A Discourse on the Plague - Richard Mead (best book club books for discussion txt) 📗

of a thing so evident, is needless; innumerable are at hand, and several will occasionally occur in the following Parts of this Discourse, when we come to speak in particular of the ways, by which this Infection is conveyed about. I shall therefore say no more in this Place, but only, that all the Appearances attending this Disease are very easily explained upon this Principle, and are hardly to be accounted for upon any other. We learn from hence the reason why when the Plague makes its first Appearance in any Place, though the Number of Sick is exceeding small, yet the Disease usually operates upon them in the most violent manner, and is attended with its very worst Symptoms. Now was the Disease produced not by imported Contagion, but from some Cause, which had its Original in the diseased Place, and consequently from a Cause gradually bred, the contrary must happen: the Diseased would at first not only be few in Number, but their Sickness likewise more moderate than afterwards, when the morbific Causes were raised to their greatest Malignity. From the same Principle we see the reason, why People have often remained in Safety in a diseased Town, only by shutting themselves up from all Communication with such, as might be suspected of giving them the Disease. When the Plague was last in England, while it was in the Town of Cambridge, the Colleges remained entirely free by using this Precaution. In the Plague at Rome in the Years 1656 and 1657, the Monasteries and Nunneries, for the most part, defended themselves by the same Means[25]: Whereas at Naples, where the Plague was a little before, these Religious Houses, from their Neglect herein, did not escape so well[26]. Nay the Infection entered none of the Prisons at Rome[27], though the Nastiness of those Places exposes them very much. But, to avoid Prolixity, I shall give only one Instance more. I think it cannot be explained in any other reasonable manner, how the last Plague in the City of London, which broke out in the parish of St. Giles’s in the Fields towards the latter end of the Year 1664, should lie a-sleep from Christmas to the middle of February, and then break out again in the same Parish; and after another long rest till April, shew itself again in the same Place[28].

To proceed: Whoever examines the Histories of Plagues in all times, which have been described with any Exactness, will find very few, that do not agree in these essential Marks, whereby the Plague may be distinguished from other Fevers. I confess an Instance or two may be found to the contrary; perhaps the History of our own Country furnishes the most remarkable of any[29]. But Examples of this kind are so very rare, that I think it must be concluded, that the Plague is usually one and the same Distemper.

In the next place I shall endeavour to shew, that the Plague has always the same Original, and is brought from Africa, the Country which has entail’d upon us two other infectious Distempers, the Small-Pox and Measles. In all Countries indeed Epidemic Diseases extraordinarily mortal, are frequently bred in Goals, Sieges, Camps, &c. which Authors have often in a large Sense called Pestilential: But the true Plague, which is attended with the distinguishing Symptoms before described, and which spreads from Country to Country, I take to be an African Fever bred in Æthiopia or Egypt, and the Infection of it carried by Trade into the other Parts of the World.

It is the Observation of Pliny, that the Pestilence always travels from the Southern Parts of the World to the Western, that is, in his Phrase, into Europe[30]. And the most accurate Accounts in all Times of this Disease, wherever it has raged, bring it from Africa. Thucydides[31], in his admirable Description of the famous Plague of Athens, says, that it began in Upper Æthiopia, then came into Egypt, from whence it was spread first into Persia, and afterwards into Greece.

There is in all ancient History no Account of any Plague so dreadful as that, which broke out at Constantinople in the time of the Emperor Justinian A. D. 543. This is said to have spread its Infection over all the Earth, and to have lasted fifty two Years. The History of it is very well told by Evagrius[32], and yet more learnedly by Procopius[33]: and they both observe, that the Distemper had its Birth in Æthiopia or Egypt.

This is likewise agreeable to the modern Relations of Travellers and Merchants from Turkey, who generally inform us, that the frequent Plagues, which depopulate that Country, are brought thither from the Coast of Africa: insomuch that at Smyrna, and other Ports of that Coast, they often know the very Ship which brings it. And, in these latter Ages, since our Trade with Turkey has been pretty constant, the Plagues in these Parts of Europe have evidently been brought from thence.

The late Plague in France came indisputably from Turkey, as I shall particularly shew in some of the following Pages. The Plague, which broke out at Dantzick in the Year 1709, and spread from thence to Hamburgh, Copenhagen, and other Cities in the North, made its way thither from Constantinople through Poland, &c. And the last Plague in this City, if we may believe Dr. Hodges, had the same Original, being brought to us from Holland, but carried to them by Cotton imported from Turkey[34].

