FOOTNOTES:[1]The author seems to me here to allude to what Sydenham calls the “constitutio epidemica,” as if he would say, “The epidemic constitution as it exists at any one time, is but a step,” &c.[2]Grafton, Vol. II. pp. 147. 155.[3]Hall, p. 425.[4]For suddenlie a deadlie burning sweat so assailed their bodies and distempered their blood with a most ardent heat, thatscarce one amongst an hundredthat sickened did escape with life; for all in maner as soone as the sweat tooke them, or within a short time after, yeelded the ghost.Holinshed, Vol. III. p. 482.Godwin, p. 98.Polydor.Vergilius, L. XXVI. p. 567.Wood, T. I. A. 1485. p. 233.Woodtakes his testimony respecting the symptoms of the disease at third hand fromCarol.Valesius, (Cap. XIV. p. 226,) a French physician at Rome, about 1650, who employsP. Foreest’swords. This last author, however, did not himself observe the English sweating sickness.[5]Bacon, p. 36.[6]Fabian, p. 673.[7]Swetynge sykenessein the Chronicles.[8]The Mayors’ names wereThomas HylleandWilliam Stocker.Fabian, loc. cit.[9]Until the 30th of October.Grafton, p. 158.[10]Wood, loc. cit.[11]Phil. de Comines, Tom. I. p. 344. Compare the English chronicles quoted. The history of Croyland Abbey states that the 1st of August was the day ofRichmond’sarrival at Milford Haven. There exists no reason for departing from this statement with some modern writers, namely,Kay, du Chesne, p. 1192;Lilie, p. 382, andMarsolier, who assert the landing of the army to have taken place on the 7th of August. Historia Croylandensis, p. 573, inJo. Fell.[12]Grafton, p. 147.[13]Stow, p. 779.[14]According to the unanimous statements of the chroniclers.[15]Histor. Croylandens, p. 573.Fell.[16]Bacon, p. 7.Marsolier, p. 142. Yet in the autumn of that same yearHenryestablished, what no prior king of England ever had, a body-guard. It consisted of only 50 “Yomen of the Crowne,” to each of whom there were appointed two men on foot—an archer and a demi-lance, and a groom to attend to his three horses. The first commander of this body-guard, which formed the most ancient stock whence sprang the English standing army, wasHenry Bourchier, Earl of Essex.Herbert of Cherbury, p. 9.Grafton, and the other chroniclers, loc. cit.Baker, p. 254.[17]Bacon,Stow,Baker, loc. cit. Rapin considered the middle of September as the period of the outbreak. T. IV. p. 386.[18]“Infinite persons.”Bacon.“A wonderful number.”Stow.“Many thousands.”Baker, loc. cit.[19]The plague can scarcely be said to furnish this immunity, for though a second attack is an exception to a pretty general rule, it is one of by no means unfrequent occurrence.—Transl. note.[20]Holinshed, Vol. III. p. 482.[21]Wood, p. 233.[22]Histor. Croyland. p. 569.Fell.[23]No physick afforded any cure.Baker, p. 254.[24]Henry VII., and Henry VIII. Compare the excellent biographical account of this learned man byAikin.[25]Erasmusexpresses himself on this subject in his usual manner. He was on terms of strict friendship withLinacre, whom on other occasions he greatly lauds. This, however, does not prevent him from lashing him with his satire as a philological pedant. “Novi quendamπολυτεχνότατον, græcum, latinum, mathematicum, philosophum, medicum,καὶ ταῦτα βασιλικὸν, jam sexagenarium, (he was born in 1460, and died in 1524,) quiceteris rebus omissis, annis plus viginti se torquet ac discruciat in grammatica,prorsus felicem se fore ratus, si tamdiu liceat vivere, donec certo statuat, quomodo distinguendæ sint octo partes orationis, quod hactenus nemo Græcorum aut Latinorum ad plenum præstare valuit.” Laus Stultitiæ, p. 200. ThatLinacreis here meant is quite plain; the passage applies to no other contemporary.[26]See the author’s History of Medicine, Book II. p. 311.[27]Grafton, p. 161, and the other chroniclers.[28]Wood, loc. cit.[29]The luscious Greek wines were at this time the most in vogue, especially Cretan wine, Malmsey, and Muschat.Lemnius, de compl. L. II. fol. 111. b.Reusner, p. 70.[30]Werlich, p. 248.[31]Spangenberg, Mansf. Chr. fol. 395. f.[32]Werlich, p. 236.Spangenberg, loc. cit. Overflow of the Lech, 1484.Werlich, p. 239.[33]Frank von Wörd.fol. 211. a.[34]Grafton, p. 133, and all the other chroniclers.Short, Vol. I. p. 201, and several others, evenSchnurrer, erroneously asserted this inundation to have taken place in the year 1485.[35]Campo, p. 132.Pfeufer, p. 32.[36]Frank v. Wörd, fol. 211. a. In the plague which followed, about 20,000 people died in Brixen, and 30,000 in Venice.[37]Fracastor, p. 182. Morb. Contag. L. II.[38]Wurstisen, p. 474. cap. 15.Fracastor, p. 136.Spangenberg(Pestilentz) calls this Epidemic of 1482, which spread all over Germany, Switzerland and France, “das phrenitische, schwerhitzig Pestilentzfieber”, the phrenitic, intensely ardent, plague-fever. CompareStumpff.fol. 742. b.[39]The so calledHauptkrankheit.[40]Spangenberg, Mansfeld. Chr. fol. 396. a.