by the physicians and people of the Fourteenth Century, as well as by Hecker himself, and the great majority of medical practitioners of the present day.

CAUSES AND DIFFUSION.

It appears, from the researches of Hecker and others, that "great revolutions in the organism of the earth," had not long preceded the eruptions of the Epidemics of the Middle Ages. In China, parching droughts were followed by frightful storms and inundations-more than 400,000 people being drowned in the floods. Mountains fell in, and clefts were opened into the bowels of the earth; after which a pestilence rose and carried off five millions of people! In Europe, various terrestrial commotions accompanied or succeeded those of Asia. In the Island of Cyprus, earthquakes, hurricanes, and inundations ushered in the plague of the East, by which this blooming isle was converted into a desert. The atmosphere, which preserves such a remarkable uniformity in all places and in all seasons, evinced very unusual phenomena in the Fourteenth Century. Stinking fogs and mists spread from East to West-while pestilent vapours issued from the deep rents in the earth, and exhaled from the vast marshes caused by the inundations. These circumstances may, in some degree, account for the grave and frequent affections of the respiratory organs. The earthquakes were destructive, and almost universal, while strange meteors appeared in the air and terrified whole nations. The order of the seasons seemed to be inverted-crops failed-and famine added its sufferings to pestilence.

"In the progress of connected natural phenomena, from East to West, that great law of nature is plainly revealed which has so often and evidently manifested itself in the earth's organism, as well as in the state of nations dependent upon it. In the inmost depths of the globe, that impulse was given in the year 1333, which in uninterrupted succession for six-and-twenty years shook the surface of the earth, even to the western shores of Europe. From the very beginning the air partook of the terrestrial concussion, atmospherical waters overflowed the land, or its plants and animals perished under the scorching heat. The insect tribe was wonderfully called into life, as if animated beings were destined to complete the destruction which astral and telluric powers had begun. Thus did this dreadful work of nature advance from year to year; it was a progressive infection of the Zones, which exerted a powerful influence both above and beneath the surface of the earth; and after having been perceptible in slighter indications, at the commencement of the terrestrial commotions in China, convulsed the whole earth." 18.

M. Hecker considers the BLACK DEATH to have been contagious and infectious, in the highest degree, while the constitution of earth and air rendered it universally epidemic.

MORTALITY.

We have no certain measure, like modern statistics, to estimate the ravages of the black plague. The probabilities were, according to Hecker, that, in Kairo, from ten to fifteen thousand died daily. In China, more than thirteen millions were swept away-India was depopulated-Tartary, Mesopotamia, Syria, and Armenia were covered with dead bodies-in

Caramania and Cæsarea, none were left alive! It would be needless to pursue the conjectural enumeration of deaths from this frightful scourge. The mortality must have been greatly beyond all idea which we can form from those epidemics that have happened in modern times.

It appears that more accurate records of the mortality were kept in England than in any other country. In Yarmouth 7052 died. In London there was one burial-ground, where fifty thousand bodies were deposited, arranged in layers. Throughout the country scarcely a tenth part remained alive! It is wonderful that Europe could have so soon got over such a dreadful shock and destruction of its population. It was universally observed that, after this dire calamity, women became greatly more prolific, and population increased in a far higher ratio than before.

MORAL EFFECTS.

These were various-some good, some evil. The pious closed their accounts with the world-their only remaining desire being the consolations of religion. Repentance seized the wicked-they resolved to forsake their vices and atone for their crimes, before being summoned hence. But hypocrisy, illusion and bigotry also stalked abroad. The Flagellant brotherhood started into existence to preach to the people, and offer up prayers for protection from the plague. These became numerous, and formidable to the Church. Then the suspicion arose that the Jews were at the bottom of the pestilence, and poisoned the people by means of pest-powders and other diableries! The rack soon caused numbers of the unhappy chosen people to confess murders and atrocities of which they were perfectly guiltless!

"When the evil had become universal," (speaking of Florence,) "the hearts of all the inhabitants were closed to feelings of humanity. They fled from the sick and all that belonged to them, hoping by these means to save themselves. Others shut themselves up in their houses, with their wives, their children and households, living on the most costly food, but carefully avoiding all excess. None were allowed access to them; no intelligence of death or sickness was permitted to reach their ears; and they spent their time in singing and music, and other pastimes. Others, on the contrary, considered eating and drinking to excess, amusements of all descriptions, the indulgence of every gratification, and an indifference to what was passing around them, as the best medicine, and acted accordingly. They wandered day and night, from one tavern to another, and feasted without moderation or bounds. In this way they endeavoured to avoid all contact with the sick, and abandoned their houses and property to chance, like men whose death-knell had already tolled." 47.