The greatest Mortality that has happen’d in later Ages, was about the middle of the fourteenth Century; when the Plague seized Country after Country for five Years together[35]. In the Year 1346 it raged in Egypt, Turkey, Greece, Syria, and the East-Indies; in 1347 some Ships from the Levant carried it to Sicily, Pisa, Genoa, &c. in 1348 it got into Savoy, Provence, Dauphiny, Catalonia, and Castile, &c. in 1349 it seized England, Scotland, Ireland, and Flanders; and the next Year Germany, Hungary and Denmark: and in all Places, where it came, it made such heavy Destruction, that it is said to have dispeopled the Earth of more than half its Inhabitants[36]. Now since Africa had a share of this Plague in the very beginning, I question not but it had its first Rise in that Country; and not in China, as M. Villani, in his History of those Times, relates from the Report of Genoese Seamen, who came from those Parts, and said it was occasion’d there by a great Ball of Fire, which either burst out of the Earth, or fell down from Heaven[37]. But this Relation is so very incredible, that I cannot think we ought at all to rely upon it: seeing we have no Instance of a Plague, which was originally bred in that Country.

It is very remarkable, that the several Countries of Europe have always suffered more or less in this way, according as they have had a greater or lesser Commerce with Africa; or with those Parts of the East, that have traded thither. Which Observation, by the by, may help to solve a Difficulty concerning the great Increase of People among the Northern Nations in ancient Times, more than at present; for in those Ages, having no Communication at all with Africa, they were not wasted with Plagues, as they have been since.

As the People of Marseilles, from the first Foundation of their City by the Phoceans, were famous for Trade, and made long Voyages Southwards on the African Coast[38]; so they have in all times been very liable to the Plague. A French Author[39] in a History of the late Plague at Marseilles reckons up twenty Plagues that have happened in that City; notwithstanding it is by its situation one of the most healthy and pleasant Places in France, and the least subject to epidemic Distempers. But if we had no Records of this in History, an odd Custom among them, mentioned in Antiquity[40], of the way they made use of to clear themselves from this Distemper, would be a proof of it. Their manner at such times was, that some one poor Man offered himself to be maintained at the publick Expence with delicate Food for a whole Year: at the end of which he was led about the City dressed in consecrated Garments and Herbs; and being loaded with Curses as he went along, that the Evils of the Citizens might fall upon him, he was at last thrown into the Sea[41].

Agreeable to this Remark upon Trade is the Observation of Procopius in his forecited History, that the Plague was always found to spread from Maritime Places into the Inland Countries: which has ever since been confirmed by Experience.

Having shewn this Disease to be a Distemper of a distinct Species, and to take its Rise only in Africa; we must next seek for its Cause in that Country and no where else. We ought therefore to consider, what there is peculiar to that Country, which can reasonably be supposed capable of producing it. Wherefore I shall briefly set down as much as serves for this purpose of the State of Grand Cairo in Egypt, and of Æthiopia, the two great Seminaries of the Plague: Travellers relating that these Countries are more infested with it than most other Parts of Africa.

GRAND CAIRO is crouded with vast Numbers of Inhabitants, who for the most part live very poorly, and nastily; the Streets are very narrow, and close: it is situate in a sandy Plain at the Foot of a Mountain, which by keeping off the Winds, that would refresh the Air, makes the Heats very stifling. Through the midst of it passes a great Canal, which is filled with Water at the overflowing of the Nile; and after the River is decreased, is gradually dried up: Into this the People throw all manner of Filth, Carrion, &c. so that the Stench which arises from this, and the Mud together, is insufferably offensive[42]. In this Posture of things, the Plague every Year constantly preys upon the Inhabitants; and is only stopt, when the Nile, by overflowing, washes away this Load of Filth; the Cold Winds, which set in at the same time, lending their Assistance, by purifying the Air.

In Æthiopia those prodigious Swarms of Locusts, which at some times cause a Famine, by devouring the Fruits of the Earth, unless they happen to be carried by the Winds clear off into the Sea, are observed to entail a new Mischief upon the Country, when they die and rot, by raising a Pestilence[43]; the Putrefaction being hightened by the excessive Intemperance of the Climate, which is so very great in this Country, that it is infested with violent Rains at one Season of the Year, for three or four Months together[44]. And it is particularly observed of this Country, that the Plague usually invades it, whenever Rains fall during the sultry Heats of July and