[41]In many places women and children were obliged to draw the plough, from the want of draught cattle; they were obliged too to carry on the cultivation by night, that they might not be observed by the king’s inhuman revenue officers.—Mezeray, Tom. II. p. 750.[42]“Il couroit alors (1482) dans la France une dangereuse et mortelle maladie, qui affligeoit indifferemment les grands et les petits, bien qu’elle ne fut pas contagieuse. C’étoit une espèce defièvre chaude et frenetique, qui s’allumoit tout d’un coup dans le cerveau, et le brûloit avec de si cruelles douleurs, que les uns s’en cassoient la teste contre les murailles, les autres se précipitoient dans les puits, ou se tuoient à force de courir çà et là. On en attribu la cause à quelque maligne influence des astres et à la corruption, que la mauvaise nourriture de l’année précédente avoit formé dans le corps; d’autant que les vins et les bleds n’étant point venus à maturité, la disette avoit été si grande, principalement dans les provinces de delà la Loire, que les peuples n’avoient vécu que de racines et d’herbes.”Mezeray, Tom. II. p. 746.[43]It is expressly affirmed by the historians that many of the higher classes were sleepless fromthe constant alarm and fear of Tristan’s sword. How greatly must such a condition have predisposed the mind to receive this destructive fever![44]Jacques Cotier.He extorted from his patients 10,000 dollars a month, but, after his master’s death, was obliged to refund toCharlesVIII., 100,000 dollars.Comines, L. VI. c. 12. p. 400.[45]Mezeray, loc. cit.[46]Spangenberg, Mansfeld. Chron. fol. 379. a. Pestilentz, 1485.[47]CompareWebster, T. I. p. 147.[48]Spangenberg, Mansfeld. Chron. fol. 398. a., and many other chroniclers. The reader will have the goodness to observe, here and in similar places, that the text is not stating the opinion of the author, but the way in which these events were viewed in that age.[49]—Il y avoit seulement en Normandie quelque troupes de franc-archers, de ceux, queLouis XI. avoit licenciez, qui couroit la campagne: et plusieurs faineants s’étant joints avec eux, ils detruisoient tout le païs, et on devoit même craindre, que ce mal ne se communiquât aux provinces voisines. Mais il se présenta alors une belle occasion de delivrer la France de ces pillards ... et lui donna (Charles VIII.) tout ces francs-archers etbrigandsde Normandie jusqu’au nombre de 3000.Mezeray, T. II. p. 762.[50]“La milice estoit plus cruelle et plus desordonnée que jamais.” So saysMezerayof the French soldiers in general. T. II. p. 750.[51]Schiller, Sect. II. c. 1. p. 131. b.[52]Angelus, p. 253.Spangenberg, M. Chr. fol. 398. b. The scurvy affected society far more in the 15th and 16th centuries than it does at present, and made its appearance on several occasions as an epidemic. Compare, in particular,Reusner, whose work on the history of epidemics is one of general importance.Sennert,Wier, and others.[53]Schiller, loc. cit.[54]It was conceived not to bee an epidemicke disease, but to proceed from a malignity in the constitution of the aire, gathered by the predispositions of seasons: and the speedie cessation declared as much.Bacon, p. 9.[55]The name passed into the French, English, and Italian languages—Lansquenet, Lancichinecho.[56]——“flock together like flies in summer, so that any one would wonder where all these swarms have sprung from, and how they are maintained during the winter; and truly they are such a miserable crew, that one ought rather to pity than envy the kind of life they lead and their precarious fortune.”Franck’sChronicle. “On the destructive Lansquenets,” fol. 217. b.[57]1518. “This year there was a great gathering of the Landsknechts, who, as soon as they had assembled, went forth from Friesland, committed great ravages and made an incursion into the country at Gellern, and were beaten byVernlow.”Wintzenberger, fol. 23. a.[58]“Not to mention too the curtailment of life, for oneseldom meets with an old Landsknecht.”Franck, loc. cit.[59]Those Moors were so called who, in order to remain in Spain after the conquest of Granada, embraced Christianity.—Transl. note.[60]The petechial fever which will be spoken of further on.[61]Grafton, p. 220.Webster, Vol. I. p. 149.[62]Stow, p. 809.Fabian, p. 689.Hall, p. 502.Grafton, p. 230.Holinshed, p. 536.Bacon, p. 225.[63]Spangenberg, M. Chr. fol. 403. a. Pestilenz, A. 1505.[64]Webster, Vol. I. p. 151.Franck, fol. 219. a.Pingré, T. I. p. 481.[65]Bacon, p. 225.Stow, p. 809. Compare the other chroniclers, who most of them notice this event in great detail.[66]Bacon, p. 231.[67]EmpsonandDudley, ministers of Henry VII., who left behind him treasure to the amount of £1,800,000 sterling. CompareHume, Hist. of Eng. Vol. III.,Bacon, and almost all the chroniclers. Both ministers were executed in the following reign, in the year 1509.Grafton, p. 236.[68]Villalba, T. I. pp. 69. 99.—Ferdinand’sconflicts with the Saracens began in 1481, and ended with the fall of Granada in 1492. The disease is called in SpanishTabardillo, which name, however,Villalbahas not quoted at so early a period as 1490.