We have seen that the years 1350 and 1363 were denominated the years of the first and second mortality. The precautionary measures that were adopted to meet such evils were the formation of various hospitals for the treatment of the sick, instituted by the bishop, dean, and ecclesiastical and secular chapters. The physicians and surgeons not only contributed by their science to the relief of the plague-stricken, but also with their personal charity and the salaries which were assigned them by the city authorities. A hospital was founded under the protection of St. Cosmo and St. Amien in the parish of St. Salvalo, the patronage of which was given to the city.
A.D. 1384. During this year the third plague of Mallorca broke out; it caused considerable mortality, according to the account given by Vincente Mut in his history of that kingdom. Numbers of the soldiers of the army of Don Juan, the first king of Castile, who were in garrison at Lisbon, fell sick in consequence of the severity of the atmospheric changes, to which they were unaccustomed. The losses and sufferings of the Castilian camp increased every day, and hundreds of them became ill, and consequently the king was induced to change his position and remove his armada to Seville.
At the commencement of 1386 there was in Gallicia much sickness among the soldiers commanded by Tornas Moraix: the character of the epidemic is but imperfectly given, but history states the mortality to have been very great.
A.D. 1387, the army of the King of Portugal and of the Duke of Lancaster suffered from severe pestilence in Benavento, and in the towns of Matillas, Arzon, Villalobos, Rales, and Valderas, owing to the scarcity of provisions. In the years 1388 and 1389, violent tempests, preceded by great drought, happened; a famine ensued, when anginas and dysenteries prevailed in England and in other parts of the world. The disease affected children principally, and continued unto 1400. During this period, 1391, the disease was especially mortal in England, being felt most severely in Norfolk and at York. The year previously, 1390, when King Edward was on his march and within two leagues of Chartres, a violent storm arose, with thunder and lightning, which killed 6000 of his horses and upwards of 1000 of his best troops.
A.D. 1394, a great mortality occurred from epidemic pestilence in the kingdom of Valencia and in the principality of Catalonia, arising from great heat; nearly 10,000 persons, a greater part of whom were young, died in the city of Valencia alone. This pestilence occurred during the reign of King Don Juan.—A.D. 1396. On the 9th of December of this year, King Don Martin retired to the city of Perpignan in consequence of Barcelona being visited by pestilence.
A.D. 1400. The continued heavy rains and sterility having induced famine in Seville, caused also great mortality and pestilence, which diminished the population wonderfully. The author of the Annals of Seville mentions that this plague occurred at centenary periods.
A.D. 1401. A comet was seen. Pestilence broke out at Florence. 30,000 persons died of epidemic disease this year in London. Five years after, London was revisited by deadly pestilence. In Bourdeaux a malignant dysentery destroyed 14,000 persons, and a similar disease was equally fatal in Aquitaine and Gascony. A.D. 1407, the Mediterranean was frozen over for fifteen weeks.—A.D. 1411. Two diseases, very similar, appeared in France this year, and were equally general; the first was called ‘Tac,’ the second ‘Ladendo:’ both were accompanied by severe cough. In the Ladendo there seems to have been some affection of the kidney of an inflammatory nature: the pain was as severe as in a fit of the stone, and was followed by fever, loss of appetite, and incessant cough, which terminated very frequently in unpleasant eruptions about the nose and mouth; the disease ran its course generally in fifteen days, and was unattended by danger, notwithstanding the severity of the symptoms. Three years after, an epidemic disease of a similar nature re-appeared in France, when it received the name of ‘Coqueluche:’ it was attended with severe hoarseness, and was so general that all public business in Paris was interrupted by it.
A.D. 1410. Epidemic pestilence broke out at Seville this year; it commenced in Niebla, Gibraleon, and Trigueros, and extended thence to Seville, where it raged from March unto August. On the 30th of May and on the 5th of August an earthquake was felt at Barcelona, and epidemic pestilence prevailed, which lasted until the anniversary of the Nativity.
CHAPTER IV.
FROM A.D. 1418 TO 1530.
A.D. 1418, Strasburgh was visited by the ‘Dancing Plague,’ and the same infatuation existed amongst the people there, as in the towns of Belgium and the Lower Rhine A.D. 1374; many who were seized on seeing the affected, excited attention at first by their confused and absurd behaviour, and then by their constantly following the swarms of dancers. These were seen day and night passing through the streets, accompanied by musicians playing on bagpipes, and by innumerable spectators attracted by curiosity, to whom were added anxious parents and relations who came to look after those among the misguided multitude who belonged to their respective families.