Such is the inconsistency, the instability-the utter worthlessness of the human mind!

PHYSIC AND PHYSICIANS.

The medical faculty of Paris was called upon to deliver its opinion on the causes of the "BLACK PLAGUE," and furnish appropriate therapeutic indications. A passage from their etiology will furnish some amusement to our readers.

"It is known that in India, and the vicinity of the Great Sea, the constellations which combated the rays of the sun, and the warmth of the heavenly fire, ex

erted their power especially against that sea, and struggled violently with its waters. (Hence, vapours often originate which envelope the sun, and convert his light into darkness.) These vapours alternately rose and fell for twenty-eight days; but at last, sun and fire acted so powerfully upon the sea, that they attracted a great portion of it to themselves, and the waters of the ocean arose in the form of vapour; thereby the waters were, in some parts, so corrupted, that the fish which they contained, died. These corrupted waters, however, the heat of the sun could not consume, neither could other wholesome water, hail or snow, and dew, originate therefrom. On the contrary, this vapour spread itself through the air in many places on the earth, and enveloped them in fog." 51.

So much for the ETIOLOGY of the BLACK DEATH, as propounded by the College of Physicians, 1346. We can only make room for a very short extract from the hygienic rules laid down by the said learned College.

"We are of opinion, that the constellations, with the aid of Nature, strive, by virtue of their divine might, to protect and heal the human race; and to this end, in union with the rays of the sun, acting through the power of fire, endeavour to break through the mist. Accordingly, within the next ten days, and until the 17th of the ensuing month of July, this mist will be converted into a stinking deleterious rain, whereby the air will be much purified. Now, as soon as this rain shall announce itself, by thunder or hail, every one of you should protect himself from the air, and, as well before as after the rain, kindle a large fire of vine-wood, green laurel, or other green wood; wormwood and chamomile should also be burnt in great quantity in the market-places, in other densely inhabited localities, and in the houses. Until the earth is again completely dry, and for three days afterwards, no one ought to go abroad in the fields.” 52.

This reminds us of the sage rules and cautions issued from a high source in our own times, when the cholera was approaching our shores. We all remember how strenuously we were warned to have no intercourse with the world, if we could possibly avoid it—and, if unavoidable, to let down buckets from our attick windows, to haul up provisions, which were to be well fumigated with chloride of lime, before we attempted to swallow them!! We need not, therefore, indulge in deep laughter at the instructions of the Paris Faculty four hundred years ago.

There were several physicians, however, at that remote period, who rose far superior to the collective wisdom of the Parisian College. Guy de Chauliac was a star of considerable magnitude in those melancholy times. A conjunction of Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars in the sign of Aquarius, was considered by him and the other medical magnates, as the evident cause of the pestilence, and a corruption of the blood, as the immediate effect, or proximate cause of the epidemy. Bleeding and purging were the prominent measures employed, together with a host of ridiculous and unimportant remedies which need not now be noticed. Segregation was a prominent feature in the treatment, or rather the prevention of the malady, and our quarantines still keep up the charter, to the great annoyance of commerce, and without a particle of utility. It is a precious remnant of the wisdom of our ancestors-of which the following specimen deserves record. The first regulation is dated 17 January, 1374, and enjoins that every plague-patient is to be taken out of the city (Reggio) into the fields, there to die or recover." The priests were to examine suspected persons and report them under punishment of being burnt alive! Thus ends our sketch of the "BLACK DEATH." The record of its devastations is melancholy and curious; but we do not see that it throws one single ray of light on the etiology, pathology, or therapoia of the direful epidemic.

II. THE DANCING MANIA.

The BLACK DEATH had scarcely closed the graves over millions of the human race, when a strange superstition arose in that cradle of idealityGermany, which, in the quaint language of Hecker, " hurried away body and soul into the magic circle of hellish superstition." It was termed the Chorea St. Viti, on account of the Bacchanalian leaps which characterized it, causing those affected to scream and foam, as though they were possessed by Satan. It seemed to be propagated over all Germany, and beyond its bounds, by sight or imitation. Early in 1374, assemblages of men and women were seen at Aix-la-Chapelle, forming themselves into circles, hand in hand, dancing for hours together, in wild delirium, till they fell to the ground in a state of exhaustion, groaning as if in the agonies of death. After a time, they recovered till another attack took place. Their abdomens became tympanitic in their paroxysms, and tight swathing relieved them after the accession. During the dance they neither saw nor heard, but were haunted by visions, and wild fancies. In many, an epileptic paroxysm preceded the dancing fit.