[69]Villalba, loc. cit. p. 66.[70]Ibid. p. 69—Fracastor, de morbis contagios. L. II. c. 6. p. 155.—Schenck von Grafenberg, L. VI. p. 553. T. II.[71]Besides those already named, the writings ofOmodeiandPfeufer. CompareSchnurrer, Book II. p. 27.[72]It was called Puncticula or Peticulæ, also Febris stigmatica, Pestis petechiosa.Reusner, p. 11. For later synonimes, seeBurserius, Vol. II. p. 293.[73]Consimilem ergoinfectionem in aëreprimum fuisse censendum est, quæ mox in nos ingesta tale febrium genus attulerit, quæ tametsi pestilentes veræ non sunt, in limine tamen earum videntur esse. Analogia vero ejus contagionis ad sanguinem præcipue esse constat, quod et maculæ illæ, quæ expelli consuevere, demonstrant, etc. p. 161.[74]Compare the whole of the sixth and seventh chapters ofFracastor.loc. cit. What was the general judgment of the Italian physicians respecting the spotted fever, may be gathered fromNic. Massa, whose confused work, however, contributes nothing to the history of the disease. Cap. IV. fol. 67, seq. CompareSchenck von Grafenberg’sexcellent and very copious treatise, de febre stigmatica. L. VI. p. 553, Tom. II.[75]Osorio, fol. 113. b., 114. a.[76]See further on.[77]Villalba, p. 78, et seq.[78]Spangenberg, M. Chr. fol. 402. a.Angelus, p. 261.Pingré, T. I. p. 479.[79]CompareWebster, who has collected together whatever could be found on this subject. Vol. II. p. 82.[80]Spangenberg, M. Chr. fol. 402. a.[81]The same.Franck, fol. 219. a.[82]Author’s History of Medicine. Book II. p. 146.[83]Sigebert. Gembl.fol. 58. a.Spangenberg, M. Chr. fol. 66. b.[84]Sigebert. Gembl.fol. 82. a.Hermann. Contract, p. 186.Witichind.p. 34.[85]Compare on this subjectNees v. Esenbeck’sSupplement toR. Brown’sMiscellaneous Botanical Writings, Book I. p. 571; andEhrenberg’sNew Observations on Blood-like Appearances in Egypt, Arabia, and Siberia, together with a review and critique on what was earlier known, inPoggendorff’sAnnalen, 1830; the two best works on this subject; wherein is also contained a criticism onChladni’sHypermeteorological Views.[86]Crusiusis the most circumstantial on this point, for he gives the names of many persons on whose clothes crosses were visible. On a maiden’s shawl the instruments of Christ’s martyrdom were supposed to have been seen marked. In the vicinity of Biberach, a miller’s lad made rude sport of the painting of crosses, but he was seized and burned. Book II. p. 156.[87]Mezeray, T. II. p. 819.[88]Angelus, p. 261.[89]Perhaps Sporotrichum vesicarum, or a kind of Mycoderma.[90]Vincenzo Settedescribes a kind of red mould, which in the year 1819 coloured vegetable and animal substances in the province of Padua, and excited superstitious apprehensions among the people. See his work on this subject.[91]“Autumnali vero tempore, cum jam vestes, lintea, culcitræ, panes, omnis generis obsonia, sub dio, vel in conclavibus patentibus locata talem situmucoremcontraxerunt, qualis oritur in penore, in opacis domus cellis collocato, aut etiam in ipsis cellis diu non repurgatis, pestis præsentes ad nocendum vires habet.” L. I. p. 45.Agricola’sTreatise on the Plague is among the cleverest which the sixteenth century produced.[92]For example, at the time of the Justinian Plague, and of the Black Death.[93]Mezeray, T. II. p. 828.[94]See above, p. 189.[95]The former mortality was so far from having ceased, yea, rather in the great heat (of summer) was still more vehement, that in some places a third part, and in some even the half of the people were snatched away by death, and that not by one only,but by various and hitherto unheard of diseases. Men caught the burning fever so rapidly and violently, that they thought they must be totally consumed. Some were seized with suchsevere and insupportable headachethat they were deprived of their senses, some with sucha violent coughthat theyexpectorated bloodincessantly—some with such a very rapid flux, that it broke their hearts: the bodies of some putrefied, and were so offensive that no one could remain near them. And by reason of such extraordinary diseases, it was a most sorrowful and troublous year, and there followed a hard winter, in the which, the cold lasted for three months.Spangenberg, M. Chr. fol. 402. b. CompareAngelus, p. 263, who, following some contemporaries, mentions a comet (doubted byPingré, I. 479) as having appeared in the year 1504.[96]From a Poem on Henry VIII. inHerbert of Cherbury.[97]They found grazing more profitable, and converted large tracts of arable land into pasture.Hume, T. IV. p. 277.[98]Lemnius, fol. III. b.[99]Grafton, p. 294. This insurrection is called by the Chroniclers, “Insurrection of Evill May-day.”—Hume, T. IV. 274.[100]“Of the common sort they were numberless, that perished by it.”Godwyn, p. 23.[101]Is valde sibi videbatur adversus contagionem victus moderatione munitus: qua factum putavit, ut quum in nullum pene incideret, cujus non tota familia laboraverat, neminem adhuc e suis id malum attigerit,id quod et mihi et multis præterea jactavit, non admodum multis horis antequam extinctus est.