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A BRIEF
HISTORY
O F
EPIDEMIC and  PESTILENTIAL DISEASES j
WITH THJE
PRINCIPAL PHENOMENA OF THE PHYSICAL

    WORLD,  WHICH PRECEDE AND AC-

               COMPANY THEM,


                      AND


    OBSERVATIONS DEDUCED FROM THE

                FACTS STATED.



          IN  TWO  V.OL UMES.
        By NOAH  WEBSTER,
Author af Differtations oa the gngli'fli Language and feveral other
  Works—Member of the Connecticut Academy of Arts andSeiences
  —of the Society for the Promotion of Agriculture, Arts and Man-
  ufactures,  in the State of New-York—of the American Academy
  of Arts and Sciences, and correfponding Member of the  Histori-
  cal Society in Mafiachufetts.                ,4

_____—==__   -  -   _i*L _  -     v_
VOL.  I.
v yj ( S  y
        HARTFORD:


   PRINTED BY HUDSON fc* GOODWIN.


                1799.


[PUBUSBED ACCORDING TO ACT OF CONGRESS."] 
ADVERTISEMENT.
       THE work quoted, under  the  title  of "  Magdeburgh
Jiiftory," is a  compilation  of Ecclefiaflical Hiflory made by
feveral writers at Magdeburgh, and divided into centuries.
   The work quoted under the title of  " Hid. Augufh"  is a
colleftion of the hiftories of the Roman affairs under the Em-
perors.
   The work cited under the title of " Angl. Script,"  is a col-
lection of the early hiflorians of England.
   The work cited under the title of " Germ. Script," is a col-
lection of the ancient hiflories of Germany, by Piflorius.
   In a few infknees, authors are cited without the page or chap-
ter.   This has  arifen from the  manner in which  my materials
were obtained—which was  to  tranferibe  pafTages  from books
wherever I found them, in public or private libraries, and fome-
times,  when books fell in my way by accident,  without the in-
tention of ufing them as authorities.   The inftances however are
not numerous, and the paflages may generally be found with eafe
by the index or chronological order of the work.   Since I have
had  it in view to publifh this treatife, and  tfpecially fince difcov-
ering a difpofition  in fome perfons  to decry  this attempt to in-
veftigate  truth,  by charging me with a defign to collect facts for
the  purpofe  of fupporting  preconceived opinions,  I have been
more careful to note  my authorities.  This muft be my apology
for citing fo many  authorities, which might otherwife appear like
affectation. 
CONTENTS of the FIRST VOLUME*
 Introduction,      .    .    .    .    Page*.

                     SECTION I.
 Of the divcrflty of opinions refpeaing the  caufe  and origin ofpef-
   tilence.   .-------9.

                     SECTION  IT.
 ffiflorical view of peflilentlal epidemics, and the phenomena in the
   pkyfical world which precede, attend or follow them, from the
   earlitfl accounts to the Chrlflian era,  ...     24-

                    SECTION  III.
 Hiftohcal view of peflilentlal epidemics, from the Chriflian era, to
   the year 1347,     -.----     65.

                    SECTION  IV.
i Hiftorical view of peflilentlal epidemics, from  the year 1347 ti
    1500,.......I33«
                     SECTION V.
 Hiftorical view of peflilentlal epidemics from the year 1500/0 1600.
                                                 BI-
                    SECTION  VI.
 Hiftorical view of peflilentlal epidemics from the year 1600 to the
   clofe of the year 1700,       -     -    -     -     I71*

                    SECTION  VII.
 Hiftorical view of peflilentlal epidemics from the year 1701, to the
   year 1788,......216.

                    SECTION VIII.
 Hiftorical view of peflilentlal epidemics from the year 1788 to the
   year 1799,  including the lafl epidemic period,    -     283. 
ERRORS,
     Page  37, line  9, from bottom, read ftccitare.
            44, line 10, read metu.
            76, line 16, read Lampridius.
            87, line  3, from bottom, after cold, place a comma.
           104, line 22, read deacon.
           106, line  2, read inguinaria.
           156, line  9, read Alcmar; alfo in page 174, line 1%.
           169, line  4, from bettom, read Penrith.
           204, line 18, after petechial, read fever.
           241, line  3, read 1750.
           260, line 18, for of read or.


  IN page 255 a fact is dated which contradicts the ftatement reflect-
ing the planet  Mars in page  241.  There 13 an  error in one of the
ftatements; and I  leave aftronomers to determin by calculations which
of the authorities, Ames' Almanac for 1750,  or the Annual  Regifter,
is wrong.  The error is not material to my fubject. The only queftion
of confequence, is, whether the near approach of Mars had any influ-
ence, in  producing the extreme heat of  1749 and 1766—a queftion I
pretend* not to determin. 
INTRODUCTION.
xV PUBLICATION on the fubjeft of difeafes,
from the pen of a man who has never before turn-
ed his attention to medical fcience or to chymiftryj
is a circumftance, which, if it does not require an
apology, demands at leaft an explanation.
  The prevalence of  the catarrh,  commonly called
influenza, in the years 1789 and 90, firft awakened
my curiofity on the fubjecT: of epidemic  difeafes.
A journey  which I made  in October  1789, from
Hartford to Bofton ;  and another in March 1790
from Hartford to Albany ; led me to obferve the
progrejfvvenefs of that difeafe,  with  its other phe-
nomena.
   The  appearance of the fcarlatina  anginofa in
 1793 revived  my  curiofity,  and a fimilar circum-
ftance,  a journey from  Hartford to New-York in
April of that year, led me to obferve a progreflion
in that difeafe from Weft to Eaft. A  flight attack
which my own children fuffered, in May following,
together with a fimilar attack of many other chil-
dren in Hartford, and its more violent effects fome
months after,  convinced me that the epidemic was
prognffive m malignancy, as well as in regard to place.
   Had no other epidemic appeared, my curiofity
would  probably have  fubfided  and  been extin-
guifhed.   The  malignant  fever  in  New-York in
j 791,  had excited alarm in that city, and was a
                       a 
VI
fubjedt of notice in Hartford where I then refided 5
but no idea had been conceived, that  it was con-
nected with  a  peftilential  ftate of the air,* in the
United  States,  which  was afterwards to produce
more ferious  and general calamities.
  In  autumn 1793  however that peftilential flate
of air arrived to its  crifis in Philadelphia,  where
the mortality occafioned by the yellow fever, fprea<|
deitruction and difmay, from  Auguft  to Novem-
ber. '  The fatality  of the difeafe fpread confterna-
tion thro the United States,  and excited apprehen-
fions in Europe.
  Nw American citizen could be indifferent to the
prevalence of this difeafe in his own country.  Still
it was conceived that the diftemper might  have been
produced  from imported infection, and that a more
rigid  execution of the laws relating to quarantine,
might prevent a repetition of the calamity.  Here
refted apprehenfion and enquiry.
  But this tranquillity was of fhort duration.  The
appearance of the fame difeafe  in  New-Haven  in
1794, and in New-York,  Baltimore and Norfolk
in 1795,  revived  my  curiofity, with  double zeal
to fearch  out  the caufes of thefe phenomena,  fo
unuiual in this country.   The facts which had come
to my knowledge, relating to the origin  and prop-
agation of this difeafe,  led me to fufpect the com-
mon  theory of inftclion to be ill-founded.   But as
a  preliminary  to  all other enquiries, it appeared
neceflary  to fettle  the  controverty  relative  to  the
imported or domejlic fources of the  diftemper;  for
without  a decifion of this queftion, legiflarive and
police-regulation*, for preventing a return of  the 
 evil, or mitigating its feverity, would probably be
 fruitlefs.  The queftion appeared to be extremely
 important, and the differences  of opinion on the
 fubject, among medical gentlemen,  feemed to pre-
 clude the poflibility of a decifion  among  them,%
 that mould filence doubts in the public mind.
   In this fituation of thecontroverfy, I refolved to
 make an effort to obtain evidence which miaht de-
 cide the  point, in one way  or the  other ;  and as
 facts only can be relied on as a fure bafis of prin-
 ciples and theory,  I determined to make a collect-
 ion of facts,  from all  parts of the United States,
 where the yellow fever, or other malignant fevers
 had prevailed, during the preceding years.  For
 this purpofe,  on the 31ft of October 1795,  I ad*.
 dreffed a circular letter to the phyficians of  Phila-
 delphia, New-York, Baltimore",'Norfolk,- New-Ha-
 ven, and in genera!, throughout the United States,
 requeuing them  to communicate  to  me  whatever
 facts  bad come  within their obferv'ation,  which
 could throw light on the queftion of the foreign or
 domeftic. origin  of the yellow fever.   In  confe-
 rence of which I received a number of commu-
 nications,  which  were publifhed  in 1796, and to
 which is prefixed my circular letter.
   Thefe communications, tho  lefs  numerous and
Satisfactory than  were defirable, united with a mul-
 titude of fads within my own obfervation, convin»
 ced  me of the fallacy of the vulgar opinion, re-
 fpecting the origin of the yellow fever in the Uni-
 ted  States, from imported  fources.  I found re-
 peatedly  that  the  reports of perfons  taken  ill,  in
 confequence  of  intercourfe  with veflels from the 
viii
Weft-Indies,  or with difeafed feamen, infected cot-
ton or clothing, or the like caufes, were mere idle
tales, raifed  by the ignorant or interefted, and
wholly unfupported by evidence.  Scarcely  an in-
ftance could be found, in which the evidence of the
propagation of difeafe,  from,  imported infection,
was fuflicient to render the fact even probable.
   On the other hand, the evidence of  the origina-
tion of the difeafe in New-York,  Baliimore, Nor-
folk, Newburyport, Bofton and Charlefton, appear-
ed to be clear and fatisfactory.   In  moft of thofe
places, the fact has never been queftioned.
   When the  fame difeafe appeared in Philadelphia.»
in 1797 ;  the queftion of  importation  or domeftic
origin, again  agitated  the  faculty and  the  public
The  revival of the difcuflion, and particularly, cer-
tain  publications  of Dr.  William Currie,  in the
Philadelphia  prints, called forth  my exertions to
unite opinions and fave the citizens of this country
from  the  detraction of meafures, which muft ne-
ceffarily follow a divifion of opinions.   I confidered
and ftill confider the queftion as refting principally
on fact, and not on medical fkill; therefore proper
to be inveftigated  and difcufled by any man who
has leifure and means, as well as by phyficians.
   Thefe confiderations gave rife to the obferv>ations
which  I addreffed to Dr. Currie, thro the medium
of fhe public papers, in the  months of October,
November and December 1797.  The defign of
thefe obfervations was originally limited tothepur-
pofe of proving the yellow fever  of our country to
be generated  by local and domeftic caufes, by lay-
ing together  the fads which I had colle&ed from 
                       IX

 various parts of the United States, without any in-
 tention of examining  the hiftory and phenomena,
 of peftilential difeafes in other countries, and other
 periods of the world.
   In purfuing this objed however, I was led infen-
 fibly to examin all the  books I could find, on the
 fubjed of the plague j  and the fubjed being new,
 I found too much pleafure in profecuting it, readily
 to abandon the purfuit.   Fads which were new  to
 me were  daily prefenting themfelves to my mind ;
 and after three months inveftigation,  I was perfua-
 ded that thofe fads are of too much importance to
 philofophy, to medicin and to  human  happinefs,
 not to merit publication.   Such is the origin of the
 prefent treatife.
   When  I began my enquiries into the origin  of
 the yellow fever, in 1795, I had no preconceived
 fyftem to maintain.  My view  was to colled fads
 and from them to  deduce truth.  It  is  not my
 intention  to advance theory over fad ;  but as  far
 as juft  philofophy  and found  logic  will  permit,
 draw theory from fads,  and  if poflible,  by fair
 reafoning, from the uniform operations of  nature,
 to arrive at fixed principles.  If conjedures fhould
 in any inftance be advanced, they will be offered
 as fuch, and not as the bafts of pradice.
   As there is a difference of opinion in  regard to
 the caufes of the plague,  and other peftilential dif-
 eafes, as well  as in regard  to the identity of the
 yellow fever and plague, I fhall define my manner
 of ufing certain  terms,  which will  often occur in
the following work. 
Jf
   That peftilential difeafe which ufually,  in the
Levant, produces fwelling^ in the glands, as buboes,
I mall call the glandular or inguinal  plague.
   The peftilential  difeafe which has  afflided  fome
of the cities in America, and is ufually called yellow
fever, I fhall denominate, the bilious or  American
plague.
   In  the Levant plague, fwellings in the groin,  in
the arm-pits, and behind the ears, do not, in every
cafe,  appear ; but they are the general diltinguifh-
ing marks of the true  peftis or plague.
   In  the  yellow  fever, the fkin  is  not, in  every
cafe,  marked by a yellow color ;  but it l> generally
the fad, and therefore this form of  peftilencTe may
very well  take  its  denomination from that circum*
ftance of  its  bilious appearance.
   Whether thefe are difeafe fpecifically diftind,  or
only the fame  difeafe  varied and modified by  cli-
mate, feafon or other  circumftances, is a queftion
that belongs to the faculty.  It is fufEcient for my
purpofe to obferve, that in moft of  the fymptoms,
they agree—that they  are peftilential and greatly to
be dreaded  by mankind.  I  fhall  therefore treat
them as different forms of the fame difeafe.  There
may be fome caufe for believing that the moifture
of a country, abounding  with woods, and marfhy
grounds,  may occafion the difference in the color
of bodies which fall vidims to peftilence.
   The words infection and contagion, are ufed  by
medical writers and in popular cuftom, as fynony-
mous, and their etymologies  warrant the pradice.
But I conceive there are diftindions in this quality
or power  of  difeafes,  of communicating themfelves 
XI
by contad or near approach, which require to have
each its appropiiate language.
   That quality of  a difeafe which communicates it
from a lick to a well perfon, on fimply inhaling the
breath or effluvia from the perfon  of the difeafed,
at any time and in any place,  may be called fpecific
contagion.   Such  is the contagion of the fmall-pox
and the  meafles, which are therefore called conta-
gious  difeafes.
   That quality of a difeafe which, tho  infalutary
 will not communicate it, without the aid of other
 caufes, as v/arm weather,  or peculiar fituation and
' habit of  body, and which requires the  healthful
 perfon to be a confiderable time, under its influence,
 to give it effed,  may  be called  inftclion.   Such is
 the quality of the plague, in all its forms, dyfen-
 tery,  and  all  typhus  fevers.  It  may perhaps be
 poflible for the effluvia of thofe who have thefe dif-
 eafes, to be fo  concentrated  and  virulent,   as to
 communicate them to a perfon in  health, by a fin-
 gle infpiratibn of  air  into  the lungs.   But if fuch
 can be the cafe in any inftance, it is not the  ordi-
 nary ftate of thofe difeafes.  Even in  the plague,
 many attendants on the fick never receive the difeafe
 at all ; and in mod cafes,  healthful perfons  may,
 for hours, breathe the air of the rooms where the
 patients are, without  any injury.
    Hence infedion is capable of all degrees of ac-
 tivity and  force,  from  a flight  impurity of air,
 which affeds no .perfon in health,  to  that virulent
 ftate of air, which will produce vomiting in a per-
 fon fuddenly expofed to it.   Infeclion is ufually ren-
 dered inadiye by fevere cold j fpecific contagion is 
Xll
never deftroyed, but often rendered more adive by
cold.   Hence the winter in northern latitudes ufu-
ally puts an end to the  plague, but  makes  no fa-
vorable alteration in the fmall-pox.  There are fome
exceptions to this remark, as it regards the plague,
which will be noticed in the following work.
  Thefe diftindions, which will  appear,  in the
courfe of this treatife to be well founded, have never
been defined or ufed  by European  phyficians,  fo
far as my information extends ;  and to the want of
them, are to be afcribed many errors and abfurdi-
ties in opinion,  as well as warm controverfies in re-
gard to the contagion of the plague.
  That ftate of our  atmofphere which produces
difeafe,  or difpofes the  body to  difeafe, independ-
ent of  other caufes,  I call general or primary conta-
gion.   Synonymous with thefe phrafes, will be ufed
a peftilential ftate or conftitution of the air.
  The word pejiilence may be ufed as fynonymous
with plague; or as  exprefling all kinds of conta-
gious and infedious  epidemics.   I  have ufed it in
both fenfes ; and often  to exprefs an idea of that
feries of  epidemics  which  are  clofely conneded
with the plague.
  Whether thefe diftindions  are juft or not, is not
very material;  it is fufHcient that they will exprefs
my ideas in the following treatife. 
SECTION  I.
   Of the dlverfity of opinions refpealng the caufe and origin of
                         . peflilence.



 T  ROM the date of the earlieft hiftorical records, the opin-
ions of men  have been divided on the fubjedt  of  the caufes and
origin  of peftilential difeafes.  All enquiries of the philofopher
and  the phyfician have hitherto been baffled, and inveftigations,
often repeated,  have ended without leading  to fatisfadtory con-
clufjons.
   In the hiftory of opinions on  this myfterious fubjecT:, there is
a  remarkable  diftinclion  between  the  ancients  and  moderns.
The ancients derived moft of their  knowledge and  fcience from
perfonal obfervation, as they had very few  books and little aid
from the improvements  of their predecefTors.  The  philofo-
phers of antiquity,  attentive  to changes in the feafons  and to
the revolutions of the heavenly bodies, attempted to trace pefti-
lential difeafes to extraordinary viciflitudes in  the weather,  and
to the  afpecls of the planets.   Modern philofophers and  phyfi-
cians,  on the other hand, unable-to account  for peflilence  on
the principle  of extraordiaary  feafons, and  difdaining  to  admit
the influence of the planets to  be the caufe,  have reforted to in-
vifible  animalculae, and to infection  concealed in bales  of  goods
or old clothes,  tranfported from  Egypt or Conftantinople,  and
let loofe, at certain  periods, to fcourge mankind  and defolate
the earth.
 < In both periods of the world,  the  common mafs of people,
ufually ignorant and always inclined to believe  in the marvellous,
                              B 
                             IO

have cut the Gordian knot of difficulty, by afcribing peflilence
to the  immediate exercife  of divine power; under the irapref-
fion that the plague is one of the judgments which God,  in his
wrath, infli&s on mankind to punifh them for their iniquities.
   Without deciding on  the comparative merit of thefe refpe<5r-
ive opinions,  it is fufficient to obferve, that they are all probably
incorrect;  and thofe of  the philofophets, altogether  inadequate
to explain the origin of  peftilential Epidemics.
   It may however be of ufe to infert,  in this place, the expla-
nations of the caufe  of peflilence, given by fome of the  princi-
pal writers on the fubjecT.
   Hippocrates, the  father of medical fcience, and a man of very
acute obfervation, confidered peflilence as  the effect  of  partic-
ular feafons and  winds.   A peftilential ftate or  conftitution of
air he defcribes, as occafioned by  a continuation of foutherly
winds, and a warm, humid, clouded atmofphere.
                                  De raorbis vulgaribus, lib.  3.
   Galen followed the fame theory.   He fays that peftilent dif-
eafes arife  from  a putridity  of the  air ; and in  another  place,
a call flatu,  from the ftate of  the air or weather.
                                         p. 627, in  Hippoc—
   It will at once occur to an  intelligent reader,  that a particular
defcription of weather,  producing peftilence, muft be principal-
ly calculated for a particular country or latitude.   The  ftate of
feafons which Hippocrates calls peflilential, is evidently  calcula-
ted 10 produce or augment  autumnal difeafes in temperate lati-
tudes ; and  is precifely  the ftate of weather which exifted in
the United States in 1795,  when the bilious  plague  prevailed in
the cities of New-York, Baltimore  and Norfolk.    But  it does,
not correfpond with the feafon in 1793, when the  fame difeafe
raged in Philadelphia ;  for  that was  exceflively dry, nor with
the mmmer of 1797, which  was  temperate, in refpec"t to heat,
 cold ard moifture.
    Hippocrates indeed feems to have been aware that the feafons
 alone were not fuflicient to account for peftilence, for he fpeaks
 of to theion, fome divine principle  in the air, by which  modern 
                              II

  writers of celebrity fuppofe to be intended what  is now called
  an epidemic confliiutlon, refulting from changes in  the atmofphere
  produced by unknown caufes.   Ariftotle prob. i. relates that a
  hot and dry fouth wind will produce peftilence.
     The  philofophical  warrior and Liftorian, Ammianus Marcel-
  linus, after mentioning a plague  which broke out in Amida, a
  city of Peifia, when  befieged by Sapor  A. D.  359, from  the
  corruption of numerous  dead bodies which lay unburied in the
  ftreets, proceeds to unfold  the caufes of peftilential diftempers,
  in the following manner.
     " Philofyphers and eminent phyficians have taught that pefti-
  lence is produced by excefs of heat or cold, of drouth or moif-
  ture.   Whence it is that thofe who live  near  wet  and marfhy
  places are fubjefl to coughs, difeafes of the eyes and  the like.
I Thofe, on the other hand,  who refide where the heat is great,
  are troubled with febrile complaints; and in proportion as  the
  matter of fire is  more active, drouth is more rapid in deftroying
  life.   Hence, during the war of ten years in Greece,  this fpe-
  cies. of difeafe prevailed, and it was faid  that men perifhed by
  the weapons of Apollo, by which was fuppofed to  be meant,  the
  heat of the fun.   And, according to Thucydides, the mortality
  among the Athenians, in the beginning  of the  Peloponnefian
  war, was occafioned by an  acute difeafe,  which proceeded from
  the fervid regions of Ethiopia, and gradually extended to Attica.
     "  Others are of opinion that  air, like  water, vitiated by the
  effluvia of dead bodies, or  fimilar fubftances, is deprived of its
  falubrity ;  or at leaft that a fudden  change of air will produce
  the more flight complaints.   Some alfo affirm that the air,  ren-
  dered grofs by a denfer vapor from  the earth,  doling the pores
  of the  body and checking perfpiration, becomes fatal to  the
  lives of fome ; for which reafon, other animals than  man, which
  are continually bending towards the earth, are the  firft victims
  to peftilence,  as  Homer teftifies, and which is proved by many
  examples,  during the prevalence  of  peftilential difeafes.
    "  The firft fpecies of plague is called pandemic, and this af-
  flicts moft feverely thofe who are fubject  to exceflive  heat, in
  hot regions.   The fecond is denominated epidemic, which when 
12
 it rages, obfcures the fight and excites dangerous humors.  'The
 third Lamodes, which is temporary, but produces fudden death/'
                                                   Lib. 19.
   The hiftorian has here explained the  caufes of ordinary dif-
 eafes,  occafioned by extremes of weather, marfli effluvia,  vitia-
 ted air, and the direct action of violent heat, or ftroke of the
 fun.   No perfon will difpute the juftnefs of his remarks, for the
 fame caufes, at this day, produce  the fame  effects.   But the
 caufes afligned are not adequate to all the effedls,  which we wifh
 to explain.   They do not uniformly occafion peftilence ; and on
 the other hand, peftilence fometimes rages without the influence
 of thofe caufes.
   yEtius, an eminent phyfician, about t;he clofe of the 5th cen-
 tury, compiled  the opinions and methods  of cure  practifed by
 th.. molt celebrated of his  predecefTors.   In this  compilation,
 entitled "  Tetrabiblos,"  chap.  ix. we find the following para-
 graph on xhc iubjeit of Epidemic difeafes.
   " Thofe are called popular or epidemic difeafes,  which fpring
 from a common caufe, as bad food or water, immoderate grief
 or want  of cuftomary exercife,  hunger or repletion, efpecially
 when abundance fucceeds extreme want.   But the natlire of the
 country often caufes epidemic difeafes : the air we breathe  being
 vira-cd by  the evaporation from putrid fubftances.   Thefe fub-
 ftances are  multitudes of dead bodies after battles, marfhes or
 ftagnant water in the  vicinity,  which emit poifonous and fetid
 vapours.—This caufe  is in  continual operation.  And the air
 which furrounds us, always changes  its  temperament,  when  it
 becomes immoderately hot or cold,  dry  or humid.   To  other
 caufes we are not all equally expofed,  nor at  all times ; but the
 circumambient  air,  when we   are  abroad,  furrounds us all
alike, and is inhaled with the breath.
  "  Sometimes the furrounding air,  becoming unufually humid
and  hot,  induces a peftilential conftitution  ; and  as humors,
 tending to putrefaction,  are collected  in the body by eating un-
 Y/h<>*-_fome  food, this air  becomes  the fource of a peftilential
fever.  Therefore if a perfon takes  moderate exercife, and is 
'3
temperate and regular in his diet [victu modefto ac caftigato] he
wholly efcapes all affections of this kind."
   Such were the opinions of the phyficians and philofophers  of
antiquity.  No  diftinction  appears to have been made by them,
between the  plague and  other  peftilential  difeafes.  All  were
afcribed to the fame caufes.
   At what time the  diftinction  between Peftis and Peflilentla was
firft made,  has not occurred  to my enquiries.  But I find it in
the writings  of Profper Alpinus, a  Venetian  phyfician,  who
wrote about the  clofe  of the 16th century, and who had  been,
for fome years,  a practitioner in Egypt.  This author maintains
that  peftilcnt  fevers are occafioned by local caufes, as vitiated
air, and by peculiarities of feafon, as extreme heat and humid-
ity.   But he afferts that the plague  in Fgypt rarely  proceeds
from corrupted air,  and never,  except after an unufual overflow-
ing of  the -Nile, when  that river has exceeded its  common
bounds.   He contends  that if  this   difeafe  was produced  by
noxious exhalations from putrid and ftagnant'water, and marfhy
places,  it would occur every year.  He therefore concludes for
certain  that the plague is ufually imported from Greece, Syria,
Barbary, or  Turkey.   " Plerumque igitur id genus morbi  ibi
contagio ex  aliis locis afportari folet."  The contagion of the
plague is ufually imported from  other countries.
           Rerum. Egypt, vol. 2,  p. 73, vol. 3, 61, and vol. 4, 299.
   The  fame author alTerts that  the plague brought from Barbary
is more malignant and of longer duration, than  when brought
from Greece or  Syria.
   Diemerbroeck, an eminent  Dutch phyfician of the  laft cen-
tury,  has recorded an account of a violent plague in Nemueguen
in 1636, and fubjoined to  it the beft treatife on the origin  of
that difeafe,  which I have been able to find,  tho in  one or two
particulars, his ideas are very  inaccurate.   This author, whofe
treatife, I am  furprifed to find, is little known in this country,
afligns three caufes of  the peftis or true plague.   Firft, the jufl
anger of heaven, provoked by  the exhalations from the finks of
our fins and abominable  deeds.  Secondly,  a  mo«t malignaat,
poifonous,  and to human nature, deadly peftilent germ,  jTemi. 
                             *4
narium,] like a fubtle  fermentum or leaven,  fent from  heaven,
in a very fmall  quantity, diffufing  itfelf through the air like a
fubtle gas, and rendering it- impure.  This gas, he fuppofes to
fpread over many regions its numerous particles, and to imprefs
on the air an infection  like poifon, which often affects not only
many perfons, but almoft the whole world.
   However whimfical we  may think this author's explanation
of the peftilent principle ; that fome  fuch general  caufe exifts
in the atmofphere, at certain periods,  will be rendered very
probable,  if not certain, by  the  facts hereafter to be related. *
   The " feminarium e coelo demiffum"  of Diemerbroeck feems
to be the to theion of Hippocrates.   In what the efTence of this
principle confifts, is not known ;  but there muft be an alteration
in the chymical  properties of the atmofphere to folve the diffi-
culties  that attend  our inquiries into the caufe of  peftilence.—
That this alteration is the effect of a poifon, " e ccelo demiffum,"
is an  hypothefis unfupported by facts and wholly incredible.
   The  third caufe of peftilence, mentioned by  this author, is
infection.
   Diemerbroeck alfo  maintains the diftin&ion between peftis and
peflllentla.   The latter is fuppofed  to proceed from foul exhala-
tions, intemperate feafons and the like.   But  the plague,  he
contends, cannot  be occafioned by thofe caufes,  tho thefe may
aid the  feminarium or general caufe.
   Van  Helmont,  a Flemifh writer of fome celebrity, in  the laft
century, maintains that the plague cannot  be afcribed  to  the
" importunate and unfeafonable changes of times, nor  to  pu-
trefaction ;" that the  " poifon of the plague is a far fecret one
from any other;"  that the  " matter of that difeafe is  a  wild
fpirit tinged with  poifon,. exhaling from  a  difeafed perfon, or
drawn inwards from a gas of the earth putrified by continuance,
and receiving internally an appropriate ferment, and by degrees
attaining a peftilent poifon in us."   "  The remote, crude and
firft occafional matter  of  the peftilence,  is an air putrified thro'
continuance, or rather a hoary putrified gas, which putrefaction
of the  air, hath not  the 8200th part of  its feminal body."
This explanation feems to be hardly iatelligible.
             Works, Lond. Edit. 1662,  p.  1085,1090,1102,  1125. 
"5
   This author contends that "  the peft is not fent down from
heaven, but  that popular  plagues do draw their firft  occafional
matter from  an earthquake, and from the confequences of camps
and lieges."
                                                    p.  his-
   Hodges,  who wrote a treatife on the great plague in London
in  1665, obferves that  the air  fuffers fome  effential  alteration
which is neceffary  to favor the propagation of peftilence.  The
nitro-aerial principle,  which caufes  or invigorates vegetable and
animal life,  fometimes becomes  imperfect,  degenerate  or  cor-
rupt, being tainted with  fomething pernicious to vitality.   He
calls it poifonous,  and obferves that it proves injurious to  trees
and cattle,  as well as to man.    He fuppofes the corrupting prin-
ciple to be a fubtle aura or vapor extricated from the bowels of
the earth.   To this caufe alfo he afcribes the death of fifh du-
ring periods of peftilence.   At  the fame time he contends  that
the infecting principle is generated in  Africa or Afia,  and con-
veyed to  other countries.  The feat of the difeafe he fuppofes to
be in the animal fpirits.
   Van Swieten maintains that the caufe  of Epidemics is in the
■hidden qualities of the air,  and inexplicable.   He fuppofes it
 not impoflible that exhalations in earthquakes  may augment or
 leffen the deleterious quality of  the air  in peftilence.
                                             Com.  vol. 16, 47..
   Sydenham not only agrees with Diemerbroeck, Van Swieten,
and others,  in afcribing peftilence to occult qualities in  the air,
but has entered into the fubject of explaining the peculiar fyrnp-
toms of difeafes by the influence of an Epidemic conftitution of
. the air.   His occult qualities have been  ridiculed by later phyfi-
cians, and fo far  as  his theory, in this  refpect,  has  been  neg-
lected, the  fcience of medicin  has degenerated.   If  I  miftake
not,  it can  be made evident,  that one  of the moft  important,
as well as moft difficult  branches of  medical fcience, is to as-
certain the effect  of the reigning conftitution of air,  on  prevail-
ing difeafes, and to  apply  that  knowledge  to the cure of thofe
difeafes.
   Dr. Mead's treatife on the  plague  has  been much admired
and celebrated j  yet I will affert, that next to the  "  Traite de 
i6
la pefre," a treatife in  quarto on  the plague of Marfeilles, pub-
Iifhed by royal permiflion,  it is the weakeft and leaft valuable
performance on that fubject now extant.   The author acknowl-
edges he had never feen the  difeafe  of which  he wrote;  and
therefore muft have  formed his opinions  on the obfervations of
others.
   His eflay is intended to  demonftrate that the plague is propa-
gated by fpecific contagion only,  and  he  attempts to prove  that
this difeafe,  like the fmall-pox and mealies, has been bred in E-
gyptor Ethiopia, and thence propagated and entailed on Europe.
                                         Works, p. 242 & 3.
   In fupport of this theory he even goes fo far as to call in quef-
tion  the unanimous teftimony of  hiftorians, who relate that the
terrible plague of 1347, 8, 9, and 50, began in Cathay,  China.
In oppofition to which he " queftions not," that that peftilence
originated in Egypt.   He  alledges that  we muft feek the caufe
of plague in Egypt and no where elfe.
                                                   p. 246.
   He afcribes the plague to the putrefaction of animal fubftances
and  unfeafonable moifture, heats and  want of winds ; but  fays
" no kind of putrefaction in European countries is ever  height*
ened to a degree capable of producing the true plague."
                                                p. 247 & 8.
   This author afligns  three caufes of  plague,   ift. Difeafed
perfons  : 2d.  goods tranfported  from infected places:   3d. a
corrupted ftate of  air.
                                                    p. 25 c.
   He thinks the caufes mentioned  fo obvious that he wonders
at authors who r^fort to hidden qualities, fuch as malignant in-
fluences  of  the heavens, arfenical,  bituminous  or  other mine-
ral effluvia, with the like imaginary or uncertain  agents.
                                                    p. 249-
   He does not however deny "11  latent diforders in the air, but
confiders them as fecondary caufes only, increafing and promo-
ting  the difeafe when once bred, but  he thinks infection to be
the means of its propagation.   In this he differs widely from
Diemerbroeck who utterly  denies that the difeafe  is originally
derived from infedtion,  although he agrees that it may be after-
wards communicated from perfon to perfon by  contact or ntur 
'7
 approach.   Diemerbroeck alfo maintains the latent  qualities of
 the air to be the principal caufe of the  plague ; or caufe fine qua
 non—a point which the facts to  be hereafter detailed will  moft
 clearly demonftrate.
    Dr. Mead fays,  " the plague is never originally bred with us,
 but is always brought accidentally from abroad."
                                                     p. 261.
    The fame opinion is afferted moft pofitively in James' Medi-
 cal Dictionary, and in moft modern publications  on the fubject.
 The  compilers of the  Encyclopedia fay,  " the plague, as is
 generally agreed, is never bred or propagated m  Britain,  but al-
 ways imported from abroad,  efpecially from the Levant, LefTer
 Afia or Egypt where it is very common."   Such alfo was the
 opinion of the celebrated Cullen.
                     Encyclop. art. plague and medicine no. 221.
    The following fentence in  Dr. Mead is very exceptionable,
 as  it  is calculated to check  a fpirit of free  enquiry—a fpirit to
 which mankind are  greatly indebted for improvements in fcience.
    "  It may be juftly cenfured in thofe writers that they fhould
 undertake to determine the fpecific nature of thefe fecret chan-
 ges and alterations  which we have no means at all of difcover-
 ing,"  alluding to changes in the air.
                                                     p. 249-
    In oppofition to all thefe great  authorities, it will probably be
 proved, that  the plague generally, if not  always originates, in
 the country   where  it exifts   as  an  epidemic.  The common
 opinion of the propagation of  peftilence folely by infection, has
 had a moft calamitous effect on medicin and on human happinels.
 It has prevented the refearches  of acute  modern philofophers
 and phyficians,  who  might have been able, by diligence and a
comprehensive view of the fubject, to trace peftilence to its real
 caufes,  and to  fuggeft the true means of avoiding this terrible
fcourge.
  Thompfon  who travelled in Egypt about the year 1734,  and
whofe account of that country  has not been mended  by modern
travellers, obferves,  "" The coming and going of the plague are
two things  not eafily to  be accounted  for, notwithltanding wc
              •               c 
/
i8
are aftiired of the facts in a moft unqueftionable manner.   That
the infection is propagated in the air,  and thereby transferred
from place  to place, feems to be a matter out  of difpute ;  but
how it is generated therein, we are much at a lofs to determine."
He proceeds to ftate, like  many others,  " that the  plague is
generally brought into Egypt  from Conftantinople or  by Cara-
vans from the fouthern countfies."   And on the whole he thinks
it rarely generated in that country.
                                  Travels, vol. 2, p. 194 & 5-
   In  the Monthly Review vol. 33, there is an account of the
plague in Conftantinople, by Dr. Mackenzie, in which are fome
paflages worthy of notice.   After afferting his  opinion that  this
diftemper can  be  communicated enly  by  the touch or near a_;«
proach, he adds, " that both here and at Smyrna, the  plague
breaks out,  in fome years, when it is not poffible to trace whence
it is  conveyed."  He  fuppofes the difeafe to  proceed from
"  venomous moleculae lodged in wool,  cotton,  hair, leather  and
fkins," in houfes not well cleanfed after peftilence ; but that the
plague from this fource is  not fo fatal as when  it comes from
abroad.  The  air he thinks  no otherwife concerned in produ-
cing the difeafe, than as "  a vehicle to  convey the  venomous
particles from  one body to another."
   Dr. Chandler, in his account of a plague in Smyrna, has near-
ly the fame  idea, as Mackenzie, with refpect to the origin of rJie
difeafe.  He fays  " the plague  might perhaps be truly defined,
a difeafe arifing from certain  animalculae, probably invifible,
which burrow and form their nidus  in the  human body.  Thefe
whether generated in Egypt or elfewhere,  fubfift always in fome
places fuited to their nature.   They  are imported almofl annually
into Smyrna, and this  fpecies is commonly deftroyed by  intenfe
heat.   They are leaft  fatal at the beginning and latter end of
the feafon.   If they arrive early in  the fpring,  they are weak ;
but gather ftrength, multiply and then perifli.   The pores of the
fkin,  opened by the weather, readily admit them."
   Baron de Tott  in  his memoirs   obferves " The refeaxches  I
have  carefully made concerning the  plague, which I once believ-
ed to originate in Egypt, have convinced  me,  that it would not
be fo much as known there, were  not the feeds of it  conveyed 
*9
thither by  the commercial intercourfe  between Conftantinople
and Alexandria.   It is in this laft city that it always  begins to
appear.   It rarely reaches Cairo, though  no precaution is taken
to prevent it;  and when it does, it is prefently extirpated by the
heats, and prevented from arriving as far as the Said.  It is like-
vrife well known that the penetrating  dews, which fall in Egypt
about midfummer, deftroy, even in Alexandria, all remains of this
diftemper."
                                            Vol. 4. page  70.
   In vol. 1, p. 38 he fays,  " that the refearches into the nature
of this diftemper have only produced opinions which are feif-con-
tradidory  or unfupported by fairs."—"  There is  no difficulty
with refpect to the caufes which preferve and propagate it.   Both
the one and the other may be referred to the  dealers in old clothe*
in Conftantinople."
   Du Pauw,  in his Philofophical Diflertations on the Egyptians
and Chinefe, fpeaks of the  plague as a difeafe of  Egypt ; and
fuppofes the plague at Vienna in 1680, to have  been imported
from that country.—" Egypt is the  hot-bed of the plague—this
diforder is not produced  by famin—by  exact annotations con-
tinued during twenty-eight years, we find that it raged five times,
without being preceded by any fcarcity of food, and contrary to
what I once fufpefted, unreftridted to a periodical courfe."
                                           Vol. 1. p.  87, 89.
   Savaryalledge?,  in opposition to the laft mentioned author, that
the peftilence is not native in Egypt,  and that he confulted Egyp-
tians and phyficians who had lived there 20 years, who  informed
him that the plague was brought thither by the Turks.   He fup-
pofes Conftantinople to be pow the refider.ee of this dreadful af-
fliction, which i; preferved in exiftence by means of old clothes,
which, after a plague has ceafed, are diftributed and fold very low
by the Jews,  and thus the difeafe is propagated.
   Dr. Alexander RufTel has given  an account of  the plague in
Aleppo  in  1742 and  3, and endeavored to afcertain from what
quarter the difeafe originated and invaded that city.   He feems
to think,  it always appears firft at Tripoli, Sidon, or on the  Sea
Coaft.   It was aflerted that the great plague of 1719 came from
the northward ;  but as this fact does not  fuit his  theory, he, like 
SO
Dr. Mead,  in the cafe before mentioned, gives no credit to th*
affertion,  but adheres to  his opinion that all plagues  originate in
Egypt___At the fame time he is puzzled to  trace the difeafe, in
any inftance, to that country.
                                       See his hift. of Aleppo.
   Dr. Patrick Ruflel has publiflied a quarto volume on the plague
of Aleppo in 1760, and the fubject of quarantine.   In this work,
he has preferved  a number of important facts,  but without under-
ftandingthe fubject fufficiently to apply them to ufeful purpofgs.
All his theory and practical remarks are founded on the vulgar
fuppofition of the origin of that  difeafe in one or two cities  only,
and its propagation  by fpecific contagion—a  fuppofition totally
unfounded ; his treatife of courfe will be found  of little  value, in
this refpe<ft.
   Mr. Volney, with all his philofophy and feveral months  refi-
dence in Egypt,  furnifhes no  additional light,  on  the fubject cf
the origin of peftilence.    He fays, " fome perfons have attemp-
ted to eftablifh an opinion, that the  plague  originates in Egypt;
but this fuppofition, founded on vague prejudices, feems to be dis-
proved by fads."   This is an extraordinary affertion for a man
who has the character of a philofopher.   And  on what author-
ity does it reft ?  Simply on the declaration of European Merch-
ants who have been fettled for many years at Alexandria, and of
the Egyptians,  who fay that the difeafe  firft appears in  Alexan-
dria,  and that it i3 invariably preceded by an arrival from Smyr-
na or Conftantinople.    Therefore this philofopher  concludes,
" that the difeafe certainly originates from Conftantinople, where
it is  perpetuated by the  abfurd negligence of the Turks, who
publicly fell the  effects of perfons who die of that diftemper."
Here we  have  another great  man afcribing this vaft effect, an
epidemic peftilence, to fo trifling a caufe, as infection preferved in
furs,  woolens, and old clothes !
   What is ftill more aftonifhing,  the fame author adopts  the ideas
of the Egyptians,  which  Profper  Alpinus  had adopted before
hinj and  which he  has  evidently copied from Alpinus, that  a
plague  coming  from one country is lefs malignant than when it
comes from another,  as tho there  could be  a  difference in  the
fpecific contagion of the difeafe, when produced in different coua- 
21
 tries.  Volney  fays " when brought from  the Archipelago, or
 even from Damietta, into the  harbours  of Latakia, Saide or
 Acre, it will not fpread ; it rather chufes  preliminary  circum-
 ftances,  and a more complex route ; but when it paffes  directly
 from Cairo to Damafcus, all Syria is fure to  be infecled."
                    Travels in Egypt and Syria vol. I. 253. et feq.
   It is really furprifing that, if the fact is  well evidenced,  that
 a plague proceeding from one  country is more malignant  than
 one proceeding from another, men of extenfive erudition  and
 obfervation   fhould  not  undertake to aflign fome rational caufe
 for the phenomenon, rather  than to  propagate the vulgar  tales
 and opinions of the Egyptians.
   From this lengthy ftatement of opinions  in regard to  the ori-
 gin and caufes of peftilence ;  opinions weak,  contradictory, ab-
 furd or inaccurate,  what conclufion fhall be  drawn.   This,  moft
 evidently, that  the fubjea is not underflood.   Perhaps  it never
 will be underftood.   But furely a  fubject   fo interefting to the
 life and happinefs of man, deferves moft critical and laborious
 enquiry.  A fubject which  concerns  the lives of millions of the
 human race ought not to be abandoned by  the  man of  fcience,
 until every  effort  to  find the truth fhall have  been exhaufted.
 Yet ftrange as it may appear,  even  a  hiftory of peftilence that all
 devouring fcourge  which has  fwept away a large portion of the
 human race in every age, is yet a defidtratum in our libraries.
   To fupply in part  this defect,  and to ftimulate further re-
 fearches into the origin of this frequent and  formidable calamity,
 I will recite  fiich hiftorical accounts of the plague, as an im-
perfect examination of authors has enabled me to collect.  And
as the moft accurate obfervers of the operations of nature, have
fuggefted  the probability  that peftilential epidemics are caufed by
fome occult qualities in the air,  or  by vapor from  the  internal
parts  of the  earth,  or  by planetary  influence, it  is abfolutely
neceffary to  enquire how far fuch  fuggeftions are fupported by
facts*  For this purpofe, I fhall note,  as  I  proceed,  any extra-
ordinary  occurrence or  phenomena  in the phyfical world, as
earthquakes,  eruptions of volcanoes, appearance  of comets, vi-
olent tempefts, unufual  feafons,  and  other lingular events  and
circumftances, which may appear to be connected  with peffi- 
22
fence,  either as caufe  or effect, or as the effect of a common
caufe.
  The  refult of this procefs  will  probably be  a  refutation of
fome of the foregoing opinions, and the eftablifhment of fuch
as are more rational and philofophical.
  It is proper however to premife, that this inveftigation, which
has been purfued but a few months  only,  amidft other occupa-
tions, has been fubjefted to inconveniences peculiar to the Uni-
ted States.  No man can find in this country all the books ne-
ceffary for a complete  examination  of a hiftorical or fcientific
fubject.   The public libraries in  New-York  and  New-Haven,
tho very  valuable, are  deficient.   Thefe of Harvard College
and Philadelphia, are more  extenfive,  but incomplete.   I have
examined them all,  tho in fome of them I could fpend but little
time ;  yet in none of  them could I find all the authorities which
it was my wifh and intention to confult.
  It is further to be premifed, that  I have, as far  as it could be
done, reforted to original hiftorians for my facts and authorities.
This is certainly  the only fafe  method for a compiler ; but in
the United States, it cannot be  purfued with complete fuccefs,
for want of the original writers of the local hiftories of countries.
Moft of the Greek  and Roman authors are  to  be obtained in
our public  or private libraries ; but fome of  the  beft hiftorians
of Italy,  Germany, the Baltic nations  and Spain, who  have
lived within the laft four or five centuries, are not to be found ;
others  are in the original languages,  which I  do not  underftand.
  As to  the modern hiftorical compilations  in my  native  lan-
guage, they are almoft ufelefs on this fubject.   The moft  able
and celebrated  of them, Hume, Robertfon,  Smollet, Rapin
and Gibbon,  have paffed over moft of the plagues which have
defolated  cities and  countries, without notice, or with  fome
general remarks which afford little  light on  the fubject of their
origin.
   Moft modern writers appear to think every thing beneath their
notice, except war and political intrigues.   They detail,  -witjfi
difgufting minutenefs,  whatever relates to the deftruction or  an-
noyance of mankind by the ambition of princes and demagogues ; 
*3
while they omit or flightly mention  whatever regards the civil
and domeftic economy, the private manners and  habits,  the arts,
the health, and the focial happinefs of nations.   To this de-
fcription,  Dr. Henry's Hiftory of England, is  an  exception.
   Nor  have modern travellers furnifhed us with many valuable
materials to fupply the defects of our hiftories.   They pafs from
country to country  ; examine and dcfcribe a few  external ob-
jects, fuch as  cities, buildings, paintings and ftatues, but leave
more ufeful fubjects unexamined, and return home  with a book
of vulgar tales and errors.
   In refpect to  ufeful  hiftory, the ancient authors  have the
preference over the modern.   Modern compilers appear to have
written  for fame or for money,  rather than for  the fake  of un-
folding and   diffufing truth.   Hence they have principally  at-
tended to thofe animated periods of  the world,  which were dif-
tinguifhed for great  achievments j or  thofe prominent events,
a  defcription of  which  would intereft  the paflions  of their
readers  :  Or they have fele<5led for defcription fuch parts of the
hiftory of nations as would enable   them  to adorn their works
with an  elevated ftyle ;  omitting a multitude  of fubordinate
facts, as below the  dignity of  hiftory.   Others appear  to have
undertaken hiftorical compilation, folely  or principally to Sup-
port fome preconceived fyftem of government or religion ; and
have ftudied to bead the  evidence of facts,  to  the accomplifh-
ment of that purpofe.
   Thefe obfervations have arifen out of my enquiries, relative
to peftilential  difeafes.   I have difcovered  that  many of the
hiftories or rather abridgements and  compilations  which  are al-
moft the only authorities confulted by American readers in gen-
eral, are very incomplete ; and no man who relies on them only,
and neglects  original writers, can acquire an accurate and conv
prehenfive knowledge of hiftory. 
24
                       SECTION II.

 Hiftorical view of peflilentlal epidemics,  and the phenomena in the
   phyftcal world, which precede, attend or follow them, from
   the earlieft accounts, to the Chrlftlan era.
                  »

 X T is an agreed point that  the five  books of Mofes are the
 moft ancient authentic hiftory now extant.   In the very threfh-
 hold of this genuine hiftory, we meet with accounts of the plague
 in Egypt.   In the fifth chapter  of Exodus,   the  peftilence is
 mentioned as a formidable calamity.
   It is remarkable, that throughout the hiftory of the Jews, and
 in the prophets, peflilence, famin  and the Jword  are often men-
 tioned in connection with each other, and defcribed as the moft
 dreadful calamities that  can  befal mankind.   It will probably
 appear that famin and peftilential difeafes do  at  times  recipro-
 cally produce each other, and that war  not  unfrequently occa-
 fions both.   But there is ground to believe that famin and  pef-
 tilence are ufually  the effects of one  common caufe.   In the
 Bible, as  in  other ancient writings, no diftinction  is made be-
 tween general peftilence which fpreads over whole countries,
 and  thofe  autumnal epidemics, which are evidently produced by
 powerful local caufes.   There  are  however many paflages  in
 fcripture that corroborate the principles  refpecting peftilence,
 which are ftill obferved,  and which  doubtlefs  depend on eftab-
 lifhed laws of nature.
  When  David was  fummoned  to  receive his punifhment for
 numbering the children of Ifrael, he  was  permitted to elect one
 of the three calamities, famin, the  fword or peftilence.  For
a pious ieafon, he preferred peftilence, and feventy  thoufand of
his fubjects perifhed.
                                               % Sam. xx iv, 
25
   The prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel, in  their denunciations,
fpeak often of thefe three judgments, and in a way that authorizes -
the opinion, that they confidered them all to be clofely connected.
It is however  remarkable that peftilence is every where men-
tioned as the peculiar fcourge of cities.
   In the  21ft  chapter of Jeremiah,  the  ficge of  Jerufalem is
foretold.  "  I will finite the inhabitants of this  city, both man
and beaft ; they fhall die with a great  peftilence.   He that abi-
deth  in this ciJy, fhall die by the  fword, by the famin  and by
the peftilence  ;  but he that goeth out, and  falleth  to the Chal-
deans that befiege you, he fhall live,  and his life  fhall be to him
for a prey."
   Ezekiel v.  12.  declares that a third part of the inhabitants of
Jerufalem  fhall die by peftilence.   This is.  a proportion   which
is not uncommon, in  violent plagues.  In  the feventh chapter,
the fame prophet fays, " The fword is  without,  and the pefti-
lence  and famin within ; he  that is in  the field, fhall die with
the fword ; and he that is in the city,  famin  and  peftilence fkall
devour him."
   Another paffage in the fame prophet deferves notice.   Chap#
xxxiii,  it  is faid,  " Thus faith the Lord, as I live,  furely they
that are in the  waftes fhall fall by the fword,  and him that is ia
the open field will I give to the hearts to be  devoured,  and they
that be in the forts and the caves fhall die of the peftilence."
   In thefe  paflages, we  have  proof that in the time of thefe
prophets, it was confidered as a  well known fact, that peftilential
difeafes are the effect of crouded propulation,  raging  peculiarly in
cities, forts and other confined places.   No evidence appears, in
thefe early records, that the ancients,  who lived in countries  fub-
ject to  plague, and near to Egypt, had any  idea of  the convey-
ance of the diftemper  from place  to  place by infection.   It v/as
confidered as a judgment of heaven ;  and piety ftill recognizes
this idea ; to which, in a moral and religious view,  there can be
co objection.   But  philofophy endeavors to  trace the hand of
heaven  through the medium  offecond caufes; and the facts re*
                             D 
26
 corded of peftilence in fcripture, lend their aid to  accomplifh the
 object'.
   In I Samuel  v. and vi. we have an account of the peftilence
 among the Philiftines,  inflicted on them as  a punlfhment  for ta-
 king the  ark  from the Jews, in which fifty thoufand of the in-
 habitants  of  Beth-fliemefh perifhed.  This  plague is called erne-
 rods and a deadly deflrualon.  This paffage is noted on account of
 the fpecification  of the time of the year, when  the difeafe pre-
 vailed.   Itisfaid, the  ark was in the country of the Philiftines
feven months, and was returned, during wheat-harveft, foon after
 v/hich it is underftood,  the plague ceafed.  Now wheat harveft,
 in Syria,  is in May ; and it may be fuppofed, the peftilence was
 moft violent in the period next preceding  that time, viz. April,
 or during the  month of May, for it was the feverity of the dif-
 eafe which induced them to fend  back the ark.—This account
 correfponds with the modern courfe of peftilence in that country.
 It appears in February or March,  increafes till May or June, then
 gradually difappears.
   See A. Ruflel.  Hift. of Aleppo.  P. Ruflel on the plague at Aleppo.
   In this cafe,  modern facts confirm the accuracy of the fcrip-
 ture-hiftory  ;  at the  fame time, they  eftablifh  the identity of
 the  difeafe with modern plague,  and the uniformity in  the  ope«
 rations of the  laws of nature.   They  prove further  that  the
 climate of that  country has fuffered no material alteration.
   In the eleventh  chapter of  Numbers,  we have an account of
 a plague among the Ifraelites, occafioned by their  eating great
 quantities of the flefh  of qaails,  after being fome time  deftitute
 of animal food—an obvious effect  in the hot climates of Egypt
 and Arabia.
   The fcriptore-hiftory  alfo furnifhes us with ample proof that
 Egypt was, in early times, the nurfery of  plague—known  and
 confidered as fuch, centuries before the  foundation of  Smyrna,
 Conftantinople, or other large cities in  Greece or Afia Minor.
   In Deuteronomy xxviii. the Ifraelites  are warned againft dif-
 obedience to the   laws of Mofes,  and in  cafe of  difregarding
 them, are threatened with the difeafes of Egypt,  the botch,  the
 emerods  and the fcab.   Thefe  are ftill  prevailing  diforders in 
27
that country under the names of leprofy,  elephantiafis, plague,

&c.   In verfe 60 of  the fame chapter, it is denounced,  " More-

over he fhall bring upon thee all the difeafes of Egypt, of which

thou waft afraid."

   Amos iv.  10.  "  I have fent among you the  pflilence,  after

the manner of Egypt."

   Thefe authorities  of high antiquity leave no  room for doubt

or controverfy,  on the queftion,  whether  Egypt originates the

plague.  The evidence is decifive  againft thofe modern fuperfi-

cial philofophers, who hold in contempt the moft  authentic an-

cient hiftory,  becaufe it has claims to irifpiration.  Yet infidels,

if they were not too wife  to read,  examin  and be  informed,

might be convinced of the authenticity of the fcripture-hiftory,

by  comparing the facts  related,  with the prefent ftate of the

world.   The prefent endemical and  other difeafes which often

occur  in  Egypt, anfwer fo exactly   to the defcription  given of

them m the books of Mofes, as to leave  no room  to  queftion

the genuinenefs of thofe books.   It was the  peculiar climate of

Egypt, and  the  ufual prevalence of fcorbutic  and  malignant

complaints, in that country,  which  occafioned  all the minute

injunctions of Mofes, in regard to wafhing,  cleanfing and purifi-

cations.   The fame  or fimilar regulations were enjoined by the

laws of Egypt.*

  * It has been controverted whether Mofes borrowed his fyftera of pu-
rification from  the inftitutions which  he  found in Egypt ; or whether
the Egyptians borrowed  the idea from  the laws of Mofes.  Nothing
can be more idle than fuch a difpute.  The experience of  men would
very readily fuggtft  the  neceflity and utility of great cleanlinefs, to
preferve health in  the  climate of Egypt.   The cuftom of circumcifion
was eftablifhed among  the Egyptians,  as  well as among  the Ifraelites ;
and Herodotus who vifited Egypt to collect facts, cxprefsly declares
that the " Egyptians circumciied their children for the fake of clean-
liaefs."—There is not  the leaft reafon to fuppofe that  the Egyptians
borrowed this cuftom,  or others refpecting cleanlinefs, from the Ifrael-
ites.  Nor does it vary  the queftion, that the laws of Mofes were the
commands of God.  Divine commands have rarely  introduced a new
principle of  right and  wrong.  Moft of  them  are injunctions on man
to conform to principles of  moral fitnefs  or utility, which exifted an-
terior to tie commands.  They u-ifold to human view, and enforce  the prac-
tice of thofe principles ; but do not create them.  They add the ftrong
authority of poftive, to  the feebler authority of implied divine will; and
are thus of the higheft importance to mankind. 
                             28

   In the Bible alfo we find evidence of the prevalence of pefti-
lent epidemics -among cattle.   A murrain  is  among the  ten
plagues mentioned in Exodus,  and Ezekiel xiv. 21  fays,  " If
I fend a peftilence into that land,  to cut  off from  it  man and
teqft."
   We find the fame fact in Homer ; where alfo we  obferve pef-
tilence afcribed to extreme heat, under  the allegorical  name of
Apollo, or the fuppofed influence of the dog-ftar.

       "  On mules and dogs,  the infection firft began,
     And laft the vengeful arrows fixed in man."

       "  But let fome prophet, or fome facred fage*
     Explore the caufe of great Apollo's rage."

       "  If broken vows this  heavy curfe have laid,
     Let altars fmoke, and hecatombs be paid ;
     So heaven atoned fhall dying  Greece reftore,
     And Phoebus dart his burning fhafts no more."
                           Pope's Verfion. Iliad 1. 69, 83, 87.

   In the following  paffage, peftilence is  afcribed to  heat aed
fouth winds,  according to the opinion of Hippocrates.

       As vapors blown by Aufter's fultry breath,
     Pregnant with plagues, and fhedding feeds of death ;
     Beneath the rage of burning Syrius rife—
                                              Book j. 1058.
       "  Like the red Star, that from his flaming hair,
     Shakes down difeafes, peftilence and war."
                                              Book 19. 411.*
   * This evidently alludes to the received opinion among the ancients,
that  comets have an influence in producing  peftilence.  In the courfe
of-this work,  we fhall have fome grounds to determin  which is  moft
correct, this opinion of antiquity, or that of the moderns who  hold it
in contempt.
   It is to be obferved that the idea  of comets producing difeafes, is
not in Homer, in the paflage from which thefe lin.s are taken,  but i.
a licence of the tranflator, Mr. Pope, and. the fenfc and  almoft thf
words, are borrowed from Milton.  Book 2. 1. 710.
          "  ------ And like a comet burn'd
        In th' arctic fky, and from his horrid hair,
        Shakes peftilence and war." 
*9
        " Not half fo dreadful rifes to the fight,
     Through the thick gloom of fome tempeftuous night,
     Orion's dog (the year when autumn fways)
     And o'er the  feebler ftars exerts his rays :
     Terrific  glory  ! for his burning breath,
     Taints the ted air,  with fevers, plagues  and  death."
                                                Book aa. 3J.

   The circumftances to  be noted in the foregoing extracts,  are,
firft that the peftilence  among cattle preceded that  among men.
This is a common   fact,  but not always the cafe.   Secondly,
that heat and  moifture,  with a  fouth  wind  were productive of
peftilential difeafes.   Thirdly, that  fuch difeafes raged in Greece
during the autumnal feafon,  and were afcribed to the influence
of Syrius, or the dog-ftar.
   We read of a ten ibis peftilence  in  the ifland ofiEgina, to
the fouthwaid of Athens, in the rtign  of .5Lacus, grandfather
of Achilles, about  fixty years before the Trojan war ; a plague
which depopulated  the  ifland.  Of  this  calamity,  Ovid  has
given a moft affecting account Metam. lib.  7. 523.   He  repre.
fents the earth as covered with clouds, darknefs and  fuffocating
heat ;  the fouth wind blowing  for  four months, the lakes and
fountains being  infected, and the earth overfpread with poifonous
ferpents.   The difeafe firft invaded dogs, birds, fheep  and ox-
en ; then mankind.   Death was fudden ;  and the ftreets loaded
with  dead  carcafes.   The  fymptoms  began  with heat in the
bowels, flufhings of the  face, difficulty of breathing,  &c.  How
far the poet was authorized by hiftory in  this defcription,  I do
not know ; but the whole paffage is  worth the attention  of the
learned reader.

  It is certain however that  the ancients believed comets to be the
caufe of peftilential difeafes.
  It is further remarkable that, in the peftilential  period to which Ho-
mer here alludes, which happened during the fiege of Troy, Etna was
in a ftate of eruption ; or rather at theclofe of the period :  For  Eneas,
when driven from Troy, failed  with his fellow  citizens to  Sicily, but
was frightened away by a violent explufion of Etna.  See a forcible de-
fcription of this eruption in Virgil lib. 3.
  Dyonifius HallicarnalTus informs us that the Pelafgi,  who fettled iq
Sicily, foon after the Trojan war, were affected with peftilence. Book 1, 
                           Ji.
   Our next accounts of the plague are in the hiftories of Rome ;
for altho Greece  contained the older  ftates, and had large
cities, before the foundation of Rome; yet the  moft populous
parts of Greece, Attica and Lacedemon, are dry, rocky coun-
tries ; not calculated to generate peftilence nor to favor its prop-
agation.
   Rome, on the other hand, is fituated in a  level country,  on
the banks of  a river, and not far from extenfive marflies.  Un-
der the influence of powerful local caufes,  this  city felt every
derangement  of the  atmofphere, by intemperate  feafons,  or
other caufes.
   The firft plague in Rome happened about the 16th year  from
its foundation, foon after the murder of Tatius,  and in  time of
peace.   " It killed inftantly  without  any  previous ficknefs.
Even trees and cattle were  not exempt  from the malignity of
its  influence  ; but all nature lay  one defolate  and abandoned
wafte.   It was even faid  to rain  blood."  This was 738 years
before the Chriftian era.
                                  Plutarch's life of Romulus.
   Zonaras fays that Rome  was laid  wafte  by difeafe, and the
earth and cattle were barren.  " Sterilitas agrorum et pecudum."
                                                   Lib. 7.
   This peftilence muft have been of  the moft malignant kind,
and by the effect on cattle and trees, it was obvioufly during a
peftilential ftate of  the atmofphere, when there  was a defect in
the powers of vegetable as well as animal life—many fimilar in-
ftances will occur in the courfe of this hiftory.   It  is to be re-
marked that Rome was then in its infant ftate,  containing few
people, and  few of the artificial caufes  of difeafe.  Of courfe
the ficknefs muft have been caufed  by general contagion,  or that
ftate of air which is unfavorable to the prefervation of healthy
life.
   In the reign of Numa Pompilius A.  R. 46,  Italy was afflicted
with fevere peftilence ;  on which occafion Numa inftituted the
Salii,  twelve dancers who  had the  care of the brazen target,
which was fuppofed to defcend from  heaven  into the hands of 
31
Numa,  and to check the peftilence.   See the inftitotion and an«
nual ceremonies of the Salii, defcribed in
                             Plutarch's life of Numa, and
                             Rennet's Antiquities, part. a. b. ».
   Another plague attacked Rome in  the reign of Tullius Hof-
tilius, about the year 11 o or 112,  and  B.  C. about 640.  No
important particulars are related,  except that the  ficknefs relax-
ed the martial fpirit  of the citizens.   To prevent this  effect,
that warlike prince gave the foldiers no reft, judging "  falubri-
ora militiae, quam domi,  juvenum corpora effe," that the young
men would be more healthy in the army abroad,  than at home.
                                              Livy b. 1. 32.
   In this opinion, the King of Rome was probably well found-
ed ; for it appears from facts hereafter to be related, that Rome
was moft fubject to peftilence in time of peace, when the fold-
iers were at Rome, augmenting the population of the city,  and
indulging in eafe and luxury.
   In the reign of  Tarquin, the  laft  King of Rome, about the
year 240  and B. C.  514 a violent plague infefted the city.  Zo-
fimus however places this event,  after the expulfion of Tarquin,
                            Hook, vol. 1.  109.  Zofimus lib. 2.
   In the year  of Rome 261, there  was a famia and peftilence
in the city, and the  plague  depopulated Velitrae,  a city of the
Volfci,  who  applied to the Romans for inhabitants to re-people
the place.
        Muratori. Tom. 1. r. Hook, vol. 1. 196. Functius Chronol.
   Soon after  this, we  read  of a contagious diftemper among
tattle, but not very fatal.
                                           Dion.  Hal. lib.  7.
   In the year of Rome 281 and B. C.  473, a plague  raged in
the city and  country, but was moft fatal in the city,  fparing no
age nor fex,  and yielding  to  no remedies.  It came fuddenly
and fuddenly difappeared.*
                                           Dion.  Hal.  lib.  1.

   * This account feems to contradict the doctrin of ^progrefpon in the
peftilential principle.  Thucydides remarks alfo that the plague inva-
ded Athens fuddenly.   Such is the effect of fuperficial obfervation.
60 in  1794, the people of  New-York alledged the city to be very heal-
thy ; when in fact the bill of mortality was higher by one fourth than 
32
   There was an eruption of Etna,  according to common  chro-
 nology,  in the year of  Rome 277, and B. C.  477.  This cir-
 Cumftance  is ftrong evidence  that  the chronology is not quite
 correct.   The eruption took  place unqueftionably during the
 peftilential period,  to which this plague in Rome belonged.   It
 might not have been the very year of the  plague in Rome,  but
 probably was not fo diftant as four years.   To which event,  the
 plague or the eruption,  a  wrong era is afligned, I fhall not  de-
 termin.   The early hiftory of Roraf, from the deftruction of
 the ancient records, by the burning of the city,  when  taken by
 the Gauls  under Brennus, in the year 365, is fubject  to great
 uncertainty, and authors do not  agree on  the  chronology of
 that part of the  Roman ftory.

   (Tj* Since writing the foregoing remarks,  I have  difcovered a
fact which may ferve to aid us  in fixing the period of the events
abovementioned.   In the courfe of this work it will be proved
beyond doubt, that the approach of comets to our fyftem,  has
a prodigious influence on  the elements of this globe.   At prefc
ent I fhall affume  the  fact, that  the  eruption of Etna  above-
mentioned, was  nearly  cotemporary with the  appearance of a
 comet, during this period of peftilence.   In  looking into Pliny's
Natural Hiftory, lib. 2. ca. 25, I find that  a comet was vifible,
 at the time of the  battle of Salamis.   Speaking of the different
 fpecies of comets  he  fays  "  Ceratias Cornus  fpeciem habet,
 qualis fecit cum Grascia apudSalamina depugnavit."  "  A comet
in the figure of a javelin, like that which appeared when Greece
fought at Salamis."  This battle is fixed by authors in the  year
 B.  C.  480, and confequently in  the year  of  Rome,  by com-
mon chronology 274.   It  appears to be a general law of nature
 that the approacii of comets to this earth, calls  into action  the
 fubterranean fire, and volcanoes difcharge their contents, during
 or within a few months of the appearance of coma's.   We may
fafely conclude  therefore  that the  eruption was within a year

ufual.   So the inv.ifion of New-London by the fever in 1798 appeared
 to he fudden ; altho in fact the  bills of  mortality lliow a moft ftnfible
 increafe in the force of the deltructivc principle,  two years previous r.
 the attack. 
33
or two of the battle of Salamis.   This is not certain, but proba-
ble ; and I am inclined therefore to believe that Hook and others
have placed the plague in Rome three or faur  years too late,  or
that the eruption is placed too early.f
   The army of Xerxes,  retreating into Afia, after the lofs  of
'.he engagement near Salamis, fuffered extremely  by peftilential
difeafes.   And it will hereafter appear that during periods when
the peftilential ftate of air is evidenced by the exiftence of plague
in cities,  armies in the field and.feamen  on the ocean are much
more fubject to epidemic complaints, than at other times.
   The land forces  which Xerxes left behind him under Mardo-
nius,  fell a prey to famin and peftilence.  The highways were
ftrewed with dead bodies, and wild fowls and beafts devoured
them.
   The fame period was diftinguifhed by tempefts and inunda-
tions—the   conftant attendants  on comets?   A  violent  ftorm
had deftroyed the famous bridge built by the great monarch over
the Hellefpont, before he returned from Greece; and while the
troops under Mardonius  were befieging Potidea,  an  inundation
of the fea   broke into their trenches,  drowned  fome  foldiers,
and compelled them to raife the  fiege.
               Herodotus lib. 8. iij, 129.  Juftin lib. 2. cap. 13.
   Thefe great phenomena, without any hiftorical account, would
make it nearly certain that a comet appeared at that time, and
the peftilence undoubtedly happened within a fhort period of  its
approach.
   A more terrible peftilence invaded the Roman city and terri*
tory,  in the year 290, and B. C. 464.   Several  facts in  regard
to it,  deferve particular notice.   "  Grave tempus et forte  annus
peftilens erat. urbi, agi ifque, nee  hominibus magis, quam pecori;
etauxere vim  morbi, tenore pupulationis,pecoribus agreftibufque,
In urbem  acceptis.   Ea colluvio mixtorum omnis generis animan-»
tium, et odore infolito urban os, et agreftem confertum in arcta tec*
  f Brydone mentions an eruption in the 77th Olympiad, comprei
hending the years of  Rome from  28Z to 385 inclufive, which is doubt-
left the fame abovementioned.
                             E 
                             34
 -a, seftu ac vigiliis angebat, minifteriaque in vicem ac contagio ip-
 fa vulgabant morbos."
                             Livy. lib. 3. 6.  Dion Hal. lib. 10.
   " This was an unhealthy time and a peftilent year in town and
 country,  affecting equally  men and cattle ; and  the difeafe was
 augmented by crouds of countrymen and herds of cattle, which
 were received within the  walls  of the  city, for fear of being
 plundered or deftroyed [by the Latins and  Hernici,  who then
 ravaged the country.]   That collection of all kinds of animals in
 the  city, and  the unufual ftench occafioned by them,  feverely
 affected both the citizens and  the country people, crouded into
 clofe buildings,  depreffed by  heat and  watching ; and their fa-
 tigue and the contagion fpread the ficknefs into every  quarter."
   This is Livy's reprefentation.   Dionyfius Hallicarnaffus men-
 tions that the difeafe feized fluds   of mares, herds of oxen, and
flocks of goats and fhfep ;  by which expreflions we are perhaps to
 underftand, that the diftemper either did not feize thofe animals,
 except in collections, or was remarkably fatal  to them in nume-
 rous bodies—an idea warranted by modern facts.   It is generally
 true of cattle as of men, that peftilential difeafes are moft deftruc-
 tive, where many are  collected together ; not only by  reafon of
 infection  from  the difeafed, but  by the diminution of  the vital
 principle  of the  air by refpiration and peripiration.
   Orofius lib.  2.  12.  adds other circumftances.   He fays there
 was a fhort fufpenfion of war,  when a grievous  peftilence, which
 never failed to compel the  Remans to a truce, or to  interrupt it,
 if made, raged violently through all the city.   Many  of the  pa-
 tricians were victims, but it was moft fatal to the poor.
   It is flated that this peflilence began about the calends of Sep-
 tember and raged in city and  country.  By country,  agrls,
 the Roman writers meant the ancient Latium, the modern Cem-
 pagna  di  Roma, which  was naturally unhealthy ;  tho, in  the
 flour ifhing ages of Reme,  extremely populous.
   That the Roman territory fhould be fubject to autumnal com-
 plaints, is not at  all furprifing.   At the port of the Tyber there
 were  unwholefome  marfhes, called  by  Tacitus,  Annals  15.
 43. "  Oftienfes paludes."   The fhore to  the fouth ward, bor-
 dering Campania, is called by the  fame  hiftorian,  " fqualente 
35'
 littore."   To the foathward of Campania were  and ftill are the

 extenfive  marfhes,  called  " paludes pomptingj," which are fo

 noxious as to create difeafe in a fingle night, and  which have cau-

 fed the  Appian way  in modern times to be neglected, and the

 road to Naples to be carried round the siarfhes oh the eaft.*

   The territory next to the city of Rome  is defcribed by Livy,

 b.  7.  38. in  thefe words " in peftilente atque arido circa urbem

 folo"—a  dry plain, but  indented with lakes,   bordered  with

 marfhes, and fubject to be overflowed by every uncommon rife of

 the Tyber, or by ftreams from the diftant hills.  Many epidemic

 difeafes have been diftinctly  traced to  ftagnant waters on this

 plain,  after an inundation.

   Avernur,  a lake of Campania,  near  Baise,  emitted fuch  a

 poifonous vapor, that no birds would frequent its banks, and the

 ancients,  in  their flights of fancy called it, the road to Hell.

   It was this fituation of Rome which gave rife to the Cloacae,

 immenfe  fewers or  drains, which penetrated the city and neigh-

 borhood—Vaft works intended to drain off the  ftagnant waters ;

 and while thefe were preferved in good repair, the city was obvi-

 oufly more healthy.

   This plague in the year 290 proved  fatal to both of the Con-

 fuls  Servllius and iEbutius, to many illuftrious Romans, and to a

 countlefs number of the Plebeians.  The Senate and people, in def-


  *  In the epitome of the 46th  book  of Livy, which book is  among
 thofe which are loft. I find it related  that the Pontine Marfhes  were
 drained or  dyked [ficcatae] and  converted into cultivable land, by the
 Conful  Cornelius Ccthegus,  about the year of Rome 572.  The Ro-
 mans were convinced that  the  marfhes were very unwholefome, and
 they took incredible pains to render their city and territory healthful,
 by draining off all ftagnant waters.
  It is much to be regretted that we have not this book of Livy, to give
 us further information in what manner the draining of the marfhes was
 effected.  It is confidered by the moderns as impracticable.
  The opinion of the ancients as to the unhealthfulnefs of Rome  may
 be underftood from the following Tetraftichon, which is preferved by
 Baronius.
    " Roma vorax hominum, domat ardua colla virorum ;
    Roma ferax febrium, necis eft uberrima frugum;
    Romans? febres ftabili fuat jure fideles ;
    Quem femel invadunt, vix a viventi recedent."
  The brief tranflation of which is " Rome fubdues men by  the fword,
and kills them with fevers."
  Horace book 2.  ode 29. gives  to the Tyber, the epithet udus, wet or
marfhy. 
                             ii
  pair had recourfe to prayers and fupplications, the temples were
  filled with men, women and children, afking forgivenefs and favor
  of heaven.
    This violent plague was followed, anno Utb. Con. 292 by a
  violent earthquake.  ** Terra ingenti concuffa motu eft," fays Li-
  vy, lib. 3. ca.  10.   He exprefsly mentions this to have  been in
  the confulate of P. Volumnius and Serv. Sulpicius, which was the
  fecond Confulate  after the peftilence.  An eruption of  Etna is
  mentioned in the tables under the year of Rome 288, two years
  before the peftilence and four years before the earthquake.  But
  there is probably a fmall variation in the chronology.  The earth-
  quake was probably at the time of the eruption, efpecially as Li-
  vy mentions, that in the fame year,  " Coelum ardere vifum," the
  heavens appeared to be in a flame.
     Functius places thefe events one year later.
     By this earthquake Locris, on the gulf  of Corinth, was tent
  from the main land and turned  into an ifland.   Afterwards Lo-
  cris was deftroyed by another earthquake.
     Severe drouth marked this period.
     In the year of Rome 300 according to Livy and the common
  chronology and B. C. 454, another terrible  peftilence invaded
  Rome.  The country was defolated, and the citizens were ex-
  haufted with continual burials.  " Urbs afliduis exkaufta funer-
  ibus."   Famin accompanied this calamity, and cattle were vic-
  tims, as well  as men.  This plague took place in time of peace
  —" ab hofte  otium fuit," and  in  the abfence of the ambaffadors
- who were fent to Athens to collect  the laws of  Solon  and the
  Grecian inftitutions.
                                                Livy b. 3. 32.
     With this period correfponds an eruption of Etna, which  au-
   thors place in  the year of  Rome 304 ;  of courfe,  it was  at th» •
   clofe of  the peftilential period.
     In the year 315 of Rome and B. C. 439,  according  to Pau-
   lus Diaconus,  tremendous earthquakes fhook Italy at intervals
   for a  whole  year,  fo  that   " afliduis  Roma, nuntiis  fataga-
   reter,"  Rome was fatigued with meffengers who were continually
   arriving with  news of towns and villages demolifhed. 
                            37
   The chronology of P. Diaconus rarely agrees with that com*
rnonly received.   The  earthquakes  here  mentioned  probably
ufhered in the long and formidable calamity which was to  follow
■—and were probably  cotemporary with  the beginning of the
plague next to be mentioned.
   In the year of Rome 317,  and B.  C. 437 commenced a pef-
Icntial ftate that afflicted Rome  for  five years, or five  feafons
fucceflively.  The hiftorian relates that the  firft year " a pefti-
lence invaded the people," and  as the difeafe increafed, prodi-
gies alarmed them and frequent earthquakes overturned houfes in
the country.   The next  year the  difeafe  was more mortal:
" peftilentior indc annus."  In 320,  the difeafe was fo  fatal as
to fufpend  all ordinary concerns.  The people rcforted to their
prayers,  and the Sybilline books were confulted and  obeyed,  to
appeafe  the Gods and avert the  plague  from the people.  For
fear of famin, corn was purchafed  in  Etruria,  the Pontine  ter-
ritory and  in Sicily.   The mortality extended alfo to cattle.   In
321,  the difeafe was mitigated and afterwards fubfided.
                                          Livy b.  4.  21, 25.
   This is the firft inftance, in which  I am able  to trace diftinct-
ly a progreffwn in the malignancy of the plague.   That this is an
important fact, in  all plagues,  will  hereafter  appear.    But on
this point,  ancient hiftory affords very fcanty  materials.  This
was a period of univerfal peftilence  for many years,  and  was
marked with all the great phenomena of nature.  The  laft  year
of the plague in Rome  321,  correfponds  with the  "year B. C.
433, two years before the plague of  Athens.   In  the  year of
Rome  325, according to Hook,  there was  a moft grievous
famin, occafioned by a fevere drouth in all the Roman  territory.
" Siccitas eo anno plurimam  laboratum eft ; nee caeleftes modo
defuerunt aquse,  fed terra quoque, ingenito humore egens, vix ad
perrennes fubfecit amnes."  By this,  we are led to believe, that
the drouth was not folely caufed  by a want of rain, but  by an un-
ufual defect of fubterranean fprings and  moifture.  The  expref-
fion,  " ingenito humore egens," contrafted with the ufual fource
of water,  rain,  evidently carries with it an idea that the evapo-
ration from the earth was unufual; and this may eafily  be ac-
counted for, by the violent action of internal heat or electricity 
which diftinguiihed this peftilential period,  and was evidenced
by tremendous and univerfal earthquakes, and a  great eruption
of Etna.
  The  drouth  in  Rome  was'extreme—multitudes  of cattle
thronged round  the  arid fountains,  and  perifhed  with  thirft.
Difeafes followed, firft invading cattle, and the lower claffes of
people and the countrymen,  then extending to the city.
                                              Livy b. 4. 30.
  Thucydides relates b. 1 and 3,  that earthquakes affefted the
largeft part of the globe,  and fhook it with  the utmoft violence.
In many places,  there was fevere drouth and a fubfequent famin.
In fome places,  the earthquakes produced  alarming inundations
of the fea ;   as  in Eubcea and Atalanta—the Prytaneum, or
town-houfe  in   Athens,  the fortifications  and  fome  dwelling-
houfes were  demolifhed.   Thefe  events  were in  the fifth and
fixth years of the Peloponnefian war, anfwering to 427 and 426
B. C. and confequently were at the clofe,  or fubfequent  to the
peftilence.   About the fame time there was a violent eruption of
Etna ; fuch as  had not been known for fifty years  preceding.
This period was alfo marked by the approach of a comet,  but I
am not clear that it was in the year B. C. 431,  as ftated by Dr.
Prieftley in his Lectures on Hiftory.   The drouth was probably
within a few months of  the appearance of  the comet, according
to numerous obfervations in late  periods  of the  world :  By
which it would feem  to be a law of the phyfical fyftera, that pre-
ceding, during and following the approach of thofe erratic bodies,
this earth is affected alternately with great rains  and fnows,
drouth, violent  tLmpefts, high tides and earthquakes :  Many
inflances will hereafter occur.*
  * We are fometimes embarraffed with  the differences in the chro-
nology of  different authors.  But we have, in this place, data that
will fix certain points.
  From the uniform operations of nature, there  can be very little
doubt, that all the great events of the phyfical world, in this period,
happened withia twelve or eighteen  months of each other.  The ex-
treme drouth in Italy  and Greece, mentioned  by Livy and Thucydi-
des, unqueftionably occurred,  at both places, in the fame year.  Livy
places this under the coafulfhip of A.  Cornelius Coflus and T. Quincti-
us Pennus, wkich Hook arranges  under the 325th year of Rome, and
Lempriere, under the 327th.
  Now Thucydides exprefsly relates,  that the great earthquake which
injured Athens, and produced the inundations in the Corinthian Gulf 
39
   The plague in Athens broke  out  in the fecond year of the

Peloponnefian  war, when all the inhabitants of the Athenian

territory, were  crouded  into the city, to avoid the deftru&ive

ravages of the Lacedemonians.  This circumftance alone would

account for the  production of peftilential difeafes in the  city.

But it is probable that had the fame event happened in a period

of general health, the ficknefs in Athens would have been lim-

ited to the dyfentery, the more violent camp fevers or common

typhus.

   But unfortunately this  war  broke out  at a time  of univerfal

peftilence, when the difeafes  of the healthieft countries  aflame

new and more malignant fymptoms, and hence we account for

the duration and the violence of the malady.   This idea feems

to be  important,  and the only material one to be added to the

excellent philofophical  account of the plague at Athens by Dr.

