roman province, had the emperor so inclined. We know not whether, in his eastern expedition, the Roman army received any infection, nor do we hear of any plague breaking out in it; but we are told that Galerius himself died of an uncommon distemper; an ulcer, attended with mortifications, violent pains, and the production of an infinite number of vermin, which devoured and tormented him day and night. This distemper, however, seems rather to have been a cancer than a pestilential disorder, as he laboured under it for more than a year. After his death, dreadful wars continued, both by reason of the incursions of barbarians, and the contests of those who enjoyed, or wished to enjoy, the empire. The eastern parts, however, had for sometime kept free from pestilential contagion; of which the christian writers say, that Maximin, who reigned there, had made his boast; and, being a heathen, ascribed it to the care he took of preserving the worship of the gods. But, if this was really the case, he soon found his gods unable to protect him; for, soon after the accession of Constantine the great, and his embracing christianity, the dominions of Maximin were afflicted with famine accompanied with pestilence, and that attended by symptoms of a most extraordinary nature; particularly ulcers about the eyes, which rendered multitudes of those who were infected with the distemper totally blind. The christians did not fail to ascribe this plague to the sins of Maximin; but it must be observed, that to his other sins he had added that of involving himself in a violent war, during which the pestilence broke out, and which probably was one of the causes of it. We may likewise observe, that if the sins of Maximin brought on the plague, the piety of Constantine could not keep it off; since we find that in the year 332, a considerable time after the death of Maximin, the territories of Constantine were ravaged by a dreadful plague, and the famine was so severe, that, at Antioch, wheat was sold at four hundred pieces of silver per bushel. The distemper which put an end to the life of Maximin himself was indeed so extraordinary, that we may reasonably excuse those who called it a judgment sent directly from heaven. His eyes and tongue are said to have putrefied; “an invisible fire was kindled in his bowels, which, being attended with unrelenting torments, reduced him in a few days to a perfect skeleton; his whole body was covered over with a kind of leprosy, and devoured by swarms of vermin; he could not be prevailed upon to take any nourishment, but greedily swallowed handfuls of earth, as if he had hoped by that means to assuage his pains, and allay the hunger with which he was tormented without intermission.”37All this, we are told, was the effect of poison, which he had swallowed in despair,after being defeated in battle; but the symptoms are unaccountable.
After the death of Constantine, the empire being again parted, civil dissensions took place; the northern barbarians and Persians renewed their incursions, and at length the battle of Mursa, between the emperor Constantius and an usurper named Magnentius, destroyed such numbers that the empire no more recovered its former strength. From this time therefore the wars with the barbarians became more and more violent; and, though frequently overcome, the advantage was ultimately on their side. In 361, the first year of the emperor Julian, the pestilence again made its appearance. It was accompanied by many other grievous calamities: Dreadful earthquakes were felt in every province; most of the cities in Palestine, Libya, Sicily and Greece, were overturned. Libanius writes, that not one city in Libya was left standing, and but one in Greece; that Nice was utterly ruined, and Constantinople greatly damaged. The sea, in several places, broke in upon the land, and destroyed whole cities with their inhabitants. At Alexandria, the sea, retiring during an earthquake, returned again with such violence, that it drowned several towns and villages in the neighbourhood. The earthquakes were followed by a famine, and the famine by a pestilence. It was observed by the christian writers, that the famine seemed to follow Julian from place to place: and no wonder that it did so; for he not only had always a large army along with him, which consumed great quantities of provision, but, attempting to remedy the evil by fixing the prices of provisions, he rendered it much worse, as the dealers in corn were thereby tempted to convey it to other places.38Indeed this emperor seems to have been inclined to produce famines wherever he went; for, on his entering the territories of the Persians, with whom he was at war, he wasted the country to such a degree, that he could neither subsist nor return; while the enemy, imitating his example, destroyed all before him. The consequence was,that, by the time Julian was killed, the famine raged in the Roman camp to such a degree, that not a single person could have escaped, had not the enemy mercifully granted them peace.
Notwithstanding this dismal situation, we hear of no plague invading the camp of the Romans at that time. The wars, however, continued with great violence; and, in the time of Valentinian, Valens and Gratian, became worse than ever. The dreadful state of the empire in the time of Gratian is thus described by St. Jerom: “The whole country, from Constantinople to the Julian Alps, has been swimming these twenty years in Roman blood. Scythia, Thrace, Macedon, Dardania, Dacia, Thessaly, Achaia, both Epiruses, Dalmatia, both Pannonias, are filled with Goths, Sarmatians, Quadians, Alans, Huns, Vandals, Marcomans, &c. whose avarice nothing has escaped, whose cruelty has been felt by persons of all ranks, ages and conditions.” “What evils, (says Gregory Nazianzen) have we not seen or heard of! Whole countries have been destroyed with fire and sword; many thousand persons of all ranks and ages have been inhumanly massacred; the rivers are still dyed with blood, and the ground covered with heaps of dead bodies.”
In the midst of so great calamities, the pestilence, as an evil of inferior nature, might in many cases pass unnoticed by the historians of the times; nevertheless, even during that distracted period, we find some accounts of it. In 384 we are told of a famine and plague at Antioch; and, in 407, of one in Palestine, said to be occasioned by multitudes of grasshoppers, which even obscured the sun, and turned day into night. After having done incredible mischief, they were thrown by the wind partly into the Red Sea, and partly into the Mediterranean; whence being again cast ashore by the waves, they putrefied, and occasioned a pestilence. Two years after, when Rome had been first besieged by Alaric the Goth, the city was reduced to such straits, that human flesh was publicly sold, and some mothers are said to have devoured their children. This terrible famine wasoccasioned by the uncultivated state of the country, which had lain waste for several years, by reason of the wars, and the ports of Africa being blocked up by Heraclianus lest an usurper should become emperor; and thus this loyal admiral, for fear that the people should have a bad governor, determined rather that there should be no people to be governed. Notwithstanding this terrible famine, however, we hear of no pestilential disorder taking place; not even after the taking of the city by Alaric, when bloodshed and massacre were added to the other calamities.