“-Erasm.Epist. L. VII. ep. 4. col. 386. The date of the year of this letter from SirThomas MoretoErasmus, 1520, is clearly erroneous, as is that of many other letters in this collection, for at that time the Sweating Sickness did not prevail in London; it is also sufficiently well known from other researches (Biographie Universelle—General Biographical Dictionary), that Ammonius died in 1517. The date of the month, however, 19th August, seems to be correct.Sprengelhas, in consequence of this false date of the year, been misled to assume a specific epidemic Sweating Sickness as having taken place in the year 1520, (Book II. p. 686,) which is wholly unconfirmed.[102]Grafton, p. 294, is very detailed. CompareHolinshed, p. 626.Baker, p. 286.Hall, p. 592.[103]Godwyn, p. 23.Stow, p. 849.[104]This, from the foregoing remark upon the death ofAmmonius, may be concluded with the greatest probability.[105]—“omnibus fere intra paucos dies decumbentibus, amissis plurimis, optimis atque honestissimis amicis.”Th. MoreinErasmus’s Epist.L. VII. ep. 4. col. 386.[106]Ibid. The only place where the disease is spoken of as having spread across the channel.[107]Spangenberg.M. Chr. fol. 408. a.[108]Crusius.T. II. p. 187.[109]Wintzenberger, fol. 21. a.Angelus, p. 282.Spangenberg, loc. cit.Pingré, T. I. p. 483.[110]Such was the name given in Germany to the already oft-mentioned pernicious fever with inflammation of the brain. We recognise it for the first time, as an epidemic, in France, in the year 1482. (See above, p. 189.) It frequently made its appearance throughout the whole of the sixteenth century.[111]Crusius, T. II. p. 187.[112]On the 16th of June, 1517, there was a great earthquake, and a tremendous storm of wind at Nördlingen, so that the parish church at St. Emeran was completely forced out of the ground and thrown down, and it was reckoned that there were 2000 houses and stables in that place which, for a space of two miles long, were overthrown and rent, and there were few houses there which were not, like the church, damaged and shaken to pieces.Wintzenberger, fol. 21. b.[113]In Xativa.Villalba, T. I. p. 83.[114]“Il est saoul comme un Angloys.”—Rondelet, de dign. morb. fol. 35. b.[115]Elyot, in his “Castell of Health,” quoted byAikin, p. 64.Rondelet, loc. cit.[116]In 1724, which was a great fruit year, there arose in this very county, from the immoderate use of cyder, an epidemic cholic; the Colica Damnoniorum. VideHuxham, Opera. (Lips. 1764.) Tom. III. p. 54.[117]Elyot, inAikin, p. 63.[118]Le Grand d’Aussy, T. I. p. 143.[119]Hume, T. IV. p. 273.Aikin, p. 59.[120]“Now-a-days, if a boy of seven years of age, or a young man of twenty years, have not two caps on his head, he and his friends will think that he may not continue in health; and yet, if the inner cap be not of velvet or satin, a serving-man feareth to lose his credence.”Elyot, inAikin, p. 64.[121]——“ubi homines perpetuo in hypocaustis degunt, multoque carnium esu se ingurgitant, et alimentis piperatis continuo utuntur. Quare factum est, ut continua hypocaustorum æstuatione meatuum cutis relaxatio consequeretur, quæ sudoris promptissima et potentissima causa esse solet,cuius materia in humorum exsuperantia consistebat, quam frequens alimentorum multum nutrientium et piperatorum usus colligerat.”Rondelet, loc. cit.[122]The floors of the houses generally are made of nothing but loam, and are strewed with rushes, which being constantly put on fresh, without a removal of the old, remain lying there, in some cases for twenty years, with fish-bones, broken victuals and other filth underneath, and impregnated with the urine of dogs and men.Erasm.Epist. L. xxii. ep. 12. col. 1140. This description is in all probability overdrawn, and applicable only to the poorest huts. It is, however, certainly not fictitious, and is not refuted byKaye.[123]Fracastoro,Fernel,Valleriola,Houlier, and most of the other learned physicians of the sixteenth century.[124]——“quod, vulgaria diversoria parum tuta sunt a contagio sceleratæ pestis, quæ nuper ab Anglis—in nostras regiones demigravit,” speaking of the English Sweating Sickness in Germany (1529).Erasm.Epist. L. xxvii. ep. 16. col. 1519. c.[125]Brown’s“Opportunity.”[126]Erasm.Epist. L. vii. ep. 4. col. 386.[127]Mezeray, T. II. p. 853.Paré, p. 823.Holler, Comm. II. in secund. sect. Coac. Hippocrat. p. 323.[128]“Un étrange rhûme qu’on nomma coqueluche, lequel tourmenta toute sorte de personnes, et leur rendit la voix si enrouée, que le barreau et les collèges en furent muets.”—Mezeray.CompareDiderotetd’Alembert, Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des Sciences, etc. T. IV. p. 182.
FOOTNOTES:
[1]The author seems to me here to allude to what Sydenham calls the “constitutio epidemica,” as if he would say, “The epidemic constitution as it exists at any one time, is but a step,” &c.