Elihu H. Smith, late of  New-York.  Medical Repofitory, vol.

i, art. i.  The  origin of this peftilence is ftated by the hifto-

rian to have  been in that part of Ethiopia  which  borders on

Egypt; thence extending to  Egypt, Lybia,  the King's domin-

ions or Perfia, and to Greece.  Some of the more violent of
modern plagues have firft appeared in the fame region.   But we
are not to conclude from this defcription that the difeafe is prop-

agated by infection from perfon to  perfon.   It appears firft where

and the Sea of Eubcea, rending Atalanta from  the main land, and
fwallowing up a town in Fabaa, happened in the fpring or fummer of
the fixth year of the Peloponnefian war.  This war commenced in the
fecond or  third year of the cighty-feventh Olympiad,  correfponding
with the years of Rome 323 or 324.   The fixth year then will be the
328th or 329th year of Rome.   Thefe data bring the drouth in Rome
to one of thofe years; at leaft they will not admit of its being placed
earlier than the year 327, the  year preceding the earthquake.  Tt is
probable therefore that Lempriere is right, in the arrangement of the
confuls.  This is rendered more probable, by the eruption of Etna,
in the  fpring of the fame  year ; as it is a known and common  fact,
that earthquakes and eruptions of volcanoes are preceded  by excef-
five drouth;  owing  probably to a gradual increafe of fubterranean
heat,  or unufual electrical  difcharges and evaporation, fome weeks,
or months, before the explofion.
  The comet undoubtedly appeared either in the year, preceding, du-
ring or following the drouth; that is, in the year of Rome, 327, 328,
or 329, correfponding with year before the Chriftian era, 427, 426,
or 425.  It was moft probably in the year of the drouth, and in the
fifth year of the war, A. U. C. 327, and B. C. 427 ; the earthquakes and  '
volcanoe followed in the fpring of the next year 
                            4Q
 the original or fecondary caufes, that is, general and local con-
 tagion,  are the moft powerful.   If the ftate of  the  atmofphere
 over  the  world, at any one time, is equally  vitiated by fome
 unknown  caufe,  its effects will firft appear in places  where that
 ftate of air  is moft powerfully aided  by local  vitiation, as in
 cities or marfhy  grounds.   Of this we have  numerous  proofs.
 But,  in modern  times, whenever the general  contagion, united
 with local caufes, produces plague in Egypt or Conftantinople,
 it produces fome milder epidemic  in the neighboring countries,
 and often, its effects are vifible, at the fame time, in moft parts
 of the world.
   The kbbe Barthelemy,  in his elegant Travels of  Anacharfis,
 fpeaking of the plague in Athens, fays, " it was doubtlefs bro't
 into Greece by a veffel from Egypt."   It is to be regretted that
 fuch an accurate and  judicious writer fhould have indulged con-
je8ure on this interefting fubject.  He quotes no authority for
 his opinion, and the words  of Thucydides oppofe the fuppofition.
 The  difeafe firft  appeared in  the Pirseus, the  harbor; and fo
 ignorant were the people of the caufe, that they afcribed  it to
 the  poifoniag of the  wells by the  Lacedemonians.   Befides
 Thucydides impliedly acknowledges that  he and others knew
 nothing of its origin ;  for  he calls on " every one,  phyfician or
 not,  to affign any credible account  of its  rife, or the caufes
 powerful  enough to produce it."
   Plutarch, in his life of  Pericles,  fays "  the  enemies of Pe-
 ricles, attributed this difafter to the multitude of people he had
 collected   into  the  city,  during  the heat of fummer"—s.
 charge in which there  was much truth.
   But when we attend to the violent concuflions of  nature, that
 accompanied and  followed the  peftilence, and its general preva-
 lence in the world for a feries of ten or twelve years, all attempts
 to trace its origin to infection,  dwindle into puerilities ;  and the
 Occafional caufes  of ficknefs, crouded population, heat and bad
 diet, tho  powerful as auxiliaries, could not be  adequate to the vi-
 olent and continued effects in Athens, and the  neighboring cities.
   The fymptoms of that  difeafe in Athens,  as  defcribed by
 Thucydides,  are  known to every medical man.  Thev cond 
41
pond in all  the effential particulars,  with thofe of the YelloW
Fever in its  worft forms,  and the difeafe was  probably what I
call the bilious  plague.  There is the more  reafon  to believe
this fuppofition,  as  Thucydides has  not mentioned, among  the
fymptoms, the buboes and other fwellings of the  glands, which
diftinguifh  the inguinal plague.  The  critical days  were  the
feventh or ninth,  as they have moft frequently  been in  the  bil-
ious plague in America.
   The difeafe extended   to  other  towns  in Attica, efpecially
to thofe which were  moft populous, but Lacedemon  efcaped.
It raged in  Perfia at the fame time,  and it is faid, the  King of
Perfia fent for Hippocrates to lend his aid in arrefting  the pro-
grefs of the peftilence, but  the  latter declined leaving  his own
country.
   It has been fuppofed that Hippocrates was in  Athens during
this  plague  ; but this muft be a miftake.  He  was probably at
Thafus, an ifland,  near the coafr of Macedonia.  The  four epi-
demic years, which he has defcribed,  were cotemporary with the
peftilence in Athens ; and this proves what will hereafter appear
more fully,  that in  all great  plagues,  the epidemic or peftilential
principle extends to different countries, and often over the whole
earth.
   In this peftilence,  as  we fhall  have  occafioa to  obferve in
many fubfequent inftances, the birds abandoned the infected at-
mofphere.
   In the year of Rome 341, and B. C. 413,  a peftilence arofe
which the hiftorian  reprefents as more alarming than fatal,  " mi-
nacior  tamen quam perniciofior."   This  circumftance affords;
ground to believe the  peftilence to have been  a violent autumnal
bilious fever, and not rifing to the utmoft malignity of the plague.
   The peftilence of that year was followed by famin in the next;
Owing  to a neglect of agriculture ; the  people having been prin-
cipally occupied with fedition, undrr their ambitious demagogues.
It will be remarked that the  famin was not the  caufe of the epi-
demic, for it fucceeded it.
                                             Livy, lib. 4. 52.
                             F 
42
   It is proper to remark here that all the preceding deadly plagues
which had at times almoft defolated Rome,  were certainly the
produce of the country.   The Romans  were not a commercial
people, nor had they any commercial intercourfe with Egypt, till
the  conqueft  of Carthage,  two centuries and a half after this
period.  It was not  till one hundred and forty feven years after
the time now under confideration, that  the Romans owned a fin-
gle fhip.   When they tranfported troops into  Sicily, they hired
or borrowed veffels for  the purpofe.   Egypt was a granary of
corn, but until after the conqueft of Carthage, the Romans drew
their fupplies wholly  from Italy and Sicily.   There is no pre-
tence therefore for fuppofing the plague ever imported into Rome ;
nor is there a fuggeftion in hiftory,  that its origin was ever afcri-
bed to that fource.
   In the year of Rome 353, and B. C.  401, happened a moft
fevere  winter.   The Tyber was frozen over,  and the high-ways
rendered impafiible by  deep fnow.   Thefe were unufual phenom-
ena and deemed prodigies in that city.   On the opening of fpring,
the weather changed  fuddenly from  fevere  cold to great heat
and drouth, and a  mortal peftilence enfued among men and cattle.
The hiftorian  fays nothing  more of the  caufe of the mortality,
than " Sive ex  intemperie cceli, raptim  ex mutatione in  contra-
rium facta, five alia  qua  de caufa,  gravis peftilenfque omnibus
animalibus ooftas excepit, cujus infanabili  pernicie  quando  nee
caufa nee finis inveniebatur, libri Sibillini ex fenatus  confulto adi-
ti funt."   On  this melancholy  occafion  was  inftituted the cere-
mony of the  Lectifternium  to appeafe the  Gods and folicit the
reftoration of health.
     Livy. b. 5.  13.  1/.  15.  Plut. Life of  Camillus.  Zofimus. lib. 2.
   With this period of peftilence correfponds the  dreadful plague
which  about 404 B. C. almoft depopulated Carthage.  The dif-
eafe on the coaft of Africa preceded its appearance in Rome,  as
it ufually does in modern  timco.
   Soon after,  the  Carthaginians under Imilco, who were fent
to reduce Sicily which had revolted, were feized with the plague
and the  army was fo weakened, that  Imilco was compelled to
abandon the ifland.  Juft before Imiko's arrival, an eruption of 
43
 Etna laid wafte the  neighboring  country.   By an expreflion of
 Juftin, we have ground to believe a comet appeared about the fame
 time.   "  Imilco,  qui multas civitates cepiffet,  repente peftlkntis
fidcris vi,  exercitum amifit."
    Juftin. lib. 19. c. 2. Diod. Sic. lib. 13 14. Rol. An. Hift. b. 2.*and 11.
   This plague was remarkable for itsfymptoms, fuch as  violent
 dyfenteries, raging fevers,  burning entrails,  acute  pains in every
 part of the body ; and many were  feized with madnefs,  fo that
 they fallied forth into the ftreets, and  tore to pieces thofe who
 fell in their way.
    It was during the dry feafon above  mentioned  that the Lake
 of Alba rofe fuddenly,  without apparent  caufe, and overflowed
 its banks—an  event that caufed great confternation in  Rome,
 but one that might well  happen by  a fubterranean difcharge of
 fome water-fountains in the high adjoining hills.
    This is one of the inftances which will often occur, of a hard
 winter, followed by  a dry hot fummer, and therefore deferves
 particular  notice; for fuch exceffes  in  the temperature of the
 feafons are among the caufes of peftilential difeafes.
    A peftilence broke out  in the armies of the  Romans  and
 Gauls, while the latter, under JJrennus, were  befieging Rome,
 Anno  Romse 36''!, B.  C. 393.   The Gauls, unaccuftomed to
 Tuch heat, and placed between hills, where they  were expofed
 to a burning fun, vapor and fmoke, perifhed in fuch multitudes*
 that, weary with burying dead bodies, the furvwors burnt them
 in piles.
                                              Livy b. 5.  48.
    Pliny,  lib.  2.  26, mentions the  appearance of a  comet, or
 light in the heavens, called by  the Greeks docus or doces, and
 by the Romans trabs,  from its  refemblance to a beam,  at the
 time of the defeat of the Lacedemonian fleet—"  Cum Lacede-
 monii,  claffe victu, imperium Grecia; araifere,"   By the laft ex-
 preflion, " the lofs of the empire of Greece," I fuppofe  he re«
 fers to the defeat of the fleet by Conon and the Perfians  in the
 year of Rome 360, and B. C. 394.  If fo, the  appearance of
 this  comet, correfponds in time with the  period of peftilence
 laft named. 
44
   A plague, occafioned by dearth,  is mentioned to have happen-
 ed in the year of Rome  371, B. C. 383,  but no  particulars,
 worthy of notice.
   A great earthquake  in Peloponnefus is  mentioned under the
 year B. C. 373.
                               Fncvclopcdia, art.  Chronology.
   In the year of Rome  388, B. C.  366, commenced a  moft
 defolating plague ©f three years duration.   This was a time of
 profound peace, " ab feditiont et a  bello quietis rebus,  ne quan-
 do a metre ac periculis vacarent, peftilentia ingens  orta."  It
 feemedto be the deftiny of Rome never to be exempt from fear
 aHd dangers ; for when war andfedition ceafed, peftilence arofe*
                                               Livyb. 7. 1.
   fcn this horrible plague, perifhed the great Camillus,  and it is
 related that, in the height of the difeafe,  10,000  citizens  died
 in a day.
   On  this occafion,  recourfe was had to the ceremony of the
 Lectifterniunn,* and  to the  inftitution of new games to appeafe
 the wrath of the Gods,  but  without fuccefs.   Some old citizens
 mentioned  an ancient practice, in fuch calamities, of  driving a
 nail into the wall of  a temple, jt This law was now revived, and
 a  nail  driven  into the wall of Jupiter's temple.  The time of
 the  year,  in  which the law directed this ceremony to be per-
 formed, the Ides of September,  indicates  the  period when pef-
 tilence began in Rome to be  alarming and violent.
   Functius, in his chronology, afligns the abforption of Helice
and  Bura,  two towns on the Gulf of Corinth, to the year  of
 Rome  373, the year of the great earthquake  in Laccdemon—
 in which cafe that cataftrophe would  make a part of the events
 of the peftilential period of  371, juft mentioned.
   Muratori and Paulus Diaconus feem not to differ  effentially
 in arranging that event  under the fame period.  " Sseviflimo
   * This ceremony confifted in placing the ftatues of Apollo, Latona,
 Diana,  Hercules, Mercury,  and Neptune, on thret beds,  and ferving
 fchem with magnificent repafts for eight days—a mode of checking the
 peftilence, about as rational as the modern  fcheme of  confining it to
 the infected place by bodies of  armed men, which is much praifed by
 Montefquieu ! 
*5
lerremotu Achaia univerfa commota eft,  et duae  tunc  civttates,
Bura et Helice,  abruptis locorum devoratae."
                                Muratori, Gen.  H'ft. vol. i. 7.
   Other authors refer this cataftrophe to the period of  peftilence
laft mentioned, which fome writers place in the year of Rome
388,  and others, in 384; but  all  agree that it  was during the
approximation of a comet.   This laft peftilence was dreadful
in the extreme,  fparing no age or fex.   The year  after it, the
earth opened and exhibited a vaft chafm  in the midft of Rome,
into which M. Curtius precipitated himfelf for the falvation and
profperity of the city.
                                              Livy, b. 7. 7.
   P. Orofius and  P. Diaconus, followed  by Muratori,  place
the commencement of  this plague  in  the year  of  Rome 384.
Orofius  fays that "  in  the 103d and  105th Olympiad,  Italy
was fhaken  a whole year, by  tremendous  earthquakes.  The
hundred and third  Olympiad,  according to our common chro-
nology,  comprehends the years of Rome from 386 to 389, in-
clufive.  It is probable that  in one of the fhocks of this feries
of earthquakes,  the chafm was made in Rome as already related.
It will be obferved  that this event followed the peftilence.
   The comet that appeared, during this calamity, was probably
that mentioned by Ariftotle,  Meteorol. lib. 1. ca. 6, of which
he was an eye-witnefs.
   But I muft not omit what authors relate concerning the pe-
culiar character  of  this plague.   Orofius fays,  it was not fuch a
peftilence, as ufually proceeded from irregular feafons, extreme
drouth,  fudden heat of the fpring, unfeafonable moifture of fum-
mer and autumn, or the impure air blown from the  Calabrian
groves;  but fevere and continued, attacking all defcriptions of
people, and  either  deftroying  their lives, or leaving them in a
weak and miferable condition.
   The winter when the comet appeared Ariftotle relates to have
been  cold;  but the feverity and duration of the plague  cannot
be accounted for on the principle of changes or  irregularities in
the feafons.  It  was one of  thofe violent epidemics  which never
afflict mankind,  without fome effential alteration in the invifible
% 
                           ii
 properties of the atmofphere, or a peculiar effect of the atmof-
 phere on living bodies.  .
   Seneca, on the  authority of Ariftotle and  Califthenes ex-
 prefsly afcribes the  inundation to the approximation of a comet.
■ " "Cometes ingentis rei  traxit eventus, cum  Helicen et Burin
 brto fuo merfit."
                                       Nat. Queft. lib. 7. 16.
   The  fymptoms of this  approaching calamity are defcribed to
 have been thefe.  "  For feveral months the waters of heaven
 deluge the earth or withhold their beneficial  effects ;  a dimnefs
 obfcures the fplendor of  the  fun; or his difk appears like a
 burning brazier ;  impetuous winds ravage the country;  and
 ftreams  of fire are  feen  to fhoot  in  the air."  See Travels
 ©f Anacharfis, vol. 3. 404, cited from Paufanius, lib. 7. ca. 24.
   Some of thefe phenomena, exceflive rains and  drouth, tern-
 pefts, celeftial lights, and lingular appearances of the fun, al-
 ways attend the  approach of comets; and it is furprifing  that
 the moderns have taken little or no notice of  the fact.
   The  cataftrophe of Helice and Bura was occafioned by vio-
lent fhocks of earthquakes, with contrary and conflicting winds,
which fwelled the water in  the Corinthian gulf, above the tops
of trees on  the fhore.   This  was in the winter, during the
hight, and juft before the  battle of Leuctra.   It is  fortunate
for us that we have a correct account of  this inundation ; for it
perfectly unfolds the true hiftory of the deluges in  the time of
Ogyges and Deucalion.
  In the year of Rome 391, there was an extraordinary dark-
 nefs in Italy, during the greateft part of the day ;  " dilata nox
ufque ad plurimam partem diei;" and a lingular hail ftorm.
                                       Muratori, vol. 1. n.
  In the year of Rome 405  and  B. C.  349, a peftilence is
mentioned, but with no  circumftances that deferve notice, ex-
cept that  it  was  in time of peace  and internal tranquillity.
 " Quum et foris pax et domi concordia ordinum otium  effet, ne
nimis hetaeres effent, peftilentia adorta"—and recourfe was had to
the Sybilline books and the Lectifturnium.   The  circumftance
of the prevalence of  plague  in  time of peace, will  be often
4 
47
noted,  to refute the idle notion,  that peftilential difeafes are gen»
crated and propagated principally by armies in time of war.

  f£j* After  writing  the foregoing,  I found  in  Pliny,  Nat.
Hift. lib. 2. z$, an account of a comet in  " the  hundred and
eighth Olympiad, and year of Rome 398."   It refembled  at
firft a creft, but changed into the form of a fpear.   Now, the
fiiftyear of the 108th Olympiad,  according to common chro-
nology, correfponds  with  the year of Rome 406.  There  is
therefore a difference between the common mode of reckoning
by the Olympiads, and Pliny's mode, of at leaft eight years  or
two Olympiads.—By following the common mode, and placing
the firft year of the 108th Olympiad, againft the  406th year  of
Rome,  the appearance of this comet will coincide with the gen-
eral  tenor  of facts,  hereafter to be related,  and correfpond
nearly in time with the plague in  Rome,  mentioned above.
   Nearly at  the  fame time,  there  was an eruption  of Etna,
placed by authors in the year B. C. 350, correfponding with the
year of Rome 404.   It is probable  this eruption  was within a
year or two of the appearance of the comet; aecording to many
modern facts of the fame kind.
   In the year of Rome 422, a violent plague  arofe, which,
fays P. Diaconus, was fuppofed to proceed from corrupt air, un-
til the confpiracy of the Roman women to poifon their  hufbands
was detected;  after which it was afcribed  to that.caufe.   Livy
does not appear to credit popular opinion on this occafion.  He
fays, " Foedus infequens annus ; feu intemperie  Caeli, feu hur
mana fraude fuit"—Recourfe  was had  to the ufual remedies,
driving the nail, and  the Lectifternium.
                          Livy b. 8.  18.   Auguft. Hift. P. Diac.
   A peftilence again appeared in  Rome in the year  440, but
no particulars are ftated.
                                               Livy 9. »8.
   In the year preceding, there was an inundation at Rhodes.
   In the year of  Rome 458,  B.  C.  296,  commenced a moft
fevere peftilence which continued for  three or  four years.   In
the third year, a hard winter appears to be related by Livy, who
fays, " the fnow filled all  places, nor was it poflible  to endure
% 
48
the weather abroad."   This was  however  in  the  mountainous
country of  the Samnites.   The Roman  confuls celebrated their
triumphs over the Samnites, during this  mortal epidemic, and it
was a curious fpectacle to behold at the fame  time,  triumphal
and funeral proceflions, and lamentations for the dead, mingled
with acclamations of joy.
                        Orofius, b. 3. 21. Livy,b. 10. 31 et feq.
  This plague commenced with many   alarming prodigies, and
violent tempefts.  A  remarkable  cloud  and extreme  darknefs,
for the greater part  of a day, is mentioned by Livy,  under fa-
vor of which the  Samnites attacked  the Roman  lines.   This
darknefs is mentioned,  on account of the frequency of the phe-
nomenon, during peftilential periods.—Perhaps this appearance
may be connected with the caufe of peftilence.
  The violence and duration of this plague induced the Romans
to fend to Epidaurus for Efculapius,  which  they imported in
form of a ferpent, and in the ifland of the Tyber,  where it was
firft landed, they confecrated a  temple to the God of  Phyfic.
                                             Livy, Epit. II.
 • It is not improbable, that the  firft eruption  of Lipari,  re-
corded in hiftory, happened during this period ; as  it was in  the
reign  of Agathocles, who  died a few  years after the time  of
this peftilence.   The eruption is mentioned by the hiftorian Cal-
lias whofe works are loft ;  but the authors who  eited them, have-
mentioned thefe  particulars,  that the eruption continued for feve-
ral days,  throwing great ftones to the diftance of a mile ;  and the
fea boiling all round the ifland.
  In the year of Rome 477, and B. C.  277,  happened that re-
markable plague which is often mentioned, as particularly fatal
to pregnant women and breeding cattle.   "  Gravis  peftilentia
urbem  ac fines ejus invafit; quas, cum omnes,  praecipue mulieres
pecudefque corripiens, necatis in utero  focetibus, futura prole  va-
cuabat."
                                          '    Orofius, lib. 4.
  This alfo happened in time of peace.   The words of the hifto-
rian are remarkable.  " Sed Romaoorum miferia nullis ceffat in-
duces.  Confumitur morborura malis  intercapedo bellorum ; et 
49
 cum foris ceffatur a prceliis, agitur introrfam ira de coelo."  The
 miferies of the  Romans have  no truce.  The intervals between
 their wars are wafted with  the calamities of ficknefs ;  and when
 they are exempt from war abroad, they are afflicted by the wrath
 of heaven at home.
    Short on  air has placed this difeafe in the year of the world
 3712, correfponding with the year of Rome 462, but his chro-
 nology is often inaccurate.
    In the year of Rome 482, a peftilence  broke out in  Rome,
 and raged two or three years,  carrying off countlefs multitudes of
 people.  This was preceded by an eruption of fire at Calenum,
 which continued for three days and nights,  deftroying the foil for
 a confiderable extent.   This period  alfo was diftinguifhed by
 earthquakes, in the third year of  the peftilence,
                                   Orofius. b. 4.  P. Diaconus.
   This period was memorable for a fevere  winter.  The fnow,
 to a prodigious depth, lay in the forum for forty days.
   It will be  found as we proceed  with this  hiftory, that moft of
 fuch extraordinary feafons and unufiial concurrence of great agi-
 tations in nature, happen  during  volcanic eruptions and the  ap-
 proach  of comets to  the folar  fyftem  of which  this globe is a
 part-   That comets  were vifible,  during the calamitous periods
 mentioned in tjie Roman hiftory is probable ;  but  unfortunately
 few inftances are recorded, until after the Chriffian era.—Not  an
 eruption of Vefuvius  is mentioned, and I cannot find more than
 fourteen inftances of  eruptions from  Etna,  anterior to the fame
 era.   This defect of hiftory is of no fmall concern in a treatife of
 this kind.
   In the year of  Rome 529 and B. C. 225, the Roman armies
 which were marching into Gaul,  were  retarded by violent rains,
 ap.d the plague which infected the foldiers.  The Romans were,
 as ufual on fuch occafions, frightened at numerous prodigies.  In
 Hetruria, uncommon  lights  were feen in the fky.  Meteors were
(een at Ariminum, and the waters of a river in Picenum appeared
                           G 
                             5°
 like blood.  A violent earthquake overturned the famous CJolof-
 fus of Rhodes, and the fhock was felt in Italy.*
 Plut.LifeofMarcellus. Orofius. b. 4 P. Diac-nus. Muratori vol. 1.16.
   Some of the prodigies,  mentioned by  Roman hiftorians,  and
 which have been ridiculed by moderns who are too wife to ftudy
 the operations of nature, and too proud to believe in extiaordina-
 ry occurrences, will be hereafter explained.
   During the battle near the  Lake Thrafamene,  a fevere earth-
 quake was experienced, which,  it is faid, the armies did  not
 perceive.  Pliny  Nat. Hift. lib. 2.  84.   This was  in the year
 of  Rome  536, and B. C.  a 18 ; in which year, Livy relates,
 b. 21.  61, there was a fevere winter.  Scipio was befieging a
 town in Spain,  near the prefent Barcelona, and for thirty daysj
 the fnow was four feet deep.  This is mentioned as a circum-
 ftance  very unfavorable for  the  befiegers.  I  cannot help re-
marking how clofely connected in time are great frofts and  vio-
lent earthquakes.   This was the winter in which  Hannibal crof-
 fed the Alps and entered Italy.   He reached the Alps early in
 November and was nine daysin arriving to the fummit.  His ar-
 my fuffered incredible  harcjPf s and loffes from deep fnow,  bad
 roads,  and the natives-who killed many  of the troops.   At the
 end of fifteen days, he gave his troops reft, on the hills near the
 foot of  the Alps, and altho the fnow was deep on the mountains,
 he found in the vales, pafturage for his horfes and elephants.   He
profecuted his route in the winter, fuffering  great hardfhips from
 fnow, and more from rains, which fwelled the rivers.  Early in
 the fpring he croffed the Appenine, and here his troops again fuf-
fered from a fnow ftorm.
                            See Livy. lib. 21.  Pol;, bius. lib.  3.
   At tfee fiege of Syracufe by Marcellus in the year of Rome 541
 andB.  C. 213,  happened  a remarkable mortality,  among the
 troops,  but efpecially  among the Cathaginians, who all  perifhed
 with their Generals,  Hippocrates and Himilco.   Of this pefti-

   * The compilers of the Encyclopedia, Dufrefnoy and Fun&ius, place
 this event in the year B. C. 224, and Roilin and Univciial Hiftory in 121.
   Rome was overflowed, according^to Univerfal Hiftory in 231  B. C,
 This event may belong to the fame  period; but the compilers of that
 hiftory  differ in chronolgy from Ilaol: and  the common  chronology
 which I have followed. 
                            5*
lehce,  Livy gives the following  account, b.  25. 26.   " A
peftilence broke out in both armies, which  diverted their minds
from the concerns of the war ;  for it was in autumn, and in a fit-
uation naturally unhealthy.   The heat,  which was more fevere
without the city than within, affected almoft every perfon in both
the camps.   At firft, perfons fickened and died, by reafon of the
unwhoiefomenefs of the place ; afterwards the difeafes fpread by
infection,  fo that thofe who werefeized,  were neglected,  or aban-
doned and died,  or their attendants contracted the  fame difeafe.
Daily burials and death were before their eyes, and day and night
their cars were affailed  with  lamentations.   At length the furvi-
vors became hardened ; they neither grieved at the death of oth-
ers, nor took pains to bury the dead ; and  the bodies ©f the de-
ceafed lay fcattered along the ftreets, in fight  of thofe who were
expecting the fame fate.  The dead infefted the fick, and  the fick,
thofe  in health, with terror and peftiferous  itench;  and fome,
preferring death by the fword, rufhed on the pofts  of the enemy.
   But the difeafe was much more fevere and  fatal  to the Cartha-
ginians, than to  the  Romans, who, in this long  fiege, had be-
come accuftomed to the air and water.   The Sicilian troops, on
the firft breaking out of the difeafe, abandoned their allies, and
returned to their homes.   The Carthaginians, who had no  means
of fhelter,  all perifhed.    Marcellus, to  avoid the evil, drew his
troops into the city, where their  enfeebled bodies were refrefhed
by the fhades of the houfes.   Many however  of the Roman ar-
my, died of the fame difeafe."
   It is obfervable that heat and pofition augmented the difeafe
among the Carthaginians.  They were encamped near a marfh or
low ground ; and expofed to the direct rays of a burning furi.
The  Romans had poffeflion of  one  part of Syracufe, and  had
fhelter under the buildings.  Thefe circumftances,  and their not
being accuftomed to the air of the place, proved fatal to the whole
Cathaginian army.  Mr. Brydone learnt in Sicily from the hifto-
riographer of Etna, Recupero, that there was a great eruption of
Etna, during this fiege of Syracufe.  I  have not met with an ac,
count of it in the original hiftories I have coofulted. 
                             52
   In the fame year,  that this peftilence raged in Syracufe, a le^
 vere peftilential epidemic prevailed in Rome.   " Eo anno pefti-
 lentia gravis incidit in urbem, agrofque ; qua; tamen magis in lon-
 gos morbos, quam in perniciales, evafit."
                                               Livy, 27. 23.
   This fact is evidence of what will be fully proved in later peri-
 ods of the  world, that a peftilential ftate of air extends, at the
 fame time, over many parts of the world ; and  that if  a violent
 plague is raging in one  place, malignant difeafes, if not plague,
 prevail in other places.
   Another important fact  related in the laft quotation,  is that
 the peftilence in Rome  was the bilious plague,  as  it was not fo
 mortal, as it was troublefome, by running out into long difeafes.
   It is a known fact and not unfrcquent, that the V ellow Fever,
 in our climate, is  reduceable to a bilieus  remittent and  even to
 an intermittent;  the peftilence on board the fhips at Bulama of-
 ten ran out into long and obftinate  intermittents.   The fever in
 Baltimore in 1797 begaH m tne form of a bilious remittent, and
 continued in  that  form for many weeks, before it affumed the
 fymptoms of a malignant Yellow Fever.
   The  Roman and Carthaginian armies in Bruttium, a town in
 the fouthern part ©f the Kingdom of Naples, fuffered greatly by
 a peftilential difeafe, in the year of  Rome 54S ; but no  particu-
 lars worthy of notice are recorded,
                                             Livy, b. 28. 46
   It is however to be remarked that this period of peftilence was
 diftinguifhed by the  appearance of immenfe fwarms of locufts,
 which overfpread the whole country about Capua.   Their appear-
 ance was fubfequent to the plague mentioned  in the  armies.  We
 fhall have frequent occafion to mention the fame phenomenon in
 the natural  world, as cotemporary with peftilence.   But clouds of
 thefe animals rarely or never appear at any other time, than during
 or near the time of the prevalence of  plagues ; and by comparing
 the dates of their appearance,  it will be found, that they are not,
 unlefs by accident, the caufe of plague, nor the effect;  but, like
 other animals which are generated in myriads,  during peftilence,
 the produce of fome general caufe, and probably of that ftate of
the elements, which occafions the difeafes of the human  race.
                                                Livy, 30. a. 
                           JL
   During the war between  the  Romans and Antiochus, king'of
 Syria, in 563, an event took place,  fimilar to many inftances rela*
 ted by Dr.  Lind.   The  Roman fleet,  with that of the Rhodi-
 ans, in fearch  of the Syrian fleet,  put into the gulph of Pam*
 phylia and anchored at Phafelis.   But it was in the midft of fum-
 mer, and the place unwholefome ; and the men, unaccuftomed
 to the air, were feized with a peftilential difeafe, .efpecially the
 rowers.  Why the rowers ? evidently becaufe they were more ex-
 pofed to a hot fun,  to the  air and to fatigue, than the  troops on
 board.   This ficknefs induced the commander to quit that ftation,
 and we hear  no more  of the epidemic.
                                           Livy, b.  37. 23.
   In the year of Rome 571 and B. C.  182 commenced a violent
 plague, which lafted feveral years, and  ravaged Rome and all It-
 aly fo that the  Romans  could not enlift 8oco foldiers to quell a
 revolt.   In the next year, Livy mentions a drouth of fix months,
 and a confequent dearth of corn.
   It will be remarked  by  any man who reads hiftory with atten-
 tion, that during peftilential periods,  all the ordinary operations of
 nature acquire unufual  ftrength and magnitude.   Earthquakes and
 tempefts are  vaftly more  violent,  than  at other times.   The an-
 cient hiftorians, evidently without defign,  have left proofs of this
 fact.   Thus Livy mentions,  that during the period under confide-
 ration,  the operations of the war in Spain were retarded by con-
 tinual rains, which fwelled the rivers, and Flaccus, the Praetor,
 was compelled,  tempeftatibus foedis, terrible ftorms, to order his
 whole army into a city in the neighborhood.
                              Livy, b. 40. 33. and fee. 29. 36.
  The fpring of the year 571  was remarkably tempeftuous,  and
 Livy gives  a frightful  account of a ftorm in Rome which did no
fmall injury to the public buildings.
                                                 B. 40. 2.
  Short has placed this peftilence in the year of the world 3763,
 correfponding according  to Ufher with the year of Rome 507.
 But Short's chronology is wretched.  He mentions a large comet
fix years after this period,  of the fize  of the fun  and of a fiery
color.   Of the appearance of a comet at the period under con-
fideration, there can be no doubt, tho I have not found the origin- 
                           JL
el writer who mentions it and Short quotes no authority but Pozet.
He however has made an egregious blunder  in the time, as he
has in many other inftances of facts which he relates, of high an-
tiquity.
  The order of the great phenomena of nature feems to be that
violent ftorms, rain and a cold winter, are followed the  next year
with excefiive heat and drouth  and vice  verfa.  Violent ftorms
however occur at all times during thefe periods.  It will be noted,
that the peftilence above mentioned could not be occafioned by the
drouth and dearth of corn, for it broke out in the year preceding.
The fame fact often occurs, and proves that great peftilence is not
folely the effect of intemperate feafons,  but that both are the ef-
fects of another caufe.
  The prefent inftance is one, in which a moft fevere winter fol-
lowed the other unufual feafons.  In the year 574,  according to
Hook, and the confulfltip of Q^  Fulvius and  L. Manlius, the
winter was remarkable for deep fnow and every kind of tempeft.
It continued longer than ufual, and trees,  expofed to the weath-
er,  were blafted.   An  earthquake happened, in the  following
Jrear.
                                        Livy, b.  40. 45. 59.
  This then  fixes  the year of  the appearance of the comet,
mentioned by Short.   That he refers to the fame period is cer-
tain from his mentioning the  circumftance of the inability of  the
Roman fenate to raife  a body of 8000 men ;  a fact afligned by
Hook to the year 571, and which can belong to no other period.
But from his defcription of this ftar,  I am inclined to believe he
refers to that which is hereafter mentioned,  under the great pefti-
lence of 6 io,  and which Pliny has well defcribed.
  This uncommon feafon  was fucceeded in  576 by peftilence
among cattle,  and the next year, followed the plague, which
made dreadful havoc in Rome.   Some facts ftated by  the hifto-
lian deferve particular notice.  " Peftilentia, quae priore  anno
in boves ingruerat, eo verteret in hominum  morbos.   Qui incide-
rant, haud facile feptimum diem  fuperabant: qui fuperaverant,
longinquo, maxime quartanae, implicabantur morbo.   Servitia
maxime moriebantur;  eorum ftrages per  omnes vias  infepulto-
xum erat.   Ne liberorum quidem funeribus fubficiebat.  Cadave* 
55
 ra,  intacta a canibus  ac vulturibus,  tabes abfumebat :  fatisqtre
 conftabat nee illo,  nee priore anno, in tanta ftrage bourn homing
 umque vulturium ufquam vifum."
                                              Livy b. 41. 21.
   It is not eafy to dojuftice  to this energetic defcription of the
 hiftorian, but the follewing is the fenfe of the paffage.   «' The pef-
 tilence which had affected cattle in the former year,  now turned
 into difeafes of men.  Thofe who were feized fcarcely  lived be-
 yond the feventh day j thofe who furvived that day, were afflicT>
 ed  with tedious diftempers,  efpecially the quartan ague.   The
 difeafe made its moft fatal ravages among the flaves, whofe  dead
 bodies lay unburied along the highways.   It  was not poflible to
 bury the bodies of the free citizens.  Their corpfes lay unburied,
 untouched by dogs and vultures, and wafted away  by corruption.
 It was evident  that in this  and the former year, during  the great
 mortality among men and cattle, no vulture was feen."
   Jn this account,  the following particulars are noticeable.
   1 ft.  That the peftilential air firft produced its effects on cattle,
   2d.  That the feventh  was the critical day—as it ufually is, in
 modern bilious plague.
   3d.  That if the difeafe had a  favorable crifis on  the feventh
 day, the patient furvived,  but the  diftemper  changed into an au-
 tumnal 'bilious  fever of the quartan type, and long  duration—a
 ftrong evidence of what I have before remarked that, if peftis and
 peftilentia arc difeafes of a diftinct fpecies, the Roman peftilence
 was the bilious plague.
   4th.  This peftilence was,  as ufual, moft  mortal among the
 lower orders of people.
   5th.  Carnivorous animals would not touch the dead bodies, and
vultures deferted the atmofphere of Rome.
  The laft fact is common in  great plagues ; but in plagues of a
 lefs malignancy, animals do not quit the infected places.  Thefe
 facts fecm to indicate that birds perceive the  peftilential ftate  of
air,  before it becomes fenfible to the human  fpecies.   It feems
that the vultures difappeared, the firft year, while the peftilence
was  confined to cattle ; and there can be little doubt, that the del-
icate organs of fowls perceive  the derangement of the air, whether 
5«
 the caufe may be, the infufion into it of a peftiferous vapor,  or
 the abftraction from it of a portion of the vital principle, before
 its effects are vifible in larger animals, and before the air is ren-
 dered offenfive by the carcafes of difeafed and dead animals.
   This was one of thofe violent and long continued plagues of
 which hiftory has recorded many inftances : and the Romans on
 this occafion, faw many prodigies.   It is difficult, in fome ca-
 fes, to diftinguifh,  in  the relations of hiftorians,  truth from vul-
 gar report ; and philofophy  muft guard againft the illufions of
 credulity and terrified imaginations.    I take no  notice of the
 monfters born, and an ox's  fpeaking,  on thefe occafions.   At
 the beginning of the late American war,  many fimilar prodigies
 were announced and  believed  by the  ignorant and credulous.
 But fome of the  phenomena, enumerated by Livy  among prod-
 igies, in all probability, had  a real exiftence, for it will be re-
 lated hereafter that fimilar appearances  have  been  obferved, in
 modern  times, during peftilence, and  appear evidently to have
 a connection with its caufes.
   During the plague   above  mentioned, a  bow was feen in the
 fky, in a ferene day, extended over the temple of Saturn in the
 Roman  forum ; three funs  or  haloes  appeared,  and at night
 many torches,  or meteors  defcended  in Lanuvium.   There is
 ftrong evidence for believing  thefe phenomena to be  occafioned
 by a vapor emitted from the  earth, in fuperabundant quantities,
 and which there is reafon to think, may be the caufe of peftilen-
tial difeafes ; or  there may be fome changes  in the combination
 of fubftances compofing  the  atmofphere.
   At the  clofe of this peftilential period,  in 581,  Apulia was
deluged by fwarms of  locufts ; as the Pontine  territory had been
the year before.   So  deftructive  were their ravages,  that  the
 Praetor Sicinius was fent with an army to drive them away.
                                        Livy, b.  42. 2 & 10.
   Orofius b. 4  relates,  that a  moft violent plague  defolated
 Rome in the year 610 and B. C. 144.  The dead bodies -lay pu-
trefying in the houfes and ftreets, and rendered it  impoflible to
approach the city.  In the preceding year appeared a remarkable
 comet.  As we come  down to the more authentic periods of hif-
 tory, this phenomenon will more frequently occur. 
57
   It is again neceffary to remark a difference in the chronology of
different authors.   Seneca places the appearance of this comet,
which he defcribes to have been as large and luminous  as the fun,
"  Poft mortem Demetrii Syriae Regis, paulo ante Achaicum
Bellum"—after the death of Demetrius,  king of Syria, and  a
little before the Achean war.
                                        N4t. Queft. lib. 7.15.
   Demetrius was flain, B. C.  151, according to  common chro-
nology, and the Achean war was in the year when Carthage was
taken and deftroyed by Scipio,  B.C.  146.   The appearance of
the comet therefore fhould be placed in the year preceding, or £47,
correfponding with the year of  Rome, 607.   And this is proba-
bly correct, for it  is agreeable to general obfervation,  that  a
comet appears early in the peftilential period, and often precedes
its moft calamitous years,—The Encyclopedia affigns  it to  the
year 146.
   Seneca remarks that at firft it appeared fiery and red, emitting
a bright  light,  fo as to  overcome the  darknefs of the night.
Gradually  its  magnitude leffened and  its brightnefs  vanifhed.
   This plague was ftill more deadly than that in which CamilluS
died.
                                          Muratori, vol. I.
   In the year of Rome  628, and B. C. 126, hiftorians relate,
that a moft dreadful peftilence  arofe in  Africa,  from  dead lo-
cufts.  Thefe animals were brought towards Numidia and Utica,
by a ftrong eaft wind, in fuch innumerable multitudes,  that they
devoured every green thing—not fparing even the bark of trees.
They were driven  by  the fouth wind into the Mediterranean,
and being  waflied on fhore, in the hot  feafon, they putrefied,
and caufed a moft deadly plague.  It is related that  800,000
perfons perifhed in Numidia alone ; 200,000 on  the fea coaft of
Carthage and  Utica, and 30,000  of the  Roman troops.   No
lefs than 1500  dead bodies were carried out of one gate of U-
tica, in a Angle day.
       l.ivy, Epit. 60.  Orofius,  lib. 5.  P. Diac. Auguft. Hift. 813. ■
   Authors afcribe  this plague to the dead locufts ; and  doubt-
lefs that caufe had if, influence.  At  the fame time,  there is no
                           H 
 neceflity of reforting to the locufts, for this was a time of gene-
 ral peftilence.   The fame ftate  of air or other elements which
 favored the generation of difeafe,  firft  exifted, and  produced
 this unufual number of locufts.   This will appear in fubfequent
 parts of this hiftory.
   Orofius gives a moft hideous account of the peftiferous ftate of
 air from the locufts.   He avers  that birds, cattle and wild beafts
 perifhed by means  of the  corruption of the air, and thus  in-
 creafed the evil.   He remarks  further that, altho locufts had
 often appeared in his days,  in great numbers,  yet they never be-
 fore had done more mifchief when dead, than when living, fo
 as to caufe mankind to wifh they had not perifhed.
   We muft accede to the opinion of the ancients that the ftench
 of the locufts wasone caufe of the peftilence; it ispoflible that no
 epidemic difeafe would have been excited without  that  caufe ;
 but it is equally true, that in a healthy  ftate of  the atmofphere,
 no putrefaction of dead bodies has ever  been known to produce
 an epidemic peftilence.   It may be powerful enough  to  excite
 difeafe within  a fmall  extent of its own  atmofphere  ; but if  no
 other caufe of difeafe exifts,  it will not extend beyond that  in-
 fected atmofphere.
   The  appearance  of immenfe multitudes  of locufts,  during
 peftilence,  is a curious fact in natural hiftory,  and well deferves
 inveftigation ;  but thefe animals do not always precede the ap-
pearance of the difeafes of the fame  period, nor do they often
 perifli in fuch  collections  as to  be  the caufe  of thofe difeafes.
 The common  idea  in Arabia, is, that they  are generated  by
 heat and drouth.  Cold and rains are fuppofed to deftroy their
 eggs.
  About the beginning of this  deftructive period,  appeared a
 comet.  The  Encyclopedia mentions  two, in the year of Rome
 629,  and B. C.  125.  But it is probable this is a   miftake  of
 the compilers.    The  univerfal hiftory places one under the  year
 630,'ajrtl a fecond under the following year, quoting Juftin, for au-
 thority.  ' But Juftin  mentions  two comets, one at the  birth  of
Mithridates, another  in the year he began to reign.   Now  Mi-
 thridates was about eleven or twelve years old when he came  to 
59
the throne,  in  the year of Rome 631,  and B.C.  123.  Of
courfe the firft comet muft have been-about the year  620, and
B.C.  134.
   It is no inconfiderable proof of the truth of Juftin's account,
andof the accuracy of our chronology in this particular, that there
was an eruption of the great volcano of  Sicily, in both the pe-
riods when  thefe comets  are faid to have  appeared.   In  the
year 620, and B. C  134, there was an eruption of Etna, tho
not mentioned by Juftin ; and this was the year of the firft great
comet,  and  of the birth of Mithridates.   Nine years after, in
629, there was a fecond eruption of Etna.   The laft year cor-
refponds nearly with the period in which Mithridates began to
reign,  allowing him to be eleven years  old, and with the ap-
proach of the fecond comet.
   This laft  comet  produced moft tremendous effects,   as we
might expect from its magnitude,  and proximity to the earth.
The following is  Juftin's  defcription of it.   " Nam et  eo quo
genitus eft anno,  et eo quo regnare primum ccepit, ftella cometes,
per utrumque tempus, 70 diebus ita luxit, ut caelum omne fla*:
grare videreter."   For 70 days the heavens appeared to  be in  a
flame.
                                               . Lib. 37. a-
   The eruptions of the volcano were equally remarkable.
   The lava from Etna laid wafte the city and fuburbs of Catana.
u JEtna  ultra folitum exarfit,  fays the hiftorian; Catanam ur-
bem finefque oppreflit."
                                             Orofius, lib. 5.
   In Paulus Diaconus we have a relation of lingular facts in re-
gard to the  eruption of Etna.  Globes of fire were thrown from
the Crater.   Lipari, a fmall volcanic ifland on the north of Si-
cily, became fo heated, during the eruption, that the rocks were
 diffolved, tho it is not faid that this  ifland difcharged any fire.
 The water  of the  neighboring fea was fo heated  as to  kill the
 fifh,  and melt the pitch on the decks of veffels.  Dead  fifh ap-
 peared on the furface of the  water, and many perfons, who were
 near the ifland,  were  fuffocated with heat.
    This author places  the appearance of the locufts which cau-
 fed the plague in Africa,  in  the year after the eruption of Etna. 
66
Others place this event, a year before the eruption.   It L mucll
to be regretted that authors have been fo carelcfs of the chronoi-
ogy of important phenomena, on the order of which may de-
pend important  principles.  This however  is  certain, that all
the great agitations of nature here  related belong to the  fame
period,  and it is not furptifing that they were attended with moft
mortal peftilence.
             For authorities fee Livy, Fpit 60.   Orofius, lib. 5.
              P. Diaconus, in Auguft. Hift. 813.  Juftin, lib. 37.
              2,3.  Ufh'er'a Annala, 498. Muratori, vol. 1, p. 26.
   The foregoing period of peftilence was one of the moft dread-
ful on record.
   It will be found invariably true,  in every period of the world,
that the violence and  extent of the  plague has been nearly pro-
portioned to the  number and violence of the following phenome-
na—earthquakes, eruptions of volcanoes,  meteors,  tempefts, in-
undations
   During the civil wars excited by Sylla and Marius, the armies
loft ten thoufand men by the plague, ia the  year of Rome 66$,
and B.C.  89.
                Univerfal Hift. Vol. 13. 59.   Vcl. Paterc. lib. 3. 21.
   It muft have been during this period that the comet appeared
which is mentioned by Pliny.   Nat. Hift.  lib.  2.  cap  25.
"  Civili  motu,   Octavio  Confule," for  this  was the  year,  in
which  Octavius  was  Conful.   This  period was preceded by an
extraordinary collifion and difrupture of two mountains,  and the
burfting of  fire from the chafm, in the territory of Modena.   Pli-
ny affures us, this was feen from the Emilian way, by an immenfe
number of  Roman knights and others,
                                   Pliny Nat. Hift. lib.  2. 83.
   With this period correfponds the eruption of a volcano in Hi-
era, one of the iEolian ifles, north of Sicily, now called  Lipari,
which  burnt for  feveral  days,  and the very  fea  around  it
appeared to be  fire.   Pliny fays this was during  the  Social
War.
                                                Lib. 2. 106.
   The  year B. C.  44  was  diftinguifhed  by  the  death  of
Julius Cefar, by  the  hands of  configurators; foon after which
appeared a comet,  fuppofed  to be  the fame which appeared in 
6t
 reSo,  whofe period is calculated to be 575 years.   If this is  its
 period,  it  muft have  been  feen  in  the year  B.  C.  176*,
 in the reign of Ogyges, when Attica was inundated and rendered
 barren  for a number of years ;  and when  the planet Venus is
 faid to have changed her figure, color and  courfe.   When we
 furvey  the uniform effects of comets in terapefts and  floods, and
 compare the traditional account  of that event  with the terrible
 inundations which have happened in Greece  at other times, and
 efpecially with that in the time of Thucydides,  which rent Ata-
 lanta from the main land ; which events all took place during the
 approach of comets; we areconftrained to believe the fact of the
 Ogygean deluge, and fable rifes to  the dignity of authentic hiftory.
 This inundation might have happened during the approach  of
 fome other comet,  but the probability is,  that it was during that
 of the  comet under confideration,  which fixes the time of the
 Ogygean flood,  in  the year   B.  C.   1767.   This  circum-
 ftance may fcrve to correct the chronology of  the early events
 in Greece.
                           See Jackfon's chronology vol. 3. 312.
   Its next appearance muft have  been in the year A. C. 1193,
 when Electra, one  of the  pleiads, abandoned her filler orbs,
 and fled from the Zodiac to the north pole.
   Its third appearance  correfponds with  the  year A. C.  618,
 the year of the terrible comet of the Sybill, fays  Gibbon ; and
 its fourth, is the one under confideration.   Its fubfequent appear-
 ances A. D. 531,  1106 and 1680 will be hereafter  mentioned.
 All the periods here named,  which come  within the limits of
 authentic hiftory, have  been  remarkable  for peftilence, earth-
 quakes, inundations or other great phenomena.    Such was the
 fact in 44 and 43.   There was  a  terrible  inundation of the
 Tyber,  a violent earthquake, many unufual phenomena in the
 fky, and in the  year 43, a  violent  eruption of  Etna___Pefti-
 lence, as ufual, accompanied thefe events.
   But another phenomenon, the  palenefs or defect  of light, in
 the fun, deferves  more paiticular attention.  Pliny afferts that
 this pale color lafted  almoft  a year.   His words are, " Fiunt
|>rodigiofi et longrores folis defectus, qualis occifo dictatore Ca> 
6±
fare et Antoniano bello, totius  pene anni  pallore  continue."
Nat. Hift. lib. 2. 30.—Virgil and Ovid,  who were  eye wit-
neffes  of this phenomenon, have both  defcribed  it,  with  the
Other pTodigies of this period.
     " Ille (fol) etiam extindto miferatus Caefare Romam,
  Cum Caput obfcura nitidum ferrugine  texit."-—
                                           Georg. lib. 1. 466.

              " Phoebi quoque triftis imago
     Lurida follicitis praebebat lumina terris."
                                     Mctamorph. lib.  15. 785.

  The words ferrugo and lurldus give us an exact idea  of the
color—a palenefs tinctured with the color of ruft.   A fimilar
defect of light in the fun occurred at the time of the next ap-
pearance of this comet,  A. D. 531, as  will be hereafter related.
The fact is curious.   It is well known  that  this  comet ap-
proaches very near to the fun ; but whether the defect of  fplen-
dor in  the fun was the  effect of the attractive powers  of the
comet,  or of an  alteration in the electrical atmofphere of thefe
bodies ; or whether it was occafioned by an alteration in the ter-
reftrial atmofphere,  is  a queftion  not  eafily folved.   It might
have been owing to a vapor,  like that which overfpread Europe
in 1783.
  This period was marked with famin alfo, with fhooting ftars,
and numerous prodigies.
             See Virgil and Ovid in the paflages quoted.
             See alfo,  Zonoras' Annals, lib.  zo.  Uflier's An. p. 680.
  The comet appeared in 44 and alfo the peftilence—the erup-
tion of Etna  in 43 B. C. and therefore fubfequent  to the other
events.   Indeed  it is more generally the cafe, that the volcano
does not emit fire until fome time after the appearance of the
plague.   To  this however there are  exceptions.  Moft of the
great plagues appear two or three years, with  different degrees
of violence ;  and during this period, volcanoes difcharge im-
menfe  quantities of lava.
   By a  paragraph  in  Ufher's Annals, p.  684, it  appears the
winter following the appearance  of this comet, was fevere. 
■*3
  The next peftilential period commenced in the year 30 B. C.
An eruption of Etna, which laid all the neighboring towns  in
ruins, marked the commencement  of this period, which how-   ,
ever was preceded in 31 by an earthquake  in  Judea,  in which
thoufands of people perifhed in the ruins of their houfes.   About
the fame time appeared,   fays Dion Caflius,  " thofe meteors
which the Greeks call  cOmets."   Thefe phenomena were fol-
lowed by a peftilence in Jerufalem, which deftroyed a great part
of the nobles  and people of the  Jews.   The  fame period was
marked by a great inundation of the Tyber,  which fpread over
the low grounds of Rome, and was confidered as an omen of the
future power of  Auguftus.
           Dion Caflius' Univ. Hift. 10,415.  Uflier'j Annals, 766.
  By a curious circumftance,  we learn that a  hard winter and
peftilence afflicted Rome at this period.   The  Emperor Octavi-
us Auguftus,  in his 5th Confulfhip, B.  C.  29, had formed the
defign of refigning  the empire.   Horace,  the Poet, his friend
and flatterer, endeavored to diffuade him from this purpofe,  on
account of the prodigies which happened at the beginning of the
year, which was  the v/inter of the year 30 B. C. and correfpond*
exactly with the appearance of the comet.  Among thefe prod-
igies,  the poet enumerates an abundance of fnow, terrible hail,
thunder and lightning,  and a deftructive inundation of the Tyber.

     " Jam fatis terris nivis, atque dirze
     Grandinis mifit Pater—&c."

  See the 2d  Ode of the  firft book,  which is  worth the notice
of the philofophic reader, on account of the defcription of the
inundation, which proceeded from zfwell of the fea.

     " Vidimus flavum Tiberim, retortis
     Littore Etrufco violenter  undis."

  It is a fact of  which there is full evidence, that during the ap-
proach of comets, not  only tempefts are more violent, than at
other times, but  the ocean  fwells without winds—the tides are
much higher and  high tides are more numerous.   The ancients 
64
 took notice of this fact,  and it came under my own obfervation,
 during the approach of the comet in  1797.
   In the 21 ft ode of the fame  book, Horace addreffes Apollo
 who "  drives war, famin and peftilence from the Roman people
 and the Emperor, to the Perfians and Britons."
   This paffage is proof th.it the Romans found peftilence in Brit-
 ain ;  but the  Britons, at that time,  had no trade, except with
 the coaft of France.  How or from what quarter,  they Imported
 the Infealon,  is left for the folution of Dr. Mead's followers.
   In the year B.  C.  25, according  to the Univerfal Hiftory, a
 violent peftilence raged in Rome, an inundation laid a great part
 of the city under water, lands were left untitled and a famin en-
 fiied.
   The fame year,  the plague raged in Paleftine, which was pre-
 ceded by a fevere  drouth and a dearth of corn.   A hard winter
 is mentioned about the fame  time,  but the  order of this  event
 is not recorded.
   Univerfal Hilt. vol. 13.502. Uflier's Annals, 772. Dufrefnoy's Chro,
   This peftilence  was preceded the year before,  by " epidemic
 diftempers which proved fatal to many."   This fact is important,
 and will hereafter  be found very material in determining the caud-
 les of epidemic peftilential difeafes.   It goes to prove a  progref-
fivenefs in the peftilential ftate of air, or general contagion.  And
 this inftance, among many to be hereafter fpecified,demonftrates
 thatthe plague was not produced by the famin, according to vulgar
 opinion  in almoft  all cafes of this kind.   Had no malignant dif-
 eafe preceded the  plague, and had the plague followed dofe on
 the heels of famin, we fhould have ftrong ground to believe fan\-
 in to be the caufe of the plague ; and a feries of fimilar facts might
 eftablifh  that  as a  principle or law of  nature.   But it appears,
 that the malignant diftempers, which are found to be the  conftant
 precurfors of peftilence, were  epidemic, in the year preceding
 the famin—a demonftration that the general caufe, in the ftatg of
 air, exifted anterior to the dearth. 
*5
                       SECTION III.

 Hiftorical view vf peftilential epidemics from the  Chriftian era, to
                        the year 1347.


 XJLT the clofe  of the  reign  of Auguftus,  about  the year
 14 or  according to  fome  authors 16 of  the  Chriftian  era,
 there was a great famin in  Rome,  and a  comet  is mentioned,
 near the fame time, by Dion Caflius.   This was followed by a
 moft terrible peftilence in the eaft, during which twelve cities of
 Afia Minor  were overthrown  by  earthquakes.   Of thefe  ca«
 lamitous events, the following is the account recorded by Taci-
 tus,1 An. lib. 2. 47.  « Eodem anno,  duodecem celebres Afiaa
 urbes conlapfae nocturno motu terras,  quo improvifior  gravior-
 que peftis fuit.   Neque folitum in tali cafu  effugium  fubveniebat
 in aperta prorumpendi,  quia didudtis terris  hauriebantur :  Sedif-
 fe immenfos montes,  vifa in arduo  quae  plana  fuerint,  effulfiffe
 inter rainam ignis memorant."
   It is  a circumftance not to be overlooked that the plague  was
 prevalent, anterior  to this dreadful  earthquake, as the hiftorian
 remarks that this cataftrophe rendered  the  ficknefs more  fevere
 and lefs tolerable.   Such is the ufual courfe of  thefe  calamities ;
the peftilence appears, before the moft deftructive   fhocks of the
 earth,  which rarely fail to occur, during its prevalence.   It is
to be obferved alfo  that men  obtained  no  fecurity, in this in-
ftance,  by flying to  open places,  for the earth  opened and fwal-
lowed them up—fire alfo iffued from the  earth.   Large raoun-j
 tains fubfided to plains,  and plains were thrown into  mountains.
      Tacitus An. lib. 2. 47-   PHn. lib. 2.  84-  Eufeb. Chron. 201.
        Uiher's Annals, 811.
   In the year 40 of the Chriftian era,  there was an  eruption of
Etna,  which frightened  Caligula out of Sicily  and which  wa§
                             I 
66
 followed by univierfal famin in Rome and the  eaft.*   This waj
 the famin foretold by Agabus in  Acts xi. 28, im  the reign of
Claudius Cefar.   A peftilence, at the fame  time raged  in Bab.
ylonia,  and multitudes of Jews, on account of it,  withdrew  to
 Seleucia.
    Suetonius in Calig.  Univ. Hift. vol. 14.  Ufher's An. 864, 868.
   During this famin and peftilence,  a comet was vifible in  the
year 42.
                                     Short on Air, vol. *. 170.
   The  clofe of the reign of Claudius and the  beginning of  the
reign of Nero,  A. D. 53  and 4,  were marked by a  fimilar
train of phenomena and calamities.   A comet is noted by Sue-
tonius and Pliny about the year 54, the year in which Claudius
was poifoned.   Tacitus relates that people were alarmed by fre-
quent fhocks of earthquakes,  which demolifhed many buildings,
and great dearth of corn prevailed in Rome and Greece.   Pliny
records that three funs, by which are doubtlefs intended, halos
or mock funs, appeared the fame year.   Thefe were  confidered
by the ancients as prodigies ; but tho common  phenomena, they
are remarkably luminous,  and  frequent in  the periods of pefti-
lence.
            Tacitus Annals, lib.  12. 43.  Plin. Nat. Hift. lib. 2. 31.
              Sutt. in Claud. Fundlius Chronol.
   This period was fickly,  tho  not recorded as peftilential.  Su-
etonius  remarks, " Ex  omnium  Magiftratum generi,  plerique
mortem obierant."  Many of all kinds of public officers died  ;
by which we  infer that the year was fickly.
   In  the  reign of Nero  occurred the next peftilential period.
Two comets are noted, one A. D. 62  and a fecond  in 66.   In
the year 62, Laodicea was overwhelmed by an earthquake.   In
the year 68, occurred a moft violent tempeft in Campania which
deftroyed villages, trees and  grain  ; and a violent  earthquake.
At the fame time,  raged a mortal plague in  Rome,  which is  faid
 to have carried off 30,000 people ; but  by the defcription of its

   * Short places this in the 49th year of the Chriftian era ; altho
 Caligula was killed ri the year 41.  No dependence can  be placed on
 the dates of events, -ou iu in Short on Air; and I cannot vouch lor their
 corxectnefs,  where I have not other uuthoritv. 
67
ravages,  it is probable  the number was much greater.   Tacitus
remarks that the "  houfes were  filled  with dead bodies and the
ftreets with funerals ;  neither age nor fex was exempt ;  flaves
and ingenuous plebeians were  fuddenly taken off, amidft the la-
mentations of  their  wives and children, who, while they aflifted
the fick, or mourned over the  dead, were feized with the difeafe,
and  perifhing, were burnt  on the fame funeral  pile.   To  the
knights anil fenators, the difeafe was lefs  mortal, tho thefe alfo
fuffcred in the common calamity."
   As Rome,  at the time  under confideration,  contained rftore
than a million of inhabitants,  fo mortal a plague  muft have ex-
tinguifhed a much larger number than  30,000 people—it is not
improbable, a numeral or  figure has been omitted by the tranf-
cribers of the  original hiftory.
   The  earthquakes of this period were experienced in Afia  Mi-
nor,  at Laodicea and Hierapolis.
   Seneca  mentions that  a flock of 600 fheep  were killed by the
peftiferous vapor, difcharged during the earthquake in Italy.
   Dion Caflius relates, that at this period, a moft formidable in-
undation laid wafte the Egyptian coaft.
   It muft not be omitted  that the violent tempeft in which St.
Paul was fhipwrecked on the  ifland of Melita, now Malta, was
in the year  61 or 62,  during the approach of the firft comet.
   Tacitus remarks, that no vifible caufe could be afligned for the
peftilence of this  period ; " Nulla Cceli  intemperie quae  occur-
reret occulis."  No remarkable  feafon had occurred, to  which
this diftemper  could be afcribed.   We fhall find, in fubfequent
periods, diftinguiflied writers making fimilar remarks.  The rea-
fon is,  thefe authors did not take a view  fufficiently  comprehen-
Gve of the operations of nature ; and  if the caufe of plague could
not be found,  very near In time and place,  they did not obferve it.
It is true,  that an extraordinary  feafon does not always precede
or attend peftilence, in a particular place ; but by  extending our
view of the fubject, to general caufes,operating over whole quar-
ters of the globe, and perhaps over the  whole globe ; and  con-
fidering the caufesjJSr invifible, and  acting for a feries of years, 
6B
 the whole myftery is unfolded.—-Such  may be  the refult of this
 inveftigation.
      For authorities refpecting the laft period  of peftilence here
      «  noticed, fee Tacitus,  An. lib. 15.47-  lib. 16. 13.   Suet.
        in Nero.  Seneca, Nat. Queft. 6 and 7.   Baronui?, vol. 1.
        62a Plin. Nat. Hift. lib. 2.  S3. Ufher's Annals, 89a.  Fundi.
        Chron.  Orof. lib. 7.   Univerfal Hift. vol.  14. 439.  Magd.
        Ec. Hift. lib. 2. 13.
   Seneca places the great  earthquake in Campania under the
 Confulfhip of Regulus and Virginius, which, according to  com-
 mon chronology, was in the 65th year of the Chriftian era.
   The next peftilential period is one of the  moft remarkable in
all the circumftances, that is recorded in Hiftory.
   In the year 79 [fome authors fay a  year later,  but the diffe-
rence is of no moment,  as they agree in the order of the events
related] juft before the  death of Vefpafian,  appeared a comet
with a long coma in the month of June.   On the firft  of Novem-
ber following, a moft tremendous ebullition of fire and lava iffu-
ed from Vefuvius and laid wafte the neighboring  country.   At
the fame time, happened a violent earthquake,  which  buried the
cities  of Herculaneum and  Pompeium  ; and fo fudden was the
fhock, that the people, who were attending a  play, had not time
to quit the theater,  and were all buried in a mafs.
   This dreadful cataftrophe was  preceded  by rumbling noifes in
the earth, and the  earth was heated to a great  degree.  Violent
agitations of  the fea, thunder and lightning alfo  announced the
approach of fome dreadful event.
   The eruption lafted  three days, during which time fuch im-
menfe quantities of afhes and fmoke were  difcharged, that day
was  turned  into night,  and  the  afhes were  driven by different
winds to Rome, Syria and Africa.
   The agitations of the earth and the elements  were tremendous
andfrighful.   Baronius  remarks, that fome perfons fuppofed the
world would be reduced to chaos, or confumed  with fire.   The
 fifh in the neighboring feas were deftroyed.
   This explofion  of fubterranean  fire was precededhy a fevere
 drouth in Italy.  The next year,'  80, was remarkable for a  terri-
 ble inundation in England ;  the Severn oversowing a large tract
 of country,  and deftroying multitudes of cattle. 
£r)
   Thefe violent effects of fubterranean fire were attended by one
of the moft fatal plagues recorded in hiftory.   A remark of Dion
is here very important.   He fays that the " Afhes from  Vefuvi-
us caufed,  at  the  time,   only  flight  indifpofitions or difeafes ;
but afterwards produced an Epidemic diftemper."   The remark
is incorrect, in afcribing even flight difeafes to afhes ; but  it leads
to a  conclusion, which  is of  moment.  The flight  complaints
which prevailed in the  autumn of the year of the eruption, com-
pared with modern obfervations, appear to have been  the precur-
fors of the plague,  which  broke out the next  year, and as au-
thors affcrt, deftroyed, for fome time,  10,000 citizens ©f Rome
in a day.—The fame year, while the   Emperor Titus was view-
ing the ruins in Campania, a fire broke out in the city,  which laid
in afhes a great number of buildings.
   The order of the events in this period was,  a comet,  drouth,
flight difeafes, and  an  eruption of Vefuvius,  with  the earth-
quakes,  the  firft year.—In the fecond,  appeared the peftilence
with its moft malignant effects.
   In this eruption of Vefuvius, the firft recorded in hiftory,  per-
ifhed the elder Pliny ;  and the Emperor Titus fell a victim to
his paternal care of his fubjects.
        Suetonius, 23. Aurcl. Vidtor. Epit.  Dion Caflius Pliny Epif-
           Baronius An. vol. 1. 713. Magd. lib. 2.14.
   In the year 90 appeared a comet.   The plague is faid to have
appeared in the north of England  in 88, and in 92, to have de-
ftroyed  150,000 lives in Scotland.
                                          Short, vol. 2. 207.
   In 102 a plague is faid to have arifen from dead fifh driven on
fliore, but  I have no other particulars.
   In the year  107 four cities of Afia, two in  Greece and three
in Galatia,  were overwhelmed by an earthquake.   A comet is
mentioned by Short in 109,  but as I have not found the  original
authority,  I cannot depend on  the accuracy of the chronology.
It is probable that thefe   phenomena occurred  within the fame
year ; and there is the more reafon to believe this, as  different
and refpectable authors differ two or three years in the chronology
of Roman hiftory.   The  next event to be related,   is a re-
markable inftance of the truth of this  obfervation. 
                           2L
   Short mentions a plague in Wales in 114 which  deftroyed
45,000 lives ;  but I have not the hiftory of the facts.
   In the reign of Trajan, the city of Antioch was almoft to-
tally demolifhed by an earthquake.   This emperor  was  in  the
city at the time, and narrowly efcaped with his life.  Some au-
thors place this event ih the year 114; others in 115; but  Ba-
ronius  has proved by an ancient infcription,  that it happened
under the confulate of P. Vipftanus Meffala and M. Virgilianus
Pedo ; which brings the event  to the year 117.  A comet  was
vifible the fame year.
   The earthquakes of this period were extremely  violent—ma-
ny cities were overthrown, mountains  funk,  rivers  were dried
up and new fountains appeared.
   Aurelius Victor adds to thefe calamities a great inundation of
the Tyber, violent peftilence and famin ; but to  which  of the
periods, the year  107 or 117, he alludes, is not quite certain,
tho probably to the latter.   "  Terrae motus gravis per  provin-
eias multas, atroxque peftilentia, famefque et inundia facta funt."
   To remedy the danger  from  fire  and earthquakes,  Trajan
limited the height of houfes in Rome to 60 feet;  and for that
regulation obtained the title of " Father of the Country."
   The great earthquake at Antioch was accompanied with fierce
winds, a circumftance not very  common ; it  being  more ufual
that fhocks of the earth happen  during  a perfect ferenityand
tranquillity of the atmofphere, unlefs  in  the vicinity of volca-
noes.
             Aurel. Victor. Epit. Trajan. Dion Caflius.
             Baronius vol. 2.55.  Echard's Rom. Hift. vol. 2. 276.
   During the time that Trajan was making war on  the Agarini,
a people of Arabia, which had revolted from the  Roman  gov-
ernment,  flies in  myriads appeared and covered every veffel and
utenfil, fo that the Emperor was compelled to abandon the ex-
pedition.   This was near the time of the earthquake which de-
ftroyed Antioch.
                             Baron. 2. 54.  Magd. Cent. 2.  13.
   This fact ought not to be omitted ;  as the generation of innu-
merable infects is  one of the phenomena which  generally attend
a  great peftilence —The fame feafon  was  marked by  terrible
ftorms of wind, rain and hail-ftones of unufual fize.   The win- 
7*
ter fucceeding that in which  Antioch  was deftroyed, was fo
tempeftuous, and the Tigris fo fwelled by deluges  of rain, that
Trajan's army fuffered extreme hardfhips  and great loffes,  in his
expedition into Afiyria.
  Under the year 115,  I find mentioned a* fudden  and violent
inundation of the Severn in England,  which drowned people in
their beds,  and deftroyed 5000 head  of cattle.   Perhaps phi-
lofophy will place this event, under the  year of the earthquake
at Antioch ; whichever may be the true year,  115 or 117.
  In the chronological tables,  a  great  earthquake  in China is
mentioned under the year 114—the year of the plague in Wales,
  Under the Emperor Adrian, fay the compilers of the Mag-
deburgh hiftory, from Eufebius, the greateft part of Nicomedia
and Nicea was overthrown by earthquakes ; and not long after,
Nicopolis and Cefarea were totally overwhelmed.   Functius af-
figns the fate of Nicomedia to the year 121, and that of Nicop-
olis to 129.  By another writer is noted a comet in  127,  and a
plague in Scotland.
                                          Short, vol. a,  207,
  In 13 7 appeared a comet, followed by the plague.—In  this
year or the fubfequent one, the Thames was almoft dry.
  The plague again made great havoc in Scotland in 146.—A.n
eruption of  fire  from Lipari happened in 144.
  In the year 153 happened a fevere  winter  of three months,
which covered the Thames and all rivers with ice.
  In the  reign of Antoninus Pius,  A. D. 154, occurred an
earthquake which proftrated fome towns  in  Afia and Rhodes.
A comet appeared nearly at the fame time, and a peftilence in
Arabia, together with an inundation of the Tyber.
    Julius Capitolinus.  Magdeb. Cent. 2. 13. Baronius vol. 2.  130.
  Of the general and fatal  peftilence  in  the  reign of Marcus
Aurelius Antoninus and Lucius Vents, we have many accounts.
It appeared in Rome in  167, but its origin was in Afia,  a year
or two earlier.  Ammianus Marcellinus, the philofophic foldier,
relates that this plague originated from  the foul air of a fmall
box or cheft,  which a  Roman  foldier  had opened, in fearch of
plunder, after the  taking of Seleucia.    Julius Capitolinus men- 
tions the fame fact on the authority of mere  vulgar  report 01
tradition.   " Et nata fertur peftilentia  in  Babylonia, ubi de
templo  Apollonis ex aicula  aurea, quam milis forte  inciderat,
fpiritus peftilens evafit, atque inde Parthos orbemque compleffe."
  A. Marcellinus gives a more particular account of this event,
"  Milites fanum fcrutantes,  invenere foramen anguftum, quo re-
ferato, ut pretiofum aliquid  invenirent, ex  adyto  quodam con-
clufo a Chaldoeorum arcanis, labes primordalis exfilivit, quae in-
fanabilium vi concepta morborum, ejufdem Veri et Marci Anto-
nini temporibus,  ab ipfis Perfarum finibus, adufque Rhenum,  et
Gallias Cuneta contagiis polluebat et mortibus."
  That a clofe box or other confined place, which might have
been fhut for ages,  fhould contain  a  peftiferous vapor which
might deftrey the life of the man that  firft opened it, is not only
poflible, but very probable.  But that this trifling quantity of nox-
ious air fhould be fufficient to generate  a univerfal peftilence from
the confines of Perfia to Gaul, is a vulgar notion, precifely re^
fembling the modern opinion that the  plague  is  conveyed from
country to country, in bales of goods.
   The hiftorian adds,  that the Emperor returned to Rome, and
"  luem  fecum deferre videreter," feemed  to  carry the plague
with him.   But the Romans paffed only from Seleucia to Rome ;
whereas the plague  raged over the whole earth ; fo that the dif-
eafe muft have originated in other  countries, through which the
Emperor did not pafs, and  from other  caufes  than the noxious
air of a little box.   It raged in Gaul and in  Scotland.
   By attending to the phenomena of the phyfical world, during
this period,  we fhall find caufes fully adequate  to the effect, with-
out reforting to the temple of Apollo in Seleucia.  The ftate of
the elements was deranged, and nature was every where agitated.
An  inundation of the  Tyber at Rome laid all the low grounds,
and a part of the city under  water,  fweeping away people, build-
ings and cattle,  and  defolating the  fields.    Famin and earth-
quakes marked the fame period.   The air became  infalubrious,
and myriads of caterpillars  and other infects  overran the earth
 and devoured vegetation. 
73
   The peftilence' was  violent and mortal,. correfponding with
thefe fymptoms of derangement in the elements.   In Rome,  at
one time, it is related, that the mortality extended to ten thou-
fand perfons in a day.   Its precife duration,  I do not find to  be
fpecified by the hiftorians ; but it continued  for a number  of
years ; in the midft of which appeared a comet, about the year

       See Am. Marcelhnus, lib. 23, and Julius Capitolinus, in Vero.
         Aug. Hift. j80. Hift. of Emperors by Pedro Mexise, p. 172.
         Echard's Rom. Hift. vol. 2. 315 to 322, who is more correct
         than Gibbon.
   Of the fymptoms of  this defolating plague, I find no account,
except that the patients  had a light fever, and a gangrene appear-
ed on  the extremities of the feet.
   It is proper here to notice a paffage in Gibbon's Hift.  vol. r.
chap. 3, which  defcribes, as halcyon days,  the period  of  the
world in which  this calamity occurred.   The following  are his
words.  " If a man were called upon to fix the  period in  the
hiftory of the world,  during which the condition of the  human
race was moft happy  and profperous, he would, without  hefita-
tion, name that which elapfed from the death of Domitian to
the accefiion of Commodus ;" that is, from the year 96 to 180.
   It is certain that,  at  this time, the Roman Empire was in its
glory, and  governe'd by a,feries  of able and virtuous princes,
who made the happinefs ef their fubjects their  principal object.
But  the coloring given to the happinefs of this period, is far too
brilliant.  The  fuccefs   of armies and the extent of empire do
not conftitute exclufively the happinefs of nations;and no hifto-
. ian  has a title to the character of  fidelity,  who does  not com-
prehend, in his  general  defcriptions of the ftate of mankind,
moral  and phyfical, as well as political,  evils.
   During the period  mentioned by Gibbon,  not only Antioch,
wi'.h the lofs  of moft of its inhabitants,  amounting probably to
more than  100,000,  but thirteen  other cities were demolifhed
by earthquakes.   In the famous revolt of the Jews under Tra-
jan,  hiftorians relate  that 450,000 Romans were maffacred in
6yria, Cyprus and other countries ;  and in the wars undertaken
by Adrian to fubduethem, it is eftimated that 50  cities and 985
                               K 
74
 towns were  deftroyed, and  580,000 men  loft their lives by
 famin, difeafe and the fword.   The reign of the Antonines was
 diftinguifhed  for multifarious and fevere calamities.   The de-
 fcription of them, by Aurelius Victor, ought to be given in his
 own words.   Speaking of the Emperor M. Antonine, he fays,
 *' Nifi ad ilia tempora natus effet, profecto quafi uno lapfu ruiffent
 omnia flatus  Romani.  Quippe  ab  armis nufquam  quies erat:
 perque omnem orientem, Illyricum,  Italiam, Galliamque bella
 fervebant.  Terrae  motus non fine interitu civitatum, inunda-
 tiones fluminum, lues crebrae, locuftarum fpecies agris infefhe,
 prorfus ut prope nihil,  quo fummis angoribus- atteri  mortales fo-
 lent,  dici feu cogitari queat,  quod non illo imperante faevierit."
                            Epit. of the lives of  the Emperors.
   " Unlefs he, M, Antonine, had beep born at that juncture,
 the affairs of the empire would have fallen into fpeedy ruin : for
 there was  no refpite from military operations.    War  raged in
 the eaft,  in Illyricum, in Italy and in Gaul.  Earthquakes, with
 the deftruction of cities, inundations of rivers, frequent plagues,
 a fpecies of locufts ravaging the fields  ; in fhort  every  calamity
 that can be conceived to  afflict and torment men, fcourged the
 human race,  during his adminiftratian."
   How can that be a " happy and profperous condition of men,"
 in which they  were fabject to continual wars, to maffacres, to
 the ravages of infects, and to a feries of plagues,  which deftroy-
 ed  probably  one fourth of the  inhabitants of the globe ;  and
 when the Roman empire was upon the  brink of ruin  ? And how
 can a writer be efteemed as a hiftorian, who fubftitutes the flow-
ers of rhetoric for fober truth, and farifices fact to embellifkment ?
   In the year 173 a peftilence raged in the Roman armies, which
threatened  them with extermination.—This appears  to  have
been a continuation of the plague before defcribed.   It prevailed
in Rome in 175 and 178.
         "• v                    Tuncl. Chroaol.   Short, vol. 2.
   A fevere winter  in 173 produced  famia in England, where
 the fnow  covered the earth for 13 weeks.
  "In 181 a comet was vifible, and in  182 Smyrna was almoft
 ruined by an earthquake.   The plague prevailed in Rome in 183,
                                                     ibid. 
75
   In  the reign of Commodus,  about the year 1S7,  Rome was
-Again  afflicted with a  fevere plague,  which was  felt  alfo in all
parts  of Italy, tho with lefs mortality than in the city.   Hero-
dian,  lib. 1, gives the following account  of it.   " A great pef-
tilence raged  throughout Italy at that time,  but with moft vio-
lence  in the city,  by  reafon  of the  great concourfe  of people
affembled from all parts of the earth.   The  mortality  among
men and cattle was great.  The Emperor, by advice of  certain
phyficians retired  to Laurentum, on account of the coolnefs of
the place which was  fhaded with laurels, from which circum-
ftance it derived  its  name.   It was fuppofed alfo  the  effluvia
from  the laurels acted as an  antidote againft the  contagion  of
the diftemper.  The people in the city alfo, by advice of phy-
ficians, filled their nofes and ears with fweet  ointments, and
conftantly  ufed perfumes, for in popular opinion, they  occupy
the paflages of the fenfes, with thefe  odors, and fhut  out  the
corrupt air; or if they  do not wholly exclude  it,  they over-
power its influence by fuperior force.  But thefe things did not
check the progrefs of the difeafe, and men and cattle continued
to perifh."
   The deaths  amounted, in Rome, to  5000  in  a day, for a
confiderable time. A  famin prevailed  at  the  fame time, and
hiftorians afcribe  it to Cleander, the minifter of Commodus, who
had monopolized the corn, to compel people to purchafe  of him
at an  advanced price.   Dion Caflius however fays, the year had
been unfruitful.   The peftilence continued three years.   Indeed
we may here remark once for all, that when we read of a plague
of great extent and violence  in any  part of the world,  under
the date of  a  particular year, we  may always confider  that or
other   peftilential  difeafes, as  prevailing at  leaft  three  years.
Rarely are great plagues of lefs  duration, but often of greater.
Hiftorians  feldom mention die peftilence, except in the  year of
its greateft violence, but  no plague,  I will  affert,  ever yet in-
ferred a particular city or country, without precurfers of a very
malignant type.   When  therefore we  fpeak of peftilence,  as
prevailing in a particular year, we are  to confider the epidemic
as extending to a period  of three, four or five years, perhaps 
lo a much longer period, either in the form of pUguc, a deadly
petechial fever, or other fatal difeafe.
   In the foregoing defcription of the difeafe under Commcdus,
we notice the vulgar modes  of guarding  againft contagion, by
fluffing the nofe and ears with aromatics—a practice that in part
fubfifts at this day, altho conftant experience proves  it to be  ut-
terly ineffectual.
   It appears  from Herodian that a comet appeared at this peri-
od, or other  lingular heavenly phenomena.   He fays,  "  Ea
tempeftate ftellae  per diem  perpetuo  apparuerant,  quaedamque
ex iis in longum productae medio quafi aere fufpenfae videbantur."
Comets are fometimes  vifible  in  the day  time, and it is well
known that many of the ancients  confidered  them as meteors,
floating  in the earth's atmofphere, as we fee in  Ariftotle, Seneca
and Pliny, who have difcuffed and refuted thofe opinions.   See
alfo Sampridius who mentions the comet  and unufual darknefs,
at this period.
   Another circumftance mentioned by Herodian  deferves  no-
tice.  He fays, that animals at this time grew out of their ufual
fize, affuming an  extraordinary figure and difproportioned in
their parts.   " Preterea animalia,  genus  omne,  minime fuam
naturam fervantia, cum figura corporis prodigiofa, turn membris
haudquaquam congruentibus edebantur."   This  fact  the writer
arranges under the head of prodigies ;  but numerous modern ob-
fervations confirm the veracity of the hiftorian.  In many plagues,
t» be hereafter mentioned, myriads of  unufual animals have ap-
peared,  and many common animals and infects have grown to
an  unufual fize.   With this  fact almoft invariably attending  pef-
tilence,  and before the eyes of every man of fcience in well at-
tefted accounts ;  a fact that demonstrates  a  prodigioufly pefti-
lential  ftate  of the  elements, modern philofophers, phyficians
and rulers have been tracing all the plagues of the earth to  one
or  two little fpots in Egypt and the Levant—This circumftance
is hardly credible ; yet is true, and indicates a lamentable de-
cline of found philofophy.
   A flight fhock  of  an  earthquake is mentioned incidentally by
Herodian, after  the plague.    Speaking  of the  burning of a 
77
temple in Rome,  he fays "  there had been no ftorm or clouds,
but a fmall earthquake preceded the conflagration :"  and he in-
finuates that the building might have been fet on fire by a flafli of
lightning in the night, or by an eruption  of fire in the earth-
quake.
   In 193, Canterbury in  England  was feverely fhaken by an
earthquake.
   The plague prevailed in London in  211, and a comet  ap-
peared in the  fame year.  In 214,  there was  a moft dreadful
inundation of the river Trent  in England,  which  fpread over
20 miles of country,  and deftroyed many lives.    Here is prob-
ably a miftake in chronology  of  at leaft two years—or rather a
difference between different authorities.  Eufebius, the learned
Bifhop of Cosfaria,  places die birth of Chrift  two years earlier,
than the common or Dionyfian Chronology.   Many authors fol-
low one mode of  computing  time and many the other ; and
without the original authors,  and a clofe attention to their modes
of  reckoning time,  it is not  poflible  to reconcile  thefe differ-
ences.   The uniform influence of comets in  producing violent
tempefts and  unufual  fwelling  of the ocean,  within  a year of
their appearance and after their  departure,  may  aflift  in correct-
ing ancient chronology.
   In the year 218  two comets appeared, and  a  fevere  froft of
five months is related tp have happened in England in 220.
   There was a great inundation of the Tweed  in 218, and a
peftilence in Scotland in 222  which deftroyed 100,000 lives.
   In 235 a comet is noted,  but I find no other phenomena men-
tioned about this time, except a great death of fifh in 231,  mul-
titudes of which were wafhed afhore on Britain  ;  and an earth-
quake in Wales in 232.
   In the reign of the Emperor Gordian,  about  the  year 243,
the earth was  agitated by moft  violent earthquakes ; and in 245
there was a prodigious inundation of the  fea in Lincolnfhire,
England, which laid under water many thoufand acres of land,
which are faid not yet to be recovered,   A  fevere winter is men-
tioned in 242. 
                          JL
   We have now arrived to one  of the moft calamitous period
recorded in hiftory—a  period of mortal  plagues, which  com-
menced  about the year 250, or 252 in the reign of the Emperor
Decius and coatinued fifteen  or  twenty years, through the ad-
miniftration  of Gallus  and Volufian,  Valerian and Gallienus.
This period was ufhered in by a comet in  250,  the winter of
Which in England was fo fevere,  that the  Thames was frozen
for nine weeks,—An eruption of Etna is  noted under the year
253, and an earthquake in Cornwall in 251.
   The plague appears to have been moft fatal  in  Rome at two
different times,  during  this period ; viz.  in  the years 252 and
262 or 3, including the year preceding and  fucceeding each of
thefe periods.   It reached the northern parts of Europe, and in
266,  Scodand had fcarcely living people  enough to bury the
cicad.
   It firft appeared in Ethiopia, on the confines of Egypt, and
Ipread over all the provinces of the Roman Empire, which, fays
Zonoras, were exceflively exhaufted by its  deftructive ravages.
Zofimus, after defcribing the devaluation  occafioned by the ir-
ruption of the Scythians, fays " Lues etiam peftilens in oppidis
atque vicls fubfecuta, quicquid  erat  humani  generis reliquum,
abfumpfit."   The plague in towns  and villages followed the
Scythians and  devoured that part of  the human race which the
barbarians had fpared.
   Jornandes fays, the  peftilence " faciem totius orbis foedavit"
—defolated or disfigured the face of the whole  earth.—In the
reign of  Gallienus, 5000  citizens of Rome  perifhed daily, in
262,  or the following year, a portion of this period moft diftin-
guifhed for convulfions of the earth.
   This latter period was marked by  deftructive  earthquakes in
Rome,  Syria  and other countries.   In fome places the  earth
opened  and fait water iffued.  Trebellias  Pollio fays, " Fright-
ful earthquakes fhook Italy, Afia and Africa.   For many  days,
f fome authors fay, three days]  there was an  unufual or preter-
natural  darknefs and a hollow rumbling noife in the earth,  which
opened  in many places.   Many cities in Afia were overwhelmed, 
                             79
and others loft in the ocean.   Peftilence followed and defolated
the Roman Empire."
   In the Univerfal Hiftory,  it is faid  that this plague ravaged
Capadocia and  all Afia Minor,   and was  followed by  famin,
earthquakes and a great comet or  meteor.
   Orofius remarks that "  Nulla  fere  provincia Romana, nulla
civitas, nulla domus fuit,  quae non ilia generali peftilentia  cor«
repta atque vaftata."   Scarcely was there a province of the Em-
pire,  a city or a houfe, which was not attacked and defolated.
   This paffage is worthy of notice, for it will hereafter  appear,
that altho the plague is ufually limited to cities, where powerful
artificial or local  caufes aid the general contagion, yet  in fome in*
fiances, the general ftate of the atmofphere has been fo peftilen*
tial,  as to produce plague on the moft elevated hills  and falubri-
ous places, in  detached villages  and  houfes,  without the leaft
communication  with the fick and infected.
   Gibbon chap. 10,  has calculated that "  a moiety of the hu-
man fpecies"  fell a prey to this frightful epidemic.
   Cedrenus page 211  fays  this difeafe began in  autumn  and
ended at the riling of the dog-ftar ;  or beginning of Auguft.
   The ftate of  the air, during this peftilence, was uncommonly
impure.   The defcription  of it by Eufebius, in a  philofophical
view,  deferves notice.  "  Quando,  inquit, aer ifte  pravis undi-
qae evaporationibus turbatus,  ferenus reddetur ? Tales enim e%
terra fumigationibus, c mari venti, e fluminibus aurae, e portubus
pxhalationes fpirant, ut veluti ros quidam  tabidus e cadaveribul
putridis, cunetis fubjacientibus elementis inferatur."
                                 Magdeburgh. Cent. 3. p. 31.
   This is a remarkable inftance  of  a ftate of air  fo highly cor-
rupt,  as to form  on objects a mould or coat, like a turbid dew,
from dead bodies ros tabidus—a ftate of air which the author af-
cribes to vapor from the rivers and the  earth—The account ;.
analogous to what is related of other peftilential periods, and the
fact denotes an utter derangement in the healthful qualities of ait
a,nd water.—Cedrenus compares  this dew  to the gore of dead
perfons.   " Ros faniei mortuorum fimilis apparebat."
                                                   Page hi, 
8o
   In the Traite de la Pefte, I find the following defcription of
 the fymptoms of this malady,  from  St.  Cyprian—dejection of
 mind,  exhauftion of ftrength, inceffant involuntary  evacuations,
 as in certain  paralifes, violent fever of the bowels,  mouth infla-
 med,  ftomach  fwelled, eyes fparkling.   The difeafe deftroyed
 the feet, the hands, the fight,  the  hearing and organs  of gen-
 eration.
   Aurelius Victor fays of this plague "  Simulque Romam pef-
 tilentia graffabatur,  quae  fiepe curis gravioribus atque animi def-
 peratione oritur."  The plague fpread, which often  arifes from
the more diftrefling  cares and defpair.   This defcribes the  mife-
 rable ftate of mankind, at that period; but anxiety and defpair do
not produce the plague, except during the prevalence of a pefti-
lential ftate of air.  There muft be a ftrong predifpofition in the
body, or  an  imbecillity in  the  powers of animal life previoufly
induced ; or the utmoft preffure of grief will never occafion a
plague.   But at the time when general caufes have impaired the
 vigor of  the  animal principles, flight  caufes  will often induce
fever and  deftroy life.  The practical inferences from this fact
 are extremely important to mankind.
   The articles in  this account of  peftilence which  deferve par-
ticular notice, are the introduction of the period by a comet and
an eruption of Etna—the agitations of the earth by fubterranean
 fire—the preternatural darknefs of three days,  a phenomenon not
unufual at fuch times and eafily accounted for, on the fuppofition
 of the extrication of a great quantity of fubterranean vapor—.
 the peftiferous ftate of air which covered objects with mould and-;
c ormption—and which generated plague  in every village and al-
 moft every houfe.
        See Zofimus in Gall. lib. i. fee 26. 37, 46.   Zonoras lib. 12.
          Trebellius Pollio ia Gall.  Jornandes. Hift. Auguft. 1098.-  "'
           F.liop. lib. 9.  Baron,  vol.2.  496.  Aurel. Victor.Epit.   .
          Magdeburgh. Cent. 3. 31.
   Near theclofe of this period,  about the year 272, there was
 an eruption of Vefuvius.  At the fame time, a fevere famin raged
in England.   Five  or  fix years  later, a fevere famin prevailed^
 over the world.  • " Fames ingens per totum orbem graffata eft."
                                                   Zoiimus. 
8i
   It is proper here to notice an inaccuracy of the celebrated New-
ton,  in his Differtations on the prophecies, on the 6th  chapter
of Revelations,  in which he fays,  " In the reign of Probus alfo
there was a great famin throughout the world—an ufual confe-
quence of  famin is peftilence.—This peftilence according to Zo*
noras,  arifing from Ethiopia,   while Gallus and Volufian were
Emperors, pervaded all the Roman provinces for fifteen years."
But  Probus began to reign in  the year 276, whereas the pefti-
lence broke out in Ethiopia  under Decius or Gallus and Volu-
fian, about A. D. 252 according to Zonoras,  but according to
other authors, two or three years  earlier.  Therefore the pefti-
lence under Gallus, could  not be a confequence of a famin  under
Probus, which was 25 years  later than the plague afcribed to it.
Thefe remarks  are neceffary  to correct that paffage of Newton,
and  they are ufeful in correcting the  common  notion,  that the
plague is ufually  occafioned by famin.   The idea is probably un-
philofophical; but  is  certainly  contrary to fact.  Famin often
goes  before the plague,  and as often follows it.    But fome of the
moft difaftrous periods of the plague, have originated during the
greatefl abundance of  provifions.—Such was the fact in  England,
in 448, and in 1347, as will be hereafter related.  The great er-
ror of hiftorians and phyficians has been, that obferving famin
and  peftilence  often cotemporary, and  the caufe of the plague
not being  obvious to  the fenfes, they have taken famin to be the
caufe.   Whereas it will appear on careful inveftigation, that fam-
in is an eflia of the fame caufe which produces the plague among
men.  The dearth of provifions, during this formidable epidemic,
is the effect of a.peflilence In  vegetation ;  that is, a failure in the
principles of  vegetable  life,  which proceeds  from the fame de-
rangement of the feafons, or defect in the properties of air and
water, which caufes the plague among  men.—Famin often aug-
ments peftilence, and modifies the fymptoms of the difeafe ; but
in a health j ftate of  the elements of life, air and water, famip
will  not produce the plague.    This may be otemonftrated by mul-
tiplied inftances of feamen, ftarving on the ocean, who often per-
jfn by hunger, without difeafe, or if they had  difeafes in conf;-
                             L 
Se-
quence of mere hunger, nothing  like  the plague  has ever been
of the number.
  I cannot help  noticing alfo the obfjrvations of Mr. Gibbon
on  the calamities of this period.   He fays,  " Our habits of
thinking fo fondly connect the  order  of the  univerfe with  the
fate of man,  that this gloomy period of hiftory has been decora-
ted  with inundations,  earthquakes,  uncommon meteors, preter-
natural darknefs,  and a crowd of prodigies faitlous or  exagge-
rated."
                                           See vol.  i. ch. 10.
  If the original  writers  who have related the facts above men-
tioned, had been as fond of decorations, as this author, we might
well  have diftrufted   their  accounts  of  unufual occurrences.
Had this elegant writer taken due pains to inform himfelf of  the
truth, before he had  indulged fuch reflections on the  moft cred-
ible hiftorians, he  would  have found fimilar  phenomena to have
attended the fame  calamity, peftilence,  in every age from that
period to the prefent,  aad many of  them if not  all,  during his
own life, if not within his own obfervation.
  He goes on to obferve that " famin is almoft always followed
by epidemical difeafes." This point will be afterwards confidered.
   He fays alfo that the plague  at this period " raged from 250
to 265,  without  interruption, in  every province, every city  and
almoft every family of the Roman Empire."
  The words without interruption, were probably inferted for the
fake  of decoration.    They  are not authorized  by the  original
writers ; and cannot poflibjy be true, for an uninterrupted plague
in a city or country, would foon  leave it without an inhabitant.
The truth is, it feldom raged, more than fix  or  eight months,
in the fame place, at  one time.    It feized this town, one year,
and that, the next, as we obferve  in modern  times, through  the
whole period.*
   The more I examin the original writers, from  whom Gibbon
 derived his materials, the lefs confidence I place in his reprefent-
 ations  of events.  He appears to be a partial hiftorian  and a
 fuperficia! philofopher.
   * The words of Zonoras, per quindeccm continuos. anuos, are tq be
 underftood as above explained. 
«3
   In 280 a comet, and in 282 an earthquake in England.
   In the year 289  was vifible a large comet,  and  in  290 the
Winter in  England  was very fevere,  all the rivers being clofed
For fix weeks.   Bufiris and Coptis, two cities of Egypt, were
overthrown by an earthquake.   In  292 famin,  peftilence and
drouth prevailed—the bodies of men were covered with carbun-
cles and ulcers.
                                                  Cedrenus.
   Worcefter in England  was almoft ruined by an earthquake in
 287.
                   »                           Short, vol. 2.
   In 298 alfo appeared a comet and earthquakes foon followed,
 which in Syria, deftroyed feveral thoufand lives.
                                Magdeburgh, Cent. 4. p. 1434-
   Earthquakes were experienced in Conftantinople in 309 & 3 iO.
   In the year  311, the  ufual  rains of winter failed  in  Italy,
 famin followed  and  then peftilence.   Baronius, vol.  3. p.  69,
 defcribes it as a new difeafe of foreign  origin, which, in con-
fequence of exceflive  heat, produced  the anthrax or  carbun-
 cle over the whole body, which expofed the  patient to mortifi-
 cation.   It fell upon the  eyes with great feverity, rendered  ma-
 ny perfons blind,  and deftroyed the lives of great multitudes of
 all ages.   The reader will remark that  this diftemper was not of
 domeftic origin ! This is  a ftale cuftom of -afcribing all evils to
 foreign fources.
    It is related that Cyprus, about this period, fuffered a drouth of
 thirty-fix years in  confequence  of which it was nearly difpeopled.
    Under the chronological tables, I find a famin mentioned to
 have deftroyed in England and Wales, forty thoufand lives in
 the year 310 ; and in the following year  a violent earthquake
 injured London.
    A comet is noted in 321, and a univerfal famin  in  Britain in
 325.
    In the year  335, appeared  a comet of  great magnitude, and
 as it was  about two years before the death of Conftantine the
 Great, fuperftition held it to be the omen of that event.
    Tn 336 Syria and Celicia were laid   wafte by peftileatial dif- 
u
 cafes.   There was an inundation of the Tweed,  the fcn:e ycr.f.
          Etrop. lib. 10.  Orofius, lib. 7.  Magdeb. Cent. 4. 1442.
   I have not  found any particular account of the  duration or
 extent of this calamity.   But it appears that  this period, like
 that in the time of Thucydides,  was followed by moft deftruc-
 tive earthquakes in 340,  which  overwhelmed or  injured  many
 cities of the eaft.  A comet marked this period in 339.
                                       Baron vol. 3, p 536.
   A fnoW of 15 feet depth in  England is recorded  under the
 year 341.
   In 358 happened a moft tremendous fhock of an earthquake,
 Which  buried in  ruins the  greateft part of Nicomedi.:.   The
 fhock happened foon after day-break in the morning, 1 ith Kal.
 Sept. and was preceded by a collection of vapor or clouds, that
 covered  the city  with  impenetrable  darknefs, fo that the eye
 could not difcera the neareft objects.  This was foon fucceeded
 by flafhes of lightning  and  moft violent  winds and tornadoes,
 which  carried buildings  to the adjacent hills.   The fcene was
clofed  by a fhock of the earth which demolifhed a large  portion
 of the city.
   Authors relate that this earthquake levelled 150  cities.
   Short indeed was the refpite which Afia  Minor enjoyed.  In
 362, the remains of Nicomedia were deftroyed,  part  of Nice
was overturned,  Jerufalem was fhaken and other parts  of the
world did not efcape.   This was the year  alfo in which Julian
attempted to rebuild Jerufalem, when  fire burfting  from the
earth,  deftroyed the  works and rendered the place inacceflible.
This event has  been afcribed to  a preternatural influence ; but
is a  common  phenomenon  in Italy,  Afia  Minor, and  in all
countries fubject to earthquakes ; and as it happened  when the
neighboring countries were laid wafte by the explofion of  fubter-
ranean fire,  there is no  neceflity  for reforting to fupernatural
caufes, to account for the phenomenon.
   During thefe agitations of the earth, the fea receding left its
 bed, a highway for paffengers.   Inundations  fucceeded,  and
 drouth, famin and  peftilence walked  in  the train of public ca-
 lamities. 
«5
   In the  following years, the earthquakes were repeated and
Baronius afferts that the whole world was fhaken ; the fhores  of
the  fea were  in fome places changed ; fome  places funk, and
in others  the waters  rofe and carried  veffels over the tops  of
houfes.  Authors place the deftruction of Nice in 367,  and of
other cities in 368 or 372.
   The deftruction of Nicomedia  was preceded by  a fever©
drouth—a common event, that a  violent explofion of fire from
the bowels of the earth, is preceded, fome weeks or months,  by
a total exhauftion of water by evaporation.
   In the midft of  thefe convulfions, appeared a comet in 363  or
4,  and a meteor or globe of fire in 363.
   A hard winter of  14 weeks duration  in England is  mention-
ed under the  year 359,  the  year  following the deftruction  of
Nicomedia, and the fevere drouth.  This is a ufual event.   A
fingular light of  great extent appeared in the heavens, in the
year preceeding.
   The whole reign of Conftantius was diftinguifhed for deftruc-
tive earthquakes, and the early writers  of ecclefiaftical  hiftory
"  make no doubt that God, by thefe judgments, manifefted his
difpleafure at the  prevalence  of the  Arian blafphemies."   A
dreadful famin clofed this period.
   It was during the early part of this period,  in 359,  that the
plague broke out in Amida, a city of  Perfia, when  befieged  by
Sapor, and  from  which, when  taken, Am. Marcellinus  very
narrowly efcaped.
      SeeBaror. vol. 4. 121,188,  209; vol. 3. 776.  Am. MarceL
        lib. 22 and  25.   P. Mexia Hift. Emp. p. 339. Eutrop. lib. 11.
        Niceph. lib. 9 and 10.   Magdeb. Cent. 4. c. 13.  Ech. Rom.
        Hift. vol. 3. 116.  Aurelius Victor, Epit. Julian.
  Juft  before the death  of Valentinian I.  appeared a comet,  in
the year 375.   Zofimus  mentions a hard winter at that time,
extending to an unufual length.  Another author mentions a  fe-
vere drouth  about the fame  time.  Crete, Peloponnefus and
Greece in general were agitated by earthquakes  and fome towns
were demolifhed.*  In Wales 43,000 died of the plague.
                Echard's Rom. Hift. vol. 3. 156.  Zofimus lib. 4.
                   Magdeburgh Cent. 4. ca. 13.  Am. MarceL
  • Gibbon chap. 26 ha» well defcribed the earthquakes of 365, but 
86
   The  following year was marked with  famin,  and univerfal
pfeftilence among men and cattle.  So  fevere  was the  famin in
Phrygia that the inhabitants abandoned the country.
                                          Baron, vol. 4. 380.
   A comet appeared in 383,  and the plague raged in Rome and
in Syria in 383  and 4.—This'ftar however  is defcribed  by Ni-
Cephorus and others,  as of a fingular figure,  refembling a burn.
ing column ; its motions differed from  thofe  of other ftars^it
was vifiblc 30 days.
                      Niceph. lib. 12.   Magdeb  Cent. 4. ca. 13.
   Abbut the fame time, the Nile rofe to fuch an alarming height
as to threaten Alexandria and Lybia with an inundation.
                             Sozomen, lib. 7. 20.  Magd. Ibm.
   Juft before the death of Theodofius, about  the year  394 or
5, happened dreadful earthquakes, ftorms, rain and unufual dark-
nefs.
   The appearance of the  fiery  column  and  the inundation are
placed by fome authors  under the year 394.   The Magdeburgh
Hiftory from Profper's Chronicon, places it under the fixth year
of Gratian, which is  alledged  to be  the year of  Chrift 393*
But Gratian was killed about the year 383.   There is therefore a
miftake as to the era of  this phenomenon, which, as defcribed by
authors of credit, was one of the moft fingular that was ever ex-
hibited to the people of this globe.
                  Niceph. lib. 12. 37.  Magd. vol. 2. 1452 and 5.
   About this period, fwarms of locufts covered the land of Ju-
dea ;  and being driven  by the winds into the fea and wafhed on
the fhore of Paleftine, by  Gaza, Afcalon and Azotus, they fil-
led the atmofphere with a fetid effluvia, which  occafioned pefti-
lence among men and cattle.
                  Magdeburgh from Hieronymus, vol. 2. p. 1455.
   In 396 Conftantinople fuftained a violent fhock of an earth-
quake, during which the heavens appeared  to be in a flame.
Functius places  thefe events under the year  400, and he is prob-
ably correct.
                            Baron, vol 4. 20.   P. Diac. lib. 13.
by miftake quotes Zofimus lib. 4. p. 221 ; whereas the latter author, in
this pafiage, defcribes the earthquakes of 375. 
s-7
  We are now  arrived at  another  lingular and drftrefling period
of the hiftory of man. . In the year 400,  under the adminiftrfu
tion of Arcadius and Honorius, a comet appeared of a prodi-
gious fize and horrible afpect.   Its immenfe coma feemed to fweep
the earth, and Baronius, the pious author  of Ecclefiaftical An-
nals,  remarks,  that  many of the  Gentiles were  terrified into
chriftian baptifm and converfion.
   During its approach or  appearance, happened one of the moft
fevere winters on record.  ' The  Euxine  Sea was  covered with
ice for 20 days.   A  drouth  is mentioned under the fame period,
which was fo fevere that the heavens were like brafs.  Unfortu-
nately hiftorians have often neglected to arrange thefe phenomena
indue order,  throwing them into a general defcription,
  The fame period was marked by deluges of rain, and from the
order of narration, it appears that the raxnspreceded the hard win-
ter of the year  40Q.   The rivers were fo  fwelled as to  prevent
the imperial generals from  palling into the eaft to attack Sardis,—«
Severe earthquakes occurred in the fame year.
  About the year 407 or 8, near the clofe of the reign of Area*
dius, a celeftial  phenomenon of a, fingular fpecies prefented itfelf
to the view of an aftoniftied world.   It  was called  a comet, but
did not refemble one of the ordinary figure.   It refembled a cone
or pillar, but had not the appearance of a ftar, fo much as of the
flame of a lamp,  Its motion was not regular—it began to  move
from the point of the  heavens where the fun riles at the equinox-
es,  and pafling the tail of Urfa, proceeded to the weft.
  It meafured the heavens—its vertex,  at  fome  times,  extended
to a great length ;  at others, was contracted into die figure of a
cone.   After being vifible  for four months,  it difappeared.   This
is the defcription of it, nearly in the words  of Nicephorus.   Me-
teors were obferved at the fame period.
  Accompanying and following  thefe phenomena,  were fome of
the moft diftrefling calamities.   Violent  earthquakes levelled' cit-
ies—inuBdatioas of rivers and the  fea,  followed by intolerable
cold ftorms  of  hail,  and  a  drouth that blafted vegetation, by
which means multitudes   of people perifhed.   Peftilence raged
in every quarter, and famin fo fevere, that the populace deman- 
88
 ded that human flefh fhould be fold in market.   Paleftine was de
 voured by locufts.
   Nicephorus has  employed  a chapter to defcribe the phyfical
 evils,  and the mifcries of  man, in this fingular period.   He de-
 clares that almoft all Europe perifhed.—" pafa deoleto e Europe."
 and no fmall part of Afia and Africa.
      Niceph. lib. 13. ca. 6 and 36.  Baron, vol. 5. 20, 114, 176, 294.
        Zofimus lib. 5. Magd. Cent. 5. ca. 13.  Ech. vol 3. 254.
   In 418 appeared a comet; in 419 feveral cities of  Afia were
 overturned by an earthquake,  and in 420 there was an  eruption
 of Etna.   There was alfo an inundation of the fea in Hampfhire,
 in England, in 419.   Famin and peftilence prevailed alfo in this
 period.—A great ftorm of hail is mentioned under the year 418,
 and deep fnow.
   The next period of general peftilence commenced in the reign
of Theodofius  the younger,  about the year 445—or a year or
two earlier.   A cornet in 442, ufhered  in a fevere winter, in
443, the fnow fell to fuch a depth and continued fo long  in Illyri-
cum, that multitudes of men, women and children perifhed.   The
year preceding, the Huns had ravaged  the country and deftroyed,
the provifions, which added to the public calamities.  An irrup-
 tion of the Sea in North and  South Wales, 441,  preceded the
firft comet, a fecond  comet  appeared in 444.  In 445, fevere
famin and plaguetHftrefTed Conftantinople, and peftilence appear-
ed in all parts of the  world.    In 446, Sept. 17,  occured a tre-
mendous earthquake,  which  demolifhed the greateft  part of thp
walls of Conftantinople,  with fifty feven  towers.  The fhocks
continued unremittingly for fix moHths, and extended  to  a great
part of the globe.  Many  cities were  overthrown, the earth, j.n
fome places, was thrown  into large hills ; in others, it opened
 and fwallowed up  whole  towns.  Iflands difappeared and were
 loft in the ocean :  the  fea receding, left fhips on dry land, fprings
 of water were dried up and new fountains appeared,  and in this
 violent  concuflion of  the  elements  perifhed  innumerable multi-
 tudes of fifh.
   The peftilence attending, and which rarely fails to  attend fuch
 agitations of the earth, was univerfal and of feveral  years dura-
 tion.   In this period, the plague in  England was correfpond- 
r-.nt to the terrible operations of fubterranean fire.  In 448 or &
it carried off incredible numbers of people,  fo that the  living
could fcarcely bury the dead.—And it muft not  be omitted that
the plague was preceded by the greateft abundance  of provifions.
This was in  the reign of Vortigern, and in time of peace.
         Niceph. lib. 14. ca.  46.  Beda. Ec.  Hift. ji, 52.   Baro-
           nius, vol.  6. p.  30, 36, 37, 38.   Echard. vol. 3. 331.
           Magdeb. Cent. 5.  ca. 13.
   An important fact here occurs.  In 446, the Picts and Scots
had overrun  and defolated England, fo as to occafion  a dearth
of provifions. But this famin produced no peftilential  difeafe.   It
is particularly noticed  by the hiftorian, that the plague did not
occur, till a  year of great  plenty had intervened.  This is one
ftrong proof among others,  that famin is not the caufe of  plague j
oat often accompanies,  and fometimes increafes the difeafe.   It
often happens that, during extraordinary agitations of the earth,
the elements of vegetable life appear to be defective.  The fame
caufe which affects human health,  feems to prevent the growth or
vitiate the pabulum of vegetables.*
  The clofe  of this period was  peculiarly diftreffing in  Italy,
Phrygia, Cappadocia and Galatia, where  the famin compelled
parents to devour their own children.   The peftilence  made
great havoc,  at the fame time,  and no remedy  or alleviation
could be found.    The body was -univerfally inflamed and cover-
ed with tumors.    The difeafe deftroyed the eyes.  A cough fuc?
ceeded the eruption, and ended life on the third day.
                                         Niceph. lib. 15 ca. 10.
  This was in the beginning of  the  adminiftration of the Em-
peror Marcian, which commenced in 450,  in  which year anoth-
er cornet was difplayed in the  heavens  and a  fingular  light or
  ' Gcrcral defcriptions are feldom correct.  I have already takennotice
nf the miftakss committed by Newton and Gibbon,  whofe general de-
fcriptions lead, in  the inftances  mentioned, to falfe conclufions.  A
hmilar miftake occurs in Henry's  excellent  Hiftory of Britain,  vol. 1.
c:\. 1. concerning  the  calamities of  the Britons, in the period under
confideration.  The author fays, "  the neglect of agriculture naturally
produced a famin, which was followed by a peftilence."—Thefe facts
are not correctly ftatcd.  The incurfions of the Picts  and Scots  had
occafioned the neglect of culture and a famin ; but this  famin  was  fol-
lowed by plentiful crops, which were fucceeded ky peftilence.
                              M 
                            90