"In Liege, Utretcht, Tongres, and many other towns of Belgium, the dancers appeared with garlands in their hair, and their waists girt with cloths, that they might, as soon as the paroxysm was over, receive immediate relief on the attack of the tympany. This bandage was, by the insertion of a stick, easily twisted tight: many, however, obtained more relief from kicks and blows, which they found numbers of persons ready to administer; for, wherever the dancers appeared, the people assembled in crowds to gratify their curiosity with the frightful spectacle." 89.

The evil increased and spread to an alarming state, and the priests endeavoured to exorcise the dæmon that possessed the people, who rose upon the clergy and threatened them with destruction. Dr. Hecker describes over and over again, with most needless minuteness, the phenomena of this dancing mania, as it appeared in different places, and then he endeavours to trace its causes, but with little success. He thinks they were in some degree connected with certain ancient festivals in honour of St. John the Baptist. Paracelsus was the physician who distinguished himself most in the management of the dancing mania. A sample of his therapeutics will be sufficient.

"For the second kind of St. Vitus's dance, arising from sensual irritation, with which women were far more frequently affected than men, Paracelsus recommended harsh treatment and strict fasting. He directed that the patients should be deprived of their liberty; placed in solitary confinement, and made to sit in an uncomfortable place, until their misery brought them to their senses and to a feeling of penitence. He then permitted them gradually to return to their accustomed habits. Severe corporal chastisement was not omitted; but, on the other hand, angry resistance on the part of the patient was to be sedulously avoided, on the ground that it might increase his malady, or even destroy him moreover, where it seemed proper, Paracelsus allayed the excitement of the nerves by immersion in cold water. On the third kind we shall not here enlarge. It was to be effected by all sorts of wonderful remedies, composed of the quintessences; and it would require, to render it intelligible, a more extended exposition of peculiar principles than suits our present purpose.' 103. No. LXXXI. H

With the Sixteenth Century the dancing mania seems to have expired, and was converted into the fighting mania, which raged during a great part of the Seventeenth Century, with still more fury and fatality than its predecessor.

We shall not follow our author through the details of this mania, as it appeared in Belgium, Germany, Italy, Abyssinia and other parts of the globe, modified, of course, by climate, manners, religion, &c. The Black Death or the Sweating-Sickness may possibly return; but St. Vitus, except in sporadic cases, is not very likely to pay an epidemic visit to Europe again.

III. THE SWEATING SICKNESS.

This forms the third and concluding Article in the first volume of the Sydenham Society. To Englishmen it is more interesting than either of its predecessors-the "BLACK DEATH," or the "DANCING MANIA." This dreadful epidemic broke out in 1485, soon after the battle of Bosworth. It was a violent inflammatory fever, ushered in by a rigor, and succeeded by a most remarkable prostration-oppression at the præcordia -headache-stupor, and profuse fetid perspiration. The Crisis, favourable or otherwise, was over in the space of a day and a night. The internal heat was insufferable; and yet refrigerants were fatal. The victorious HENRY had scarcely reached London, when the malady burst forth, and the Lord Mayor and sixteen Aldermen died within a week. The disease generally selected the most robust and vigorous for its victims. Scarcely one in one hundred recovered at first; but it passed over the metropolis like a flash of lightning, as it were, and terminated its career in five weeks. One attack was no security against a second, or even a third. It spread over the whole country, as nearly equally fatal every where as in the metropolis.

THE PHYSICIANS.

They could do no good in this terrific scourge, and they are nowhere alluded to in the histories of the Epidemic! Even LINACRE, who had experienced three attacks of the malady, in his own person, gives no account of it in any of his writings! The people, left to their own resources, adopted the wisest method of treatment. They avoided all violent medicines-abstained from food-applied moderate heat-and drank only a small quantity of mild fluids. On the first of January 1486, a violent tempest arose from the East, purified the atmosphere, and swept the Epidemic clear out of town and country.

CAUSES.

This Epidemic confined itself entirely to England, and ventured not into Ireland, Scotland, or even Calais, then in our possession. "It plainly appeared, (says Hecker,) in the sequel, that the English SWEATING SICKNESS was a Spirit of the Mist, which hovered amid the dark clouds." Meantime other European nations, though they escaped the Sweating