[2]Grafton, Vol. II. pp. 147. 155.
[3]Hall, p. 425.
[4]For suddenlie a deadlie burning sweat so assailed their bodies and distempered their blood with a most ardent heat, thatscarce one amongst an hundredthat sickened did escape with life; for all in maner as soone as the sweat tooke them, or within a short time after, yeelded the ghost.Holinshed, Vol. III. p. 482.Godwin, p. 98.Polydor.Vergilius, L. XXVI. p. 567.Wood, T. I. A. 1485. p. 233.Woodtakes his testimony respecting the symptoms of the disease at third hand fromCarol.Valesius, (Cap. XIV. p. 226,) a French physician at Rome, about 1650, who employsP. Foreest’swords. This last author, however, did not himself observe the English sweating sickness.
[5]Bacon, p. 36.
[6]Fabian, p. 673.
[7]Swetynge sykenessein the Chronicles.
[8]The Mayors’ names wereThomas HylleandWilliam Stocker.Fabian, loc. cit.
[9]Until the 30th of October.Grafton, p. 158.
[10]Wood, loc. cit.
[11]Phil. de Comines, Tom. I. p. 344. Compare the English chronicles quoted. The history of Croyland Abbey states that the 1st of August was the day ofRichmond’sarrival at Milford Haven. There exists no reason for departing from this statement with some modern writers, namely,Kay, du Chesne, p. 1192;Lilie, p. 382, andMarsolier, who assert the landing of the army to have taken place on the 7th of August. Historia Croylandensis, p. 573, inJo. Fell.
[12]Grafton, p. 147.
[13]Stow, p. 779.
[14]According to the unanimous statements of the chroniclers.
[15]Histor. Croylandens, p. 573.Fell.
[16]Bacon, p. 7.Marsolier, p. 142. Yet in the autumn of that same yearHenryestablished, what no prior king of England ever had, a body-guard. It consisted of only 50 “Yomen of the Crowne,” to each of whom there were appointed two men on foot—an archer and a demi-lance, and a groom to attend to his three horses. The first commander of this body-guard, which formed the most ancient stock whence sprang the English standing army, wasHenry Bourchier, Earl of Essex.Herbert of Cherbury, p. 9.Grafton, and the other chroniclers, loc. cit.Baker, p. 254.
[17]Bacon,Stow,Baker, loc. cit. Rapin considered the middle of September as the period of the outbreak. T. IV. p. 386.
[18]“Infinite persons.”Bacon.“A wonderful number.”Stow.“Many thousands.”Baker, loc. cit.
[19]The plague can scarcely be said to furnish this immunity, for though a second attack is an exception to a pretty general rule, it is one of by no means unfrequent occurrence.—Transl. note.
[20]Holinshed, Vol. III. p. 482.
[21]Wood, p. 233.
[22]Histor. Croyland. p. 569.Fell.
[23]No physick afforded any cure.Baker, p. 254.
[24]Henry VII., and Henry VIII. Compare the excellent biographical account of this learned man byAikin.
[25]Erasmusexpresses himself on this subject in his usual manner. He was on terms of strict friendship withLinacre, whom on other occasions he greatly lauds. This, however, does not prevent him from lashing him with his satire as a philological pedant. “Novi quendamπολυτεχνότατον, græcum, latinum, mathematicum, philosophum, medicum,καὶ ταῦτα βασιλικὸν, jam sexagenarium, (he was born in 1460, and died in 1524,) quiceteris rebus omissis, annis plus viginti se torquet ac discruciat in grammatica,prorsus felicem se fore ratus, si tamdiu liceat vivere, donec certo statuat, quomodo distinguendæ sint octo partes orationis, quod hactenus nemo Græcorum aut Latinorum ad plenum præstare valuit.” Laus Stultitiæ, p. 200. ThatLinacreis here meant is quite plain; the passage applies to no other contemporary.
[26]See the author’s History of Medicine, Book II. p. 311.
[27]Grafton, p. 161, and the other chroniclers.
[28]Wood, loc. cit.
[29]The luscious Greek wines were at this time the most in vogue, especially Cretan wine, Malmsey, and Muschat.Lemnius, de compl. L. II. fol. 111. b.Reusner, p. 70.
[30]Werlich, p. 248.
[31]Spangenberg, Mansf. Chr. fol. 395. f.
[32]Werlich, p. 236.Spangenberg, loc. cit. Overflow of the Lech, 1484.Werlich, p. 239.
[33]Frank von Wörd.fol. 211. a.
[34]Grafton, p. 133, and all the other chroniclers.Short, Vol. I. p. 201, and several others, evenSchnurrer, erroneously asserted this inundation to have taken place in the year 1485.
[35]Campo, p. 132.Pfeufer, p. 32.
[36]Frank v. Wörd, fol. 211. a. In the plague which followed, about 20,000 people died in Brixen, and 30,000 in Venice.
[37]Fracastor, p. 182. Morb. Contag. L. II.
[38]Wurstisen, p. 474. cap. 15.Fracastor, p. 136.Spangenberg(Pestilentz) calls this Epidemic of 1482, which spread all over Germany, Switzerland and France, “das phrenitische, schwerhitzig Pestilentzfieber”, the phrenitic, intensely ardent, plague-fever. CompareStumpff.fol. 742. b.