flame, a fevere drouth " ingens ficcitas,"  afflicted the. earth,
and the calamities of this period continued for feveral years.
   It muft be remarked here that Funftius has placed this comet
and  the beginning  of Marcian's reign, in  454.   Such differ-
ences in chronology cannot fail to embarrafs  an  inquiry like the
prefent, the refults of which depend  much  on correctnefs  of
dates.
   Nicephorus  and  Evagrius  give  a  particular account of an
earthquake which laid great part of Antioch in ruins in the fec-
ond year  of the  Emperor  Leo, which was A. D.  458.   A
comet is noted under the preceding year.  But they fay  further,'
that this event took place 347 complete years after the deftruc-
tion of the  city in the reign of Trajan, which was in 117.
Now  347 years added to this number, give 464,  for the year of
the laft cataftrophe.
                    Niceph. lib.  15. 20.  Evag. lib. 2. 12 and 14.
   In  the 311 th Olympiad,  which comprehends the years from
465 to 468 inclufive,   appeared  a  comet.   Whether the de-
ftruction of  Antioch was in  458 or  464, the extent  of the
fhock, through Thrace, Hellefpont and  the Grecian ifles,  to«
gether with the deluges  of rain  which are  faid to have fwept
away whole towns in Bithynia, leave no room to queftion the ap-
proximation of a comet at or near the time.
                       Byzantine Hift. vol. 15.   Evag. lib. 2. 14.
   This latter period was diftinguifhed for peftilence which raged
in Rome, about the acceffion of Anthemius  to  the  empire, and
according to Baronius in the year 467.
                                                Vol.6. 281.
   In thefollowing year, a number of houfes were overthrown
by an earthquake at Vienna.  Of the extent and duration of the
peftilence, I have no particular defcription.   A great eruption of
Vefuvius  is mentioned in  472,  and  a  fevere  winter of four
months duration,  in 473 with deep fnow.—The plague fucceed-
ed in Rome.
   In the year 480 Conftantinople again fuffered great damage by
an earthquake, which demolifhed a great number of buildings.
   In 480 or the following year another  comet was vifible ; or
probably  two  years later.  In 484 occurred a drouth  moft terri- 
9*
 ble and diftrefling—not a vine nor an olive branch retained  its
 verdare—the earth was pale and defolate, and the fun affumed a
 melancholy face.  Africa was almoft abandoned,  in confequence
 of this event and an attending plague.
                                 Baron, vol. 6. $<3, 426and 7.
   Baronius places the earthquake at Conftantinople in 477,  but
 others place it in 480,  which is moft probably correct.   The dif-
 ference in the  chronology of different authors, who relate the
 events of thefe early ages, is feldom lefs than two, three and four
 years.—The plague infefted Scotland in 480.
   In 494 an earthquake overturned Laodicea, Hierapolis and
 Tripoli.  According to Functors,  this event was in 496.
                                Magdeb. vol. 3. Cent. 6. ca. 13.
   In 499 appeared a  comet, which  was  foon followed by  an
 earthquake  which  deftroyed Neo Cefarea, in Pontus, and  an
 eruption of Vefuvius laid wafte all the adjacent country.
   Zonoras lib. 3.  Baron, vol. 6. 541.  Magd. Cent. 6. ca. 13. p. 789.
   A comet is noted in 502,  and a fevere winter  in  507, but I
 have no account of any public calamity, attending either of thefe
 phenomena,  except a peftilence among men and  cattle  in Scot-
 land, in 502.
   In 517 is recorded a five year's drouth in Paleftine.
                                          Encyclop. Chronol.
   In 518a comet;  and  in Dardania,  now Masfia, a feries of
 earthquakes demolifhed twenty-four  caftles, divided mountains
 and in one place opened a fiffure of thirty paces in length and
 twelve in breadth.
                                         Baronius vol. 6. 702.
   In 519 two cities in Cilicia were overthrown ;  Ediffa was in-
 undated and part of its buildings and inhabitants overwhelmed.
                       Zonoras, Tom. 3.  Magd. Cent. 6. p. 791.
   Evagrius places the inundation at Ediffa, in the following pe-
riod, after the deftruction of Antioch ; and as the hiftorians do
 not always fpecify the year in which a particular event took place,
 I am inclined to believe the account of Evagrius.
                                        o
                                               Lib. 4. ca. 8.
   In the 7th year of the Emperor Juftin, A. D. 525, appeared
a comet, and the fame year Antioch was again overwhelmed in 
92
 ruin by an earthquake.   Some authors relate that 300,000 pe?»
 fons perifhed in this cataftrophe, and among them Euphiafius,
 the bifhop.—This event happened on the 29th of May, about  12
 o'clock.  A conflagration followed and confumed what was left
 of the city.   In the fame fhocks,  Dyrrachium, now Durazzo,
 the Epidaurus of high antiquity, Corinth and other cities were
 greatly injured.
                  Baronius vol. 7. 109, no, in.  Niceph.lib. 7.  3.
                    Evag. lib. 4.  Zonoras Tom. 3.
   A fevere winter happened the fame year.
   In 528 Antioch  was again  fhaken  and fuffered confiderable
 injury.   An inundation  of the Humber in England is noted
 about this time.
   In 531 appeared the refplendent comet,  whofe revolution is
 fixed at 575 years, fuppofed to be the fame which was vifible in
 the year before Chrift 44, after the death of  Julius Cefar.   Thi3
 was the fifth year of the reign of Juftinian.  Famin and a flight
 plague prevailed in Wales.
   At this period Gibbon commences his lively,  but unphilofoph-
 ical defcription  of  the  formidable and deftructive calamities,
 which  afflicted the whole earth in the 6th century.   See his hif*
 tory, vol. 4. ch. 43.
   Not long after the approach of the  comet in  531, the fun  af-
fumed a pale color,  and fhone with a feeble light.  In a tranfla-
tion of Cedrenus, this phenomenon is thus defcribed.   "  Toto
anno eo, fol lunae inftar, fine radiis, lucem triftem praebuit, ple-
rumque defectum patienti fimilis."   During the whole year, the
fun gave a gloomy light, like the moon, and appeared as if  eclip-
fed.
          Byzantine Hift. 3. 293.  Prpcop. de bell.  Vandal, lib. 4.
   It is remarkable that tradition has preferved a faint account  of
a fimilar phenomenon, during the approach of the fame comet,
at the time of the Ogygean inundation, before Chrift 1767.   It
is faid,  that the planet Venus changed her color,  fize and figure*
An account is preferved in tradition, of a phenomenon of the
fame nature, during  the approach  of the fame  ftar, in a fubfe-
quent revolution.   Gibbon in the chapter above cited.__Pliny,
as I have already remarked, mentions a  fimilar phenomenon* 
93
about the time the fame comet appeared, foon after the death of
Julius Cefar.
  The appearance,  in the period under confideration,  is  a well
authenticated fact, and  witneffes a  fingular change in the prop-
erties, and reflecting powers of the atmofphere, or denotes an
effential alteration in the face of the fun,  which  is improbable*
In either cafe, it feemed a prelude to the  moft dreadful calami-
ties, famin, earthquakes, and peftilence.   I am not without fuf-
picions that Europe might  have been overfpread  with a vapor
like that in 1783, during the eruption of Heckla.
   In 534 is recorded oneof the moft diftreffingfamins,that ever
afflicted the earth ; it continued many years, and deftroyed mul-
titudes  of the  human race.  Pompeiopolis was this year over-
whelmed in ruin by  an  earthquake* and  great numbers of its
inhabitants perifhed.
                                          Paul. Diac.lib. 16.
   About this period, Vefuvius began to  utter hollow rumbling
noifes, the precurfors of an eruption.
  Baron, vol. 7. 218. Procop. de Bell. Goth. Magdeb. Cent. 6. p. 793.
  Excepting a flight plague in Wales—no peftilence is mention-
ed by the authors I have confulted, until  the  year 542.  But
the famin,  in great feverity, had raged eight or nine  years  be-
fore—a proof  that fomething  more than  famin  is neceffary to
generate the plague.
   In 539  appeared  another comet, and the famin now raged
with double horror.   The country of Italy had  been ^ravaged,
the year before by the  Goths  and Burgundians, and the lands
left untilled.   This might have contributed towards the dearth
which followed.  It  is  recorded that many perfons fed on hu-
man flefh,  fome diftricts of  Italy were deferted, 50,000 people
perifhed in Picenum, and greater numbers in other  diftricts.
The  bodies of the famiflied people became thin and pale ; the
fkin was hardened and dry like leather, and clave to the bones;
the flefh affumed  a dark  appearance like  charcoal, the counte-
nance was fenfelcfs and ftern, the bile redundant.
                                  Procop. de Bell. Goth. lib. r.
  Among  thefe  frightful effects of hunger, no plague yet ap- 
                            94
 ptars—a circumftance that the philofopher fhould not pafs unno-
 ticed.
   The account which  Baronius gives of this famin,  is, perhaps
 more philofophical and deferves  notice.  He  fays, the  crops
 failed, corn ripened prematurely,  and was thin ; in fome places,
 it was not  harvefted, and that  which  was  gathered, was. defi-
 cient in nourifhment.   Thofe who fubfiftcd upon it  became pale,
 and were afflicted with bile.  The body loft its  heat and vigor,
 the fkin was dried, the countenance  ftupid, diftorted and ghaft-
 ly, the liver turned  black.  Many  perifhed  by hunger;  many
 betook themfelves to the fields to  feed on vegetables, and being
too feeble to pull them,  lay down and  gnawed them  off with
 their teeth.
                                       Baronius, lib. 7.  326.
   This is the moft probable account of the famin.  Repeated
 inftances are on record, which evidendy mark a peftilential ftate
 of the elements,  as  fatal  to vegetable,  as to animal life.  In
 many periods of the world,  there  has been a univerfal defect in
 the powers of vegetation.   This  phenomenon in the vegetable
 kingdom is cotemporary, or nearly fo, with peftilence  among
 men  ;  and fuperficial obfervers have afcribed the plague to a prior
 or cotemporary  famin.    But an  accurate furvey of facts, will
 probably convince any candid enquirer after truth, of the fallacy
 of this opinion.   It  will be made  apparent that  famin and pefti-
 lence are equally the  effeas of fome general caufe ;  a temparary
 derangement of the regular operations of nature.
   In the prefent inftance,  the famin could notbeexclufively and
 immediately the caufe of the formidable plague that afterwards
 affailed mankind, for it was moft fevere in  539, and the next
 year the crops were good.   But the plague did not break out  till
 542, at leaft I can find no account of any peftilence,  during  the
 Famin.
   An eruption  of Vefuvius is  noted  under the year 532,  the
 year after the appearance of the great comet.—It is probable that
 the palenefs of the fun was owing to a vapor from fome  volcanic
 eruption, as in 1783 ;  and it is remarkable  that both  of thefe
 ^periods alike produced famin from defective vegetation. 
95
   During the remaining part  of this century, a feries of moft
calamitous events afflicted th» earth.  A mountain in Rhodes
burft open, and a part of it rolled down upon the inhabitants be-
low.   Many places fuffered by inundations,  one of which over-
whelmed the borders of Thrace for an extent of four miles.
   In the year 543,  the whole earth was fhaken by earthquakes.
This was the year in which the plague broke out in  Conftantino-
ple ; but it commenced in Egypt, the  preceding year.-—In 543
there was a dearth of corn, wine and oil.   The  plague again
ravaged Conftantinople in 547.
   In 545 there was  an inundation of the Thracian fea,  and  a
fevere winter.  A terrible dyfentery in France in 548.
                        See  Cedrenus, and Paulus Diac. lib. 16.
   In  550 an earthquake  convulfed  Syria  and Paleftine;  and
Greece in  551.   In  553   appeared  a fingular meteor in  the
north and weft, which was preceded by a winter fo fevere  that
wild beafts and fowls might be taken by the  hand.   Inundations
marked this  period,   Conftantinople was fhaken 40 days in 554,
                        Paul. Diac.  Madeburgh Cent. 6, ca. 13.
   In  557 Conftantinople was almoft laid in ruins  by an earth-
quake.  In  558  a comet appeared, a fevere  winter followed
and univerfal  plague,  efpecially in  Conftantinople, where the
living could  not bury the dead.   This year the Danube was cov-
ered with ice.
   In  560  an earthquake deftroyed Berytus and  injured Cos,
Tripoli, and Balbiis.   An exceflive drouth in 562, andaplagus
began which fpread over the whole world.   There was  a dark
day in the fame year.
   The year  565  was diftinguifhed fcr a calamitous plague,  in
France, Germany and Italy,  which Baronius calls " vehemens
peftis inguinaria."
                                                Vol. 7. 547-
   In  580 Antioch was again laid  in ruins by an earthquake,
and a fhock was felt in Scotland.  The plague again prevailed,
from that year to 583,  in Gaul  and Germany and other coun-
tries.   In 587 it ravaged Italy.   Earthquakes  attended this pe*
riod. 
96
   In 590  appeared a comet;  an inundation,  from deluges 01
rain,  overfpread Rome,  covering  the  walls of the  city,  and
lodging innumerable ferpents on the plains.  In the next fummer,
happened the fevereft drouth ever known ;  it lafted from  Janu-
ary to September;  and the moft deadly plague ravaged all  Italy.
In this peftilence,  died Pope Pelagius.
   This is a general fketch of the phenomena recorded  of the
period under confideration.
   Of the univerfal and deftructive plagues which difpeopled  the
world in the reign of Juftinian  I. and the fucceeding age we have
accurate accounts  by  cotemporary  hiftorians:  From two  of
which,  Procopius and Evagrius,  I fhall tranfcribe the particulars.
   Procopius relates, " That  this peftilence, which almoft de-
ftroyed the human race, and for which no caufe could be aflign-
ed but the will of God, did not rage in one  part of the world
only,  nor  in one  feafon of the  year.    It ravaged the  whole
world, feizing all defcriptions  of people, without regard to  dif-
ferent  conftitutions, habits or ages;  and without regard to their
places of refidence, their modes of fubfiftence or  their different
purfuits.   Some were feized in winter; fome in fummer j  others
in other feafons of the  year.
   It firft appeared in Pelufiura  in Egypt and thence  fpread weft-
ward to Alexandria and all  parts of Egypt j eaftward towards
Paleftine, and extended to  all parts  of  the world,  laying wafte
iflands, caves, mountains, and all places where men dwelt.   If
it paffed by a particular  country at firft,  or fllghtly affeaed it, it
foon returned upon  it with the fame defolating rage  which other
places had experienced.—It began in maritime towns and fpread
to the interior country.   It feized Conftantinople in  the fpring of
543-
   Moft perfons were feized  fuddenly without any premonition,
nor was there any  change of color or  fenfe of heat} for until
evening the fever was fo flight that the  patient  was not ill,  nor
did the phyfician,  from the pulfe,  apprehend danger.   But in
fome cafes,  the fame day ; in others, the next ; in others, at a
later period, a bubo arofe,  either in  the groin, the arm pits, or 
97
 near the ear, or in fome other part.  All patients alike had theft
 fymptoms.
   Some were  feized with  drowfinefs and flumbering ;  others
 with furious diffraction.   The flumberers forgot all  things'—fome
 would eat  if defired ;  others were neglected and ftarved.
   Neither phyfician nor attendant caught the diftemper by con«
 tact of the fick or dead;  and many, encouraged by their won-
 derful efcape, applied themfelves with afliduity to the care of the
 fick and the burial of the deceafed.
   Many were feized,  they knew not from what  caufe, and fud-
 denly died.  Some who were given over by phyficians unexpect-
 edly recovered ; others who appeared to be in  no  danger fpeed-
 ily expired.  Many died  for want of relief ; others recovered
 with®ut affiftance.  No caufe  of the difeafe could be devifed by
 human  reafon—no means of  prevention  or  cure.   To fome,
 bathing was beneficial; to others, injurious.   Many leaped into
 water and the fea—In many the bubo, without fleep or delirium,
 turned into a gangrene, and thefe died with excruciating torture.
   The phyficians opened the bodies of fome,  and found  within
 the  fores huge carbuncles.  Thofe  whofe bodies were fpotted
 with black pimples, of the  fize  of a  lentil, lived  not a day.
 Thofe who had running fores efcaped,  and thefe were the moft
 certain  figns of recovery.   Some had  their   thighs  withered $
 others loft the ufe of their tongu«s.
   To women with  child,  the difeafe was certain death.
   This difeafe  in Conftantinople lafted four months, raging three
 months with extreme mortality.   In the beginning, few died
 more than ufual ; but the difeafe gradually increafed,  till it fwept
 off 10,000 perfons  in a day."
   Procopius calls it arrogance to pretend to  aflign the natural
caufes of this peftilence, declaring them to be undifcoverable.
                                         Perfic. lib. 2. ca. %%.
   Authors mention the early effects of this difeafe on the brain j
the patients, on the  firft attack,  faw phantoms  of evil fpirits,
which made them imagine themfelves fmitten by fome perfon.
  Evagrius, who felt the effeas of the fame difeafe himfelf and
                            N 
loft many of his family by it, has enumerated fo many fingular
circumftances, that I fhall offer the reader a tranflation  of his
account.   When I  fay, the fame difeafe,  I refer  however  to a
fubfequent epidemic.   Procopius,  as  an  eye witnefs, defcribed
the peftilence of 543 in Conftantinople.  It  did  not  continue
inceffantly to rage in every place, for this would have  foon left
the earth without an inhabitant; but after an  interval of  a  few
years,  it returned and  revifited the fame places.   The plague
defcribed by Evagrius was many years  fubfequent to that men-
tioned by Procopius.   He wrote about the year  594.   His  de-
fcriptions however are general.
                                 See Hift. Ecclef. lib. 4. ca. 29.
   "  I will now defcribe the plague, which has prevailed in thefe
times,  and  already raged  fifty-two years, a  thing never before
known, and has already  depopulated the world.   Two years
after the taking  of  Antioch by the Perfians,* a peftilential dif-
eafe began  to prevail, in  fome refpects refembling that which
Thucydides has defcribed, in other refpects  different.    If had
its origin in Ethiopia, according to common  report,  and fpread
over the whole  world,  falling  on different places by  turns, and
fparing none ef the human race.
   Some cities were fo feverely affailed by this difeafe, that they
•were left without an inhabitant.   Some diftricts however were
more flightly affected.  The peftilence  did not always  begin  its
attacks at the fame  feafon of  the  year,  nor ceafe to  rage, in all
places  in the fame manner.  In fome places it broke out in the
midft of winter ;  in others, in the fpring;  in fome,  it began in
fummer; in  others, in  autumn ; and in fome cities,  it attacked
certain parts of the town, and left others untouched.
   Very often we might obferve, particular families all  perifhed,
in a city where  the  difeafe did not prevail,  as an epidemic.   Li
fome places, one or two families only perifhed,  while the reft of
the city efcaped.   But  we obferved particularly  that the families
which efcaped,  the  firft year,  experienced the fame calamity in
the year fucceeding.
   But what above  all appeared ih-.gi-.lar and furprifing was, that
   * Under Chofroes A. D.54?. 
99
 the inhabitants  of infected places, removing their  refidence to
 places, where the difeafe had not appeared,  or did not prevail,
 were the only perfons who fell victims to the plague, in the cities
 which were not  infected.   And thefe effects were particularly
 obfervable, both in cities and in other places,  in  the cycles of
 the Indialons.*   Efpecially in the fecond year of each indiction,
 was the plague extremely mortal.  Of this  I am myfelf a wit-
 cefs, for  it may  not be improper, when the occafion feems to
 require it,  to interweave into this hiftory what concerns myfelf.
 At the commencement of tlm calamity,  I was feized with the
 inguinal plague ;  and in the  difeafes, which have  at  different
 times prevailed, I have loft many of my children,  ray wife and
 great  numbers of my kindred,  of my  fervants and laborers:
 the  cycles of indiction parcelling  out  my calamities among
 themfelves.
    At the time of writing this account, the difeafe had  already
 invaded Antioch  the fourth time; the fourth cycle of indiction
 had paffed, after the firft invafion of this difeafe, when I loft a
 daughter,  and her fon.
   This difeafe was  a compound of  various others.  For in
 fome perfons, feizing the head, it rendered the eyes fanguineous
 and the face tumid : Then falling upon the throat,  foon put aa
 end to life in all that were thus feized.  Some were afflicted by
 difcharges from the bowels.   In  others an abfeefs formed in the
 groin, a raging fever followed, and  the  fecond or third day,
 the patient died, with his body and his mind apparently found,
 as tho they had not felt difeafe.   Some were  feized with delir-
 ium and expired-   Carbuncles alfo arifing on the body extin-
 guifhed the  lives of many.  Others recovered once and again,
 and afterwards died of the fame  difeafe.
   The modes of contracting the difeafe were various and all cal-
 culation was baffled.   Some perifhed by  once entering infected
 houfes, or remaining  in them—fome by only  touching the fick.
 Some contracted  the  difeafe  in   open market.  Others, who
fled from the infected places,  remained fafe,  while they commu-
  * The cycle of "mdiclhn was a period of 15 years, at the  end of 'which
the Romans paid a certain tax to the Emperor?. 
100
 nicated tlie difeafe to others  who  died.   Many  who remained
 with the fick, and freely handled them as well as  dead bodies,
 wholly efcaped the difeafe.   Odiers who had  loft their  children
 and dependents, and in defpair fought death, by attempting to
 throw  themfelves in the way of infection and  afliduoufly attend-
 ing the fick, found all their efforts in vain ;  they  could not con-
 tract the difeafe.
   The diftemper has already  prevailed fifty-two years, to this
 time,  exceeding all  preceding plagues :  For Philoftratus was
 furprifed that, in his time,  that calamity  had  prevailed for fif-
 teen years.  What will happen hereafter  is uncertain,  fince ail
things are at the difpofal of God who underftands  the  caufes of
 things  and the events."
  Thus far Evagrius.  See alfo Nicephorus lib. 17. ca.  18.
  The reader, is defired to attend particularly  to  the foregoing
Relation of facts, as  fome important conclufions will, in the fe-
quel, be drawn from them, and other authorities hereafter  to be
fited.
   It will be remarked that altho authors  fpeak of  this  peftilen-
 tial period, as of fifty-two  years duration, as Evagrius and  Gib-
Bon have done, yet this is not accurate.  Evagrius, from whom
this number is  copied, fays,  the  peftilence  had then prevailed
fifty-two years ; but it was ftill raging,  and what was to happen
afterwards, he could not determin.
  The truth is, plagues were uncommonly frequent during this
period  ;  but the difeafe did  not prevail without intervals.   On
the contrary* the years remarkable for mortality are fpecified by
hiftorians, viz. 542 and 3,  547, 558,  562 to  565, 582 and 3,
587, and finally one of the moft deftructive  periods of all was
590 and the few following years.    Altho this was along and
fevere period of calamity, yet from the beft accounts I can ob-
tain, I fee no reafon to believe the mortality, in any given  term
 of five or ten years,  from  542 to   600,  to  have been  greater,
than in fome other periods of  the fame  duration.   More people
 probably died in a fhort fpace of time,  in the  reign of the  An-
 tonines—in that of Gallus and Volufian—and far  more, in the
 dreadful  plague of 134610 50.—It is even probable that in the 
lot
lift 50 years of the 16th century, the earth fuftained as great a.
lofs of inhabitants as in the fame fpace of time in the 6th centu-
ry.  General defcriptions are  rarely correct, and Mr. Gibbon's
unphilofophical, tho eloquent^oyn/^/Bg- defcription of the mife-
ries of the human race, in Juftiwian's reign is calculated to mif-
lead a carelefs reader.
   Evagrius  indeed  fays, this plague  exceeded all  preceding
ones.  This is natural;  Thucydides faid the fame of the difeafe
in his time.  But we are more able to form a correct comparifon
between  the different epidemics that have prevailed, than the co-
temporaries with any particular one.
   Agathius relates that  in the  peftilence  at Conftantinople in
558, many died fuddenly as with an apoplexy.  The  moft ro-
buft conftitutions furvived only to  the 5th  day.   The critical
period in the Athenian plague was the  7th or 9th.   Thucydides
makes no mention of the ftupor at the beginning  of the diftem-
per, nor of the volutatio humi, whirling of the earth,  or dizzi-
nefs,  nor of buboes, nor of the effects of the difeafe   on preg-
nant women.
      Freind's Hift. of Medicine 416 et feq.  Baron, vol. 7. 357,35^.
   Warnefred relates of this peftilence, in  Liguria, where  it was
particularly mortal, that there  appeared fuddenly certain marks
"  quaedam fignacula," upon the doors of houfes,  on  garments,
and utenfils,  which could not be waflied  out  but grew brighter
by waftiing.  The next year, appeared in men's groins,  or other
delicate  parts of the body, tumors like  nuts or  dates,  which
were foon followed by  intolerable fever, which extinguifhed life
in  three days.   If the patient furvived the  third  day, he had
hopes of recovery.
   I fhould have ranked this account among the fictions of a dit
turbed imagination, had not more recent and well  attefted facts
given me reafon to credit it.
   The defcription of the terrible effects of this difeafe  in Italy
by the fame author, is melancholy and painful to the reader.
   The dyfentery which raged in France in 548 was accompanied
with figns of the plague, and was nearly equal to it in mortality,
The plague raged this year at Munfter,  in Ireland.
                        Short vol. j. 67.  Smith's Hift, Cork 10, 
102
   The deflating plague of 590 was mortal almoft beyond ex*
 ample,  and preceded or attended with extraordinary phenomena.
 In 588 Antioch was overwhelmed by a violent earthquake,  and
 60,000 people buried in its ruins.  The inundation of the Tyber
 exceeded all that had been known, as did the drouth of the fuc-
 ceeding fummer.   The intervening winter was  equally remarka-
 ble for its feverity'—"  qualem vix  aiiquis prius recolebat  fuiffe,"
 fays Warnefred ; fuch as the old eft perfons could  fcarcely recol-
 lect.   Violent tempefts  overturned buildings.  About the fame
 time, fwarms of locufts appeared in Trente and devoured every
 fpecies of vegetable.   In fome  parts  of Italy, they  continued
 their ravages  for five years.  Cedrenus adds, that  fifli died,  and
 this mortality heafcribes to the freezing of the waters, page 332.
 —Modern obfervations prove the fallacy of the reafon here af-
 figned ;  fifh do not die beneath  a cover of ice  ; but  the  death
 of fifh by means of earthquakes, and of ficknefs, is  a common
 event.
                  Aguft. Hift. 1156, 1157.  Magd. Cent. 6. ca. 13.
   The  order of the  phenomena here related was this—the
 earthquake at Antioch—deluges of rain and inundations,  tem-
 pefts, a moft rigorous winter,  with a  comet, exceflive drouth,
 peftilence.
                        See alfo Echard's Rom. Hift. vol. 4. 246.
   Africa was almoft  depopulated  by  this plague.   So  fudden
and rapid was the difeafe in its action, that during  a proceffion in
 Rome,  inftituted by St.  Gregory,  on account of that calamity,
 no lefs than eighty perfons fell dead in the ftreet.
   Authors relate that the ferpents, wafhed from  the  mountains
by the flood,  and lodged on  the earth,  putrefied, and contrib-
uted  to the fubfequent plague.
   Gregory of Tours relates,  that  the plague, at that time, was
 introduced into Gaul by a veffel  and  her cargo  ; but  it did not
fpread regularly from houfe to houfe, but ftarted up in  diftant
and detached plaees, like fire in  a  field of ftubble.   Marfeilles
and Lyons were made wafte by its mortality.   It was moft  fata!
 to the poor.,
                                                    Lib. 9.
   The following facts are related of the peftilence in Rome in 
io3
581,  in the colleaion  of German writers  by Piftorius,  page
683.   Men died fuddenly, at play, at table, and in converfa-
tion.   Sometimes they fell dead in the ad of freezing,  "  dum
fternutabant," fo that when one heard another fneeze,  he  turn-
ed to him and exclaimed, " God  help you"—which was the
origin of a  cuftom ftill obferved  in fome countries.*   Some-
times perfons expired in the act of nodding  or  gaping  ; which
gave rife to the  practice  of making the  fign of the crofs,  on
fuch occafions—a cuftom not yet obliterated.
   In 599,  the plague  in the eaft, in Africa and  Rome, was
dreadful.  The death of the Emperor Mauritius, in 602, was
preceded by the appearance of a comet.   A fevere winter,  about
this time,  killed the vines, and grain fuffered by froft and blight.
The army of barbarians,  marching to  befiege  Conftantinople,
was fo harraffed and weakened by the plague, as to be compelled
 to abandon the enterprize.   Cayanus their commander loft feven
 fons.
                 Niceph. lib. 18. 35-  Magd. Gent. 6. 13 and 7.13.
                   Baron, vol. 8.138.  Paul. Diac. lib. 4.
    The Magdeburgh Hiftory mentions a fevere  winter  in 604,
 which was followed by exceflive  heat and drouth in 605.   It
 places the firft comet of  606  in April and May ; the fecond in
 November and December.
                                                 Cent. 7. 1 j.
    The  year 615 was diftinguifhed for an epidemic elephantiafis
 in Italy, and the fhock  of an earthquake.   A  comet appeared
 in 617 and peftilence in 618.
                           Earon. vol. 8. 243.  Short vol. 2. 207.
    Here is a period in which mention is made in hiftory of com-
 ets,  without all their attendant calamities—one in 625, another
 in 632.   It is the firft  period of the kind I have been able to
 find ; and whether this  filenge of hiftory is to be afcribed to
 the carelcffnefs of writers  in that  diffracted period,  when the
 world was overrun by barbarians,  or whether men efcaped  ex-
 traordinary maladies, I am not able to decide.
  .  An earthquake in Paleftine however  marked the approach of
  the comet in  632.
                J                             Funct. Chronol.
    '' This cuftom was of higher antiquity. 
104
    Short mentions an earthquake at Antioch in 637 ; and fhocks
 in Paleftine in 638 which  continued  for 30  days—a comet  in
 639, and the plague in Syria  in 640.  But I have not the ori-
 ginal authorities.  The Univerfal Hiftory relates that in 639,
 the plague was fo fevere in Syria, Arabia and in Medina,  that
 the Arabs call that year the " Year of Deftruction."
                                               Vol  1. 485.
   A general peftilence in Italy is mentioned in hiftory under the
 year 651,  but no particulars.   A furprifing meteor had paffed
 the hcmifphere, in the  preceding  year.  A  violent plague in
 Conftantinople in 654.
                     Functius Chron.  Magdeb.  Cent. 7. ca. 13.
   In 664 peftilence raged in Normandy,  England and  Ireland;
 and the hiftorian remarks that the  fame  difeafe  which  had af-
 flitfed England,  afterwards invaded  Italy in  665.   Thus  it
 would appear that this epidemic broke out firft in the  north of
 Europe.
                   Beda, Eccle. Hift. p. 136.  Baron, vol.  8. 496.
   But the  difeafe appeared in  Egypt the  fame year it did  in
 England and Ireland.
                                            Paul. Diac. 980.
   In the fame year, in March, appeared a bow,  iris, ftretching
 acrofs the heavens, and all  flefh trembled,  fays the pious Diac-
 on, expecting the laft day,
                                                    Ibm.*
   In  669 or 70 appeared a fingular meteor  or flame in the heav-
ens—the next year an unufual ftorm  that  deftroyed  men and
cattle ; and in 672 the plague raged in England,  of  which died
Bifhop Ceadda.
                                              Beda,  lib. 4.
   Short mentions  a comet in 672, and  a fevere froft in 670,
the year of the celeftial  flame.
   In 678 according to Beda, and  in 677 according to Sigebert,
in  the 9th or  10th  year of Conftantine Pogonatus,  appeared a
comet in Auguft,  which was  vifible  for  three  months.   The
year preceding was marked  by moft calamitous  tempefts which
cut fhort the fruits  of the earth, except  leguminous vegetables

  ' Livy mentions a fimilar bow at Rome, during a great plague. 
105
which were  replanted  and come to maturity.  About the fame
time appeared clouds of locufts in Syria and Mefopotamia.   \JnU
verfal peftilence followed  thefe phenomena, in  679 and 680.
England and  Ireland were ravaged by it in 679 j and in 68o,
during July,  Auguft  and  September, Rome  was laid  wafte :
"  parents and children, brothers and lifters,  were borne to their
graves on the fame bier."   Multitudes  of people fled  to the
mountains, and  the ftreets of  the  city were  overgrown with
grafs  and  weeds.  A violent  earthquake  fhook  Mefopotamia
and other countries in 680.  The locufts appeared two years
before the earthquake, and in the fame year with the comet, ac-
cording to Paulus  Diaconus.   A  fevere  drouth  followed the
comet, which in England lafted three years.
      See Paul. Diac. lib. 6.  Beda, Ec.  Hift. p. 116.  Baron, vol.
        8. 526, 544.  Magd. Cent. 7. ca. 13.  Muratori, vol. 6.
   In  681 famin,  fays Beda, raged in EngJand,  and in 683j
peftilence " quas ex more famien fecuta eft,"  fays Paulus Dia-
conus.  In this latter year, if  this was the fixteenth of Con-
ftantine,  according to Baronius, there was a violent eruption of
fire from Vefuvius, which laid wafte all the neighborhood.
                  Baronius, vol. 8. 564. Magd. Cent. 7. cap. 13.
   In  the fame year Syria and Lybia were afflicted by famin and
peftilence.
   Other authors place this laft peftilence  two years later.   The
difeafe raged in Ireland in 685,  in which year,  there was a great
inundation of  the fea  and the ifland of Inisfidda was torn into
three parts.   In 687, or according to others in  684, appeared
a ftar, which was probably a comet,  but without a coma.
                         Smith's Cork, p. n.  Magd. Cent. 7.
   Warnefied  relates that a fingular meteor appeared in 685.*
   Notwithftanding fome  differences  among authors refpeeting
the time of the events here related, we obferve all the violent agit-
ations of the elements which introduce and attend great plagues.
   In  690 happened  in Italy,  one of the greateft inundations

  * We cannot but notice the coincidence in time between meteorj
^nd volcanic eruptions.
0 
io6
from  rain that was ever known—a fevere peftilence followed,
"  Peftis inquinoria."
   In  696,  the fame difeafe raged in Conftantinople ; but no
particulars are mentioned.
f                                            Magd. Cent. 7.
   A fevere winter preceded this peftilence, when the Thames
was covered with ice for fix weeks.
   In  707 a terribly  fevere winter is  mentioned  and a violent
earthquake in Scotland.  Short mentions peftilence in Scotland
in  703 and in 713, but I have no particulars.
   In  717 happened a  very fevere winter, fo that animals died
of cold ; and the fame year,  a great overflowing of the Tyber.
The Saracens,  in an immenfe  army, marching to  befiege Con-
ftantinople, perifhed with cold, hunger and  peftilence, and  in
the city, the plague extinguifhed the lives of  300,000 of  its in.
habitants.   An earthquake in  Syria in 718.
                       Paul. Diac. lib. 6. 47.  Baron, vol. 9. 15.
                       Magd.  Cent. 8. ca. 13.  Cedrenus.
   Here is  a chafm  in the  hiftory of comets of 40 years—at
leaft I can  find no mention made of  them from 685,  to 729,
The fevere winter and the inundation  of 717 however leave very
little room  to  queftion the approximation of one at that time,
and  others doubtlefs appeared, during this period.*
   There was a great plague in Conftantinople in 724.
   In the year 725, a vapor like fmoke iffued for  feveral days,
from  the fea between Thera and Therafia,  the two  iflands
which,  many  centuries before, had arifen  from the bottom of
the fea.  With this vapor iffued denfe fubftances,  which,  when
expofed to theair,grew hardand formed a fpecies of pumice,with
which the neighboring fea and the countries of Afia Minor and
Macedonia were covered.  A fmall ifland arofe at the fame time.
                   Magd. Cent. 8. ca. 13.  Muratori, vol. I. 151.

   * I La\fi fsund no author that mentions a cornet about this time;
but it is worthy of remark that the fplendid comet of 1401 was calcu-
lated to have a period of 343 years.  This was therefore the fame
which appeared in 1744.  If this calculation is juft, the fame comet
muft have appeared in 1058—in 715—in 372—and  in 29 or 30; or
near thefe years.   Now it appears thnt there was «ne in 1038 and in
 373 attended with all the ufual ca!amiti<.:—it is ♦licrefore prd'umeabUj
that it appeared in 715 or if\ 
is?
  in 729 appeared two comets in January ;  one preceding the
fun, vifible in the morning;  the  other following it, was feen in
the evening.  The fame year the plague prevailed in Norwich.
  A plague in Syria raged in  732,  but  no particulars  are men-
tioned.   The following year, the heavens appeared all in a flame.
             ,*.                *        Magd Cent. 8. ca. 13.
   The next peftilential period is remarkable for the violence of
the operations of nature.
   In  740 a tremendous earthquake, or rather a  continuation of
fucceflive fhocks for twelve  months, announced the commence-
ment  of a  feries of calamities.  It  began on the  7th  Kal.  No-
vember, and demolifhed  buildings, ftatues and  walls in Con-
ftantinople,  with a  multitude of cities  in  Thrace, Nicomedia
and Bythinia.  Sigibert places thefe events in 741.
   In  742, or as  others  fay in  743,  a moft  fevere drouth was
followed by moft terrible earthquakes.   The next year appeared
a comet and the year following,  another ; and the third year af-
ter the drouth, which  was either in 745 or 6, according to dif-
ferent authors,  a  remarkable  thick darknefs covered the earth
from Auguft to October.    At this time the plague was raging
at Calabria in Naples,  and it continued to fpread with dreadful
havock for feveral fucceeding years,  in the countries of the  eaft.
So violent was it in Conftantinople in 746,  that the living could
not bury the dead ; but the bodies were carried in  cart-loads and
thrown into empty cifterns,  and any place  that  would conceal
them  from the fight.   Fatal indeed was the difeafe, when " eo-
dem die aliquis mortuum efferebat, et ipfe mortuus afferebatur"—■
the man who buried  a  corpfe,  was  fometimes carried, the fame
day,  to his grave.
   In  the order of the  events here  related authors agree.  Ce-
drenus mentions an  extraordinary  light or flame  in  the fky in
742,  and a fimilar flame in the north, the year following.  He
mentions at the fame time a famin in Conftantinople ;  and limits
the darknefs to five days,  from the  10th tp 15th  of Auguft.
          Paulus Diac.  Hift. Auguft.  10. 19.  Magd.  Cent. 8. 13.
              Baron, vol. 9. 144, 185.
   At the clofe of this period and while the plague raged in Con-
ftantinople,  in 749 or  50, Syria  wa3 laid wafte by an earthquake 
io8
 s-i-whole cities were exterminated—others removed  entire ffohi
 mountains to plains, for a diftance of fix miles.   This cataftro-
 phe correfponded with the  approach of a comet.   Short men-
 tions two.
                Magd. Cent. 8. 13.   Baron, vol. 9. Short. 1. 8i.
   Such was the wafte of people  in Conftantinople by the pre-
 ceding plagues, that the emperor Conftantine repaired the lofsby
 introducing the inhabitants  of neighboring countries.
   in 760 or  61,  for this difference occurs among good author-
 ities, appeared a comet, or light, called dokites,  by the Greeks,
 from its refemblance to a beam ; which was  vifible  10 days in
 the eaft and 21 in the weft.—In  762 appeared two other comets
 and the following winter was the moft fevere probably on record.
 It began about  the firft of October, and  lafted till February.
 The Euxine  fea was frozen to the diftance of one hundred miles
 from the fhore, and the fnow and ice accumulated  to the  depth
 of  thirty cubits.  In this froft,  the animal and vegetable  king-
 doms fuffered great injury.   On the breaking up  of winter,  the
 ice from the Danube and the Euxine was forced in  huge maffcs,
 into the  Bofphorus, and againft the walls  of  Conftantinople,
 which  were greatly damaged.
   In March,  falling ftars,  or meteors were very frequent, and
 the fucceeding fummers were remarkable for moft terrible drouth,
 in  which all  fprings  were  exhaufted.   Myriads of venemous
flies appeared, and a defolating mortality concluded  this feries of,
difordered feafons.
        Paul.  Diac.  lib. 22.   Baron,  vol. 9. 271.  Magd. Cent. 8.
            ca. 13.   Short on Air, vol. 1.  82.
  Short mentions a fatal peftilence in Wales in 762.
  On the authority of Short, I  have mentioned  a  mortality  af-
 ter the  fevere and  unufual  feafons of 763 and  4; but  the
 original writers I  have confulted do not mention it ; tho the fact
may be found  in others  which I have not feen.    It  is altogether
 probable that fuch extraordinary  feafons  fhould  occafion  great
 ficknefs ; but it is equally probable  that if any  deftructive and
 general plague had followed them, the writers I have confulted
 would  have mentioned it.
   I am led to notice this circumftance, by the confideration that 
ro9
 n6 earthquake  is  recorded  during this period.   This circuit**
 ftance is of no fmall confequence in this inquiry ;  and is a con-
 firming proof of the juftnefs of my  fufpicions, that  peftilence
 has an intimate connection with fubterranean heat  or the action
 of fire.   It appears that the plague, for the moft part, is violent
 and extenfive,  in proportion  to the action of the fire that exifts
 in and about the globe.   The preceding peftilential period, be-
 ginning in 740, is a ftriking inftance of the truth of this remark.
   A great mortality happened in 766.  In 767 a fevere drouth
 exhaufted all fprings and  rivers and the  year  following was dif-
 tinguifhed Ly a comet.   Peftilence j-.r: wiled in  England in  771,
 and in Chichefter died 34,000 people.
                                           Short vol. 2. 268.
   Short mentions plague  and famin in France in 779—a comet,
 an earthquake at Conftantinople, and  peftilence in Scotland in
 784 ; but I have no particulars.
   In the reign of Charlemagne,   about the beginning  of the
 ninth  century,  commenced a  period  of  great mortality.  A
 comet in  799,  was followed  by an  exceflively cold winter in
 800.  Thefe events were preceded by violent earthquakes in Si-
 cily and Crete and  in 798, an extraordinary darknefs  in  Eng-
 land of feventeen days.   In 801 earthquakes fhook  Italy, France
 and Germany,  and thefe phenomena  were  repeated in 802 and
 3.   A prodigious tempeft in the year  800,  levelled a  multitude
 of buildings.
   In 802 the plague prevailed in various places, " propter mo-
 litiem hyberni temporis,"  fays the  annalift Bartianus,  by reafon
 of a mild winter.   This however could not be  the true  reafon.
   In 808 a very mild winter was  followed by  the plague.  In
 810 happened the greateft mortality among horned  cattle that
 is on record.   In fome places in Germany, it deftroyed  almoft
 all the fpecies.
                         Lanciftus 146.  Annal. Fuldenfes 810.
   In 811 fwarms of locufts from  Africa invaded  Italy and de-
 voured every green  thing.
   In 812 appeared  a comet,  and after a chafm  in  the accounts
<of Etna of nearly four hundred years, that volcano is recorded 
tto
to hare difcharged fire in  this year.  P.  Diaconus places th?
Comet in 813, and a violent earthquake.
               Magd. Cent. 9. ca. 13.  Muratori vol. 2. J05, .$07.
                 Pift^rius' Germ. Script, vol. 2. 38.
   In 817 was a comet, and  a  peftilence foon after commenced,
Which authors relate to have arifen  from  exceflive rains and a
humid air.   This plague raged in almoft every part  of France in
820, and crops failing from  excefs of moifture, a famin enfued.
Baronius mentions earthquakes in 820 in thofe places where the
Chriftians wereperfecuted.  ,The following winter was fo  fevere
that the Rhine and the Danube were covered with  folid ice for
more than 30 days, and fuftained loaded carriages.
   In 823 was another moft fevere winter, in which  the fnoW
lay on  the earth twenty nine  weeks,  and occafioned the death of
many animals and men.   An earthquake and a univerfal plague
in France.   The next year  fell a fhower of hail,  which killed
men and cattle.   Severe drouth the fame year.
    Magd. Cent. 9. ca. 13.  Muratori, vol. 2.513,  516.   Short, vol. 2.
   In 827 the Thames was covered with ice for nine weeks.
   In 828 appeared a comet in  Libra; and  in 829, another in
Aries; with many meteors.   The earth in France was violently
fhaken in 829 } a violent temjpeft followed, but no  peftilence is
mentioned.
                     Baron, vol 9. 809.  Magdeb. Ce*t. 9. ca. 13.
   In 839 appeared a comet and another in 842.    In 840 Con-
ftantinople was fhaken for five days, and fome parts of France
felt the fhock.  The rains were exceflive, the Rhine overflow-
ed,  and the ftorms of hail and wind were unufually fevere.
                                     Magdeb. Cent. 9. ca. 13.
   In. 85b  another  comet is mentioned, and in  the  following
year a  moft fevere drouth,  which occafioned a famin that com-
pelled men to feed on human flefh.—Thefe  was  a fevere earth-
quake in Gaul the preceding year—A peftilence  in many parts
of Scotland in 853.
        Baron, vol. 10. 73.  Magd. Cent. 9.  Muratori, vol. 2. 531.
   It will be obferved that no peftilence is noted under fome of
thefe laft inftances of comets and  other phenomena.   Hiftory,
during the dark and barbarous ages under  confideration,  is ex- 
111
iremely barren ; and  the  fmaller calamities of all  kinds  have
been paffed over in filence.   Whether any confiderable mortality
prevailed, at thefe periods or not, we cannot determin from the
filence of the dull annalsof the dark ages.
   In 855  an earthquake at Conftantinople, and in other places,
violent tempefts.   In 856 another earthquake and a tremendous
inundation of the Tyber,  which was followed by  an epidemic
difeafe, called a plague of the fauces, in which  the throat was
obftructedby defluxions, and fudden death enfued.*  In  858 a
comet, and the fucceeding winter was fo fevere that  the Adriatic
fea was covered with  ice and  people walked on it to Venice.
This was followed by an earthquake in Conftantinople.
   Muratori relates that in 855, two unufual ftars  appeared for
ten days, alternately, and  that the next  year  the winter was
very fevere,  dry  and peftilen%l, fo that a great portion of men
perifhed.  But I fufpect he refers to the fame years  mentioned iq
 the  preceding paragraph.
       Baron, vol. 10. 131.  Muratori vol. 2.534-  Short vol. I. $5.
   The plague was in Scotland in 863.
   The winter of 864 is recerded as very fevere.   In 867 there
 were violent tempefts, and  in the following year a general famin
 in Europe, fevere earthquakes  and a comet.
                                         Magd. Cent. 9. ca. 13.
   In 872 a comet,  and a moft exceflive heat and drouth,  which
 cut  fhort the grain.
                                                       Ibm.
   In 874 appeared in France myriads of grafs-hoppers or locufts
 of a remarkable  fize, with  fix feet and two teeth harder than
 ftone.   They are reprefented as having leaders,  which went be*
 fore them a days journey, meafuring a certain  fpace; the fwarm
 followed about 9 ©'clock and there waited for the  rifing of the
 fun, obfcuring the heavens  by their numbers,  and  with a broad
 mouth and large inteftines,  devouring every green herb and tree,
 Their days journey  was four or five miles.
   Thefe animals were at laft  driven into the  Britifh channel by
 the winds, and being wafhed afhore, their putrefying bodies canf.
♦ A fpecies of quiafy. 
112
 ed a flench, and ficknefs, which, with  a pinching famin, de-
 ftroyed a third of the people,  on the neighboring French coaft.
   The fucceeding winter, 875, was  terribly fevere and contin.
 ued from November to the vernal Equinox.
   In this or the following year, for  authors differ, appeared a
 comet of extraordinary brightnefs", and in  June following, were
 deluges of  rain, which, in Saxony, fwept away a whole village,
 with its inhabitants and cattle.
   In the year 878 a mortal  peftilence raged among the cattle,
 efpecially about the Rhine.   Dogs and birds which at  firft col-
 lected round the dead bodies, fuddenly difappeared.
    Magd.  Cen. 9. ca. 13.  Piftor. Germ. Hift. vol. 2. 570. vol. 1. 63.
   In  879 there was an eruption of Vefuvius.
   In  Feb.  882 appeared a comet with a vaft coma preceded in
 January by an earthquake.   In th» next year Italy  was feverely
 afflicted by famin.  In 884 the plague was in Oxford.
                           Magd. Cent. 9. 13.  Short, vol. 2.
   In 887 the  winter was unufually long and  fevere ; and a pef-
 tilence among cattle was fo moital, that few furvived it.
                                     Muratori, vol. 3. p.  92.
   A comet is  noted under 896, and a famin in France  and Ger-
 many,  in the following year.—Italy was fhaken by  earthquakes.
                                       Dufrefnoy.  Baglivus.
   In May  904 appeared  a comet, followed  by a  fevere  frofty
 winter of four months, and violent earthquakes with mortal  pef-
 tilence in 905.
              Univerfal Hift. vol. 17. 87.  Magd. Cent. 10. ca.  13.
   In 912 appeared a comet of unufual fplendor and the following
 winter was  very cold  " acutiflimum fuit frigus," and meteors in
the air very frequent.   A famin followed in Germany,  and  Italy
experienced earthquakes.
               Magd. Cent. 10.  Short, vol. 1.  Baglivus. p. 542.
   The plague  was in Scotland in 922.
                                              Short, vol.  2.
   A fevere winter in which the Thames was frozen for 13 weeks
ip 929, followed by a dreadful famin, is mentioned by the laft
 cited authors.   An earthquake is mentioned in 935, and a pefti-
 lence in 937,  but no details. 
"3
  In 940 there was a fevere winter and peftilence among cattle.
  In 942 and again 944 appeared a comet,  the latter very large
with a brilliant coma ;  followed  by fevere famin in France and
Italy.  Some  authorities  place the latter comet in 945.   The
winter of 946 or 7  was long and fevere, continuing to the ver-
nal  equinoc of the next year.
                 M?;J. Cent. 10.—Piftor. Germ.  Script, vol. r.
  The fame period  was marked by earthquakes in France and
Germany.
  In 954 peftilence invaded the north  of  Europe,  with great
deftruction—Scotland  loft forty thoufand  inhabitants.    The
following winter was fevere.
                        Baron, vol. 10.  739.—M?gd. Cent. 10.
  In 961 a flame or fiery column appeared  in the heavens.  In
962 a very fevere winter and a famin.   In 964 a dreadful plague
in the Emperor Otho's army.   In  968 a comet,  an earthquake
and violent winds  which deftroyed the grain  and occafioned
famin.
       Baron, vol. 10. 771.  Magd. Cent. 10.  Piftorius, vol. 1. 134.
  Englifli authors mention a malignant fever in London in 961 ;
at which time there was a large marfh on the fouth fide of the
Thames.
                                     Maitland's Hift. London.
  In 975 appeared a very large  comet in  harveft, and the fol-
lowing winter was exceMvely fevere.  The  next year  England
was afiViiSred with  grievous famin.   An earthquake preceded,
in 974-                                        n   ,   ,
                   M:'gd.  Cent. 10. ca. 13. Simeon Dunelmenlis.
  Li 90 1 a comet and in  983 another.   In this latter year was
an eruption of Vefuvius.   Univerfal famin followed and a plague
among the Lacedemonians.
                    Daron. vol.  10. 831.  Magd. Cent. 10. 13.
  This period was followed by defolating earthquakes in Lacede-
nion in 9 -'6.—Tn 987 the feafon was unfavorable and occafioned
dearth—malignant fevers  prevailed in  England and the cattlg
died of fluxes.
                                Brompton, Angl. Scrip.  878.
  Meteors and a flaming fky were obferved in 993,  in  which
                            P 
114
year was a great eruption of Vefuvius.  Then followed an ex-
ceffively fevere  winter, which lafted from November to May.
The rivers were frozen dry, fifli perifhed and a fcarcity  of wa-
ter enfued.  In July a fevere froft gave to the trees the  gloomy
afpect of winter.
  With thefe  fingular feafons  prevailed a famin and a deadly
plague among men and cattle.
  In 995 a comet was feen.   The Saxon Chronicle places the
foregoing events three years earlier.
  In 996 an  epidemic flux  prevailed with great  malignity in
England.
  The events here related  are  fimilar  to what are common  at
the prefent day ;. a volcanic difcharge of fire being followed by
unufual cold and fnow.   Meteors alfo are common near the time
of fuch difcharges.
                      Magd. Cent. 10. 13.  Baron, vol. 10. 877.
   Hitherto our accounts of the great volcanoes have been very
imperfect.   The firft inftance of an eruption in Iceland, which
is recorded, was in  the  year 1000 ; and from that period we
have a regular hiftory of volcanic difcharges in that ifland, which
is one of the principal outlets of fire on the globe, and which,
we fhall find,  has no fmall connection with the extenfive and
powerful operations of  fire,   both in  Europe and  America.
There are many volcanoes in the ifland of which Heckla is the
principal.
   In the year  1000, there  was  an  eruption  in  Iceland, two.
 globes of fire or great meteors were feen, violent earthquakes in
 England, and a fevere winter followed.  In  the fame year ap-
 peared a comet with a long coma.
   In the year  following a flux, and fevers with a burning ague,
 were epidemic and mortal in England.
                                        Magdtb. Cent. io. 13.
   The  next period of general peftilence  was remarkable for its
 extent,  violence and attending phenomena.
   In 1004, an eruption of Heckla in Iceland, with a violent
 earthquake announced the approaching calamity.   In  1005  ap-
 peared a comet of frightful afpect, and in the  winter Italy was> 
ii5
for three months, convulfed by earthquakes.   In the fame  year
commenced a  famin,  and a plague of three  years  duration,
which defolated the whole earth.   Cotemporary  authors affirm
that more than half the human  race perifhed.  The living were
fatigued with burying the dead—" ut fepelientium taedio, vivi ad
hue fpiritum  trahentes, obruerenter cum mortuis."   Such  was
the wearinefs of thofe  that buried the corpfes,  that  the living
before their breath had left their bodies, were tumbled into the
graves with the dead.
   At the  clofe of this horrible deftruction,  Vefuvius difcharged
prodigious quantities of lava which laid wafte the neighboring
country.
   In  1009 was  feen  a comet in May.   The beginning of the
year the earth was deluged with rain, and a plague among the
 Saxons followed.
   The plague is alfo mentioned under the year 1012, with vi-
 olent  rains and inundations, followed by an earthquake in 1013.
 But the neceffary materials for a detail are wanting.
      Magd. Cent. n. 13. Baron, vol. n. 27. Muratori, Tom. 5.  £$■
   In  1015 appeared  a comet, attended with violent tempefts,
 and followed by famin in 1016.   In 1017 another  comet was
 feen,  and the following year is noted as peftilential.    But I have
 no particulars.
    In 1020 was feen another comet,  and the  winter  was excef-
 fively fevere,  fo that men  perifhed with  cold.  This was fol-
 lowed by  peftilence,  in which the bodies of the infected  gene-
 rated " ferpents," fays the  hiftorian ; by  which  he probably
 means fome fpecies of worms.   A fimilar fa& will  be  related
 from  Thuanus in the  16th century.
    In 1021 was an earthquake,  and the next year,  the drouth
 and heat  were extreme.
    In 1025 the fummer was wet.  The plague raged in England,
 and in other parts of Europe, peftilence with violent earthquakes.
                                          Magd. Cent. 11. 13-
    In 1029 was an eruption of Heckla, and peftilence in fome
 parts of Europe.
    A comet  in 1031 was accompanied, in its paffage, through 
llfj
 the fyftem,  with great ftorms of wind and rain,  producing vaft
 inundations.   In Francej  England and the eaft raged himinand
 peftilence.   Locufts were added to thefe calamities, which Were
 fo fevere in  fome parts of the world, that  multitudes were com-
 pelled to leave their country.   Violent earthquakes rrai Ltd this
 year, and what is ufual in the tempeftuous feafons occs:iiontd by
 comets diftinguiflied by volcanic  eruptions, a fplendiu meteor,
 or globe of  fire.
   During an eclipfe of the fun  in 1032 or 3, authors mention
 a fingular phenomenon—a faffron color in the air, vhich rj.c
 to the human countenance a  cadaverous afpect.   But it  might
 be merely the effect of a partial darknefs, with a hazyatmofphno.
 •  A fevere winter in 1035, v;.s followed by an eruption  of
 Vefuvius in 1036.   The frequent coincidences cf  this  kind de-
 ferve notice.
   In 1037 is noted an igneous appearance  in the heavens, like
 a beam.  Thefe phenomena were followed by peftilence in Eng-
land and in the  Emperor's army, and with earthquakes.
                  Magd. Cent. 11. 13.   Univ. Hift.  vol. 17.  166.
                    Echard's Rom. Hift. vol. 5. 146.
   In 1042 commenced another diftrefling period.   A comet in
this year was followed by an  eruption  of Vefuvius in  1043 and
fnow in harveft.  The  year  1042  was very tempeftuous and
rainy ; the dykes in Flanders yielded to the fwelling ocean, and
the low grounds were  overwhelmed, with  infinite defti uction.
At this time began a  general  famin in England, France and
Germany.   The year 1043 ^as a^° diftinguiflied for rains and
ftorms ; autumnal  fnows were early, and  an infectious difeafe
carried off vaft  numbers of cattle.   In IC44  there was  great
mortality among men.
   In 1047  fell a deep fnow in the weft of  Europe, which over-
whelmed fmall trees, and lay till March.   In March 1048 was
a violent earthquake, followed by a tempeftuous feafon and great
ficknefs.  There was an  eruption  of Vefuvius the fame  year,
and an earthquake in October.  The reader will  remark a very
regular connection  between eruptions  of volcanoes and violent
winds.
                                        Magd. Cent. 11. 13. 
ay
   During this period the countries  about  the Hellefpont werej
 fjr three yeais,  ravaged by locufts.
   In 1052  a tempeft is noted which demolifhed maroy buildings.
 In 1053 a comet  which was followed by a famin.  But- the
 f.'afons ate not defcribed.
   In  1057  fevere froft and  great quantities of fnow'ruined the
 \ ines.  During the following year,  a  comet was feen, the year
 after which the winter was very long and fevere,  and in 1060
 prevailed famin, and  plague among  men and cattle.
   In 1062  a trembling of the earth in Conftantinople, attended
 with thunder and lightning,  was fucceeded by the plague.   The
 riext year \v;s diflinguiflied by a con.et, vifible 40 days, a tem-
 peft of four  days,  deep fnow, and extreme cold, which  proved
 fatal to vines, trees, birds and cattle.
   In 1065 feveral hundred thoufand Scythians, marching to in->
 v;ulc the Roman empire,  perifhed with peftilential difeafes.
   In 1066  a comet  was feen in May,  and a Cold winter fuc-
 ceeded.   Egypt and Arabia, countries  not fubject  to earth-
 quakes, were  violently convulfed in November, and a plague
 fptedily followed,  which, authors  affirm, fwept away one  half
 the inhabitants.  This was attended with famin.
   The north of Europe  fpeedily felt fimilar calamities.   Vio-
 lent earthquakes in 1068, and a comet in May,  of  apparent di-
 ameter equal to  that  of the  moon, vifible 40 days, were  fuc-
 ceeded by famin.  The country in  England from Durham to
 York was depopulated.   Men fubfifted on dogs,  cats and every
 unclean thing;  or  perifhed and their bodies were left to putrefy
 on the earth.   The winters were unufually fevere.
      Magd. Cent. rr.  13.  Murat. vol. 5. 44. Baron, vol. n. 370.
   In 1074 another comet appeared  and a hard winter.   The
winter of  1076 was exceflively cold from  Nov.  to  March, fo
that the roots of vines were killed.  In April  1077 appeared a
 comet,  and famin and plague  raged  in  Conftantinople with fuch
mortality, that the living could not bury the dead.   An earth-
quake was experienced in England.   Shocks  were  alfo  felt in
 1081 and 1082.
   In 1084 raged famin and  peftilence ;  the  latter  cut off the. 
                             lift

   Whole army of the Emperor Henry, in Rome.   In 1085, Ruf-
   fia was laid wafte by locufts and the plague.  The feafons were
   Unfavorable  in England, the crops  bad and  a great mortality
   among cattle.  In  1086, were  great inundations  in  Flanders,
   Italy and other countries ; and in 1087 the fifh died in the rivers.
         Magd. Cent.  n.   Baron, vol. 11. 564.   Stowc's Annals.
             Knighton. Hift. Ang. Script. 2353.
     Authors relate that in  1086, domeftic fowls left  the houfes
   and fled to the woods.   The two following years,  the fame ca-
   lamities  continued—bad  feafons,  murrain  among cattle, and a
   violent fever, which appeared in the former year, raged in thefe
   and affected  one half the people of  England.   In  1089 a burn-
   ing plague deftroyed mankind.   Earthquakes diftinguifhed thefe
   pet iods.
                                   FunvStius Chro.  vol. 1. 102.
     In 1091  appeared  a comet; another  in 1094;  a third in
   1096, and a fourth in 1098.
     In 1091,   many violent tempefts happened  which  levelled
   buildings, 600 houfes were  blown down in London ;  fwarms of
   locufts darkened the fun, and the next year a plague raged, which
•• the hiftorian relates to have arifen from the putrefaction of their
  bodies.   The place where the locufts appeared  is not named.
     A moft fevere winter in i093,occured after a very  rainy fum-
  mer in England.   The fummer  of 1094  was alfo exceffively
   rainy.—The plague at the fame time  raged in England, Gaul
  and Germany.   A violent  earthquake with a tempeft in 1094.
  The  comet in Oct.  1096 was attended with great  rains, which
  prevented the fowing of winter grain, and famin followed.  Va-
  rious fiery appearances  and meteors were obferved,  during this
  period, and  the winter of 1095 was fevere.
     In  1098 a peftilence invaded cattle, from the bad  quality of
  their food, which- had been injured by great  rains.   This was
  the year of the  laft comet  above   named, and  in the following
  year,  was a hard  winter  and a dearth.   Syracufe was injured
   by an earthquake.
     Magd. Cent. n. 13. Matthew Paris, p. 17. Muratori, Tom. 5. 59.
     To the year 1099 or the following, is  to be  afligned the ter-
  rible inundation which fpread over the low lands in  Kent,  be- 
II9
     longing to Earl Goodwin, and which, never having been recov.
     ered, now form the fhoals, called Goodwin Sands, of dange-
     rous navigation.—A fevere winter followed, and peftilence and
     famin in various places.
                  Piftorius, vol. i.  Anderfon, Hift. Com. vol.  i. 176,
        It is probable that the events related in the two laft paragraphs
      happened in the  fame year.    The inundation is faid to have
     drowned in Holland one hundred thoufand people.
        A dark day is mentioned in the year 1099.
        In the year 1100 raged a peftilence  in Paleftine,  faid to have
     originated from the ftench of dead bodies.   In Syracufe, a vio-
     lent earthquake demolifhed a tower, with the lofs of many lives.
     In 1101  a fingular meteor, and fuch multitudes of worms, called
     paplliones, from their refemblance to a pavilion,  that they cover-
     ed two or three miles of  country.
                                          Magd. Cent. 12.  ca. 13. '
        In 1103 a new ftar fhone for  twenty-five days, and a comet
     of a bright flaming color—A great mortality happened this year,
                                      Magd.  ibirn.  Matthew Paris.
        In 1105,  there was a  difcharge  of fire from Heckla, and in
     the fame year,  a great quantity of fnow,  a violent earthquake in
      Jerufalem,  about Chriftmas,  and about the fame time,  a light in
     the weft almoft equal to the fun, and two mock funs.
        In Feb. of the  following  year,  a  cornet*  of unufual  fplen-
     dor for three weeks was vifible  from three to nine o'clock, and
     two mock funs.   A violent earthquake happened the fame year.
     Many meteors were feen and violent  tempefts  and inundation*,
     with myriads of infects  in  the air, marked the  diforder of the
     elements.—The year was alfo noted for  fterility of grain, and a
     confequent dearth—men were attacked with plague and unufual
     difeafes—" ignotis morbis, igne, Mamma, ardore invifibili homi-
     nes excruciati et abfque ad uftionis nota extincti."
»                   Magd. Cent. 12. ca.  13. Muratori, Tom. 5. 485.
        The reader cannot fail to remark how regularly the mention of
     comets is accompanied with a failure of crops, meteors,  and tem-
     pefts.   We have proof ia modern times that thefe were not the

        *  Suppofcd to be the fame as that which appeared in 5£iand in 168a 
120
 fictions  of imagination.    See the years  1769-70—1783-4—
 17889.
   In 1107 appeared a comet  with along coma—another wa3
feen in Normandy in 1108.
   Intheyear 1109 eryfipelous difeafes were epidemic in England ;
which afflicted and deftroyed many people ; their limbs covered
with black fpots, like carbuncles.
            Magd. Cent.  12. ca. 13.  Sigebert. Polydore Virgil.
   In December  1109 appeared a comet, and in  June  1110
another,  which fpread its coma to the fouth.  A fevere winter,
with deep fnow and long  continued cold,  followed and fterility
of grain.  An unufual recefs of water  in  the  Trente,  fevere
earthquake in  Salop, and a mortality among men and cattle dif-
tinguifhed the year 1111.—An earthquake and fevere plague are
mentioned under the year  1112 ; but the year was remarkably
for abundant crops of  grain.—This year there  was an extraor-
dinary recefs of the water in the Britifh Channel for a whole day,
fifh died in the water and domeftic fowls took flight into the wood* •
        Magd. Cent. 12. ex 13.  Knighton, Hift. Ang. Script. 2379.
   Here we have an account of a progreflion in the peftilence—
from the eruptive difeafes. of 1109 to the plague in  1112—This
is the modern  order.                                      «
   In 1113 or, as fome authorities have it, in May 1114, a comet
appeared, and in a period of diftrefling calamities.  In this year
there was an eruption  from Heckla in Iceland.
   In May 1113 an extraordinary fnow very much  injured trees
and  vegetables.   In June a dreadful tempeft laid wafte  whole
countries, and the exceflive heat of the fummer produced dyf-
entery and other  peftilential  epidemics.   In 1114 many  cities^
in  Syria were proftrated by an earthquake ; and its effects _were
felt in all the  oriental countries.   In November  1115  many
houfes in Antioch were  fwallowed up in a chafm  rent in the
earth.   In January 1116 various  places  fuffered by  fhocks of'
the earth, and in 1117 all Italy  was fhaken for forty days.
   In 1113 Flanders was  overwhelmed by an inundation, which
compelled many Flemmings to abandon their country,  and they
feftled in England. 
121
   This  event  feems to fix the approach of the comet in the
 year 1113.
   Severe drouth and a fingular recefs of the ocean  left rivers
 dry in 1114.   October 15th people walked over the Thames
 between London bridge and the tower.   In December the fky
 appeared to be in a flame.
   The winter of 1115 was moft rigorous,  and a terrible  mor-
 tality fwept away the cattle.  A comet appeared this year alfo.
   The year 1116 was rainy and fruits were deftroyed.   In  1117
 fwarms of locufts about Jerufalem devoured vegetation, and in
 England great damage was done by floods.
   In 1118 and 1119  earthquakes were violent.   In 1120 the
 locufts and mice overran Judea, and Trent fuffered much from
 earthquakes.  A fevere winter followed in 1121, and a drouth
 the next year,  which occafioned a fcarcity of provifion, and
 men and cattle perifhed.
   In the foregoing period, no great peftilence is mentioned, but
 fuch difeafes as were  occafioned by intemperate feafons, except
 among cattle.
                 Magd. Cent. 12.  Baron, vol. 12. 117.
                 Muratori, Tom. 5. p.  60.  Maitland's Hift. Lond.
   In 1124 happened a very fevere wimer,  which  deftroyed
 trees  and vines—fucceeded by a cold fpring which retarded ve-
 getation.   The following year was noted for a deftructive plague
 among men  and cattle, in  France and Brabant.   Terrible  was
 the famin in Italy, and in England fo many people perifhed with
 hunger,  that dead bodies  lay  in  the highways unburied.   In
 1125 the famin, accompanied with peftilence, continued in  Eng-
land,  Germany and Italy.   The feafon was excefiively wet and
all fruits were injured or deftroyed.   In  1126 appeared a comet
in October, followed by a  winter exccffively fevere,  and in the
following year,  violent earthquakes occurred in Syria.  Eryfi-
pelous diftempers were fatal in England.
   In the peftilence of 1125, it was  computed that one third of
the people perifhed.
              Magd. Cent. 12.  Baron, vol.  12. 160.  Dufrefnoy.
   In  1130, 31 and 32, happened the moft deftructive murrain 
122
among cattle and fowls ever known in England.   In 1131 an
exceflive drouth in France.
   In October  1133 appeared a comet.   The fame year, Eng-
land was  fhaken  by  earthquakes, and inundations continued a
whole month.   Authors  affert  that the fun exhibited fingular
appearances, changing its figure and dimenfions, and that there
was a remarkable  intempcrature in the air.   In modern times,
the face of the fun  is often disfigured with fpots,  and it is not
unphilofophical to fuppofe that moving vapor in the air may fud-
denly change its apparent diameter.
   In  1134 the fea broke into Flanders, as it did in the  follow-
ing year.  This year  was rainy.
   In  1135 the  drouth deftroyed  vegetation  and  occafioned a
dearth.   The Rhine was fordable  in almoft  any place.   Terri-
ble tempefts and earthquakes and an eruption of Vefuvius mark*
ed this period, and a  dreadful plague enfued.
                                           Short, vol. 1. 118.
   The  eruption of Vefuvius was in 1136 and a fecond in 1139.
The fummer of n 37  was as remarkable for  drouth, as was that
of  1135.   The plague was  univerfal.   The diforders in  the
elements occafioned a long and defolating famin.
          Magd. Cent.  12.  Piftorius, vol. 1. 156. Matthew Paris.
   Knighton mentions the fun's changing its  form in  1133, and
adds that a darknefs happened which rendered a candle neceffary
in the day time.
                                                Chronocon.
   From this it is probable  the fun prefented  appearances, like
thofe which we obferved on the 19th  of  May 1780, and which
are ufual in  dark days.
   The reader will remark the occurrence of fuch days, in years
when electricity fliakes the earth, or fire and lava are difimarged
by volcanoes.   He will note  alfo the drouth that preceded the
eruption of Vefuvius  in 1135  and 11  ?R.
   In U40was an earthquake'in England.   In   1141  a  very
fevere winter.   In 1143 the air,  for  a mile in extent, was  filled
 with  an unufual  infect,  with the  body of a worm and the fize
 of a  fly.   A general plague among  men and cattle began the
 fame year,  and raged with great  violence in various countries, 
In n 44 or as fome  authors  relate in  May 1145  appeared t
comet, illuminating the heavens, and the fame year were violent
earthquakes.   In 1146 another comet,  and the plague incredibly
fatal.  A famin prevailed with diftrefling feveritjs, for 12 years,
including the years juft named.
                     Magd. Cent. 12.  Muratori, Tom. 5. p. 65.
                     Piftorius, Germ. Script.
   If men, at this period, had any refpite from natural evils, the
intervals were very  fhort.   In 1150 a  very  fevere winter and
fevere peftilence are recorded in the Saxon chronicle,  together
with fanii 1  and an eruption  of fire in  Iceland.  Earthquakes,
inundations and peftilence marked  the fubfequent years.  The
years 1151 and 2 are mentioned to have been  very rainy—the
winter of  1153 and 4 fevere, and the  fummer of 1156'excet
fively dry.   Thefe  phenomena follow each other fo rapidly, and
are related with  fuch brevity and in general terms,  that it leaves
the mind at a lofs to what influence to afcribe the difeafes which
afflicted nations for a feries of years about this period.   In this
gloomy  and barbarous age of the world, hiftory is concife and
deftitute of accurate obfervations.
   In 1157 there was an eruption in Iceland, with a very cold
winter.   In  1158  an eruption of Vefuvius, an  earthquake  in
England,  and an inudation of the Tyber.   Peftilence appeared
in Scotland in 1154.
   Not long after thefe events, Antioch, Tripoli, and  Dama£
cus were convulfed by an earthquake, with the lofs of 20,000 lives.
   After an interval  of more  than 300 years, during which I
find in hiftory no account of  any eruptions from Etna, this vol-
cano is introduced to our notice by an almoft continual eruption
from 1160 to 1169.  Earthquakes were violent  in 1161—in
Sicily an inundation drowned 5000 people—in 1163 one of the
greateft inundations  in Friefknd  ever  known, preceded by a
very fevere winter.    At  this time  the plague was raging in Mi-
lan, Normandy and Aquitain.  Unufual  darknefs is mentioned
in 1164.   In England,  the fea overflowed  twelve  miles  of
country, deftroying men, cattle  and improvements.   In 1165,
a comet appeared with a long coma ; 12,000 people perifked  by
an inundation in  Sicily, and  Norfolk  and  Suffolk in England 
111.
were fhaken by an earthquake.   Moft of Frederick Barbarofla'i
army perifhed by the plague in  1167.  This period was remark;
able for great wind and hail.
   In 1169  the  eruption  of Etna  was very  violent ; Catana
was demolifhed by an earthquake, and 15,000  people  perifhed
«—Afia Minor felt the fhock.   In the next year, fo general and
tremendous  were the earthquakes, that  many  of the beft cities
in Syria,  Paleftine  and  other countries, were  laid  in  ruins.
Germany fuffered  by earthquakes and inundations.   Peftilence
marked this  period, and in 1172 a malignant dyfentery raged in
England.
   In 1174  mention is made, for the firft time,  of an  epidemic
cough or catarrh.  There is however no queftion that influenza
and meafles always preceded or  accompanied peftilence in the
ancient and  middle ages, as they do in modern times.   Authors
have neglected to  record the prevalence  of all the  minor epi-
demics, or nearly all, until after the invention of printing.
   In 1175 hiftory mentions  an eruption  of Etna, peftilential
difeafes in England  and a famin.   In 1176 a long and fevere
winter,  and an irruption of the fea into Holland with immenfe
deftruction—a fevere drouth followed with a lofs of feed time^
The year  1177 was diftinguifhed for violent winds.
   In 1178a comet was fucceeded by a moft rigorous winter, and
deftructive   inundations.   On  the  1 ith  of September,  was a
dark day,  with lingular appearances  of the fun  and moon.   A-
nother comet is mentioned in 1179 and a great hail ftorm.
   In 1181 appeared a comet, and earthquakes,  with an eruption
of Etna, marked this period.—At this time Denmark was al-
moft laid defolate by exceflive rains, famin and peftilence,  while
Germany loft half  of its  inhabitants by  the plague.   Some al-
lowance muft be made  for exaggeration in the accounts of the
more deftructive plagues.   This was an  age of  fuperftition, and
the imaginations of men were fufceptible of ftrong impreflions.
   In 1185 is recorded a moft violent earthquake,  over Europe.
'Calabria was  overturned,  and thoufands  perifhed.   On  the
Adriatic,  a whole  city was fwallowed  up,  and the fhock was
ifelt to the Baltic. 
12$
 •  In 1186 Ruffia  and Poland were  defolated  by locufts and
 peftilence.  The winter was fo mild, that the following harveft
 was in May, and vintage in Auguft.   In Carinthia, the locults
 devoured every green thing.
   An  unufual  conjunction  of planets happened, this year,  in
 Libra ;  and fo great was the alarm, in that ignorant and credu-
 lous age, on account of the  calamities predicted by aftrologers,
 that a folemn faft of three days was appointed by the Archbifhop
 of Canterbury.   Luckily no uncommon event happened in Eng-
 land, until the next year, when peftilential difeafes prevailed a*
 mongmen and cattle.   In  1188 the plague was in Rome.
            Magd. Cent. 12.  Murat vol. 5. p. 70—6—182.
            Univ. Hift. vol. 32. no.  Henry Hift. Brit. vol. 3. 38a
   I have no accounts  of comets in this period from 1181  to
 1211 ; altho it is  probable that feveral were vifible.
   How far may we luppofe the conjunction of all the planets had
 any influence in producing the remarkably mild winter  of 1186 ?
   In January 1193 was a remarkable aurora borealis.
   In 1193 and 4 exceflive rains injured the  grain and produced
 a dearth.  In England an acute peftilential fever was epidemic
 and left in health fcarcely a number of perfons fufficient to tend
 the fick.   The ufual forms  of burial were neglected, and dead
 bodies were thrown into graves in piles.   A  fevere winter put a
 ftop to this epidemic.   Brompton,  with a Batural partiality for
 religious houfes,  informs us that  the only places exempted from
 the deftruction of this peftilence, were the monasteries—Cotem-
 porary with this difeafe was an earthquake and a fingular fiery
 appearance in the fky.  Short places this fever under the year
 i 196and calls it a "  burning ague."   Seethe years 1001  and
 *723-
             Brompton's Hift. Ang. Script. 1271.  Magd. Cent. 12.
               Short, vol. 1. 130.
  The winter of  1200 was  cold; the fummer of 1201  was
 very rainy ; and the winter fucceeding was fevere almoft beyond
 example.   In 1203  was  a fore  famin  from  bad feafons.   In
 1205 a rigorous winter and a great  hail ftorm ; in 1206 an erup-
tion of Heckla ; but  I have no account  of any epidemics  that
prevailed. 
126
   In i2to was an eruption of Heckla, and a cold  winter.   In
 1211 appeared a cornet, in May, vifible for  18 days.   Great
 tempefts marked this period with inundations.   In 1212 Venice
 and Damafcus  were violently agitated  by earthquakes, and in
 Sicily thoufands perifhed by an  inundation.   Thefe phenomena
 were the heralds of  a fevere peftilence, which, in 1213, was fo
 fatal in Italy, that authors affirm fcarcely one tenth of the in-
 habitants furvived.  In the year following appeared two comets.
   The year 1219 was diftinguifhed  for the approach of a large
 comet, diftreffing inundations,  in one of which perifhed  36,000
 inhabitants, an  earthqaake and  a volcanic eruption  in  Iceland.
 In 1220  the plague was fo fatal in  Damietta, that authors re-
 late three perfons only furvived out of 70,000.  By this we are
 to underftand the difeafe to have been extremely mortal ; but
 we muft reject the literal meaning of  fuch relations.   It is doubt-
 lefs true that the peftilence of this  period has rarely been ex-
 ceeded in mortality.
   This period was very calamitous in the north of Europe.   In
 1221 Poland was  afflicted by exceflive rains, and the floods
 which followed fwept  away  whole villages.  The winter fuc-
 ceeding was fevere,  fo  that  frozen  wine  was fold by weight,
 while famin and peftilence almoft   defolated  Europe.   In moft
countries, the living could hardly bury the dead ;  and  in fome
cities, fcarcely a perfon furvived.
   In  the year 1222 appeared a comet of unufual magnitude and
the fummer was exceflively dry.  A froft, with deep  fnow in
April, deftroyed the fruits.   In autumn the earth  was deluged
with rains and fwept with  violent winds.   An earthquake fhook
 Germany and Lombardy ;  in Cyprus two cities were demolifhed  5
the fhocks  were frequent  and  continued for two  months, in
Brixia, Venice,  England  and  other  countries.   The plague
raged, for  three years, with  uncontrolable  fury, in Germany,
 Hungary, France and other countries ; falling on cattle as well
 as man.
   During this dreadful period,  the  difeharges of fire and lava,
 from the volcanoes in Iceland, exceeded what had  been before
 known in the fame fpace of time.  There  were two eruptions in 
127
1222,  one from Heckla ;  the  other  from Reikenefe ; and the
eruptions of  the latter were repeated in 1223,  1225 and  1226.
In 1224 was a fevere drouth ;  in  1225 a rigorous winter, fol-
lowed by a dearth, and mortal  difeafes among fheep.
   Let any candid man obferve the natural phenomena accompa-
nying this defolating  period,  from  1219  to i2 2€ ; and decide
for himfelf how far the fire  or electricity of the  fyftem  is an
agent in preducing them, and the attending difeafes.
   We obferve here the  progrefs of peftilence to be the fame as
in modern times.  The plague  appeared in Egypt almoft at the
fame time with the comet, and firft derangement of the elements in
1219 and 1220 •, but was two, three, four and five years later
in the  high northern latitudes.
   No comet is mentioned in  the  hiftories of this dark period,
as far as I can find,  from 1222  to 1240 ; but that there was one,
in the vicinity of the earth,  between  1228 and 1233, is very
probable.
   In 1228 an inundation  in Friefland demolifhed whole  towns,
and it  was eftimated that 100,000 people perifhed.  Great rains
in fummer and exceflive heat were followed by a fevere winter,
with deep fnow.
   In  1230 the waters of the Tyber rofe to the flairs of  St.
 Peter's Church,  and drowned the lower city.   July and Auguft
 were exceflively hot.   An inundation of the Danube in  1232,
and in  1233 fo  fevere  a froft,  that  rivers were converted into
 highways in  Italy ;  and earthquakes marked the year,  with  a
 dark day.
   During this period from 1230 to 1233, France,  Denmark
 and Italy were wafted  by  dreadful famin and plague.   Thefe ca-
 lamities continued in 1234 and 5, in England and France.  In
 London alone 20,000  people were ftarved.  Worms and locufts
 devoured the fruits of  the earth.
   The winter of 1236 was rainy—the following  fummer ex-
 tremely dry, and in England  moft  diftrefling  agues  were  ep-
 idemic.  In 1237 was an eruption of a volcano in Iceland.
   In  1239 peftilence  again  raged—a new ftar,  like Lucifer,
 appeared.   Famin was fo fevere that perfons fed on human flefh. 
128
   In 1240 a comet  appeared in Feb. and was vifible a month.
 Mortal difeafes  prevailed,  and authors relate that the fifhj on
 the Englifh coaft had  a battle, in which  eleven  whales and a
 multitude of other fifh were flain and eaft afhore.   The caufe
 to which this phenomenon is afiigned is  laughable enough; but
 the fact is  important;  for  it ftrengthens  modern obfervations,
 that when  peftilential difeafes prevail on the furface of the earth,
 fifh often perifh beneath the water.  Of this no doubt can re-
 main ; and this alone demonftrates that  the peflilentlal caufe is as
 powerful or nearly fo, at the  bottom of rivers and  the ocean,
 as on the earth—a fact that reduces the theory of  propagating
 the fomes  of epidemic difeafes in  veffels, clothes  and fimilar
 articles,  from one country to another, to a thing of very trifling
 confideration.
   The winter  of 1240 was very fevere—the fnow was  deep
 and cattle perifhed.  An eruption  of fire in  Iceland is noted
 the fame year.
   In 1242 the Thames rofe by  means of exceflive rains and
 overwhelmed the country for fix  miles  about  Lambeth.  The
 years 1243 and 4 were remarkable for continued drouth, mete-
 ors and a moft fatal plague.—An eruption of fire in Iceland u
 1245.
   In 1247 a violent earthquake was experienced in  England,
 and in September a fatal plague.   The  earthquake was in Feb-
ruary and followed by a very rainy fummer.   The  winter fol-
lowing was fo mild, that people  wore their  fummer clolhes;
 but from March to May was cold.
   The fummer  of 1250 was  rainy and tempeftuous, followed
 by a hard  winter.    The fummer of 1251 was intolerably hoi,
and  epidemic difeafes prevailed,  with great mortality.
   In 1252 late frofts in fpring, and fucceediag drouth deftroy-
ed the fruits  of the  earth.  At the  clofe of July  came  great
rains, vegetation  ftarted, but great mortality prevailed among cat-
tle.  At Michaelmas began the plague in London, which fpread
 over England, and raged till Auguft  following.  This  is  one
 Miftance  of the plague's appearing  in autumn, running through 
129
the winter, and ceafing about the time,  in the hot feafon, when
that difeafe ufually begins.
   The winter of  1254 was rigoroufly  cold, a murrain  among
fheep  was very fatal, and in England and France a mortal dif-
temper among horfes called the evil of  the tongue,  but it is not
defcribed.
   In  1255 appeared a comet; tides rofe to an uncommon height;
rivers fwelled with exceflive rains and tempefts levelled buildings.
In 1256 the rains and tempefts were equally violent, and another
comet appeared.   In 1257 the fummer  was alfo exceffively rai-
ny.   From thefe rains  came a  dearth of corn in England and
France in 1258,  which was alfo rainy ; and  famin  and difeafes
made  havoc with human life.   Fifteen thoufand perfons perifhed
by hunger in  London ; but I   have  no account that the plague
prevailed at that time.
   To this feries of wet feafons fucceeded fevere drouth in 1259
and 1260 ; and the mortality continued till the fummer of 1259
—after which plenty fucceeded  to want.
   The year 1261 was rainy in  England and  Scotland,  and a
dearth was the confequence in the following year.
   In  1262 an eruption of a volcano  in  Iceland.
   In  1263 a fevere froft in winter  converted the Thames into
a highway for men and  horfes.   In  1264 a comet was  vifible
from  June 20th to September 28th and peftilential difeafes fwept
away  horfes and cattle.
   In  1266 fwarms of Palmer worms devoured  all vegetables
in Scotland, and  feveral villages  on  the Tay and  Froth were
fwept away by floods.  Thefe were preceded by a remarkable halo.
   In  1268 appeared a comet, and violent tempefts and rain are
noted, together  with fterility of  grain and dearth in Auftria and
Sicily.
   In  1269 the winter was  extremely fevere;  horfes and car-
riages pafling  on the  ice over the  Thames.   A plague  raged
among the Crufaders, on their march to  the holy land, of which
died the  French  king and his  fon.   Some  authors mention a
comet of ftupendous magnitude under this date ; which is prob-
j»bly the fame as that noted  under the foregoing year.
                             R 
                           *3°
   In 1274 was a great earthquake and a comet of frightful af-
pect—an earthquake alfo in 1275.
   In this year, it is related, the rot among fheep was firft known
in England.  As  this was faid to be an imported dife?ie,  it is
proper to ftate how it was introduced.  Short  on Air, vol. 1.
155, fays,  "  This year,  a rich Frenchman brought into North-
umberland a Spanifh ewe,  as big as a two year old calf, which
ftieep being rotten, foon infected the  country, fo that the difeafe
overfpread  the whole  kingdom, and lafted 25 or 28 years,  till
it left very  few fheep alive.  This was  the firft rot ever known
in England."
  The reader will judge which is the greater calf, the man who
gravely tells or the man who believes fuch a  tale as this.
  Hiftorians fix upon the year 1277 for  the  formation of the
Dollert Sea,  between  Groniagen and Eaft-Friefland, by a great
inundation,  which overwhelmed 33 villages irrecoverably ; with
many farm-houfes in the open country.
  In 1280 a great inundation was followed by a very cold win-
ter.   In  1281 Poland was afflicted with famin.   The winter of
1282 was the fevereft then remembered; an earthquake fhook
Italy and a plague raged in Denmark.   In 1283 the fame mal-
ady  prevailed in  Scotland.  In  1284 the  winter was one of
the mildeft  ever known ; the year was  alfo remakable for  great
tempefts, an unufual darknefs  and an  eruption of Etna.   The
year 1285 was noted for a fimilar darknefs, moft parching drouth
and the commencement of a famin in England.
  This  drouth was followed  in 1286, by  the approach of a
comet.   In this year,  Pruffia was infefted with a new fpecies of
worms,  whofe fting was poifonous.  Swarms of flies and pefti-
lential fevers in Spain  nearly deftroyed the army of the French
king, then  making war on Arragon.
   In 1287  fifteen iflands in Zealand were  overwhelmed by an
inundation,  with the lofs of 15,000  inhabitants.
   In 1288 the fummer was exceflively  hot and  dry.  Grain
was  however abundant in  this  and  the preceding year.   The
drouth was followed by great mortality and  a fevere winter.
   In 1293 a comet was vifible, and a great fnow ftorm happen- 
ed in May.  Italy was fhaken by earthquakes.   In the follow-
ing year, England was diftreffed by fevere famin, thoufands of
the poor perifhing with hunger.  A fevere drouth exhaufted all the
fprings and rivers, grafs withered and  cattle were fed on ftraw.
The winter of  1293-4 was extremely cold, and an  eruption of
Heckla happened in 1294.
   In 1295 and 6 many countries were afflicted with famin, and
in 1297  the plague prevailed in Scotland.
   A comet of great magnitude appeared in  1298, or as other
authors fay, in  1299, and others in 1300 ; whofe approximation
was attended with violent earthquakes in  Germany, and other
places in 1299, and with an eruption of Heckla in 1300.   The
year  1298  was  noted for a great mortality  among the  Jews,
and multitudes perifhed in the eaft with various difeafes in 1299.
   In 1305  appeared a comet, attended with fatal  peftilence,
A hard winter  followed, and the Rhine was covered with ice.
   In 1311 mount Heckla difcharged its fiery contents ; in 1312
appeared a comet, and a three years  famin  commenced in  Bo-
hemia and Poland, which was exceedingly diftreffing.  Men be-
came like wolves and preyed on human flefh.
   In 1314 inceffant rains  deftroyed  the  grain; a  comet ap-
peared  in December following, and  in  1316 raged a defola-
ting  dyfentery in England, accompanied  with  an acute fever,
which,  like the true plague,  left  fcarcely  fur vivors  to bury the
dead.   The famin continued to rage with all its horrors.  Horfe
flefh was a delicious difh.  Wheat fold at forty fhillings the quar-
ter ;  equivalent to £30 fterling in thefe days.
   In 1318 the  winter was fevere, and in  1319 the plague pre-
vailed in England.   A murrain fpread among cattle, at the fame
time, with fatal deftruction.*
   In 13 21 the drouth was extreme, and there was an eruption
of Etna.  Eruptions of Etna are alfo mentioned in 1323, 1329
and  1333, and a fevere winter, in the firft of thefe years  1323,
which covered the Baltic with ice.  The plague raged in 1325.
   The year 1330 was rainy and the crops indifferent.  The year

  * I have no account of any comets from 1315, to 1337—which may
be owing to the defect of my hiftorical materials. 
                           Hi
following,  Ireland was diftreffed by famin,  but Dublin was re-
Jieved by plenty of fifh,  called Thurlhsds,  which had not been
feen there  for ages.   In  1332 was an eruption in Iceland.
   In  1336 grain  was abundant.   A violent earthquake fhook
Venice,  and a fucceeding plague laid wafte  the city.   This was
preceded by numerous abortions.f
   In 1337 happened a  feverely cold winter,  without fnow.
Two comets were vifible,  one four months,  the other two.
The plague prevailed in Nuremberg and other parts of'Europe.
The winter following was  alfo fevere.   Piftorius  places thefe
comets in  1336, and mentions an inundation at Florence.   At
this  time,  Europe was, for three years, ravaged with locufts.
   In 1339 or 40, appeared another comet.  Great  floods, an
eruption of Heckla,  and a fevere winter  followed, which  cov-
ered the north fea with ice.
        See Short on Air, vol. 1.  Piftorius, vol. 1, and 2.  Dufref-
         noy's Chron.  Henry's Hift Eng. vol. 4. 500.  Camden's
         Britannia.  Fun^£till!,, Chron.  Knighton's Chron.
   In travelling through the dark ages,  we find but few intereffc.
ing defciiptions ; and nothing could have  induced me to  under-
take the tedious detail of detached  facts reflecting peftilence,
but a ftrong defire to afcertain all that can be difcovered of the
operations  of nature,  in  producing epidemic difeafes.   It is of
infinite importance,  in difcuffing this fubject, to know whethef
certain phenomena of feafons, of fubterranean fire, and unufual
animals, uniformly attend peftilence ; and to afcertain, if poffi-
ble,  the order  in  which  they proceed, for the purpofe  of dif-
covering whether they are connected with  each other  as caufe
and  effect.   Barren as the hiftory of  the barbarous ages really is,
we yet find it to contain a great number of  facts, that will  aflift
us  in  developing the caufes of  epidemics.  The fubfequent pe-
riods of the world furnifh more  ample materials—we now ap-
proach the morning of fcience,  when the clearer lights of more
accurate hiftory  will illuminate our path.
   f To repair the wafte of population, the Senate  pafled  a decree in-
viting perfons to come and relide in the  city, and promifing them the
rights of citizenfhip, after two years refidence.      Howel's Survey. 
■*33
                      SECTION  IV.

 Hiftorical View of peflilentlal epidemics, from  the year "340*
                         to 1500.


  X HE peftilence next to be defcribed was the moft general
and awfully diftreffing that the world ever experienced.  The
prccife year when it appeared in Afia, where it began, is not af-
certained ;  but probably about 1345,  perhaps a year or two ear-
lier.
   The hiftories of that age relate, that it commenced in Cathay,
China, and was preceded  by the burfting  of a huge meteor or
globe of  fire ;  or as others relate,  the fire  burft from the earth.
Thefe accounts were taken from Genoefe feamen, and  are recor-
ded by Villani; but Dr. Mead, with that obftinacy that rejects
truth when oppofed to preconceived theory, thinks the report
incredible, and queftions not  the difeafe  originated in Egypt.
Had he ever examined the  fubject,  like an impartial man,  he
Would have believed the account of the feamen,  for there is  not
a more certain phenomenon  in nature, than  the appearance  of
meteors and the explofion of fire in peftilential periods.
                  Villani, book 1. ch. 2.  Mezeray, Tom. 1. 798.
   This plague appeared in  1346 in  Egypt,  Syria,  Greece,
Turkey; in 1347 in Sicily,  Pifa,  Genoa and other parts of It-
aly ; in 1348 it appeared in the fouth of France, firft  in Avig-
non, which is  not a  maritime city, but  at a diftance from the
fea, and afterwards in other parts of the  kingdom  and in all the
fouthern provinces of Spain.  At the clofe of the  fame year, it
made its appearance in England, firft in Dorfetfhire, and foon
trayelled over the whole country.   In 1349  it  overrun  Ireland,
Holland,  Scotland, and in  1350 all Germany,  Hungary and
the north of Europe. 
                            r3*
   This peftilence was remarkable  for raging in winter as well as
 fummer, even in the north of Europe.  In  France it  firft ap-
 peared at Avignon in February and prevailed there nearly a year.
                                  Muratori, vol. 3. part 2. 588.
   Short has placed  its firft appearance in the fouth  of  England
 in September.   But Archbifhop Parker has placed its origin juft
 after Chriftmas.  His words  are, " Ea ftatim poft nativitatis
 dominicaj celebratum feftum, ipfa nimirum hyeme et  rerum omni-
 um ad victum neceffarium copia, cum vix ullacontagionis fufpicio
 oriri mortalibus potuit, incepit."   "  Immediately after the feaft
 of our Lord's nativity,  in winter and amidft  the greateft abun-
 dance of provifions, when there  could be no fufpicion that a
 contagious difeafe would arife among men, the  plague commen-
 ced."  It raged about five months and according to this author*
•ceafed in  May following ;  altho other authors relate, that it had
 not gone through the kingdom till late in the  fummer.
                                   Parker's Antiq. Brit. p. 360.
   In the Englifh Annals by William Wyrcefter,  in the black
 book of the Exchequer,  it is faid that this plague  prevailed in
 the parts of London and its vicinity in autumn  1349.
   Thefe different accounts of the time of the  firft appearance
 of this difeafe,  are reconcileable  on the principles which mod-
 ern obfervations have unfolded.    It is found that the plague is
 always preceded, for fome months, and in  fome inftances, for
 two or three years,  by  other  malignant fevers, which  increafe
 gradually to the violence of the true plague ;  and often  the  de-
, grees of violence are fo gradual, that  phyficians themfelves can
 hardly determin a line of diftinction between  the malignant dif-
 eafe, which is the precurfor of  the plague, and the plague itfelf.
 That is,  they are at a  lofs  to know where the malignant dif-
 eafe  ends and the plague begins.   Hence all the difputes, at the
 commencement of a peftilence, whether the difeafe  is the plague
 or not—a circumftance which appears to have  marked the origin
 of all great plagues,  and yet phyficians and philofophers in Eu-
 rope feem never to have fufpected  the caufe.—Thefe facts will be
 hereafter demonftrated, and they  annihilate at a blow the whole
 doctrine of the propagation of  that difeafe from country to coun-
 try by infection. 
l35
■   From the uniform operations  of nature  in the cafe of epi-
demic peftilential difeafes of the kind under confideration, there
muft have been in England, during the fummer, previous to the
appearance of the plague,  malignant fevers, which  might ap-
proach to the violence and  fatality of the plague.   This circum-
ftance might create a fmall difference in  the accounts of the ori-
gin  of  the  plague—inaccurate  obfervers miftaking the one dif-
eafe for the other—or rather naming the previous putrid  fever,
the plague,  before it put on the characteriftic  fymptoms.
   It is poflible however that thefe authors may refer to the com-
mencement of the difeafe in different parts of England.
   This  formidable  calamity  deferves  a particular defcription,
with all the phenomena  attending it.
   In 1347 appeared a frightful comet,  in  Auguft.   Preceding
"and during  the prevalence  of  the difeafe, the whole  earth  was
fhaken  by moft tremendous  earthquakes.   All Germany was
fhaken in  1346.  In 1349 on  the 9th of Sept. Sicily was fhaken
to its foundation, together with' all Italy.   In  Greece many
cities were overthrown, and in many places towns  and caftles
were demolifhed.  Thoufands of people were fwallowed up and
the courfes of rivers were obftructed.
   Over Avignon was fufpended  a meteor or pillar of fire for
an hour.   The heavens were  at times illuminated as with flame,
and meteors were frequent.
   I have no particular defcription of all the  feafons,  during the
five years, in which this  mortal  peftilence  defolated  Europe.
But the year 1347,  the year of the comet,  was, in  England,
exceffively rainy, and  the air  humid.*   Short, from Johan
ColedeBillona,  mentions  that a hot air, cloudy  and  moift at-
mofphere had continued for fome years, and that a  malignant,
contagious peripneumony followed in all Europe.   But unfortu-
nately the compiler leaves us in the dark as  to the precife time of

   *  Mutius, in the collection of German hiftory, fays that the whole
year 1348 was foutherly, moift  weather, but there  were no heavy
rains to cool  the air.  Fruit  was abundant, but corn was not nutri-
tious.  See vol 3. 241.—In England the rains continued from May to
Chriftraas. 
                            *36
 its appearance, and  whether before or after the other forms of
 this peftilence.
   Mezeray relates that in China,  the  difeafe originated from a
 vapor, which burft from the  earth,  was  horribly offenfive and
 confumed  the face  of the  country through an  extent of 200
 leagues.   This  account may be inaccurate, but is not  to  be
 wholly rejected.  That  fome action  of fubterranean  heat was
 inftrumental in generating the difeafe, is  very probable ; or at
 leaft that fome phenomena  of fire accompanied  it,  becaufe this
 fuppofition is confonant to  the whole  feries of modern obferva-
 tions.
   The peftilential ftate of air, in that period, is ftrongly marked
 by the appearance of myriads of unufual and loathfome  infects,
 not only in  China, but in  Europe.   They  are defcribed  as
 young ferpents, or as venemous infects, or as large vermin with '
 tails  and  eight  fhort  legs—in which defcription,  probably,  a
 frightened imagination had fome fhare  of  influence.   But of the
 fact of their exiftence, there  can  be no doubt.
   In  the Oufe there was a great inundation  juft  before  Afcen.
 fion day, and in York began this plague fpeedily after the flood.
   The fymptoms of this fatal malady  were—violent affection in
 the head and  ftomach,  buboes  and other glandular fwellings j
fmall fwellings like  pimples  or blifters ;. ufually a  fever, and a
vomiting or  fpitting of blood.—The fwellings in the glands were
infallible figns of the difeafe ; but the  moft  fatal  fymptom was,
the pimples  or blifters fpread over the  whole body.   Hemorrha-
ges from the mouth,  nofe and other parts,  indicated a univerfal
and fudden  diforganization of the blood.  " The  patient ufually
died in three days or lefs—which denotes the virulence of the
poifon, or rather the activity of the difeafe,  which deftroyed the
powers of life in half the time, which the bilious plague ufually
employs.
   The peripneumony which  was epidemic about the fame time,
appeared in  a  burning  fever, infatiable  thirft, a black  tongue,
anxiety and pains about the heart, fhort  breath, a cough, with
expectoration of a mixed matter,  open mouth,  raging delirium,
fury,  red, turbid or black urine, reftleffnefs,  and watchings, 
137
black eruptions, anthraces, buboes, and in fome, corroding ulcert
over the whole body.   The  difeafe ufisally  terminated the 4th
day,  fometimes not till the 7th.  The blood was black and thick;
but fometimes greenifh  and watery or yellowifh.—Venefedtion
was certain death.  The difeafe baffled medical  fkill—the only
remedies that  appeared  to relieve,  were laxatives early  admin-
iftered, cupping and fcarification, leeches applied to the  hemor-
rhoids, and inwardly, infufions of mild, diaphoretic, attenua-
ting,  pectoral vegetables.
   It will be hereafter proved that malignant pleurify andperipneu-
mony ufually  form a part of that feries of difeafes which always
occur during a period of general contagion.   When plague  and
yellow fever occur in fummer,  in northern  climates, pleurify and
peripneumony often affume,  in winter, great and even peftilential
violence.
   This plague was fo deadly  that at leaft half or two thirds of
the human race perifhed in about 8 years.  It was moft fatal in
cities, but in no place died  lefs than a third  of the inhabitants.
In many cities perifhed nine out of ten of the people, and many
places were wholly depopulated.  In London 50,000 dead bod-
ies were buried in one grave yard.   In Norwich died about the
fame  number.   In Venice died 100,000—in  Lubec, 90,000—■
in Florence the fame number.  In the eaft perifhed twenty  mil-
lions in one year.—In  Spain  the difeafe raged three years and
carried off two thirds of  the people.   Alfonfo  2d. died  with it
while befieging Gibraltar.
   In  this fatal period,  the apprehenfion of death deftroyed the
value  of property.  In  England, and  probably in other coun-
tries,  cattle were neglected and they ran at large over the coun-
try.   The corn perifhed  in the fields for want of reapers ; whole
villages were  depopulated;  and after the malady ceafed, multi-
tudes  of houfes and buildings of all kinds were feen mouldering
to ruin.  A horfe which before had been worth  forty fhillings,
after the ficknefs, fold for half a mark.
   Altho in the year preceding there  had been a plenty of pro-
vifions, yet the neglect of agriculture during the general  diftrefs
produced a famin.  Such was the lofs of laborers, that the  few
                              S 
                           Ill
furvivors afterwards  demanded exorbitant wages, and the Par-
liament of England was obliged to interfere, and limit their wa-
ges, and even compel men to labor.—See 23d Edward 3. A. D.
1350.   The preamble ftates, that a great part of the people,
efpecially workmen and fervants had died of the late peftilence,
and thofe who furvived, feeing  the neceflity of  men, demanded
exceflive wages.
  This difeafe was particularly  fatal  in Denmark—all bufinef;
was at  a ftand, towns were deferted,  and all was terror and def-
pair.   It reached the  higheft northern latitudes ; it broke out
in Iceland, and was  fo fatal,  that the fettlements there are fup.
pofed not to have fince recovered  their population.   It was cal-
led the forte diod,  black death.
   In fome places people attempted to  efcape infection by  taking
their families on board of  veffels,  and putting to fea ;  but it, was
in vain ; they were feized in every place,  without regard to age
or fex.
   In 1348 the malady fwept away the Greenland  merchants and
feamen.  This difeafe alfo, or fome other caufe  deftroyed the
colony of Danes in that country, for it was extinguifhed and has
never been found or  heard of to this day.
   This peftilence was remarkably fatal to the  monks and  regular
clergy  of all  defcriptions.   In one fociety at Montpeliers,  of 140
members died all but 7 : About the fame proportion  perifhed in
Magdalen Society.   In  Marfeilles,  of 140  not one  furvived.
But a circumftance related  in  Knighton's Chronicon  deferves
particular notice.   At Avignon  where the difeafe firft appeared
in France,  66 of the  Carmelites had died, before the citizens
were apprized of the fact  ; and when it was  difcovered,  the re-
port circulated that the brethren had killed each other.
   An   important  confequence refults from  the  fact—that this
plague firft appeared  in a  monaftery, which might be  crouded
with lazy,  idle, filthy monks; in a city not  commercial,  nor a
fea port.  There  was no  idea of any imported  infection ; but
there muft have been ftrong local caufes, which  firft  excited into
action the general contagion which, at that time, pervaded the
atmofphere over the whole globe.
   Such was  the havoc made by this peftilence among the clergy 
*39
 in England, fays  Knighton, that a vicarage which before the
 plague,  might have been fupplied for four or five marks a year, or
 two marks and the man's board, was raifed to the price of twen-
 ty marks or twenty pounds.
                                                  Col. 2600.
   This peftilential period was preceded and attended with  all the
 ufual pheno-nena of fatal Epidemics.*  The earthquakes and the
 infects have been noticed.   Abortions were among the remarka-
 ble  precurfors of this  malady.   The fame fact is noticed  by
 Diemerbroeck, before the great  plague at Nimeguen, in 1635.
 The fame has been mentioned by the authors  he quoted,  Foref-
 tus, Sennertes, and others ;  and is afcribed to the tendernefs and
 debility of the heart and Vifcera.   Hence pregnant women firft
 feel the effects of a ftate of  air unfriendly to  the fupport of life,
 and if they are feized with plague, are always its victims.
   Another phenomenon attending  this plague was the death of
fifh.   This circumftance,  with the bad ftate of the water, which
 is often affected by the peftilential ftate of the elements, and was
 greatly affected in this period, gave rife to a report that the Jews
 had poifoned the wells and fprings.   The prejudices  againft the
 Jews,  which  have  marked and fcandalized all  chriftian coun-
 tries, except America, were at their  height  in the reign of Ed-
 ward the 3d of England, the period under confideration.   Thefe
 prejudices drove legiflators and princes to  exercife every fpecies
 of cruelty upon the  Ifraelites,  on account of their ufury ; and
 when the report of their poifoning the water circulated, the pop-
 ulace in  fome places and efpecially in Germany, rofe and  affafE-
 nated multitudes of thefe unfortunate men.
   The death of animals, particularly of fheep, marked the fame
period.   In England, 5000 died in one pafture.   The ftate  of
the air and water was  fo peftilential that it is averred by hiftorians,
the fowls and fifhes had blotches on them.
       Authorities.   Short, on air. vol. r. 165.   Knighton, Chron.
         Pennant's Arctic Zoology p. 67.   Townfend's Travels in
         Spain,  vol. 2.  219.  Maitland's Hift. of London.  Mura-
         tori, Tom 3. 588 and 594. Univ. Hift. vol 32.  251. Stow's
         Survey, 478.  Mazeray's Ilift. France.   Villani,  and  ma-
         ny others.
  * Except eruptions  of volcanoes, of which I have no account, at
this period except in Iceland in 1340. But  my accounts of volcanoes
are very imperfect. 
14°
  It miy be remarked  that this mortal peftilence raged in Eng-
land and France, during peace,  or rather during a truce,  winch
had been concluded between Edward III and the King of France
in  1347, and which lafted feven years.
  Guido, an inhabitant of Avignon, when this malady appeared,
and who efcaped death by the favorable procefs of a bubo, re-
lates a fact that throws light on this fubject. He fays that the mal-
ady was of two kinds—"  the firft,  and which preceded the other
about  two months,  was a fever,  with fpitting of blood," not un-
like that which prevailed in the time of Fracaftorius.   All  who
were  feized with thefe  fymptoms, died in three days.
  The other kind, which  fucceeded the firft, came on with con-
tinued fever,  carbuncles and abfceffes, in the glands.—This v.as
as fatal as the other, except near its.decline, and the patient died
in five days.
                                    Friend's Hift.  Mtd. p. 564.
   It is remarkable,  that the difeafe which is  technically called
plague,  peftis, is  always  preceded  by a fimilar fever.   It  is in
fact theplague in its firflflages, tho it does not exhibit the gland-
ular fwellings, which modern phyficians contend are  characterif-
tic of true plague, and mark a generic or at leaft a  fpecific differ-
ence  between that and any other kind of typhus  fever.   This
 fact of a progreffivenefs in the difeafe, annihilates the favorite no-
 tion of deducing all plagues from  infection ;  a  notion which is
 bandied about between phyficians and legiflators like a tennis ball,
 tho unhappily for mankind, infinitely lefs harmlefs.
   At the clofe of this dreadful period, in 1350, were fevere earth-
 quakes in Italy.   In 1356 a violent fhock  in Switzerland, and
 in Germany, efpecially on the Rhine, which did great injury.
 To this fucceeded moft violent rains, and famin and peftilence in
 Germany, with prodigious mortality.
                               Muratori, Tom. 3.  part. 2. 594.
    Brabant efcaped this terrible peftilence and fo did Milan.
    In 1352 authors relate that 900,000 people in China  perifhed
 by famin.
    The rainy and humid feafons which introduced  the great pefti-
 lence of  1347-50, were fucceeded by drouth  in  1350, a comet
 i° I35I>  with tremendous ftorms,  and a meteor which  burft 
141
with  a heavy report.    The  winter following was fevere, and
in 1354 Africa and Cyprus were devoured by locufts.
   In England prevailed epidemic madnefsin 1355.
   In 1358 was a fevere winter,  followed by an eruption in  Ice-
land, and a wafting plague in Italy in  1359.  According to Bac-
cace, Florence loft 100,000 citizens, and Petrarch fays, fcarce-
ly ten ef a thoufand furvived. There was a great mortality partic-
ularly among child-bed women, and cattle did not efcape.
   This peftilence alfo became nearly  general.  In  1361 Milan,
which had efcaped in 1348, was feverely afflicted, as was all
France,  England and  Ireland, and  it was computed that Scot-
land loft  one third of its inhabitants.   This plague was called the
fecond in  the reign of Edward III, and it was in time of peace.
   In this peftilential time,  occurred a remarkable ftorm of hail
and fnow, in April  1360.   The tendency of the  elements in
fuch periods to generate hail and fnow, is a fact that well deferves
confideration.
   In January  1361,  a violent tempeft  fpread  defolation  over
Europe.   The winter was fevere,  and the fummer dry.   In
March 1362 appeared a comet in the North Eaft, with a vaft co-
ma, and an eruption in Iceland.   A  dearth and difeafes among
cattle followed.
   This laft peftilence differed from that in 1348, in two or three
particulars.  It raged with  moft  violence, on mountainous dif-
tricts, where the air was pure, and where the plague of 1348 did
not prevail.   It attacked the nobility  and gentry with more vio-
lence than the poor ;  contrary to the ufual fact; whereas the dif-
eafe of 1348 was moft fatal to perfons in  the humbler  walks of
life.
      Muratori Tom. 3. part a. 600.  Liber Niger Saccarii vol. 2. 433.
                  Henry's  Hift. Britain vol. 4.194.
   The comet and volcano of 1362 were followed in 1363 by a
winter of extraordinary feverity,  which  lafted from September
to April.  The Rhine was covered with ice for ten weeks.
   The year 1365 was rainy, and the plague  carried off 20,000
people in Cologne, and  the vicinity.  In 1366  an eruption in
Iceland deftroyed 70 farms.  The fame  year  was very  fickly in
England and deaths fudden. 
142
   In I368 was vifible in March a comet with'a coma,  and the
crops failed.  In this year commenced  in  England the third
great plague in the reign of Edward III.; the reader will  note
that this was preceded by a fickly year in 1366.   The mortal-
ity was great, and efpecially about  Oxford.  The moft fatal
year was 1369, and in  Ireland the  difeafe raged in 1370.   I
have no particulars of the progrefs  of the difeafe on the conti-
nent ; but it was very fatal.
            Murat. vol. 3. 632.   Piftorius vol. 1. lib. Niger 435.
            Maitland's Hift. Lond.  Van Trail's Letters on Iceland.
   In 1373 raged an epidemic madnefs among the lower people
in England ; and in 1374 a  fimilar diforder prevailed in France
and Italy.   During peftilential periods, fome general caufe feems
to affect the brain  in a powerful  manner, even  in  perfons  who
efcape the plague.
  In 1374 alfo was an eruption  of a volcano in Iceland. There
was alfo famin,  a violent plague  in Italy and fome  parts of
France.  In 1371 there  had been  a fevere  earthquake in the
fouth of  France.
                                   Murat. Tom. 3. 646, 649.
  In 1379 commenced a great ficknefs in the north of England,
which almoft laid wafte the country ; and in 1380 was feen a
comet.   The difeafe is not defcribed, but it was the forerunner
of a moft dreadful plague.   Provifions were good and cheap.
  In 1381 and 2  confiderable earthquakes were felt  in England
and a fevere peftilence appeared at Avignon in France, which
raged for four or five years, depopulating many cities.   It pre-
vailed in Italy,  France, Germany,  England, Ireland,  Greece,
and the Eaft.
  There was an eruption of Etna in 1381, and the year clofed
with great  rains.   The year 1382  was without  winds.   The
plague was moft fatal to children, and great ravages were made
alfo among  the friars.   In  this peftilence  Lubec loft 90,000
people.
                         Liber Niger Sac. 441.  Short on Air.
   In 1388 the drouth was fo fevere, that the Rhine was  ford-
able at Cologne.  In  1389  violent  tempefts raged in England,
with great deftruction  ; and  in the year following, was  an erup- 
*43
tion of a volcano in Iceland.   In modern days,  we obferve the
fame train of phenomena, evidently  depending on one general
caufe.  In 1389 appeared a fingular meteor or light in the heavens.
   The year 1389 was remarkable for the death of children in
all parts of England.   From the phenomena that attended  and
the difeafes which followed, compared with the order of difeafes
in modern  days,  it appears very probable that this difeafe was a
fpecies of Angina, which almoft invariably precedes the plague.
In the next year, a deadly plague raged in the north of England.
Swarms of gnats and flies  marked this period, and  fome part?
of the continent were overrun with locufts.
                                 Piftor. vol. 1.  Short on Air.
   The reader  will remark  the exceflive drouth preceding the
eruption in Iceland and  the fiery appearance in  the heavens in
the year  of the tempeft.   In thefe phenomena^  nature is nearly
uniform.
   It is a very common event that dyfentery of a malignant type
fucceeds the  plague.   Such was the cafe in England, in 1391,
when this difeafe was epidemic and very mortal.   A dearth of
corn might have contributed to the  fame  event; but it is often
the fact,  without any fcarcity of food.
   An uncommon rednefs of the fun is mentioned  in July of
1391, and for  fix weeks  after,  thick vapor or clouds.   Perhaps
thefe might have  been occafioned by  the eruption in Iceland, in
the preceding year ; as it appears  to have been a phenomenon
fomewhat fimilar to that which Europe beheld  with  amazement
and terror in  1783.—I have however my  fufpicions  that while
the central  fires expel immenfe quantities of burning lava,  from
volcanoes,  they may force  through the  earth  in the adjoining
continents,  a fubtle vapor, that is iHvifibie, until  it is collected
and condenfed in the higher regions of the atmofphere.
   The beginning of the  15th century was marked by a fevere
smd defolating peftilence.  . The  difeafe  firft appeared in the laft
year or two of  the former century.   In 1399 the mortality was
fuch in Spain, efpecially in Andalufia, that the  king was obliged
to fufpend  the law which reftrained widows from man ying with- 
r44
in a year after the death of their hufbands.  It was preceded by
a fevere winter.
                                Mod. Univ. Hift. vol. 20.  353.
   In 1402-3 and 4 the plague in Iceland carried off multitudes
of the inhabitants.
                                                Van Troil.
   In 1400  epidemic and mortal ficknefs  prevailed in  England.
A violent earthquake the fame year in Perfia.   In  1401 Flor-
ence was nearly difpeopled by the  plague.  In  1402 in March
appeared a comet of a fiery afpect, and coma, which was vifible
for three months.*  In 1402  a froft fo fevere that the  Baltic
was paffable for horfes  for fix weeks.   In  1406 the fea broke
into Holland, Zealand  and Flanders, with prodigious  injury.
A plague carried off 30,000  people in London ;  and a  comet
the fame year.  The winters  following were fo fevere that moft
birds died.  In Sept.  there were great floods  from rain.   In
1408 there was an eruption of Etna and  deep fnow.
                  Piftorius, Germ. Script, vol. 1.  Short on Air.
                   Maitland's Hift. Lond.
   The fummer of 1406, when the plague raged  in  London,
was clofe, moift and foutherly weather.
   In  1411  the  dyfentery carried  off 14000 people  in  Bour-
deaux, but I  have no account of the  feafons.  The plague ra-
ged in Aquitain and Gafcoigne  with great mortality.  In 1412,
there were uncommon tides in the Thames.   In 1414 a comet,
and in 1416 an eruption of fire from a volcano  in Iceland, pre-
ceded by great fnow.
   In  1421, according to fome  authors, happened  the dreadful
inundation in Holland, which  formed the Zuyder Sea.  In 142 2
there was an eruption  of fire in  Iceland, and a fevere   winter
followed.   The fame year, the plague raged in Poland.   From
thefe phenomena, I fufpect the  approach of a comet,  but have
no account of one.
   In 1426 a  comet,  an exceffively hot fummer, and a violent
earthquake which overturned twenty cities in Catalonia, in  Spain,
and  was felt in moft parts of Europe.  In 1427  the  feafoni
   * According to Liber Niger Saccarii, this was in 1401, and this is
moft probably correct.  The period of  this comet is 343 years and wc
fhall find it under the year 1744. 
r45
were rainy, the winter mild, a dearth and famin followed, and
the plague in  Dantzick.  Epidemics prevailed in England, and
the year following,  the plague.
   In  1430 happened  a general earthquake—in 1432 a great in-
undation in Germany—in 1433 a comet  was vifible for  three
months,  in the fouth, and the winter following was terribly fe-
vere.   The froft began in the laft week in November and lafted
till the middle of February.
                     Piftorius Germ. Script vol. 1.  Short, vol. r.
                     Liber Niger Sac. vol. 2.
   In  1436 there was an eruption of a volcano in Iceland and a
fevere winter.  An  epidemic  fever prevailed in Venice,  which
was attributed to the ufe  of ftagnant water.
   In  1438 and 9 violent ftorms and great rains injured the corn
and a dearth enfued.  A comet in  1439 and a  hard  winter
followed.  To thefe  phenomena fucceeded in 1440 a feries of
diftreffing epidemics,  fevere coughs, fmall-pox, fevers and dyf-
entery,  which proved exceedingly fatal.
                                 Short vol. 1.  Piftorius vol. 1.
   In 1443 Bohemia, Hungary,  and  Poland were terribly  in-
jured by an earthquake.  In 1444 there was  eruption  of Etna
and Lipari,  and the  explofion was repeated in 1446  and 7.
An epidemic prevailed in 1445, which fuddenly ended life, but
it is not defcribed.   In January 1449  was feen a comet.  This
year the plague raged in  Italy and  in 1450 famin and plague.
In Milan perifhed 60,000 people.
                               Muratori vol. 13. Short vol. 1.
   This plague of  1450  is faid to have arifen in Afia,  and after-
wards fpread over Italy, Germany, France and  Spain, leaving
alive fcarcely a third of the human race.
   In 1455 appeared a comet and another in 1456.   In this lat-
ter year,  Italy was violently fhaken by an earthquake, and
40,000  people  perifhed.—Piftorius places the earthquake  in
 1457,  and fays it demolifhed  40 towns,  and deftroyed  60,000
lives.  In 1459 a plague began in July and raged fix months in
 Italy.
       Piftorius vql. 1.  375.  Muratori Tom. 5- p- 5°» short voL x<
                             T 
146
   It will be obferved, in this period and in many  others, that
the plague is not mentioned under  the year of the  earthquake.
Modern obfervations explain the progrefs of  peftilence, which
is moft  ufual, viz.  meafles, catarrh,  angina,  and other malig-
nant complaints preceding the crifis of the peftilential ftate of air,
or plague.   And we find almoft invariably fome of thefe difeafes
to be epidemic,  even  before the comet,  earthquakes and erup-
tions of volcanoes,  altho the moft violent form of the peftilence
does not always appear till a year or two after  thofe phenomena.
There is alfo a difference, in the times of the  appearance of the
plague in various countries.   In Egypt, the peftilence ufually ap-
pears firft,  and is cotemporary  with the comet, or  nearly fo ;
and the  fame year, when the plague rages in Egypt, we find an-
ginas and  other malignant  difeafes prevailing in Europe and
America, in northern latitudes.  This difference in  time evin-.
ces the power of local caufes, in aiding the progrefs  of the epjj
demic conftitution of air,  and  which produce  the moft violent
difeafes  in Egypt, one,  two or three years, previous to their ap-
pearance in cooler latitudes.   But it will almoft always be found
true, that the commencement of a  feries of epidemics is nearly
at the fame time in  all parts of the  world ; the precurfors of the
plague being  nearly  cotemporary  in  different countries ; altho
the peftilential conftitution or general contagion arrives  to its
crifis much fooner in Egypt,  Smyrna and  Conftantinople, than
in places lefs expofed to the influence of  local  caufes of difeafe,
   In 1465  peftilence  again appeared in Italy, but  I  have no
particulars.   In 1467 a comet, and a mild winter is recorded ;
a remarkable fact, and the fecond  inftance I have found in hif-
tory.  Indeed fo uniform are hard winters during the approach
of  comets, that the accounts  of exceptions are to be  fufpected
of  inaccuracy in point of time.
   In 1468 a moft deadly plague raged in Parma of which Short
gives a particular defqription from  Rolandus Capellatus.
              Short, vol. 1. 194. Muratori, vol. 13. Edit.  Milan.
              Piftorius, Germ.  Script, vol. 2.
   In 1471 the winter was rigorous and ftormy.  In 1472 ap-
peared three comets ; two of them of diftinguifhed  magnitude.
In  1473 moft exceflive heat and drouth, and authors relate that 
H7
the woods took fire by  the heat of the fun.   This drouth con-
tinued three years—--all fmall rivers were dried up—the Danube
was fordable in Hungary.   In 1475 and  1476 appeared thofe
enormous fwarms of  locufts, which always denote a ftate of air
highly peftilential, and ravaged Hungary and Poland.  In 1474
earthquakes were felt in Germany.  In 1475 an  eruption of a
volcano in  Iceland.
   Thefe phenomena,  in this period, as ufual, introduced moft
terrible peftilence, which began in 1472 and arrived to its height
in 1477.   It raged  in Italy, Germany,  France and  England,
and how much more extenfively,  my authorities do not  inform
me.   It prevailed feveral years, with incredible mortality.   In
Paris perifhed 40,000 ; a large number for the population at that
time.  In  England the number  of deaths was  not eftimated ;
but authors relate that fifteen years of civil  war  did not carry
off one third of the  number.  This year  1477  was exceffively
hot.   In 1478 innumerable locufts overran Italy.
   In 1478 and 9 the plague  in England repeated  its  ravages ;
beginning  like  that  of 1348, in  autumn, raging  through the
winter  until the next autumn.
                      Piftorius, vol. 2.  754.  Muratori, vol. 13.
                       Short, vol. 1.   Maitland's Hift. London.
                              Fracaftorius de Contagione, 136.
                              Fernelius de morbis Peftilentibus.
   In 1480 the winter  was fevere.
   In 1481 and 3, a moft deadly plague infefted Italy  and Ger-
many.
                       Muratori, vol. 13.  Piftorius, vol. 2. 875.
   In 1482 a fpecies  of pleurify was epidemic in Italy.
                                           Fracaftor. p. 182.
   In 1484 the winter  was fevere.
   In 1483 or 5 appeared in England a new fpecies of the plague
called  Sudor Anglicus, or fweating ficknefs of the Englifh,  be-
caufe it  was fuppofed to  attack none but Englifhmen.   This
however was a miftake; for the fame difeafe, at different times,
appeared in Ireland,  Germany, Sweden and Holland.
   In the life of Erafmus, it is faid to have appeared  firft in
1483,  and to have returned in 1485.   John Kaye, or Caius, a
cotemporary phyfician, fays, it firft appeared in   1485   in the 
                            148
Duke.of Richmond's army,  on his landing at Milford Haven*
in Wales.   But on all hands it is agreed to have had its origin
in England, and to haye been a fpecies of plague.  It is called
"  novum  peftilentias genus," a new kind  of peftilence ; and
inftead of being peculiar to England or Englishmen,  " a Brit-
annis exortum,  incredibili celeritate  per orbem longe lateque
divagatum eft ;" it originated in Britain,  and with incredible ra-
pidity fpread far and wide over the earth.
                 Life of Erafmus, 347.  Friend's Hift. Med. 566.
   Sir Thomas More, in a letter to Erafmus,  declares this dif-
eafe  in London,  Oxford and Cambridge to  have  been  more
dangerous than  a battle.   " Minus  periculi in  acie, quam in
urbe effe."
   The fummer  of 1485 was exceffively   rainy,  and an inunda-
tion  of the Severn made great havoc with men and cattle.
   This difeafe attacked perfons fuddenly, with a fenfation like
that  of hot  vapor  running through the part affected.  To this
fucceeded internal heat, unquenchable thirft, and profufe fweat-
iag,  which  often  carried off the patient in two  or three hours.
The violence of the attack  was paft in  15  hours, and  in 24
hours the patient was confidered to be out of danger.   It was
moft fatal to perfons in high health and  eafy condition of life.
It was attended with moft of the fymptoms which characterize
the plague—anxiety, reftleffnefs,  violent pain  in  the head, de-
lirium and exceflive drowfinefs.
            See the life of John Caius, in Aikins' Biographical Me-
              moirs of Medicine, p. 120, alfo Friend's Hift. Phyf.
   This was a peftilential period, for the plague infefted Italy
and  Germany in 1483, and Denmark in 1484.   And it will be
found on examination, that when the fweating ficknefs raged in
any part  of Europe, that or fome other  peftilential difeafe, was
in other countries.  During  the prevalence of this  fbrm of the
plague in  England, at this period,  Denmark  loft nearly  one
half of its inhabitants by the common plague ; which raged ter-
ribly for  two years.
   The author  of the Traite de  la  Pefte, page 23, remarks,
"  That  until the  15th century the plague exhibited the fame
character; but  then " its accidents degenerated," or rather it 
149
reigned a new malady, which, under different external appear
ances,  committed fimilar deftruction on the human body.   It
did not any longer fhow itfelf by buboes,  carbuncles  and pim-
ples ; nor by any of the eruptions which the heat of the vifcera
pufhes out; nor was the fkin withered by the parching drynefs
which accompanies  the carbuncular fpots ; on  the other hand,
the fkin was  inundated by torrents  of fweat, which feemed to
be poured from the whole body, the vifcera were dried, and the
heat which diflipated the fluids,  feemed to diforder all the laws
of  the animal economy.
   About the middle of the 16th  century, the plague  refumed
its  former  character, but  the fymptoms  fomewhat varied and
lighter."
   The fweating plague at firft  attacked none but Engliflimen.
Even Scotchmen  efcaped, in foreign  countries, where Englifli-
men were feized.   Foreigners in England efcaped.  This how-
ever was on its firft invafion in 1485—for,  in  fubfequent years,
it fpread over other  countries.   But the fact of its feizing only
Englifhmen at firft,  is precifely analagous to what  has  happened
on  many other occafions,  in  other countries.   It recurred in
England in 1506, 1518,  1528  and 1551.
   In 1491 appeared a comet, the feafon was very wet, an epi-
demic fwept away cattle, and a famin afflicted  Ireland.  A fe-
vere winter is noted in 1493.
                          Short, vol. 1.  Smith's Cork, page 30.
   In 1495 and 6 the plague raged in Portugal.
                                  Hift. of Portugal by Oforio.
   In 1496 an epidemic leprofy prevailed in Germany,  which
covered the body with ulcers from head to foot.
                                            Piftorius, vol. 2.
   In 1498 the fummer was very dry.   In 1500 a tempeft in
Rome did great injury, a comet was vifible in Capricorn,  an
eruption of Vefuvius, and a mortal plague raged which carried
off in London 30,000 people.   The  king for fafety retired to
Calais.   Maidand  arranges this  plague under the year 1499.
This peftilence was preceded by an abundance of provifions.
                        Short, vol. 1.   Maitland's Hift. London.
   It is a  current opinion that the venereal difeafe was imported 
tiltO  Europe by the firft adventurers to  America,  with Colum-
bus ; and that it gradually fpread in Spain ; from whence it was
carried into Italy by fome of the foldiers, who were in the fiege
of Naples in  1494 ;  thence  it was propagated rapidly through-
out Europe.  This fubject will be  hereafter  confidered.   It is
however remarkable, that an epidemic leprofy fpread over Ger-
many,  about the fame time,  which feems to indicate  an unufual
tendency in the human body to ulcerous and fcorbutic complaints.
<b 
*5*
                      SECTION V.

Hiftorical view of peflilentlal epidemics, from the year 1500 to the
                        year 1600.


  JL HE comet of 1500 was followed by an exceflively fevere
winter in 1501, to which fucceeded a fummer of great heat and
drouth in  1502.  In this latter year the plague  carried off 500
perfons daily in Bruffels ;  the  city was foon  abandoned, the
ftreets  were overgrown  with grafs, and the roofs of houfes with
mofs,
                                       Skcnkius' Obf. p. 748.
  De  Pauw vol. 1. 85, mentions a defolating plague in China
in 1504.   In the fame year, the malady prevailed in Ireland.
  In 1505 appeared a  comet; and  another in the following
year, in  which  alfo was an eruption  of Vefuvius,  which was
fucceeded by a fevere winter.   Peftilential difeafes were univer-
fal.  A fatal fpotted fever overfpread Europe in this hot, moift
fummer.   The plague raged in Lifbon and London was feverely
vifited  by the fweating difeafe.
       Short vol. 1.  Smith's Cork p. 34.  Oforio's Hift. of Portugal.
          Fracaflor, de Contagione.
  In 1508 a great  earthquake convulfed  Italy and  Germany,
In 1509  a fhock demolifhed apart of the walls of Conftantino-
ple,  with many buildings, and the lofs of 13,000 lives : After
which the plague almoft difpeopled the city.
  Thefe events commenced a diftrefling  period.   In 1510 there
was an eruption of Heckla, and univerfal catarrh or fevere influ-
enza in Europe.  This was called in France cocoluche, from the
practice of covering the head of the patient with a cap.  It was
preceded by a feries of moift weather.
  In 1511 appeared a  comet ;  another in 1512 and a  third in
1513.   In 1511 the plague prevailed in Verona, and in  1513 a 
                           1£L
malignant  fever  or dyfentery,  which  covered the  body with
black fpots.  Bleeding was pernicious; cuppipg and actual cau-
tery were fuccefsful.
   In 1514 cats  perifhed  by an  epidemic peftilential difeafe,
fays Femelius ; and the plague  was in Tournay ;  while a mor-
tal diftemper raged among the cattle in England,
   In 1515 a malignant catarrh  or  throat diftemper in Holland
feized perfons fuddenly, and if not cured,  in a few hours,  fell
on the lungs and terminated in  death in one day.    In  this year
and the next appeared comets, and Germany fuffered univerfally
by inundations.
   To thefe difafters fucceeded a fevere winter in 1517, followed
by a very hot fummer.   Corn was in great  abundance,   but the
fweating plague made great havoc in London, and fo malignant
a murrain raged among cattle, that ravens  and dogs which fed
on their carcafes,  fwelled and died.
   This deadly  fweating  plague was preceded, in  the fpring of
the year, by an epidemic inflammation of the throat, fo virulent
as to deftroy life in a  few hours.  The malignity of this difeafe
has rarely, if ever been equalled in modern times.   It feems  to
have been merged in  the fweating plague, about  midfummer.
Authors relate  that half the people of England perifhed with
thefe difeafes.—The  difeafe in the throat feems to have been of
an inflammatory diathefis, as early bleeding and purging were
the only fuccefsful remedies.
   In 1518 the plague vifited Lifbon,  and  the fweating difeafe
prevailed in Brabant.
                         Short vol. 1. 206—7.  Smith's Cork, 34.
   In 1521 appeared a comet, followed by a cold winter.   In-
undations are faid to  have overwhelmed, in this year, 72 vil-
lages and 100,oco people.  England fuffered by dearth and fick-
nefs,  and in  1522 the plague vifited Munfter in  Ireland, and
the continent.—The winter following was diftrefiingly  fevere.
   Peftilential fevers prevailed in 1524 and 5.  The mortality
in London alarmed the people,  and the terms  were on  that ac-
count, adjourned.  In 1527 appeared a comet, and one in each
year, for fix years in fucceffion.   In 1527,  the wetnefs of fum- 
                           Ill
 mer injured the  grain, a fevere famin enfued, and many of the
 poor were ftarved to death.  This year is noted for a great hail
 ftorm in Italy.
   In  1528  the fpotted fever, that almoft infallible precurfor or
 companion of the plague,  broke out in all parts of Europe ;  the
 plague in  Italy, and the fweating difeafe in London with dread-
 ful mortality, terminating in death in fix or feven hours.  The
 fame difeafe prevailed in Cork.
   In 1529 the  fweating   difeafe  feized  Amfterdam, raging a
 few days with  great mortality, and palling rapidly to other
 places.
   In 1530 was an  eruption of Etna, and an earthquake  inLif-
 bon demolifhed 1400 houfes.  In 1531 was another eruption of
 Etna,  the fweating plague raged in Germany,  and peftilence, in
 fome form, was almoft univerfal.—A great haij ftorm,  the fame
 year.
              See Skenkius' Obf.  Smith's Cork 35.  Short vol. 1.
                    Maitland's Hift.  London.
   Fracaftor informs us that the petechial fever of 1528 was
 preceded  by  a mild winter  and foutherly rainy weather, together
 with inundations in fpring,  and unufual darknefs.   He obferves,
 that appearing in  many places, it muft have had a common caufe.
                                     De Contagione,  p. 160.
   The laft remark is verified by modern  obfervations.  The
 petechial  fever is an almoft infallible forerunner of the  plague in
 the Levant,  in Italy and other countries.   It may be laid down
 as an axiom, on  this fubject,  that altho the  appearance of this
 fever is not always and certainly followed by the plague, yet that
 the  plague, in  moft parts of the eaft, is always  preceded by a
petechial fever.
   In 1533 there  was a volcanic eruption in South America, but
 I have no account of the difeafes of  that year,
   In 1534 the plague was  in Narbonne.
   In 1535 there  was a terrible plague in  Cork.
   In 1538 appeared a comet,  which was preceded by eruptions
of Etna in 1536  and 7  and a hard winter.  In  1539 another
comet and in 1541  a third.
                             U 
                           '54
   In 1538 a mortal dyfentery raged all over Europe, as alfo in
the following year.  The  preceding fummers  had been  moift,
and an acute fever,  with violent  pain about the heart, delirium,
moift and black tongue, anthraces and buboes, had been  epi-
demic.   But Fernilius remarks  that  the  unufual  dyfentery of
1538 and 9 could not be  afcribed  to  any vifible  caufe  in the
feafons.
   In 1538  alfo was  a violent earthquake at Puteoli, near Na-
ples and  Vefuvius, where there was an immenfe eruption of fire.
This year the plague raged in Conftantinople,  and  in 1539 was
ftill more deftructive.
   In 1539 the drouth in Ireland was exceflive—and nearly dried
up the river Lee at Cork.
   In 1540 there was  a terrible drouth.   In England a peftilen-
tial ague  and a dyfentery were epidemic and mortal.  Another
eruption  of Etna happened this year, and the next year a comet.
       Short, vol. 1.  Mignot's Hift. Turkifh Empire, vol. 2. p. 4.
   In 1541 the plague raged in Conftantinople.
   The year 1543 was very wet and cold, and a great mortality
among cattle.   In 1542 the  plague was in  Geneva.  In 1543
it raged  in London in winter.   In 1545 there was an eruption
of Etna.  The plague again raged in  Geneva,  and all over Eu-
rope a peftilential  epidemic,  called the Troup Gallant, which
feized chiefly the  young  and robuft,  with  a  mortality  nearly
equal to  that of the true plague,  of which it feems to have been
the precurfor.  Patients had a violent pain in  the head,  heat in
the kidneys,  univerfal laflitude,  continual watchings  ending in
frenzy, or drowzinefs ending in lethargy ;  and worms rifing into
the throat, with danger of fuffocation.  Bleeding  was the  only
remedy ; then detergents and cordials.   The  difeafe terminated
on the 4th or nth  day.  Charles,  duke  of Orleans,  died of
this difeafe at a monaftery in Abbeville.
   In 1547 the plague prevailed  in moft parts  of Europe, as in
Ireland and in Germany;  and in  1548 in London.   Here my
labors begin to receive aid  from  that accurate  and  elegant hifto-
rian Thuanus, who, in lib. 4, defcribes the difeafe as it prevail-
ed in Saxony.   "  Such was its violence that all  other diftem-
pers gave way to it or ran into it.   Moft  of the foldiers in  the 
*SS
Emperor's army were feized.  Tjiey experienced a moft intole-
rable pain from the  heat of the head; the eyes  were fwelled
and fiery ; the tongue bloody; refpiration  difficult  and breath
fetid ;  vomitings  of bilious  matters  frequent; finally the body
became livid, with  pimples here and  there  fcattered over it,
which  bred worms.   Death took place the fecond or third day."
   During this year great rains  inundated Tufcany.   Locufts in
1547 were unufually numerous.
                      Short, vol. 1.   Thuanus, lib. 1. and 4.     «
                      Univ. Hift. vol. 37.  Smith's Cork. p. 40.
   This peftilential  period  was long and fevere.  In 1548 the
plague was in London.   A contagious peripneumony prevailed
over Europe, with fpitting of blood and difficulty of breathing.
In 1549 the plague prevailed in Pruffia and Portugal.
   In 1550 a comet in March, and the fame year an eruption
of Etna and Lipari.  The fummer was very rainy and the win-
ter dry.  In  1551 the earth was deluged with rain,  and infinite
damage was  done  by floods.   The catarrh was  epidemic in
France.  An epidemic peftilential fever raged all over Europe,
and the fweating ficknefs in London.   The plague  followed in
various parts of Europe.  In 1552 it raged in Mifena, and the
patient difcharged blood by the pores for three days before death.
In 1553 the fame diftemper raged in Paris, with extreme mor-
tality,  and to appeafe the wrath of heaven, many heretics were
burnt.
   At the fame time, peftilence fpread over  Hungary  and Tran-
fylvania for two  years  and fufpended the operations of war.
This year alfo th^re was an earthquake from the Elbe to Saxony.
                   /,/  Thuanus, lib. 12.  Skenkiu;' Obf. p 766.
   In 1554 there was an eruption of fire in Iceland and in the
feme year appeared  a comet.  In 1555 the  fummer was excef-
fively rainy, and fevers were very mortal in England and France.
   In 1556 a comet and a drouth ; the fevers of the laft feafon
raged  with augmented violence ; as alfo the fpotted  fever  and
confluent malignant  fmall pox.
   This year there was  an  eruption  of Etna, and  in China a
large diftrict of country  was funk by  an earthquake,  with all its
inhabitants, and became a Lake.  Thefe phenomena  indicated 
«5«
 a great diforder in the elemenw and introduced moft deadly epi-
 demics.
   In 1557 a comet;  an inundation  of the Tyber ;  and a vio-
 lent Catarrh  was almoft univerfal.   The cough was fevere, and
 pain in the fide, difficulty of breathing and fever  attended.  In
 general bleeding the firft or fecond day was fuccefsful ;  but in a
 fmall town near Madrid,  bleeding was fatal,  and 2000  patients
 died after venefection.
   In Alemar this epidemic affumed  the form of a fore throat;
 2000 perfons were feized almoft inftantly in October, of whom
 200 died.   Foreftus afcribes it to a vapor, for it was preceded
 by thick clouds of an ill fmell.
   In 1556 the plague raged in Vienna.
   In 1557 a  violent plague broke out in a fmall  inland  village
 between Delph and the Hague in  Holland—an  inftance of it:
 origination at a diftanee from a fea-port ; and it fpread over the
 country, in June.   This difeafe was preceded by meteors in the
 air,  and  attended  with abortions.   Such was  the mortality,
 that the poor  fought  for  coffins  for  their dead  relations.   In
 Delph only, died 5000 of the poor.   It continued through the
 winter to May J558.
   In the fame fummer peftilential fevers raged with great  mor-
 tality in France,  Holland and other countries.
   In de Thou's hiftory of his own times, vol. 2.  227, we  have
 an account of  the fpotted, or petechial  fever, which appeared
 in Spain in  1557, which  was nearly  as  mortal as the inguinal
plague.   He calls it a  " new difeafe" and unknown  to the an-
cients.  The fpots differed from the florid pimples of the purple
fever.   It  was putrid,  malignant and much  refembling the
plague, but  ** did not carry fo peftilent a contagioufnefs."  It
 was called  in Spain the  " puncticular  difeafe."   Innumerable
 people perifhed by  it that year.   The  fame fever in Florence
 u  was fucceeded by a violent plague," which had raged  on the
 Tufcan coaft.
   In 1558 appeared a comet.   The  fummer was exceffively
 hot and the  winter very  cold.   Dyfenteries raged  in France,
 and in Holland femitertians, which affected principally the rich, 
*57
 as the plague, the laft year, did the poor.   In fome places quar>
 tan agues were fatal, and malignant fevers,  in others.
   Violent tempefts and inundations are mentioned, this year and
 the laft.   In 1558 died Charles V. emperor of Germany.
                    Short vol. 1.  Van Swieten vol. 16. p. 23.
                   Maitland's Hift. Lond.   Univ. Hift. vol. 27.373.
   In 1560 a comet, and a dearth of  corn in England.
    In 1562 and 3 the plague fpread over Europe.  It broke out
 in 1562 among the Englifh foldiers, who were fent to  garrifon
 New-Haven in France.   The next year it raged in London and
 carried off 20,000 of its inhabitants.  Authors fay, the fold-
 iers from New-Haven introduced it into London ; but who in-
 troduced it into New-Haven,  we are not informed.
   The truth is,  this terrible difeafe  appeared in  moft parts of
 Europe about the fame time.  In  Frankfort, Nuremberg, Mag-
 deburgh, Hamburgh, Dantzick, and  in the vandalic maritime
 towns, Wifniar,  Lubick,  Roftock and others, perifhed by com-
 putation 300,000 perfons in the year  1563.—This  difeafe alfo
 raged in winter, for Thuanus mentions the death of Caftalion,  a
 literary character of that age, by the plague at Bafle in January.
   This year was remarkable  alfo  for earthquakes.   In Sept*
 was a violent one in England, efpecially  in  Lincoln  and other
 northern parts.   In January the river Thames was agitated by
 preternatural fluxes of the tides, which forced back  the natural
 tides,  three times.  In winter, fevere  cold  rendered that river
 paffable as a highway.
   The fame year earthquakes were felt in Illyrica, and  Dalma-
 tia,  and Catana fuffered a great lofs of lives.
   In 1564a comet appeared,  and  remarkable  northern lights,
 or meteors,  and a deftructive inundation of the Thames.
               Short vol. 1. Maitland's Hift. Lond.  Thuanus.
                  Strype's Life of Archbiftiop Parker, 131.
   In 1564  epidemic quinfies  were  very mortal, and in fome
places, the fpotted fever or the plague.—In  winter came on as
fevere a froft for two  months as was ever known.
  This epidemic quinfy was a fpecies of angina maligna,  and fa^
tal as the plague.   It fpread over Europe.
  In 1565 France was afflicted  by  peftilential epidemics>  in 
                           ?58
Which bleeding and purging were fatal.  The next year appeared
the plague hi Lyons.—Charles IX.  demanded of the phyficians
the beft mode of treatment,  and they all  decided againft vene-
fection.__One fourth of the inhabitants  of France perifhed.
   In 1566  the fpring was rainy and  the harveft dry.  The
Hungarian fever broke out in  the Emperor Maximilian's army,
and as authors affirm,  the foldiers, when difbanded, fpread it all
over Europe, with great  mortality.  This difeafe  invaded the
patient at 3 o'clock in the  afternoon, with flight cold and fhiver-
ering for about fifteen minutes.   This was  followed by intenfe
heat,  and intolerable pain  in the head,  mouth  and  ftomach, fo
that the flighteft touch of the bed clothes,  made  the  fick utter
fhrieks :  The pain in the mouth and ftomach  being the  pathog-
nomonic fymptoms of the difeafe.—The  thirft was unquencha-
ble,  and a longing for Wine, which  was  fatal, if taken.  The
tongue was dry  and  lips  chopt.   Delirium came on  the third
day.  A critical loofenefs and  deafnefs were  favorable—Swel-
lings behind the ears were frequent.   The moft  miferable  crifis
was,  tubercles on  the top of  the  foot,  which,  if neglected,
ended in mortification.  Many  fuffered amputation.  Spots, like
flea  bites, appeared on the  body,  and if  livid  or black, they
were fatal fymptoms.   Copious bleeding,  on  the  firft  feizurei
was,  of all remedies, the moft fuccefsful.
                               Skenkius' p. 770.  Short vol. 1.
   In the year 1567 was an  eruption of  Etna, and in Tercera,
one of the Azores, fire burft from a lake on  the  top of a hill,
and the water releafed from  its bed,  rufhed  down and fwept
away part of a fettlement  below.   In 1568 a fpotted fever raged
in Paris, in which proftration of ftrength rendered bleeding fatal.
The winter of 1567  was very fevere, and the fummer exceffively
dry.
   In 1569 appeared a comet.—The fpotted  fever in this year
became epidemic in Europe, raging  for three  years with great
deftruction.   The plague  was in London.  Short  remarks that
this fpotted fever "  in feveral places turned to  the plague, and
where the plague raged,  it turned  to this fever."—Indeed this
fpotted fever was a milder  form of the  peftilence, raging as  it 
'59
ufually does, for fome time, before the glandular plague appears
In this period, it was the herald to announce  one of the moft
general plagues that Europe ever  knew.  The  petechial fever
prevailed principally from 1569 to 1574, interfperfed with the
real plague, in a few places; and the real peftis followed it, with
mortal rage, and prevailed for three or four years.
   In 1570 a moft dreadful earthquake in  Chili, S. America,
deftroyed many villages and buried the inhabitants in their ruins.
This is the firft occafion I have of introducing America in this
hiftory.
                                            UUoa b. 8. ch. 7.
   Thuanus, whofe authority is very refpectable,  and who was
cotemporary with this period, relates  that in 1570 the dikes in
Holland  were broken by a fwell of the ocean, and that 400,000
people were overwhelmed in the floods.   He  fays further that
fimilar phenomena were obferved, that year, in different places
over the  whole world.   Reggio, Florence, Venice and Modena
felt fevere fhocks of earthquake  in 1571, and Ferara was laid
in ruins.
   The fummers of 1570  and 71 were moift and warm ;  and in
general  the feafons were  fimilar for the two  fucceeding years.
The winters were rigorous-   Fluxes, meafles,  worms and femi-
tertians were epidemic in  many  places.   In  1572  appeared  a
comet or  neW ftar, very bright and clear, larger  than  Jupiter,
in the conftellation of Cafliopeia, behind her chair.   It was
ftationary for 16 months and by degrees evanifhed.  The winter
fucceding was remarkable  for hard ft oft and deep fnow.   The
author of Obfervations de Phyfique et de Medicine,  fays, that
all maladies  in France in  1572 turned to epilepfy and palfy.
  This year the plague raged in  Poland ; and_at Bafle a malig-
nant fever, chiefly fatal to men of robuft conftitution.
  In  1574 the petechial fever,  which had fpread mortality over
Europe,  efpecially in Italy and  Spain, began to change  into the
ufual  form of the plague.   This difeafe made its appearance in
London, in a fmall degree, in October and November of this
year.
  In  1575 the plague appeared in many parts of Europe, and 
i6o
 raged with incredible mortality for three years.   It was reported^
 in Italy to have been Imported into  Verona and Venice,  from
 Trent.   Such was the current vulgar opinion.   But men of fci-
 ence held the difeafe to be generated in cities from the filthinefs
 of private dwellings, and not to  be  produced by the pofition of
 the ftars or malignant conftitution of the air.
   The  truth was, the difeafe in  Italy firft  appeared in Trent,
 an Inland town, far from the fea—another inftance in which the
 advocates of  importation from Africa or the Levant are filenced.
 Philofophy difdains to look abroad for the  caufe of an epidemic,
 when the ftrongeft of all  caufes exift in the  place.   Trent
 is fituated in a valley, on the bank of the Adige, a  river which
 often overflows the adjacent low lands; and after the  flood re-
 cedes,  the place is fometimes fo fickly that the people  are  com-
 pelled  to retire  to the neighboring hills.   Strong  local  caufes
 therefore account for the firfl appearance of the plague  in  that
 city.   The general  contagion of the  atmofphere,  which had
 produced fpotted fevers and other deadly difeafes all over  Eu-
 rope for four years preceding, was aided by the local unhealthi-
 nefs of Trent, and here appeared firft, the crifis of the  pefti-
 lence, or plague.   See the  defcription of that country  in Zim-
 merman on Air.
  The difeafe almoft depopulated Trent in 1575,  and  became
 mortal in the neighboring Venetian territories.   This mortality
 however was  only the forerunner  of greater evils.   The difeafe
indeed fubfided in winter,  and the people fuppofed its violence
to be paft.  They  might  have known otherwife, had they atten-
ded t© the  progreffivenefs of the malady, and the certain  indi-
cations of its  increafe.
  In 1576 the difeafe appeared in Venice ;  and as it carried off
 a few people  at firft,  in  fcattered fituations, opinions  were, as
 ufual in  all  fach cafes,  divided as to the nature of the diftem-
 per.   In this ftate of the public mind, two eminent phyficians,
 Mercuriale of  Forli, and Capavacca  of Padua, undertook to
 affert the  difeafe not  to be peftilential.   The fenate,  obfening
 the controverfy among the Venetian phyficians,  as to the nature
 pf the diftemper, liftened to the two  foreigners, who  declared 
i6i
they could cure it, and put a flop to the removal of the difeafed
from the city.   By this means, fays the hiftorian,  the diftemper
was obvioufly increafed; and it raged with terrible  fury, till it
carried off 70,000  of  the  citizens, with  fifty-feven  valuable
phyficians and furgeons.   The two foreign phyficians were  dif-
miffed, with applaufes for having preferred the good of Venice
to their perfonal fafety.
   This account from Thuanus deferves particular notice.   We
here fee the  fame doubts about the nature of the difeafe on its
firft appearance, which prevail in all fimilar cafes—as in Mar-
feilles  in  1720—in  London in 1665—and  in  America, with
refpect to the yellow fever, which is only another form of plague.
The fource of all thefe  doubts and  controverfies, which have
fo often embarraffed the citizens  and difgraced the  faculty, is,
the  progrefflvenefs of  the  peftilence.   The  malignant  difeafe?
preceding, Hide into the glandular plague fo gradually,  that phy-
ficians themfelves do  not  know  precifely when  the  diftemper
fhould lofe the name of malignant fever and take that of plague,
Sydenham honeftly confeffes that, in 1665, he  did not know
whether the  malignant difeafe which appeared in May and be-
came epidemic,  juft  before  the plague,  was the  real plague or
not.   And the truth is,  that the difeafe often affails people, in
a few  fcattering cafes, at the beginning  of a plague,  with a mor?
tality equal to the true peftis, and without the  diftinctive marks
of plague, the glandular tumors.
   Thefe facts will hereafter, with careful  obfervation, obviate
all controverfies at the  beginning  of peftilential  difeafes;  and
they will decide infallibly  all queftions  relative to the  domeftic
or foreign origin of fuch maladies.
   This peftilence  was feverely felt in Padua, Milan,  Cremona.
and  Pavia.   Vicenza, which efcaped this year,  was vifited the
next, with equal fe verity.
   Dr. Mead  is puzzled to know why Vicenza,  which lies be-
tween  Verona andPadua?  fhould efcape the plague,  in  the  year
when  both thofe cities  were  infefted; and yet the next year,
fhould fuffer equally with her neighbors,  when they were exempjt
from the calamity.   He finds fome difficulty in  accounting for
                              W 
'l62
the conveyance of the infeaion from one to another, without
communicating it to the intervening city.  This fubject will be
confidered in a fubfequent fection ;  I will only here remark, that
nothing is fo fatal to truth and fcience,  as for a man of popular
talents to elpbufe an erroneous  theory,  and  then ftrive to bend
facts to its fupport.
             See Thuanus, lib. 62.   Shenkius,, 756.  Short, vol. 1.
   In 1575 multitudes of flies and beetles were found in Eng-
land, and in 1576 an  earthquake was experienced.
   In November 1577 appeared  a  comet of furprifing magni-
tude, with a long coma—and moft terrible tempefts accompani-
ed its approach.   In 1578 another comet, and in 1579 an erup-
tion of Etna.  In 1578 were earthquakes in England.
                                              Short, vol. 1.
   In the great peftilence of the preceding ten years, not  only
Europe,  but Afia was laid wafte.   So  general  and fevere was
the difeafe that the operations of war, in the Turkifh empire,
were fufpended.  Meflina in Sicily loft 40,000 inhabitants—and
Europe muft have loft in ten years,  by the peftilence under the
various forms it affumed, one third, or  more probably one half
her people.
   In this period we fee all the extraordinary  operations of nature
united.  Comets, earthquakes, in Europe and S.  America  tem-
pefts, volcanoes, unufual animals, exceflive floods from rain or an
extraordinary intumefcence of the ocean  all mark an extreme agit-
ation or diforder of the elements.—The vaft comet of 1577, the
year when the  plague  was at its height, was calculated to ap-
proach within 840,000 miles of the earth.  Upon the Newton-
ian principles of the power  of attraction, the  influence of that
body on the earth muft have been prodigious.
                                    Encyclop. art. Aftronomy.
    In this year appeared in Moravia a new difeafe,  evidently dif-
tinct in its fymptoms from any known malady, and which Thu-
 anus has defcribed.
    This alfo was the year in which a fudden difeafe feized the
 court  and attendants at the Oxford aflizes in England.  Early in
 July,  while the  court  was   fitting, " there arofe, fays  Stowe,
 amidft the people fuch a damp that almoft all were fmothered— 
ifj3
very few efcaped, that were not taken at that inftant.   The ju-
rors died prefently—after which  Robert Bell, Lord Chief Ba-
ron.  There died in  Oxford 300 perfons—and fickened there,
but died elfewhere, more than 200 from the 6th to the 12th of
July.   After which died not one of that ficknefs, for one of
them infected not another, nor died thereof any one woman or
child."
                                          Chronicle, p. 681.
   This fudden cataftrophe is afcribed to a damp or vapor.  But
there is no need of reforting to fuch a caufe.   The atmofphere,
during the period under  confideration,  was  not  furniflied with
the power of fupporting animal life, in as ample a manner as it
ufually is.—This is evident,  from the univerfality of mortal epi-
demics.   In'this ftate of the atmofphere, a  multitude,  crouded
into a court room, in  the hot month of July, muft  fpeedily def-
troy all the refpirable air, and death muft enfue.  That the prin-
cipal caufe was not only local, but  fudden, is deraonftrated by
the circumftance,  that  no infection accompanied  the  difeafed.
Had the caufe of their illnefs  been  long  ia operation,  it would
have produced in the body that fpecies of poifon, which is nox-
ious to perfons in health.  Perfons, fuddenly  deprived of life,
as by damps in wells  or the fumes of charcoal, communicate no
infection.
   It is fuggefted by fome writers, that this difeafe was  occafion-
 ed by an  infected prifoner,  who  was  brought  from jail into
 court; but Stowe does not mention  this  circumftance.   And it
 is poflible the cataftrophe might  have  been  owing to  a fudden
 difcharge of mephitic vapor.
    Scarcely had  the  laft  period  of peftilence come to a cloft,
 when another feries of maladies fucceeded,  and nearly in the or-
 der of thofe laft defcribed.
    In  1580 appeared  a comet on the 10th of  October which was
 vifible for two months,   The preceding fummer was very moift
 and rainy, and about the rifing of the dog-ftar, came on a cold
 dry north wind.   In June began an epidemic  catarrh  in Sicily,
 which fpread over Europe.   In  July,  it  was  in Italy ; in Au-
 guft,  in Venice and Conftantinople ;  in September, it extended
 over Hungary,  Bohemia and Saxony; in October, on  the Bal- 
X&4
.tjc; in November,  in  Norway and in  December, in  Sweden,
 Poland and Ruffia.—Its fymptoms were nearly the fame, as in
 this country, but the  difeafe was more violent and fatal.—In
 Rome, died of it 4000 people—in  Lubec,  8000 ;  at Ham-
 burgh, 3000 ; and  multitudes  in other  places.    It appears to
 have been attended with more fever than in ordinary cafes—Thr
 fever was continual  for four or five days,  with a pain in the head,
 ftraithefs of the  breaft and cough—it  terminated  ib profufe
 fweating.—In general  bleeding  and purging were found to  be
 prejudicial.
                                            Rivcrius, lib. 17.
   In this year and  about the time, when the  catarrh had over-
 fpread Europe, broke  out in Grand Cairo, one of the moft def-
 olating plagues ever known.  Profper  Alpinus,  who  lived in
 that age, reports  the number of deaths,  from  November 1580*
 to July 1581 to have been 500,000.  It  will be  found on ex-
 amination that the plague,  in a feries of peftilential and epidemic
 difeafes, appears  in Egypt,  before it does in Europe and  Amer-
 ica, and is nearly cotemporary with the catarrh, angina or other
 precurfor of the peftilence  in  more  northern latitudes.  This
 fact deferves notice.  The plague which followed the catarrh in
 Europe, did not  appear in many places, perhaps in none  except
 in France,  in the year 1580—In northern latitudes,  the malig-
 nity of the epidemic conftitution  does not appear,  till the fecond
 or third year, after its commencement in catarrh or meafles.
   In Paris however the plague raged in  1580,  the  fame  year
 it appeared in Egypt,  and carried off 40,000 people,  moftly of
 the poorer fort ;  and at the fame time, it prevailed in many of
 the neighboring towns, efpecially, fays Thuanus, " at Laon in
 Vermandois, which city is  in a pofition expofed to a hot fun, in
 which died 6000."
   The  hiftorian further  remarks, that the " crops  that year
 were plentiful, and the flcy ferene ; fo  that it was thought the
 difeafe was produced  rather  by the influence  of the ftars, ab
 aftrorum impreflione,  than by the malignity of a corrupt  air."
 This is another proof  that a ftate of air,  as defcribed  by Hip-
 pocrates, is pot always the caufe of peftilence. 
*6$
   Altho this malady broke out in France in  1580, yet it had
been preceeded by the catarrh.   The hiftorian remarks,  that the
catarrh  was not fo much dreaded for its mortality, tho many died
of it, as for the  aftonifhing  rapidity with which the contagion
fipread from place to place.   It feized the lower fpine of the back
with a chill, horrore ;  to this fucceeded gravedo, a dull pain ia
the head;  and univerfal languor  or  debility, refolvens membra,
loofening or unhinging the joints.   If the crifis was not favora-
ble in five days, the difeafe terminated in a fatfn fever.
                          See Thuanus and Riverius.alfo lib.  17.
   In 1580 confiderable earthquakes  were felt  in  Belgium, at
Cologne and about the  Mediterranean.   The fame fkocks  were
felt in various parts of England, but!  Short places them under the
following year.  The German fea was agitated, and a great fwel-
ling of  its waters was obferved.
                  See Thuanus, lib. 71, 72.   Short, vol. 1. p. 260.
   In 1580 alfo,  the marfhes in Effex, and fome parts  of Kent
in England, were laid wafte by mice,  which  were fo numerous
as to deftroy the herbage,  and a murrain among cattle fucceeded.
   In this year was iffued a  proclamation  of Queen Elizabeth,
upon  the reprefentation of  the Mayor and Aldermen of  Lon-
don,  prohibiting  any new houfe to be built within three miles of*
the gates of the  city, and more  than one  family to refide in a
houfe.   The reafons afligned for the prohibition  are connected
with this fubject.   The  increafe of London had  long been  con-
fidered as an evil, by fwelling the head too large for the body,
and feveral  attempts had  been made to reftrain the increafe.
The refort of people to  the city from the  country was held to be
prejudical to agriculture.
   But the proclamation ftates further, that "  fuch great multi-
tudes of people,  brought to inhabit  in fmall  rooms, whereof a
great part are very poor, yea fuch as  muft live by begging, or by
Worfe means, and they  heaped together,  and  in  a fort, fmoth-
ered with many families of children  and  fervants, in one houfe
or fmall tenement, it muft needs follow,  if any  plague or popu-
lar ficknefs fhould, by  God's permiffion, enter  amongft  thofe
multitudes, that the fame would not only fpread itfelf, and invade 
166
the whole city and confines,  but a great mortality would  enfue
the fame,  and the infection be difperfed through all  other  parts
of the realm."
   In this paper, we obferve fome  powerful  caufes of peftilence
in London to be explained—and events fhowed  how little good
was done by the interference of authority with private rights,
and an attempt to check, by  pofitive  prohibitions,  the natural
growth of towns.  This proclamation, like all which  had pre-
ceded it, was ufellTs.   The  city increafed, and the plague con-
tinued to ravage it, until the  good providence of God arrefted
the evil, by a general conflagration, apd men  had become wife
enough, to build large, airy  houfes,  and keep them clean.
                               Maitland's Hiftory of London.
   In  1582 a remarkable tempeft  is mentioned, and  a comet in
May.   A fevere  earthquake was felt in South-America,  and a
fmall city  near Lima was deftroyed.
                                 Ulloa's Voyage, vol.  2. b. 7.
   In  1583 feveral concuflions of the  earth  were  experienced
in England,  and the plague appeared in London.  At the fame
time  it appeared  in  Germany or Holland ;  as  Diemerbroeck
mentions this as a peftilential year.   The following winter was
fevere.  In Rome there was a famin.
                         Maitland's Hift. Lond.  Short, vol. I.
   In  1585   in fpring appeared very  malignant  pleurifies.   In
1586 Thrace was overrun with locufts,  and the plague raged in
Hungary, Auftria and Turkey.   A comet appeared in each of
thefe  years,  and  in 1586 Lima in South-America  was   nearly
ruined by an  earthquake.  See Ulloa, from whom my accounts
of earthquakes in Spanifh America, are all taken.
   In  1587 a very cold fpring, but a plentiful  year in moft coun-
tries.   The plague raged in  Flanders, which was almoft depopu-
lated by difeafe, war and famin.   In fome parts, the wild beafts
took poffeflion of the houfes.  Dogs ran mad, and did no fmall
mifchief,  and fields were covered with weeds and bufhes.   The
catarrh appeared in England, this year, but how extenfively, I
am not informed.  An eruption  of fire in Iceland is recorded
under the fame year. 
167
  In  1589 the Englifh fleet, returned from  Portugal, with the
Hungarian fever,  fays Short, and introduced it  into  England.
What an influence have names, and  what mifchief is done  by
ignorance and falfe philofophy ! The Hungarian fever ! As tho
this fever had been a native of a particular foil, and tranfplanted
from country to country,  like  a fruit-tree.  Names are not  al-
ways  harmlefs.  The name,  Sudor Anglicus, given to the fweat-
ing plague, becaufe it appeared firft in England and  was  at firft
peculiar to Englifhmen, has  led the moderns to fuppofe, the dif-
eafe to have been limited to England or to Englifhmen, altho it
repeatedly fpread over all  Europe.   In the fame way, the infect
which injures wheat in America, was ignorantly called the Hef-
fian fly,  and altho the animal was never known in Gesmany,  yet
people believe, that,  like  yellow fever,  it was  imported.   It is
thus that ignorance gives  currency to an  improper  name, and
the name in turn aflifts to  propagate and perpetuate an error.
   The truth, in regard to difeafes, is,  that they often  affume
peculiar fymptoms ; fuch as are not ufual.   Thefe are not prop-
erly new difeafes,  but modifications of  common fever, proceed-
ing from the infinite variety of that caufe of ficknefs, which I
denominate general contagion,  and which Sydenham called  the
Epidemic Conftitution of the air.   This or other caufes are per-
petually diverfifying the fymptoms of difeafes ;  fo that phyficians
are often  at a lofs  whether to call a difeafe by an  old or new
name.  Wherever the peculiar caufes firfl exift, there will the
peculiar fymptoms of difeafe firft appear—and when fimilar caufes
e#ift  in other places,  the  fame fymptoms will attend  the difeafe.
   In 1590 multitudes of  people perifhed by famin.   A comet
approached  the fyftem, the winter  was  cold, a violent earth-
quake convulfcd Hungary, Bohemia and Vienna; near the  lat-
ter place, the earth emitted an offenfive fmell.   The drouth was
extreme.  The  Azores  were fhaken  by an earthquake, and a
tempeft in  September threatened to overwhelm them in mafs.
   In  1591 univerfal  catarrh in Europe  was a  prelude to  moft
deftructive peftilence. It is fingular alfo that the plague broke
out in Narva and Revel,  in Livonia, on  the gulf of  Finland, in
 the 59th degree of latitude,  and raged  through  the fucce uir\± 
168
 (Eold  winter.  Six thoufand perfons perifhed in Revel.   As to
 )ts origin,  the great Thuanus could not  decide  whether  it was
 *' a belli incommoditatibus, five cseli inclementia,"  from the dif-
 treffes of war, or intemperature  of the air.   There could have
 been no fufpicion of a foreign origin.
                                           Thuanus, lib.  loo.
   Cotemporary with the  catarrh was a malignant fpotted  fever
 in Trent.   A diftreffing famin caufed a great mortality in Italy.,
   In 1591 the plague began tofhow itfelf in Italy, but attended
 with peculiar fymptoms.  A  fever, little infectious, feized the
 head,  inducing delirium, and  in many patients, was  attended
 with fluxes and  flatulent bowels.  It terminated fatally on the
 tenth day.    The remedy was bleeding " Secta vena capitis, qua?
 in brachio  eft,  aliifque a capite manantibus," fays Thuanus.  It
 attacked chiefly men between the ages of 30 and  50 ; but was
 fatal to few women.   It raged in Umbria,  Tufcany, Romagne
 and  Lombardy,  fweeping away, in  fome towns,  almoft every
 man.  From Auguft to Auguft,  it was computed  that 60,009
 perfons perifhed.
                                           Thuanus, lib. 102.
   In 1592 the petechial fever fpread over Florence, with  a ma-
 lignity that entitled it to the name of plague.  It was moft fatal
 to the nobles.
   In England the drouth in  this and the  former fummer was
 extreme.   The Thames was fordable at London.   The plague
 appeared in Shropfhire in the weft,  and carried off 18,000 cit-
 izens in London.   Perfia fuffered much by an earthquake in the
 fame year.
             Short, vol 1.  Sims on Epid. Mem. Med. Soc vol. 1.
               Maitland's Lond.
   In the fame  year a furious peftilence prevailed in Candia.  I;
 appealed in fpring, increafed till  July and then abated.  On its
 firft appearance, all infected and fufpected perfons were removed
 to a diftant hofpital,  but without effect.   The difeafe continued
 to fpread—a proof that it was  an epidemic.   In September, it
was fuppofed to be extinguifhed ; but in  October,  it broke out
with frefh  violence, and  the  difeafed were  confined to their
houfes—a  ufeLfs  and pernicious regulation.   The  city bft
 30,000 inhabitants. 
                            169

   In 1594 was a fevere  winter.  The years 1594, 5 and flr
were very rainy  in England and Germany.   Crops failed, and
in Hungary,  the famin was extreme.
   In 1596 appeared a comet.   Violent earthquakes fhook dif-
ferent countries, and feveral cities in Japan were fwallowed up.
   In 1596 and  7 prevailed in Cologne, Weftphalia and other
parts of Germany, a fingular difeafe, which  authors afcribe to
the famin which had preceded.   It was a malignant fever, which
was attended with convulfions and raving madnefs,  or delirium.
Sometimes the convulfions were attended with little or no fever.
The patient was contracted into a knot or ball by the violence of
the convulfions,  or extended to  full length, like a dead body—
fometimes the extenfion of the body was fucceeded by a con-
traction  in the fame paroxifm.   The particulars refpecting this
difeafe do  not fall within the plan of this hiftory,  but may be
found in Short,  vol. 1.
   In 1597 appeared a comet, and the fame year the catarrh was
again epidemic.   Malignant fevers,  accompanied with worms in
youth, were predominant alfo, and the plague was in Juliers and
Geneva.  A dearth in England.  The  winter of 1597 was fe-
vere, as was that of 1599.
   The  fummers of 1598  and 99  were remarkably  dry, and
fwarms  of fleas, gnats and flies abounded.   Tertians, with pe-
techia?,  were frequent, and continual  fevers which yielded to
bleeding and purging, or went off with a bilious  diarrhea.-—«
Small-pox and meafles were alfo epidemic.
   Thefe difeafes, as ufual,  were  the precurfors of  a  very dif-
treffing plague, which,  in the autumn of 1598, raged in  Lon-
don, Litchfield, Leicefter  and  other  places in England.   It
even broke out in the fmall towns  in  Wales  and the northern
counties, as in   Kendal in Cumberland, where died  2500—in
Richmond, where died 2200—at Carlifle which loft 1196 in-
habitants ; and at Percrith which  loft 2266.
                                     See Camden's Britannia.
   In 1598 Pegu,  in Afia, was depopulated by famin, and Con-
ftantinople  was almoft ftripped of its inhabitants  by the plague,
                            X 
                           170

Seventeen princeffes, fifters of the Sultan, Mahomet III.  died
in one day.   To arreft the progrefs of this  mortality, cannon
were fired and aromatics burnt in all parts of  the city ; but with
what fuccefs the hiftorian does not inform us.
                               Hiftory of the Turkifli Empire.
   In  Italy an inundation of the Tyber injured  Rome.
   In  1599 the fpring was  cold  and dry; the fummer hot and
rainy,  with great floods.   A very mortal diftemper raged among
cattle in Italy.   In Spain and Lifbon died 70,000 people of the
plague.  In fome places, a fatal dyfentery  prevailed.
                                  Short, vol. 1.  £>ims on F.pW. 
*7i
                      SECTION VI.

 iliftorical view of Peftilential Epidemics from the year  1600  to
                  the clofe of the year I 700.