[39]The so calledHauptkrankheit.
[40]Spangenberg, Mansfeld. Chr. fol. 396. a.
[41]In many places women and children were obliged to draw the plough, from the want of draught cattle; they were obliged too to carry on the cultivation by night, that they might not be observed by the king’s inhuman revenue officers.—Mezeray, Tom. II. p. 750.
[42]“Il couroit alors (1482) dans la France une dangereuse et mortelle maladie, qui affligeoit indifferemment les grands et les petits, bien qu’elle ne fut pas contagieuse. C’étoit une espèce defièvre chaude et frenetique, qui s’allumoit tout d’un coup dans le cerveau, et le brûloit avec de si cruelles douleurs, que les uns s’en cassoient la teste contre les murailles, les autres se précipitoient dans les puits, ou se tuoient à force de courir çà et là. On en attribu la cause à quelque maligne influence des astres et à la corruption, que la mauvaise nourriture de l’année précédente avoit formé dans le corps; d’autant que les vins et les bleds n’étant point venus à maturité, la disette avoit été si grande, principalement dans les provinces de delà la Loire, que les peuples n’avoient vécu que de racines et d’herbes.”Mezeray, Tom. II. p. 746.
[43]It is expressly affirmed by the historians that many of the higher classes were sleepless fromthe constant alarm and fear of Tristan’s sword. How greatly must such a condition have predisposed the mind to receive this destructive fever!
[44]Jacques Cotier.He extorted from his patients 10,000 dollars a month, but, after his master’s death, was obliged to refund toCharlesVIII., 100,000 dollars.Comines, L. VI. c. 12. p. 400.
[45]Mezeray, loc. cit.
[46]Spangenberg, Mansfeld. Chron. fol. 379. a. Pestilentz, 1485.
[47]CompareWebster, T. I. p. 147.
[48]Spangenberg, Mansfeld. Chron. fol. 398. a., and many other chroniclers. The reader will have the goodness to observe, here and in similar places, that the text is not stating the opinion of the author, but the way in which these events were viewed in that age.
[49]—Il y avoit seulement en Normandie quelque troupes de franc-archers, de ceux, queLouis XI. avoit licenciez, qui couroit la campagne: et plusieurs faineants s’étant joints avec eux, ils detruisoient tout le païs, et on devoit même craindre, que ce mal ne se communiquât aux provinces voisines. Mais il se présenta alors une belle occasion de delivrer la France de ces pillards ... et lui donna (Charles VIII.) tout ces francs-archers etbrigandsde Normandie jusqu’au nombre de 3000.Mezeray, T. II. p. 762.
[50]“La milice estoit plus cruelle et plus desordonnée que jamais.” So saysMezerayof the French soldiers in general. T. II. p. 750.
[51]Schiller, Sect. II. c. 1. p. 131. b.
[52]Angelus, p. 253.Spangenberg, M. Chr. fol. 398. b. The scurvy affected society far more in the 15th and 16th centuries than it does at present, and made its appearance on several occasions as an epidemic. Compare, in particular,Reusner, whose work on the history of epidemics is one of general importance.Sennert,Wier, and others.
[53]Schiller, loc. cit.
[54]It was conceived not to bee an epidemicke disease, but to proceed from a malignity in the constitution of the aire, gathered by the predispositions of seasons: and the speedie cessation declared as much.Bacon, p. 9.
[55]The name passed into the French, English, and Italian languages—Lansquenet, Lancichinecho.
[56]——“flock together like flies in summer, so that any one would wonder where all these swarms have sprung from, and how they are maintained during the winter; and truly they are such a miserable crew, that one ought rather to pity than envy the kind of life they lead and their precarious fortune.”Franck’sChronicle. “On the destructive Lansquenets,” fol. 217. b.
[57]1518. “This year there was a great gathering of the Landsknechts, who, as soon as they had assembled, went forth from Friesland, committed great ravages and made an incursion into the country at Gellern, and were beaten byVernlow.”Wintzenberger, fol. 23. a.
[58]“Not to mention too the curtailment of life, for oneseldom meets with an old Landsknecht.”Franck, loc. cit.
[59]Those Moors were so called who, in order to remain in Spain after the conquest of Granada, embraced Christianity.—Transl. note.
[60]The petechial fever which will be spoken of further on.
[61]Grafton, p. 220.Webster, Vol. I. p. 149.
[62]Stow, p. 809.Fabian, p. 689.Hall, p. 502.Grafton, p. 230.Holinshed, p. 536.Bacon, p. 225.
[63]Spangenberg, M. Chr. fol. 403. a. Pestilenz, A. 1505.
[64]Webster, Vol. I. p. 151.Franck, fol. 219. a.Pingré, T. I. p. 481.
[65]Bacon, p. 225.Stow, p. 809. Compare the other chroniclers, who most of them notice this event in great detail.
[66]Bacon, p. 231.
[67]EmpsonandDudley, ministers of Henry VII., who left behind him treasure to the amount of £1,800,000 sterling. CompareHume, Hist. of Eng. Vol. III.,Bacon, and almost all the chroniclers. Both ministers were executed in the following reign, in the year 1509.Grafton, p. 236.