 r v 'i
  X HE year 1600 was remarkable  for  peftilence  in  almoft
 every part of Europe.  Spain, where the difeafe was fatal the
 year before, was this  year almoft depopulated.  There raged
 throughout Europe, a peftilential, mortal cholic which deftroyed
 the  lives of all whom it feized,  within  four days.  The patient,
 as foon  as he was feized, became fenfelefs—the  hair  fell from
 his head—a livid puftule arofe on the  nofe, which confumed it—■
 the extremities became cold and mortified.
   In Florence a  terrible earthquake deftroyed many buildings.
   The winter of 1600 was very cold.   In the fummer of 160I
 there was a fevere drouth  of four or five months ; and a violent
 dyfentery followed,  with  double tertians  and  continual fevers.
 The plague raged in Portugal, attended with black round worms.
 At Chriftmas,  there was an earthquake in England.   The fame
 year there  was an earthquake at Arequipa,  in Peru,  accompa-
 nied by an eruption of a volcano.
   In 1602 a cold and dry fummer and winter, the catarrh Was
 epidemic, and acute fevers prevalent.    Thefe difeafes  and phe-
 nomena accompanied a feries of calamities in all parts of Europe.
   The famin that marked this period,  for a feries of years, ex-
 ceeded in  extent and feverity, what had been before  recorded.
 Famins  are ufually local;  bat in the prefent inftance,  there was
 a failure of crops for feveral years, in almoft every part of Eu-
rope ; while the plague committed moft defolating ravages.
   In Mufcovy the famin raged for three years at the  beginning
of the century  under confideration,  attended with the plague.
Parents devoured  their dying children ;  cats,  rats and  every un- 
t?l
clean thing was ufed to fuftain life.   All the ties of nature and
morality were difregarded ; human flefh was expofed  to fale in
the open market.   The more  powerful  feized  their neighbors;
fathers and mothers, their children ;  hufbands,  their wives, and
offered them for fale.  Multitudes  of dead were  found, with
their mouths filled with ftraw, and  the  moft filthy fubftances.
Five hundred thoufand perfons were fuppofed to perifh in  Muf-
covy, by famin and peftilence.
   At the  fame time, the famin in Livonia, and the cold winter
of 1602,  deftroyed 30,000 lives.   The dead bodies lay in the
ftreets, for want of hands to bury them.
                   Thuanus, lib. 135.  Encyclopedia, art. Ruflia.
   At the  fame time,  raged a moft dreadful peftilence in  Con-
ftantinople,  which alfo followed a famin.
 t  In England, there was  alfo a dearth, and in  1603 perifhed
36,000 in  London,  of  the  plague,  which  was  faid  to be
imported from Oftend.
      Maitland's Hift. Lond.  Mignot's Hift. Turkifh Empire, p. 256.
   Even in this cafe, the report of imported infection into  Lon-
don was believed,  altho the nation had before  their eyes, a de-
monftration to the contrary ; for the fame malady  broke  out in
every part of the kingdom,  and had actually prevailed in Chefter,
in the north-weft corner of England, the year  preceding.
   It  is idle to afcribe the  plague to infection,  communicated
from perfon to perfon, or from clothes to perfons.   The difeafe,
in 1602 was in  every part of Europe,  and appeared nearly at
the  fame time, in  the moft diftant  parts.   In this  cafe, as in
thofe before related,  of  1580 and  1591, it had  been preceded
by catarrh, and a courfe of malignant fevers.   The malignity of
the difeafe in  1602 refembled that of 1348—perfons were  fe?  H
with fpitting of blood, and died in three days.
   In Auguft  1603  in Paris  died 2000 perfons weekly  of the
plague.  This difeafe was attributed to the diet  and filth accu-
mulated,  under a defective police.
                                         Wraxall, vol. 3.  438.
   Why the filth  of Paris did not produce the plague in other
feafons, writers have not informed us. 
*73
  The period under confideration was remarkable for the unt*
verfality  of the action of fubterranean fire.  The earthquakes
of 1600  and 1601 and the burfting of a volcano in South-A-
merica have.been mentioned.   In 1603  there was an explofion
of Etna.  In 1604 a fecond eruption in Peru,  and a comet.
   The plague abated, in fome places,  the year following; but
London  was not  free from it  for a number of  years, and from
1606 to  1609  inclufive the  diftemper carried  off from two to
four thoufand citizens in each feafon.
   In 1607 commenced an unufual concurrence of great agitations
in the elements, and fevere peftilence attended.
   In this year appeared a comet, and another  in 1609.  The
winter of 1607-8 was  the fevereft that had been known for an
age ; boats  were built on  the  Thames.   And here  for  the firft
time, I  am able to introduce North-America,  into this hiftory ;
from which will be derived fome  of the moft important evidence
in regard to the univerfality of the caufes of peftilential epidemics.
   The feverity of the winter mentioned was equally  great in
America, as in Europe.  George Popham,  and a company of
fettlers under the patent of king James, to  the London mer-
chants, attempted a fettlement at Sagadahoc in  1607 ; but Pop-
ham, the Prefident, died during the winter,  and the extreme
cold was one of the  difcouragements that contributed to break
up the fettlement.
            Gorges Hift. New-England.   Purchas, vol. 4.  1637.
               Hutchinfon's Hift.  MalT. vol. 1. 2.
   In this fame  year was an eruption of Etna.'
   The comet  of this year produced  a moft remarkable tempeft,
with a fwell of the ocean, that did incredible damage  in Eng-
land.  In the  latter part  of winter, the tempeft brought  in  a
flood into the Severn, which overflowed the country, near Briftol,
to the extent  of ten  miles,  with  a  rapidity, that  left  no
time  for  the  people  to fave their effects, and many lives were
loft.  The flood rofe  above the  houfes, where  people  had  re-
forted for fafety,  and  overwhelmed them.   The lofs of cattle
and  goods  was  immenfe.
   In Somerfetfhire, the inundation laid wafte  an extent of 20
miles by  1 o j overwhelming five towns.  So  fudden was the 
                            -74
 irruption, that laborers were caught in the fields, and Were feen
 floating on the timbers of their houfes.   In Norfolk, the inun-
 dation was not lefs deftructive.
                                          Thuanus, lib. 138..
   In 1608 a very malignant dyfentery prevailed.
   In 1609 the approach of the fecond comet produced effects
 equally remarkable with the laft.   The action of fubterranean
 fire was extenfiye.  There was an eruption of Etna, and a vio-
 lent earthquake at Lima in Peru.   The winter was fo fevere, as
 to convert the Thames into a common highway.
   In this year the plague was  augmented in London ; and it
 raged in Alemar  and Denmark.   In the years 1607 and 8, it
 had been very mortal in Cork.
   The peftilential ftate of air,  at this time*  was experienced at
 fea.   The people  on board the fleet under Sir Thomas Gates
 and Sir George  Somers, bound to  Virginia, were feized  with
 the calenture,  a fpotted peftilent fever, which, on board of one
 of the fhips,  was fo malignant as to be called the plague.   Thir-
 ty-two dead bodies were thrown out of two  fhips.  Was  this
 difeafe imported ?  In the fame paffage, the fleet met with a  tre-
 mendous ftorm of four days continuance, and Sir T. Gates was
 fhipwrecked on Bermuda.
                                    Purchas, vol. 4. p.  1733.
   In 1610 the catarrh was again epidemic.   In fome  parts of
the continent prevailed  the Hungarian fever like the plague, and
fevere bilious complaints.   A remarkable fiery bow in the heav-
ens was obferved in Hungary; and  Conftantinople  was infefted
with clouds of grafs-hoppers,  of great fize,  that devoured every
green thing.   The malignant fore throat was fatal in Spain, and
 authors relate that this  was its firft  appearance  in that coun-
try.
   In  1611 the plague carried off  200,000 of the inhabitants of
Conftantinople.  It appeared alfo  in fome other places.  The
fummers of the three laft years were very hot and dry.
   In  1612 appeared a comet.   A terrible tempeft  made great
havoc with fhipping—2000 dead bodies of failors were found on
the coaft of England,  and  1200  on that of Holland.  Some
towns were injured. In the following year, Provence in Franc* 
l75
■was greatly  injured by  an inundation ;  and fwarms of locufta
fucceeded, which laid wafte the vegetable kingdom.
   The fummer of 1612 in England was exceffively  dry,  and a
malignant fever feverely afflicted the nation.
   In 1613  the plague appeared in detached parts of France, and
in Montpelier,  a malignant difeafe fo fatal, as to want only the
buboes, to prove it the  true plague.   It was marked  with red
and livid fpots, fwellings behind the ears and carbuncles.   One
third who were feized died.
                                          Riverius, lib. 17.
   The preceding  fummers, the earth was covered with grafs-
hoppers, and the air filled with clouds of flies.
   In this year alfo Conftantinople was ravaged with the plague ;
and as cats were fuppofed to fpread the infeaion,  the phyficians,
who were moftly Jews,  advifed the emperor Achmet I. and he
accordingly ordered all  the cats  to be tranfported  to  a  defert
ifland near Scutari.
                  Short, vol. 1.  Mignot's Hift. Turkifh Empire.
   In 1614 the winter was fevere; there was  an  eruption of
Etna, and an earthquake in the Azores.   The heavens appeared,
at one time in a flame,  and afterwards very dark.
   This year was remarkable for  the  moft univerfal fmall-pox,
and  moft fatal ever known.  It laid wafte Alexandria,  Crete,
Turkey, Calabria,  Italy, Venice,  Dalmatia,  France, Germa-
ny,  Poland, Flanders and  England.   The mortality equalled
that of the  plague.   In Perfia alfo it raged,  with meafles.
   In  1615 the feafons were cold.   In 1616 a very  hot and dry
fummer—quartan  agues epidemic—not a family in  Germany
efcaped ;  but not fatal.
   In  1617 the fummer was hot and dry.
   In  1618 appeared a  remarkable comet in November,  (Short
mentions four) and  a town in Rhetia was  overwhelmed by an
earthquake.   Violent tempefts, inundations  and  hurricanes are
recorded of the fame year, and in Bermuda, the year following,
» ftorm tore up the ftrongeft trees by the roots.  In 1619 Heckla
difcharged her fiery contents.
   In  1618 broke  out in Naples a malignant Angina which rav-
 aged the place for  many years.  The plague appeared at Bergen, 
>7«
in Norway, in  Denmark and in Grand Cairo.  This  was tha
beginning of a  very peftilential period,  and here muft be intro-
duced the terrible peftilence which wafted the American Indians,
juft before our  anceftors  landed in Maffachufetts.  As this  is
one of the moft remarkable facts in hiftory, and one that demon-
ftrates the general caufes  of plague to belong to  other climates,
befides thofe of Egypt and the Levant, I have taken great pains
to afcertain the fpecies of difeafe, and the time of its appearance.
   Capt. Dermer,  an Englifh  adventurer,  who  had arrived in
America, in a  fifhing  veffel, a year  or two  before, paffed the
winter of 1618-19 in Monhiggan, an Indian town on the northern
coaft.   On the 19th of May 1619 he failed  along the coaft, on
his way to Virginia, and landed at feveral places, where he had '
been the year before ;  and he found many Indian towns totally
depopulated—in others a few natives remained alive, but " not
free of ficknefs ;"  "  their  difeafe,  the plague, for we might
perceive the fores of fome that had efcaped,  who defcribed the
fpots of fuch as ufually die." * Thefe are his words.  He found
fome villages,  which, in his  former vifit, were populous,  all
deferted—the Indians  " all dead."
                                       Purchas, vol. 4. 1778.
   Richard Vines,  and his  companions,  who had been fent  by
Ferdinando Gorges, to explore the  country, wintered among
the Indians, during the peftilence, and remained untouched, the
difeafe attacking none of the Englifh.   Belknap's Life of Gor-
ges, American Biography,  vol. 1. p. 355, but  the year is  not
fpecified.
   Gookin, in his account of the Indians, Hiftorical Collections,  •
 p. 8, places this peftilence in 1612 and 13,  about feven or eight
 years before the Englifh arrived at Plymouth.   But this cannot
 be accurate, unlefs  the difeafe  began to rage for a number of
 years previous  to   1618.   Capt. Dermer's  letter in Purchas is
 decifive of the time of the principal  ficknefs, and fortunately we
 have another authority which is indifputable.
    A fermon was preached  by Elder Cufhrmn  at Plymouth,  in
  1620,  juft after the colony arrived,  and fent  to London to be
 publifhed.  In the Epiftle Dedicatory which is dated December,
  21,  1621, the author has thefe words.   " They [the Indians] 
J77
 were very much wafted of late, by a great mortality,  that fell
 amongft  them, three years fince,  which, with their  own civil
 diffentions and bloody wars, hath fo wafted them, as I think the
 twentieth perfon is fcarce left alive."
                            Hazard's Collection, vol. i. p. 148.
   This correfponds alfo with the  accounts in Prince's Chronol-
 ogy from  original  manufcripts.   This fixes  the time  in 1618>
 precifely  agreeable to Capt.  Dermer's account.   This  was the
 year. of the principal mortality ; but like  other peftilential pe-
 riods, this  continued for a number of years ; for  fome of the
 Plymouth fettlers Went to Maffachufetts, (now Bofton) in 1622,
 to purchafe corn of the natives; and  " found among the In*
 dians, a great ficknefs, not unlike the plague, if not the fame."
 It raged in winter,  and affected the Indians only.
                     See Purchas 4.  1858.  Prince's Chron. 124.
   The time then  is fixed.   The  difeafe commenced, or raged
 with its principal violence in 1618 and through the winter.  This
 was the year of the  remarkable comet, when the plague  was
 raging in many parts of the world.  So  fatal was the peftilence
 in America, that the warriors from  Narraganfett to Penobfcot,
 the diftance to  which the difeafe feems to have  been  limited)
 were  reduced from 9000 to a few hundreds.*   When  our an-
 ceftors arrived in 1620, they found the bones of thofe who per-
 ifhed,  in many places,  unburied.
                                     Magnalia, book 1. p. 7.
   The kind of difeafe is another  important queftion.   Dermer
 feems to think it a  fpecies of plague,  and he  faw  fome of the
 fores of thofe who  had furvived.   Hutchinfbn, vol. 1. p. 34,
 35, fays fome have fuppofed it to have been the fmall-pox, but
 the Indians, who  were perfeftly  acquainted with this difeafe,
 after the Englifh arrived, always gave a very different account of
 it, and defcribed it  as a peftilential putrid fever.
   Fortunately General  Gookin, in the paffage above cited,  has
 left us a faa, which leaves no doubt as to the nature of the mal-
ady.   His words are—" What the difeafe  was, which fo gen-
  * Hutchirifon  fays, 30,000 of the  Maffachufetts tribe alone were
fuppofed to be reduced to 300.
                             Y 
178
erally and mortally fwept them away, I cannot learn.   Doubt-
lefs it  was fome peftilential  difeafe.   I have  difcourfed with
fome  old Indians, that  were then  youths, who  fay, that the
bodies all over were exceeding yellow  (defcribing it by a yellow
garment they fhowed me) both before they died and afterwards."
   This account may be relied on for its authenticity and it de-
cides the queftion, that the  peftilence was  the true  American
•plague, called yellow fever.   If any confirmation of this evi-
dence were neceffary, we have it in Prince's Chronology, where
it is recorded that this fever produced hemorrhagy from the nofe.
   At the time Gookin wrote, about forty or fifty years after
the fettlement of New-England, the infectious fevers  of autumn
were called  " peftilent,"  and they were frequent in the country,
but had not then acquired  the appellation of yellow.
                                   Winthrop's journal, p. 51.
   This fever has been frequent among the Indians fince the Eng-
lifh fettled the country.   Some inftances will be hereafter related.
   The  evidence  then  of the origin of the yellow fever in this
 country, between the 41ft and 44th degrees of latitude, is com-
 plete, leaving no room for doubt or controverfy.   No intercourfe
 exifted, in  1618, between this continent and the  Weft-Indies;
 nor did a fingle veffel pafs  between New-England and the iflands,
 till twenty years after that peftilence.   Not  one of the iflands
 was then fettled,  except  by the Spaniards, with whom our  an-
 ceftors had no  commerce.   Not an  European was among the
 Indians, except a French feaman, who had efcaped from a wreck
 a year or two before, and  Mr.  Vine's men, who arrived di-
 rectly from England.   Thefe men efcaped the difeafe ; none  be-
 ing attacked but the Indians ; another evidence of the origin of
 the malady in the country.
    In Gorges' defcription  of New-England,  there is the follow-
 ing account of this  peftilence.   " The fummer after the blazing
 ftar,  which moved from the eaft to the weft, even a little before
  the Englifh removed from Holland to Plymouth,  in New-Eng-
  land,  there befel a great mortality among the  Indians, the great-
  eft that had ever happened in  the memory of man,  or been ta-
  ken notice of by tradition,  laying wafte the eaft." 
tyg
   The author further remarks that this ftar was much noted ift
Europe.   In America it was feen in the fouth-weft,  for " thirty:
fleeps," as the Indians exprefs themfelves.   The defcription of
the comet  here given anfwers to that of Riverius,  who  repre-
fents it as  very fplendid, larger than  Venus,  moving  from the
eaft to the  weft,  and vifible from Nov. 27, 1618, till the clofe
of December.   This was the  time the peftilence  was  raging
among the Indians.   Gorges  indeed fays,  it was  the fummer
after the blazing ftar.  It is  true, that the difeafe continued not
only into   1619,  but occurred in autumn for  fome  years fubfe-
quent.  We hear of it among the Maffachufetts Indians in 1622.
From this  it appears that this was a long and fevere period of
peftilence,  between 1617 and 1623,  or a later  year; like the
prefent period in the United  Statec.
   It  muft  be remarked that in 1618, the fame year when the In-
dians in America were falling a prey to this malady, the angina ma-
ligna broke out in the kingdom of Naples, and fpread mortality over
the country, as authors  affirm,  for eighteen years.   This how-
ever is not underftood, as affirming the difeafe to have been con-
ftantly epidemic ; but as  prevailing at  certain times and feafons.
   The fame deftruaive principle operated  in Virginia.   Capt.
Dermer relates that when he arrived in the Chefapeek on the 8th
of September, " The firft news ftruck cold  to  our hearts, the
ficknefs over the land."*   Three hundred of the  fettlers died
in 1619.
   It  appears from Purchas  that the  emigrants   to Virginia in
1619, 20  and 21,  amqwited to 3570, in  42  fail of fhips.f
There were 600 fouls  in that colony  before thefe arrived, mak-
ing the whole number  4170.   Of thefe, 349 perifhed  in the
Indian maffacre of 1622, which would leave  3821 furvivors.
But in  1624 no more  than 1800 were living.   Scanty means
of fubfiftence might have contributed  to this mortality ; but moft
of it  was  in confequence of fevers, that were probably the ef-
   * Capt.  Dermer was probably the firft Englishman that ever palled
through the rapids between Long-Iiland and the mainland, now called
Hell-Gate.   He defcribes this paflage as a cataract, and mentions the
difference in times of high water, from the eaft and weft.
   f Mr. Jefferfon allows  only  1516 perfons to  have arrived in that
period. 
I$0
fetts of the climate, and a very unfavorable, ftate of the atrrrof-
phere.
   In 1620 a comet was followed by a cold winter.   In. England
the year was diftinguifhed by a violent tempeft,  a  preternatural
tide, and a very wet fummer-  The Hungarian fever, fo called,
fpread along the Rhine,  and in the next year became infeaious.
London became fickly.  The year 1621 was remarkable for an
epidemic malignant fmall-pox.
   In 1622 a comet is noted, and an earthquake in Italy.  In
New-England the  fpring was exceffively dry, from  the tbiid
week in May to the middle of July.
   In 1623 the epidemic fevers in Europe became more fatal,  as
the period  of peftilence approached.   This is obvious from the
London burials, which fhow a confiderable  increment.   Rive-
rius, who has  written on the epidemic fevers of this period in
the fouth of France, obferves that the mortality was great, until
he began to bleed and purge, when it abated.   He refers to the
city of  Montpelier, where almoft half died  who were  feized.
The difeafe was a fpecies of peftilence.
   This author concurs with the ancients in afcribing peftilence
to comets.   Speaking of the  fingular  ftar of  1618, he  fays,
" Hunc vero Cometam, morborum malignorum et peftilentium,
necnon etiam bellorum, quibus univerfa pene haaenus  Europa
deyaftata eft,  praefagium ac prenuntium fuiffe,  credere  non alie-
num eft."
                                      De febre peft. 533.  fol.
   The author falls JBto the error, which has brought into con-
tempt the opinions of the ancient fables, in regard to  the influt
ence of the ftars  on man, and the ftate of the  elements.   He
jffcribes moral as well as phyfical effeas  to that  influence.  Ad-
mitting the diftant orbs to have fome effea on the air or fire of
our fyftem, and  through  that medium to augment or  diminifh
the ftimulus which aas on the human body and  of courfe on the
paffions, by the exciting powers ; yet any moral effeas derived
from this fource,  muft be fo inconfiderable,  or fo blended with
the effeas of other caufes,  as intereft, ambition,  love,  revenge
and the like,  that the degree of influence could  not be afcer-
tained, nor the effects of one caufe diftinguifhed  from thofe of the 
'l*I
other.   I rejeft  therefore all moral effeas afcribed  to comets 5
but the phyfical effeas are, beyond queftion, great and extenfive.
   The difeafes of this period continued to  multiply and grow
more malignant in 1624,  when the epidemic affumed the form
of the fpotted fever.   In 1625 this fever turned to the plague,
and in 1626 changed back to the fpotted fever, fays Lotichius,
Cited by Short.   This is not an unufual faa.
   The plague in 1625  fwept away 35,000 of the citizens of
London.   It raged  at  the  fame time in  Italy, Denmark and
Leyden, and how much more extenfively, I am not informed.
   In this year another  comet was feen ;  feveral  cities in Spain
were overwhelmed by inundations ;  the winter was fevere ; the
fummer, hot and moift weather ; and  there was an eruption of
a volcano in Iceland.   It is  remarkable  alfo that, in this year,
a volcano burft forth in  Palma, one of the Canaries, with  a vi-
olent earthquake.
   The  fummer of 1626 was very hot,  and the plague continued
its ravages in many parts of Europe, as in Wittemburg and the
vicinity; and in  Lyons, which  loft 60,000  of its inhabitants.
This was the prelude to more general  calamity in France ; for
in the following years the whole  country felt the diftreffing ef-
feas of the malady.
   In 1627 and  8 the fame  difeafe prevailed in various other
countries,  efpecially in  Augfburg after a famin.   In 1629 the
peftilence raged in Amfterdam.   In 1630  Cambridge in Eng-
land was vifited.   It was a very  fickly fummer in London, fo
that the citizens were alarmed and many retired to the country;
but finding the country very fickly,  they returned.
   In 1629 Pola, a town  in the  Venetian territories, loft 700a
inhabitants by an earthquake.
   Of the peftilence  in this period, there was hardly a fufpen-
fion.   Particular  countries  enjoyed fhort  intervals of health;
but Europe and America were feverely annoyed by peftilential
difeafes between  1632 and 1637.
   In 1630 happened great explofions of fubterranean fire.   A-
pulia ldft 17,000 people by an earthquake;  and Lima, in South- 
i?2
America, was laid in "ruins by the  like cataftrophe.  At this
time the  plague prevailed in Vienna.
   In 1631  happened a memorable earthquake in Naples,  with
a tremendous eruption of Vefuvius,  which continued or was re-
peated in 1632.  In this  eruption, Baglivus affures us, Vefu-
vius  loft  240 feet of its  altitude.
   Cotemporary  with thefe difcharges of fire and lava,  was an
tryfipelous fever in Europe with inflammation in  the jaws, and
an increafe  of mortality,  antecedent to a general plague.   See
the bills of mortality for London,  Augfburg  and  Drefden,
where the progrefs of the malignity in the epidemics, is diftina-
ly marked, by an augmentation t>f the bills, till the plague in 1636.
   In 1633 appeared a comet, which was followed by a fevere
winter.  The fame winter in America was mild,  fays Winthrop,
p. 61.   Southerly winds prevailed till the clofe of winter, when
there were great fnows.    It is very common that fevere cold is
progreflive,  happening in Europe one year before it does in A-
merica, as will hereafter appear.
   In 1633  the year of the comet,  commenced   an eruption  of
Etna,  which continued for four or five years, through this whole
peftilential period.   London was fhaken by  an earthquake, and
at Halifax in Yorkfhire raged a  very malignant fever.
   In this year alfo a "  peftilent fever," invaded the little colo-
ny at  Plymouth in  Maffaehufetts,  and carried  off twenty  of
their number.  This was  a great mortality for that fmall fettle-
ment.   It muft have been occafioned by a fever of domeftic ori-
gin,  a6  the colony   had,  at that time, no intercourfe with for-
eign  countries,  except  with  England.   No fufpicion has ever
been entertained that the difeafe was of foreign origin.
   At the fame time, the Indians were invaded by the fmall-pox
which fwept them  away  in multitudes.   It fpread  from Narra-
ganfett to Pifcataqua, and weftward to Conneaicut river.
   The fummer of this  year was remarkable for  innumerable
large flies, of the fize of bees,  which made the woods  refound
with a humming noife.
                         Hubbard's M. S. p. 131.
                         Winthrop's Journal, 51—56—59—61.
   We have then a remarkable evidence of the extent of a pef- 
l83
tilential principle in the elements.   The fame fpecies of difcafel
appeared, at  the fame time,  in  Augfburg,  Drefden, London,
and in America.   Probably the fame fpecies prevailed over moft;
of Europe ;  for we hear of them in every part of Holland in
the following year.  The difeafes predominant,  previous to the
plague, are of the eruptive kind :  Such was the cafe in the pref-
ent inftance.   In  America,  the  epidemic among  the  Indians
took the form of the fmall-pox ; and altho it is the current opin-
ion that  the fmall-pox is communicated only by contagion,  yet
my inveftigations have  fatisfied me that  this  is a great error-
The fmall-pox is  one  of the family of eruptive difeafes, which
belong to almoft every  peftilential period.   Before its origin and
progrefs diad  been  affeaed by  the art of innoculation, it ufed to
be epidemic,  in  large cities,  under that inflammatory conditioa
of the atmofphere, which origiaated mealies, influenza, anginas
and plague, and rarely  or never at any other time.   This difeafe
therefore,  tho communicable at any time by infeaion,  is gene-
rated in  particular habits without any infixing caufe ab extra ;
and is the offspring of that ftate  of the atmofphere which gen»
erates other eruptive epidemics.
   In 1634 the plague fhowed itfelf at Ratifbon.  The fummer
in America was hotter than ufaal, and the following winter was
very  cold.
   In 1635 the plague appeared in Leyden and 20,000 inhabit-
ants  periflied.  This year was diftinguifhed for an eruption of
Vefuvius, violent earthquakes, an inundation in Holftein which
deftroyed 6co people and 50,000 head of cattle, and a terrible
tempeft in America on the  15th of Auguft  O. S. which brot
in a remarkable fwell of the' ocean.  It  will appear hereafter
that moft of  the violent ftorms and hurricanes, which fweep the
earth, happen during or near the time of the difcharges of great}
quantities of fire  from volcanoes.  In this year, Etna  and Ve-
fuvius were both in a ftate of eruption.   The plague appeared
alfo in Mentz and other parts of Germany.
   In  1636  there was an eruption of Heckla.  The peftilence
was general in proportion to this univerfal agitation of the central 
184
 fires.  In London it prevailed in 1636 after a regular increafe
 of previous malignity in difeafes.
   Of the progrefs of the peftilence in Holland, and efpecially
 in Nimeguen,  we have an accurate account in the treatife of the
 able Diemerbroeck, which is by far the moft learned and philo-
 sophic work on the plague,  that I have feen.   Not that I believe
 his opinion of the caufe of the plague ;  but his view of the fub-
jea is otherwife  correa and worthy of univerfal attention.
   In 1635 when the plague appeared in Leyden, the malignant
 difeafes,  its precurfors, appeared in  various parts  of Holland.
 In Nimeguen,  thefe precurfors were meafles, fmall-pox,  dyfen-
 teries of  the worft type,  but efpecially the fpotted fever.   The
 malignity of this fever increafed, until it  changed  Into the  real
plague—" donee in apertiflimam peftem tranfiret," fays Diemer-
 broeck.
   The plague appeared, in a few cafes, in November 1635, but
 made little progrefs, during the winter.  In  January appearan-
 ces were more alarming ; in March the malady fpread  rapidly
 and continued to increafe till autumn.   Scarcely a houfe efcaped;
 more than half who were  feized, died ; and medical aid was
 baffled.   The difeafe declined in the following winter, and was
 extinguifhed by a fevere froft in February 1637.
  The fummers  of 1636 and 7 were warm, the winds conftantly
from the  fouth and weft, *' cum magnis aeris fqualoribus,"  fays
Diemerbroeck.
   In 1635 a  dyfentery  prevailed in moft  parts of Germany.
 In 1636  the eruption from Etna was augmented, and Rome was
feverely aflliaed  with the plague.   In 1637  the fame diftemper
raged in  fome parts of Holland, in Denmark, Conftantinople
and Natolia ; after which year the difeafe declined or difappeared.
  This period of difeafe was alfo experienced in Virginia, where,
fays Winthrop, died 1800 people in  the year 1635.
  The fummer of 1638 was  very hot and dry in England, as it
 was in  America, after a very fevere winter,  and cold fpring.
   In this year was a  moft tremendous  earthquake  in Calabria,
 memorable for the deftruaion of whole towns and the lofs of
 30,000 lives. 
185
 - On  the  iirft of June, between 3 and 4 o'clock in the after*
poon, in a  clear warm  day, with a wefterly wind,  happened a
great earthquake in America, which extended from the Pifcat-
aqua to the Conneaicut, and perhaps over the whole northern
region.   The year was alfo diftinguifhed for tempeftuous weath-
er ; not for ordinary ftorms which occur many times every year,
but violent  hurricanes of vaft extent.   On the third of Auguft
a tempeft  raifed the tide, on the Narraganfett  fhore, fourteen
feet  above  common fpring tides.   Autumn was very  rainy
and confiderable fnow fell in Oaober, which our anceftors afcri-
bed to the  earthquake.   On the  25th  of  September, another
mighty tempeft occurred and the higheft fwell of the fea  that
had then been obferved in America.  If I miftake not, the ftate
of the atmofphere, during earthquakes and eruptions of volca-
noes,  is peculiarly difpofed, not only to produce high wind?}
but to generate fnow  and hail.
  This year was very fickly in America.  In December a gen-
eral faft was obferved,  one reafon for which was the prevalence
of the " fmall-pox and fevers."
                                         Winthrop, p. 16 c.
  The fpring of 1639 'n America was very dry,  there was no
rain from April 26th, to June 4th, O. S.  and  from the fouth*
ward came fwarms  of  fmall flies, which covered the fea, but
*hey d»d not invade the  land.
                                     Winthrop, p. i8r—184.
  The plague continued to infeft London, without interruption,
from 1636 to  1648 ; fee the bills of mortality ; but  it was not
epidemic, nor very fatal.
  In  1640 a hard winter, and  epidemic pleurifies were fatal  iq
Europe.  The following year, a malignant  fever was epidemic,
in England, and other countries.
  In  September nth appeared, in the evening, a remarkable
light in the heavens, about  30 or 40 feet in  length;  it moved
rapidly and was vifible about a minute.  It was feen in Bofton,
jn Plymouth and in  New-Haven,  and to the fpeaators every 
i86
where, appeared to be in the fame part of the heavens—of courfe
muft have been of a great altitude.
                                         Winthrop, p. 232.
   I notice this faa as it confirms the teftimony  of ancient wri-
ters, who, in  defcribing the feafons and  phenomena of pefti-
lential periods,  frequently mention  fimilar appearances.  This
feems to have  been of the figure  of a beam, called by the Latin
writers, trabs,  but it differed from thofe  meteors difcribed by
ancient writers, in the rapidity of its motion.
   In November following a feries of tempefts took place, and
die higheft tide ever known  at Bofton.
   This furnmer of 1641 was remarkably wet and cold, fo that
a great part of the corn  did not come to maturity.  Thofe who
fed on it,  the  year following, were  exceedingly troubled with
worms,  and fome perfons found a remedy in  leaving bread and
living on fifh.
                                         Winthrop, p. 234.
   The following winter was the moft fevere that had been known
for 40 years.   The bay  at Bofton was frozen  fo that  teams and
loads  paffed to  the town from the  neighboring  iflands.   The
fnow  was deep, and  Chefapeek bay was  nearly frozen.   At
Bofton, the ice extended to fea,  as far as  the eye could reach.
The following fpring  1642 was early, but wet.
                                     Winthrop, p. 340, 243.
   The oldeft Indians declared they coujd fcarcely recollea fuch
a winter.
   This fevere winter  was followed by a very  fickly fummer on
the Delaware river.   Such was the mortality among the fettlers
from New-Haven, who  had not long been  in that country, that
it broke up their fettlement.  The Swedes fettled there fuffered
much by the fame difeafe.
                                                Ibm. 354.
   The very wet weather of the  laft year produced a dearth of
corn in Bofton,  in the fpring of  1643, and myriads of pigeons
appeared alfo and did no fmall injury, the fame feafon.  It is an
old obfervation, in America, that pigeons  are uncommonly  nu-
merous in the fpring of fickly years.   The Maffachufetts colony
fuffered alfo from the number  of mice which  devoured their
grain, and the bark of the fruit-trees. 
187
.   Several fingular meteors were feen this year in the neighbor*
hood of Bofton.*
   One fact in the foregoing  account deferves notice; the ex-
treme winter in America was in 1641-2,  one year later than ia
Europe.   Several inftances have occurred  in other  periods,
Which feem to indicate a kind of progreffivenefs in  great  cold
from eaft to weft.  It often happens  however that the winter is
fevere  at the fame time, in both hemifpheres, as in 1607-8—
1683-4—x 762-3—1779-80.
   In England, in 1643 a malignant fever was epidemic and few
efcaped.   In autumn,  it put  on peftilential fymptoms  and pe-
techias  The fame year, an eruption of Vefuvius and of Etna.
   In 1644 a malignant fever was epidemic in Denmark.
   The fummer of 1645 being exceffively hot, there prevailed a
contagious  dyfentery,  which was fatal in England.   For the
great mortality  in England,  through a feries of years at this
time, fee the London bills.
   In this year a great ficknefs prevailed  among the Indians oa
Martha's Vineyard—few efcaped.
                         Neal's Hift. New-England, vol. 1. 264.
   In 1646 inundations laid a part of Holland, Friefland  and
Zealand under wj.ter  fo fuddenly, as to deftroy more  than one
hundred thoufand lives and three hundred villages.   Gorges re-      ^
fates that two mock funs, with other fingular celeftial phenomena,
were feen this year in America.
                                                     P. 41.
   In 1647 May 13th, a moft tremendous earthquake in Chili,
South-America, funk whole mountains into the earth and nearly
ruined the large city of Santiago.
                                         Ulloa, book 8. ch. 7.
   This year appeared a comet.  The plague  in London alfi»
was more fevere,  and appeared after this year to fubfide.
   In 1646 and 7 the Ukrain was ravaged by locufts.

   * Here ends Winthrop's  Journal—a circumftance to  be regretted.
Hubbard's Manufcript will in part fupply materials for this work, for
fome years fubfequent.  But for the laft  30 years of the  laft centory,
I  can obtain very little  information of the ftate  of the  feafons  as4
health in America. 
iS8
   A. Di  t647-   This year appeared an epidemic  catarrh i;'s
 America, and the firft of which we have any account.   It is not
 named either influenza or catanh, but is clearly the fame difeafe.
 It  is thus defcribed in Hubbard's Manufcript, p. 276.   "  In
 4647  an epidemic  ficknefs  paffed through the whole country,
 affeaing the  colonifts and the natives,  Englifh, French and
 Dutch.   It began with a cold and in many accompanied with a
 light fever.   Such  as bled or ufed cooling drinks died—fuch as
 made ufe of cordials and more  ftrengthening  things,  recovered
 for the moft part.   It extended through the plantations in Amer-
 ica,  and in the  Weft-Indies.   There died in Barbadoes and St.
 Kitts, 5  or 6000 each.   Whether it was a plague, 01 peftilential
 fever,  in  the  iflands, accompanied by great drouth,  which cut
 fhort potatoes  and fruits."
   This epidemic was in the  fame year with  the earthquake in
 Chili,  but the date of the difeafe is not recorded.
   In Conneaicut prevailed a malignant fever,  occafioned by the
 exdeflive heat  of the fummer. f
   The year 1648 appears to have been lefs fickly, in London ;
 but in the fouth of Europe,  malignant difeafes were the harbin-
 gers of the plague, which in  1649 carried off 200,000 people in
 the fcuthern provinces of Spain.   In  Ireland and Shropfhii e the
 plague prevailed  in  the fame year, and a fatal fever in France.
 The fmall-pox was epidemic  in Boftop.
                 Townfend's Travels, vol. 2. 219.   Short, vol. 1.
                 Douglas' Summary, vol. 2. 395.
  In 1650 was an eruption of Etna,  and an earthquake in the
iiorth and weft of England.   In this and the following year the
 plague continued in Ireland.
   In 1650 the influenza fpread over  Europe.  In 1651  many
defolating floods happened in  Holland and France—in Italy,  a
quinfy or fore  throat proved very fatal to children.  Thefe dif-
 eafes were fucceded by malignant fevers, and plague in moft parts
 of Europe, except in England.  The  fummer  of  1651 was hot.
   In 1652 appeared a comet.  A dangerous fynochus prevailed
in Fiance and a tertian fever  in Denmark.
  t Of this fever died the Rev.  Thomas Hooker, and many others in
 Hartford,  Sec Neal's Hift. N. E. vol. 1. 289.  Magnalia, b.  3. 67. 
189
    In 1653 a flight earthquake occurred in New-England, in OcY.
    The years  1652 and 3 were remarkably dry in England, and
  in 1654 public thanks were ordered for a fupply of rain.
                                          Mercurius Politicus.
    In  1654 the plague made its appearance in Denmark.   Some
  fevere epidemic had prevailed in New-England ; for in the fpring
  of 1654 a general faft was appointed by the government of Con-
  neaicut, one reafon affigned for which  was, " the mortality
  which had been  among the peopla of Maffachufetts."   What
  the  difeafe was, I am not informed.
                                        Trum. Hift, Con. 225.
    In 16^5 occurred the fecond  epidemic catarrh,  recorded in
  the  Annals of America.  The following is the account of it in
  Hubbard's Manufcript,  p.  285.
    " In  1655 there  was another faint cough that paffed through
  the whole country of New-England, occafioned by fome ftrange
  diftemper or infeaion  of the air.   It  was fo epidemical, that
  few  perfons efcaped.   It began about the end of June.   Few
  were able to vifit  their friends or perform the laft teftimony of
  refpea to any of their relations at  a diftance.  Of this died Mr.
  Nathaniel Rogers, miniftcr of Ipfwich."
                                 See alfo Magnalia, b.  3. 108.
    It will be obferved that this epidemic commenced in the heat
 of fummer, and that its invafion was fudden and univerfal.   In
 November  1655 occurred an earthquake in South-America.
    Of the feafons  in America I have no account;  but in Europe
 the winter  of 1654-5 was extremely fevere.   The  rivers and
 harbors in Holland were all made faft with ice ; a feries of fnow
 ftorms took place in April,  and as late as the  19th there was a
 fevere froft  at Bruffels.
               See Mercurius Politicus, a London paper for 1655.
   In March  1655 was  an  eruption of Vefuvius; it was  very
 fickly in the north of England ; and there were great  tempefts of
 Wind and hail in 1654 and 5.
   In 1654  the plague appeared at  Chefter in England ;  but did
 not become  epidemic ; owing, it was fuppofed,  to the precaution
 of confining the difeafed to their houfes.*  At the fame time
  * This may poflibly hive been the cafe ; but it is probable the opin-
ion is not weli founded.  See this point confidered in the 16th fectioa. 
igo
$e difeafe was raging in Turkey, in Prefburg, Hungary and in
the city of Mofcow, it is alledged, periflied 200,000 inhabitants.
We have  here precife and authentic evidence, that the plague
appeared in Chefter, in the north-weft of England, in Denmark,
in Ruflia, Hungary and Turkey, in the fame feafon.  To prove
this to be the  effea of a general principle,  we have numberfefs
authorities, in the Gazettes of that and the next year,  that ma-
lignant difeafes prevailed over Europe.  See the paper above cited.
Thus when a few cafes of plague occurred in Chefter,  fatal dif-
eafes prevailed over the north of England.   And it is remark-
able in  this inftance, that the epidemic plague appeared in the
north  of Europe before it did in Italy—an exception  to  die gen-
eral courfe of that difeafe.
   In  1655 the plague was more general in Europe.   It prevailed
injSardinia, Malta,  Leyden,  Amfterdam,  and in Riga, a Ruf-
fian port at the mouth of the Divina.  There died in Riga 9000
—Amfterdam 13,200—Leyden  13,000.
   In   1656 the fame  difeafe invaded Naples, Rome, Genoa,
Candia,  Benevento, and moft parts of  the Neapolitan territories.
In the city of Naples, perifhed  three fourths of  the inhabitants,
and in Benevento,  a greater proportion.   The numbers of deaths
were  eftimated as follows—
   In  the city of Naples died 240,000—furvived 50,000.
   In the Neapolitan territories 400,000.
   In  Benevento died  9000—furvived 500.
   In Rome about  10,000.
   In  Genoa  in  1656,  10,000,  and in 1657, 70,000,  and
 14,000 only furvived.
   In  Riga 9000.
   In Thorn  8200.
   I have not  materials for a complete  view of the difeafes of
 this peftilential period.   But it is to be obferved, that influenza
 prevailed over Europe in 1650,  and difeafes of the throat in It-
 aly in 1651—difeafes which  feem to  precede peftilential fevers
 on moft occafions.                   »
   The fummer of 1656 was hot, and an earthquake in the fouth
 of Italy accompanied the dreadful mortality.
         See Univ. Hift. vol. 2%. 318.  Mercurius Politicus, 1656.
         Encyclopedia, art. Plague. 
19-i
  The influenza in America was alfo fucceeded by fatal epidemic
difeafes, altho I have no means of determining what they were.
The account recorded is that  there " was a great ficknefs and
mortality, throughout New-England in 1658.   The feafon was
intemperate and the crops light."  Trumbull, p. 244.  This year
was alfo  diftinguifhed  for what is called in our  annals, the
"  Great Earthquake."   This is  an  inftance of a  violent con-
cuflion of the earth,  in  the fame  year with violent rains ; but
unfortunately I can find  no account which phenomenon preceded
the  other.  The fummer was fb rainy, that the  chriftianized
Indians obferved days of fafting,  on that account, apprehending
that their crops would fail and the world be  drowned.
                                           Neal, vol. 1. 259.
   The introduaion of the plague into Naples was afcribed to a
tranfport of foldiers from Sardinia.   How the  difeafe came  to
be in Sardinia, we are not informed.  But this report,  like nine
tenths of  all  the ftories  about infeaion, is demonftrably a mif-
take.  The account given in the hiftory of the difeafe,  is, that
it was at firft called by phyficians  a " malignant fever."   One
of  the faculty, a man probably of more  obfervation and firm-
aefs than  the  others, affirmed the  diftemper  to be peftilential,
and for his audacity,  was  imprifoned by the Viceroy,  who ap-
prehended the report might injure the bufinefs and  reputation  of
the city.
   We have then another inftance  of the uncertainty  in the
minds of  medical gentlemen, about  the nature  of the  difeafe,
when it firft appeared, becaufe it  was-not charaaerized by the
diftinaive marks of the  plague, the  glandular tumors.  This
circumftance  demonftrates that the difeafe was not imported, but
an epidemic ; appearing firft, as all great  plagues firft appear,  in
the  form of catarrh,  inflammatory  fevers, affeaions  of the
throat, and typhus fevers.
   There cannot be a more clear  and demonftrable truth,  than
that a difeafe of fpecific contagion, muft  communicate  a difeafe
of  the fame fpecific charaacr.   If the plague has this fpecies  of
contagion, it cannot communicate  another difeafe, a malignant
fever, for inftance, which has a different charaaer or type, and 
                            192

16 deftitute of the diftinaive marks of the plague.   A fingle iii.,
ftance might  occur,  in which the difeafe  might not bear the
charaaer  of its original;  but  it is  abfurd to fuppofe,  that a
plague with glandular tumors, can communicate and render epi-
demic a fever without glandular tumors.
   Yet all fevere plagues  firft appear in  the form of fuch fever,
Or other difeafes without tumors.  I challenge the followers  of
Mead to produce an exception.   Hence the uncertainty that per-
plexes the phyfician and the magiftrate at the commencement of
the plague—an uncertainty that has  originated in the errors re-
fpeaing the fpecific nature of the difeafe and its propagation hy
infeaion—errors as fatal  to great cities,  as  to truth  and philofo-
phy.
   Had the real origin of this difeafe been known, the certainty
of the exiftence of it in Naples, Venice, Rome,  Vienna, Am-
fterdam and London, would have induced  the  citizens to aban-
don the places, before the  diftemper  had made much progrefs,
aad  multitudes of lives would  have  been  faved—an expedient
praaifed in America, with the moft  falutary effeas.
   In Genoa, the difeafe manifefted a more diftina  progreffion ;
10,000 died  the firft year,  and about 70,000 the  fecond.
   When this diftemper appeared in Malta,  Candia and Sardinia,
every poflible precaution was taken to prevent its introduaion in-
to Genoa, by flopping intercourfe with thofe places ; but in vain.
   When the  report of a malignant  infeaious fever in  Naples
prevailed in May 1656,  an alarm was excited in Rome; a com-
mittee of  health watched over the fafety of that city ; four of
the gates were fhut and barred ;  the others were  guarded with'
vigilance to prevent any perfon from  entering who could  be fuf-
peaed of infeaon ;  but all  effortswere ufelefs.   The real trutfc '
was*the difeafe  was an epidemic, no  more under the control  of
health laws, than the  influenza  and fore throat which had pre-
ceded it.
   The fummer of 1657  in England was very hot, and fucceed-
ed by a long  fevere winter and deep fnow.
   In April 1658  commenced in Europe an epidemic catarrh,
which v/as fo fudden  in its attack as to feize a whole village io a 
                           121
 night.  It was fevere and fatal to old people—its courfe was fi»«
 ifhed in about fix weeks.   The fummer was hot and fevers with
 vertigo and delirium,  were epidemic.
                       See Short, vol. i. and Morton's Treatife.
   It will be remarked  that the year 1647 when the influenza
 invaded America, was a fickly year in  Europe.   In 1655 when
 the plague was epidemic in Europe, the influenza again prevailed
 in  America.   In  1658 when the influenza invaded  Europe,
 great ficknefs and mortality occurred in America,  Thefe alter-
 nations of epidemic difeafes will be obferved in the fubfequent
 ftages of  this hiftory.
   In  1659 prevailed  the Cynanche Trachealis in America—the
 £rft inftance mentioned in our  annals.   Magnalia, b.  4.  156.—^
 This difeafe  was alfo fucceeded by malignant difeafes, for the
 Legiflature of Conneaicut in  Oaober 1662  appointed a day of
 thankfgiving,  two reafons  afligned for which were, the  " abate-
 ment of the ficknefs in the country, and afupply of rain in time
 of drouth."
   This was the commencement of a very fickly period in Europe*
 In  1660 occurred ah  eruption of Vefuvius, and of a volcano in
 Iceland.   The year  was  very tempeftuous, and earthquakes
 fhook England, France and  America.    In  1661 appeared a
 comet.
   In 1662 another confiderable earthquake happened in New-
 England ; and in this year was the drouth above mentioned.—*
 In  1663 Canada was convulfed for five months by a feries of
 fucceffive fhocks—fmall  rivers  and fprings were dried up—the
 waters of others were tinaured  with the tafte of fulphur—an
 immenfe ridge of mountains fubfided to a plain.  Such were the
.phenomena in America which marked this peftilential period.
        Mem. Royal Society, vol. 6.  86.  Neal's Hift. N.  England.
               Mtm. Amer. Acad. vol. 1. 263.
   In 1663 a malignant difeafe feized the inhabitants of the Ve«
 netian territories and  60,000 perifhed.    The  country, at the
 fame time, was overrun by innumerable fmall worms.
  In the fame year, a memorable mortality occurred in England,
 among the cattle and  fheep, by means of a difeafe in  which the
                           A a 
194
liver was eaten by  fmall worms, and in fome cafes, the lungs.
JThefe phenomena  were  the precurfors  of the  plague in many
pai*s of Europe.   In England* all difeafes affumed new violence,
as early as in  1661, preparatory to  the great plague.   See Sy-
denham.   In  Holland, the plague appeared at Heufden, in 1663.
   The winter of 1663-4 was  mild.   In the following fummer,
Pruffia was afliiaed by a malignant purple  fever, attended  with
tumors or inflammatien in  the  throat,  very fatal  to the young,
Bonnetus.   Med.  Septen. p. 206.   A fpecies of fcarlatina.
   In  1664 appeared a comet ; another in  1665, and a third in
1666.   In 1664 began an eruption of  Etna, which lafted,  with
various degrees of  violence, till the year 1669, when it ended
with a  moft dreadful  explofion.  This  period  corresponds with
the epidemics defcribed by Sydenham.
   In  1664 the fummer in England was wet, and  cattle died of
difeafes.   In New-England commenced the mildew of wheat,
which  has rendered it impoflible to cultivate that grain, on  the
Atlantic  coaft of the three  Eaftern States.   The winter  of
1664-5,  was  terribly fevere  in  England  ; the Thames was a
bridge of ice,  and  in January happened earthquakes, in Coven-
try and Buckinghamfhire.   During this  winter  inflammatory
fevers  and quinfies, fays Sydenham,  were more frequent in Lon-
don, than were before known.   Thefe  gave  way in May to a
malignant fever,  which could hardly be diftinguifhed  from the
plague, which, in June,  became the controling epidemic.
   Such were the phenomena of the peftilential period under con-
fideration  ;  and at this time,  the plague  appeared in Holland^
and in England.    Englifh authors all  agree that the difeafe was
imported into England from Holland in fome bales of cotton ! O
fatal bales  of  cotton ! fays Short.  This tale  has been record-
ed and repeated by every writer on the fubjea, without a fingle
document in evidence to prove that any cotton  was imported, or
that the  firft  perfons feized had ever  feen fuch  cotton.  The
whole tale refts on affertion.   That the feeds  of the  diftemper
were not imported is evident from die acknowledged fiufts relative
to its origin ;  and  is  demonftrated  by the hiftory of the prece.i
ding difeafes'found in the works of Sydenham. 
m
  The  origin  of the  peftilence, which arrived to its crifis in
J 665,  is to be traced back to the year 1661, when malignant dif*
ea&s began to appear in different and diftant parts of the world.
In London,  the intermitting  tertian fever, fays  Sydenham, be->
came epidemic, and differed from the fame difeafe in other years,
by new and unufual fymptoms, which in fhort,  amounted to this,
that they were " all more  violent."   In winter, the  difeafe yield-
ed, as ufual,  to cold, but continued fevers prevailed every  win-
ter.   Thefe  fevers, with fome  variations, continued until the
fpring of  1665, and the  bills fhow how much they augmented
the mortality in London.   This increafed malignity in ufual dif-
eafes,  with an increafe of the number and mortality of epidemics,
is the conftant precurfor of  the plague or other peftilential fevers.
   Notwithftanding the clear evidence of thefe facts, authors have
conjured up a tale of importation which would difgrace a fchool-
boy by its inconfiftency.*   The account ftates, " That a violent
plague had raged in  Holland in  1663, on which account, the
importation of merchandize from that country was prohibited by
the Britifh Legiflature in  1664.  Notwithftanding this prohibi-
tion, it feems the plague hadaaually been imported ; for in the clofe
of 1664,  two or three  perfons  died fuddenly in  Weftminfter,
with marls of the plague on their bodies.—Some of their neighbors,
terrified at the thoughts of their danger,  removed into the city ;
but too late  ; for  they foon died of  the  plague, and communi-
cated the infeaion to others.   It was  confined however through
a hard, frofty winter, till the middle of February,  when it  again
appeared  in the Parifh of St. Giles, to  which it  had been ori-
ginally brought;  and after another long  reft,  till April, fhowed
its malignant force afrefh, as foon as  the warmth of fpring gave
it opportunity.   At  firfl, it took  off one here and there, without
any certain proof of their having tnfe3ed each other.
                               Encyclopedia,  art. London,   at.
   In the fubftance  of the  foregoing  ftatement, all authors are
agreed, and  I want no other proof that the report of the impor-
tation of the difeafe is all a vulgar, childifh tale, the propagation
   *  If this language fhould be thought too fevere, I can  fincerely fay,
that in my opinion, no language can be too fevere for the careleflhefs
which-has originated a fyftem of error on this important fubject. 
                           196

cf which is a difgraceto  philofophy  and to the faculty of that
age.
   In the firft place we have no authentic evidence in any author,
that any bales of cotton were brought from Holland to London,
at that time.   The whole affertion refts on vulgar report,  and is
wholly unfupported by proof—had the report been well founded,
the faa might have  been afcertained,  and in an affair of fuch
magnitude,  probably would have  been.   The importation of
goods from Holland  was prohibited by aa of parliament.
   In the fecond place, the difeafe firft appeared in Weftminfter,
not in the commercial city  of London, but  in a  place where
bales of cotton would be the  leaft likely to be depofited and
opened ; Weftminfter being the refidence of the nobility and gen-
try, rather than a place of commerce.
   In  the third place,  no proof is ftated that the peifons firft
feized had any conneaion with bales of cotton.
   In the fourth place, the death  of two or three perfons, with
the plague-mark's on  their  bodies,  in December  1664, is-no
evidence of any imported infeaion at that time ; for the bills of
mortality fhow, and the reader is defired to turn to  them, to be
fatisfied, that afmaller number died that year of the plague, than
had died of it in  any  of the fix preceding years.   In the year
1659 died of that  difeafe 36—in  1661 died 20, and  every
year more or lefs.   In 1664 died  but 6  of the plague, and yet
this number, fmall as it was, muft be proof  of the importation
of infeaion, that year, when greater numbers, in preceding years*
are paffed over in filence !  In fuch accounts, there  muft be want
of knowledge, or want of honefty.   The plague imported from
Holland !  when the city of  London had not been free from it,
for 28 years preceding !  See the bills of mortality  !—
   Befides,  why in the name of common  fenfe, fhould " two or
three," infeaed perfons in 1664, fpread the plague  over Lon-
don,  and defolate the city, when  twelve, fourteen, twenty and
thirty-fix infeaed perfons, who died in preceding years, produced
no ill effeas ? To account for fuch effeas on the principle of in-
feaion, is not poffible ; and men of fcience ought to be afhamed
of fuch abfurdities. 
i9?
  in the  fifth  place,  the  fufpenfion of the difeafe, during fijfe
weeks, is evidence, that infeaion had no agency in fpreading the
difeafe.   It is  a faa  known and acknowledged, that infeaion
cannot be preferved, for a tenth part of that  time in the open
air.   Air diffolves the poifon of any difeafe, in a very fhort time*
Infeaion can only be  preferved in confinement,  as in clofe vef-
fels or packages of  goods.   The walls of an infeaed houfe will
be clean fed by the aaion of air,  in a very few  days, fo as to be
perfealy harmlefs.   During the fix weeks fufpenfion of the plague
in London, where  was the infeaion concealed to preferve it from
air and froft ?
   Was the fomes  fhut up by defign for a  few weeks and then
fet at liberty ?  Had the perfons  who were firft  feized in  Febru-
ary, any  accefs to  the infeaed  houfes  or clothes of thofe who
died in December ? Is this probable ? There is no fuggeftion of
this fort.
   Then again another interval of feveral weeks elapfed from the
death  of thofe in  February,  before others were feized.   It  is
not folely improbable ; but I  aver,  that the fomes or infeaing
principle of no difeafe whatever, can be fufpended in a ftate of
inaaion,  in the open  air,  and  afterwards give  rife to  difeafe.
Unlefs therefore it can be proved that  the perfons who died in
April had accefs to infeaion,  which had been clofely confined
from the air, they could never have received the difeafe from the
virus generated in February or December.  Now it appears from
the ftatement,  that the perfons, feized  in February,  lived in a
different part of the city, from thofe who died in December,
and no fuggeftion that they had an intercourfe  with any infefted
objea.
   But the laft  fentence of the ftatement difproves fully all affer-
tions  and fufpicions refpeaing  infeaion.   It  feems that  when
the difeafe fhowed itfelf in fpring, it feized one here, and another
there,  in fcattered fituations, " without any  certain proof of
their having infeaed each other."   This is ufually the cafe irr the
plague, and in the  yellow fever, in the ulcerous fore throat, the
dyfentery and other contagious,  epidemic difeafes.   The whole
myftery is, that any difeafe will firfl feize the conftitutions leg# 
                           198
rapable of refilling that ftate of air, from which the difeafe pro-
ceeds.   One perfon will fuftain a vitiated air,  for one day only j
another for two days,  and a third for a week,  before his confti-
tution yields  to the deftruaive principle.   It  is  precifely with
the accefs of the plague, in a  city, as with a company of men
going from a healthy fituation,  into a  marfhy place—one man
will be feized very fpeedily with the  ague and fever; another
will fuftain his health for a week or two, and  fome perhaps ef-
cape unaffeaed.   This example explains the phenomena  which
attend the  invafion of peftilence, as related by Evagrius, Die-
merbroeck and  others,  and which will be more fully difcuffed in
a fubfequent feaion.
   The account therefore of the origin of the plague in London
in 1665,  not only does not prove the difeafe to have proceeded
from  imported  fomes, but aaually demonftrates the impoflibility
of the faa.
   But we have  better evidence than the popular accounts afford
us, that the difeafe was generated in the city of London.  Sy-
denham has left facts on record, which place  this point beyond
controverfy.
   After defcribing the multiplied difeafes of increafed malignity,
which prevailed in London,  from 1661   to 1665,  and which
fwelled greatly  the bills  of mortality in  that city, he informs us
that in May 1665  he was called to aflift a  woman of afanguina
habit, who was feized with violent fever and frequent vomitings.
He was furprifed at the  Angularity of the  fymptoms, and puz-
zled to know how to treat the  difeafe.  The woman  died the
14th  day.   He obferved her face, during the fever, to be red,
and that  a little before her death,  a  few drops of blood iffued
from her nofe.   Thefe and other circumftances fuggefted to him
the ufe of bleeding,  and his next patient recovered.
   This fpecies of malignant fever foon fpread and towards  the
clofe of May and beginning of June, became epidemic.   Soob
after  appeared the true  plague  with its charaaeriftic fymptoms.
After ftating thefe faas, Sydenham fays,  " Whether  the fever
under confideration deferves to be entitled  a plague,  I  dare  not
pofitively affirm; but this I know by experience, that all whe 
199
 were then feized with the true plague,  attended with all its pe«
 culiar concomitants, and for fome time  afterwards,  in my neigh-
 borhood, had the fame train of fymptoms, both in the beginning
 and through the courfe of the difeafe."
   He then obferves that he attended fome perfons with the true
 plague,  and afterwards, he faw feveral cafes of a fimilar fever.
                                         See chap. a. feet. 2.
   Had not the faculty been blinded to truth by their theory of
fpecific contagion, it would not have been poffible fb long to  over-
 look the progreffivenefs of the plague, which not only Sydenham,
 but  many phyficians of the  16th  and 17th centuries obferved and
 recorded.
   The malignant difeafes which prevailed from 1661 to  1664
 marked  a peftilential flate of air in  London.  We now know
 what Sydenham could not know,  that this unhealthy ftate of air
 extended not only over Europe, but over Perfia and America.
 But the  malignant  fever  which appeared  in  May,  as defcribed
by Sydenham, was the firft flage of the plague, or mild form of
the difeafe, which always precedes that ftate of it which is char-
aaerized by buboes.   This form of the difeafe appears before
the feafon  or ftate of  the atmofphere is advanced fufficiently to
give the  deftruaive principle its full force.     •
   The fame fpecies of fever preceded the terrible plague in Ve-
nice and  in  Naples,  as before related; and  this is always the
caufe of  uncertainty and controverfy refpeaing the nature of the
difeafe,  at its commencement.   And it is remarkable that this
milder form of the plague, often  rages for many months, before
the difeafe arrives to  its crifis.   Thus in London,  the peftilen-
tial principle produced a few cafes of real  plague, in the winter
of 1664-5,   ^he cafes  muft have occurred in  conftitutions
more irritable, or fufceptible of  the caufe, than bodies in gene-
ral ;  or the perfons muft have been expofed to the aftion of  pow-
erful  local caufes,  or to  extreme  debility.   The  fevere  froft
doubtlefs  fufpended the operation of the peftilential principle-—
but on the opening  of fpring, the  operation began, and  pro-
ceeded from the  malignant epidemic of  May to produce the
moft  deadly effeasf 
aoo
   I have one obfervation further to make on this fubeja.   It has
been alledged  and generally admitted that the plague was intro-
duced  into Amfterdam,  in 1663 by a veffel from the Mediter-
ranean.  It is probable that if this queftion could be fully can-
vaffed, the popular belief would  appear to have had no better
foundation,  than  many  opinions in America, in regard to the
importation  of the yellow fever, which are proved to reft merely
on  conjeaures, fuppofitions, and vague reports.   But in regard
to the  origin of the peftilence in Holland, in this inftance,  it is
wholly immaterial, whether popular  opinion was well founded
or not;  for we have  the exprefs  authority  of Diemerbroeck,
that anterior to the arrival of the fhip, with the fuppofed infec-
tion, the plague broke out in Heufden,  a town on a branch of
the Meufe,  furrounded by a morafs, not a maritime place.  Be-
fides the fpotted fever, which precedes the plague and turns into
it, had been prevailing in all parts of Holland in the preceding
year.   The peftilence therefore originated  in  Holland, before
the infeaion arrived; and the tales  of importation vanifh  in
fmoke.
   According to the bills of mortality, London loft upwards of
68,000 inhabitants by  the plague in 1665, aad more than 28,000
by other difeafes.   As the 28,000 deaths by common difeafes
muft have occurred moftly in the fix firft months  of the yeart
before  the plague raged, this circumftance fhoWs what a great
increafe of mortality preceded the plague.   With fuch  evidence,
before  their eyes,  how can difcerning men look abroad for the
fo«rces of the malady !
   It fhould alfo be remarked that this calamity  among  the hu-
man race was preceded by a great mortality among cattle in 1664,
   It muit not pafs unobferved that the fummer of 1665 in Eng-
land was very temperate, the weather fine and the fruits good,
All  the  writers  of that  day agree, that  no caufe of peftilence
could be obferved  in the vifible qualities of the feafon.
   This was the laft plague that has appeared in London, or in
Great  Britain.   The  difappearance of the plague  in that and
other countries,  is a moft confoling  faa, and  one that  has  not
a little engaged the minds of  philofophic men, to difcover the 
sot
Baufe.   The caufes ufually  afligned  are, the deftruaion of the
pity by fire in 1666, the more airy, convenient conftru&ion of
the modern city,  the  introduaion of frefh  water, with more
cleanlinefs, and improved habits of living.
   Thefe reafons would  have more weight in my mind,  if th$
other large cities in  England, in France, Spain,  Holland  and
Germany,  which have  neither been burnt nor improved in their
general ftruaure, had not alfo efcaped the ravages of peftilence.
But as the plague has not vifited Paris  and Amfterdam,  which
retain their ancient copftruaion, no  more than  London,  which
has been improved, we muft refort  to other circumftances  for the
caufes of this exemption.  The confideration of this fubjea  will
fall under another part of this work.
   In 1666, appeared a comet,  the fummer was very hot, and a
tremendous  hurricane, tore up a thoufand trees in Nottingham
foreft,  and of 50  houfes in one  village, feven  only were  left
ftanding.   In this tempeft fell hail-ftones, as  large as hens eggs.
An earthquake occurred in  Oxfordfhire.  Perfia did not efcapa
the effeas of this  peftilential  conftitution.    In  1667  prevailed
famin and epidemic difeafes, and an earthquake demolifhed great
part of Teflis, the capital  of Georgia, and four villages, with
the lofs of  30,000 lives ; and another city with the lofs of 2,000
lives.
                                   Chardin's travels, 86, 12&
   In 1666 dyfentery prevailed over England  and many parts of
Europe and in St. Domingo.   This  difeafe feems to be the fuc?
ceffor of the plague, and other  epidemics.  During the  inflam-
matory  ftage of an  epidemic conftitution, evidenced by meafles,
influenza, a mild fmall-pox,  we  rarely hear of deftruaive  dyfen-
tery.   But after thofe  difeafes  have run their courfe, dyfentery
appears in maqy parts  of a  country, and fometimes  becomes aU
moft univerfal.  It would be a curious queftion,  by what  means
the inflammatory diathefis,  fo to fpeak, of the epidemic period,
acts upon the nerves, mufcles and inteftines, to   give to the fub-
fequent autumnal fevers this particular direaion.
   During the foregoing feries of epidemics in  Europe, America
dj4 not efcape.   Slight fhocks of earthquake  were felt in 1660,
                            B b 
202
and in 166^.  Great ficknefs prevailed at this period alfo, but
I am not informed of the fpecies  of diforder, except the fmall-
pox in Bofton in  1666.
  In  1668, appeared a comet with a  ftupendous  coma.  This
was attended by an  exceffively hot fummer,  and malignant di£
eafes in America.   In New-York the epidemic wasfo fatal, that
a faft was appointed  in September, on  that account.  This was
undoubtedly the autumnal bilious fever in its infeaious form.   In
this fame year was an  earthquake in America, and a meteor in
the weft, in form of a fpear,  pointing towards the fitting fun,
which greadually funk and difappeared.
                   Neal's Hift.  vol. 1. 367.   Magnal. b. 4. 184. '
  This year was  marked alfo by violent  earthquakes in Europe
and Afia.   The winter  of 1668-9 was verv fevere, and ice was
feen in  the Bofphorus ; that  of 1670  covered  the  Danube
with a bridge of ice.
   In  winter appeared in Hungary two mock-funs of refplendetlt
brightnefs—the infallible forerunner of great difcharges of elec-
trical fire, or ot  violent tempefts.—On the nth of March 1669,
the eruption of Etna which had commenced  in 1664  redoubled
its fury,  and by immenfe difcharges  of lava laid wafte  the coun-
try below.    Its violence fubfided in July ; but  tremendous hurri-
canes marked the year.   The fummer of this  year alfo was  ex-
ceffively hot.
   In this year, the cats in Weftphalia died with an eruption on
the head, accompanied with drowfinefs.  In England prevailed
a dangerous fever, with flimy tongue and fore mouth.
   In Norway prevailed meafles of a malignant kind,  attacking
 old and young.   Bonetus, Med. Sept.  223.—In  the two  fol-
 lowing yours meafles was epidemic in London alternating with the
 fmall-pox.—See Sydenham.—In  1673 winter was cold ;  and
 catarrhs were frequent with fpotted fevers—A comet appeared in
 the preceding year.
    In 1675 a wet  and  cool fummer,  the influenza prevailed in
 Europe with the ufual  fymptoms.   In Italy  was feen a meteor
 or fire ball, from the north-eaft ;  and the  following  winter in
 America was colder than ufual. 
203
   The fummer of 1676 in England was cold.   Meafles and
fmall-pox prevailed in fome  places.
   In 1677 was feen a comet in April and May; an earthquake
was experienced in England ; and in Charleftown,  Maffachu-
fetts, raged the fmall-pox with the mortality of a plague.
                                             Mag. b. 4.189.
   The fummer of  1678 was very hot and dry.   There  was a
 comet and an earthquake in  Lima.   Fevers and affeaions of the
throat were epidemic in the north of Europe.  The plague raged
with moft defolating fury in Algiers and Morocco.  Authors  re-
late that four millions of people perifhed,  and that the wafte of
population has  not fince been repaired.
                                Cheniers Morocco, vol. 2. 180.
   On  the 12th of January occurred in England a moft extraor-
dinary darknefs, at noon.
   Notwithftanding the barrennefs of my materials, this peftilen-
tial period may be very clearly diftinguifhed, by the meafles from
 1669 to 1672  with the fmall pox,  the  catarrh  of  1675, the
fubfequent malignant fevers and affections of the throat, and
finally the peftilence of 1678.
   The fame deleterious  principle extended to America.  Our
annals  relate  that  the feafons were  unfavorable and the fruits
•Wafted,  while  malignant difeafes  prevailed among the  people*
The ficknefs and bad feafons were attributed, by our  pious  an-
ceftors, to the  irreligion of  the times, and to their difufe of fall-
ing.  On this occafion, a fyhod was convened to inveftigate the
caufes  of God's judgments, and to propofe a plan of reforma-
tion.  The fmall-pox prevailed at Bofton in 1678, and a fingu-
lar epidemic in England,  France and Holland.
            See Neal's Hift. N. Eng. vol. 2. 3 a.  Mag. b. 5.  85.
            Hutch, vol. 1. 324.  Doug. vol. 1. 440.  Short, vol. 1.
   The comet of 1678 was followed by a very cold winter,  after
a rainy autumn, with an epidemic cough.   A comet is mention-
ed in 1679, and the plague was in Vienna.
   The year 1680 was diftinguifhed alfo for a fevere winter, and
the  noted comet that  had  appeared  in  Juftinian's reign.   In
Drefden raged  the plague.   The ftimmer was  hot and fickly. 
                           2d4
 A large meteor was feen in  Germany, defcending to the north
 and leaving behind it a long luminous ftream.
   The fummer of 1681 was exceffively dry.   This was the
 forerunner of violent  earthquakes,  which, in  1682  fhook all
 Germany, Italy and Switzerland.  In fome  places, the fhocks
 were preceded, for four nights,  by lights or flame, like  ignes
 fatui, oh  the mountains.  The  cohvulfions  were attended with
 a-difagreeable fulphurous fmell.   In this year alfo was vifible a
 comet,  and an eruption took place,  both of  Etna and Vefuvius.
   In this year 1682 a mortal difeafe fpread among the cattle in
 fctaly, Switzerland and Germany, that was called the angina ma-
 ligna, and of which cattle died  in  24  hours.   Authors relate
 that a blue mift appeared on the  herbage of paftures.   The dif-
 eafe moved  about two German miles in 24 hours, and fpread
 Over Germany and Poland.   Cattle at rack and  manger  were
 affeaed equally with thofe that grazed.
   At Halle in Saxony prevailed the plague ; and at Dublin, a
 petechial in which the brain was feverely affeaed, and bleeding
 pernicious.
   The difcharges of fire already mentioned were produaive, as
 ufual, of  violent winds.    In Sicily,  a tempeft, preceded by great
 darknefs,  almoft laid wafte the ifland.
   In 1683  was an earthquake in England,  in September,  pre-
 ceded by meteors or lights and fetid exhalations.   A comet ap-
 peared in  this year, and another in the following.
   The winter  of 1683-4 was the coldeft that  could be recol-
 Ieaed by the oldeft men  living.   Trees of large fize  fplit with
 the froft.   The fame winter was exceffively  fevere in  America,
 and from  a  paffage in a letter of the Rev. John Eliot, the fea-
 ion appears  to have been fickly.
                                           Hift, Col. vol.  3.
   The year 1683  was alfo  remarkable  for  general ficknefs in
Conneaicut, and  in fome  places,  unufual  mortality.   Some
 towns fuftered by exceflive rains.
                                    Trumbull's Hift. p. 383^
   Thefe unufual feafons were accompanied with  fingular difeafes.
 In Leyden  in 1683 prevailed what was called the hungry fever,
 which came  on with  a chill, fucceeded  by ravenous hunger, 
2cr$
 To gratify this appetite was fatal.  When the hot fit eame oft^
 the hunger fubfided.  In 1684 was a terrible earthquake in St*
 Domingo.
                       Defcription of St. Domingo,  vol. 1. 14a.
    After the fevere froft in 1684, a malignant dyfentery raged
 over Europe.   This and the two fucceeding fummers were hot
 and dry.   In 1685 Languedoc in France was overrun by grafs-
 hoppers, and the petechial fever was prevalent.
    In September 1686 was feen a comet.   At Lille in France,
 fell a ftorm of hail, the ftones of which were of a pound weight.
 There was an eruption of Etna,  in this year alfo,  and a meteor
 was feen at Leipfick on the  9th of July,  which was ftationary
 for 7 minutes,  at the height of 30 miles.   It is curious to re-
 mark the  coincidence  in time  between the phenomena of the
 elearical fluid,  tempefts, fnow and hail.
    The fummer  of 1687 in Europe was very  rainy.   In Oao-
 ber the city of  Lima in Peru,  was demolifhed by an earthquake.
    The winter of 1688 was cold, and in the fummer following
 epidemic catarrh fpread over Europe.   This was preceded by  a
 difeafe  of  the fame fpecies  among horfes,  attended with a de-
 fluxion of  rheum from  their  nofes.   Swarms of infeas in fome
 countries announced  a peftilential period.   In the interior of
 Germany were  fome dyfenteries.   An  earthquake was  experi-
 enced at Naples, and Smyrna was laid in ruins.
   In 1689 appeared a  comet, and .both Etna and Vefuvius dis-
 charged fire.  The autumn was very  rainy, and the  fpotted fe-
 ver prevailed in  fome parts of Germany.  In Bofton the fmall-
 pox was epidemic.
   In 1690 the  fummer was rainy, frogs were in unufual numbers
 in  Italy, and corn was cut fhort by mildew.  Rainy feafons gen-
 erally fucceed great eruptions of volcanoes and earthquakes.
   The year  1691  commenced with fevere froft, followed by a
 hot dry fummer.  The fpotted fever prevailed  in Italy, in which
 bleeding was fatal.   There was alfo great mortality among cat-
 tle and fheep.
   The feafons in this year were peculiarly unfavorable in Amer-
 ica, altho I am  not able to defcribe  them.   It  appears from  the
journals of the affembly of New-York, that upon  an addrefs of 
2o5
the houfe to the governor and council, a monthly faft was ap-
pointed to be obferved from September 1691 to June 1692 ; the
fpecial reafons afligned for which were,  " a burthenfome war,
and a blaft  upon the corn."   This is a remarkable faa,  and not
unfrequent, that at one and the fame time, the powers of veget-
ation fail in the moft diftant parts of the earth.   Perhaps we
fhall be able to account for this inftance of a deranged  ftate of
the elements by the univerfal  explofions of fire in  the two  fol-
lowing years.   St. Domingo  experienced a fevere earthquake in
1691, in the year of this blaft on the corn,
      Defcription of St. Domuigo, by Moreau St. Mcry, vol. 1.142.
   On the  7th of June 1692  after a feries  of dry,  hot,  calm
weather, a moft dreadful earthquake fuddenly funk the town of
Port-Royal in Jamaica,  and demolifhed moft of the buildings on
the ifland,  with the lofs of 2000 lives.   After the earthquake,
the heat  was  ftill  more intenfe,  mufquetoes were innumerable*
and a malignant fever fell upon the inhabitants in all parts of the
ifland, with which 3000 perifhed.
   In  the fame year,  a fimilar difeafe  invaded Barbadoes,  and
affliaed the ifland  for many years.   Indeed  the  whole world
was fickly.
   On the 8th of September  England, Holland, France and
Germany were convulfed by an  earthquake, and Switzerland
felt a  fhock in Oaober.   In the fame  year was an eruption of
Etna, and  great fnows followed.
   The fpotted fever continued its ravages; and it was remarked
to be  much more malignant and fatal in  the wane  of  the moon.
During an  eclipfe in 1693 *he hxk almoft all died.   The difeafe
was more fatal in town than country.
   I have  no  account of the difeafes  in Egypt or the  Levant,
during this period ;  but it will be  found on  examination   that
great  peftilence raged in thofe places, about this time, or  between
i6Sg and  1693.
   On the  10th of January 1693 happened a moft  terrible earth-
quake in Sicily and Naples.   On the preceding  evening,  was
obferved a great flame or light, apparently at  the  diftance of an
Italian mile,  and fo bright as  to be miftaken for a fire.   The
fpeaators attempted to approach it; but it appeared  ftill at the 
loy
   fame diftance.   As foon as the earth began to fhake, the flame
   difappeared.
     It is not within my limits to enumerate the miferies occafioned
   by this concuflion of the earth.  Suffice it fay  that many towns
   were laid in ruins and 6o,ooo people perifhed.  During the con-
   vulfion a fountain  difcharged its waters as red as blood.   This
   calamity was preceded by a ferene flcy, and  followed by  dark-
   nefs or vapor of a reddifh or  yellow hue.
     The effeas of this earthquake were remarkable on the human
   body.   Among  thefe  were  malignant  fevers, fmall-pox  fatal
   among children ; madnefs, dullnefs, fottifhnefs and melancholy,
   with deliria and lethargy.  Are not thefe effeas  produced by
   an  excefs  of ftimulus, occafioned by the  fuperabundance of
   elearicity ?
     The  fummer following this convulfion of the earth, was in«
   temperately wet and cool, and corn was mildewed.   Another
   account fays the fummer  in Italy was very hot and dry.   The
   (potted fever, and in fome places  dyfentery  were  very mortal*
   Wounds degenerated.into ulcers,  and  blifters were followed by
   mortification which proved fatal to many..
     In this year alfo Etna in  Sicily, and Heckla in Iceland dif-
   charged fire and lava ;  a new volcano was opened in Afia,  and
   an ifland, called Sorea, near the Moluccas, was  ruined by its
   volcano.
     Moft dreadful ftorms marked the fame year; one in America,
   on the 19th of Oaober,  was memorable for its violence.
     An epidemic catarrh began in Europe in Oaober, being pre-
   ceded by a fimilar difeafe among horfes.
     The  preceding  winter was  probably very mild in America;
   for  on  the  13th of February, Gov.  Fletcher, with a-body of
/   Sroops,  failed from New-York for Albany.
                                    Smith's Hift. New-York, 82.
     In  1693 the feamen and foldiers, under Sir Francis Wheeler,
   who wa6 fent to  conquer Martinico, were feized with the plague
   of America, and three fourths of them perifhed.    Hutchinfon,
   wol. 2.  72, relates that this fleet  came to Bofton and introduced
   the difeafe into that town, where it occafioned a deplorable mor-
   tality.   Douglas relates the fame  faa, 
i©8
   This account feems to be conmdiaed by Mather, in his Mag-
 nalia,  b. i. 22.   In a  fermon delivered on leaure day, April
 7,  1698, it is  afferted in fo many words, that "  An Englifh
 fquadron  hath not brought among us the tremendous peftilence,
 under  which 9. neighboring plantation hath undergone prodigious
 defolations.  Bofton, 'tis a marvellous  thing a  plague  has  not
 laid thee defolate."
   By  comparing the date of this fermon,  with other  events re*
 lated in it,  I find there is no miftake  in the date ; and as  the
 author lived in Bofton,  and was cotemporary with thefe events,
 and perfonally acquainted with Sir  Francis Wheeler,  I conclude
 it was  not Bofton, but fome other fea port town, which fuffered
 by the arrival of a fleet.
   In the  2d book of Magnalia, p.  71, the fame author  men-
 tions this  expedition and  the terrible mortality.  He  fays  the-
 diftemper was " the moft like the plague,  of any thi«g that had
 ever been  feen in America,  whereof there  died before the fleet
 could reach to Bofton, as  I  was told  by Sir Francis himfelf,  1300
 failors out of 2100,  and  1800 foldiers  out of 2400."
   In book 7. 116,  the fame author fays, "  there was  an En-
 glifh fleet  of our good friends with a direful plague aboard in-
 tending hither.   Had they come, as  they  intended,  what an
 horrible defolation  had cut us  off,  let the defolate  places, that
fome of you have feen in the colonies of the fouth, declare unto us.
 And that they did not come was the fignal hand of heaven."  This
 paffage is in a leaure preached on the 27th of September, 1698,
   From this authentic hiftory,  written by a cotemporary clergy-
 man, we infer that Hutchinfon  muft have made a miftake.   Sir
 Francis Wheeler's  fleet arrived at Bofton, moft dreadfully in*
 feaed, but no difeafe was propagated in Bofton.   Some other
 fleet, it feems, had  introduced the  difeafe  into a " colony of
 the fouth," perhaps  Newport or New-York, but I have no  in-
 formation on the fubjea.
   The great difcharges of fire and earthquakes of  1693, were
 followed,  as ufual, by an  intenfely cold winter.  The fucceed-
 ing fummer of 1694 was  hot and  exceffively dry in  Italy,  tilt
 Oaober,  when  the earth  was deluged with rain. 
209
  In May was a violent  earthquake and volcano in Banda, an
ifland in the Indian feas.  Fire iffued from the neighboring feas,
the air was  impregnated with the fmell of fulphur, and ficknefs
prevailed.   An eruption of Vefuvius happened the fame year,
and violent earthquakes in Sicily and Calabria.  In this year the
agitations of fire feem to have fubfided ; and as ufual, a feries
of rainy cool fummers fucceeded, in which corn perifhed or was
blafted, crops failed, and univerfal dearth enfued.
   One of the moft remarkable effeas  of the late agitations of
the elements, was  the frequency of apoplexies in Italy.   So
common were they in  1695, as to  be called epidemic, and oc-
cafion  general confternation.  This is not an infrequent  confe-
quence of the high excitement that takes place in  peftilential
times,  ending in  extreme debility in the brain.  Something of
this kind has been obferved in America,  within the laft few years.
   I have very few faas  in regard to the feafons and difeafes in
America, during this period,  from 1689 to 1695.   It  appears
however that the diforders of the elements were experienced in
America.
   In 1695  prevailed a mortal ficknefs among the Indians in the
eaftern parts of this continent.
                                           Hatch, vol. 2. 8.7.
   A contagions fever prevailed in Bermuda,  the fame year.
   In Europe  many malignant fevers prevailed, but no epidemics,
except meafles and chin  cough of a bad type.   In  Ireland ap-
peared oftenfive fogs, a thick clammy  dew on the herbage,  of  a,
yellow color, and  confiftence of butter.   A fimilar fubftance
was obferved at Middletown, Conneaicut,  on the morning  after
the earthquake,  May 17, 1791-
   The year 1696 was cool and wet—fummer in Britain, refemp
bled winter,  and winter was like fummer.   Corn was mildewed,
Dyfentery fatal among children.
   In America the winter of  1696 7,  according to Hutchinfon,
was very fevere.   Loaded fleds paffed from Bofton to Nantafket.
Food  was fcarce and loffes at fea very great.   I am not without
fufpicions however,  that the author has here defcribed  the fol-
lowing winter, which was as fevere as he has reprefented it.
                           C c 
2 I©
   In 1697 the weather in Europe was moftly cool.  An earth-
quake at Lima in Peru  fhook the country with terrible violence.
   In a diary kept by Daniel Fairfield, of Braintree, in Maffa-
chufetts, an  unlettered man of good underftanding, I  have a
particular defcription  of an influenza that prevailed in America
in the fevere winter of 1697-8.*  This catarrh began in No-
vember and prevailed till February.   Its violence  was in Janu-
ary, when whole families were fick at once, and whole towns
were feized nearly at the fame  time.   It appears to have been
an epidemic of the fevere kind ; and  the epidemics which fol-
lowed it  in America were of correspondent feverity.
   In the  fame winter  a mortal difeafe raged in the town  of
Fairfield in Conneaicut, which was fo general, that  well per-
fons could fcarcely be found to  tend the fick and bury the  dead^
Seventy perfons were buried in three months, altho  it may  be
doubted whether the town then contained 1000 inhabitants.
                               M. S. letter from Dr. Trumbull.
   In the fame winter raged a deadly fever in the town of Dover,
in New-Hampfhire.
                                 M. S. of the Rev. John Pike.
   This difeafe was doubtlefs that fpecies of inflammatory fever,
attacking the brain and ending  in typhus,  which has often pro-
ved a terrible fcourge to particular parts of America, during the
rage of peftilence in the  eaft,  and of other epidemics in this
country.   We fhall  hear  of it  in  the  following  century, and
efpecially in 1761.
   On the 20th of June 1698  the town  of Latacunga, in the
province of Quito, nearly under the equator, was laid in  ruins
by an earthquake,  as  were  Riobamba, Hambato and other
towns in the fame diftria.  In one place  a chafm of five feet
broad and a league in length,  was opened, and on a  mountain
happened a volcanic eruption,  from which iffued  afhes, cinders
and flames*
                                              Ulloa, vol. 2.

   *  For this and many other articles of intelligence, I am indebted to
the late Dr. Jeremy Belknap, whofe value as a man and as a hiftorian
many years friendfhip and correfpondtnee had taught me to appreciate,
and whofe lofs to fociety and the republic of letters, I moft deeply la-
ment. 
£I«
.  The malignant fever already mentioned, whatever might have
 been its precife fymptoms,  was foon followed by more general
 ficknefs.   In 1699 raged in Charlefton South-Carolina and in
 Philadelphia, the moft deadly bilious plague that probably ever
 affeaed the people of this country.
   Mr.  Norris  of Philadelphia has  kindly  favored me with 2
 Gght of a  number of M. S. letters of his grand-father  Ifaac
 Norris, written during the ficknefs, to his correfpondents.   This
 worthy gentleman was then in trade, and well acquainted with
 the faas refpeaing the difeafe, as his own family fuffered a lofs
 of feveral of its members.
   In a letter dated Auguft 15,  1699,- he mentions, that  a ma-
 lignant fever  broke  out about the beginning of  Auguft,  which
 he  defcribes  as the  " Barbadoes diftemper," tho  he gives no
 intimations of its being communicated from countries  abroad by
 infeaion.   He fays the patients  " vomited and voided blood."
   On the 24th  of Auguft, arrived  the Britannia from Liver-
pool, which  had been 13 weeks on her paffage ; fhe  had 200
 paffengers on board—had loft fifty by d«ath,  and others  were
 fickly.
   September ift, he writes that the  diftemper appeared to  abate
 at one  time, but afterwards revived.    He mentions the fummer
 to be the hotteft he ever knew ;  men died at harveft in the field.
 All bufinefs in the city was fufpended.
   During the yearly meeting the difeafe abated,  but the meeting
 was thinly attended.  Afterwards the difeafe returned in  all its
 violence.
   Oftober 9th,  he writes that he had hoped the cool weather
 would  have relieved the city,  but it did not.
   Oaober 22d, the difeafe had  abated.   Of  this  epidemic,
 died two hundred and twenty, of whom eighty or  ninety be-
 longed  to the fociety of friends.
   The  population of Philadelphia at this time,  is  not exactly
 afcertained ; but as the city had been  fettled but feventeen years,
 the number of people could not have  been  great.   If we.con-
 fider that  the city  was thinly inhabited,  and that no confidera-
 ble artificial caufes of difeafe had been accumulated; together 
412
 with the fact of the patient's  vomiting and voiding blood,-we
 muft admit  the difeafe to have been extremely virulent, beyond
 any thing that has marked its returns in fubfequent periods.
   In the fame letters, Mr. Norris, Oaober 18th,  mentions that
 he had information  from Charlefton of the great mortality by
 the fame fever—150 had died in a few days, and the  furvivors
 moftly fled into the country.
   In a hiftory  of South-Carolina, lately publifhed, there  is a
 more particular account  of the calamities that befel Charlefton
 in this year 1699.   A moft  dreadful tempeft, a common event
 after exceflive heat, threatened a total  deftruaion of the town.
 The fea fwelled and lufhed violently into the town, compelling
 the people to fly to the tops  of theit  houfes for fafety.   A fire
 broke out and laid moft of the  town in afhes.  The fmall-pox
 proved fatal to many of  the youth, and to fill the cup of calam-
 ity, the bilious plague broke out with fuch irrefiftible mortality,
 that the principal officers of government, one  half of the mem-
 bers of  affembly  and multitudes  of the  citizens fell  viaims..
 Thefe calamities came near to diffolve the fettlement.
                               Hift. of S. Carolina, vol. 1. 142.
   I find no fuggeftion that any veffels had arrived from the Weft-
 Indies at  thefe  places, or that any fufpicion exifted of the im-
 portation of this terrible difeafe.   At that time, there was very
little intercourfe direaly  between Philadelphia  orCharlefton and
the Weft Indies.
   But it will be remarked, that  the difeafe firft appeared about
the "  beginning of Auguft," as in modern times—that it once
abated, as it did  in New-York, both in 1795 and 6,  fo as to
be extinguifhed  in the latter year, and that  for two  or three
weeks.—That in 1699 as in later  returns of  it, it yielded not
to cool  weather, until late in Oaober.  It will  be further re-
marked,  that  a fevere epidemic  catarrh preceded this plague,
about eighteen months, as it  did in 1789-90.
   During thjs period, other  parts of the  earth did not efcape
affliaion.   A comet appeared in  1698 and another ftnail one
ib 1699 ; and in this  latter  year, Lima fuffered  confiderable
damage, by an earthquake, as did fome  parts  of Batavia in the
Eaft-Indies. 
   In Oftober 1698  began a fatal fpotted fever to prevail over
all England.'  In the fpring of 1699 a fevere and fatal catarrh
was epidemic, which carried off the young and robuft,  together
with hard drinkers.   A cough  was epidemic among  horfes in
England and France.   In  this period  the catarrh in  America
preceded that in Europe, one whole year.
   The  feven laft years of this century, the period under con-
fideration, were diftinguifhed for a fevere and continued  famin
in Scotland.   The general caufe was, the wet and  cold fum-
mers which prevented crops from-arriving to maturity. Vaft multi-
tudes perifhed with hunger—the dead bodies lay fcattered along
the highways.  See  Sinclair's Statiftical account of Scotland in
a great number of paflages, and efpecially vol. 6.  132,  189. It
does not appear that, during this  long period of diftrefs  and
want, any peftilence prevailed in Scotland.
   At the fame time, famin affliaed Finland and carried off one
tenth of the  inhabitants, and a greater proportion in the lefs
fertile provinces of Sweden.
              Williams's Obf. on North Governments, vol. 1. 638.
   The fame  period was remarkable for failure  of crops  in A-
merica.   In  a fermon  preached in Bofton on  Leaure Day,
Sept. 27, 1698, we have the following account of this fubjea.
"  The harveft hath  once  and again grievoufly failed, in thefe
years, and we  have  been ftruck through with terrible famin.—-
The very courfe of nature  hath  been  altered among us; .a la-
mentable cry for bread, bread, hath been heard in our ftreets."
                                          Magnalia b. 7. 113.
   In  the preceding page,  of  this fermon, it is alfo  remarked,
that " Epidemical fickneffes  have, in thefe years, been once
and again upon us,"  and it is mentioned that Bofton loft,  in one
year,  fix or feven hundred of its people, by one contagious dif-
eafe.  The year is not fpecified.
   It will be obferved that in the hiftory  of  the  laft two centu-
ries few inftances of the plague  in  Egypt and  the Levant arc
mentioned.   The reafon is, that I have no regular feries  of ac-
counts of plague  in  Egypt or Conftantinople, for the laft two
ot three hundred years.   One  remark however I will hazard, oa 
214
 the ftrength of fafls within the prefent century, that whenever
 malignant epidemics prevail generally in Europe  or America,
 the plague rages in Egypt and Conftantinople, or rather a little
 before ;  the commencement of the  peftilential  ftate of air in
 thofe unhealthy cities being a little anterior  to its  principal ef-
 feas in the north of Europe.
    At the time of the dreadful bilious  plague in  Philadelphia
 and Charlefton  juft before defcribed,  the plague was raging in
*the Levant, and for a year or two after.
    During this period, in 1700, the  fame  peftilential  conftitu-
 tion difplayed itfelf in a moft deftruaive fore throat in the ifland
 of Milo,  in the Levant.   It is thus  defcribed by  Tournefort,
 toI. 1. let. 4.   He fays  it appeared in a " Carbuncle or plague-
 fore in the bottom of the throat,  attended with a violent fever."
 It Carried off children  in  two  days,  but  fpared  adults.   He
 calls it the "  child's plague."  There  appears  to  be fome pro-
 piety in giving the difeafe this  appellation.   It has fome refem-
 blance to the true peftis,  the ulcer being formed in the throat in-
 ftead  of the  glands.   The infidioufnefs  of the  diftemper  is
 another circumftance of refemblance—perfons in both. difeafes
 often walking about, a few hours before they expire.   But this
 is a moft prominent faa, that the ulcerous  fore throat,  or  ma-
 lignant anginas  are  rarely or never epidemic, except in  periods
 when the plague and yellow  fever prevail in places where they
 ufually appear.  In no inftance has the fore throat been epidemic
'in America,  except when the  plague has been raging in Egypt
 and Conftantinople.   At leaft  I  can  find no exception to this
 remark ;  and what is more, the virulence of the one difeafe  in
 one country,  corresponds with  the malignity  of the other difeafe
 in the other countries.  Thus, as the plague in Egypt in 1736,
 was far more deftruaive  than the fame difeafe, at other times, fo
 was the angina maligna of that period in America.
    When  obfervation and philofophy fhall prevail over the preju-
 dices of men  in regard to the  origin  of thefe difeafes  from in-
 feaion, it will be found that the angina, in its various forms,  is
 only a particular ftage or modification of the peftilence, which
 fpreads over the world at certain  unequal periods.  The milder 
2*5
forms of the peftilence appear in catarrh, meafles and chin cough;
which ufually appear together, or nearly fo, at the beginning of
the more virulent general contagion ;  the  later and more  fatal
ftages are marked  by anginas,  cynanche  maligna, petechial fe-
ver,  bilious and glandular plague  in fummer;  and peftilential
pleurifies in winter.
   There are certain times, when the conftitutions of men in all
parts  of the world,  contraa a poifon,  which  nature makes an
effort to expel; and the different epidemics  that accompany or
follow each other,  in  rapid  fucceflion, appear to be the differ-
ent modes by which nature ftrives to rid the human body of the
virus.   Thefe modes depend on the feafon of the year, the con-
ftitution or age of the patient  and  a  multitude of fubordinate
circumftances.—Whether this poifon is a pofitive fubftance  in-
haled by the lungs and pores,  or  is the effea of mere debility,
which unfits the feveral parts of the body to perform their  func-
tions,  is a queftion of a curious nature.
   It  is remarkable  that in this  year 1700,  when this ulcerous
fore throat was raging in the  Levant Ifles, fmall children in the
north of Europe were feized with a fuffocating catarrh or catarrh-
ous fevers.   Thefe  were followed by mild epidemic meafles.
                                            Short vol. i. 418.
   In the fame year  the fmall-pox  was  confluent and malignant.
The winter of 1700 was very mild.
   In this year fell a meteor in Jamaica, which entered the earth,
making confiderable holes,  fcorching the grafs,  and  leaving?
fmell of fulphur.
                                           Bad. Mem. 6. 380. 
2l6
                     SECTION VII.


Hiftorical view of peftilential epidemics from the year 1701 to 1788.


 JL HE year  1701 appears to have  been exceffively  dry in
America.  Dr.  Rufh relates that during the dry fummer of 1782,
a rock in the Skuylkill appeared above the furface of the water,
on which were  engraven the figures 1701.   How little do men
fufpea the value of this infcription ! To this alone I am indebted
for the faa  of  extreme drouth in that year—and the faa is
among the proofs  of an extraordinary  evaporation,  before dif-
charges of fire and lava from volcanoes.   In  1701 was an erup-
tion of Vefuvius ;  in  1702 of Etna.   It will hereafter appear
that a fimilar dry  feafon in  1782 preceded the great eruption of
Heckla in 1783.   Indeed it is a general faa,  and as far as I can
learn,  fuch feafons feldom occur,  except during the  approach of
comets, or antecedent to volcanic eruptions.
  This was  a peftilential  period.  In 1701  Toulon  loft  two
thirds of its inhabitants by the  plague, and the  Levant was fe-
verely  affeaed about the  fame time.   See the bills of mortality
for  Augfburg, Drefden and Bofton.
   In  1702 appeared a comet;  Etna difcharged its fires, and in
Bofton raged a malignant fmall-pox, attended, in many  cafes,
with a fcarlet eruption, which was miftaken for the fcarlet fever.
It appears from  Fairfield's diary that  this  difeafe appeared in
June and was at firft mild,  not fatal to any of the patients.  Iq
Auguft died one patient—in  September it became very  mortal,
and in this month was attended with  a " fort of  fever called
fcarlet fever."  In Oaober, many died of the  " fever and the
fmall-pox, and it was a time of fore diftrefs," on which account
the general court fat at Cambridge.   In December  " the fever 
                           217

abated ;" but  the  fmall-pox continued  to be mortal, till  the
month of February 1703, when it began to fubfide.
  I have already remarked that eruptive difeafes feem to belong
to one family.   Phyficians will obferve the alliance in their fymp-
toms ; but I would obferve that the progreflivenefs in this difeafe
of 1702 and the  variations in its  fymptoms,  prove it to have
been an epidemic, and not the effea of mere infeaion,  or fpe-
cific contagion.
  In  this year alfo the drouth was  extreme.   In New-York rag-
ged the American  plague, which was faid to have been imported
from  St. Thomas's.   By the accounts, this was more fatal than
any difeafe fince that period.   It was called the "  Great Sick-
nefs" and  hardly a patient furvived.  On account of it,  the
affembly was held at Jamaica on Long-Ifland.
    Smith'a Hift. N. York, p. 104.  Journals of AlTembly, vol. 1.151.
  Such were the epidemics in  America which followed  the in-
fluenza  of  1698—malignant pleurifies in 1698—plague in 1699
and in 1702, with virulent  fmall-pox—all of unufual feverity.
Let the reader compare thefe  faas with the accounts from Eu-
rope and the bills of mortality.
  The winter of 1702-3  was variable—fevere froft and great
fnows, with intervals of warm weather.  In fpring catarrh prevail-
ed in  England, followed  by a fickly fummer, with earthquakes.
  In  January and  February 1703 were  fevere fhocks of earth-
quake in Rome, Naples and other parts of Italy.   In Oaober
a memorable tempeft  or hurricane, which did great damage at
fea, and injured buildings on land.
  In  1704 the fummer was very dry, and a moft malignant
fpotted fever raged in  Augfburg and in  Pruffia.  Flies were in
great  abundance, and there was an eruption of Vefuvius.  The
laft eruption of the volcano in Teneriffe was in this year, fince
which it has difcharged fmoke,  but no fire.
  Note.  A late arrival from Teneriffe brings an account of the
burfting forth of a volcano, in  June laft, which continued, till
the vefftl left the ifland in Aaguft.
  In  December 1705 were many moft violent tempefts  and in-
iindations.   The tide rofe in the Loir in France  25 feet beyond
                           D d 
2l8
its ufual height.   Half of Limerick  in Ireland was laid under
water.  Thefe ftorms indicated the approach of a comet, which
appeared in the following year.
   In 1706  coughs and coryzas prevailed,  and dyfentery fatal
among children.
   A fmall fhock of earthquake was  felt in America in 1705.
   In 1707 appeared another comet and fubterranean  fire was
uncommonly agitated.  Vefuvius  difcharged fire, and  a  new
ifland was  thrown up in  the Archipelago,  with an  earthquake
and volcano.  The feafons in this and the  following year were
variable.
                                         Buffon's Nat. Hift.
   In Npvember 1708 began a moft fevere and univerfal catarrh
in Europe, which was fpeedily followed by a feries of peftilen-
tial difeafes.   Of this catarrh, of  the feafons, and  the plagues
that followed we have from Europe very correa accounts ; but,
with the  utmoft  induftry,  I cannot  learn  whether  the catarrh
extended to America.
   The explofion of fubterranean fire in various places in  1707
feems to have been the commencement of this period ; altho there
was a plague in the eaftern parts of Europe, moft of the preceding
years from 1700. A meteor paffed over England, near the mouth
of the Thames,  July 31, 1708, a few months before the catarrh.
   The winter of 1708-9 was the fevereft that had happened,  af-
ter 1683-4.   But it appears that   the catarrh  commenced two
months before the fevere cold began.  At leaft this epidemic
appeared in the north of Europe, as early as November ;  whereas
the autumn was  one of the mildeft,  till January,  that was ever
known.  Then  the weather changed fuddenly to moft fevere
cold and continued for a number of weeks.
                       Short, vol. 1.  Lancifius, p. 194 and feq.
   This catarrh is carefully defcribed by Lancifius as it appeared
in Italy.   In  Rome  it commenced  in January,  but increafed
afterwards, as the cold abated.   It began with coryza, rheumata
and  flight  cough, and was  attended with  pains in the breaft,
angina,  pleurifies and peripneumonies,  which  prevailed greatly
in the fpring,  among thofe who negleaed the  cough, or ufed a
full diet. 
219
  Symptoms  of this catarrh were,  laflitude, fever with chills*
wandering pains in the  breaft, continued cough, hard  pulfe>
flame-colored or turbid urine, fpitting of blood and difficult ref-
piration.  The  cheeks were red and the body fuffufed  with a
yellow color, like that of the jaundice.
  Perfons fhut up in prifon, efcaped the difeafe.*   Fewer wo-
men than men were affliaed, and perfons in eafy circumftances,
who could take  care of themfelves,  fuffered lefs than the poor.
Many recovered by means of fweats or  hemorrhagy at the nofe,
or difcharges from the bowels,  or copious difcharges  of urine,
or by  all thefe evacuations, accompanied by  fpitting  a thick
phlegm.   Venefeaion was beneficial,  efpecially in robuft confti-
tutions.   On diffeaion,  the precordia   appeared  of a reddifh
color,  extending to "the diaphragm—and difcolored  by fpots of
blackifh thick blood—polypuffes were difcovered in the great vef-
fels of the heart.
  This difeafe did not entirely difappear till June.
  In the  fummer of 1708 preceding the fevere winter and ca-
tarrh,  gnats  appeared in prodigious fwarms.
   The winter  of  1708-9  killed fruit-trees, vines  and corn.
After this exceflive cold, multitudes of people died of apoplex-
ies, and others were feized with vertigoes, arthritics, pleurifies,
inflammatory fevers of all kinds, and confumptions.   This  fe-
verity of  cold extended over America as well as Europe,  in the
lame winter.
   A peftilence  raged in the north  of  Europe  from  the years
1702 to 1711,  of which we have an account in Philofophical
Tranfaaions, No.  337.
                               Baddam's Memoirs, vol. 6. p. 5.
   It  has been obferved already that the plague  raged in the Le-
vant, in the firft  years of  the prefent century.  In  1702, the
fame year, it will be noted,  in which the terrible fmall-pox raged
  * This has been obferved in one or two  inftances in America, and
has been alledged as an evidence that the influenza is an infectious dif-
eafe, and that perfons fequeftered from contagion, may efcape it.  Te
my mind the fact is rather an evidence that the efcape of  prifoners is
owing to a different, perhaps a lefs ftimulant condition of the air they
breathe.  It is hardly poffible they fhould efcape expofure to infection,
when every one around them is affected.  The contagion of the difeafe
however is not denied. 
*L1'
 in Bofton and bilious plague in New-York,  the plague broke out
 in Poland,  near Pickzow,  foon  after an unfortunate battle be-
 tween the Swedes and Saxons.  No fuggeftion  appears that the
 difeafe was  caught by infeaion from  a diftant country, nor that
 the fetor of dead carcafes was fuppofed to generate the diftem-
"jJeR,   On thefe important points we  are left in  the  dark.   All
 that is recorded is, that it firfl began near Pickzow in Poland,
 foon after a battle.   It  fpread in 1703, 4 and  5 over Poland,
 and into parts of Hungary and Ruffia, fweeping away vaft num-
 bers of inhabitants.   In 1706 we hear nothing of it.  In  1707
 it broke  out in Warfaw, with great mortality.   In 1708  it ap-
 peared in Thorn, and parts of Polifh Pruffia.
   This approach of the difeafe alarmed the people of  Dantzick
 —public prayers were ordered in the churches—all  commerce
 and communication with infeaed places were forbid—no  mer-
 chandize from infeaed or fufpeaed places was.permitted to  enter
 the city, and the magiftrates  negleaed  no meafure  that could
 guard  the public fafety.  All  travellers and ftrangers were ftria-
 ly examined, and  none permitted to enter  without fufficient
 proofs that they came  from  healthy and uninfeaed  places.
 Thefe and other ftria regulations-were enjoined  in July 1708;
 but notwithftanding thefe precautions,  **  the diftemper gradually
 infinuated itfelf, for in March 1709, there died  out of one dif-
 tria in the old town feven perfons, and another perfon, being illj
 was fent to the hofpital, where the difeafe foon fpread."   Dr.
 Gottwald,  the author of this account, vifited the hofpital on the
 l6th of  the fame month, and  found  many  perfons ill—"  fome
 had buboes, others  carbuncles, others  gangrenous ulcers, which
 he could not determin to be peftilential, but which he judged to
 be fymptoms, if not of the  plague already  commenced, at leafl
 cf fomethlng, but little inferior to  it,  and certain forerunners of
 that deftruaive diftemper."
   In the preceding  account,  we obferve the  utter infufficiency
 of laws and regulations to prevent the introduaion of the plag"ue
 into cities ; and the  uncertainty  of phyficians  at firft as to the
 nature of the  difeafe.   The faas ftated prove the difeafe to have
 been generated on the fpot, and  to have been progreffive  from 
$21
 malignant fevers to the real plague.   I have no bills of the mOr*
 tality in Dantzick for the preceding years, but if any fuch  are
 on record, it will appear, that the approach  of the plague was
 indicated in that city by malignant difeafes and increafed mortal-
 ity,  for fome months or perhaps a year or two preceding.
   The difeafe fpread flowly  at firft, but in July and Auguft be-
 came general—it  was at its height in September,  and gradually
 declined till the clofe of the year.  The number of viaims was
 nearly 25,000.
   From the  very accurate hiftory of  this  peftilence by  Dr.
 Gottwald, the following circumftances are to be colkaed.
   1 ft.  That the diftemper firft made its appearance in a part of
 the old  town,  called  Raumbaum.   What its fituation is,  may
 be feen in  Bufching ;  a part of the city built on a ftream which
 falls into the Viftula—low of courfe—a place  of bufinefs, and
 its ftreets dirty.
   2d.  The  difeafe,  after its firft appearance,  lay lurking for a
 long time, in the fuburbs  of the city, and its progrefs was not
 perceivable, for two or three months.   This correfponds with
 its phenomena in  London and other places  ; and  proves  that
 cold or  favorable  weather fufpends or checks the aaion of the
 peftilential principle.
   3d. It was moft fatal  to the poor—people in good condition
 moftly efcaped.  The fame was obferved at Copenhagen in 1711.
   4th.  Its decreafe was gradual, as well as its increafe.
   5th.  Many of  the inhabitants,  tho they took never fo much
 care to  avoid the  diftemper,  kept at home, fuffered no infeaed
 perfon to approach them,  and ufed all  manner of prefervatives,
 "  yet caught the infeaion.**
   6th.  The difeafe was  preceded, in 1708, by extraordinary
 numbers of fpiders.   The fame  prefage has been obferved on
other occafions.
   7th.  While this diftemper was  raging, on  the nth  of  Au-
guft, an offenfive mift was obferved, like a thick cloud, but of
fhort duration.   It returned in  the afternoon,  from the north-
weft,  fo thick as to darken the air.  Its color was that of  the
effluvia from the effervefcence of the oil of vitriol with oil of
♦artar,  a blackifh yellow. 
222
  8th. In the oeginning of Oaober  appeared over the city a
blue fiery globe or meteor, which came from the north weft, in
the  night,  fhot towards the town rapidly, illuminating the city,
and fell to the fouth.
  9th. Crows, fparrows and other birds did not make their ap-
pearance during the peftilence.
  In  1708 and 9 the plague  defolated Livonia.   In  1710 the
difeafe appeared in Sweden ;  30,000 perfons perifhed  by  it in
Stockholm,  and other parts of the.  kingdom did not  efcape.
Hiftorians relate, that in the latter part of the  laft century and
beginning of the prefent, the fweating ficknefs and  great plague
in Sweden deftroyed  feveral  hundred thoufand lives, in confe-
quence of which Sweden is lefs populous than formerly.
                              Williams's Obf. vol. 1. p. 638.
                                Univerfal Hift. vol. 35. 458.
  In  1710  alfo the territory of Lithuania was ravaged  by pef-
tilence.
  In  1711 Copenhagen loft 25,000 citizens  by the fame  mal-
ady.
  It is proper to remark how extenjively peftilence prevailed af-
ter  the great catarrh and terribly fevere winter of 1709.
  Nor did America efcape the operation  of  the general princi-
ple.  A body of troops under Gen.  Nicholfon, deftined  to co-
operate with a fleet from England,  in the reduaion of Canada,
encamped near Wood Creek in the province of New-York, and
in July and Auguft were attacked with a diftemper which made
dreadful havoc and  obliged  them  to decamp.   Some of the
men died as if  they had been poifoncd.   This circumftance gave
rife to a report which Charlevoix  gravely relates, that the In-
dians had poifoncd the water of the  creek, by throwing into it
all the fkins of beafts they had taken in hunting.   The difeafe
was probably  the  lake  fever or a malignant dyfentery.  This
happened in 1709.
                                Hutch. Hift. Maff. vol.  2. 179.
    England alfo felt the influence of  the fame general principle,
 as  appears  from  the bill  of  mortality  for 171 o.   In  France,  v
 England and  the  Low  Countries raged a  catarrhous  fever to 
223
 which was given the name  of Dunkirk  rant.  In fome places
 prevailed a fpotted fever, as at Norwich.
                    Short on  Air.  Baddam's Mem. vol. 6. 70, 73.
   In  1712 prevailed catarrh  in  Europe,  with  fore throats.
 Whether catarrh prevailed in America alfo,  I can obtain no in-
 formation.   The feafons in England were exceffively  wet, and
 corn was  rotten or mildewed.  The winter was  fevere,  there
 was an  eruption of Vefuvius and  an earthquake.   From thefe
 circumftances,   I fufpea  the approach  of  a comer,  but have
 found no account of any.*
                                             Short, vol. 2. 8.
   In  Oaober  1712 commenced a mortal ficknefs  in  the town
 of Waterbury,  in Conneaicut, which raged  for eleven months.
 It wasfo general that nurfes could fcarcely be found to  t^ndthe
 fick.   What the difeafe was, I am  not informed ;  but not im-
 probably it was that fpecies of putrid pleurify, which  has fo of>
 ten made dreadful havoc in America.
                          Trumbull's Hift. of Connecticut,  386.
   In the fame year, prevailed  a fore throat in London, accom-
 panied with dizzinefs and pain in the  limbs.
   In  1713 prevailed the meafles in America,  cotemporary with
 epidemic peftilence  in Europe.
   In  I7i2andi3, the plague was  epidemic in Vienna, Hun-
 gary,  Stiria and other eaftern countries.   This  difeafe was pre-
 ceded  by the fpotted fever, which gradually changed to plague.
 At the fame time, whole countries were overrun with infeas.
                                            Short, vol. 2. 10.
   In England prevailed a fever which Mead has pronounced to
 have been of the fame  kind,  as the fweating ficknefs in  the fix-
 teenth century.—He fays it  was imported from Dunkirk, but
how it came to  be in Dunkirk,  he does not inform us.
  During thefe calamities among men, the beaftsof the field did
 not efcape.  A fatal diftemper among cattle broke out  in  1711
 and raged with fuch violence, in Italy, as almoft to  deftroy the
fpecies.  It fpread for  three  or four years, and horfes perifhed
by a fimilar peftilence.   The writers  who defcribe  the  difeafe,

  * Since the text was prepared for the prefs,  I have found an accoUnt
of a comet in 1712.  My fufpicions therefore were well founded. 
                           224
reprefent, it as a kind  of plague ;  and all  agree  that it fprung
from a fingle infeaed cow from Dalmatia.   How  this cow be-
came infeaed,  they do not inform us.   The truth is the difeafe
was an epidemic,  tho very  infeaious ; and that  it did not ne-
ceffarily originate in infeaion, is proved by its appearing in many
other parts of  Europe.
  The difeafe began with  rigors,  which were followed by vio-
lent fever,  with eruptions like thofe of the fmall-pox,  and ter-
minated in five, fix or feven days.
                   Baddam's Mem. vol. 6. 72.  Lancifius p. 154.
  In  1714 began in Europe a  feries  of dry fummers.   This
year  was rather fickly in England,  and cattle alfo perifhed by an
infeaious diftemper.
  In 1715 the fmall-pox and meafles were epidemic in England.
In the fame year,  Plymouth in  Maffachufetts  loft 40 of its in-
habitants by a malignant difeafe, but no particulars are known.
                                       Hift. Col. vol. 4. 129.
  In  1716 the winter was exceffively fevere,  and a"  fair was
held on the Thames.   The rivers in Europe, even in Italy,  were
covered with ice.
                                           Short, vol. 2.17.
  In America, the 21 ft of Oaober O. S. was fo dark that peo-
ple ufed lighted candles.  Lima, the fame year, was fhaken by *
an earthquake.
                    Mem. Am. Aoad. vol. 1.144.  Ulloa.  Lima.
  In 1717 appeared a Comet,  and  there  was an explofion of
Vefuvius.   Holland and  Germany  fuffered  feverely the fame  .
year by inundations.  In America the  winter was  terribly fe-
vere, and  remarkable  for " prodigious ftorms of fnow," fays
Mr.  Winthrop of  New-London in a letter to Dr.  Mather, Hift.
Col. vol. 2. 12.   One hundred fheep  belonging to that gentle-
man were  buried in the fnow on Fifher's Ifland, and 28 days af-
ter,  were  dug out, when two of  them were found alive ; and
they both lived and thrived.   The fnow was  accumulated  over
them to the height of fixteen feet.—This  fnow ftorm  is diftin-
guifhed in  the Annals of America, as by far the greateft ever
known. 
225
   This year was remarkable alfo in America for the death of
many old people, fays
                                 Hutchinfon's Hift. vol.2. 223.
   In Europe catarrh was prevalent, and malignant fmall-pox
among children.   At Underwald  in  Switzerland prevailed a
tertain, fo violent as to deftroy life at the  fecond attack.   The
plague made its appearance in fome part of the  Turkifh domin-
ions.
              See Short, vol. a. 20, and Lady Montague's Letters.
   In 1718 the winter  was cold in  Europe, the feafon in Eng-
land hot,  and a comet was feen.  The plague advanced.
                      See Short, vol. 2. and Ruffel's Hift. Aleppo.
   In 1719 malignant fevers were prevalent in many parts of Eu-
rope, marking a peftilential principle of great extent.   The win-
ter of  1719-20 in America was very cold.
                                                   Douglasi
   In thefe laft years raged  malignant pleurify in  Hartford,  in
Conneaicut, with great mortality.
   In March 1719 an immenfe meteor paffed the heavens, illu-
minating the earth  and burfting with a tremendous report.   Its
diameter was calculated by Dr. Halley at a mile and a half.
   At this time the plague appeared in Aleppo,  and  carried  off
by report 80,000 people.   Ruffel agrees  that this difeafe came
from the north,  altho he has given us few particulars.   It raged,
as ufual, for two or three years.
                                    Hift. of Aleppo—pafllm.
   In 1718,  19,  20 and 21, fays Dr. Rogers, the greater num-
ber of thofe who lived near  the flaughter-houfes at Cork, died.
   In 1720 happened the laft great plague in Marfeilles, on which
occafion has been publifhed  "  Traite de la pefte," a treatife in
quarto,  by Chicoyneau, under the fanaion of the  French king,
in which great efforts are made to prove the difeafe to have been
imported from the Levant.
   The proofs of  importation ftand thus.   " Capt. Chataud left
Said in  Syria in  January  1720,  with a  clean  patent.   The
plague was not then in Said, tho it broke out  foon after.  On
the paffage,  feveral perfons died, and the phyficians at Leghorn,
where the fhip flopped,  pronounced their  difeafe to be " a ma-
lignant peftilential fever." 
226
  The fhip  arrived at Marfeilles, and fome perfons who had
concern with the  goods,  died in May.   The fufpeaed goods
were fubjeaed to fifteen days retreat and purification—they were
forbid to be introduced into the city—the porters were ftiut up;
but all regulations  were fruitlefs.   In June,  deaths appeared in
the city with diftinaive marks of the  plague."
   On fuch flimfey evidence do the fticklers  for the fole propa-
gation  of  the plague by infeaion, ground all their affertions re£
peaing the difeafe  at Marfeilles !
   But it happens in this cafe,  as  in moft  fimilar inftances, that
the pretended proofs of infeaion carry refutation in the very face
of them.
   In the firft place, it is an acknowledged faa, that at the time
the fhip left Said,  the plague  had not appeared in that port, or
town.   It was at Aleppo  and in other places far diftant in 1719,
but  had not broke out in  Said.   How, in the name  of reafon,
could men or goods  be infeaed, when the difeafe did not exift
in the place  ?
   To overcome or rather to evade the force  of this objeaion,
the writers on the fubjea  are  compelled to refort to fuppofition.
They fay it is poffible, the plague  might  have been in the place,
tho  not known or generally admitted.   And here refts their
whole argument!
   It is true, that fome  of the feamen or paffengers died on the
paffage, with a malignant peftilential fever.   But in this cafe,
the malady  originated on board the fhip—and the infeaion is not
traced to the Levant ports. .There is an end of the chain—the
difeafe began without infeaion, on board  the fhip, as malignant
fevers have  done in thoufands of other fhips.
   Again, it  is admitted by Dr.  Mead himfelf, p. 255,  that
from the  time of the failors' death, after the  fhip arrived, it was
full fix weeks before the difeafe was known in  the city  of Mar-
feilles ; a circumftance that renders it nearly impoflible that there
 could have  been any propagation of  the diftemper by infeaion.
 To remove this objeaion, the advocates of infeaion again refort
 to fuppnfiticn.  They fuppofe it poffible fome latent feeds of the
 dihafe had been concealed in goods,  or clothes—and fuch ridic-
 ulous fuggeftions are made the grounds of affertion. 
227
   But what completely refutes all thefe idle fuppofitions, is, that
we have full evidence,  that the plague in Marfeilles was generat-
ed in the city, and gradually arofe  from milder difeafes.  In
the beginning of the  " Traite de la pefte," it  is  ftated from
Mon. Didier and not denied, that  " the  preceding  year  1719
was a barren year—the corn, the wine and the oil, were defec-
tive.   The heat of fpring  was  exceflive  and followed by great
rains,  with wefterly winds-—the fruits were bad.  In this year a
peftilential fever  appeared in Marfeilles, of which many died,
and  in fome,  appeared buboes, carbuncles and paroitides."
   Here  we  obferve  faas that always exift, before  the plague,
and  which demonftrate  the uniform  operations  of the laws of
nature.  The year 1718 began to exhibit malignant  difeafes ia
greater numbers than  ufual.   In 1719 the plague broke out at
Aleppo,  and in the north and weft of Europe, malignant  fevers
became  in many places, epidemic and peftilential.   In  1720,
the peftilential ftate of the air, arrived at its crifis in Marfeilles.
The peftilence in Europe exhibited a  regular progrefs, from or-
dinary typhus fever to the plague.  A fatal fmall-pox and  fpot-
ted fever prevailed in  Piemont.
   To demonftrate this faa,  the reader will only turn to the bills
of mortality  in  London, Amfterdam,  Vienna, Drefden, &c.
for the years under confideration, and obferve  every where the
effeas of a general unhealthy ftate of air, in the increafe of the
number of deaths.—The bills of mortality in Bofton and Phila-
delphia alfo prove this ftate of air to have extended to this coun-
try ; and the malignancy of it feems to have abated in America
after 1721, in which  year the  fmall-pox  was very mortal in
Bofton.
   The accounts of difeafes in America,  at this period, are few
and imperfea.  Tradition has preferved the memory of defola-
ting ficknefs,  at  various times and  in various  places,  fome of
which, I fufpea,  refer to this period, but I am not able to af-
certain the dates,  with any certainty.*   By  accident however,

   •  My father mentions an inftance, which  he believes  to have wen
not long before his birth,  which was in  1722.  An  aged lady of 96,
who was  born  in 1702, informs me that  a malignant pleurify  raged
when fho was 17 yean old ; this fixes the period in 1719. 
228
 I am able  to  determin pofitively the peftilential ftate of air in
 America in 1720.   A genuine letter is extant,  from Thomas
 Hacket  of Duck Creek, now in the ftate of Delaware,  dated
 April 10th 1720, in which he ftates that a mortality prevailed
 in that place,  which exceeded that in London in 1665, and al-
 moft depopulated the village.  I have feen the letter in poffeffion
 of Dr. Rufh.
   Ih 1721 there was an eruption  of a volcano in Iceland.   A
 dreadful dyfentery raged in Upper Saxony.
   In 17 20 there was a great earthquake in China, and in 1721
 fhocks were felt in  the Mediterranean,  by Dr.  Shaw who was
 then on his travels to the eaft.—In Oaober 1720, fire arofe  out
 of the fea near Tercera,  one of the Azores, and a fmall  ifland
 arofe,
                                         Buffon's Nat. Hift.
   In 1722, the feafons were cold, wet and rainy.  In Auguft
happened a moft violent ftorm in Jamaica and S. Carolina.   In
May an earthquake in Chili.
  The winter of  1722-3 was cold and dry in  England.  In
 1723 appeared a  comet,  and on the 24th of February, O.  S.
a mighty tempeft which is recorded among the  memorabilia of
America.   The wind blew violently from the fouthward, then
veered fuddenly to the eaftward  and northward, bringing in a
tide  which rofe two or  three feet  above  the Long  Wharf in
Bofton, and flowed over  all the lower part of the town, filling
cellars and  deftroying property to a great amount.   Immenfe
damage was fuftained in all the maritime towns.
                      See Mather's letter.  Hift.  Col. vol. 2. 11.
  The confluent fmall-pox raged in England    See the London
bill of mortality for  1723.  Dyfenteries, pleurifies  and other
inflammatory complaints prevailed in the different feafons.
  The bilious  plague prevailed in  Barbadoes, faid to  be import-
ed from Martinico.  We are not informed from whence it came
into Martinico.  In thefe accounts of infeaions,  we are not led
to the end of the chain.
  Tn the fame year 1723 prevailed in many parts of the colony
of Rhode-Ifland, a fatal  difeafe  called the "  burning ague."
It was particularly fatal,  near Providence, between Pautucket 
229
and Pautuxet.  In proportion  to its patients,  no difeafe in  A-
raetica,  was  ever  more  mortal.  It did not prevail in a large
town, but in villages, and perhaps the clearing of fome  neigh-
boring fwarnps might have been one caufe of the  difeafe.  The
year however was lefs healthy than ufual.   A difeafe of  the
fame name is noted once or twice in ancient  hiftory.  See  the
year iooi.
   The year 1724  in England  was moftly wet  and cold ;  the
whooping cough prevailed ; but the year was generally healthy.
   The fummer of  1725 was alfo wet and cold in England.  In
January a fevere froft produced many inflammatory complaints.
In  this  year happened  violent earthquakes  in South-Amer-
ica, and eruptions  from two volcanic mountains in  Iceland.   I
have no account  of the weather and  difeafes in America.   I
only learn from an old gentleman,  that one of  the winters be-
tween 1722 and 1725 was called, " the hard winter."
   The winter of 1726-7 was changeable in England, but moftly
cold with great fnows.   Remitting  fevers prevailed in fummer
and inflammatory, in winter, which fwelled the bills of mortal-
ity to an unufual degree.   At the fame time the plague raged in
Egypt.
   The fame winter in America was milder than  ufual—the fum-
mer of  1727 was very hot and dry.  See Dudley's account of
the great earthquake.
                       Philof. Tranf. and Mufeum, vol. 5. 363.
   In  1727 appeared a comet—an explofion of fire  took  place
from Vefuvius and a volcano in Iceland.  The interior counties
of England were fhaken by an earthquake ; and on the 29th of
Oaober of the fame  year happened one of the moft extenfive
and violent earthquakes ever known in America.  A  malignant
dyfentery was epidemic  in Bern.   In America, the fummer
was very hot.
      Short, vol. 2.  VanTroil on Iceland.  Williams on Earthquakes.
       Memoirs of  American Academy. Pennant's Arctic Zoology.
       Zimmerman on dyfentery.  Phil. Tranf. 437.
       Baddam's Mem. vol. 10.  no.
  This  was a fickly year ; fee the bills of mortality  for London
and Amfterdam, Bofton, Philadelphia Chrift's Church and Dub-
lin.  The prevalent difeafes in London were fevers of a  malig- 
                            23°
 nant type.   What the difeafe was in Philadelphia,  I know not;
 but the greateft mortality was in February,  March  and April.
   In  1728 putrid fevers were  frequent—the fummer was cold
 in England and the following winter fevere.  The year 1727
 was unproduaive ;  corn in England was fcarce and the fcarcity
 continued into this  year.   An  eruption of a volcano in Icelaed
 and the plague in Egypt marked this year, 1728.  The eruption
 in Iceland  continued till 1730.
   This year,  1728, the fummer weather in South-Carolina was
 ttnufualfy hot and dry.  The earth  was parched and the fprings
 exhaufted.   In Auguft a violent hurricane occafioned an inun-
 dation, which fpread over the low  grounds and did  incredible
 damage to the wharves, houfes and  corn  fields.  The ftreets of
 Charleftown were covered with boats; the inhabitants were driven
 to the upper ftories of their houfes;  twenty-three fhips were
 driven afhore and thoufands of trees were levelled.  The fame
feafon, the bilious plague raged in Charlefton with great mortality.
                              Hift. of S. Carolina,  vol. 1. 316.
   In 1729 appeared a comet,  and in autumn a univerfal catarrh
to Europe, and perhaps over the  globe.   This was  preceded
 by meafles.   It  feized with  a flight chill,  a flow fever, weari-
nefs,  continual hoarfenefs,  pain  of the head, and  difficulty of
 breathing.   The fuddennefs of the attack  was aftonifhing,  and
it proved fatal to  many aged  and   phlegmatic people.   Many
pleurifies and peripneumonies followed.   Its firft appearance was
in Poland,  Auftria and Silefia,  and it marched over Europe in
five months.   At the clofe of this  epidemic in 1730,  Vefuvius
difcharged  its contents of fire.
   In  this year 1729  the plague was in Aleppo, and it will be
feen that the bills of mortality in the north of Europe exhibit a
fickly ftate, through a period of many years at this time.   The
meafles prevailed in America, and in Farmington,  Conneaicut,
a malignant pleurify.
   The fummer  of  1729 was in  moft parts of England, very
 wet, in other  parts, dry;  but  this made no difference in the
prevalence of the catarrh.   The fmall-pox  was very frequent in
 England. 
23I
  This year alfo is remarkable  for the firft appearance of the
yellow fever or black vomit at Carthagena, in  South-America,
where it made  dreadful havoc among the crews of the fleet un-
der Don  Domingo  Juftiniani.  The  fame fate attended the
crews of the galleons under Lopez Pintado in  1730.
                             Ulloa, vol. 1. p. 44.—Lond. 3772.
   The winter of  1729-30 was  very mild  in Europe.  There
was a fmall eruption  of Vefuvius in 1730 and  in Iceland, and
an earthquake in South-America, on the 8th of July totally de-
molifhed the towns of Conception and Santiago, in Chili.  This
dreadful  calamity  was  foon  followed by an epidemic difeafe
which fwept away greater numbers than the earthquake.
                                      Ulloa, vol. 2. 23s, 257.
   The plague was in Cyprus about this time, and was preceded
by an earthquake.
   In  January  1729, the rivers and canals in Holland were cov-
ered with ice, from  12 to 20 inches thick.   Meafles and angi-
nas prevailed, and in autumn the fmall-pox made great havoc.
                            Bad. Mem. vol. 9. 3i4andfequel.
   It will   be  obferved that thefe  eruptive difeafes in Holland
were cotemporary with the meafles in  America, and  the malig-
nant pleurify in winter, which was the predominant fymptom  of
a peftilential conftitution of air, in America, until the year  1761.
   The winter of 1730-31 was very fevere in Europe.
   It appears from the bills of mortality in Bofton and  Philadel-
phia, that the years  1730 and 31 were fickly.  What the  mal-
ady was which fwelled the mortality in  Chrift Church to double
the ufual number in 1731, I am not informed ; but the greateft
mortality  happened in March and  April.  The  fmall-pox was
the difeafe which augmented the bill in Bofton in 1730.
   In 1731 the fmall-pox fpread in New-York, and occafioned
an adjournment of the  legiflature in September.
                                    Journals, vol.  1. p.  633.
   In 1732 appeared a  comet,  and in America the following
winter was very fevere, continuing from the middle  of Novem-
ber to the end of  March.   In Europe, the winter was mild.
                                 Douglas Sum.  Short on Air."
   Lima in South-America was fhaken, this year, by an ' earth. 
232
 quake ; a fhock was experienced alfo in England ; and in No-
 vember the fame was experienced in Canada and New-England.
 On the  9th of Auguft happened a remarkably dark day.
             See Douglas, and Profeffor Williams Mem. Am. Acad.
   In this year,  the plague prevailed at Tripoli,  Sidon and Da-
 raafcus;  and the American plague at Charlefton, S. Carolina.
                            Lining's letter. Edin. EiTays, vol. 2.
   Towards the  clofe of the year, in Oaober, commenced in
 America a fevere  univerfal  catarrh,  which  appeared in Europe
 alfo in December.  It fpread over all Europe, in  the beginning
 of 1735, and probably over the  earth, as it was experienced at
 the ifle of Bourbon, in the Indian Ocean.
         Mem. of Dr. Hunt of Northampton, and the Medical pub-
            lications in Edinburgh.
  This  epidemic  feems to have been the precurfor  of the moft
peftilential period  of this century.  The  fummer of 1733, in
England, was dry and pleafant.  The winter following was very
mild.  The plague raged at Aleppo.
  The fcarlatina  appeared in Edinburgh ;  and  the chin  cough
alio began in England in 1734, continuing to prevail in  1735.
  This period alfo was  noted for  meteors.  In June  1734, a
ball of fire paffed through two oppofite windows of a fteeple at
Air, in Scotland,  broke one end of  the bell-joift, and defcended
to the earth, without doing further harm.   A boy in the neigh-
borhood was killed by another ball of fire.
                       Sinclair's Stat. Ac. of Scotland, vol. 1. 96.
  On the 2d of February 1735, Popayan in  S. America, was
nearly ruined by an earthquake.
  The fummer of  1735, was very wet and cold.   In Europe in
 1734 commenced  a flow putrid  fever.  An  anginous fever  be-
came epidemic among children, and quinfies or  fwellings  of  the
throat, with  contagion,  and  great  mortality.   Small-pox of a
malignant kind prevailed at the clofe of the year.  The  peftilen-
tial ftate of the air is faid to have affeaed birds, which died in
the cages.  Canine madnefs prevailed.
                      Short, vol. 2.  Van Swieten, vol. 16. p. 56.
  In I735» prevailed a fpotted fever of a faial kind, and  other 
233
malignant diforders, with hydrophobia.   In Scotland, the me*
lies became epidemic,  and fevers of a bad kind.
                   Effays and Obf. Edin.  Phil. Tranfac. vol. 4,
                         Huxham, vol. 1.
   Earthquakes were felt in England in 1734 and  1736.
   In 1736 and 7 a fatal ulcerous fore throat and malignant perip*
neumonies, prevailed  in France.
   In 1735 or 6, three or four  thoufand people,  in the Orkney
Iflands, perifhed with famin.   The fcarcity there in 1782 and 3
was alfo deplorable, but none perifhed.
                                Sinclair'9 Scotland, vol. 7.497.
   While thefe  epidemics were prevailing  in Europe, America
felt the peftilential ftate of air.  In  May  1735, in a wet cold
feafon, appeared at Kingfton,  an  inland town in New-Hamp-
fliire, fituated in a low plain, a difeafe among children, commonly
called the "  throat diftemper," of a moft malignant kind, and
by far the moft fatal ever known in this  country.   Its  fymptoms
generally were, a fwelled throat, with white  or afh-colored fpecks,
an efflorefcence on the fkin,  great debility of  the whole fyftem,
and a tendency to putridity,
   It firft  feized a child, who  died in three  days.   In about a
week afterwards, three children, in another family, at a diftance
of four miles, were fucceflively feized and all died  on the third
day.   It continued to fpread,  and of the firft forty patients, not
one recovered.
   In Auguft, it appeared at Exeter,  a town  fix miles  diftant.
In September,  it broke out in Bofton, fifty miles  diftant; altho*
it did not appear in Chefter fix miles weft of Kingfton, till Oao.
ber.—It continued  its ravages, through that year into the next,
and gradually travelled fouthward, almoft ftripping the  country
of children.   Very few children efcaped, for  altho' the  difeafe
was very infeaious, yet its propagation  depended  very little on
that circumftance.   It attacked the young in the moft fequefter-
ed fituations,  and without a poffible communication with the fick.
It was literally  the plague  among  children.   Many  families loft
three and four children—many loft all.
   In fome places, this diftemper was more fatal than in others-*
                            Ff 
434
cotmtry towns fuffered more than populous cities.  And it fhould
be here remarked, that the  virulence of this  fpecies of difeafe
feems at times to be greatly augmented by cold and wet  weather
—it is moft mild in cities where the air is,  in a  degree,  correc-
ted of its rigor and moifture.—To this obfervation however there
are exceptions.
   Scorbutic people and thofe who lived on# pork, and  of courfe
the poor, fuffered moft.   In fome families,  it was comparatively
mild—in  others it  was malignant like a plague.  This difeafe
gradually travelled weftward and  was two years in reaching the
river Hudfon, diftant from Kingfton,  where it firft  appeared, a-
bout 200 miles in a ftrait line.   It  continued  its progrefs weft-
ward,  with fome interruptions, until it fpread  over the colonies.
Few adults were  affeaed ; its principal ravages were among per-
fons under age, or rather Under puberty.   For many years after
it was epidemic,  it frequently broke out in different places  with-
out any apparent  caufe,  but did not fpread—a ftriking proof that
fuch difeafes will not become  epidemic by the  fole power of in-
feaion, but that fome general caufe muft aid its propagation, or it
will perifh in  its cradle.  This is  probably true  of every fpecies
of peftilential difeafe.
   From  an  elderly  lady  of great Gbfervation  in New-Haven,
I have learnt that perfons who, recovered of this diftemper, were
fubjea,  all their  lives, to fore  throat and quinfies,  and  what is
perhaps  more remarkable, that few or none of them have lived
to be  old.  It is at leaft  apparent, in the fphere of her  obferva-
tion,  that thofe perfons have died at  an  earlier age  than others.
Thefe faas are ftriking proofs how much the whole   fyftem, and
efpecially the feat  of the difeafe, was impaired in  ftrength and
firmnefs, by that diftreffing malady.  A gentleman  ftill living,
who was affeaed with the fame difeafe in 1742,  informs me that
 his conftitution has  never  recovered from the fhock  it received
 from that malady.
   The  invafion  of this diftemper was gradual, and for  fome
  time  before its  attack, children  appeared to languifh.   It was
  not always attended with great proftration of ftrength, for per- 
                           *35
fans were  often  walking, an hour or two before their deatk*
The fame happened in the angina of 1794.
       See further particulars in Colden's account.  Medical Okfer.
           and Enq. London,  vol.  1. an, and in Belknap's Hifto-
           ry New-Hampfhire, vol. 2.  118.
   Difeafes among cattle in New-Hampfhire marked this period.
   In 1736, and  during  the rage of the ulcerous fore throat ia
America and in England,  the plague made terrible  havoc in  E-
gypt—authors relate that  Cairo loft  10,000 perfons in a day.-— .
In Nimeguen raged a malignant dyfentery.
   In 1737 while  the angina maligna was fpreading over  the
northern parts of America,  the bilious plague prevailed in Vir-
ginia.   In England and  Scotland, the meafles  broke out and
prevailed in 1735 and 6, cotemporary with the angina in Amer-
ica.  Dr.  Short  relates thac the firft perfon feized was a woman
in her child-bed illnefs.
    At the fame  time  prevailed miliary fevers in Cornwall,  ac-
companied with  glandular fweftings.  Coughs,  deflexions and
catarrhs were  frequent.  A  peftilential difeafe in Devonfhire
fwept away cattle and fwine.
    In  1737  a very fevere influenza invaded both hemifpheres.
 It commenced in November.
    In  1737 alfo appeared a  comet;  Conftantinople was  fhaken
and Smyrna half deftroyed by an earthquake.   A fmall fhock
 was felt in Bofton.  In Oaober of this year, a ftorm or hurri-
 cane in  the  Eaft-Indies, deftroyed  20,000 veffels of different
 fizes, and 300,000 people.   There was a great  eruption ©f  Ve-
 fuvius in  the fame year.  In  Iceland alfo  was  an eruption be-
 tween 1730 and 1740,  but the year is not fpecified.
              See Gent. Mag. and Tablet of Memory, art. Storms.
    A moft fingular meteor in the fame year, followed by a very
 fevere winter.
    This peftilential conftitution did not produce the fame difeafes
 in England, as  in  France and America.   The fatal ulcerous
 fore throat was cotemporary in America and in France in 1737 ;
 but that difeafe did not appear,  in its formidable array, in Eng-
 land until  1742.   In 1734-5  appeared its  filter-malady, the
 fcarlet fever in Edinburg ; but it  fubfided; and the epidemic 
                            S3*
 took the  form of  meafles of  a bad type,  with hoarfehefsj
 defluxions and catarrh.   The catarrh prevailed alfo in Barbadoes
 in the clofe of this year and beginning of the next, and in New-
 England was  a great death of fifh and water fowl.
   In 1738 fudden deaths,  vertigoes and apoplexies followed the
 preceding epidemics in England.   The plague raged at  Ockza-
 kow, at Barbadoes, and in New-Spain the peftilence was fo gen-
 eral and mortal, as to threaten  the country with depopulation.
   In  1739 the  fmall-pox  prevailed in New-York, and fome
 dyfenteries, but I  hear of no  remarkable  occurrences in this
 year ;  except  that angina maligna appeared in England in a few
 fporadic cafes, but did not  fpread at  that time ; and an infea-
 ious fever prevailed at Charlefton.
                        Journals N. York AiTembly, vol. 1. 756.
                           Fothergill's ac.  Sore Throat.
   A comet was feen in 1739,  and the winter following in Eu-
 rope was the fevereft known fince 1716 or  perhaps fince 1709.
 The cold continued till June and was fucceeded by a dry feafon ;
 then a wet, cold autumn.   A dearth fucceeded in Scotland, and
 meafles fpread over America.
   In England fpread the whooping cough in December 1740.
 The fmall-pox prevailed and in  1741 that  difeafe, with the fpot-
 ted fever were very mortal.
                            See the London bills of mortality.
   In Briftol and Galway, in Ireland,  the fevers  fell little fhort
of the  plague.
                               Huxham, vol. 2.   Short, vol. 2.
   It was computed that  in 1740 and 41, Ireland loft  80,000
people  by famin, dyfentery and fpotted fever.
                                           Rogers on Epid.
   Amfterdam experienced the fame peftilential  conftitution.
                                               See the bills.
   Not lefs remarkable were  the feafons in  America.  In 1740-
 41, a year later than in Europe,  the winter  was of  the  fevereft
kind.  Many  cattle perifhed for want  of food.
                 Journals of N. York AiTembly, voL 1. 799, 804.
   During this  winter meafles prevailed in  Conneaicut.  The
 American  plague  appeared in Philadelphia  and Virginia.   Ia
 Scotland many periflied by famin.
                                  Sinclair's Scot, vol 6. 433, 
^37
  Don Ulloa relates an opinion among the Spaniards in South-
America,  that  in  1740, the black vomit was  firft  introduced
into Guayaquil by the galleons from the fouth feas.  They aver
the difeafe not to have been  known there,  anterior to that year,
It was moft fatal to  feamen  and foreigners, but the natives did
not efcape.   Here we have a new fource of yellow fever !
•  In  1742 the ulcerous fore throat of  a malignant kind appear-
ed in  England, and continued to  prevail more or lefs for many
years, and in 1745 became very infeaious.
                       See Short, vol. 2. and Fothergill's Works.
   The fummer of  1742  in England was dry.
   In  America, the fame angina prevailed in 1742.   From  1740
to 1744 peftilential difeafes  prevailed in all parts  of the known
world.
   In  Syria,  the winter of 1741-2 was very fevere.   In March
began an acute fever in Aleppo, attended with  a  fevere pain in
the right hypochondrium.  The plague had previoufly fhown it-
felf on the fea coaft.   In April, fays Alex. Ruffel, fome reapers
brought the  infeaion  into the neighbourhood of Aleppo.  In
the city,  no  notice  was  given of the plague, till the 18th of
May  ; but on ftria enquiry,  it was found that cafes had occur-
red before that time.  Whether the " reapers"  introduced the
fomites into the city, the author does not inform us.
   The diftemper made no great havoc in  this feafon.   It abated
in July,  and nothing is faid about infeffion, till November, when
a few more cafes occurred.   In February  1743 a few  cafes ap-
peared and in March an  alarm was given.   It was more general
in this year,  but difappeared in 1744.
   When  the difeafe fubfided in Aleppo, it was followed by di-
 arrheas and  dyfenteries with petechia:  ; and  fome  obftinate in-
 termittents.
   In December 1742 and January 1743  were earthquakes with
 great fnows, violent rains and froft.
   In 1742 a mortal fever prevailed  at Hollifton in Maffachu-
 fetts,  in which died Mr. Stone, the minifter and fourteen of his
-congregation.   In this year was feen a comet.
   In the fpring of 1743 j a fmart fhock of earthquake convul- 
23a
 fed Sicily, Naples and Malta.  A catarrh prevailed at the fame
 time.  Thefe were the precurfors of the dreadful plague  which
 raged, in the following  fummer, at Calabria, Reggio, and  ef-
 pecially at Meflina in Sicily,  where perifhed 46,000 inhabitants
 oat of 72,000.   The fummer was violendy hot, and dyfentery
 prevailed in other parts of  Italy.
   At the fame time, New-York was feverely affliaed by the bil-
 ious plague, where died,  in  one feafon,  217 of the inhabitants
 —a confiderable number  for the population of that day.*
   I know not what difeafes prevailed in Bofton, but the bill for
 that year fhows it to have been fickly.
   The year 1743 was diftinguifhed for a tremendous eruption of
 fire at  Cotopaxi, a mountain in  the province of Quito, five
 leagues north of Latacunga ; all  the neighboring villages were
 ruined by floods from the melted fnows of the mountain.   The
 eruption  was repeated in  1744.
                                               Ulloa, vol. r.
   Venice fuffered by an  inundation in 1743, an<^ tne vear was
 remarkable for violent ftorms, at Bofton, Jamaica, and in many
countries.
   In December 1743 appeared a comet of diftinguifhed magni-
 tude, which was vifible  till February  of the  following year.
This was probably the  fame  which appeared in  1401, and  in
both inftances attended with peftilence.
   In  1744 fevere catarrh fpread over Europe.   It was at Rome
in February  ; at London in March; and in a few weeks  per-
vaded England.

    * "  New-York, Oct. 14,  1743.  By the Mayor  of the City.
      An account  of perfons buried in the  city of New-York,
  From July  25th to Sept. 25, 1743.   From Sept. 25 to Oct. 23d.
    Children,          51            Children,         16
    Grown perfons,     114           Grown perfons,   36,

                                                   165
                                                   217
  And I do find by the beft information I have of the  doctors, &c.  of
 this city that the late diftemper is now over.
                                JOHN CRUGER, Mayor."
  New-York at that time contained about 7 or 8000 inhabitants. 
239
   In Jane of this year, was an earthquake of confiderable vio-
lence in New-England.
   In 1745 Lima was fhaken by an earthquake.   An infeaious
fever broke out among the troops employed in the expedition to
Louifbourg.   A fimilar fever prevailed at Bofton ;  and how far
the health of the  town was affeaed by the  returning troops, I
am not informed.   This was  a time of general ficknefs.
   In Charlefton  prevailed the  infeaious yellow  fever,  while
Egypt and Smyrna were fuffering the ravages of the plague.  The
bilious plague prevailed,  at the fame time, in New-York.
   In this year, the town  of Stamford  in Conneaicut was  fe«
verely diftreffed by a malignant  dyfentery,  which  fwept  away
feventy  inhabitants  out of a few hundreds.   The  difeafe was
confined to one ftreet.
   The year 1746 was probably ftill more unhealthy.  An earth-
quake laid  Lima and Calao in ruins.   The  concuflion began on
the  28th of Oaober, about fix hours  before the full of the
moon ;  and at intervals,  the fhocks were repeated for four
months,  in which time they amounted to four hundred and fifty.
During thefe convulfions, fire burft forth in feveral  places of the
diftant mountains.  Many  days before the fhocks began, hollow
rumbling noifes were heard in the earth, at times refembling the
difcharge of artillery.   Similar founds continued for fome time
after the earthquake.
                    See the melaachely tale in Ulloa, vol. 2. 83.
   Albany was, in this year, vifited by a malignant difeafe called
by Colden, a nervous fever ; and by Douglas,  the yellow fever.
From an old citizen, who was living in  1797, my friend Dn.
Mitchell obtained the following particulars relative to that difeafe.
The bodies of fome  of the patients were yellow—the crifis of
the difeafe  was the ninth day ; if the patient  furvived that day,
he had a good chance for recovery.   The difeafe left many in a
ftate of imbecility of mind, approaching to childifhnefs or idio-
cy ; others were afterwards troubled with fwelled legs.
   The difeafe began in Auguft, ended with froft, and carried off
forty-five inhabitants moftly men of nabuft bodies.   It was faid to
be imported. 
240
   As this was an unufual difeafe in Albany, ingenuity was occu-
pied to find out its origin.   It was reported that a like difeafe pre-
vailed in New-York,  and that it had been imported in a veffel
from Ireland.   Nervous, yellow fever  imported from Ireland!
Such are the vulgar  tales that difgrace this age  of fcience and
philofophy.   From what fairy land were imported the malignant
difeafes,  which every where fwelled the bills of mortality in the
feme year ?—Not that I would infinuate that difeafes of a certain
kind are nbt infeaious.  A peftilential  fever  originated  in  the
Chebuao fleet,  under the Duke D'Anville,  which landed an ar-
my on our fhores in this fame year,  and one third of the Indians
who vifited the cantonments, died.   .There the difeafe fubfided,
without becoming epidemic.
   But what I  feverely  reprobate   is, the difpofition of men to
trace all the evils of life  to a foreign fource ; when the fburces
are in their own country, their own houfes, and their own bo-
foms.
   A fimilar difeafe raged, the fame year, among the Mohegan
Indians.
                     See the poftfcript at the end of the volume.
   At Zurich in Switzerland and in Saxony prevailed a very ma-
lignant dyfentery.  Indeed for a number of years,  at this peri-
od, dyfentery was epidemic in  many parts of Europe and A-
merica.
   In 1747 prevailed epidemic catarrh in America and Europe.
In the fame year the bilious plague prevailed in Philadelphia.—In
1748, in Charlefton.  The fame years were fickly in Bofton.
   In 1747 appeared a comet, and Etna, which had been quiet
more than forty years, commenced her difcharges  of fire and
lava.  In the  Weft-Indies, a tremendous hurricane laid  wafte
the Iflands.
   Two comets appeared in 1748 ;  the  winter was fevere, and
two or three exceffively  hot and dry  fummer6 fucceeded.   In
England the fummer of  1747  was  very  dry.   In 1748  a faft
was appointed in Maffachufetts on account of the drouth.
   In England the angina maligna continued its ravages  with in-
creafed mortality.  The  fame malady prevailed in  France in
1749,  and there was  an earthquake at  London.   The 18th of 
241
June was a noted hot day, and Mars was as near to the earth as
her orbit will permit.
                                        Almanack for 1749.
   In  1749 the dyfentery and nervous  long  fever vifited many
towns in Conneaicut with diftreffing mortality.   Waterbury fuf-
tained a lofs of about 130 of her inhabitants principally by dyfen-
tery. Cornwall, then a new fettled village, on high mountains, loft
twenty of her citizens.   Hartford was feverely  vifited with in-
termittents, for the laft time.  The fummer was very dry, and
locufts or grafs-hoppers overrun the  fields and devoured the her-
bage.
                                       Douglas,  vol.  2. 208'
   I am authorized to fay that the terrible dyfentery in Woodbu-
ry did not appear to be very contagious—it excited great alarm ;
every one avoided the fick,  if poffible ; but many  who lived re-
mote and never came  near the fick, were feized,  and fuddenly
died.f
   In  1749 and  50 the  dyfentery, according  to  Zimmerman,
made great havoc in the Canton of Berne.  It is remarkable that
this formidable difeafe fhould be thus prevalent in both hemifpheres
at the fame time, and for a feries of  years.   About this time
meafles prevailed in America.
   In  1750 appeared a comet,  and  the  fummer was  exceffively
hot.   In Philadelphia, the heat raifed the mercury  to  100 deg.
by Farenheit.   The plague carried off  30,000 people in Fez,
and one third of the inhabitants of Tangiers.
   Violent tempefts marked this year, in  America, and an unu-
fual fwell of the Severn in England.  Earthquakes happened in
England, Jamaica, Peru, Leghorn,  Rome,  Sicily and Lapland.
   At Bcauvais,  50 miles from Paris, broke out a peftilential dif-
eafe,  called la Suete,  refembling the fweating ficknefs, termina-
ting fatally in three days.
                                        See Gent. Magazine.
   At Bethlem in Conneaicut raged a mortal fever, which fwept
away  between thirty and  forty of the  inhabitants.   The  exci-
ting caufe was fuppofed to be the exhalations from a fwamp which

  f M- S. letter from Z. Beers. 
242
   had been drained.   It is not improbable that this might have aid-
   ed the general principles of difeafe.
                                     Med. Repof. vol. i. p. 523.
     The winter of 1750-51 is mentioned  as extremely fevere in
 'America.   Vefuvius difcharged fire and  lava,  in 1751,  and on
   the 7th of March,  a moft dreadful tempeft at Nantz in  France,
   deftroyed 66 fhips, with 800 lives.   On the fame day, a tempeft
   at Jamaica did damage to the  amount of a  million of dollars.
   A ftorm at Cadiz on the  8th of December deftroyed 100 fail of
   fhipping.   On  the Adriatic coaft was an earthquake.
     In this year  Conftantinople  loft 209,000 inhabitants by  the
   plague.—The  preceding winter was  cold in Turkey,  and the
   old people prediaed  a fevere plague from the  quantity of fnow
   that fell in Conftantinople.   This prediaion  was founded on
   long obfervation ; and I  am able to confiim the juftnef. of it, by
   difcovering that thofe years which  produce the moft violent ac-
   tion or difcharges of elearical fire, generate moft fnow, hail and
   cold.
                                 Chcnier's Morocco vol. 2. 275.
     In America  the fpring flights of pigeons were unufually large.
   The dyfemery  was  epidemic and  mortal, in  the fame year, at
   Hartford and  New-Haven  ; probably in many other places.—
   With this fatal  dyfentery  prevailed a mortal angina for  feveral
   years.   The fame concurrence of thefe difeafes  will be mention-
/  ed under the year 1775.
     In England,  the 'fummer of 1751 was cold and wet ; and  a
   mortal diftemper prevailed among horfes and cattle, in moft parts
   of the coantry.   In Chefhire died  30,000 cows.   In Glafgow
   the feafons were very fickly.
                                             Gent. Magazine.
     Great and uncommon inundations occurred in the fame year,
   in France,  England and  Scotland.   In  Cork  the  water was
   three feet deep  in the midft of the city.
     The dyfentery  and ulcerous fore throat were very fatal, this
   year in Guilford.
     In 1752 the  fummer in South-Carolina,  and  probably in all
   parts of America, was diftinguifhed for intenfe heat.   The ther-
   mometer, for  nearly twenty days fucceflively, varied between 
*43
go and 101.—The effeas of this heat were vifible in  a number
of fudden deaths by apoplexies.  There were fome cafes of bad
fever, but no epidemic.   In  September a violent tempeft laid the
city under water.  The dyfentery was ftill prevalent in thenorth-
ern parts of America.
                 Mufeum, vol. 3. 316 andfequel, Dr. Chalmers.
   In Ireland prevailed angina  of fuch a malignant type, as to
kill the patient fometimes in eight or ten hours.  See Rutty on
weather.  The plague raged in the Eaft.
                                       An. Reg. 1766. 100.
   In this year Adrianople was  nearly deftroyed by an earthquake.
In Hinfdale,  on Conneaicut river,  in the ftate of  New-Hamp-
fhire, was aH eruption of fire from a volcanic mountain, called
weft river mountain.
                                Mem. Am. Acad.  vol. 1. 316.
   In America the winter of  1752-3 was long and fevere.
   I have  no  account  of any  general epidemic in  1753 ; but
particular places were vifited with diftreffing ficknefs.   A fingu-
lar inftance of a local peftilence occafioned by vapor  deferves to
be related.
   In autumn 1753 &fter ach*y f€af°n> arofe in Rouen,  the chief
city of Normandy, a thick fog, with the fmell of fulphur, which
increafed to that degree,  that in the  evening,  lights  could not
be diftinguifhed at any confiderable  diftance.   It did  not wholly
difappear, till the next day.   It was more  denfe in fome ftreets
than in others.
   In three or four days after,  began an epidemic ficknefs which
feized both  fexes, with chills, laffitude, lofs of appetite,  flight
pains in the arms and legs.  Thefe fymptoms were followed by
bilious loofenefs,  naufea  and vomitings.   Moft patients bled at
the nofe, frequently  in fmall quantity.  The  head ache then be-
came violent,  with a fmall, hard pulfe—a high fever followed.
The  region  of  the ftomach and hypochondria was tumefied;
this  fymptom was fucceeded by a  tenfion of the  belly—and  a
flight delirium followed.   The tongue was Ijrown or  black, but
moift ; fometimes with green ulcers  or apthas.   The patient died
the 5th,  7th, or i ith day; but not in every cafe.   Some were 
                           544_

thirty, or forty days in recovery ; many were  left  with a puflt-
nefs of the faee, hands and legs.
  In  fome other parts of France appeared peripneumony and in-
flammation of the pericordium, which was called a new difeafe.
                                        Phil. Tranf. vol. 49.
  In  December 1753 anc* January  fucceeding, the fmall town
of Hollifton, in Maffachufetts,  loft forty-three  of its citizens,
by a fever.  The difeafe began with a violent pain  in the breaft,
or fide,  not often in the head ; then fucceeded  a high fever, but
without delirium.   The  critical days were the 3d, 4th, 5th, or
6th.   Some of the patients appeared to be  ftrangled t©  death..
The town contained no more than 80 families.
                                  Hift. Collections, vol. 3. 19.
  The winter of 1753-4 in Europe was  very cold.   In 1754
was a great eruption of Vefuvius which lafted feveral weeks, and
violent earthquakes in England,  Conftantinople,  and Amboyna,
in the Eaftern Ocean.   The heavens appeared to be in a flame,
and Egypt, which rarely feels earthquakes, was feverely fhaken,
and 40,000 of the inhabitants of Cairo,  perifhed  in the  ruins
of two thirds of the city.
  The gangrenous fore throat was very mortal in  Ireland, and
prevalent in England.  See Rutty on weather.  The  fame fpe-
cies of angina was, at the fame time, very fatal in America.
                   See Belknap's Hift. N. Hampfliire, vol. 2. 121.
  In  Maryland, the earth was deluged with exceflive rains, and
intermittents were unufually obftinate.
                                          Gent. Mag. 175?.
  At this time there were two or  three very* mild  winters in
America.   In 1754-5  and 1755-6 floops failed from New-
York for Albany in January and February.   Smith's Hift. N.
York, 82.   In this  inftance, America is an exception  to  the
general rule,  that fevere winters extend over both  hemifpheres,
about the time of great volcanic eruptions.  The  feverity  was
limited  to the other  continent.
   The year  1755 .was remarkable for violent earthquakes, and
volcanic eruptions from  Etna  and the mountains in Iceland.
In April, Quito in South-America  was demolifhed.
   Portugal had fuffered for three  or four years, moft exceflive 
245
drouth, by  which  all fprings were  exhaufted.   But the year
>755 was rainy.   On the firft of November,  a tremendous con-
vulfion laid  Lifbon  in  ruins, with  the  deftrudrion  of 50,000
lives.  This fhock was  felt on the whole  Spanifh  coaft, and
10,000 people periflied  on one of the  Azores.   In Mitelene,
an  ifland in  the  Archipelago, 2000 houfes were  deftroyed.
The day preceding this concuflion was remarkable for a haze or
vapor that obfcured the fun.
   On the 18th of November,  America  fuftained a violent and
extenfive fhock ;  but its effeas were not very calamitous.  The
fifh in the ocean did not  efcape without injury.   Two or three
whales, and multitudes of cod were feen,  a few days  after,
floating on the furface ©f the water.
   In the remarkable  year 1755, the moft prevalent epidemics
feem  to have been angina  maligna, and catarrh, which fpread
over France and England.   The angina maligna  was very mor-
tal in  fome parts  of America.   In one town on Long-Iflaad,
two children only, under twelve years of age, furvived.
                                       M. S. of Mr. Reeve.
   In this year alfo prevailed  a petechial  fever in Ireland, and
according to Baron  de  Tott,  Conftantinople loft 150,000 in-
habitants by the plague.
                     See his.Memoirs, Fothergill on fore throat
                      and Raitty on weather.
   The winter of 1756-7 in  Syria  was exceffively fevere ; the
fruits were deftroyed, olive-trees, which had withftood the weath-
er for fifty years,  were killed, and thoufands of poor people per-
ifhed with cold.
                                           Lon. Mag. 1764.
  In the following fummer, crops failed,  a  dearth enfued, and
fo fevere a famin that parents devoured their own  children ; the
poor from the  mountains  offered their  wives for fale in market,
to procure food.
                                                     Ibim.
   This winter was alfo  very fevere in Europe.    In 1756  ap-
peared a comet and there was an eruption in Iceland.   A mete-
or was feen  in France, and earthquakes  were experienced in va-
rious places. 
»4&
   In 1756-57 the catarrh  was very prevalent in America, fol-
lowed by an  earthquake in July.   This catarrh preceded the
lame eipidemic in Europe by one year.
   In 1758 catarrh fpread over Europe,  and the plague began to
fliow itfelf in Egypt and Smyrna.   In November, a large meteor
was feen in Great-Britain,  and is defcribed by Sir John Pringle
-in the Philofophical  Traafaaions.*  In this year  alfo, the pe-
techial fever, the precurfor of the plague,  began to fhow itfelf,
in Aleppo.—The fummer in America was extremely hot.
                     Letter of Gov. Ellis, Mufeum,  vol.5. 151.
   In 1759 appeared two or three comets; and in November a moft
tremendous eruption of Vefuvius.   In Auguft was an earthquake
at Bourdeaux—and one at Bruffels.  The winter following 1759
was exceffively cold in both hemifpheres.  In Leipfic, centinels
froze to death ;  and  in  South-Carolina, the fnow covered the
earth to the depth of nearly two feet.   In  England,  the  cold
was lefs fevere.
   The  year  1759  was memorable for violent earthquakes,  in
Syria.  Buildings were  demolifhed and Damafcus was buried in
ruins.  The fhocks were repeated for many weeks.   In Novem-
ber, Truxilloin Peru  was fwallowed up by means of an  earth-
quake.   It will  be obferved that this happened in the month,
when Vefuvws  was in  eruption.   Thefe great phenomena an-
nounced a general and fevere peftilence, arid the  effeas of the
general  principles of difeafe  were foon  felt over Europe,  Afia
and America.   Annual Regifter,  1761.  96 and paffim.   The
earthquakes in Syria were preceded by drouth and followed by
exceflive rains.
          See Ruflel on the plague at Aleppo and Velney's Travels.
   In 1759  the  plague  began to appear in Cyprus,  and at  Acre
and Latakia on the Syrian coaft.   In Copenhagen raged fmall-
pox with great mortality.
   In New-England were fhocks of earthquake in  February, at
Bofton  and  Portfmouth.   An.  Regif.  1759.   88.  In Au-
tumn an unufual tempeft and tide at Nova Scotia.
   * Seen from Dublin, it moved from fouth to north,  Annual regifter,
 J759- J8. 
                           247
   In America,  cotemporary  with the  commencement of the
plague in Egypt,  appeared  the meafles, in 1758, and the  year
1759 appears, hy the American bills of mortality, to  have been
very unhealthy.   The predominant difeafes were the meafles aad
dyfentery.   M. S.  letter  from Dr.  Betts of  Norwalk.  The
meafles  appeared in 1758, but was moft  extenfive  in  1759.
This is an inftance of the  prevalence of dyfentery and  meafles
in the fame year.
   In this year alfo the fcurvy,  an  endemical difeafe in Canada,
was unufually mortal.
                                              Lind,  p. 26.
   At Bombay, a meteor of extraordinary  brightnefs was feen
on the 4th of April,  1759.
   After the fevere winter of 1759-60, happened in  America,
a fnow ftorm on the 3d of May, when the apple-trees  were in
bloffom.   The difpofition  of the elements to generate fnow and
hail,  during  peftilential periods,  has already been remarked.
M. S. of Mr. Whitman.   The fpring of 1760 in  America was
very dry.
   In 1760 earthquakes were repeated in Syria, and the plague
appeared at Aleppo,  Jerufalem and Damafcus.   It continued to   '
extend and increafe,  until  the fummer of  1762 ; after which it
declined.   In Holland and Belgium were fmall fhocks of earth-
quake—preceded by flafhes of light.   Annual  Regifter  1760.
70.   Ruffel  on  the plague at Aleppo.   Indeed  earthquakes
were felt in moft parts of Europe.
   Cyprus,  which had been free from peftilence for 30 years pre-
ceding,  loft  20,000 inhabitants by  the malady.   On the firft:
appearance of the plague in Egypt, the magiftracy publifhed an
ordinance to prevent the introduaion of the difeafe by infeaion ;
but it was of no ufe.  The difeafe was preceded,  as ufual, by a
petechial fever.
                                          Mariti's Travels.
   In England, the fummer of 1760 was  dry and autumn wet.
In this year  occurred  another difcharge  from  Vefuvius.—Ar
comet was feen in January, and a diftemper  made great havoc
among horfes in and about London.  Annual Regifter 176a
67.   Immenfe  damage was fuftained by tempefts.   Ibm. 73. 
248
  The principles of difeafe in 1760 began to exhibit themfelves
in the Weft-Indies,  and the ordinary fever of the climate affum-
ed new and malignant fymptoms, with contagion.
                                               Lind,p. 126.
  In this year alfo  the northern parts of the  American conti-
nent, which had been  overrun by meafles, began to feel more fe-
verely the violence gf  the epidemic conftitution.
  In November, the  town  of Bethlem was affailed  by an in-
flammatory fever, with fymptoms of typhus,  which in the courfe
of the following winter, carried off about  40  of the inhabi-
tants.  The difeafe was extremely  violent,  terminating on the
3d or 4th day; in fome cafes,  the  patient died within 24 hours
of the attack.   It  feems to have  been that  fpecies of winter
fever, which occurs in peftilential periods, mentioned under the
year 1698.  During this epidemic, a flock of quails flew over the
chimney of a houfe, in which were feveral difeafed perfons,  and
five of them fell dead on the fpot.  This was thought ominous ;
but  was a natural event, which may rationally be afcribed to de-
leterious gas emitted from the chambers of the fick.
                                   Med. Repof. vol. 1. 524.
  This difeafe  was afcribed to the draining of the pond  or
fwarnp, mentioned under the year 1750.  But  to this  explana-
tion, there are ftrong, if not infuperable objeaions.
  Firft.   The  fever began in November ; but this is the month
when the marfh fevers  of our climate difappear.   I doubt whether
the  effluvia from marfhes ever aa upon the  human body,  fo as
to produce difeafe, without a greater degree of heat than Con-
neaicut ever  experiences in  the month of November.  Cold
puts an end to all marfh fevers, but this difeafe continued to in-
creafe in  December, and did not ceafe till late in the winter.
  Secondly.   This difeafe was called a malignant pleurify ; but
marfh effluvia are not  known to produce fevers of that defcrip-
tion.  They are common  on high, as well  as on low  grounds,
as I can prove by faas in America.
  Thirdly.   There is no neceffity of reforting to marfh exha-
lations for the fource of this malady.   The fame fpecies of fever
prevailed in that winter and the  fpring following,  in many other
parts of Conneaicut,  where no  marfh exifted.   In Hartford it 
249
carried off a number of robuft men, in two or three days from
the attack.*   In North-Haven it attacked few perfons, but ev*
ery one of them died.  In Eaft-Haven died  about forty-five
men in the prime of life, moftly heads of families.   The fame
difeafe prevailed in New-Haven among the inhabitants,  and flu*
dents in college.
   It is obvious then that this was an epidemic, very well known
in fickly periods, and not dependent on local caufes.   From Dr.
Trumbull of North-Haven I  have the following remarks on the
difeafe.
   The blood was  very thick and fizy; often iffuing from  the
nofe and fometimes  from the eyes.   The inflammation was vio-
lent, and  foon  produced  delirium.   The  moft  robuft  bodies
were moft liable to the difeafe.   A free ufe of the lancet,  in the
early  ftages  of the  diforder, was  the only effeaual remedy j
where  the phyficians were afraid to bleed, the patients all died.-J*
This malady prevailed  from November 1760 to March 1761.
   I cannot  learn that this fpecies  of inflammatory fever, has
ever been  epidemic  in the northern  parts of America, fince this
period.  But it is a common winter fever,  in the Carolinas, af-
ter fickly fummers ;  and in the northern ftates,  fporadic cafes o£
it occur with  all its formidable fymptoms.   Inftances  will  be
hereafter mentioned.   It is the peftilence of winter,  and^arely,
if ever appears, except when peftilential epidemics are current
in fummer.   And I am not without fufpicions that  the debility
occafioned by marfli effluvia in fummer may predifpofe the fyftem
to that fever  in  winter, tho not neceffary to produce it.
   In March   1761  was a fmall fhock of earthquake in  New-
England,  and the fame occurred in Iceland, Hamburg, Syria,
England and South-America.
  * One of them was my paternal uncle.
  f Dr  Hugh Williamfon,  in the fecond volume of the Medical Re-
pofitory, has defcribed this fpecies of difeafe, which, he fays, prevails
pften in Carolina in winter, efpecially among thofe who have  been af-
fected by bilious fevers in the  preceding autumn.   He obferves that
bleeding is ufually pernicious in that difeafe.  Perhaps a difference of
climates may make different  remedies neceffary. But in different pe-
riods, the fame difeafe may require different treatment. In New-Eng-
land, that fever has ufually demanded an early ufe of  the lancet,
                           H  h 
25°
   In the winter and fpring of 1761  a fevere influenza  attacked
the northern parts of America.   In Bethlem it was cotemporary
with the fever juft mentioned.   In Philadelphia it prevailed in
the winter,  and in Maffachufetts, in April.   From Dr. Tufts,
a refpeaable praaitioner of medicin in Weymouth, I  have the
following defcription of the difeafe.
   " The diftemper began in April,  and in May ran into a ma-
lignant fever, whieh proved  fatal  to aged people.   It fpread
over the whole country and the Weft India  iflands.   It began
with a fevere pain in  the head and limbs,  a fenfation of  coldnefs,
fhiverings fucceeded  by great heat, running at the nofe, and a
troublefome cough.   It continued for eight  or  ten  days, and
generally terminated by fweating.
   In May,  the aged who had before efcaped, were feized with
an affeaion  like  a flight cold ; this, in a day or two was fol-
lowed by great proftration of ftrength, a cough, labor of breath-
ing,  pains about  the  breaft,  praecordia,  and  in  the limbs, but
not acute.   The  countenance betrayed no great marks of febrile
heat.  The matter expeaorated was thin,  but flimy.   As the
difeafe advanced, the difficulty of breathing encreafed ; the ex-
peaoration  was  more  difficult; the matter  thrown off more
vifcid ;  at length the lungs  appeared to be fo  loaded with tena-
cious matter, that no  efforts could  diflodge  it,  and the patient
funk under it.
  This diforder carried with it bilious  appearances—the coun-
tenances of fome patients were of a yellowifh hue.   In fome,
there was an appearance of indifference or  infenfibility ;  and at
night, a flight delirium."
                                 M. S. letter from Dr. Tufts.
   In the fpring of 1761 earthquakes were  felt in many parts of
Europe.  See an account of them in An.  Regifter, 1761.92.
Shocks alfo were felt  in the Azores and Weft  Indies.  Thefe
agitations were precifely cotemporary with the epidemic catarrh
in America.  Scarcely any  country  efcaped  the convulfions of
nature.   During the peftilence  in Theffalonica,  fhocks were felt
almoft every day.   Ibm.
   In the fummer of 1761, I am informed, the infeaious  bilious
fever prevailed in Charlefton, but I am not poffeffed of the details. 
25I
In May  happened a moft extraordinary  typhon or whirlwind,
which fwept Aftily river to its  bottom.   Five veffels were funk
and eleven difmafted.  Annual Regifter,  1761. 93.   In  Italy
a woman  was killed by a  fudden eruption  of vapor under her
feet.  Ibm. 95.   The fummer in America was very dry.
  In the fpring of 1762 the influenza was epidemic in Europe.
It appeared at Edinburgh in  April in a few cafes;  at Dublin in
May ; and in June  was general and fevere.   It was therefore a
year later than in America.
      Effays and Obf. Edinburgh. Rutty on weather. An. Reg. 1762.
  In March was an earthquake in Ireland, and in autumn a con-
fiderable fhock in Spain.   On  the nth of June was feen a me-
teor, paffing from north to fouth, which met a dark cloud and
exploded.  Another as large as the moon,  and bright  as the
fun  defcended flowly on the  4U1 of  December, and diflipated.
                                     Annual Regifter, 1762.
  In  1762  appeared a comet, and in America the  heat and
drouth exceeded what was ever before known   From June to
September 22d, there  was fcarcely  a drop  of rain, almoft all
fprings were exhaufted,  and  the  diftrefs occafioned by the want
of water was extreme.  The  foreft trees appeared as if fcorched.
  The winter following was equally remarkable for feverity, both
in Europe and America.  The Thames was a common highway
for carriages, and the poor perifhed in the ftreets of London.
                    Lond. Mag. 1763.  Annual Regifter, 1762.
  In America the fnow fell on the 8th of November and con-
tinued till about the 20th of  March.   Thefe extraordinary phe-
nomena  were followed by an eruption  of Etna  in  1763, of
three months contiuance.
  In the extremely hot fummer of 1762, the bilious plague pre-
vailed in Philadelphia.   The fame difeafe  fwept away moft of
the troops in the expedition  to Havanna.  The plague raged in
Conftantinople and in Syria ; while the yellow fever fpread mor-
tality in Bengal.
  In this year the plague in Aleppo came to its crifis.   In 1760,
died about 500 perfons ; in  1761, 7000,  and in 1762, 11OOO ;
after which year it fubfided.
                       See Patrick Ruffel, Hift. of  that plague. 
                           25*
  The bills Of mortality will beft fhow how feverely the. princi-
ples of difeafe were felt in London,  Amfterdam and Dublin in
1762 and 3.
  No part of the earth feems to have efcaped a fhare of unufual
mortality in the period between 1759 and 1763.   In the latter
year,  the bilious plague in Bengal carried off 800 Europeans and
30,000 natives.   Lind, p. 82.   In  the year preceding,  a vio-
lent earthquake occurred at Chitacong in the territories of Bengal.
                                         An. Reg/ 1763.  60.
  On the 19th of Oaober 1762, happened a remarkably  dark
day at Detroit, 'and the vicinity.   While at dinner,  the  inhabi-
tants found it neceffary to vfe candles.  The darknefs continued,
with little interruption, during the whole  day.
       Phil. Tranf. vol. 53. p. 63.  Mem. Amer. Acad.  vol. r.  244.
  During this peftilential  period, fatal  difeafes carried off the
cattle on  the continent of Europe,  and  Toulon loft  one  third
of its inhabitants by an epidemic.
                                      An. Regift.  1761. 161.
  The fummer of 1763  was a moift and unkindly feafon.   In
Auguft the Indians on Nantucket were attacked  by the bilious
plague,  and between  that  time  and February following, their
number  was reduced from 358 to 136.  Of 258 who were af-
feaed,  36 only recovered.   The difeafe began with high  fever
and ended in typhus,  in about five  days.  It appeared to be in-
feaious among the Indians only ; for no whites  were attacked,
altho  they affociated  freely  with the  difeafed.   Perfons of a
mixed blood were  attacked, but recovered.   Not one died,  ex-
cept of full Indian blood.   Some  Indians who lived in the fam-
ilies of the whites, efcaped the difeafe ;  as did a few that  lived
by themfelves on a diftant part of  theifland.   I am informed, by
refpeaable authority,  that a fimilar fever  attacked Indians on
board of fhips, at a diftance of hundreds  of leagues, without any
conneaion with Nantucket.
   In December of the fame year, the Indians on Martha's Vine-
yard, diftant eight leagues from Nantucket, were  invaded by a
like fever ; not a family efcaped,  and of 52 patients,  39 died.
   In this  inftance,  difeafe  difcriminated as nicely between the
Whites and Indians,  as in  1797,  it  did between  men and cats. 
253
and a3 exactly as the plague in Egypt, between the Ifraelites and
Egyptians.
   Some fufpicions were  fuggefted that the difeafe at Nantucket
might have been received from a fhip which put in there, with
fick paffengers, from  Ireland  bound to  New-York ; but there
is no foundation for this opinion, as the  diforder broke out be-
fore the arrival of the fhip.
       See Phil. Trans, and Lond.  Mag. 1764.   Hift. Collections,
          vol.  3.  158.  M. S. of Mofes Brown.
   In  1764, juft after this fatal peftilence  among the Indians, a
large fpecies of fifh, called blue fifh,  thirty of which  would fill
a barrel, and which were before caught in great numbers,  on ev-
ery fide of Nantucket, fuddenly difappeared,  to the great lofs of
the Inhabitants.—Whether  they  perifhed or  migrated,  is not
known.
                                          Hift. Col. 3. 158.
   In Europe, the year 1763 was  remarkable for difeafes among
various fpecies of animals.  In Denmark, an epidemic catarrhal
diforder affeaed horfes.   In Madrid, a peftilence  among dogs
fwept away multitudes—900 died in  one day.   In  Genoa, the
poultry perifhed in a fimilar manner.   In Italy, horfes and fwine
fell viaims to the peftilential principle.   In France, horfes and
mules; in  Sweden, fheep, horfes and horned cattle perifhed
r.nder the influence of the general caufe.
                                         Rutty on Weather.
  The fummer was  remarkable  for hail ftorms, one of which
totally ruined 36 villages in Maconnois in France.   See  the ac-
count of thefe and of the earthquakes in that year in An. Regif.
Chronicle.  Hail ftones fell of fizes from three to ten inches in
circumference.   Thefe ftorms were numerous and many fire balls
fell in  various  parts  of England and a globe  of fire was feen in
Sweden.
   Thefe hail ftorms occurred during or near  the time of the e-
ruption of Etna.   In 1764 was another eruption of Etna.  In
moft parts of Europe and America,  this period of peftilence ap-    r
pears to have clofed with the years 1762 and 3.   But in  Naples
fpread a malignant fever in 1764, preceded by famin, by which
difeafe it was  fuppofed  200,000  people perifhed. -  The difeafe 
                           «54
was marked by petechias and glandular  tumors and was  a mild
fpecies of plague.  The feafon was exceffively hot, and the bil-
ious plague prevailed in Cadiz,   Lind, 189.  122.  An earth-
quake occured in. Portugal and Siberia.  In the February follow-
ing occured a degree of cold, rarely known in England.  The
mercury in  Farenheit fell  to 7 deg. and in  one place, within the
ball.   An. Reg. 1765-66.   A remarkable high tide in  China
in May fwept away a whole city.  The caufe is not mentioned.
                                                 Ibim. 92.
   To the epidemics above mentioned,  fucceeded a feries of dyf-
enteries,  in the hot fummers of  1765 and 6.   In 1765, the ma-
lignant dyfentery raged in Berne and  other  parts  of Switzer-
land,  in Suabia and Auftria.  The invafion was, in  many cafes
fudden, fays  Zimmerman,  without any  preceding  fymptom ;
but more generally its approach was indicated by chills, laflitude
and other premonitory figns.  In its progrefs, it exhibited moft
of the fymptoms of the yellow fever  of America.   It was pre-
ceded by a putrid fever, which yielded to the dyfentery in June.
                               See Zimmerman on Dyfentery.
   This epidemic was followed by violent and  malignant  pleuri-
fies ;  a circumftance that marks its alliance with  the peftilential
fever of America, and probably of all temperate climates, which
is alfo fucceeded  by pleurify or peripneumony in winter.
   Id 1765 were many earthquakes in  Italy,  and  Sweden, and
a volcanic eruption at Truxillo in Spanifh America.  Dyfentery
prevailed  in  Scotland, and  intermittents in Pennfylvania and
Georgia, were univerfal.
   In  1766 the fummer was every where hot and in  Europe ex-
ceffively dry.  In Germany,  the Rhine was  lower than in the
terrible drouth of 1476,  and in many places, was forded.   In
Scotland, the people were compelled to kill their cattle for want
of fodder.   The heat and drouth produced great  hail ftorms,
and in autumn,  were followed by inundations, one of  which at
Montauban, in France, fwept away 1200 houfes.   Terrible tem-
pefts marked the year,  and in the Weft-Indies, thofe hurricanes
which lay the iflands wafte,  and are recorded among the memo-
rabilia of the climate.  In  Auguft, the planet Mars was nearer 
255
to the earth, by  two millions of miles,  than it had  been fbr
many ages,  and in the fpring appeared a comet.
   The winter preceding this remarkable fummer, was extremely
cold in  Europe.   At  Ratifbon, Reaumur's thermometer was
two degrees lower, than in the noted year 1709, and birds per-
ifhed with cold.  At Naples, the fnow lay in the ftreets, to the
depth of 18 inches, and  Vefuvius  began to difcharge fmoke,
the harbinger  of an  explofion.  At Lifbon,  Reaumur's ther-
mometer was 37 degrees below the freezing point,  and at Mad-
rid, people fkated on the ice.
   Thefe remarkable phenomena preceded and  attended a gene-
ral difcharge of fire and lava, from the three well known  volca-
noes,  Etna, Vefuvius  and Heckla, which took place in  1766.
This is one  of the few inftances on record,  in which thefe vol-
canoes have been in eruption, nearly at the fame  time.   The
eruption Of Heckla continued from April  to September.  Thefe
phenomena account for the exceflive drouth in Europe.
                 See Sinclair's Scotland.  Annual Regifter, 1766.
   In  this year  1766 was an earthquake in New-England, and a
violent fhock at Conftantinople.  Vegetation failed in fome parts
of Europe and America, and grain was very  fcarce in  Italy,
Great-Britain and the  Carolinas.  In  1767 a million fterling
was paid in England for imported grain.
                                    An. Reg. 1768. p. ioi.'
   The winter of 1765-6 was not fevere in America and there
was little fnow ; but in this remarkable period, as in many oth-
ers, the feverity of the feafons commenced in Europe one year
before it did in America.   The winter of 1766-7 was terribly
fevere in both hemifpheres.   The cold was as intenfe as in 1740 ;
the Rhine  at Cologne  became  a bridge  of ice, and fupported
laboring  artificers, as in 1670.  In  Italy,  the poor crouded to
the cities for aid, and perifhed with cold.   In  Ruflia,  both rich
and poor perifhed.   The wolves became ravenous, entered towns
and deftroyed  people.   In England, the larks took refuge in
hay-carts and the market; the fnow fell  to the depth of many
feet and buried thoufands of fheep.   In America,  the cold was
  * I  am ftruck  with furprife  to obferve how  univerfally erops fail,
about the time of great volcanic eruptions. 
2S6
very fevere, and at Brandywine, the mercury fell in Farenheit
to 20 deg.  below cypher—an unexampled degree of cold in that
latitude.   In January happened a thaw, which broke up the riv-
ers in Conneaicut, and left fcarcely a bridge over the rivers.
The cold in France in  1767-8 was  more fevere  than in  1740
and within a degree of that in 1709.  In Conftantinople fnow
and hail fell as late as March 16.
          See An. Regif. 1767. p.  52, 33, 54, 7& 1768. p. 58, 101,
   Every thing  indicated uncommon agitations in the elements,
Pages would be neceffary  to enumerate the  tempefts and hail
ftorms of thefe years.   In January 1769 fell two  fire  balls in
England; one of  them on  Tower hill.  At  Amiens, a  man.
his wife and his horfes  were killed by a difcharge of fubterraae-
ous vapor.   A violent  ftorm in Virginia on the 11 th of Septem-
ber tore  up trees,  ftranded fhips and demolifhed houfes ;  Bag-
dadt was almoft ruined  by an earthquake, and Cuba was defola-
ted by a hurricane in 1768.   An.  Regifter,  1769. 67.   146.
Thefe laft years in England were rainy.
   In  1767 epidemic catarrh prevailed in Europe, and  difeafe?
among horfes in New-England and New-Jerfey.   The fummer
was remarkable for hail ftorms;  Cepfialonia was ruined by an
earthquake,  and  Vefuvius, from this year to  1777 never ceafed
to difcharge fmoke, and frequently fcoriae, ftones and cinders.
             An. Reg.  1767. 142,  151.  Encyclop. art. Vefuvius.
   In 1768 vaft multitudes of caterpillars devoured  the grafs in
the fields at Northampton, in Maffachufetts.
   The fummer of  1768 was hot, but I have no account of the
difeafes in America in  this and the preceding year,  except of a
difj.der in the head and throat among horfes.
                                Mem. Am. Acad. vol. 1. 529.
   in  1769 the fummer was very hot,  and  in autumn appeared
a ccmet with a vaft coma.  Venus paffed over the Sun's difk on
the 3d of June ; there  was a fmall earthquake in New-England
and a great tempeft.  Among the difeafes in  America is men-
tioned a fatal angina in  Bofton, and other towns, but I am not
furnifhed with its hiftory.  The fame diftemper prevailed in 1770,
and in Jamaica occafioned confiderable  mortality.
                                   Mufeum, vol. 1.  35, 430. 
257
•   In Holland 32,000 cattle perifhed by a peftilential diftem«ef;
An. Reg. 1769. 166.   Great ficknefs prevailed at Rome.  Ibmj
In America fome cafes of canine madnefs were obferved.  The
meafles prevailed in America,  but I have no details of its origin
and progrefs.  The dyfentery was epidemic and fatal in  1769.
   In July 1770 appeared alfo a comet.   There was an eruption
of Vefuvius in 1770, and another in 1771.  Flames iffued from
Heckla in 1771 and 72, but no lava.  An earthquake was felt
in New-England  in  1771, and Italy  was repeatedly  fhaken.
On the 17th of  July was feen a meteor or fire ball.
   Thefe two years were  diftinguifhed by the moft terrible earth-
quakes, ftorms,  rains  and inundations, accounts of which  fill
the gazettes of thofe years.  In 1770 the floods  in  England,
Holland and France exceeded any that  could be recolleaed.
In France the vintage was greatly injured.  In 1771  the  terri-
tory of Honduras  was wafted by locufts and famin.
                                          An Reg. p. 163.
   In  1771 great rains continued to occafion  floods.   In Vir-
ginia, a flood  in  the  Rappahannock filled the warehoufes and
ruined the tobacco,  which occafioned public prayers to be or-
dered.  Similar inundations happened in Germany.
   There were earthquakes in Hifpaniola,  St. Maure,  England,
and in Ternate, a Molucca ifland, where was an eruption of fire;
             Gent. Magazine.  An. Regif. 1770, paffim 1771. 120.
   In  1771 a mortal diftemper fwept away great  numbers of
foxes in America.
                                Mem. Am. Acad. vol. 1. 529.
   In  Italy the harveft failed, and in  Sardinia,  Holland,  Flan-
ders,  and fome parts of  England, the  cattle were fWept  away
by an  infeaious difeafe.   The  number of cattle that perifhed in
Holland,  was ftated, in Sept. 1771,  to amount to  171,780.
                                       An. Regif. 1771. 147.
   In Conftantinople raged the plague in 1770 ;  and one thoufand
bodies were, for fome time, buried daily.  In 1771 this malady
prevailed in Poland  and  Ruflia, and 200,000  people perifhed.
The number that died in the Ruffian dominions was 62,000.
                                       An.Regif.  177*. W
                            I i 
                           ml
   In the Eaft-Indies the diforders in the elements at this" period
 produced ftill more deplorable effeas.   The  exceflive heat and
 want of rain,  which ufually precede or attend the approximation
 of comets and volcanic  eruptions, occafion a failure of crops  in
 countries, where the grain which is the principal food of the m-
 habitants, depends on water from inundation.   Such  is the faa
 in India and in Egypt,  where rice is the great article of food.
   The heat and  drouth of 1769 cut fhort  the rice crops in the
 territories of the Ganges.  The confequence was a famin, which,
 in 1770,  deftroyed incredible numbers  of the  natives.    The
 ftreets were filled with dead  carcafes,  and  fuch  numbers were
 thrown into the  river,  as to  render the  water and the fifh  unfit
 for ufe.
   In 1771 difeafe was  added to the calamities of the miferable
 inhabitants,  a million of whom  were fuppofed to perifh by the
 bilious plague.
                               See Encyclopedia, Art. Bengal.
   In 1770  the  atmofphere at Calcutta was filled and clouded
 with  flies  of  a  large  kind,  which  never defcended  to  the
 earth,  but  came  fo near  that they  could be diftinguifhed with
 glaffes.   It is  remarkable that the  appearance of thefe animals
 was cotemporary with the millions of worms which overran the
northern diftrias  of  America.    Encyclop,  Article Bengal,
The Bramins mentioned that a fimilar phenomenon  occurred a-
bout 150 years before,which muft have been during the peftilence
among the Indians in  America from 1618 to 1622.   At  this
time alfo began a  difeafe among the potatoes in Scotland,  which
has been gradually extending itfelf to this time.   The leaves  con-
traa and fhrivel ; and juft below the furface of the earth, there
appears on the ftalk a fear of fome  length,  or groove corroded
 through the rind,  of the color of ocher.   The fruit on the roots
is fmall and of an unpleafant tafte.
                                     Sinclair's, Scot. 2.  187.
   In 1771  anginas, in fome  parts of America, occafioned a
 confiderable mortality.
                             Regifter of  deaths in New-Haven.
   Catarrh prevailed in  1771, but was  epidemic in America in
 1772.   The winter of  1771-2 was very fevere in  Europe.   In 
                       ,     *S9
                     >- &}Uy--'--
America the month of March  1772 was diftinguifhed for great
falls of fnow, beyond  what was ever before  known.   In Bohe-
mia,  it was computed that 168,000 perfons perifhed in that year
by epidemic difeafes.   An. Reg. 152.   A tempeft in China de-
ftroyed 150,000 lives  in Canton River.
                                       An. R.eg. 1773-P- IC,2-
   In 17.70, cotemporary  with  the clouds  of flies in India and a
moft fatal peftilence among men and catde in Europe, appeared
in America a  black worm about one inch and a half in length,
which devoured  the grafs and corn.   Never was a more  fingular
phenomenon.    Thefe  animals were generated fuddenly  in the
northern ftates of  America,  and almoft covered two or three
hundred miles of country.  They all moved nearly in one direc-
tion,  and  when they  were intercepted by  furrows, in plowed
land, they fell into them in  fuch number s as to form heaps.    They
fought fhelter in the grafs, a hot fun being fatal to them.    Tbey
difappeared fuddenly about' the  clofe of  June and beginning  of
Ny.
                             New-England Farmer, Art. Infect.
   This  fpecies  of worni  has been  feen at  other times, and  in
1791, in great  multitudes.  No account can be given of their
origin and they feem not to have regular  periods  of return.  In
July 1791,  the  late governor Huntington, a gentleman of care-
ful obfervation,  informed  me, he had expofed fome of thefe an-
imals to a hot fun on  a dry board, and in a few hours, found
them diffolved into mere water.   They feem to be generated by
fome elementary procefs,  and to be the harbingers of peftilence ;
at leaft they have preceded difeafes in America.
  In February 1772 prevailed in America epidemic catarrh.
                                  M.  S. letter from Dr. Tufts.
  In this year, the meafles appeared in all parts of America, with
unufual mortality.   In Charlefton,  S. Carolina, died 8 or 900
children.
                                    Public prints, Odl.  177a-
  A mortal fever prevailed alfo in Wellfleet on Cape-Cod, which
proved fatal to forty of its  inhabitants.  Hift. Col. vol. 3.  118.
The mortality in Bohemia has been mentioned, and the ficknefs in
London appears  by the  bill of mortality. 
fi6o
  This year, 1772, was diftinguifhed for a great hurricane in the
Weft-Indies,  like thofe of 1766 and 1780.
                                       An.  Reg. 1772.  140.
  The anginas of the preceding year continued to prevail in 1772.
  The winter of 1772-3 was model ate in England, but on  the
continent  more fevere.  In  February,  occurred in America, a
remarkable day,  ftill known by the name of the cold Sunday.
  This year, 1773, was in general fickly.  In America, the mea-
fles finifhed its courfe and was followed by diforders in the throat.
After the meafles  left  the patient, came on a fecondary fever,
Which, in fome cafes, proved fatal.  Thofe who furvived, lay ill
a long time, troubled with an exceflive expeaoration.   It feem-
ed as if the patient difcharged the amount of his weight.
  But the moft mortal  difeafe,  was, the cynanche trachealis or
bladder in  the throat.   In general, there was little canker, but
an extreme difficulty of breathing; the  patient being nearly fuf-
focated  with a tough mucus  or  flime, which  no  medicin could
attenuate of difcharge,  and which  finally proved fatal.   All med-
ical aid was fruitlefs,  and fcarcely  a child that was attacked in
fome towns, furvived.
  This difeafe was fpeedily followed, in fome places  by the dyf-
entery of a peculiarly malignant type, occafioning mortification
on the third day.  This difeafe was prevalent and very fatal in
New-Haven  and Eaft-Haven, in Conneaicut,  and in Salem,
Maffachufetts.
              M. S. letters from Dr. Trumbull and Dr.  Holyoke.
  In Philadelphia,  the meafles appeared in  March, attended
with  efflorefcence about the neck; at the fame time, catarrh
which could hardly be  diftingufhed from the meafles.
                                  Rufh's Works, vol. %. 238.
  Cotemporary with thefe difeafes in America,  were the fmall-
pox and a fatal fever  in fome parts of Scotland, and a plague
which carried off 80,000 people in Baffora, a town in  Perfia,
near the Euphrates.
   In this  year, an earthquake funk the town of Guatimala in
New-Spain.
   The year 1774 was more healthy than the  preceding; but
the fcarlatina anginofa  began to fhow itfelf in Edinburgh, and is 
t6t
 fome parts of America, efpecially at Philadelphia.   On the 4th
 cf May was a fall of fnow.
       Rufh, vol. 1. 94, and the Eritifli Med. Publications in that year.
   The winter pf 1774-5  began on the continent of Europe with
 unufual feverity.   The rivers in Germany were frozen,  early in
 December, and there was deep  fnow at Bologna in Italy in
 Oaober.   But in England, the winter was  not fevere—an in-
 ftance which  is fometimes obferved in both  hemifpheres, that
 cold and falls of fnow run in veins.*
                          An. Regifter, 1775. 87. and 1774. 173.
   In  1775 happened a great eruption  of fire  from a volcano in
 Guatimala.  An. Reg. 136.   The fummer was remarkable for
 thunder and lightning.
   A halo  and mock funs  were obferved in England, and a me-
teor in America.  In Sweden and England, the fummer was dry.
 In Holland happened a great tempeft and high tide,  Nov. 14th.
                                          An. Regifter,  172.
   In  1775 prevailed in England epidemic catarrh, preceded by
 mild ferene weather.
   In America prevailed  cynanche  maligna,  with confiderable
 mortality.   It feems to have invaded all  the  northern  parts of
 America,  and in many places if continued to be  current with
 dyfentery for three years.   This  was the  cafe  in Middletown on
 Conneaicut river.  In other places,  it difappeared in the winter
 following.
                       M. S. letter from Dr. Betts.
                      Regifters of the firft fociety in Middletown.
   This peftilential period feems to  have commenced with the
 great agitations of the elements in  1769 and 70, and  to have
 been firft difplayed in the drouth  and famin in  India, the plague
 in Turkey, and the infeas and diftempers among cattle in  Eu-
 rope and America ;  to which may be added anginas.  The pro-
 cefs was  marked by  a comet, volcanic  eruptions, earthquakes
 and tempefts,  with  meafles, influenza and angina, and a feries
 of moft fatal dyfentery clofed the period.