[68]Villalba, T. I. pp. 69. 99.—Ferdinand’sconflicts with the Saracens began in 1481, and ended with the fall of Granada in 1492. The disease is called in SpanishTabardillo, which name, however,Villalbahas not quoted at so early a period as 1490.
[69]Villalba, loc. cit. p. 66.
[70]Ibid. p. 69—Fracastor, de morbis contagios. L. II. c. 6. p. 155.—Schenck von Grafenberg, L. VI. p. 553. T. II.
[71]Besides those already named, the writings ofOmodeiandPfeufer. CompareSchnurrer, Book II. p. 27.
[72]It was called Puncticula or Peticulæ, also Febris stigmatica, Pestis petechiosa.Reusner, p. 11. For later synonimes, seeBurserius, Vol. II. p. 293.
[73]Consimilem ergoinfectionem in aëreprimum fuisse censendum est, quæ mox in nos ingesta tale febrium genus attulerit, quæ tametsi pestilentes veræ non sunt, in limine tamen earum videntur esse. Analogia vero ejus contagionis ad sanguinem præcipue esse constat, quod et maculæ illæ, quæ expelli consuevere, demonstrant, etc. p. 161.
[74]Compare the whole of the sixth and seventh chapters ofFracastor.loc. cit. What was the general judgment of the Italian physicians respecting the spotted fever, may be gathered fromNic. Massa, whose confused work, however, contributes nothing to the history of the disease. Cap. IV. fol. 67, seq. CompareSchenck von Grafenberg’sexcellent and very copious treatise, de febre stigmatica. L. VI. p. 553, Tom. II.
[75]Osorio, fol. 113. b., 114. a.
[76]See further on.
[77]Villalba, p. 78, et seq.
[78]Spangenberg, M. Chr. fol. 402. a.Angelus, p. 261.Pingré, T. I. p. 479.
[79]CompareWebster, who has collected together whatever could be found on this subject. Vol. II. p. 82.
[80]Spangenberg, M. Chr. fol. 402. a.
[81]The same.Franck, fol. 219. a.
[82]Author’s History of Medicine. Book II. p. 146.
[83]Sigebert. Gembl.fol. 58. a.Spangenberg, M. Chr. fol. 66. b.
[84]Sigebert. Gembl.fol. 82. a.Hermann. Contract, p. 186.Witichind.p. 34.
[85]Compare on this subjectNees v. Esenbeck’sSupplement toR. Brown’sMiscellaneous Botanical Writings, Book I. p. 571; andEhrenberg’sNew Observations on Blood-like Appearances in Egypt, Arabia, and Siberia, together with a review and critique on what was earlier known, inPoggendorff’sAnnalen, 1830; the two best works on this subject; wherein is also contained a criticism onChladni’sHypermeteorological Views.
[86]Crusiusis the most circumstantial on this point, for he gives the names of many persons on whose clothes crosses were visible. On a maiden’s shawl the instruments of Christ’s martyrdom were supposed to have been seen marked. In the vicinity of Biberach, a miller’s lad made rude sport of the painting of crosses, but he was seized and burned. Book II. p. 156.
[87]Mezeray, T. II. p. 819.
[88]Angelus, p. 261.
[89]Perhaps Sporotrichum vesicarum, or a kind of Mycoderma.
[90]Vincenzo Settedescribes a kind of red mould, which in the year 1819 coloured vegetable and animal substances in the province of Padua, and excited superstitious apprehensions among the people. See his work on this subject.
[91]“Autumnali vero tempore, cum jam vestes, lintea, culcitræ, panes, omnis generis obsonia, sub dio, vel in conclavibus patentibus locata talem situmucoremcontraxerunt, qualis oritur in penore, in opacis domus cellis collocato, aut etiam in ipsis cellis diu non repurgatis, pestis præsentes ad nocendum vires habet.” L. I. p. 45.Agricola’sTreatise on the Plague is among the cleverest which the sixteenth century produced.
[92]For example, at the time of the Justinian Plague, and of the Black Death.
[93]Mezeray, T. II. p. 828.
[94]See above, p. 189.
[95]The former mortality was so far from having ceased, yea, rather in the great heat (of summer) was still more vehement, that in some places a third part, and in some even the half of the people were snatched away by death, and that not by one only,but by various and hitherto unheard of diseases. Men caught the burning fever so rapidly and violently, that they thought they must be totally consumed. Some were seized with suchsevere and insupportable headachethat they were deprived of their senses, some with sucha violent coughthat theyexpectorated bloodincessantly—some with such a very rapid flux, that it broke their hearts: the bodies of some putrefied, and were so offensive that no one could remain near them. And by reason of such extraordinary diseases, it was a most sorrowful and troublous year, and there followed a hard winter, in the which, the cold lasted for three months.Spangenberg, M. Chr. fol. 402. b. CompareAngelus, p. 263, who, following some contemporaries, mentions a comet (doubted byPingré, I. 479) as having appeared in the year 1504.
[96]From a Poem on Henry VIII. inHerbert of Cherbury.
[97]They found grazing more profitable, and converted large tracts of arable land into pasture.Hume, T. IV. p. 277.
[98]Lemnius, fol. III. b.
[99]Grafton, p. 294. This insurrection is called by the Chroniclers, “Insurrection of Evill May-day.”—Hume, T. IV. 274.
[100]“Of the common sort they were numberless, that perished by it.”Godwyn, p. 23.