   * A remarkaftle inftance has happened, the laft winter, 1798-9—-the
 weather being very cold, with  immenfe quantities of fnow from the
 Atlantic to  the mountains, but very mild in Canada and the weftern
 country, until the clofe of winter. 
262
  In 1775 an eruption of water  took place from mount Etna,
and Lipari,  a neighboring ifland, difcharged fire.
                        Encyclopedia, art. Volcano and Lipari.
  In this year began or very much increafed the mildew of oats
Jn Montquitter in Scotland.   About the beginning or middle of
Auguft, the plant affumes a fiery red color; then  black  fpots
burft forth near the roots, and afcend to the fibers  that fupport
the ear ; circulation then ceafes, and the grain advances no fur-
ther, in maturity.    Sometimes it  yields a little  fruit; at  other
times none.   This  difeafe of the oats ftill  continues to be very
injurious to the parifh ; but in 1789, a year of unufual commo-
tion  in the elements in the north of Europe, as will hereafter be
related, it fpread to a greater extent than was ever before known»,
This phenomenon  has been a fubjea  of great refearch among
farmers and  philofophic  men ;  but no fatisfaaory caufe has yet
been difcovered.
                    Sinclair's Stat. Ace. of Scotland, vol. 6. 131.
  It is remarkable  that the prim in America  began to decay
and perifh about this period ;  and near the fame time,  the wheat
infea firft appeared on Long-Ifland.
  I  would  juft obferve that the difeafe among the oats,  and the
death of the  prim,  with  the wheat infea, may be new phenom-
ena in the  natural world ;  or certain revolutions which unufual
caufes may have induced in animal and vegetable life.
  About this time,  for the year is not recolkaed, there was an
eruption of fire at Derby, in Conneaicut, a few rods  from Nau-
gatuck river ; the  only inftance ever known in that  place.   It
happened on a fteep bank where it made a large excavation  in
the earth, throwing trees and ftones to fome diftance.  A light
was  feen on the fpot in the evening before the explofion.  It was
accompanied with a loud report,  and fome foffil fubftances were
ejeaed, which were  analized by  Dr. Monfon of New-Haven,
and  found to contain arfenic and fulphur.
   In  1775 alfo perifhed a bed of excellent oyfters in the har-
bor of Wellfleet, on Cape-Ccd, twenty leagues fouth of Bofton.
Thefe oyfters had been  in  great plenty,  and furnifhed  the in-
habitants with no fmall portion of food;  but in this  year from 
z6$
fbme unknown caufe, they fickened and perifhed, and have never
fince grown in that harbor.
                             Hiftorical Collections, vol. 3. 119.
  During this fickly  period  alfo,  the oyfters on the  fhores of
Conneaicut were in an unhealthy ftate,  and fometimes excited
vomiting in thofe who ate of  them.
  It is remarkable alfo that  in  1776 the lobfters in the vicinity
of York-Ifknd,  all difappeared.   This event has generally been
afcribed  to the  firing of cannon in the fummer of that year.
But the place where they lived being many miles from the Britifh
fhipping, this explanation is not fatisfaaory.  It is more proba-
ble that they perifhed,  or abandoned  the ground, on account of
the bad ftate of  their element.
  The  winter in 1776 was fevere in Europe.   The cold ex-
ceeded that of  1740.   In Denmark  the found  was frozen and
croffed on fledges.   The Thames was alfo frozen.
                                    An. Regifter, 1776. 114.
  The fummer of 1776 in America was  hot and in  the northern
ftates rainy.   The dyfentery was prevalent in all parts of the if.
country, and was terribly fatal  to the American troops in New- j
York and at  Ticonderoga.   I was at Mount Independence in j
Oaober, and witnefs to the ravages of the difeafe.  Of thirteen '
thoufand troops, it was faid that one  half were  unfit for duty,   i
   It has been cuftomary to afcribe  the prevalence of this mortal
difeafe to infeaion fpread by the  foldiers  who returned home
from  the armies.  It is certain that the difeafe  was thus introdu-
ced into particular families ;  but infeaion was the fmalleft among
the caufes of the epidemic.   In  moft places, it  originated  with-
out any communication from  the army ;  and I was a witnefs of
fuch inftances.   The difeafe  was the effea of  a particular ftate
of the atmofphere,  aided by  the feafons.
  To prove how unfounded is the opinion that the difeafe ori-
ginated in the army alone, and fpread from that as from a focus,
it will be fufficient to mention two faas.   The  firft is,  that this
epidemic commenced in 1773, two years before  the  war, in
which year it was more malignant and fatal, in fome places, than  J
in any fubfequent year.  Witnefs New-Haven,  Eaft-Haven and  /
Salem in Maffachufetts. 
fcr54
   In 1775 a remarkable  faa occurred.   About one hundred
 men  belonging  to Danbury,  in  Conneaicut,  went to join the
 army on Lake  Champlain ;  they  performed their duty and all
 returned in good  health.  While  they were abfent, the dyfen-
 tery invaded the town and carried off more than one hundred of
 the inhabitants.   In this inftance, not a  foldier returned  from
 the army, until  the difeafe had fiibfided.
   The fecond faa is,  that the fame difeafe has before raged gen-
 erally in this country,  with  all its horrors, in  time of peace;
 Witnefs the epidemic  at Georgetown in  Maryland in 1793, at
 Derby in  1794  and  at New-Haven in  1795.  In an efpecial
 manner, I ought to mention  the diftreffing  dyfentery, between
 1749 and 1753, a time of profound peace,  when not a  foldiet
 was feen in the  country ; a period when the difeafe was as  mor-
 tal and as general, as  between 1773 and 1777.  A  like epi-
 demic prevailed  in many countries in Europe at the fame time.J
   I have alfo taken pains to enquire of phyficians in  the country,
 as to the propagation of this difeafe from  the army,  and  am in-
 formed  that  the difeafe was as fatal in villages where  no inter-
 courfe was had with the troops, as where  there was  intercouife.
   The  acquiefcence of all defcriptions of men, learned and un-
 learned, in the opinion that epidemic difeafes are to be afcribed
folely to infeaion or  fpecific contagion,  has proved extremely
injurious to philofophy and to medicin.*   The difeafe is infec-
tious, but it originates in any place, in particular feafons, whether
 in peace or war ; and ends at  the command of  the elements and
feafons.   It ceafed at the  clofe of  1777  in the army as  well as
country, and without any effort which had not been made in pre-
 ceding years.   It may be obferved  further  that the dyfentery
was and always  is, moft prevalent  among old  people and chil-
 dren who have leaft  intercourfe with the fick, efpecially in the
country, where no artificial caufes of difeafe exift.

  * A man in my  father's neighborhood, was drafted to perform a
tour of military duty at New-York, during the  revolution-war. He
was fo much terrified by the apprehenfion of catching the dyfentery in
the army, that he hired another  man as a fubftitute.  The latter went
to New-York, performed the duty and returned in health.  The draft-
ed man  remained at home, was   feized with  the diftemper in  a fet*
weeks after, and died. 
£65
   In  1777 there was a fmall earthquake in the interior of Eng-
 land,  and the London bill of mortality was higher  than  ufuaL
 A volcano in  Ferro difcharged difcolered  water, but no lava.
 The meafles appeared in fome parts of America, the fame year.
   The fummer of 1778 was exceffively hot  in  America, and
 fevers  of a typhus kind were frequent.  In Philadelphia an in-
 feaious bilious fever marked  the fummer and autumn after the
 Britifh army left the city.  Rufh, vol. 3. 162.  In general how-
 ever the year was more  healthy dian  the preceding fummers.
   In 1778 the plague was fevere in Conftantinople.   It was pre-
 ceded  by a great earthquake at Smyrna.  An. Reg. 1778.   In
 the fame year an  epidemic angina  was mortal at Manchefterin
 England.
   In the beginning of the winter fucceeding 1778, there  occur-
 red fome cold  weather ; but the latter part was the mildeft ever
 known.   In February 1779,  many people along the  river Con-
 neaicut plowed their fields ; and in Pennfylvania the peach blof-
 fomed.   The  fummer fucceeding was  one of the healthieft ever
 known in America.
   In Auguft 1779 happened  a moft tremendous eruption of Ve-
 fuvius ; and about the fame time,  the fhips of Capt. Cook,  then
 in a high  northern latitude between Kamfchatka  and America,
 were covered  with afhes which were  fuppofed to be difcharged
 from a volcano on the neighboring continent.   In the fucceeding
 winter,  Tauris,  the capital  of Perfia, was laid in ruins by an
 earthquake.
           See Encyclopedia,  art. Vefuvius, Cook's voyage, 1779.
   The winter following thefe eruptions and commotions was,  in
America, the fevereft that had been known fince 1741.   From
Nov. 25 th to the middle of March, the cold  was fevere and al-
moft uninterrupted.   The following was the ftate of the  mercu-
ry in January by Farenheit's fcale—at  Hartford in Conneaicut,
lat. 41. 44.
                           K k 
266
At  sunrise.
I---- 2 deg.	15——13 below O
2--- 7 below o	20—— 5
3--H	21--- 6 below 0
4---16	22--- 5
5--- 6	23--- 9 below 0
6---io	24--- 6
7--- 9	25----16 below 0
8--- i below o	26--- 6 below 0
9--- 5	27--- 2 below 0
io---19	28--- 8 below 0
11---26	29---20 below 0
12——11	30---15
13--- 8	31--- 4 below 0
14--- 9	February, 1--- 2
»5---*S	2--- 3
16---10	3---- 0
17----17	4----15
18---13	5-——- 8 below 0
  Mean temperature in January at funrife 4 deg—almoft 20 de-
grees below the temperature of the fame month in ordinary win-
ters.
                       See Cennecticut Courant, January 178a
  Not only all the rivers, but the harbors and bays in the Uni-
ted States, as far fouthward as Virginia, were faft bound with
ice.   Loaded fleds paffed  from  Staten-Ifland  to New-York j
the found between Long-Ifland and the main land was frozen in-
to a folid highway, where it is feveral miles in breadth.  Chef-
apeek  bay at  Annapolis,  where the breadth  is 5 and an half
miles, fuftained alfo loaded carriages.—The birds that winter in
this climate,  as  robbins and  quails  almoft all perifhed ;  and in
the fucceeding fpring,  a few folitary warblers only were heard ia
our groves.
   The fnow was nearly  four feet deep, in  Atlantic America,
for at leaft three months.  The winter was fevere in  Europe
alfo ; and on the 14th of January,  the mercury  at Glafgow  fell
to 46 deg. below o. 
467
   On the 19th of May  1780  occurred a day of fingular dark"
nefs, in New-England, and it was perceived, in a fmaller degree,"
as far fouth as New-Jerfey.  The heavens  were  obfcured with
a vapor or cloud  of a yellow  color or faint red.  The cloud
which occafioned the principal darknefs,  paffed over Conneaicut
about the hours  of 9 and  10, and continued till after  twelve*
In the  greateft  obfcuration, a candle  was  neceffary to enable
perfons to read.   For fome days  before, the atmofphere was fil-
led with vapor.
                              Mem. Amer. Acad. vol. 1. 234-
   On the fame day that  this lurid  vapor overfpread feveral hun-
dred miles of country in  America, Etna began to difcharge lava
from a new raouth, between two and three miles from its crater.
The lava divided into three ftreams of a quarter of a mile  in
breadth, and in a few days ran fourteen  miles.   Violent earth-
quakes  accompanied  and  followed the  eruption.  The coinci-
dence of thefe events,  in  point ©f time,  well  deferves notice.
The great difcharges from  Vefuvius  and a volcano in the Araic
regions in 1779,  the terrible earthquakes, fevere cold and erup.
tions of fire that followed, may perhaps  lead us to a rational fo-
lution of the  phenomenon of the dark day—which has not hith-
erto been explained.
                                      Courant,  Oa. 24, 178°-
   The plague broke out in Smyrna in the fpring  of 1780 but I
have no account  of its progrefs.
   The fpring was cool and dry, and catarrhous complaints were
prevalent among children,  fays Dr. Rufh, vol.  1.  123.  The
fummer following was hot,* and a bilious remittent was epidem-
ic in  Philadelphia, accompanied  with  fuch acute  pains in the
back,  hips and neck, as  to obtain the name of the break-boite*-
fever.
   In  the midft  of fummer, but  I do not recollea the precife
time, appeared the moft fingular halo about the fun which I ever
beheld.   I wrote  a  particular  defcription of it, at the time,
which is miflaid, and therefore I fhall not attempt  to defcribe it

   * At Hwtford, July 8th, the Thermometer at half after 11 A.M. was
 at 102, at a P. M. 90 and an half, two degrees higher than it bad been
 fince 1772. 
268
from recolleaion.—Haloes are among the moft certain  forerun-
ners of tempeftuous weather.
   On the 2d of Oaober the  leeward Weft-India iflands expe-
rienced a moft dreadful  hurricane ; and on the i Ith the wind-
ward iflands were almoft laid wafte by a fimilar calamity.  Bar-
badoes which is leaft fubjea to thefe tempefts, was laid defolate ;
and it was  eftimated that 6000 fouls periflied.  Houfes, planta-
tion-buildings, wharves, piers, fhipping were all overwhelmed in
one general ruin.   It is faid that,  during the tempeft,  fome of the
iflands experienced  an earthquake.  Courant, Dec.  12, 1780.
Jan. 9,  1781  and Jan.  23, 1781.   As hurricanes are occa-
fioned  by difcharges of elearicity, fome  trembling of the earth
almoft always attends thofe which are violent, and flafhes of fire
are vifible.   Indeed the atmofphere appears to be a fheet of fire.
Similar difcharges of elearicity attended the  tempeftuous earth-
quake that deftroyed  Nicomedia  in 358—that which  defeated
Julian's attempt to rebuild Jerufalem in 362—the hail-ftorm in
Egypt, in the time of  Mofes—and that which happened at Man-
tua in  1785, to be hereafter related.
   The canker-worm made extenfive ravages in this period ; but
I cannot ftate their rife and decline in different parts of the coun-
try.  The winter of 1780-81 exhibited nothing  worthy of par-
ticular notice.
   In  the  fpring  of  1781 prevailed the influenza, or  epidemic
catarrh.   It began with a fevere  pain in the head, proftration of
ftrength, coldnefs and chills,  the pulfe not quick  nor  tenfe.
The pain in  the  head lafted about twenty-four  hours, and was
fucceeded by a pain in the fide,  not pointed nor  acute, extend-
ing to the hips, accompanied with a forenefs, and  refembling a
 rheumatic pain.  The cough was troublefome, full, and the mat-
 ter difcharged of the  glandular kind,  not well concoaed.  Ref-
 piration was difficult,  and a  confiderable  defluxion on the lungs.
 In a few cafes, the diforder  terminated in 7  or 8 days  ; biat ufu-
 ally not  till the 13th  or 14th ; altho the patient  was feldom con-
 fined to his bed.   The difeafe left a forenefs and weaknefs in  the
 fide, which continued after the ftrength  was recovered.   Vene-
 feaion had little effea on the pain  in the fide.   Epifpaftrics  ap-
 plied to the part gave relief.   The diforder was feldom fatal,  but 
269
 its effea were very vifible in the  multiplied  cafes of pulmonary
 confumption,  in the following year.
                                  M. S. letter from Dr. Tufts.
   In the fummer  following no particular phenomena occurred ;
 the elements were in their  ufual  ftate, fo far as my information
 extends ; and in  general the country enjoyed good health.   A
 malignant fever  prevailed,  in fome  degree, in New-York, but
 excited no great alarm.
   One year after this influenza in  America,  the  fame  difeafe
pervaded  the eaftern hemifphere.   Its progrefs was  from  Siberia
and Tartary weftward ; and it reached Europe in April and May
 1782 : I have no account of its courfe in America, but it feems
to be probable, that it took its direaion from America weftward,
and paffing the Pacific in high northern  latitudes, invaded Afia
and Europe from the eaft.  This muft have been the cafe, if the
 epidemic  in Europe was a continuation of that in America.   For
an account of this epidemic, fee the publications of that year.
   In 1782 happened  confiderable  earthquakes in  Calabria, du-
ring which the mercury in the barometer  in Scotland funk within
the tenth of an inch  of the  bottom of the fcale,  and the waters
in many locks in the highlands were greatly agitated.
              Sinclair's Statiftical account of Scotland,  vol. 6. 622.
   In Britain the fummer was univerfally wet and cold, and crops
failed, in confequence of which a diftreffing dearth affliaed Scot-
land in the following year.
   In America alfo the fummer was cool.   Two or  three  torna-
does happened in Vermont and New-Hampfhire,  with deluging
rains, and in  one place hail of enormous fize—the gazette ac-
counts fay, pieces of ice were found of 6 inches in length.
   The latter part of fummer was exceffively dry.   In New-Jer-
fey,  a cedtir fwamp of 20  miles in length and  8 in breadth, taking
fire by  accident, was totally confumed.   The  fire penetrated
among the roots to the depth  of 6  feet.—Corn,  grafs, and the
very forefts withered.   The  air was  loaded with a thick vapor,
for fome days  in September.*
          Mem. Am. Acad.  vol. 1. 356.  Courant,  Oct. 8,  1782.
   * The reader will judge how far this extreme evaporation and drynefs,
indicate the action of  the internal fires or electricity which produced
the tremendous difcharges from Heckla in the following year. 
   In autumn happened the violent tempeft which difperfed the
Englifh fleet from  the'Weft-Indies, and in which two or three
of the French fhips, taken by Admiral Rodney,  foundered.
"  The  winter of 1782  3  was  more variable  than  ufual; and
extreme drouth cut fhort the crops in the Weft-Indies.
          Courant,  May ac, 1783. Mem. Amer. Acad. vol. I. 360,
   On the morning of the 5th ^f February  1783, a thick vapor
or fog was obferved over the ifland of Sicily, indicating the agit-
ation of the  element of fire or elearicity ; and about 12 o'clock,
a violent fhock of  earthquake laid many houfes in ruins.  This
was but a prelude  to more terrible calamities ; for  about feven
o'clock P. M. a tremendous fhock laid in ruins the greateft part
of Meffina,  Calabria and  many  towns and villages.   From 30
to 40,000 perfons perifhed in the ruins.   On fubfequent days,
many fhocks were  felt, but of  lefs violence.   During the con-
vulfions on the 5th, flames were feen to iffue from the neighbor-
ing fea.
                                  Courant, June 3, 1783, See.
   On the evening of the 10th,  a denfe fog or vapor fpread over
fome parts of  New-England, having the fmell of burnt leaves.
The ground, at  the fame time,  was covered with fnow.
                               Mtm. Amer. Acad. vol. 1. 361.
   About  this time, for  the gazette accounts are not particular
as to the month, commenced a moft diftreffing famin in the Car-
natic, which afterwards extended to moft of the European fet-
tlements in  the Eaft-Indies.   At Madras hundreds  of  the na-
tives perifhed daily, and the ftreets were filled with dead bodies.
The caufe was a four years drouth ;  for during the approach  of
comets, and the aaion of fubterranean fire in other parts  of the
world,  that country is fubjea to exceflive drouth, as happened
in 1769. and 70.
                Courant, June 24, 1783, and July 1, Dec. 5, 1785.
   In the  evening of the  29th of March the heavens were illu-
minated with a moft fplendid lumen boreale.
   The fummer  of  1783  was variable in the northern parts  of
America ; in England, it was hot.
   In June commenced a moft formidable difcharge of lava from
Mount Heckla  in  Iceland,  which  continued till the middle of 
271
 Auguft.  The country around the  mountain was covered  with
 burning fluid, to the extent of 40 miles, and in fome places, to
 the depth of 40 feet.   The lava fpread over 3600 fquare miles.
   Previous to this eruption, all the fprings and ftreams of water
 in the neighborhood had been dried up ; a fure forerunner of the
 difcharge of fire ;  and for fome months before the eruption, the
 atmofphere over the ifland was  filled with a dark,  bluifh, ful-
 phurous vapor or cloud,  which was ftationary in calm weather,
, but which  was  fometimes difperfed by winds, and  fpread over
 Europe.   See Encyclopedia, article Iceland.   During this erup-
 tion, a new ifland  was thrown up, at fome diftance from Iceland.
 On the 18th of Auguft,  foon after the eruption of Heckla ceaf-
 ed,  an immenfe meteor or globe of fire  fhot through the  heav-
 ens,  from north to fouth, pafling the Orkneys and the ifland of
 Great-Britain,  and burfting with a loud report.
                Encyclop. art. Iceland.   Sinclair's Scot. vol. 6. 633.
   A part of the fummer was exceffively hot in America-   No
 lefs  than  thirty  perfons in  Philadelphia,  killed  themfelves by
 drinking cold water.   Many putrid fevers were the confequence
 of the heat in various parts of the country ;  as alfo  tornadoes
 and thunder gufts  of  unufual violence,  with hail of uncommon
 fize, in all parts of America.  Rarely indeed has fo much in*
 jury been done by hail in the fame fpace of time.
   On  the 31ft of May a large meteor or fiery globe was feen at
 Richmond in  Virginia, fhooting from north to fouth.   It burft
 with a heavy  report.   It will be remarked that this meteor oc-
 curred about two weeks before the  eruption of fire from  Heckla,
 but while the  fires or elearical caufes were in agitation,  as ap-
 pears from the cloud of vapor, that was fufpended over the ifland.
          Courant, Sept. 2, and June 24, 1783, and Aug. 5, and 12.
    During the immenfe difcharges  of fire and lava from  Heckla,
 all  parts  of Europe,  Great-Britain,  Italy, Sicily, France and
 even the Alps were overfpread with a hazinefs in the atmofphere.
 This caufed univerfal confternation, as a fimilar appearance  had
 preceded the earthquake in Sicily on the 5th of February.   The
 churches were crouded with fupplicants.  The French aftrono-
 mer La Lande attempted to quiet the popular fears, by afcribing
 the phenomenon to a fuperabundance of watery particles in the 
272
earth, from the moifture of the preceding year,  which were then
exhaled by the fummer heats.  But this folution is not fatisfad-
ory.  It was more probably the fmoke from Heckla,  wafted by
northerly winds and difperfed over Europe, in an attenuatedform.
             Courant, Oct. 2%, 1783, and Nov. nth, and 25th.
             Franklin's Meteorol. Obferv.  Mufeum, vol. 1. 473.
  It is ftill more probable that this vapor was the effea  of in-
fenfible difcharges  of elearicity, combined  with aerial fubftan-
ces; as in  Sicily on the 5th and in America on  the 10th  of
February.
  In Oaober occurred tremendous gales of wind and high tides
which did no fmall damage in the feaports of the United States.
The firft, on the  15th and  16th,  occafioned the higheft  water
at New-Haven, which had  been known in 40 years.  Many
other tempefts occurred in September and Oaober ;  and  from
Vermont to Georgia, the gazettes were filled with accounts of
difafters from the  violence of the winds and rains.
                                  Courant, October 21, 1783.
  On  the  29th  of  November,  a  confiderable fhock of earth-
quake was felt in all  the northern ftates ; and New-York expe-
rienced two or three  fhocks in the morning of the next day.
  Some of the Weft-India iflands were feverely fhaken,  about
the  fame time, and efpecially on  the 4th of  December.
                      Courant, Dec. 16, 1783.  March 9, 1784.
  In autumn  1783  fome parts of Europe were deluged with
continual rains, and  at Rome 5 or 6000 children died of the
fmall-pox.   About Grenoble raged an epidemic fever.
  A diftemper among the cattle in Derby in England,  oGcafion-
ed no fmall alarm, and a royal proclamation was iffued enjoin-
ing certain precautions to prevent the propagation of the difeafe.
  Cotemporary with thefe convulfions of nature,  was a moft
defolating plague in  Egypt,  the  Grecian Ifles, Dalmatia, Con-
ftantinople,  Smyrna  and in the Crimea.   It is not poffible, with
the general accounts given of fuch an epidemic, in  the public
prints, to ftate, with any precifion, its origin and progrefs in the
eaft.   It is mentioned to have appeared in Smyrna,  in the  fpring
of  1783, and it  certainly raged in Conftantinople, and  many 
»73
 other parts  of Turkey in the following fummer, as well as on
 the north of the Euxine.
         Courant, Jan. 17, 1784.  July 6.  Sept. 21, and 38, 1784.
   In Egypt the fame difeafe committed moft terrible ravages in
 r783-4 and 5.  It began in November 1783.  To this calami-
 ty was added a fevere  famin ; the inundation  of the  Nile, in
 the fummer of that year, having proved infufficient.   So fevere
 was the plague,  that  in the winter after 1783, fifteen hundred
 dead bodies were carried out of  Cairo in a day ; and the plague
 and famin of that and the fucceeding year, was fuppofed to car-
 ry off one  fixth  of the inhabitants of Egypt.   See Volney's
 Travels, vol.  1. 192 and 3, and Courant, Oa. 28,  1783,  and
 Oa.  17, 1785, in which it is faid that in Cairo 3000 perifhed
 in a day in  April,  1785.
   We have then an exaa general view of the phenomena whichj
 introduce and accompany peftilence in Europe, Africa and Afia1
 —terrible  earthquakes  and eruptions  of volcanoes ; exceflive
 drouth in America, India and Egypt, failure of crops and famin
 —meteors,  great heat and  deluges of  rain,  in  other countries.
 Let us now fee what followed thefe abovementioned agitation?
 of the elements, in our country.
         See Cnurant, April 27, 1784, and Jan. 27, 1784, and June 8.
   In Auguft 1783,  the fcarlatina  appeared in Philadelphia  and
 in September it  became epidemic.   It  appeared about the fame
 time in Salem,  in Maffachufetts.   It was in Charlefton, South-
 Carolina in  1784,  in which  year,  it appeared in the interior o£
 the northern ftates,  as in Vermont  and  New-Hampfhire, and in
 Middletown, on Conneaicut  river.   It continued  to  prevail
 about five years; but was not fevere in general and many  towns
wholly efcaped its  attacks.
                    Rufh, vol. 1. 141.   Mufeum, vol. 2. 562.
                    Mem. Amer. Acad.  vol. 1.  369.
                    Belknap's Hift. New-Hampfhire, vol. 2. 121;
                    Regifter or deaths at Middletown.
  In  1787 the cynanche maligna was epidemic at Northampton,
in Maffachufetts.
                      M. S. letter from the Rev. Mr.  Williams.
  The meafles appeared in America in  1783 ; at Salem as early-
                           L  1 
274
as May.   I find it in all  parts  of America, in that year, btofc
cannot trace the progrefs of the epidemic.
   During this period neither dyfentery nor peftilential autumnal
fevers made any considerable  ravages  in  America, as far as I
can learn ; except at Fell's-Point in Baltimore, where the bil-
ious peftilential fever occafioned a mortality  in  1783.   Many
fporadic cafes of a fimilar  fever appeared in various parts of the
country,  and almoft a whole family  in New-Jerfey periflied by
it in the autumn of that year.   Fortunately however the confti-
tution of the elements  was correaed, without  producing its
moft fatal effeas.   Even the fcarlet  fever, with  the exception
of a few places, was lefs malignant than it  has  been in the laft
period.
   This peftilential conftitution was felt alfo in the north of Eu-
rope.   The fcarlatina broke out  in Edinburgh in  the  winter of
1782-3, a few months  before  it did  in  America; but of its
progrefs I have no account.  It appears to have been epidemic
in London in 1786 ; fo that its period was of about  the fame
duration as in America.  The cotemporaneoufnefs of this fpecies
of difeafe in Great-Britain and America} deferves particular no-
tice.
   In December happened a fog in Amfterdam of fuch denfity
as to occafion complete obfcurity for three hours in the middle of
the day.   It was not poffible for perfons to  find their way in the
ftreets, and many  paffengers  and fome carriages fell into the
canals.
                                    Courant, March 9, 1784.
   The feverity of the winter fucceeding thefe phenomena, both
in Europe and America, correfponded with their extraordinary
number and violence.  The weather was  lefs  uniformly  cold
than in 1780,  but the froft, in  fome  parts of the winter was
moft intenfe.  The following was the ftate  of Farenheit's  ther-
mometer, at Hartford.
       February 10th,  1784,    .     19 deg. below 0.
                 11      .     .      12        do.
                 12   .    .     .   13        do.
                 13      •            19        do.
                 14   ...  2©       do. 
575
       February 15      .     .     12  deg. below 0.
                16   .     .     .16       do.
                17      .     .     16       do.
  On the  20th of January  was difcovered a comet in Pifces,
which was  involved in a luminous  atmofphere.   It was vifible
about four weeks.
  The fevere cold commenced early ; the Delaware at Philadel-
phia was clofed at  the beginning of December,  and continued
bound with ice till the middle  of March ;  notwithftanding a re-
laxation of cold and a  heavy  rain  in January.  The gazettes
ftate that fuch intenfe cold had not been known in that city, fince
1750-51___The Miflifippi was reported to be covered with ice,
as far fouth as  New-Orleans.  At the  breaking  up of winter,
the thaw was fudden,  and immenfe bodies of ice, floating down
the rivers,  which were greatly fwelled,  fpread  ruin along the
low lands on their banks.  Great damage was fuftained  on  the
banks  of the Schuylkill, Sufquehanna, Potomack and James
rivers.
        Courant, May 11, i 7 84- Feb. 24.  March 30.  April 11.
   In Europe,  the winter  was no  lefs fevere—an  inftance in
which  a feverely cold winter in Europe coincided in time, with
the fame in America.   It may be remarked alfo  that  this win-
ter was juft one century  after  the  coincidence  of like events ;
the winter of 1683-4 being equally fevere in both hemifpheres.
   In 1783-4 the river Liffey  in Ireland, the Thames in Eng-
land, and  all the rivers in the  interior of  Holland, were  cover-
ed  with folid ice.   In Holland, the ice gave way about the firft
of  March, and the rivers being greatly   fwelled, the  adjacent
country was  inundated, with immenfe lofs of lives and property.
The river Waal,  near Nimeguen,  broke  through its dikes and
overwhelmed 34 villages.  The Rhine from Cologne and Man-
heim,  exhibited fimilar fcenes of devaftation.
                         Courant, April  27,1784, and  May 18.
    In January a terrible tempeft fpread  defolation along the coaft
of France from Rochelle to Bourdeaux; veffels at fea fhipwreck-
 ed, and houfes on land blown down.   This happened on  the
 night of the 17th.   Its violence extended along  the coaft  of
 Spain and Portugal.   An earthquake  accompanied this hum- 
&j6
Cane.  The coaft of Italy did not efcape, and fo high was tho
fwell of the ocean, that fifh were lodged on the houfes in Syra-
cufe.
                           Courant, May 18,1784, and June 1.
  This remarkable tempeft happened juft before the appearance of
the comet.
  The fpring was wet and  cold  ;  and repeated fnows fell in
April.
  The heat of fome part of  the fucceeding fummer in  America
was extreme.  The following obfervations were made at Hart-
ford.
                                      See Courant, June 29 .
          June 24th at 2 p.  m.   97 deg. by Farenheit.
               25     2 p.  m.   96
               26 at funrife,    80
                  at 10  A.  m.   96
                  at  2  p.  m.  100
                  at  3  p.  m.  101
                  at  4  p.  m.  100
                  at funfet,     91
                  at 10  p.  m.   80
               27 at funrife,    82
                  at  7  A.  m.   91
  This extreme heat, as  ufual, produced moft violent hurricanes
or thunder gufts, with hail of unufual fize.  In  May,  pieces of
ice fell in South-Carolina of  nine inches in circumference.   On
the 17th of  Auguft the fouthern part of Conneaicut was fwept
by a tornado, which levelled trees and buildings and did great in-
jury.  The  beginning  of fummer was  very  dry ;  but frequent
fhowers afterwards refrefhed the earth, and good crops fucceeded.
     Courant, Auguft 10, 1784.  Auguft 24 and 31.  See alfo Ap-
      pendix to a Sermon preached at Hartford on the death of  If-
      rael Seymour, who was  killed by lightning.
   A great eruption of  Vefuvius happened on the 10th of May.
Sicknefs prevailed in Leghorn and other parts of  Europe.  The
plague raged this  year alfo at Smyrna, Conftantinople and in
Dalmatia.   Spolatro was nearly difpeopled.  The  heat  in Eu-
rope was great and Hungary was overrun by locufts, which de-
voured the fields of grafs and corn.   A fevere earthquake at the  . 
277
fame time,  fhook the country of Armenia, and its vicinity, and
a town was demolifhed with the lofs of 6000 inhabitants, on  the
21 ft of July.  The plague raged alfo in the regency of Tunis on
the African coaft.
                   Courant, Aug. 31.   Supplement to do. Nov. 9.
  On the 30th of July a tremendous hurricane laid wafte a con-
siderable part of Jamaica, fweeping away buildings,  canes, fruit-
trees and overwhelming all the fhipping in the harbors.
                         Courant, Sept. a8,  1784, andOdc. 26.
  In Oaober, according to the public prints,  Barbadoes was fe-
verely fhaken by an  earthquake.
  On the 25th of November was a very violent tempeft from
the N. E. and S. E.  by  which means, a moft extraordinary  tide
was brot into our harbors from the St. Lawrence to  New-York,
and probably further to the fouth.  Great injuiy was fuftained by
lofs of fhipping,  and of  property ftored near the wharves.
                                     Courant, Dec. 7, 1784.
  The great rains fwelled Conneaicut river to the height of  ufu-
al fpring floods.
  A meteor was feen in New-England on the evening of  De-
cember 13, 1784,  pafling rapidly from fouth-eaft to north-weft,
and burfting with a loud report.
  The winter following exhibited nothing  very worthy of re-
mark.   In Europe  it was colder than ufual, and in  America,  it
produced great fnows, the melting of which in the fpring fwelled
Conneaicut river to an unufisal height.
  On the 13th of March 1785,  there was an eruption of fire  in
the river Majuro, in the province of Palermo,  in Sicily, which
occafioned a large chafm in the earth.
                                      Courant, July 4, 1785.
   In America canine madnefs  began to rage and fpread in all
parts of  the  northern  ftates.  The gazettes of 1785 abound
with accounts of the dreadful effeas of this fingular  difeafe.   It
will be remarked that epidemic madnefs of dogs is one of that fe-
ries of difeafes which belong to every peftilential period.   When-
ever the human race are generally afiliaed with epidemics, the
canine fpecies rarely efcape the effeas  of the general principle;
and not unfrequently foxes, wolves  and other wild animak, ex- 
                           27S

ferience its malignant effeas,  and run mad.   In 1785, the teat*
latina anginofa was prevalent in the northern ftates.  This was in
the midft of the  period, and  almoft every gazette  announced
fome new cafe of  hydrophobia.
                    See Courant, Aug. I, 1785.  Aug.  8 and 29.
   The wheat-infea, which has been ignorantly  and  improperly
hamed the Heflian  Fly, committed uncommon ravages  in this
year.   The precife  time when this infea originated, is not afcer-
tained, probably about  the  year 1776,  or a year  or two earlier.
Little notice was taken of  it,  for two or three years.   In 1780,
Mr. Underhill of  Long Ifland loft his wheat crops by  the in-
fea ; and in fubfequent  years, it penetrated into New-Jerfey,
travelling, according to common opinion,  about  15 or 20 miles
in a year.  In 1785, it occafioned unufual deftruaion of wheat
—and fuch was the  alarm  in  England, for fear  it fhould prove
infeaious, and be  introduced into that country,  that the King if-
fued a proclamation dated June  25,  1788, prohibiting the im-
portation of American wheat.—This event excited no fmall un-
eaflnefs in America, efpecially in the ftates,  whofe ftaple is wheat.
Whereupon the Supreme Executive  Council of Pennfylvania re-
quefted the opinion  of the Agricultural Society,  as to the man-
ner by which that infea is propagated.   To this requeft, the So*
ciety returned for anfwer, their decided  opinion that it  is the plant
alone which is injured by the infea ;  that the grain is found and
good,  and that the infea  is not propagated  by fowing wheat
which grew on fields infeaed with it.
                    See Mufeum, vol.  4. 244.  Am.  Magazine.
   The prohibition  by the King and  Council of  Great-Britain
was deemed a judicious precaution ;  but was the fruit  of an error
that pervades the world, refpeaing the  powers of infeaion and
contagion.  The opinion of the Agricultural Society  is well foun-
ded,  but it remains for  time  and the  force of truth to convince
th» people of Philadelphia,  that the  yellow fever can no more be
tranfplanted and rendered epidemic by  infeaion,  than the wheat-
infeft.   Both are difeafes,  originating where they have a  fuitable
aliment, and ceafing to exift,  when  that aliment fails.
   The prohibition  of the Britifh government was  repealed the
 next year j  under the apprehenfion of a dearth. 
279
  The fummer of 1785 was exceffively dry in France and Eng«
land and fevers very prevalent in France.   In Holland fuch ft
drouth could not be recolkaed by the oldeft man living.  The
canals, rivers and wells were almoft totally exhaufted.   In the
firft part of fummer, there was not a  drop of rain for three or
four months, and cattle were fed upon the leaves of the trees*
The drouth was nearly as fevere in the Weft-Indies.
         Courant, Auguft 8, 1785, and 29th—alfo Sept. 12 and 19,
  In North-Carolina, the  fields were overrun with bugs, which
threatened a deftruaion of the grain.
                                  Courant, Auguft 29, 1785.
  The fummer contained fome exceffively hot days in America,
as well as in Europe.
                                          Courant, Sept. j.
  On the 25th of Auguft happened in the Weft-Indies one of
the moft dreadful hurricanes  ever  known,  and equal to  that of
 1772 or that of 1780.  This tempeft was preceded by very fultry
heat, and the  phenomenon called looming, by which diftant ob«
jeas at fea appear to be raifed higher or brot nearer than at other
times.  I have often noticed this  fingular effea  of  the  power*
of refraaion in the air, previous to ftorms, of which  it is  the
ufual forerunner.   Guadaloupe, St. Croix and the  other wind-
ward iflands were  laid defolate by this tempeft.  On the 27th
of Auguft,  the leeward iflands fuffered a fimilar calamity.   On
the 24th  of September, an eafterly ftorm brought into the  riv-
ers in the fouthern ftates, as high a tide as ever was known.—
Norfolk was inundated, with great lofs.
   Sicknefs was very general in many parts of the  United States.
The fcarlatina was prevalent, and  the gazettes  mention a pre-
 cina in Ulfter in which died  almoft every child under fix years
of  age.  Many adults alfo fell viaims to this or other maladies.
                       See Courant,  Oct. 3, 1785, and 0<St. ic,
   On  the 9th  of  Auguft happened a memorable tempeft at
 Mantua, in Italy,  and the neighboring  country.   The wind
 was a hurricane, and accompanied with rain   and hail-ftones
 of the  weight of 18  ounces.   The  accounts ftate  that  vifible
 flames iffued from  the earth,  and fcorched people's  legs  and
 cjothes j other accounts mention that the fire  ran along on the 
28o
 furfaoe of the earth.  The reader will call to mind the relation
 of the like faa,  in the terrible hail-ftorra Which conftituted one
 of the ten plagues of  Egypt in the reign of  Pharaoh.
                                    Courant, Nov. 28, 1785.
   The autumn was uncommonly fickly in  Jamaica.   Kingfton
 was a general hofpital.
                                     Courant, Jan. 30, 1786.
   On the 9th of Oaober there was an  uncommon darknefs  in
 Canada; while the atmofphere was of a fiery luminous appear-
 ance.  This was followed by fqualls of wind and rain, with fe-
 vere thunder.
   On the 15th occurred a ftill greater obfcurity,  fucceeded alfo
 by lightning, thunder and rain.
   On the  16th the morning was  calm and foggy.  At 10
 o'clock arofe a wind  from the eaft,  which partly expelled the
 fog;  and  foon  after, commenced the  darknefs  of midnighL
 The people dined by candle-light.   Soon after the darknefs fell
 a meteor or fire-ball.
      See Mem, Am. Acad. vol. 2, and the Gazettes of that month.
                   Courant, Dec. 12, 1785.
  A  llighter degree  of obfcurity on the 15th  extended  over
 New-England : but the  16th was a fair day.
  The year  1786  exhibits fewer  of the  great  phenomena of
nature, than the  preceding year ; but  it commenced with a de-
gree of cold rarely known in this country.   State of the ther-
mometer at Hartford,
            Jan. 17  at funrife,   14  deg. below o.
                 18    do.      20       do.
                 19    do.      24       do.
                     at noon,     o
                     at 2 p. m.    3     above o.
                 20    funrife,   17     below o.
  The froft of the  whole  winter  was  however far lefs fevere
 than in 1784.  The fummer following was cool.
   One or two violent tempefts occurred during the fummer, par-
 ticularly one on the 23d of Auguft,  which paffed over Wood-
 flock, in Conneaicut, with fatal violence. 
s$i
   The fcarlet fever and hydrophobia continued to prevail in this
 year.
   The plague prevailed on the Barbary coaft ; and feveral thou.
 fand people in Carthagena and Malaga, in Spain, perifhed with
 yellow fever.
                                      Town's Travels, vol. 3.
   In June 1786 was a fmart  fhock of earthquake in the north
 of England.   In Auguft a fecond fhock of  confiderable extent,
 In January 1787 a fhock was  felt in Scotland, on the night pre-
 ceding which,  a piece of ground, near  Alloa,  on  which was
 a mill,  fuddenly funk a foot and a half.  The waters of rivers
 receded and left their channel^ dry, before the  concuflion.
                                              Sinclair, vol. 6.
   The winter of 1786-7 began early and with great  feverity.—*
 On the 28th of  November,  the temperature at Hartford was at
 10 deg. by Farenheit,  through the day.   At funrife on the 29th,
 it was at cypher ; and the cold continued to be extrenae for two
 weeks.   It did not rife above the freezing point  till the 13th of
 December.   The cold then  abated,  but the winter,  on the
 whole,  was more fevere than ufual.  Courant, Dec.  4, 11 and
 18.   The winter was alfo fevere in Europe.
   The fore throat was fatal in fome  parts of  the eaftern ftates.
 One man in Newton, Maff. loft three  children after 30 hours
 illnefs.
                                     Courant.  Feb. 20, 1786.
   The plague continued to prevail on the Barbary coaft,  and in
 this winter and the fpring following  feventeen thoufand inhabi*
 tants of Algiers perifhed.   It made great havoc alfo in the do*
minions of Morocco, as it did  in Aleppo.
      M. S.of Mr O'Brien.  Courant, April 16, 1787 and July 23,
   The wheat-infea continued  its ravages in the United States,
   Two or three violent tornadoes are recorded to have occurred
in the fummer of 1786—one at  Wethersfield, which overfet a
houfe and killed feveral perfons ; and another  at Northborough
in Maffachufetts.
  About the clofe of Auguft  a  celeftial phenomenon of a fin-
aular kind appeared at Portfmouth, New-Hampfhire.   A fmall
                           M m 
282
light cloud was feen, from which iffued repeated reports, like the
burfting of crackers, or an irregular  difcharge  of mufquetry—
fuppofed to be the explofion of a meteor or fucceflion of meteors.
The wind was high at north-weft, with flying clouds.
                                    Courant, Sept. io, 1787.
  A dreadful hurricane almoft deftroyed  the  fettlements at the
bay of Honduras on the 2d of September.  The hurricane was
followed by fatal difeafes.
  About the clofe of 1787 Vefuvius difcharged a large quantity
of lava.   In the fame  year  was an eruption of Etna, in the
month of  July.
  A moft extraordinary tempeft and  inundation defolated the
Coromandal coaft  on the 20th of May.   Whole  towns were
overwhelmed, and more than  10,000 people perifhed.
                          Courant, May 26, 1788, and Aug. 4.
  This year was in general healthy in America and i n the north,
of Europe.   In fome towns in New-England prevailed angina,
but it was not general. 
z*5
                     SECTION  VIII.

Hiftorical view of peftilential  epcdanlcs, from the  year  1788 **
  1798 inclufivt, comprehending thedafl epidemic period In America.


  1  HE winter of 1787-8 was colder than ufual in America,
but not of great feverity.
   In Europe prevailed epidemic catarrh in  1788.  It appeared
at Vienna m April—was in Poland and Ruflia in May—at Lon-
don in June—and at Paris in  Auguft.   In St. Luke's Hofpital,
it began on the 16th of July,  and a few cafes occurred till Nov.
10th ;  but only twenty-five perfons out of 190 were affeaed ; a
proof that  it has  little contagion.   Gent. Mag.  1789.  346.
The invafion of this epidemic was lefs fudden than ufual.
   On  the 2 2d of July was a  violent  tempeft from the N. E.
which  occafioned a very high  tide in the  Chefapeek,  and no
fmall damage.   This  is a  fingular  occurrence.  A north-eaft
gale in June or July on the  American coaft, muft be attributed to
fome extraordinary  caufe ;  and perhaps this may be afcribed to
the approach of a comet, which appeared  in Oaober and  No-
vember following.  This comet was prediaed by Mr. Herfchel,
who made previous preparations for examining it.
                Courant, Auguft n, and 25, and April 28, 1788.
  The fummer was remarkably tempeftuous.   On  the  29th of
Auguft, a fevere gale of wind did great damage in many of our
ports.  Of 30  fail  of veffels,  in  certain  rivers  and  bays of
North-Carolina,  26 were deftroyed.   A tempeft in the begin-
ning of the month had been terribly deftruaive.  No one event
is more certain, than a vaft increafe of tempeftuous weather du-
ring the approach of comets.   The tempeft of the 19th exten-
ded over the whole face of the country, penetrating to Vermont,
levelling buildings, trees and corn.   Many cattle and one child 
2S4
Was killed by falling timber and trees.   To enumerate the par-
ticulars, would fill many pages.
                                Courant, Sept. i, 1788, and 8.
>•   It is remarkable that this tempeft in the   United States wa3
but two or  three days after a tremendous hurricane  among the
windward iflands, which was  fuppofed to do more injury than the
great tempeft of 1766.   At  the leeward alfo the fame calamity
befel the iflands.   In Martinico  the barometer fell nearly to  27
inches.
                                      Caurant, Oct. 27, 1788.
   About the  fame time fimilar difafters befel  Fiance and Eng-
land.   A tornado  of great violence occurred  about Paris, in
which, the gazettes declare, fell hail-ftones of 8lb. weight.  Du-
ring a  tempeft in London,  a  fire ball entered a houfe and ftruck
down  two perfons.
                                    Courant, 0&. 27,  1788.
   In the  Weft-Indies hurricanes were repeated in  September
with deftruaive rage.
   On  the evening of the 17th of Oaober  1788  was feen, at
various places,  in Conneaicut and New-York,  a meteor or fire
ball, whofe  apparent  diameter was equal to that of the fun in
the meridian.   It paffed from the eaftward to the .weftward with
amazing rapidity, illuminating the earth, and approaching neat
the weftern horizon, it burft with a heavy report.*
                                     Courant, Oct. 27, 1788.
   The comet already mentioned firft appeared about this time.
It rofe about  3 o'clock in the morning in the north-eaft.  A
violent north-eaft gale occurred on the nth  of  November.
                                    Courant, Nov. 3 and 17.
   This fummer in  America  was very rainy ;  earthquakes hap-
pened  in  Italy and Mexico ;  and a fhock was felt in July in the
ifle of  Man.
                                   Sinclair's Scot. vol. 6. 62$.
   The thermometer on one day in July  rofe to 103 in Colum-
bia College, in New-York;  but  the general heat of the fum-
mer was not exceflive.
                                        Mufeum, vol.  7. 36.
  * This meteor was feen at Poughkeeptie, on the Hudfon, nearly in
the zenith.  In Suflex county, weft of Cape Henlopen, it appeared to
be about ten degrees above the  horizon.     Courant, Dec. 8,1788. 
28$
   In November 1788 appeared the meafles in New-York.   On
its firft  invafion, it appeared with great malignity.   The fame
diftemper appeared in the northern liberties of Philadelphia, in
December ; and fpread till it became epidemic in February and
March.
                  Courant, Nov. 24, 1788, andRufh.vol. 2.  234-
   The eaftern parts  of  Europe were  fickly  during the fummer
of 1788.  The immenfe  armies on foot, in the war between
the Auftrians, Ruffians and Turks,  contributed to increafe the
mortality.  It was  eftimated that 8o,oco Auftrians perifhed,
moftly  by difeafe.   The year however was generally healthy.
   The winter of  1788-9 was colder than ufual in the United
States.   On  the morning  of the 2d of February, the mercury
in Farenheit  fell  to 28 deg. below  cypher ; 4 degrees lower
than had before been obferved  in Hartford.  The  feafon how-
ever was on the whole lefs fevere than in 1780 and 1784.
                               Courant, Feb. 2, 1789, and 9th.
   In Europe, the winter appears to have been unufually  fevere.
The froft penetrated to the fouthern parts of Spain and Portu-
 gal ; and the rivers  in Eftremadura and Alantejo were  covered
 with ice.  The Pyrenees were involved in deep fnow in March.
                      Courant, Aug. 3, 1789.  Univ. Mag. 1789.
   It fhould have  been related under the year 1788, that almoft
 all the  cod-fifh  taken  on  the  banks of Newfoundland, in that
 year,  were thin  and  fickly; when dried, they were of a dark
 or bluifh color, little better than fkeletons, and not well received
 in foreign markets.  This condition of that fifh was confined to
 thofe banks ; as  the  cod  taken at other places were  in  their
 ufual ftate.                      M g kttcr ffom Dj. Holyoks#
   On the 28th of May 1789. appeared in  Conneaicut a  moft
 fingular halo, of which the public prints contain a particular de-
 fcription.  This  phenomenon  feems to indicate the approach of
 tempeftuous weather,  and was  in  this inftance, followed by a
 heavy wind and rain.   But when this appearance  is of  fingular
 brightnefs or  extent,   it  indicates a  ftate  of the atmofphere
 highly elearified perhaps and certainly tempeftuous, and ftorms
 are numerous and violent.   Thus the remarkable  hurricanes of 
                           zS6

 ry8o  were preceded by  as remarkable haloes.  The halo of
 May 28th was preceded by a moft fplendid lumen boreale.
   The inftance  under confideration  was  furprifing and   to
 gloomy minds,   awful.   A clergyman,  fince dead, wrote  a
moral effay on the occafion in which he prediaed great calami-
 ties to  happen  ; and he mentioned other events, of that period,
 as unufual numbers of flies,  caterpillars, locufts, and dearth oF
 corn, in confirmation of his opinion  that the arm  of the Lord
 was extended  in wrath over our land.
                         Courant, June 8, 1789, and June 15.
   It is true that our crops had been thin, in the preceding year,
 and the northern ftates,  in the fpring of 1789, experienced a
 dearth, approaching to famin.   In Vermont,  people were re-
 duced  to the neceflity of feeding on tad-poles boiled with pea-
ftraw.   In one inftance four potatoes fold for nine pence.   None
of the human  race  were  aaually ftarved  to death, but a few
died of a  flux in  confequence of bad diet.*   Cattle however
perifhed in confiderable numbers.   Such were the  gazette ac-
counts  of the day.  It is certain that a  fimilar fcarcity had not
been experienced  in America for many years.  Whether the
 failure of crops and the fickly ftate of the cod-fifh marked a de-
 rangement of  the elements,  let the philofopher determin.
                         Courant, June 15, 1789, and Jane 42.
   The fpring  of  1789 was  cold and vegetation tardy, beyond
what could be recolkaed by the oldeft perfons living.   Part of
the fummer fucceeding was exceffively  hot.  For  nine  or ten
days fucceflively,  in Auguft, the heat was above 90 deg. and in
the midftof the day, it rofe nearly to  100 deg.    The  mean
temperature of the fummer was however not much above what is
ufual.   Rufh,  vol.  2.  234.  Courant,  Aug. 24 and 31.   On
the 4th of June ice at Wioming was as thick as  window glafs.
                                           Courant, June 22.
   The failure  of  crops in  the Carnatic in 1788 occafioned a fe-
vere famin, by which thoufands perifhed in  the fucceeding year.
                         Courant, April 27, and Sept. 28, 1789.
   The hydrophobia fhowed  itfelf in America  early in 1789.
  * In  old fettlements, there was food enough for man, but the failure
of a'furplus in this  country,  is a rare event. 
287
A man in Coeyman's precinct,  ftate of New-York, died in July
of that dreadful malady, taken as was fuppofed, by  fkinning a
cow that died of the diforder in the April preceding.
                                     Courant, Aug. 3, 1789.
   In Maryland, the autumn  was diftinguifhed by an  unexam-
pled mortality among horfes.
                                     Courant, Dec.  31, 1789.
   In Europe alfo crops had failed, and England,  Holland and
France apprehended the moft  calamitous effeas.  In Paris the
cry of bread, bread was every where heard,  and many riots and
mobs marked the diftrefs of the inhabitants.
                                     Courant, Oct. ia, 1789.
   The empire of China experienced the fame calamity,  and the
people fuffered indefcribable diftrefs from famin and difeafe.  In
Madras died 30,000 people by famin in 1788.   Courant, April
27, 1789.   In this inftance, crops failed over the whole earth,
in the fame year.
   On the 1 oth of July a moft tremendous earthquake convulfed
Iceland.   Large  chafms  were opened in the  earth, and fome
mountains were rent afunder.   Several fhocks happened on fub-
fequent days, and a violent fhock in September is mentioned in
the 6th volume of Sinclair's Statiftical works, 625.
                                  Courant, January ai, 179a
   On the 30th of  September  occurred a violent  earthquake in
Tufcany, by which fome villages were deftroyed and feveral thou-
fand lives.   On the fame day, but not at the fame hour, a fmall
fhock  was  felt  at Edinburgh.    On the 5th of November, a
fhock was felt at Crieff, 50 miles from Edinburgh ;  and on the
 1 oth and 1 ith, fevere fhocks were felt at other places.
                   Courant, Dec. 7, 1789.  Sinclair, vol. 6. 635.
   On the 4th of December arrived at Lieth, Capt. Stewart of
the fhip Brothers, from Archangel in Ruflia ; who informed that
on the coaft of Lapland and Norway, he  failed  many leagues
among multitudes of dead haddock  floating on the water.  He
 fpoke feveral fhips which alfo paffed among  them.
                                        Sinclair, vol.  6. 627.
    Whether thefe fifh were killed by an earthquake or a difcharge
 of fubterranean vapor  or heat, or died by  ficknefs,  is not known. 
288
 If they were killed, it would feem probable that other fifh in the
 fame feas, would have fhared the fame fate ;  which does not ap-
 pear to have been the cafe ; for the accounts make no mention of
 the death of other kinds.   And  what renders it probable that
 they died  of difeafe, and a  difeafe peculiar to that kind of fifh,
 is, that for fome years after, no haddock came to the markets in
 Scotland,  as before that mortality.  That fpecies appeared to be
 almoft extina ;  whereas  there is no  mention made  of a failure
 of other kinds of fifh.   Careful  obfervations  and precife  dates
 would afiift our  refearches into the caufes  of thefe  wonderful
 phenomena.
   In  Oaober,  Vefuvius was in a ftate of eruption  for feveral
 weeks,  and difcharged fmall ftreams of Lava.  The plague pre-
 vailed at Conftantinople and Smyrna.
                                           Gent. Mag. 1789.
   On the  29th of Oaober from 2 o'clock P. M.  to  half after 4,
 Kentucky was enveloped in thick darknefs, fo that people  were
 dbliged to ufe candles.
                                  Courant,  January 14,  1790.
   It will be obferved that this darknefs, and the beginning  of
 the influenza in America coincide nearly in  time v/ith the  erup-
tion of Vefuvius, and many earthquakes.
   Such univerfal diforders in the  elements never fail to produce
epidemic difeafes ; and thofe here related were the heralds of the
 moft fevere period of ficknefs that has occurred in the  United
States for 30 years.
   The firft appearance of that feries of epidemics to  be hereaf-
 ter defcribed, feems to  have been in the meafles at New-York in
November 1788,  and at Philadelphia in  December  following.
This difeafe became epidemic  over the northern ftates in 1789,
but I have not the  means of defcribing  its progrefs.   I find,  in
bills of mortality,  from  various  places, deaths by meafles are
mentioned in 1789 and 90.
   In autumn 1789 appeared the influenza or epidemic catarrh.
The precife time and place of its appeapance, are not afcertained.
 Some accounts fay, it  originated in Canada.    But I fhall  con-
fine my obfervations to its progrefs in Atlantic  America.   It was
 firft obferved about the cicf. cf September  1789, in  New-York; 
28g
 and Philadelphia.   Dr.* Rufh informs me, that it was brought to
 Philadelphia by the  members of Congrefs, who  returned from
 New-York,  about the firft of Oaober.   Another account, writ-
 ten by one of the faculty in  Philadelphia,  and publifhed in the
 7th volume of the  Mufeum, mentions its firft appearance there,
 about the time of the Friends  Yearly  Meeting, in September.
 The precife time is probably not afcertainable ; the opinion of its
 propagation by infeaion is very fallacious, as I know by repeat-
 ed obfervations.   It probably  appeared in detached cafes,  fome
 days before it became a fubjea of obfervation.
                                        Mufeum, vol. 7. 231.
   From the  middle ftates, it moved rapidly over the whole coun-
 try.   It appeared  in Hartford,  where I then refided, about the
 middle of Oaober.   On  the  19th of that month,  I left  Hart-
 ford for Bofton and arrived the next day in good health.   I was
 feized with the influenza on the  23d,  and by the  aid of a dilu-
 ting regimen, recovered in four days.  No perfon who attended
 me was feized with the diftemper,  fooner than the other  inhabi-
 tants of that town.  I mention this to difprove the common opin-
 ion of its infeaion ; not that I deny  it  to be in a degree, infec-
 tious ;  altho  my  own obfervations do  not warrant  that  concef-
 iion ; but I aver that its propagation depends almoft entirely on
 the infenfible qualities of the atmofphere.  Two ladies who left
 Bofton with  me on the  fecond of November, before the difeafe
 had appeared in their family,  and before it was a fubjea  of con-
 verfation,  were feized with it in Hartford, at the fame time, that
 it became epidemic in Bofton,  one on the 8th and the other  on
 the 12th.—The difeafe had then paffed Hartford, and  there is
 no evidence of their beingexpofed to any perfon infefled.   This
 faa  fhows a regular progrefs in the ftate of air producing the dif-
 eafe—as perfons leaving Bofton and  travelling one hundred and
 twenty  miles  diftance, were  effeaed precifely at the time the
 difeafe became epidemic in that town.
  This difeafe pervaded the wildernefs and feized the Indians^-
 jt fpread over the ocean and attacked feamen a hundred  leagues
from land, and as to infeaion, entirely infulated—it appeared in
the  Weft-Indies  nearly  at the  time it  did  in  the northern
                           N  n 
$9°
ftates.   It overfpread  America,  from the 15th to the 45th de-
gree of latitude in  about 6 or 8 weeks j and how much  further
it extended, I am not informed.
   It fhould have been  mentioned that,  in September,  anterior
to the invafion of the catarrh,  the fcariatina anginofa  appeared
in Philadelphia ; but in Oaober it yielded to the influenza,  the
controlling epidemic.   The fcarlet fever re-appeared in  Decem-
ber, and became epidemic ;  often blending itfelf with the influ-
enza.   It exhibited one predominant feature of the whole feries
of fucceeding epidemics, a prevalence of  bilious matter, which
was often difcharged by purging and vomiting.   This difeafe con-
tinued to prevail in Philadelphia,  and if my  information is cor-
rea, in  fome parts of  New-Jerfey,  till the fpring of  1790.
The meafles occurred in fome cafes, but was not epidemic.
                                    Mufeum,  vol. 7. 120,  175.
   It is remarkable that the fcarlatina anginofa was cotemporary
in Edinburgh with the epidemic  meafles  in America in 1789,
and nearly fo, with the death of the haddock on  the  coaft of
Norway.
   It will be obferved that the fcarlet fever,  tho  epidemic in
Philadelphia, did not  fpread over the country in 1790.   It was
little known in the  northern ftates,  till  two  years after—this is
among the proofs that  this difeafe does  not depend  on  infeaion
for its propagation.  If infeaion was its only or principal means
of propagation, the fomites exifted in great abundance, in par-
 ticular places in 1790, and fufficient to have fpread it  over the
 United  States.   But  a difeafe  however infeaious,  will  not
 fpread far  in an  atmofphere that will not generate it.   Indeed
 fcarcely a year paffes  in which"  fporadic cafes of fcarlatina, or
 anginas of  other kinds do  not appear  in particular  places ; but
 they never fpread  without fome uncommon concurrence of caufes.
    The  winter of  1789-90  was  one of the  mildeft  that is ever
 known in this country ; there being little froft, except for a few
 days in February.  There fell frequent fnows and in great abun-
 dance ;  but they were immediately followed by warm foutherly
 winds,  and diffolved.
    Early in  the fpring of  1790 we had a  fecond  epidemic ca-
 tarrh.   I was attentive to its origin and progrefs.   I found it at 
2<)l
 Albany in the laft week in March, and heard of it in Vermont
 about the fame time.   I returned to Hartford, but altho expofed
 repeatedly to its infeaion on my journey, I was not feized earlier
 than others in Hartford, where the  difeafe appeared about the
 middle of April.   It fpread to the fouthward,  arrived at Phi-
 ladelphia near the clofe of that month, and difappeared in th;:
 city about the middle of June.  In the northern ftates. as fac
 as my knowledge extends, the difeafe was more  violent, than ir.
 the preceding autumn.   Many plethoric  perfonr  c: iv.m habit
 almoft funk under it; while confumptive people  and hard drink-
 ers fell its viaims.
                                         Mufeum, vol. 8. 65.
   The fpring and fummer of  1790 were moftly  rainy ;  but oth-
 erwife feafonable weather.   No remarkable  epidemics prevailed,
 except thofe already defcribed,  but an increafe of mortality, in
 fome places, is vifible in the regifters of deaths.   Severe earth-
 quakes  occurred on the African coaft,
   Let it be obferved that the  meafles appeared in autumn  1788,
 juft after great volcanic eruptions,  and a moft tempeftuous  fum-
 mer, when the element of fire appeared to  be in univerfal com-
 motion  ; juft after the meteor, and during the appearance of the
 comet.*   Let it be obferved alfo that the harveft failed, at this
 time, in China,  India, Europe and America, and let any man
 deny the all-controlling influence of the  elements in producing
 thefe events.
   The  winter of 1790-91 commenced  early and with fevere
 weather.   The laft week in November was cold ; Conneaicut
 river  at Hartford was  clofed with  ice on the 9th of December,
 and not open till'the 12th of M«irch.   On the whole,  the feafon
 was not of unufual feverity.    The fpring and early part of fum-
 mer  were,  in  moft parts of  die  country,  very dry, until, the
 middle of June.
   On the 15th of January,  a confiderable fhock of earthquake
 was experienced  at Richmond in  Virginia.   At the fame time
 catarrhs were fo  prevalent in  that ftate and in Pennfylvania, as
 to excite an  apprehenfion of another vifit of  the  influenza.
  * In 1732 a dark day occurred in Auguft preceding the influenza.
Io 1789 a darkneft at Kentucky occurred, during the epidemic catarrh. 
292
 Inflammatory difeafes were very frequent during the  winter.
 In Philadelphia the fcarlatina anginofa appeared late in January
 and was very prevalent in February.   In the interior of Carolina
 it was fickly,  but I have no particulars.   The whooping cough
 prevailed in many parts of the country.
                Courant, Jan. ai, 1790.  See Mufeum, vol.  9. 6j.
   In the month of. April,  fome fifhermen at the Narrows, near
 New-York, caught fourteen thoufand fhad at a fingle draft ;  to
 fecure which, it was neceffary to add feveral feines, one upon
 the  other.   This  circumftance  is  mentioned, becaufe feveral
 medical authors have related that an extraordinary abundance of
 fifh is among the precurfors of peftilence.   It will be noted that
 the peftilential fever, which has prevailed for many years paft,
 firft appeared  in New-York, in  the autumn fucceeding this fin-
 gular draft of fifh.
                                    Courant, April 25,1790.*
   On the 16th of May, at half paft 10 o'clock P. M. in a
 ferene,  moon-light  night, an extenfive  earthquake was felt in
 the northern ftates.   It was  preceded, a few feconds, by a rat-
 tling found ;  its duration was fhort ;  its courfe as ufual in Amer-
 ica,  from N. W. to S. E.   No  injury was fuftained.
                                           Courant, May 23.
   On the morning after the earthquake,  was obferved at Mid-
 dletown in Conneaicut, a fubftance like  honey or butter,  cov-
 ering the grafs and earth for a confiderable  extent.   See an ac-
 count of a fimilar phenomenon in Ireland under the year 1695.
   To thefe phenomena fucceeded in Conneaicut the generation
 of millions of that  fpecies of black worm, defcribed under the
 year 1770.   I believe they were far lefs numerous than in 1770 ;
 they however appeared  in Hartford  and in Norwich, and dif-
 appeared at the fame time.   They were very deftruaive to the
 grafs and corn, but their exiftence was fhort; all dying in a few
 weeks.

   *  It may excite furprife that there fhould be fuppofed a connection
 between  an uncommoa abundance of  fifh, and  peftilence.  But the
 theory that refolves this into the unufual powers of excitement, is ra-
 tional.   The ftate of  the  elements that caufes peftilence, always pro-
 duces unufual numbers of infects; and often the human race is more
 prolific than at other times.  See  the London Regifters of births and
deaths.  Mait. Hift.  Lond. 
^93
   A paragraph in a Maryland paper dated June i, 1791,  men-
 tions animals, there called caterpillars, but evidently  the  fame
 fpecies of worm.   They are reprefented as marching in legions
 from place to place, and devouring the grafs.
   About the fame time appeared at Lanfingburg on the Hudfon,
 a fpecies of worm that greatly injured the fruit-trees.
                                     Courant, June 25,  179a.
   But the moft extraordinary phenomenon was the exiftence of
 die  canker-worm, in numbers before  unexampled.  Whether
 thefe animals had  made their appearance in the preceding year or
 not,  I do not recollea.   But in 1791  they devoured  the  or-
 chards over the New-England ftates ;  and their ravages were re-
 peated in the two  following years.  Orchards, ftanding on ftiff
clay and in   low   grounds  which  are  wet in  fpring, efcaped ;
 but on every fpecies of light  and dry  foil,  the trees were as dry
 on  the  firft  of June,  as on the firft of January.   Many trees
 have never recovered from the effeas  of their ravages.
  Another  worm of a diftina fpecies, and called  at the time,
palmer-worm, overfpread  our forefts in this or the  next year,
 devouring the leaves of oak and other  fpecies of wood.
  It is a prevalent opinion that uncommon  flights of wild  pigeons
 in America,  indicate  the approach of  a fickly feafon.  I am  not
 inclined to credit any  popular  opinion, without good grounds ;
but this feems to have been formed on  a long feries of obferva-
 tions.  Certain it  is that pigeons  in the fummer of  1791 were
 unufually numerous.   In Maine, there  were traas  of foreft of
miles in extent,the trees of which were covered with their nefts.
                                          Courant,  July ir.
  The fummer of 1791  was exceffively  hot.   At Salem  the
thermometer  was at and above 80 deg. no  lefs than c^ days, and
above 90, twelve  days*—an  inftance that had  not happened in
many years, in that cool place ; altho it often happens  in  the
middle ftates.
                                 Mem. Am. Acad. vol.  2. 91.
  On the 27th of November Lifbon  fuftained fevere fhocks of
earthquake.
                                     Courant, April a,  1792. 
294
   In autumn, bilious  remittents  affumed, in  Philadelphia,  the
inflammatory diathefis,  fo  predominant in the laft peftilential
conftitution.   Dr. Rufh,  in his public leaures, mentioned  this
faa at the time, altho he little  fufpecled  what effeas that con-
ftitution was to produce in fubfequent years.   It was  found ne-
ceffary to bleed  from one  to three times.   In moft cafes,  the
liver was affeaed with all the fymptoms of Hepatitis.
                                  M. S. letter from Dr. Rufh.
   At this period the peftilential or  epidemic conftitution of the
atmofphere began to  fhow itfelf in  the infedious  yellow fever.
It appeared  in New-York, in autumn,  along  the eaft river,  and
carried off about 200  perfons.   This  gave fome alarm, which
foon fubfided.
   It muft be noted  that the meafles in 1788, the difeafe which
marched in the van of this feries of epidemics, appeared firft in
New-York—this was  probably the faa alfo in regard to the  in-
fluenza of. the  fucceeding  year—and  the fcarlatina anginofa at
the clofe of  1792.  The fcarlatina  of 1789 and 91  in Philadel-
phia was local, or if it appeared in a few other places, it did  not
Ipread over the country.   All  the laft great  epidemics have  ori-
ginated nearly in the fame longitude between  Conneaicut and
Pennfylvania.   It is not to be concluded from this faa that they
have been propagated by infeaion from one fpot, as from  a cen-
ter ;  we know this is  not the.faa ; the fame difeafes  originating
in remote places.*  But it ferves to fhow that the caufe or prin-
ciple of difeafe in the  elements is of various force, and will  firft
fhow its effeas in places where it has the moft ftrength.
   In the fame fummer of 1791,  the peftilential principle began
to exhibit its effeas in the increafed malignancy of the tropical
fevers.   The  " unufual, epidemic fever" in Grenada, defcribed
by Dr. Chifholm,  in  the Edinburgh Medical Commentaries for
1793, and which was the occafion of no fmall furprife, was the
commencement of that feries of fatal  difeafes,  which, in fubfe-
quent years,  made  dreadful havoc  in the Iflands.   This  fever
became fo violent and infeaious, contrary to the common fever

  * The mild fcarlatina, the herald of the epidemic, appeared at New-
York andatBethlcm in  Conneaicut, in 179a, in the fame month. 
295
of the tropics, that a labored attempt  was made  to trace it to
fomites from the  coaft of Africa.   The truth is,  the fever  waj
nothing more  than the common  fever of the climate, with the
fuperadded malignancy derived from the exifting  conftitution of
the elements.   The fame faa took place  on the African coaft ;
that is, the ufual fevers of the climate became more malignant.
   This idea isfuggefted by a feries of fimilar events in other cli-
mates ; all the difeafes of America, at the fame time, affuming
a fimilar augmented  violence, and fporadic cafes of malignant
fever appearing in all parts  of our country.  Such has been the
faa in all other epidemic  periods.
   To confirm this idea,  let it be obferved that in the fame year,
when this malignant fever appeared in the African Seas on board
of fhips,  in Grenada, and in New-York, as well as in fporadic
 cafes in other parts of America,  the  plague carried  off two or
 three hundred thoufand people,*  in Egypt, and raged in Conftan-
 tinople with great morulity.  In all thefe diftant countries, the
 fame or fimilar effeas were nearly cotemporary.   The plague in
 Egypt continued into the next year ;  but I have no details  of its
 progrefs and termination.   The  fame general principle was ex-
 perienced in Great-Britain, and the bills of mortality in London
 continued to fwell, till the year  1793.
    The winter of 1791-2 was fomewhat colder than ufual.  The
 month of January was  remarkable for fevere  weather of three
 weeks duration.   In March a flight earthquake  was felt in  the
  middle ftates, but I have no particulars.
                                     Courant, March 19, 1792.
     The fpring months were very rainy in the fouthern ftates and
  the iflands, which experienced diftreffing inundations.
                                      Courant,  May 2%, 179s-
     In the northern ftates  there was  a period of Angularly cold
  weather in the beginning of June,  occafioned  by a dry N. E.
   wind.  Some perfons ufed fires as late as the tenth  day of that
   month.   The heat of the following fummer,  in  general,  was
   not extreme.

     » Thefe numbers arc to be fufpe&ed of exaggeration, 
296
   In May and June, a fpecies of locufts appeared in the north-
ern parts of the  ftate of New-York, which committed ravages
among the  grain.   The wheat-infea continued its ravages, and
appeared this year as far fouthward as Elk Ridge in the ftate of
Maryland.   On Long-Ifland the deftruaion of wheat was great
and diftreffing.
                          Courant, June 25, and July 2, 1792.
   In July happened at Philadelphia a violent  tornado ;  but the
fummer was not diftinguifhed  for the number  of this fpecies of
tempeft.   In one  inftance,  in Vermont, the  hail-ftones  which
fell are faid to have  been from  3 to 6 inches in circumference.
   About this time,  a malignant fever began to rage  in  Charlef-
ton,  South-Carolina, carrying off the patient in three days,  and
occafioning a confiderable mortality.
                                   Courant, Auguft 6, 1792.
   In the following winter, Egypt was a prey to famin ; and the
ftreets of Cairo were filled with dead bodies.
   In November 1792  feveral fmart  fhocks of earthquake were
felt in Perthfhire, a county in Scotland.
   In Philadelphia appeared an infea in the form of a fly,  which
generated a fmall worm  or  caterpillar,  that attacked the tree,
called Lime Tree, which is there ufed for fhade.   From that
year to the year 1798, this infea  has ravaged thofe trees, and
deftroyed fome of them.   Juft philofophy will  not   hefitate to
believe the caufe of this phenomenon and of  the peftilence fuc-
ceeding,  to be conneaed.
   In this year, 1792, commenced that fcarlatina anginofa which
became epidemic, with great mortality.   I regret that a want of
exaa regifters,  will not permit me to trace it to its  fources with
the precifion defireable in all  fuch cafes.   I  am informed that
well defined cafes of the difeafe were obferved in New-York, as
early as the month of Auguft.   But it occafioned no confidera-
ble mortality in that city,  until the following winter.
   At Bethlera,  in the weftern part of Conneaicut, there were
five deaths in this year by the  cynanche trachealis.   I have not
heard of any other  inftance.   In Auguft, there were  feven or
eight cafes of the fcarlatina anginofa, but fo mild as not to prove
mortal.   The reader will  note the  laft circumftance ; for I am 
297
able to prove, that this  difeafe in Conneaicut, was progreflive
in a remarkable manner, and from the  faa,  which I believe is
not uncommon,  will be drawn moft important confequences.
   The autumn was one of the mildeft ever known.   November
was fo warm that we fat with open  windows, at Hartford,  on
the 19th of the month.   This moderate weather was fucceeded
by fevere cold, and Conneaicut river was clofed by ice  on the
1 oth of December.   The latter part  of  winter however was not
very fevere, except a- week or two in February.
   On the nth of January 1793  appeared a  comet in the con-
ftellation of Cepheus.   It was feen for the laft time by Mr. Rit-
tenhodfe on the 8th of February.
                                    Phil. Tranf. Phil. vol. 3.
   In the courfe of this  winter and  the fpring  fucceeding, the
fcarlet fever raged in New-York, with confiderable mortality.
It became  epidemic  alfo in Philadelphia,  in  the courfe of the
fpring months.
   Catarrh was very prevalent in the northern ftates,  at the fame
time ; and the fmall-pox by inoculation at  Hartford proved un-
ufually obftinate and fatal ;  indicating an infalubrious ftate of the
atmofphere.
   In February 1793  the fcarlet fever invaded the town of Beth-
lem, like " an armed man,"  fays Mr. Backus, Medical Repofi-
tory,  vol. 1. 524.   He calls  the difeafe angina maligna, and it
doubtlefs put on the fymptoms of it  in many places.   It feized
almoft every family and child.  It abated  in  May,  difappeared
in  November, and re-appeared in  January  1794 with nearly its
former violence.   Nineteen children died in the firft invafion,
and fourteen, in the fecond.
   We have here diftina marks of progreflion.  The difeafe in
a mild form appeared in Auguft   1792,  then difappeared.   In
February following, it invaded the town in  its worft form.   Six
months therefore intervened between  its precurfor, or mild form,
and its invafion with full force.
   The fame difeafe appeared in the neighboring diftria of coun.
try and  in diftant parts,  in nearly the fame  longitude, in  the
courfe of this year ; but I have not materials for a detail of fafls,
                           O 0 
298
   I find however,  it prevailed in Litchfield in 1793, an<^ was
fuppofed to be imported into  that town from Vermont.   It was
alfo very mortal in New-Fairfield,  the fame year.   I therefore
prefume the difeafe to have been very general through the weftern
diftrias of Conneaicut,  Maffachufetts and Vermont, and to
have prevailed as far weftward as Pennfylvania, in this year.  Of
its progrefs beyond that ftate,  I have no information.
   In September and Oaober of this year, about  the time the
diftemper fubfided in Bethlem, it  began to exhibit  appearances
of approach,  in the maritime towns of Conneaicut.   Its  precur-
fors at New-Haven, as defcribed by Dr. Monfon, a good judge
of the fubjea,  were" flight influenza,  flinging pains in the jaws
and limbs, forenefs in the mufcles of the neck, with a flight fever."
   In November and December following,  feveral  cafes of ulce-
rous fore throat occurred, but they had a favorable iffue,  and the
fymptoms were not alarming.
   In January 1794 arrived the crifis of this difeafe ; it put on its
malignant fymptoms, and in the courfeof the fix following months,
feized more than feven hundred perfons,  principally youth, of
whom died fifty two.
             oee Dr. Monfon's account in my Collection, p. 173.
   Here again is diftinaly marked a  regular progreflion of fymp-
toms from  September to January ;  the  precurfors being  four or
five months in advance of the difeafe in its moft violent form.
   In  Hartford, on Conneaicut  river, about thirty miles eaft
of Litchfield and Bethlem,  I had an opportunity to make per-
fonal obfervations on the origin and progrefs of this epidemic.
   I do not know the date of the firft cafe ;  but in my own mem-
oranda, its  appearance in my eldeft daughter, then in  the  3d
year of her age, is noted  under the 12th  of May  1793.  The
attending phyfician  informed me, that the difeafe was then epi-
demic.   Its firft appearance therefore muft have  been a week or
two earlier.
   This difeafe was a mild fcarlatina anginofa.   The  patient had
confiderable lever—the paroxifms were daily,  and terminated in
profufe fweats—there was a partial efflorefceHce of the fkin about
 the neck and breaft, and fome affeaion of  the throat.  Its crifis, 
299
if I do not mifremember, 'was about the eighth day.  Iwasinform-
ed that in no cafe, did  this difeafe prove  mortal, during this in-
vafion.
   The reader will obferve the dates—this mild angina invaded
Hartford in April and May, about the  time, the feverity of the
difeafe began to abate in Bethlem.
   Nine months after the invafion of this mild angina, that is, in
February 1794, this difeafe appeared in Hartford in its formida-
ble array, and many children became its viaims.
   Nothing can prove more clearly that  infeaion had no  concern
in the origin of this diftemper, than this gradual augmentation of
its fymptoms.  If any faa were neceffary to demonftrate the all-
controlling influence of the elements,  in the propagation and ter-
mination of the difeafe, this progreffign alone would be fufficient.
The mild epidemic of May 1793, was  the fame fpecies of difeafe
with  that which was then  deftroying life, in the weftern parts of
the ftate, and in New-York and Pennfylvania ; but the condition
of the atmofphere at Hartford was not, at that time, fitted  to
give the difeafe its full degree of violence.   The  fummer feafon
perhaps  fufpended   the operation of the general caufe, by means
 to us unknown.   In February following arrived the crifis of the
difeafe.
   I know not whether other epidemic anginas have been charac-
terized by the fame progreflivenefs in the  fymptoms.   It is not
improbable  that  they have ; and that age after age has paffed
 away, without noticing the circumftance;  a circumftance that
 throws more light on  the origin, caufes and [philofophy of epi-
 demics,  than all  the differtations on the fubjea, fince the days
 of Hippocrates.
    My own children were affeaed with the  mild angina in May.
 I removed,  with my family, to New-York in  November  1793,
 before the fatal angina invaded Hartford,  and after it had finiflied
 its courfe in  New-York ; my children  efcaped its  violence, and
 probably in confequence of this removal.   This was an acciden-
 tal circumftance in  my family, but I fufpea a fimilar removal of
 children, during the progrefs of that  malady,  might fave a mul-
 titude of lives; altho the circumftances of many people will not 
                                 3°Q
      permit them to avail  themfelves  of the expedient: and in fome
      cafes probably it would fail of fuccefs.  It however deferves con-
      fideration.   The angina had completed its  courfe in  New-York
      in 1793 or nearly.   It did not invade Bofton till 1795.   A re-
      moval  of the children from the atmofphere of Bofton  in 17*^5, to
      an atmofphere where the difeafe had ceafed, would probably have
      fecured moft of them from an attack.
         The fummer of  1793  was exceffively hot, after a  dry fpring,
      and produced  a great number of violent  gufts, with rain and
  /   hail.   The autumn was very dry.  A fatal  dyfentery prevailed
n/    in Georgetown, on  the Potomak,  and  in the vicinity, which
    ■  fwept away many hundreds of the inhabitants.   The fame difeafe
      prevailed in  Coventry, in Conneaicut, and killed almoft every
      perfon whom it  feized.   A nervous or  long fever prevailed in
      Wethersfield.   In fhort, in moft parts of the United  States, the
      peftilential principle exhibited its effeas, in fome form or other,
      and every where fwelled the bills of mortality.    It extended to
      the Weft-Indie?, and  fo  violent was the epidemic at Grenada,
      that the phyficians and inhabitants, unable to account for it, re-
      ally fuppofed it an import'.! difeafe.   The treatife written by Dr.
      Chifholm to prove it imported, is fatisfaaory evidence to me that
      the difeafe was an epidemic.   The difeafe coirefponds in its prin-
      cipal charaaer, with the peftilential fevers of this country, many
      of which are known to be generated in our own climate.
         In  Auguft  1793  commenced in  Philadelphia that dreadful
      peftilence  which alarmed the United States, and fpread  terror
      and difmay over that  city.   The fpring difeafes, which ufhered
      in this malady,  were  influenza,  fcarlatina  and mild bilious re-
      mittents.  See  Rufh's Treatife on that  fever.   Thefe are the
      moft  certain and  immediate  precurfors  of peftilence,  in  this
      Country ;  and the  influenza feems to be fo, in  all countries.
         During this epidemic, the weather was very fultry and dry. A-
      boutthe  12th of September, fell a meteor betwecr the city and
      the hofpital.   The. number of viaims to  this difeafe was 4040.
         A  controverfy  arofe among  the phyficians in Philadelphia,
      relative to the  origin of the ptague  ; one party tracing the dif-
      eafe,, as they fuppofed, to infeaed veffels from the Weft-Indies j 
Soi
 the other afcribing it to exhalations  from damaged coffee  and
 filthy ftreets.   This controverfy  has  occafioned  an unhappy.
 fchifm among the medical  gentlemen, and the citizens of Phi-
 ladelphia.
/   It is  greatly  to  be regretted  that  gentlemen of the faculty
 committed themfelves,  by prematurely giving pofitive opinions
 on that  important queftion, and thus laying the foundation for
 permanent evils  to the country.   It would  have been wifer to
 have inftituted a regular enquiry  into hiftorical faas,  relating to
 peftilential difeafes, antecedent to any  pofitive decifions on the
 fubjea.
    By an account of the deaths in Algiers, kept by Capt. O'Brien,
 while a  prifoner,  I perceive that 4893  perfons died in 1793  by
 the meafles and plague.   There was a confiderable increafe of
 mortality in that year ; and we obferve the meafles and plague
 prevalent in the fame year—an  evidence  that on  the Barbary
 coaft, as well as in Europe and America, thefe epidemics are allied.
    By this account alfo it appears that in 1789 a number of per-
 fons d ed by the aflhma.   It is not probable this was  epidemic,
 and I fufpea  by this name was intended catarrh  or  influenza.
 As this  difeafe was then epidemic in the United States, it would
 be gratifying to know whether the fame epidemic prevailed on
 the African coaft, at the fame time.
    It is remarkable that in  the fpring of 1793, when the fcarla-
 tina anginofa had firft commenced its  progrefs in America,  it
 began alfo in England.   It appeared firft in the villages about
 London, and afterwards defcended into the city.   Med. Mem,
 vol. 4.  It continued to prevail for feveral years,  with different
 degrees  of violence, at different times.   See the Monthly Mag-
 azines.
    The winter of 1793-4  was  milder than ufual in  America.
 The thermometer in New-York,  in a northern expofure, defcen-
 ded no lower than 13 deg. above o, and but twice to that degree.
    On the 17th  of May was a  fingularly  fevere  froft  in  the
 northern ftates  of America,  which deftroyed garden vegetables
 and  the leaves  of trees.   The wheat,  oats and flax in many
 places turned yellow, and fruit was deftroyed, 
   This froft was preceded by a few remarkable hot days,  fuch
as we ufually have in June ; and fpeedily followed by a long fe-
ries of rains, with eafterly  winds.
   This froft has been fuppofed to kill the canker-worms, which
had ravaged the orchards,  for fome years preceding.   Another
opinion is, that a hard froft in April,  deftroyed them, juft after
they were hatched.  A third opinion  is,  that they had  run thro
their  period  of exiftence,  and perifhed in  a natural way.  In
Confirmation of which  opinion, it is faid they were  evidently
declining in the preceding year.  There is probably truth in both
the latter opinions.
   The  fummer of 1794 was, on the whole, not intemperate.
We had hot weather, but frequently was the earth refrefhed by
fhowers, and cool wefterly winds.  The whooping cough pre-
vailed in New-York.
   The fcarlet fever, in the  courfe of this year, fpread over Con-
neaicut.  Its effeas are very apparent in the bills of mortality.
   It appeared in 1795 in Bofton, in the  fpring or early in fum-
mer,  and  continued to prevail in Maffachufetts and New-Hamp-
fhire in  1796.   Its progrefs  from New-York to Maine, about
300 miles or perhaps 400, was run  in about four years.   It trav-
elled therefore  about 100 miles in  a year.  Such alfo  was the
faa in the preceding period ;  as well as in 1735.   It  fhould be
obferved alfo that its direaion, in the two laft epidemic periods,
has been oppofite to that of the difeafe of 1735.   The latter
began in New-Hampfhire and marched to the weftward ; the
former began in the middle ftates, and advanced to the eaftward.
   On the 1 oth of June 1794, the b'ilious plague made its ap-
pearance in New-Haven, a feaport in Conneaicut.  The perfon
firft feized with the difeafe  was, the wife of Ifaac Gorham, liv-
ing on the wharf, and the nature of her  complaint was not un-
derftood,  nor fufpeaed, till near the time of her death, on the
15th.
   No fooner was it known that a peftilential fever was  in the
city, than the inhabitants took the alarm, and direaed an exam-
ination to be made into the  caufes.   On enquiry, the  following
appeared to  be the  fources of the difeafe, or were reported to
be the probable caufes. 
S°3
   In the beginning of June, Capt. Truman arrived from Mar-
 tinico, in a floop, which was hauled up by the ftore of Mr.  EhV
jah Auftin, a few rods  from the houfe of Mr. Gorham.  This
floop was fuppofed to be infefted with the peftilential fever of
the Weft-Indies.  From this floop was landed a cheft of clothes,
which had belonged to a feaman who died  with  the fever in
Martinico ; which cheft was epened and the contents inventoried
by Mr. Auftin,  in his ftore, in prefence  of  Capt. Truman, of
Henry Hubbard, a clerk in the ftore, and of Polly Gorham, a
niece of  Ifaac Gorham.   Mr. Auftin and his  clerk were feized,
a few days after the opening of this cheft, (but how many days
is not ftated) and died about the 20th of  June.   Polly Gorham
was feized on the 12th and died on the 17th of June.
   Thefe circumftances appeared  to the people  at that time, to
be clear and deciCve evidence of the importation of the  fomites
of the difeafe; and efpecially the fad, that Mr. Auftin  and his
clerk were attacked with the fymptoms, nearly at the fame time.
This acquiefcence in an opinion fb important to fociety and truth,
renders it neceffary to ftate the refult of more careful enquiries.
   In the firft place,  the opinion that the  floop could communi-
cate the infedion, is  unfounded ;  for it does not appear that any
perfon, ill  with  yellow  fever, had been  on  board—there  cer-
tainly had not been any  fick on board, after her leaving Martin*
ico.   The floop was taken by  the  Britifh troops, when  they
took that ifland,  and lay in port fome weeks,  unoccupied ; until
Capt. Truman had  an  opportunity to purchafe her.   In  the
mean time,  fome of the crew,  to  keep themfelves employed and
procure bread, went in  the bufinefs of droging ; that is, tranf-
porting goods from place to place.   One of them died with the
fever, but on fhore, and he had not been  on board of the floop,
after his illnefs.   On the paffage home, the feamen. were all in
good health.  Then, is  therefore not the leaft ground to  fuppofe
the floop contained any  infeaion,  and no part of her cargo  was
fuppofed to  be in a bad ftate.   The external parts of a veffel or
houfe canno'. retain or communicate infeaion.
   Secondly.  As to the cheft of clothes,  it is probable  it  con-
tained no infedion from difeafed perfons;  for by the affidavit of 
4°4
Capt. Truman, taken before Alderman Furman of New-York,
at the requeft of Dr. Baily, the Health  Officer of that port,
which affidavit  I have confulted,  it appears that the clothing,
worn by the feaman who owned the cheft and died at Martinico,
was all wrapped in his blanket with his body and buried.   As
Capt. Truman is a man of good charaaer and has made his  affi-
davit,  four years fince the difeafe at New-Haven, when all ap-
prehenfions of injury from declaring the truth, have  fubfided,
there feems to be no reafon to queftion the faa.
  But as men, who have not attended to the great operations of
nature in producing epidemic  difeafes, naturally look for  the
caufes among vifible and tangible fubftances,  they  ftill found a
refource  in a  Britifh  regimental coat,  which  was in  the cheft,
and which, it was fuppofed, might have  belonged  to  a foldier
who might have died of the  yellow fever.   In  confequence of
thefe fufpicions,  the contents of the cheft were all burnt.
  On  examination it  appears that the  coat was  new—and the
mate of  the floop has fworn that he law the coat plundered by
the feaman from a bale of goods, and he believes it had never
been worn.   It was taken by the feaman in the bufinefs of drog-
ing,  from among the  packages of  clothing fent  by the Britifh
government for the ufe of the troops.  But had we  no fuch  evi-
dence, common fenfe might inform us, that a man,  laboring un-
der a fever in  the fultry climate of the Weft-Indies, would  not
wear his  regimentals.
  In the cheft therefore,  as in  the  floop,  we  can find no infec-
tion of yellow fever.   If Mr. Auftin and his clerk received the
feeds of  difeafe  from the  clothing in the cheft, as it  is poffible
they did, the  fources  of the difeafe muft have been the fetid
effluvia of dirty clothes, which had been kept a long time, clofe
packed in a cheft, in a fultry climate.  It is not neceffary to  fup-
pofe the  clothes to  have been worn by a difeafed perfon.  The
fweat and filth from a body in health, if confined in the hot  fea-
fon,  will ferment and produce a poifon  injurious to health,  and
produaive of yellow fever or other difeafe.*
  " It is  a well authenticated fact,  that Mr. Daniel Phenix, treafurer
of the  city of New-York, and his fon*, were infc&ed with a violent
yellow ftver, by means of the fetid effluvia from packages of Lulls, of 
                            3°5
   But as feme reports have been circulated,  in  contradidion  of
the teftimony of Capt. Truman, and as there is a poflibility that
he might have miftaken the faas,  I lay out of this queftion all
the evidence refpeaing the floop.   For whether the trunk con*
tained infeded clothes or not,  is wholly immaterial;  and with«
out any reference to  that point, the evidence that  the  fever in
NeW-Haven did not fpring from any imported fource, is complete.
   Mr. Auftin went on bufinefs to New-York,  was feized with
fever and died.  His body  was conveyed in a floop to  New-
Haven,  and buried.   It is an agreed point,  that  no friend,
nurfe or other perfon  took the fever from him.
   Mr. Hubbard went on bufinefs  to Derby,  ten miles diftant,
was  taken ill and died.   His body was carried to  New-Haven,
and buried.   It is agreed that no perfon took the difeafe from him.
   It is not known  that Polly Gorham was ever near the trunk
of clothing—the report  of her being prefent refts on the ftory
of a child.   But if fhe was, it makes no difference,  for no per-
fon who  attended her was affeded, except her mother, who had
a flight fever.   She lived and was  ill, a mile  from the wharfi
and  no  perfon in that  neighborhood was  afterwards  affeaed.
In fhort, it  is not pretended that the infeaion proceeded from
either of thefe perfons—the only perfons who could poflibly have
taken the difeafe from the trunk of clothing.
   It is admitted on all hands that  the infeaion muft have pro-
ceeded from the houfe of Ifaac Gorham.   Now it happens that
Mrs. Gorham who  was firft feized and five days before Mr. Auf-
tin and his clerk, had never been near the trunk of clothing,  nor
v/as  an article of clothing from the  floop carried into the houfe,
For  this affertion,  I have the authority of Mr. Gorham himfelf,
who is' admitted to  be a man of veracity.
   Had the  origin and phenomena of epidemic difeafes ever been
underftood,  the people of New-Haven would have forefeen, with

credit, which had been  returned  into  the treafury, after being long
ufed, palTing through dirty, fweaty hands, and then being clofe pack-.
ed for fome weeks, in a hot feafon. The fact is related to me by Mr.
Phenix himfelf.  The attack in the firfl cafe, was fevere; and on a
fubfequent occafion, a fecond attack paffed off with a naufe-a,
                            P P 
                            3°6
 a good degree of certainty, that they could not efcape peftilence.
 This will appear from the following fads.
   In the winter and fpring of 1794, the fcarlatina anginofa pre-
 vailed generally  in  New-Haven and  the  neighboring towns  ;
 manifefting a highly peftilential condition of the elements.   One
 cafe of bilious fever,  attended  with a vomiting  of black matter,
 occurred as early as  the laft week in March.
   For many months preceding the invafion of the fever, the oyf-
 ters, on the  coaft of Connedieut,  were in a very fickly ftate.
 Many people can teftify to the truth of this fad ; but I have an
 account of  it recorded at  the time by the late  Prefident  Stiles.
 In a letter to his  fon-in-law,  the Rev.  Mr. Holmes,  of Cam-
 bridge in Maffachufetts, dated Sept.  25, 1794,  he writes, that
 for twelve months paft he  had  eaten very few  oyfters, as they
 were difeafed, poor  and dropfical.   He remarked this  of the
 oyfters from New-York to Bofton.   Thofe caught on  the  fhores
of Branford, Killingworth, and at Blue-Point on the fouth fide
of Long-Ifland,  were intolerable.   At the date of the  letter
they were recovering and becoming more palatable.   This is a
ftriking proof of the derangement of the elements.               \
   Further evidence of this faa was furnifhed by the  multitudes
of caterpillars which overran the city of New-Haven, in the fum-
mer of 1794.* In fuch numbers were thefe infeas, that they  almoft
covered the trees, fences and houfes to the  tops of  chimneys.
The preceding hiftory furnifhes many inftances of this phenome-
non, preceding and accompanying peftilence.
  Had thefe phenomena been  underftood,  the people of New-
 Haven would have had no occafion to appoint a committee  to ex-
amin into the caufes of the fever.   It was hardly poffible,  in the
nature  of things,  that the human race fhould efcape the calamity
of epidemic difeafes, under the  operation of caufes fo general
 and powerful.
   But thefe were not all.   Mr.  Gorham, whofe family firft fuf-
fered by the  fever, had, in the month preceding the  invafion,
cleaned a gr,pat number of fliad, upon  the wharf by his door,
  * Some perfons fay, this was in 1793, but it is not materiaL 
3°7
 and thrown the garbage,  to the amount of a cart load perhaps, in.
 to the dock.
   The alternate wafhing of the  tide, and aaion of a hot fun,
 had rendered the putrefaaion of this mafs of filth extremely ra-
 pid  ; and there  being  no  current to remove  it, the ftench be-
 came intolerable.   On the other fide of the  wharf, a few rods
 diftant, a boat load of clams had been depofited on the mud, that
 the water, during the flux of  the tide, might preferve them ; but
 a great part of them were foon fpoiled, and added to the fetor of
 the atmofphere.
   To complete the lift of  nuifances,  fome barrels  of  damaged
 pickled cod-fifh had been thrown from a ftore into the dock, and
 the whole was left uncovered  during the recefs of the tide.   So
 noifome was the air of the place, for fometime before the fever
 appeared,  that the proprietor of the wharf defifted from his ufual
 morning vifits before  breakfaft.  For all thefe faas I  have the
 declarations of the perfons concerned and eye witneffes.
  The putrefaaion of flefh, from  thirty years  obfervations, I
 canteftify, will not always produce difeafe.   But in a peftilential
 ftate of air,  the diffoluiion of flefh is unufually rapid, and the
 acid evolved, peculiarly noxious.   In fuch circumftances, putref-
 cent fubftances of all kinds  appear to be powerful auxiliary cau-
 fes of difeafe.   The condition of the elements accelerates putre-
 faaion, and that putrefaaion in turn increafes the  deleteribus
 quality of the air.*
  Under  the operation of fo  many caufes of difeafe, inftead of
 being furprifed at the appearance of a peftilential fever, we  are
rather to wonder that its ravages were not more extenfive.
  That the putrefaaion of the fifh  was an exciting caufe of the
 fever in New-Haven,  is probable from the early appearance of it
 in fummer.   The firft cafes occurred about the ioth  of June,
 which  is earlier than the  epidemic peftilence of America ufually
occurs  ; and which indicates the exiftence of  ftrong local caufes.
 What further confirms this opinion, is,  that after a few weeks

  * 1 may add to thefe caufes of  the fever, the water pf the well  ufed
 by the people living on the wharf, which happened at that time to be
 covered over with dead rats in  a  ftate of putrefaaion.  This, was dif-
 coverd by the offenlivenefs of the water. 
                               3o5

    the diftemper v/as nearly or wholly  extina.  In  July died only"
    three perfons, and for about two weeks, no new cafe occurredt
    But in Auguft, the ufual time of the appearance of this difeafe
    in this part of America, it broke out with frefti  violence.  It is
    probable therefore that the morbid local caufes induced the fever
    in one  fmall  fpot,  before  the  proper feafon for it to prevail.
    Thefe caufes being gradually extingi.iftied by the tides and a hot
    fun, the difeafe  fubfided, until the ufual feafon for  fuch fevers.
    The fame took place in New-York in 1795—in 1796—and 1798.
      That the plague in  New-Haven  was the effea  of a condition
    of the elements united with local caufes, is proved by fubfequent
    events.   In the following year, a malignant dyfentery originated
  / and prevailed in New-Haven, deftroying more lives than the bil-
J  ious plague of  1794.   This difeafe is acknowledged by able phyr
^^ficians to be of the fame fpecies as the yellow fever.  See  Lind
    on that point, and Rufh's Works vol. 5. 5,  where it is ftated, on
    the authority of Dr.  Woodhoufe,  tlrat feveral perfons  took the
    yellow fever from foldiers, laboring under  the  dyfentery.  It is
    Well known alfo that an epidemic yellow fever has been converted^
    by a fudden change of weather, into an epidemic dyfentery, and
t_  iiicc verfa  ; as at Baltimore in  1797.   It is alfo true that the yel-
    low fever in autumn paffes off in  dyfentery, as in New-London
    in 1798.   The fame is at times true of the plague  in Afia.
      This difeafe in 1795, as well as  a  fimilar dyfentery in Derby
    in 1794,  demonftrated the deleterious condition of the  elements
    in that region or vicinity.
      If further evidence was neceffary, we have it in the bad ftate of
    the water in fome of the wells  in  New-Haven, during the preva-
    lence of thefe difeafes, in which, one of  the phyficians of the city
    has informed me, were animalcules vifible to the naked eye.  This
    fad correfponds with what occured  in Athens, during the plague,
    where the badnefs  of the water,  it  is fuppofed,  fed the people
    to afcribe the difeafe to the poifoning of the wells by the Lacede-
    monians.   A fimilar fad probably led the Germans, in 1349,  to
    fufped the Jews had poifoned the wells, arid on  fufpicion  alone
    to maffacre them  without mercy.  This ftate of the water, and
    the ficknefs of the oyfters alone decide the point, thatthe prints
   pal fources of the epidemics of 1794 and 5, were in the elements, 
369
    It has been afferted that no perfon in New-Haven was aBedec!
 by the fever, without intercourfe with the fick or with infeded
 clothing.  On careful enquiry,  I find this is not true.  Several
 perfons were affeded who were  not  in the rooms,  nor even in
 the houfes of the  fick, and  who could not be expofed,  other-
 ways than by pafling along the ftreets.   But fuch perfons Could
 not take the fever from the effluvia of the difeafed.   Men who
 fuppofe  this, are unacquainted  with  the  powers of  infedion.
 Dr. Chifholm ftates  exprefsly that the infedion of that difeafe
 in Grenada never exceeded ten feet ;  that  it was eafy to avoid
 it,  and many who lived in  the  houfes of the difeafed,  efcaped.
 Med.  Repof. vol. 2. 288.   Dr. Lind, the ableft writer on  the
 fubjed, who fpent his whole  life in jails and  hofpitals, has  ad-
 vanced the fame dodrin.   A great number of  fick in a narrow
 clofe built ftreet, may render the air  of it infedious, but a few
 difeafed  perfons in  the wide ftreets of New-Haven  could not
 produce   this effed.  In general however the  difeafe  in  this
 place was propagated by  infedion  ; the pollution of  the atmof-
 phere being  confined to a fmall diftrid on  and near  the wharf,
 on  low ground,  to  the leeward of the putrid fubftances before
 mentioned, and near the  creek.
   But there  is one fad that will decide the queftion relative' to
 the origin of the peftilential fever in New Haven, and every
 other place.   It is ftated by the phyficians that all other difeafes
 yielded to this fever.  After  it appeared in June, the fcarlatina
 fubfided,  and "  in  September,  when  the fever was moft preva-
 lent, the  inhabitants in general were almoft entirely free from
 every other complaint."
      See Dr. Monfon's ascount of the fever, in my Collection, p. 178.
  Here we have an infallible criterion  by which to  determin
 whether a difeafe is  an epidemic of the place,  or introduced and
 propagated folely by  infedion.   A  difeafe of mere infedion
 can never extinguifh other difeafes of the place.   The fmall-pox
 introduced by variolous matter, and communicated to  every fam-
ily would not abforb a dyfentery or fcarlet fever  prevailing in the
fame place ;  every  hofpital  will demonftrate this principle.   A
difeafe  of mere infedion  would  not affed another difeafe evea 
                            3to
in the next houfe.  Every difeafe that extinguifh.es another dif-
eafe current in a town, is an epidemic originating in that place.
It not only proves that the atmofphere will produce that diftem-
per, but it proves that it will produce no other.   On this princi-
ple I will  reft  the queftion, as it regards not only the fever .in
New-Haven, but every peftilence that ever exifted.
   The fummer of  1794 was, in  moft places, lefs fickly than in
1793 and  1795; yet the fcarlatina  extended  its ravages over
Connedicut, and Philadelphia and  New-York experienced, the
predominant epidemic conftitution.  In  Philadelphia died from
70 to 100 perfons of the bilious plague  ; in New-York twenty
or thirty cafes of the fame difeafe indicated the fame  condition
of the atmofphere.   It was  the general  opinion  in New-York,
that the city was remarkably healthy ;  but this opinion, fo flat-
tering to the people, was a fallacy.  The bills of mortality were
higher than in healthy years, and this augmented mortality  was
a prelude to the epidemic  of the fucceeding year.
   On the 15th of June was  a great eruption of Vefuvius, nearly
equal to that of 1779.   The lava ran down the mountain on the
weft and extended to the fea, overwhelming the town of Tome
del Greco.
                            See Univerfal Mag. for Aug. 1795-
   In this year the bilious peftilence. prevailed in Baltimore.  No
fuggeftion has been  made that it  was imported,  and the phyfi-
cians and inhabitants feem to admit the difeafe to have been on-
ly a more malignant form of the ordinary autumnal remittent.
   In the fucceeding winter, the epidemic of the fummer and
autumn changed,  in Philadelphia, into  the form of catarrh or
pleurify, and in  many cafes, was auended with delirium  and
mania.   See Rufh  on this fubjed.
   Peftilential epidemics,  or rather the  ftate of the atmofphere
which produces them, ufually affeds the brain, in a moft fenfi-
ble degree.  This is obvious from the vertigo, fo frequent during
fickly periods ; pains in the head, dizzinefs and nervous debility
often complained  of by ftudious  men.   In fome periods,  this
affedion of the  brain has appeared  in epidemic madnefs.   Sec
the years 1355 j  1373 and 4. 
3"
   A few cafes of a  diforder of this fpecies appeared in New-
 Haven and  its vicinity in the winter after the peftilence.  The
 patient was  feized with a violent pain in the head, between the
 Os frontis and the Coronal Sutures,  which was periodical, com-
 mencing about 11  o'clock A.  M. and  increafing till 2 P. M.
 In fome cafes, the paroxifm was  accompanied with delirium ;
 but the pain was limited to the head,  and unattended with fever.
 Bleeding, purging and  opium produced no alleviation; but a
 bKfter on the forehead or temple, foon relieved the patient, and
 effeded a cure.  This account is taken from Dr. Hotchkus, the
 attending phyfician.
   The winter of  1794-5  was  very cold  in Europe, and in
 January  1795, the French  troops  marched  into Amfterdam,
 over the rivers and canals,  on the ice.  This  feverity was to be
 expeded from the  great eruption of Vefuvius in the preceding
 fummer.
   The catarrh was epidemic in January and February, in the
 Britifh channel fleet.  In one fhip it affumed the fymptoms of a
 pure typhus.
                                Trotter's Med.  Naut. p. ,366.
   In America,  the fame winter was milder  than ufual.  Per-
 fons walked on  the  battery  at New-York,  for pleafure,  on
 Chriftmas day, with  no covering but their ordinary autumnal
 clothes ; and veffels failed  up the Hudfon  and Connecticut till
 January.  In  the latter part  of  the  winter, we  had fome cold
 weather, and a cool late fpring.
  About the 20th of July, began a feries of hot, damp, rainy
weather, with light foutherly  winds ; a feafon anfwering to the
defcription which Hippocrates has given of  a peftilential confti-
tution.   Heavy  rains were followed by a humid, clofe, fultry
air;  no thunder and lightning ; no north-wefterly winds to cool
and refrefh the fainting bodies of men.   For many weeks the
 atmofphere was fo  loaded with  vapor, that no eledricity could
 be excited with the beft inftruments.   Fruit perifhed on the trees
 and fell half rotten and  covered with mold.   Sound  potatoes
 from the market perifhed in my cellar in thirty-fix hours.  Cab-
 bages-rotted off, between  the head and the  ftalk, as they ftood 
                           312
in gardens.  The moifture  penetrated  into  the  inmoft  reeef.
fes of defies and bureaus, covering books, papers and clothes
with mold, under two locks.   The walls of houfes,  and the
paper of inner apartments became white with mold and required
fcraping.   This ftate of the air produced alfo mufketoes without
number; v/hile flies  difappeared.   It is obfervable that thefe
two kinds of infeds thrive  in different conditions of the air—
flies in a hot, dry air ; mufketoes,  in a hot,  moift air.
  It is  neceffary here to  corred a miftake of Dr. Currie  on bil-
ious fevers, page 12,  where he mentions the  years 1795  and 7
as " wetter and cooler than  many  preceding  feafons."   The
truth is, thelatter part of thefummer of 1795, was on an average
three degrees by Farenheit,  warmer than the weather had been
in the  ten  preceding  years.   See  a letter from Profeffor  Kemp
in Dr. Bailey on  yellow fever, p.  54.   In  the  courfe of my
life,  I  never experienced a  ftate of air  fo debilitating and un-
friendly to  animal fpirits, as the month of Auguft 1795.  The
effeds of it are very vifible in  the bill of mortality for that year
in Philadelphia, which  contains  double the  ufual  number of
deaths.
  In July of this year appeared the bilious plague in New-York.
The firft cafe that excited public attention was that of Dr. Treat,
the Health Officer of the port, who fell a viaim, on  the 29th
of the  month.  His difeafe has been afcribed by fome perfons,
to infedion taken on board  a veffel from the Weft-Indies,  the
brig Zepher in which  a perfon died, whom  Dr. Treat  affifted
in burying.   But it is not probable, that this was a juft opinion ;
as many other  perfons vifited  the fame  veffel, and the wardens
of the  port  were   on board,  while a part of her cargo, fome
damaged coffee, was thrown into the ftream, without the leaft
inconvenience to  their health.   The plethoric  habit of Dr.
Treat,  and his great fatigue in  an open boat and in a burning fun,
are fufneient to account for his difeafe.
  But admitting him to have taken his difeafe from the fomes of
a fick or dead perfon, or from the foulnefs of the brig, the fad
does not in the leaft aid the advocates  of infeaion,  for no per-
£>n, nurfe,  attendant or vifitor, received the diftemper from him. 
3l3
nor did the difeafe prevail, in the ftreet where he died, during
the fubfequent feafon.
   It was faid that three or  four feamen, belonging to the fhip
William, were feized with the diftemper in confequence of vifit-
ing the  brig Zepher.   But on enquiry,  it was found,  that thefe
men only came along fide of  the brig and purchafed fome fruit.
To fuppofe thefe  men  fhould all  take a difeafe from the brig,
when two or three wardens of the port, who were fome hours on
board, while a damaged  cargo was  difcharged,  efcaped without
the leaft affeaion,  is ridiculous.
   But what cuts fhort all  controverfy  on this  fubjea,  is, that
fourteen days at leaft before the death of  Dr. Treat, a man in the
hofpital died of a fimilar fever ;  and the late Dr. Pitt Smith, in-
formed me in the autumn of 1795, that he vifited another  patient
aUackfmith,  with a fimilar difeafe, early in July.   In fad then,
the difeafe was in New-York before the arrival of the fuppofed
infeded veffels ; and the cafes which occurred early in July, were
precurfors  of the epidemic which was  to follow.
   It muft  alfo be obferved that  the   difeafe in New-York never
fpread over the whole city.   It ran  along the  low ftreets on the
Eaft river, in what was formerly the  fwamp and in  the  narrow
alleys.   The high grounds in the center of the city, and the wef-
 tern fide of  the ifland, were healthy as ufual; and the difeafe,
when carried from the  infedgd  ftreets,  upon the elevated  parts
 of the city, exhibited no contagion,  but difappeared.—A  fmall
 part only of the citizens  fled ; moft of them remained,  and pur-
 fued their  occupations,  in the greateft part of the city, with per-
 fed fafety.  The deaths were about  f.-ven hundred and  thirty ;
 among which at leaft five hundred were foreigners, moft of whom
 had recently  arrived from Scotland and Ireland.*   The mortal-
 ity in New-York was moftly owing to this  influx of foreigners,
 not feafoned to our climate.
    This fever in New-York was  preceded in fpring by  epidemic
 meafles, which difappeared totally during the three months, wheq   ,
    ♦ Four hundred and fixty two belonged  to the  Catholic Congrega-
 tion under the  Rtv.  Mr.  O'Brien, moft of whom had been  to inert
 a time in the country, that he  did  not know them,
                             0.9 
3M
the fever was the ruling difeafe, and re-appeared in November—
a decifive evidence  that the  fever was produced and controlled
by the fame caufe, as the meafles.
   In this year alfo appeared the fame difeafe at a landing, called
Mill-river four miles from Fairfield, in  Connedicut, and about
fixty miles  from New-York—a  fmall  village, near the water.
It was reported  that this diftemper was propagated at Mill-river,
by infeded perfons from New-York.   I have  taken pains to  en-
quire carefully of both the attending  phyficians and the  clergy-
men, who vifited the fick,  who  all  agree, that  one man from
New-York had died of the fever in the village, that fummer, and
he was dead, three weeks before, Mr. Tharp,  the firft man feiz-
ed,  v/as taken ill.
   The difeafe affeded  others of his family,  but fpread no fur-
ther ;  and the gentlemen  abovementioned  do not believe it  to
have been derived from imported infedion.
  The bilious remittent fever, is annually the  difeafe of autumn
in fome parts of  the  fouthern ftates ; and ftrangers, vifiting that
country from the Delaware to Florida, in the hot feafon run
the  hazard  of a fever.  Drs. Taylor and Hansford,  two old
praditioners in Norfolk, Virginia, fpeaking of the yellow fever
Oi 1795,  fay, " The fame fever,  with all its malignant and
uncontrollable fymptoms,   occurs  every  year, in fcattered in-
ftances, and about the fame feafon."
                     See my Collection on Bilious Fevers, p. 151.
  But during peftilential periods,  this difeafe  in that unhealthy
country, takes a wider fpread, and becomes infedious.
  In 1795  this  was the cafe at Norfolk—a town that is fituated
on low flat land, a few feet only above  high-water, and fubjed
to autumnal fevers.   The  difeafe prevailed moft  in  the narrow
ftreets and poor  fmall houfes, and was moft fatal to ftrangers.
  Two remarkable fads occurred there and  are related in  the
account laft  cited, to prove thatthe difeafe was occafioned folely
by a general ftate of the  atmofphere in and  about  the town,
without a dependence on infedion.   The  firft is, that  traders
who vifited the port, altho they were not known to have had in-
tercourfe with the fick,  took  the difeafe  and died on their re-
turn into the country.   But a more remarkable fad is,  that  the 
3*5
 feamen of a fhip from Liverpool, which did not approach near-
 er than five miles diftance from the town,  and which had no
 communication with the fhore,  except  by means  of the health-
 boat, were almoft all attacked with the difeafe, in ten days after
 their arrival.   This was late in  the feafon, and when the difeafe
 had nearly difappeared in town.
    In the year 1794 feveral cafes of the fame difeafe had occur-
 red in Norfolk.   In 1797  the  difeafe was  again frequent.   In
 1795 and 7, the difeafe was fuppofed to  have  been augmented
 by the great  rains and  floods  which had preceded,  and which
 had brought down the river and fpread on the fhores,  large quan-
 tities of vegetable fubftances.
   The extreme unhealthinefs of the fummer of 1795, was  man-
 ifefted by unufual mortality in various other parts of the country.
 On the level plains of Duchefs  county  is New-York ftate, pre-
 vailed a mortal dyfentery and typhus fever.   At Coxfakie on the
 weft of the Hudfon,  raged fimilar difeafes with fatal effeds.   In
 fome weftern parts of the ftate,  near the marfhes which border
 the waters of the country, a malignant bilious fever was more
 terribly fatal, than the fever in New-York.
   In Sheffield, a weftern townfhip of Maffachufetts, near two
 large ponds  which form marfhy grounds,  bilious fevers, which
 had not been known there for many years,  before, prevailed and
 in fome cafes were mortal.
     See Dr. Buel's account of thefe difeafes, in my Collection, p. 53.
   In that town, the progreffivenefs  of the morbid principle  of
 this  peftilential period, was clearly difcoverable.   Many cafes
of intermittents occurred in 1793 ; and a few  inftances of bil-
 ious remittents-   This  was during the plague in Philadelphia.
 In 1794,  early in fpring,  inflammatory difeafes of the pneumo-
nic kind,  were unufually  frequent.  Thefe were fucceeded by
intermittents,  which were more frequent than in the preceding
year.   In July, the bilious remittent appeared, and  80 inhabi-
tants  out  of 150, who lived within a mile and a half of the
fouth pond,  wereaffeded.  In 1795, of 200 inhabitants within
three fourths of a  mile diftant from the north pond,  150 were
affeded with the fame difeafe—but few died. 
3i6
   In 1796, the dyfentery, which  had not  appeared  in many
preceding years, began its attacks on  children, and not long af-
t«r adults were taken either with the fame difeafe or with the bil-
ious" remittent.   Of one hundred families living within a mile
and a half of  one  of  the ponds, not ten efcaped ficknefs—more
than half of the inhabitants were, in the courfe of the feafon,
attacked with one or other of the above mentioned difeafes.   Of
150 perfons who  lived neareft to the pond,  not ten efcaped.
The deaths by thefe difeafes were forty-four.   Here then was a
regular increafe of malignancy in the autumnal difeafis, from in-
termittents, to the worft form of dyfentery and bilious remittent.
                                      Med. Repof. vol. 1. 456.
   In the preceding period, great mortality prevailed among the
geefe in fome parts of our country; and  in the  year  1796, a
fimilar mortality among other fowls.   I have not been able to ob-
tain a particular defcription of the fymptoms,  but it was obferved
the tranfition from  apparent health to death, was very rapid.
   In 1796 the meafles which commenced  in New-York in  1795
Was epidemic in Conneaicut;  and unufually prevalent in London.
   In 1796 alfo the bilious plague again appeared in  New-York,
but in a different quarter of the city from that which was princi-
pally affeaed,  the year preceding.   In 1795, it began and was
moft general in the north-eaftern part—in 1796, in the fouth-
weftern part,  near the battery ; and in  both fummers, its feat
was along the wharves  on  the Eaft river, and in the adjoining
ftreets and alleys.   All this part of the city is a level,  formed by
extending the land and wharves into the Eaft river.  The land is
of courfe loofe and porous, admitting,  in  many  places,  the wa-
ter of the fea into  the cellars of the houfes ;  fome of  which are
penetrated, on every  flux of the tide.  Thefe artificial ftreefs,
Front and Water ftreets, are not eafily wafhed clean, on account
of their level pofition, and they receive the filth wafhed from the
higher grounds of the city.   To thefe ftreets,  and fimilar  ones
in the  fwamp on  the north-eaft, was the malignant diftemper
principally limited.
   In 1796 a new wharf below Exchange flip, which had been
timbered the preceding autumn, and left unfilled, had become a 
3*7
refervoir for all kinds of putrid, filthy  fubftances, and was fup-
pofed to be a powerful caufe of difeafe.
   Befides, the quarter in which the difeafe raged this year, is al-
moft wholly covered with old wooden houfes, and many of them,
built before the railing and paving of the ftreet,  have their lower
floors two or three feet below the furface of the pavements.   In
this diftria  appeared the yellow fever in June ;  but a feries of
rainy weather and cool wefterly winds,  fufpended its  aaion, in
the beginning of July.   Succeeding hot weather renewed it,  and
in the limits above defcribed, extending about forty  or fifty rods,
about feventy perfons fell viaims.   The other parts of the  city
remained in  the ufual autumnal ftate of  health, with only a  few
fcattering cafes of the plague.
  At Wilmington, North Carolina, prevailed a fimilar difeafe.
It was preceded by the dyfentery, in  July, after  a very  wet
fpring.   When  the bilioiars  fever commenced in  Auguft,  the
dyfentery declined, and thofe who had been affeaed with it ef-
caped the fever.   About one hundred and fifty deaths,  by thefe
two forms of difeafe, occurred in 130 families.  Different opin-
ions  were entertained about the origin of the fever ;  but the phy-
fician who gives this account has no doubts of its domeftic origin.
He informs  us further that a few cafes,  in that town, occur annu-
ally, which affume all the fymptoms of a violent yellow fever.
                    Med. Repof. vol. 2.153.  Dr. Roflet's letter.
   In this year, the difeafe ocqafioned a confiderable mortality in
Charlefton,  South-Carolina, and in Newburyport,  in Maffachu-
fetts.  It appeared in Bofton alfo, but was not general nor fevere.
   In Charlefton,  it fucceeded one of the moft deftruaive fires,
ever known in that city ; and was in part afcribed to the ftagnant
water which accumulated in the open cellars.
   In Newburyport,  there was no plaufible  pretext  for afcribing
the difeafe to imported infeaion ; and the general belief was,  that
the immediate exciting caufe,  was,  the remains of  large  quanti-
ties of fifh which had been left to corrupt on the wharf, near which
the  diftemper  originated, and which  occafioned an intolerable
ftench.   But in that town,  a previous increafe of mortality indi-
cated a fickly ftate of the elements;  as  in all other places, where 
3l8
 the peftilence has made its appearance.  In none of^the northern
 ftates, which are ufually healthy, has the bilious plague occurred
 without other difeafes for precurfors.—The difeafe in Newbury-
 port was confined to a low ftreet or two, and when carried  upon
 the high grounds, it exhibited little or no infedion, but difap-
 peared with the death or recovery of the patient.
                         M. S. Letter from Nicholas Pike, Efq.
    In Bofton,  the difeafe fpread only in a  fmall part of the town,
 adjoining the water.   The phyficians were unanimoufly of  opin-
 ion, that it was not occafioned by any fomites  from  infeaed arti-
 cles imported, but generated in the town.
    See Dr. Warren's Letter in the Medical Repofitory, vol. i. p. 136.
   The peftilential ftate of the elements was ftrongly marked, this
 year, by the poornefs of the fhad brought to market in New York.
 Thefe were all thin, lean and fmall ; and for this reafon, I pur-
 chafed none for my own ufe, during the  feafon.  Other perfons
 obferved the faa ; and  I am  fince  informed that fuch of  thofe
 fifh as were pickled, perifhed in defiance of all human care topre-
 ferve them. The fame ftate of the  fhad was obferved in Con-
 neaicut.
   Some cafes of yellow fever occurred in  Philadelphia in 1796 ;
 catarrh was frequent in the winter, followed by meafles of a moft
 inflammatory nature.    A remarkable halo appeared on the 25th'
 of  July.
                                           Rufh, vol. 5.  9.
   It has been  already obferved that the winter of 1795,  was
 remarkably fevere in  Europe.   In America the fame winter was
 as mild as  ufual.  But in the  fummer and autumn of  1796, the
 northern ftates experienced a moft fevere drouth.
   The following winter was very fevere ; the  cold  exceeding
 what is  ufual, and  being  of long  duration.   The  fummer of
 1797 was  cool  and wet.   The winter of 1797-8 was fevere—
 and the cold of very long duration.   It commenced early in No-
 vember and continued till March.  The  Hudfon and Conneai-
 cut were clofed  in  November ; a very rare  occurrence.   For
feveral weeks in November and December, the wind, without
 much fnow on the earth along the Atlantic coaft, was from the
 liorth-weft  and intenfely dry and cold. 
3l9
   In Auguft 1797 appeared a comet, which, according to cal-
culations of aftronomers, paffed near the  earth,  altho it was of
fmall apparent magnitude, and feen by few people.
   The influence of this fpecies of bodies in occafioning great
tides, and  violent ftorms, has been  already  mentioned, and of
that influence, in the prefent inftance, I was a witnefs.  In 1797
my refidence  was, as  it had  been  the preceding year, on a
height of York Ifland near Corker's Hook to the northward of
which is a flat, which is never covered with water by a common
tide,  but is overfpread by  fpring tides, or  any unufual  fwell in
confequence of eafterly winds.  I obferved,  as early as the laft
week in May, high tides were unufually frequent and  the fwell
extraordinary.  In the city  of New-York, the  fame faa was
obfervable; and the inhabitants about  Beekman flip will recol-
Iea how often the wharves and ftreet were covered with water.
Thefe tides were not to be accounted for, on any known prin-
ciples of lunar influence,  and  I frequently mentioned the phe-
nomenon to my friends, but without fufpeaing the caufe.  The
fame phenomenon was noticed  at other places.   In Norfolk, the
epidemic fever was, in part,  afcribed to unufual  tides; as I was
afterwards informed.   On the Delaware,  the overflowing of the
low  lands, below  Philadelphia,  was extraordinary,  and fome
phyficians afcribe to this caufe the yellow  fever, which fwept
away moft of  a family by the name of Whitall.
   I was lately mentioning thefe events to a refpedable  gentleman
in Stamford,* who inftantly recolleaed a  faa which confirms
the foregoing account.   He  remarked that the common praaice
in that town, is to  mow the  fait meadows, at the quadratures of
the moon,  on account of fmall tides ; but in 1797, the calcula-
tions  failed, and the people were much troubled to colled their
hay,  on  account of high tides—a  circumftance that was very
furprifing to him at the time, but he did not  advert to the prob-
able caufe.   This was in Auguft ; about the time that the comet
was firft obferved.   The. faa then  of the  influence  of comets,
in raifing the waters of the ocean, is well eftablifhed ;  and the

   * The Hon.  John Davenport, now reprefentative in Congrefs. 
                           32°
appearance of a comet in  autumn  explained the phenomena of
the tides to my fatisfaaien.
   The  influence  of comets in augmenting tempefts  is equally
certain and remarkable.
   On the  19th of Auguft, a ftorm and  whirlwind in South
Pruffia tore up forefts carried trees  along like fheaves of wheat,
and levelled feveral villages.
   In Rome and Naples happened  a moft extraordinary tempeft
on  the 25th of September, fuch as the oldeft man eould not re-
colka.   It took up men and carried them fome diftance.   The
aftronomers were confulted and they afcribed it to the approxi-
mation of the comet.
   A  ftorm  of hail in the province  of Macconnois, in France,
and on  the borders of Burgundy,  deftroyed the vines and fruits
of the earth in thirty-four villages.   In the appropriations made
afterwards by the councils of France, four millions were granted
to repair the loffes  by hail, inundations and other difafters.
   On the 7th of September, a confiderable fhock of earthquake
was felt in the  Weftern Pyrenees.   On the 28th of the month
was a volcanic eruption in Guadaloupe ; and many earthquakes
Occurred during the autumn,
   In  England, the fummer was fo rainy and  wet, as to injure
the corn and threaten the inhabitants with fcarcity.   It would
require pages to relate all the accidents by floods in Great-Brit-
ain from Auguft to the clofe of the year.
   During the autumnal months, the  Black fea alfo was unufu-
ally tempeftuous, and the  lofs  of fhipping alarmed Conftantino-
ple, with apprehenfions of a fcarcity of provifions.
   In  February, 1797, South-America was  terribly  convulfed.
Quito and the neighboring provinces fuffered,  by the deftruaion
of almoft every houfe.   Mountains  were detached from their
ftations  and relied  againft each other, burying villages in  ruin.
Volcanoes  emitted fire,  lava,  and rivers of water.   It is faid,
that 40,000 inhabitants periflied.
   On the 1 ith of January 1798  a  fhock  of earthquake  was
felt  in  Lancafter,  Pennfylvania, and the neighboring towns,
during which appeared to iffue from the earth a, flame or hlaze^
like the  burning of a chimney, 
                           321
   Ih this month, the . fevere  cold  reached  the Weft-Indies*
and froft  appeared,, for  feveral mornings, on  the  windows  in
Port Royal  Parifh,  in Jamaica.  A  fmall earthquake was felt
there in January.
                               Royal Gazette, Jan. 2% 1798.
   In February 1797 alfo violent earthquakes were experienced
on the weftern coaft of Sumatra, in the Eaft-Indies.
   This year,  1797,  was remarkable for other fingular phenom-
ena in Europe and America.
   In England a peftilence among cats fwept away thofe animals
by thoufands.  It feems that this difeafe began as early as April,
and fucceeded an epidemic catarrh among the human race.  The
fame cat-diftemper was afterwards epidemic  in France.  A fb*
ciety at  Montpelier inftituted  an enquiry into this remarkable
phenomenon.
   The cat-diftemper appeared in Philadelphia, as early as June,
and proceeded northward and eaftward, like the catarrh of 1789.
In Auguft it was very fatal  in New-York,  and in the  courfe  of
the fummer and autumn, it  fpread deftruaion among thofe ani-
mals over the northern ftates.
   In Auguft, dead  fifh, in great numbers,  were  feen to float
down James'  river, in Virginia, for many days in fucceffion.
   Canine madnefs, during the fame year, was unufually epidemic
and attended  with fatal effeas,  of which  full accounts may  be
feen in the firft volume of the Medical Repofitory.
   Thefe phenomena indicate an unhealthy ftate of the elements.
But it is a remarkable faa that,  in  fome places  and feafons, the
principal force of the epidemic conftitution feems to be fpent on
one fpecies of  animals, while others are exempt.   Thus in Eng-
land, the catarrh,  which had affeaed mankind in 1797, ceafed,
before the epidemic feized the cats.   In America, the northern
ftates, with  the exception  of a few  places, were  remarkably
healthy, in 1797, while cats died in  multitudes.  And it is a
frequent occurrence in Europe, that while the plague or fome
other malignant difeafe is affliaing the human race in one  coun<
try ;  in another country, mankind will efcape, and a moft terri-
ble mortality will occur among cattle, horfes or fheep,
                           R x 
322
    In 1797  the  bills of mortality in  the northern ftates, which
 had been  fwelled  very  high by angina and  malignant fevers,
 fell nearly to the ftandard of health.  There are a few exceptions.
    The  plague appeared in  Philadelphia,  Baltimore,  Norfolk
 and Charlefton.    In the two latter cities,  it is confidered, as
 the ufual autumnal fever, with aggravated fymptoms, from  fea-
 fon or other  local or temporary caufes.
    In  Baltimore, the difeafe appeared firft in the  form of a com-
 mon remittent, but increafed in malignancy till  late in autumn
 and became infeaious.   The hiftory of this epidemic is minutely
 ftated by the magiftracy of  Baltimore,  and  is too interefting to
 be paffed with a flight  notice.  The following  is a correa ab-
 ftraa  of the ftatement made and publifhed by  authority.
    The commiflioners ftate to the mayor of the city;
    That the firft appearance of the fever was near the end of June
 in two young men, Parkin and M'Kenna, who occupied a ware-
 houfe  in South-ftreet and who died in a few days.  The  ware-
 houfe  was examined, and was found to contain  nothing  which
 could  be the fpecial caufe of the fever ; nor is it fuggefted that
 they were infeaed from abroad.  No perfon received the difeafe
 from  them.   From this time till the clofe  of Auguft,  Weft
 Baltimore remained in a  ftate of unufual health.
   In Eaft Baltimore  (Fell's Point) a bilious  fever had fhowed
 itfelf early in the feafon, and gradually fpread and grew worfe ;
 but was fuppofed  to be   no  other than the common  ficknefs of
 the feafon.   It therefore excited no alarm, till the  26th Auguft,
 when  a  rumor  prevailed, that the fever was  fomething more
 than common.  The chairman of the board addreffed a letter to
 each of the phyficians in that part of the city, requefting to be
 informed whether any cafe of contagious difeafe had come under
 his obfervation.
   Dr. John Coulter wrote for anfwer  that fince the third week
 in June,  a fever  had prevailed and become epidemic, affeaing
 all defcriptions of people, but moftly thofe  who labored hard,
 in the heat of tfee fun,  intemperate perfons and thofe who expo-
fed themfelves to  night  air  after the  labors of  the day.  The
 difeafe was  violent, and  unlefs fpeedily affailed  with powerful 
3*3
remedies, proved fatal.   It had on that day,  Auguft 26th, be-
come general, and "  affumed to  itfelf the fole government  of
the difeafes," in that part  of the city.   " During the wet
weather, in the laft of July and beginning of Auguft, it yielded,
for near two weeks, to  the dyfentery," which  aftewards  gave
way to a recurrence of the yellow fever.  [The reader is defired
to note that faa.]
   Dr. Coulter calls the fever an epidemic, in contradiftinaion
to  imported contagion,  and fays, " it is in the locality of our
atmofphere, the fource of which I can perceive  in  every ten
fteps I take in our ftreets,  ponds of ftagnant water, and finks of
putrid animal and vegetable matters, exhaling perpetually  under
a hot fun the moft offenfive effluvia."   The conclufion he draws
is, that the difeafe was not individually  Infeaious.   He then men-
tions the uniformity of the fymptoms, and the  correfpondence
of the fever with the difeafes which have prevailed in that city
and in other parts of the  continent for a number  of  years paft.
He enumerates the fymptoms, which  are exaaly the fame, as
obferved in New-Haven, New-York and Philadelphia.
   Doaors  Alexander  and Jaquitt agree in the faas that the
difeafe was not imported nor  fpecifically contagious.
   The board of health then  called a meeting of  the phyficians
in Weft Baltimore, and inquired whether any  contagious fick-
nefs had come under their knowledge.   They anfwered in the
negative.   Three of their number, at the requeft of the meeting,
went to Eaft Baltimore and vifited a number of the fick.   They
reported on the 29th of Auguft, that  the difeafe was not  a ma-
lignant, contagious or yellow  fever, but the bilious  remittent.
Their report quieted the alarms of people.
   On  the 2d of September the commiffioners were alarmed with
the opinion of the phyficians in that  part of  the  city, that the
difeafe  was fomethlng more than common.
   Five members of the board, with Dr. Moores, went to the
point to  examin  for  themfelves.   They found the difeafe had
fpread, chiefly among the poor, who lived in confined dwellings
__a few  perfons were dangeroufly ill; but on the whole,  were
convinced that the difeafe was not contagious. 
3*4
     The next week, the diforder affumed a more threatening afped.
  The  launching  of the frigate on  the 7th of September, col-
  leaed many people together,  who were expofed to a hot fun and
  fatigue,  which fpread the difeafe to Weft Baltimore.   The next
  day the board of health received regular information that there
  was contagion in the difeafe.   A meeting of the faculty was cal-
  led,  and fuitable direaions given to check  and alleviate the ca-
  lamity.
     The whole  number  of interments  in the city and precinds
  from Auguft 1  to  Oaober 29th—Adults  408  ;  children 137.
  Total 545.  Number of inhabitants  at Fell's Point (where the
  difeafe principally raged) who removed during the ficknefs 671.
  Thofe who remained were 2679. ^jTotal 3350.
     This plain and candid narrative of  faas, which is certified by
  the prefidents of both branches of the city  council and by the
  mayor,  Mr. Calhoun, does great honor to the integrity and dil-
  igence of the commiffioners  ;  and  if the laws of nature are to
  be relied on as uniform in  their operation, this report alone will de-
  cide every difputed point relative to the  origin and phenomena of the
  yellow fever.
     It is here  decided by unequivocal  evidence;  evidence that
  precludes  the carping of prejudice and the cafuiftry of intereft,
  that the yellow  fever and the bilious remittent are the fame dif-
■  eafe,  differing only in  degrees of violence  ; and  it is agreed on
  all hands  that the remitting and intermitting fevers are the fame
I difeafe, with a fimilar difference in violence.
     The difeafe began at Baltimore early in the feafon,  in June,
  and  for more than two months, prevailed as a remitting fevei of
  the   common kind, without  infeaion, and it is  agreed  on all
  hands  not to be of imported origin.   During a wet feafon, the
  damp weather eaft  the difeafg upon the inteftines, and it appear-
  ed in the form of a dyfentery—a moft important faa,  which
  proves  what Dr. Lind has afferted, that a dyfentery is a yellow
  or malignant fever feated in the bowels.  The wet weather ceaf-
  ;ng,  the fever refumed its former appearance, and gradually  in-
  Creafed, till it exhibited its worfl forms and became infeaious.
     Had the advocates for the domeftic origin of  this fever con-
   trived and direaed a feries of faas, to prove their  own dodrines, 
32S
 it would not  have been poffible to collea ftronger  evidence in
 their favor, than the report of the board of health in Baltimore.
   In Philadelphia,  the difeafe in 1797 appeared, in a few cafes,
 as early as June—one on the  5th—one on the  9th—one on the
 15th and another on the 22d.   Thefe cafes,  inftead of being
 confidered as proofs of a peftilential air, and precurfors of more
 general ficknefs,  are thrown entirely out of the queftion, by the
 advocates of imported fomites.   The divifion of opinions, which
 originated in 1793, relative to the caufes and origin of that dif-
 eafe, was  revived  with afperity.   One party  among phyficians
 contended that the diftemper was introduced into the city by the
 fhip Arethufa, which  arrived from  Jamaica  and  Havanna, on
 the  23d of July.  Another  party believed  the fources of the
 difeafe to have been, noxious  exhalations from putrid fubftances
 in the city, with an augment from the foul air of the fnow Nav-
 igation from Marfeilles.  The evidence to fupport each of thefe
 opinions,  is publifhed in the proceedings of the College of Phy-
 ficians,  and of the Academy  of Medicin.
   The city of Philadelphia was deferted by a great proportion
 of its inhabitants, and thus the  mortality was  limited to about
 one  thoufand viaims.   It prevailed principally  in the fuburbs.
  This epidemic was followed as ufual  by the influenza.
   By foreign publications, it appears that the catarrh  was  epi-
 demic  in  England in>the four firft months of 1797.  I have no
 particulars of the violence or extent of this diforder ; but if  it
 was  fevere and general, no event is more certain than that  fickly
 feafons will follow.
  What confirms this opinion, is,  that in the following fummer,
 the  plague raged in Conftantinople, on the  Barbary coaft,  and
 in Corfica.   It appears by an- official letter of the French  min-
 ifter Sotin,  that there was a difference of opinion in  regard to
the epidemic in Corfica—fome  calling  it the plague  ;  others,  a
malignant fever.   Thofe who  called it the plague, were prepar-
 ed to account for it, by the  tale of a  Twrkifh veffel wrecked
 upon the ifland,  with difeafed people on board.   But the difeafe
fubfided without  very extenfive ravages.
  This malignant fever however occafioned  no  fmall alarm in
England.   The government fent orders to fhips cruifing in the 
326
 Mediterranean to have no communication with veffels from Cor-
 fica,  and a proclamation was iffued ordering ftria quarantine to
 be performed  by all  veffels from Corfica,  Minorca, Gibraltar
 and Spain within the  Mediterranean.
   In 1797 the bilious plague carried off forty-five  of the  in-
 habitants of Providence.   Of this difeafe,  I have a minute and
 judicious account  from  Mr.  Mofes  Brown, which  is here a-
 bridged.
   In  1791,  the year  when  the difeafe firft appeared in the
 Weft-Indies and New-York, feveral  perfons died of a fimilar
 fever in Providence.   Two women died in one family, near the
 centre of the  town,  after three  days illnefs.  They vomitted
 bilious matter, and were  yellow, with  livid and purple fpots.
 The fecond, being feized two days after the death of the firft,
 might have taken the  difeafe by  infeaion ; but no fufpicion ex-
 ifted that the firft had accefs to any infeaing  caufe.
   On the 14th of Auguft died  another perfon  in   a different
 part of the town, and on  the 21ft of  September, a fourth, with
 fimilar fymptoms.   As no alarm had then been excited  by yel-
 low fever, little notice was taken of thefe cafes ; but the attend-
 ing phyfician,  a  refpeaable charaaer,  who vifited many patients
 in 1797 and was affeaed with the difeafe himfelf,  has  fince pro-
 nounced the difeafe of 1791 and of 1797 to be the fame.
   A  cafe very fimilar to  thefe occurred in  September 1792 ;
and on the weft fide of the river, prevailed a fingular epidemic,
in which perfons became yellow,  with  black urine, coftive  bow-
 els, pains in the right hypochondrium,  without fever.   Some had
petechial fpots, and one perfon, petechia, vibices and hemhor-
age,  yet the difeafe was not mortal, nor malignant.
   In  1793 a  perfon from Philadelphia was  ill and died of the
yellow fever in Providence,  but no other was infeaed.
   In  1794 feveral perfons had the fame difeafe, but they took it
probably in Carolina,  where they had been on a voyage ; the
difeafe did not fpread by infeaion.
   On the 1 ith of July 1795, died Capt. J.  Gifford,  a refpea-
able man, of the fame difeafe.  No infeaion  was fuppofed in
the cafe—he was buried under arms, but no inconvenience was
•xperienced from it, at the time.   Yet two  years after, viz. in 
327
 1797, his family were affeaed with the diforder,  at the time
 when it became epidemic in the  neighborhood.
   Several other  cafes occurred, in the fame year,  and one of
them exhibited infedion.
   Thefe  cafes demonftrate  a peftilential principle exifting in
that town, in every feafon from 1791  to  1795 inclufive;  at the
time when other parts ot  the United  States were more feverely
affliaed.  They  were the diftant  precurfors of a more general
calamity in that town,  which did not arrive till 1797.
   Sporadic cafes of peftilential fever do not render it certain but
probable,  that the difeafe  will, in  a future feafon,  become epi-
demic.   In 1796 cholera infantum and dyfentery were prevalent.
   In 1797 the hydrophobia was prevalent in the ftate of Rhode-
Ifland,  as well as in other ftates.   One T. Lyon  was bitten by
a dog, the wound healed, and he was feized four months after,
and died.   The  peftilence  among  cats prevailed  alfo in Provi-
dence.
   In this  year alfo prevailed at Weftport in the fame ftate,  and
on Nantucket ifland,  a very malignant  epidemic dyfentery.  At
Weftport  died 30 patients of 79  who were feized.   On Nan-
tucket the difeafe was lefs mortal ; about  too died out of 2000
patients.  On examination,  it, was found that under the houfe
of the family  firft feized, there  were fome  barrels of  putrid
fifh, and other naufeous matter.
   It was  fuppofed  alfo,  that the  difeafe might have been aug-
mented  by the effluvia of a large pond, at fome miles diftance,
which  had  become  ftagnant, filled with grafs, and the  fhores
ftrewed  with dead fifh.  A number of men, on  this difcovery,
opened a trench to drain off the water, and let in  the tides, af-
ter which, it was fuppofed, the difeafe affumed a  lefs malignant
afpea.
   The peftilential condition of the air at Providence in  1797,
manifefted itfelf very early in the feafon ;  the firft death occur-
ring as early as May 5th—the next on the 25th  of June—the
third  on the 4th of July—the fourth on the 27th—the fifth on
the 29th,  and the fixth on the firft of  Auguft.   The fymptoms
in all tfiefe cafes,  were the predominant ones of the  true yellow 
328
fever ; and the bodies exhibited more or lefs petechia; and vi-
bices.  Thefe cafes occurred before the  arrival  of the fchooner,
to which popular clamor afterwards  imputed the  whole  evil.
Thefe were the fcattered precurfors, which,  had the fubjed  of
peftilence ever  been  inveftigated, with philofophical  ingenuity
and Chriftian candor, would have rendered the epidemic a prob-
able  event to the  citizens of  Providence, as early as July and
would have taught them to ufe  all human means to avoid or miti-
gate the calamity.
   On the 8th of  Auguft arrived  the  fchooner Betfey,  Capt.
Barton,  from the Mole of Cape  Nicholas, after  24  days paf-
fage.   Her cargo was only a few  hogfheads of coffee.   She lay
at the wharf, till the 20th,  when an increafing alarm from new
cafes of the fever induced the police to order her to be removed
and cleanfed.
   On enquiry,  it  was found that three of the fchooner's people
had been ill in the  Weft-Indies, but no  one died.  One of
thefe only had been ill on the  paffage,  but had recovered  fb as
to do duty, feven days-before her arrival.  There were five per-
fons on board,  during the paffage, none of whom were affeaed
by difeafe from infeaion or other caufe.
   The death of  Mr. Arnold,  the  cuftom-houfe  officer, who
was  faid to have vifited the fchooner, and feveral of his family,
gave rife to the report that the fever began from fomes on  board
of her.   This point will be hereafter difproved.  Certain  it is,
that  another officer of the cuftoms flept on board of the fchoon-
ex feven nights ;  another five, and another young man two nights,
with Brown, the owner of the blankets hereafter to be mention-
ed ;  all of whom  efcaped difeafe of any kind.
   It was alfo faid that  the woman who  wafhed two blankets,
 belonging to a  difeafed feaman,  took the fever and died.  On
inveftigation, this proved to be an idle tale.   The blankets were
owned by one Brown, who had not been fick ; and not  having
any ufe  for them in warm weather, they had  lain  in his cheft.
 On  his  arrival,  they were carried home, fpread out  on  the
 fence to air ; they were then  carried to his  filter's to be  wafhed
 and lay two days before the  work was undertaken.   The  day 
329
 after the wafhing, the women were taken  ill;  which  was two
 early for the operation of infeaion,  unlefs highly concentrated.
 But in fad the blankets  were not infeaed  ; never having been
 ufed  by any difeafed perfon ; and the  mother and others who
 handled them, when firft opened, never had the difeafe.
   But ftronger circumftances  attended  this cafe.   The blanket
 belonging to Rophy, the only fick man, on  the paffage, and his
 other clothes, worn during his fever,  and  colored yellow,  by
 his perfpiration,  were carried  to his  houfe  ; the blanket fpread
 out for  children to play on,  before  it was wafhed ;  afterwards
 waflied  by his wife ;  and no perfon took any difeafe from his
 clothes  or blanket.
   Such are tales of imported  difeafes, raifed by ignorance and
 propagated by intereft, pride or credulity, to  which the bufinefs
 of the merchants and  the  commerce of the country  are  to be
 facrificed !
   Many other reports were fpread about the infeaion from this
 fchooner which, upon  ftria enquiry,  were found to be equally
groundlefs.   Such as the introduaion of the fever into Warren,
 where the veffel flopped, on her way to Providence.   The cafe
 was, one Cole, an  officer of the cuftoms,  fculled a large boat, a
mile or  two, againft the tide,  in a foggy evening  ;  went on
 board,  wet and fatigued ;  without refrefhment  or  change  of
 clothes, flept  in  a cabin with broken  windows, took a fevere
 cold ;  repeated his vifit to the fchooner the next day ; on the
 third day went  to Providence,  a diftance  of ten  miles in the
rain ; tarried two nights without  a change of clothes; returned
on foot,  and was taken ill of a bilious fever and died in about
 feven days.   Yet after  all this fatigue and imprudence in the
 man, enough in  all confluence to kill him, men are found weak
enough to charge his difeafe to the fchooner.
   But it happens,  that other  fimilar  cafes of fever occurred in
Warren, in perfons who had never vifited Cole or the fchooner ;
i^nd one  at  the diftance  of three miles from the  town~  The
 whole tale therefore comes to nothing.
   One  fad more,  and I will quit the fubjea of correaing the
 popular errors on this head.   The men belonging to the fchooner
                             S s 
                           33°
were difmiffed at Providence and returned to their families, with
their fea clothes of courfe.   My informant took pains to enquire
of every family, whether any of them had been infeaed;  and
he found  not one inftance, altho the families confifted of about
forty fouls !—The cafe of the unfortunate family of Mr. Arnold
would afford fome  flight ground to fufpea the  infeaion to be
communicated from the fchooner to him  or his  fon,  the latter
having vifited her ;*  but it happens that Mr. Arnold's wife, who
had not been on board, nor otherwife expofed, was feized fifty-
fix hours before  her fon and more than three days before her huf-
band.   Thus the reports of infeaion from abroad, when  well
fifted, vanifli into fmoke ; and I am perfuaded this would gene-
rally be the refult, if men would be faithful  to themfelves, to
truth and their country.
   On the 12th  of Auguft, the fever took a more rapid fpread,
probably from a fudden alarm  by the burning of two tons of
hemp, by means of a fpark from  a blackfinith's fhop,  as it  was
pafling the door.  This was four days after  the arrival of the
fchooner, and occafioned the popular  clamor  which was raifed
about her infeaion.    But the appearance of the difeafe  long
before her arrival is decifive of the queftion.
   This difeafe had its own atmofphere ;  raging moftly  in a part
of Providence much expofed to the effluvia of great colkaions
of filth in vaults, from a diftillery,  and in other places.  Some
cafes however occurred in other fituations; and  many parts of
the ftate exhibited the peftilential principle, in fporadic cafes, or
local epidemics,  as  at Briftol,  Warren, Greenwich, Indian
Point, Gloucefter, Warwick, &c.
   In Providence, the difeafe affeaed  fifty-fix families—8 before
the arrival of the fchooner, and 48 afterwards.  In 33 of thefe
families, only one perfon in each,  had the fever; and as fome
of the families are large, the infeaing principle  could  not  have
been very powerful.    In the large houfe,  where lived the women
who were firft  taken ill, after  the fchooner arrived,  refided  9

   *  It is not rendered certain that the father had been on board; but
that the fon had,  is not quefliontd ; fo had at leaft one hundred others,
who were not afterward affected with the difeafe. 
331
ramifies,  confifting  of 37 perfons, only 12  of which were af-
feaed.   In the hofpital the nurfes and attendants all efcaped.
   Some inftances of this difeafe appeared in the following  win-
ter ; and there were cafes alfo of the ulcerous  fore throat.  In
the north part of the  town,  fome  cafes of the yellow fever oc-
curred in the laft fummer—1798.
   In 1797 a malignant fever is faid to have been introduced in-
to a village in Chatham, on Conneaicut river, by a veffel  from
the Weft-Indies.   I underftand that it was confined to a clufter
of houfes by  the water ;  but I have not been able to  colka the
faas in detail, altho I  have written letters for the purpofe.
   During the late peftilential period, the ftate of the atmofphere
produced its ufual effeas in winter ; which appeared  in the ex-
traordinary fymptoms of  pleurify and peripneumony.
   It has already been remarked that in periods when  plague and
other mortal  epidemics rage in fummer, the  difeafes of winter
affume new fymptoms.  The pleurify,  at fuch times, has  often
become epidemic and even infeaious.   It is in faa a modification
of the fame peftilential principle,  as that which renders bilious
fevers in  fummer epidemic and infeaious.  The fatal effeas  of
this fpecies of pleurify in Conneaicut,  in the winter  of  1761,
have  been mentioned.
   In the winter of 1795-6,  after the  epidemic in New-York,
feveral cafes of a fimilar kind occurred,  and an able phyfician of
plethoric habit and  ftrong fibres,  fell a vidim to a peripneumony,
with anomalous fymptoms.
   In the following winter,  a fimilar diforder attacked  many
people in Connedicut.  Three men in Hartford, of one family,
two  brothers and a coufin,  all men of robuft  health, were at-
tacked and carried  off in the compafs  of a few  days.  Others
of the fame  family, and feveral perfons of a fimilar habit  were
affeded,  but  recovered.   It was far lefs general than in 1761.
   This fpecies of pleurify appeared in Philadelphia as early as
September  1791, the month when the malignant fever prevailed
in New-York.   A patient of Dr.  Rufh had a  " red  face,  infla-
med eyes, a  perpetual tolling and fighing, ftrong animal powers,
but weak pulfe and fizy blood."   In February  1792 many cafes
of fimilar pleuritic  fevers occurred in  Philadelphia—difeafes af- 
33-
famed the inflammatory diathefis which has  remailully cha'rae-*
terized the epidemic of  the laft peftilential period.
  In  the fpring of the year 1798,  a mortal fever raged in Fred-
ericktown, Maryland, beginning  with laffitude, chills and pain
in the head, and producing, on the third day,  vertigo and fpafm
in the breaft.
         Letter from Dr. Baltzell to Dr. Rufh, dated May 2, 1798.
  In  fummer and autumn of 1797,  a malignant fever,  attended
with dyfentery,  was epidemic in  Portland and  its vicinity, in
the diftrid of Maine.   The dyfentery fubfided in  Odober, but
the fever  continued.   It appeared in  the country,  as well as
town  ; and was ufually conquered by the ufe  of alkaline  reme-
dies.   Many of the patients had a yellow fkin and the predomi-
nant fymptoms of the yellow fever of our cities.   In one inftance,
this difeafe put on  the  form of peftilence.   A merchant,  in a
country village,  where no fufpicion of infedion could be  enter*
tained, was feized, with a malignant fever ; he lingered  till the
36th  day, and  died  highly putrid.  His nurfe was feized and
died ; after death appeared  livid fpots  on the body.   A fervant
alfo took  the difeafe  and died.   The nurfe communicated the
difeafe to  three perfons in the family where fhe lay ill.
  This laft inftance  is  dscifive evidence that the peftilential yel-
low fever not only originates in our country,  but in villages, in
the 44th degree of latitude, a more temperate climate than that
of New-York and Philadelphia.
  In  the  winter fucceeding, the peftilential principle ftill  exhib-
ited its  effeds.  The fever  continued to prevail,  being ufhered
in with naufea, vomiting and  chills fucceeded by heat; but it
was generally accompanied with a fore  throat and fcarlet efflo-
refcence.   It prevailed in almoft every town in the county.
                    Dr. Barker's letter, Med. Rcpof. vol. 2. 147.
  The year  1798 was remarkable  for the  moft  general preva-
lence of the plague of our climate, that has been known ; and
in fome cities,  the difeafe was peculiarly malignant.
   The preceding winter had been unufually long and cold—the
May  following was dry beyond what is recolleded in any former
years—June was remarkable for deluging rains, which occafioned
floods in the Connecticut, Delaware and Sufquehannah  rivers. 
333
 Which did no inconfiderable injury.   Two or three of the firft
 days of July were exceffively hot, and fucceeded by twenty day9
 of very  cool weather—then  commenced a long period of the
 moft fultry weather ever known in  our climate, accompanied,
 in fome places, with great rains.
   Catarrhous fevers were frequent in  the  fpring,  the conftant
 forerunners of autumnal ficknefs.   Bilious  fevers alfo occurred,
 in a few cafes very early, indicating the predominant condition
 of the atmofphere.   In fummer and  autumn, the  grafs-hoppers
 multiplied to  fuch a degree from Pennfylvania to New-England,
 as to  devour vegetables, and effentially injure the  paftures and
 grafs fields.
   The  peftilential  fever in Philadelphia appeared early in the
 feafon—a number of cafes in June, and ftill more  in July.   In
 Auguft early,  the city was alarmed and foon deferted by at leaft
 three fourths of its inhabitants.   The difeafe was unufually mor-
 tal ; and  extended to the  remoteft  parts of the city, where it
 had not formerly prevailed.  Owing  to this  circumftance, fome
 families fuffered, which had efcaped in former years.   The num-
 ber of deaths amounted to about 3440.   The difeafe, as ufual,
 abated with  the  appearance of froft;  but  individuals were at-
 tacked  with  it, and carried off, in the  midft of the following
 winter.
   It is alledged by fome perfons that the fever was introduced
 Into Philadelphia by the fhip Deborah,  which arrived from Jer-
 emie, and anchored  near  Race-ftreet  wharf,  on  the 18th of
July.   It is admitted that perfons who went  on  board, foon af-
ter fickened and died ;  and fo did others ficken and  die, without
going near that fhip.  The truth is,  many  cafes of the difeafe
had occurred three  or four weeks,  before her arrival.   The fhip
had loft people by fever  on her  paffage  and might be  infeded;
and perfons vifiting her might receive that  infedion ;  but thefe
fads do not reach the point.   The epidemic began  in all parts
of the city, in fcattering cafes, previous to the arrival of this fo-
mes,  and had  the fhip never arrived,  that epidemic  would have
ravaged  the city.   This is evident from the number of its pre-
curfors.
   This peftilential  fever carried off fifty-feven perfons  in  the 
334
village of Marcus  Hook, where the firft petfons feized were a
fhallop-man and others from Philadelphia.   But many cafes oc-
curred which could be traced to no infedion.   See Dr. Sayre's
letter ia Currie's Memoirs, p. 136.  In Chefter died  50 of the
fame fever.
  At Wilmington, in the ftate of Delaware, thirty miles from
Philadelphia, the fame difeafe raged with more than its ordinary
mortality.   Its vidims amounted to 250.   It appears that the
difeafe was  introduced by the  fugitives from Philadelphia, and
by watermen who ply between Wilmington and Philadelphia.
          See Dr. Tilton's letter in Dr. Currie's Memoirs, p. 138.
  The fever alfo prevailed in New-Caftle and at  Duck creek
in the fame ftate.
   Letters from refpedable phyficians, in the public prints, have
informed us that this difeafe prevailed alfo in fome paits of New-
Jerfey, as at Bridgetown and Woodbury ;  and efpecially near
the meadows on the borders of the Delaware.   From careful
examination, it was  found that the difeafe muft have originated
where it exifted ; no into courfe having been held with  infeded
places.   In fome inftances the  fever was probably infedious.
   At Norwalk in  Councdicut feveral perfons died of the fame
diftemper.   The phyficians are doubtful as to its origin ; as fome
cafes may be traced to a difeafed perfon  who had been in New-
York.  Three cafes  however occurred at  fome  miles diftance
from the heart of the town, in perfons who  had not been in the
leaft expofed to infedion.
                                  M. S. letter from Dr. Betts.
   In the firft week of Auguft, appeared a bilious fever in New-
York, between Old flip and Coemies flip, in the ftreet next to
the water ;  a place remarked  for great accumulations of filthy
fubftances.   By the exertions of the Health Commiffioners, in
covering thefe  nuifances with  frefh earth,  this alarming fever
fubfided in that  neighborhood, and difappeared by the 26th of
that  month.
   But on the 12th,  the peftilential  fever appeared in  other parts
of the city,  and  about the 20th, began to extend and affume a
more  formidable  afped.  The diftrid of the city, fubjeded to
its moft deadly effeds, was that fedion comprehended  between 
                             335
John-ftreet  and Beekman-ftreet, particularly in  Cliff-ftreet  and
its. neighborhood.  The  probable  caufe of this effed, was the
fetid air  from large quantities of fpoiled beef, ftored in the cel-
lars in Pearl-ftreet, on the windward fide of this fedion.   The
cellars were filled  with water  by  heavy  rains,  or were  other-
wife damp;  which circumftance,  added to  the extreme heat  of
the feafon,  occafioned a greater  lofs of falted provifions,  than
perhaps was ever before known.  To augment the effed, large
quantities, of pickle had  been  difcharged, in the  procefs of re-
packing beef not yet  fpoiled,  but  in a  bad ftate, which pickle
had been carried by the gutters  into a fewer in Burling flip, from
which iffued a very offenfive  fmell.*
   About the laft of Auguft,  the inhabitants of New-York were
greatly alarmed; fome removed from the eaft to the weft fide of
Broadway,  a part of  the city which has hitherto been exempted
from the violent effeds of the yellow  fever ; but a great  pro-
portion of the people deferted the city.    The difeafe was more
malignant,  than in its  preceding  vifits,  and exhibited more fre-
quently the bubo and carbuncle.   It extended over two thirds
of the city,  and numbered with the  dead about two thoufand of
its inhabitants.   I am  informed the difeafe  was lefs generally
charaderized with the inflammatory diathefis, and that venefec-
tion was lefs generally attended with falutary effeds, than in for-
mer years.
   This difeafe exhibited  little infedion, beyond the  limits  of
its own amofphere.   In the hofpital, at a little diftance from the
  * There is reafon to  believe, that fait, if not fufficient to prefervc
the article to which it is applied, renders it  doubly noxious in a ftate of
putrefaction ; and that a fmall quantity of  fait will accelerate the pro-
cefs of putrefaction.  From an experiment related to me by Mr. Mofes
Brown of  Providence,  it is proved that a piece of flefh, in pure water,
will not putrefy as foon as in water, in which a few grains of fait have
been diflblved.
  Do not the faline particles of the air, on the fea coaft,  render the
putrefaction of flefli and vegetables  more rapid, and the exhalations
more deleterious, than perfectly  frefh water  ? And is not this one caufe,
why peftilential difeafes appear  firft, and are moft general, in mari-
time places ?
  Dr. Coglwell informs me that a boat-man on Connecticut river, in
the hot weather of 1798, contracted a violent fever of which he died,
by.fleeping in an open boat, near a quantity of pickle which had leaked
out of a  barrel of falted provifions.  The  difeafe was of a very ma-
lignant kind. 
33$
 city, were  admitted about 300 patients, ill with that difeafe ,
 yet fixteen nurfes, feven  wafherwomen, and  the boatmen whq
 conveyed the fick from the city to the hofpital,  all efcaped.  Dr,
 Douglafs, the  attending  phyfician, efcaped the  difeafe,  until
 Odober,  when he vifited his friends and flept  in the city, three
 days after which he  was feized with the fever.
       Sec Letters from the Health-Office, by Dr. Bailey, whofe real,
        talents and induftry, in his employment,  have rarely been
        equalled.
   The laft fad is very important towards correding the popular
 errors refpeding  the contagion of this  fever.   In the  city per-
 fons took the fever—in the hofpital  they did not.   That  is,  the
 diftemper has an atmofphere,  in which it is readily contraded—■
 beyond that atmofphere,  it is not infedious.   In other words, it
 is a condition  of the atmofphere, and  not the effluvia from  the fick,
 which is to be  dreaded.
   Thus, in 1797, the fugitives and fick from  Philadelphia  did
 not fpread the fever in Wilmington—in 1798, they did.   That
 is,  in  1797  the atmofphere of Wilmington  would not generate
 and nurfe the difeafe—in 1798, it would.
   In Bofton, the difeafe began  near  the  town dock and the
 neighboring wharves, in the month of June ; but its moft vio-
 lent effeds were experienced on  the fouth fide of Fort-Hill, an
elevated part of the  town and expofed  to  free air.   This cir-
cumftance has occafioned no fmall furprife ; but as the fever of
 1796 began in that part of the town, perhaps we may  find the
caufe in the very extenfive flat, between Bofton and Dorchefter
point,  which is uncovered at low water ; perhaps  in the expo-
fure of that hill to the dired rays of the fun ; perhaps in the na-
ture of the foil which is clay of a folid texture,  and fitted to re-
tain on its furface whatever impure fubftances   are thrown from
 houfes.
   The fever afterwards invaded the north part of the town, and
a ftreet near the pond ; fuppofed to be excited by noxious exha-
lations.  Some parts of the town, which are low and filthy, ef-
 caped the fever.
   At firft it attacked the moft robuft young men,  and thediath-
efis was highly  inflammatory.  Later in  the feafon, it attacked 
337
 perfons of all ages and habits.   At firft it was  not infediouij
 but in the later ftages of its progrefs, it exhibited infedion.   It
 difappeared with the  arrival of froft,  after carrying off nearly
 200 patients.
                                   M. S.  letter from Dr. Eliot.
   See a full account of the difeafe in  a letter from Dr. Rand,
 publifhed by order of the Academy of Arts and Sciences. This
 gentleman obferves that no  infedion  appeared, except in places
 where the difeafe was originally  contraded.*
                         MalTachufetts Mercury,  Feb, 8,  1799.
   The fame malady appeared in Portfmouth, New-Hampfhire,
 with equal mortality, as far as it extended; but its progrefs was
 limited to one ftreet near the water.
   New-London, in Connedicut,  is  fituated  in  a very healthy
 part of the  country, on a harbor, whofe fhores as  well  as the
 furrounding lands, are dry and rocky—its population about 300Q
 inhabitants.
   In the laft week  in Auguft 1798, this town was fuddenly in-
 vaded by the plague of our country,  which began in the  family
 of Mr.  Bingham,  keeper of the Union coffee-houfe.   No vef-
 fels from the Weft-Indies, no fick from other places, occur, in
 this inftance, to help out popular  credulity.   The idea of in>
 portation is abandoned by the citizens of the town.  The fever
 was very fatal within  its  atmofphere,  which  was  confined to
 Bank ftreet  and its vicinity ;  a part of the  city well built,  clean
 and airy as  any ftreet in the town.  Within a  fmall fpace, were
 fifteen houfes, inhabited by ninety-two perfons—of which ninety
 were affeded with the difeafe; thirty-three of  this number died,
 and two only  efcaped   the fever.  The difeafe prevailed about
 eight weeks and deftroyed eighty-one lives.
                    Printed account of the fever by Charles Holt.
   On enquiry  I find that this difeafe in New-London had its
 precurfors, in fporadic cafes of the fame fever, in the three  pre-
 ceding fummers.   In  1795, died Dr. Jofeph W. Lee with all
 the fymptoms of the yellow fever.  Some inftances occurred in
   * That is, infection was attached  to  the place,  rather than to the
pjrfem of the difeafed—a fact which is true of every peftilence.
                            T  t 
33$
179°" 5 and in 1797 died of the fame, Matthew Giifwold, Efq.
and foon after his mother; indicating the communication of in-
fedion.   Yet  in thefe years, it did not fpread and become epi-
demic.  The peftilential period however was progrefling in that
town, as appears by the bills  of mortality; for the ordinary
number of  deaths does not  exceed  60 in a healthy year ;  but in
1795, the number amounted to 86—in 1796, to 80—-in  1797,
to 101—in 1798, to 133.   Here we obferve a great augmenta-
tion in the  mortality of the town, feveral years before the  crifis
of peftilence, and efpecially in the year next preceding it.   The
importance of this fad  towards  a right underftanding of the
caufes of epidemic peftilence, cannot be miftaken.
   Confiderable quantities of falted fifh, which lay in certain flares
in New-London,  and which had not been  well cured with the
afual quantity of fait,  became fetid and  offenfive, altho not pu-
trid, and affumed a red eaft with a flimy feeling—it alfo loft its
texture and firmnefs.   This was opened and fpread in the ftreets
for the purpofe of being dried ; and  from  its  offenfivenefs and
vicinity to the place where the difeafe firft appeared,  it is fuppo-
fed to have  been an exciting caufe  of the fever.  This opinion
has doubtlefs fome foundation ; but putrid  fifh  will not always
occafion difeafe.   It is probably true that the bad ftate of the
fifh Avas partly owing to a previous bad ftate of the air; altho it
afterwards became a caufe of a worfe flate of the  air.
  What feems to put this beyond doubt, is, the unufual number
of mufketoes,  in the adjacent  country, and the multitudes of
flies of uncommon fize, exceeding what had been before obfer-
ved.  With thefe phenomena before our eyes, we can  be at no
lofs to account for the  peftilential fever of New-London.
   The ufual lake and river fever prevailed  in the fame feafon,
in  many of the interior parts of the country ; as at  Royalton in
Vermont,  on the Grand Ifles in Lake Champlain, at New-Mil-
ford in Connedicut, and in various parts of the  ftate of New-
York ; in which places,  it  was attended with confiderable mor-
tality.  Sporadic cafes occurred in all parts,  and in the healthieft
fituations, of the  country.   In many places, intermittents and
dyfentery were unufually violent and obftinate, 
339
   I have no account of the temperature of the weather in any
 part of Europe, during the fummer of 1798 ; except that in
 fome parts of Sweden, the firft months of the fummer were ex-
 ceffively dry,  as the month of May was in America,
   A peftilential fever appeared in Italy in June; but I have no
 details of it3 progrefs.  It is however to be obferved  that  this
 fever was preceded by a violent earthquake  in fome part of the
 Tufcan  territories, in the month of May, which did no fmall
 injury.
   In autumn broke out a peftilential fever on the Baltic, in Dant-'
 zick or its vicinity.  The  government of Denmark, in confe-
 quence of official information  of the prevalence of this difeafe,
 direded all fhips from Dantzick and the neighboring ports to be
 watched with vigilance, and appointed a committee of quarantine.
   According to the report  of a mafter of a veffel, there was an
 eruption in Teneriffe in the fummer of 1798,  which lafted fev-
 eral weeks.  This volcano had been quiet for 94 years.
   In November and December, the peftilence in America was
 fucceeded as ufual by influenza, which was very prevalent in all
 parts of the country, and in  the fouthern ftates attended with
 fome mortality.  This was merely a change of the form  of the
 epidemic.
   The winter of 1798-9 was very long and fevere in both hem-
 ifpheres.  In  the United States, it began about the middle of
 November, with fnow,  and a heavy fall of fnow on the  18th
 and  19th was followed by fevere cold  that lafted till the fecond
 week in January.   From this  time, there was  a relaxation of
cold for about three weeks,  and the ice in Connedicut river gave
 way.   But in February  oommenced fevere cold, which contin-
 ued', for the moft part to the vernal equinox.  April  was alfo
cold; fevere frofts occurred often, and checked vegetation.   On
 the 2d and 8th of May were confiderable faUs of fnow,  followed
 by froft.  On the morning of the 4th and  5th, we had ice at
 New-Haven as thick as window-glafs.   Peaches bloffomed about
 the middle of May, and apples were not in  full bloom, till the
 22d.  This long duration of cold exhaufted all the barns of hay
 and  other fodder,  and multitudes of cattle perifhed in various
 parts of the country. 
                            54<*

   In Europe, the winter  was  equally  fevere.   The  rivers iri
England,  Germany, Holland and France were  covered with
folid ice, and at the breaking up of winter,  the Rhine rofe and
burft  its barriers,  inundating  many parts of Holland with terri-
ble deftrudion.   The feverity of the winter was felt even in the
fouth of Italy, and  the French and Neapolitan troops  fuffered
greatly from fnow on the  Appenine,  in the vicinity of Naples.
In  Siberia, we are informed by the public prints, perifhed whole
villages of men and  cattle by the feverity of the froft.
   In America, the difeafes of  the winter were  charaderized by
the predominant diathefis of  the reigning  epidemic  conftitution,
a yellow fkin and bilious difcharges.   An earthquake of confid-
erable extent was felt  in  the Carolinas on the 12th  of April-
What will be the ftate of  health in the enfuing fummer,  muft be
left to be determined by the event.   The prefent peftilence has
been  long and fevere and the citizens  look with impatience, for
the ufual falubrious ftate of their atmofphere.
   In Auguft, about the time the peftilence began to fhow itfelf
in New-York, immenfe numbers of flies died fuddenly, and oc-
cafioned no fmall fpeculation and alarm.  Some were found on
the floors  ; others adhering to  the ceilings of rooms,  and what
is fingular, their bodies became white.   A peftilential air ufually
generates flies in   unufual numbers; but on this occafion, fome
fudden change  in the  elements,  deftroyed  their lives.   How
Kttle do we know of the powers of the elements, and the nature
of the alterations in  them  which produce fuch aftonifhing effeds.
Will  imported infedion account for fuch phenomena ?
  This is the beft ftatement  of facts I have  been able to make
from  fixteen months  inveftigation.   It is not  improbable that
fome  miftakes have occurred, which more time  and more ample
materials,  would  enable me to  corred.   But  I truft  that  the
fubftance of the ftatements is accurate, and that  no error of con-
fequence will be found to refult from them, to impeach the gen-
eral principles fuggefted in this  work. 
34*
                    POSTSCRIPT.

 Additional fa fis, colkaed on a journey which I made through the
      Northern States, while this volume was in the prefs,


 JLNthe autumn of 1732 raged in  New-York a malignant, in-
 fedious fever, of which died feventy perfons in a few weeks.
                                   M. S. of Mr. Alexander.
   In 1745 a malignant bilious fever prevailed  in New-York, of
 which died an eminent phyfician of the city, Dr.  Nicoll.  By
 the defcription of the difeafe, given to me by a gentleman who
 Was affeded with it, there appears to be no queftion that it Was
 the Tame difeafe now called yellow fever.
   About this time, for the year is not exadly known, a malig-
 nant epidemic difeafe laid wafte the Indian  tribes.   By the de-
 fcription of  the  fymptoms, as given  by Indian traders, then
 among the tribes,  and ftill living, it is certain this was the infec-
 tious yellow fever.   In confequence of this  diftemper,  the Sene-
 cas removed their quarters two or three times,  in a few years—it
 being a pradice among the natives  to abandon the plSce infeded
 with this plague.   The difeafe was confined to  the Indians—the
 white people, living and trading with them, not being affeded.
   In  1746 the  Mohegau tribe  of Indians,  between New-Lon-
don and Norwich, was wafted by the fame malady.   Dr. Tracy
of Norwich now deceafed,  was the only white man affeded—he
attended them as their phyfician.  From Mr. Philemon  Tracy,
a Ton  of the dodor, who has taken the trouble to examin a Mo-
hcgan prieft, a man of good fenfe and integrity,  who was him-
felf affeded by the diforder, I  have  the  following account of
 this peftilence.—That it appeared in Auguft and  prevailed till
 cold weather—that about one  hundred of the tribe perifhed—.
that it was the year after the redudion of Cape Breton (of Courfe 
                           34*
In 1746—and Dr. Tracy's books confirm  the  dates mentioned
by the Indian)—that the  patient  firft  complained of a fevere
pain in the head and  back, which was  followed by fever—in
three  or four days, the fkin turned as yellow as gold, a vomiting
of black matter took place and generally a bleeding at the nofe
and mouth,  which continued, till the patient died.   Thefe  are
the words of the old Indian,  as penned  at the time by my in-
formant.
   It will be remarked that this was a local peftilence, the fever
being confined to  a fingle tribe of Indians and not prevailing in
the neighboriBg towns.  But  it will be remarked alfo that this
Was the fame year, it prevailed in  Albany, when the bills of
mortality were generally high.
   I have afcertained that the canker-worm, which lately ravaged
the fruit trees  in  New-England, appeared as early  as 1788 or
1789.
   A  fatal malignant difeafe raged among the tribes of the Mo-
hawk Indians,  about the year 1776,  and reduced fome of them
to a few men.
   From Dr.  Wheeler of Redhook, on  the Hudfon,  I learn
that the angina fcarlatina  appeared there in January 1789 and
prevailed till April—it prevailed alfo in  the two fucceeding win-
ters.
   The influenza,  in  that year,  firft appeared there  about the
middle of Odober, and prevailed two months, among all ages
and both  fexes.   Catarrhal coughs have  been prevalent every
year,  fince that time.  In thelpring of  1793,  angina fcarlatina,
mumps and catarrhal coughs prevaiW.till June, and difappeared.
Soon after commenced  the remitting fever.   In fome cafes the
paroxyfms invaded the patient in the form of madnefs.
   The reader will note that in our  interior country, the remit-
ting fever of that diftinguiftied year,  1793, had  nearly the fame
fpring precurfors,  as the yellow fever in  Philadelphia.
   The meafles at  Redhook in 1795, partook of the  charader
of the preceding  epidemic fevers ; beginning  with a highly in-
flammatory diathefis,  and fometimes  ending in typhus, with pe-
techia,  vibices and hemorrhagy.  Pleurifies had the fame char-
ader. 
                           343
   At Brattlcborough, on the Connedicut,  a family by the name
of Morgan were feized in 1791  with a fever of the typhus kind,
and "fix of them died.   Several perfons  who  vifited the family
took the  difeafe  and died, and there its progrefs ended.  The
family refides in a healthy fituation,  near a fmall adive ftream of
water ; and  no  vifible caufe could be afligned  for the origin of
this diftemper.   Thefe fads are taken from Dr.  Hall of that
town.  It will be remembered that this was the year when au-
tumnal difeafes firft put on the malignant afped of  our late pefti-
lence,  when the plague broke out in Egypt and the yellow fever
in the  Weft-Indies began to affume what Dr. Chifholm calls
unufual fymptoms.
   Dr. Center of Newport informs me that in 1798 occurred in
that place many  cafes of a bilious fever bearing fome refemblance
to the  infedious fever ;  and one cafe of decided carbuncular and
glandular plague, in a man of robuft conftitution.  There is no
pretence  of foreign origin, in any of thofe cafes.
   From  fundry  gentlemen  living in Chelfea, a village  at the
landing in Norwich,  I learn that two or three cafes of malig-
nant bilious fever occurred there in 1798, marked with the ufual
fymptoms of the infedious  fever.  Some  of thefe cafes could
not poffibly have been derived  from infedion.   One of the pa-
tients might have contraded his difeafe at New-London.
   Dr. Holyoke of Salem,  in Maffachufetts,  informs  me  that
in 1798,  many cafes of malignant bilious fever occurred in that
town,  which could not have been derived from infection.
   From  Dr.  Woodruff and  Dr. M'CteHan of Albany,  I learn
that feveral cafes of malignant bilious fever  appeared in that city,
in 1798,  marked with all the fymptoms of the peftilence of our
cities and which muft have originated in that place. About one
half who were  feized,  died.
   The firft cafe of influenza at Albany in 1789 is noted by Dr.
MClellan to have occurred  on the 30th of September.  This
was  precifely the time of its  appearance  at  Philadelphia,
and a  little after its firft appearance at New-York.  In the coun-
try, between New-York and Albany,  it did  not  appear  till  a
week or  two later.   Thefe fads prove that this difeafe falls on
diftant places at the fame time, 
344
  The fcarlatina anginofa appeared at Albany in the winter and
fpring of 1793, about the time it did in New-York and Phila-
delphia.
  In every part of our country,  one remark has been made by
phyficians,  that from the year 1792 or 3,  intermittents and re*
mittents have become more numerous and obftinate,  and attend-
ed with unufual fymptoms.   In many places, thefe difeafes have
been multiplied in a ten-fold ratio ;  elucidating the  principles of
the great Sydenham,  relative to " Conftitutions of Air," and
demonftrating the  exiftence of a general caufe in the infenfible
properties of the atmofphere, to which we may and muft afcribe
the peftilence of our maritime towns.
  In  1798 multitudes of dead pike were obferved to float down
the Mohawk and Hudfon.
   From Dr. Thatcher I learn that for fome years paft, an au-
tumnal fever has prevailed in Plymouth, in Maffachufetts, of the
remitting kind, with low typhus fymptoms.   In winter it take?
the type of the nervous fever.   It was very prevalent in 1798 in
that and a neighboring town.
   From Dr. Smith of Hanover, in New-Hampfhire, and Drs.
Green  and Trafk of Windfor, in Vermont, I have obtained
information  refpeding a  very infedious fever which prevailed in
thofe towns  and the vicinity in 1798.   This difeafe  is defcribed
by Dr.  Spalding  in the Medical Repofitory, -vol. 3. p. 5.   It
approaches  nearly to  the typhus mitior of  Cullen, but the  fiery
red eye at the invafion feems to indicate  its alliance to the in-?
fedious fever of our ckics ;  and it refembles the difeafe known
by  the popular name of long fever.
   This fever, in Windfor and  Hanover,  was preceded by dyk
entery of uncommon malignancy in 1797, which,  in Windfor,
was attended with an unufual inflammation of the  lungs.  Tlia
difeafe which preceded thefe epidemics was the fcarlatiRa angino-
fa,  which was very prevalent in  1796.
   It is worthy of notice that in all  parts of our country, the au-
tumnal infedious fevers  have had precurfors in other epidemics,
efpecially catarrhal complaints and  anginas.  I do not find an ex-,
caption to this remark, 
345
   This fever at Windfor deferves further to be noticed for its in-
fedious or contagious quality.  It was fir lefs fatal, but mere in-
fedious than the yellow  fever of our cities.  Nurfes often took
the difeafe,  and when they returned to  their dwellings in diftant
towns,  rarely failed to  communicate  it  to  the  whole family.
This is a phenomenon  rarely,  perhaps  never exhibited by  the
peftilence of our maritime towns, which has an atmofphere of its
own out of  which it is not communicated.
   I have  examined perfonally  the pofitions of many of the
towns where this fc-ver  and dyfentery have  been moft  prevalent,
and I find no where any marfh that can rationally be fuppofed to
originate thefe diftempers.   In general the towns are fituated on
a bafis  of clay, between high ridges  of  land  or mountains,
where the heat of the  fun  is greatly concentrated, and on the
margin of rivers.   To  this defcription,  there are fome exceptions
as to the foil; fome towns being on fand or gravel.   The neigh-
borhood of  frefh ftreams of water cannot be admitted as a caufe,
of thefe fevers—nothing being more falubrious than fuch ftreams.
But I am perfuaded from careful obfervation, that,  under a pef-
tilential conftitution of air,  great heat is the immediate exciting
caufe of autumnal fevers, in fituations not expofed to marfh effluvia.
  With refped  to the  origin of  the peftilential fever in Portf-
mouth,  in 1798, the fads are as follow.
  A laboring man, who was given to liquor,  received his wages
on Saturday evening.   He was feized with the malignant  fever,
^nd died on the next Wednefday.   While he  lay ill, a  veffel
;.rrived  which had loft a man or two by the fever on her voyage,
but no perfon was ill on board, at the time of her arrival.   Some
cf the  perfons who  afterwards  died of the fever,  had been on
board of that veffel ; but whether  they took the difeafe from in-
fedion or not, cannot be known.  The firft cafe occurred before
the arrival.  This is an agreed point.  I  have thefe fads from two
of the  principal gentlemen of that town, one of them a refpeda-
ble phyfician; the other, the perfon  who paid the wages to the man
who firft died.  All my enquiries have been made at the fources
of  corred information ;  and I find every where popular reports
are falfe or  incorred.  Yet popular reports are received as truth
by many phyficians and writers,  and are made the bafis of falfe
and pernicious theories, both in  America and Europe^
                           U  u 
                                 34&
        The fever in Portfmcuth was limited  in  its progrefs  to the
     northern part of  the town.   In the fouthern part, at the fame
 /   time, prevailed a malignant dyfentery,  which was as mortal as the
>/    fever in the northern part.   The line of divifion  was drawn by
     a wide ftreet or fquare on which ftands the court-houfe.  The fcar-
     let fever had been prevalent in the town for two years preceding.
        In 1799,  the  prefent fummer, many  perfons have taken the
     peftilential fever from veffels arrived from the Weft-Indies ; but
     in moft,  or all cafes, the fever has become extind,  without any
     confiderable mortality.    In Bofton, the mortality was limited to
     two or tkree perfons.
        The cafe at Newburyport was fingular.   A veffel went and
     returned from the Weft-Indies, without a cafe of malignant
     fever ; but as fhe arrived at the mouth of the river  Merrimack,
     18 days  from St. Thomas's,  a boy was feized with the fever,
     and afterwards one or  two others.   Several  perfons took the
     difeafe and died ; but people left the vicinity, and the diforder be-
     came extind.  This was a fever generated on board of the veffel.
        The beginning  of the fummer of  1799,  tho late, was favor-
     able to vegetation,  and the  firft crops were  good.  Wheat,
     which had been blafted,  for feveral preceding years, in the eaft-
     ern ftates,  was excellent.
        But in  July commenced a moft diftreffing drouth, in all the
     northern ftates ;  and particularly in  the middle  ftates, and the
     interior country;  by which the maize, buck-wheat  and potatoes
     Were greatly injured.   In fome parts of the ftate  of New-York,
     the maize was totally deftroyed.
        Over the  eaftern ftates, a fpecies of  caterpillar  of fmall fize
     appeared in unparalleled numbers, covering the  wild cherry-tree,
     the apple,  the willow, the afh, and the hickory.  In fome parts,
     a large caterpillar, with  variegated colors, ftripped the black oak
     of all its leaves.   Grafs-hoppers  were as numerous as the blades
     of grafs, and in fome places,  injured greatly the  grafs and  other
     vegetables.   But  efpecially to be noted were the fmall toads of
     the color defcribed by Fernelius,  " Coloris cineritii" like afhes ;
     of the  fize  of a filbert, and  in numbers not  to be eftimated.
     Thefe were numerous alfo in 1798.   They anfwer the defcrip-
     tion of thofe which medical writers of former  ages obferved to
     be the forerunners and companions of peftilence.  At what time 
                            347
 they appeared and difappeared,  is not exadly known—they were
 moft generally obferved in July.
   In the fpring prevailed influenza or catarrhal fevers; in fome
 places cynanche maligna ; and generally  rheumatic complaints,
 and flight ulcerations of the throat.  In many places,  the fevers
 of winter were charaderized with a  yellow fkin and  bilious dif-
 charges.  All thefe  marked the  continuance  of a peftilential
 atmofphei e.
   The plague fhowed itfelf early, in fcattered cafes, in Phila-
 delphia ; but difappeared, to the unfpeakable joy of the inhabit-
 ants.  Alas ! When fuch cafes appear in July,  and efpecially if
 other difeafes in winter and fpring  manifeft fymptoms of the pre-
 vailing epidemic, it is hardly poffible that our cities fhould efcape
 a peftilential  fever in autumn.   This terrible fcourge renewed its
 ravages in Philadelphia and New-York ; and in various parts of
 our  country,  bilious fevers appeared with malignant fymptoms.
   At  Hartford, on the Connedicut, appeared  the malignant
 fever in  Auguft, to the furprife  of  the inhabitants and  of the
 ftate.   People who have no juft ideas of the nature and origin
 of this difeafe, attempted to find the caufe in fome veffel from
 the  Weft-Indies ; but  being difappointed^  reforted to a fmall
 coafting veffel.  On examination it appears, that  this veffel was
 ufed as  a market boat between Connedicut river and New-York
 i—the  mafter had died in June, but  of  what difeafe, I am not
 able to learn.  Another mafter took poffeflion of  her, and find-
 ing her  very  dirty,  with the remains of various  vegetables, he
 overhauled her and gave her a thorough cleanfing.   He took in
 at New-York a cargo of fait, and failed to New-Haven,  where
 the  veffel Jay fome time, about the middle of July.  Here the
 fait  was purchafed  by a merchant of Hartford,  and the veffel
 ordered round to that  place, where  flie arrived and difcharged
 her  cargo, in the beginning of Auguft.   From the time the vef-
 fel left New-York, to the time of difcharging the fait, muft have
 been from four to fix weeks.  After leaving Hartford, and go-
 ing down the river,  the mafter and mate of this veffel were fei-
 zed with the  fever  and died.   Inftead therefore of being  im-
ported, the fever was exported.
   Some attempts were  made to trace all the firft  cafes  of the
 fever to that  veffel;  but it does not  appear that more than one 
348
pt.fon who had the difeafe,  was ever on board ; and it is proved
that moft of the perfons affeded were never near that veffel and
never vifited the fick.   It is proved further  that of ten or twelve
perfons employed in unloading the veffel, not  one was ever af-
feded by the malady.   Yet  even  in this cafe, the  filly talc of
importation is fwallowed with eagernefs  by the advocates of that
dodrin.
   I confefs myfelf weary and afhamed of refuting fuch ground-
lcfs opinions and furmifes ;  but it is a tafk which truth and juf-
tice and public happinefs demand.   The truth is,  the fpot where
this fever arofe, is low ground,  retaining water to ftagnate after
the fpring floods—built upon in a crouded  irregular manner—
extremely  filthy—penetrated by a creek which ha6 been dried
and ncglcded,  and become the refcrvoir of every unclean thing
—in the vicinity is a  flaughtcr-houfe,  where  loads  of garbage
contribute to render the air foul and noxious.  Let any man
walk over the ground and examin it with  care,  as I have done
fince the fever,  and he  will be convinced that no imported fomes
was neceffary,  in that place, to breed a peftilence.
   But one  of the ftrongeft arguments to prove the domeftic ori-
gin of the  malady,  is,  what people rarely confer.   Numerous
fevers cf the remitting  kind, and typhbs mitior, have originated
on the fame  ground,  for feveral years paft 4 and in  1798, two
i-dfes  of malignant  yellow fever—one of which terminated  in
three days.   Thefe fevers marked the predominant ftate of that
local atni&f^here,  and decide the queftion of domeftic origin.
   On the 15th of Jury ».tremendous hail ftorm paffed over Con-
nedicut fioni the  weftward, attended  with violent  wind and
thunder.   The ftones and pieces  of ice were of various fizes,
fiom that of a walrnat to that of a hen's  egg.   In  Gofhen, Corn-
wall,  New-Hartford,  &c. on the  weft, and Lebanon, Franklin,
Sec.  on the eaft of the Connedicut, the grafs, corn and  every
green thing was injured or deftroyed ;  glafs was broken, trees
gal^d,  and fmall animals killed.  The champain country on the
Connedicut was lefs injured.  This ftorm, unexampled in Con-
nedicut, refembles numbeilcfs hail ftorms  defcribed in hiftory,
as the precurfors and companions of peftilence.

             END of the FIRST VOLUME. 
 
 
Med. (4iit
    WZ.
   xno


   v.! 
^ii	iiffi- ■
ffluH(jlil|(l	life?'"!