[101]Is valde sibi videbatur adversus contagionem victus moderatione munitus: qua factum putavit, ut quum in nullum pene incideret, cujus non tota familia laboraverat, neminem adhuc e suis id malum attigerit,id quod et mihi et multis præterea jactavit, non admodum multis horis antequam extinctus est.“-Erasm.Epist. L. VII. ep. 4. col. 386. The date of the year of this letter from SirThomas MoretoErasmus, 1520, is clearly erroneous, as is that of many other letters in this collection, for at that time the Sweating Sickness did not prevail in London; it is also sufficiently well known from other researches (Biographie Universelle—General Biographical Dictionary), that Ammonius died in 1517. The date of the month, however, 19th August, seems to be correct.Sprengelhas, in consequence of this false date of the year, been misled to assume a specific epidemic Sweating Sickness as having taken place in the year 1520, (Book II. p. 686,) which is wholly unconfirmed.
[102]Grafton, p. 294, is very detailed. CompareHolinshed, p. 626.Baker, p. 286.Hall, p. 592.
[103]Godwyn, p. 23.Stow, p. 849.
[104]This, from the foregoing remark upon the death ofAmmonius, may be concluded with the greatest probability.
[105]—“omnibus fere intra paucos dies decumbentibus, amissis plurimis, optimis atque honestissimis amicis.”Th. MoreinErasmus’s Epist.L. VII. ep. 4. col. 386.
[106]Ibid. The only place where the disease is spoken of as having spread across the channel.
[107]Spangenberg.M. Chr. fol. 408. a.
[108]Crusius.T. II. p. 187.
[109]Wintzenberger, fol. 21. a.Angelus, p. 282.Spangenberg, loc. cit.Pingré, T. I. p. 483.
[110]Such was the name given in Germany to the already oft-mentioned pernicious fever with inflammation of the brain. We recognise it for the first time, as an epidemic, in France, in the year 1482. (See above, p. 189.) It frequently made its appearance throughout the whole of the sixteenth century.
[111]Crusius, T. II. p. 187.
[112]On the 16th of June, 1517, there was a great earthquake, and a tremendous storm of wind at Nördlingen, so that the parish church at St. Emeran was completely forced out of the ground and thrown down, and it was reckoned that there were 2000 houses and stables in that place which, for a space of two miles long, were overthrown and rent, and there were few houses there which were not, like the church, damaged and shaken to pieces.Wintzenberger, fol. 21. b.
[113]In Xativa.Villalba, T. I. p. 83.
[114]“Il est saoul comme un Angloys.”—Rondelet, de dign. morb. fol. 35. b.
[115]Elyot, in his “Castell of Health,” quoted byAikin, p. 64.Rondelet, loc. cit.
[116]In 1724, which was a great fruit year, there arose in this very county, from the immoderate use of cyder, an epidemic cholic; the Colica Damnoniorum. VideHuxham, Opera. (Lips. 1764.) Tom. III. p. 54.
[117]Elyot, inAikin, p. 63.
[118]Le Grand d’Aussy, T. I. p. 143.
[119]Hume, T. IV. p. 273.Aikin, p. 59.
[120]“Now-a-days, if a boy of seven years of age, or a young man of twenty years, have not two caps on his head, he and his friends will think that he may not continue in health; and yet, if the inner cap be not of velvet or satin, a serving-man feareth to lose his credence.”Elyot, inAikin, p. 64.
[121]——“ubi homines perpetuo in hypocaustis degunt, multoque carnium esu se ingurgitant, et alimentis piperatis continuo utuntur. Quare factum est, ut continua hypocaustorum æstuatione meatuum cutis relaxatio consequeretur, quæ sudoris promptissima et potentissima causa esse solet,cuius materia in humorum exsuperantia consistebat, quam frequens alimentorum multum nutrientium et piperatorum usus colligerat.”Rondelet, loc. cit.
[122]The floors of the houses generally are made of nothing but loam, and are strewed with rushes, which being constantly put on fresh, without a removal of the old, remain lying there, in some cases for twenty years, with fish-bones, broken victuals and other filth underneath, and impregnated with the urine of dogs and men.Erasm.Epist. L. xxii. ep. 12. col. 1140. This description is in all probability overdrawn, and applicable only to the poorest huts. It is, however, certainly not fictitious, and is not refuted byKaye.
[123]Fracastoro,Fernel,Valleriola,Houlier, and most of the other learned physicians of the sixteenth century.
[124]——“quod, vulgaria diversoria parum tuta sunt a contagio sceleratæ pestis, quæ nuper ab Anglis—in nostras regiones demigravit,” speaking of the English Sweating Sickness in Germany (1529).Erasm.Epist. L. xxvii. ep. 16. col. 1519. c.
[125]Brown’s“Opportunity.”
[126]Erasm.Epist. L. vii. ep. 4. col. 386.
[127]Mezeray, T. II. p. 853.Paré, p. 823.Holler, Comm. II. in secund. sect. Coac. Hippocrat. p. 323.
[128]“Un étrange rhûme qu’on nomma coqueluche, lequel tourmenta toute sorte de personnes, et leur rendit la voix si enrouée, que le barreau et les collèges en furent muets.”—Mezeray.CompareDiderotetd’Alembert, Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des Sciences, etc. T. IV. p. 182.