Senertus informs us, that pestilence not only overran Europe, but almost the whole inhabited world. The spring of the year 1551 was dry and cold, and the summer wet; inundations, earthquakes, meteors, mock-suns, great tempests, and summer fogs were noticed: malignant fevers prevailed in Suabia, and epidemic influenza was rife in Spain. The two following years, malignant fevers overran Germany and Switzerland; scurvy prevailed in Denmark.
A.D. 1555, the summer was hot, and heavy rains fell: febrile diseases became very prevalent in England and France, and continued with redoubled violence during the succeeding summer, which was also excessively hot and dry: excessive commotions of the elements and severe seasons marked this period. The city of Valencia suffered from epidemic variola. Don Miguel Juan Pasqual, an eminent physician, makes mention of this pestilence in his work ‘De Febre Pestilenti.’ About this period, according to Cardinal Gastaldi, when the Emperor Charles V. invaded the French territories, pestilence destroyed great numbers of the peasantry and of the Spanish soldiery.
A.D. 1556, a whole province of the mountainous part of China was in a moment absorbed into the earth; all the towns with their inhabitants were buried in the ruins, and an immense lake of water took its place, which remains to this day. A comet was seen this year. Vienna about this time suffered from epidemic pestilence, as also did Holland the year following; the disease continued until 1558. This disease commenced in the form of influenza in various parts of Europe, and in France, Italy, and Germany; Spain also suffered from its violence, which was greater in some countries than in others, viz. Florence and Tuscany. In France, malignant dysentery was the most predominant malady; agues in Holland, and petechial or spotted fever in Spain; the last-named disease was as fatal as the true plague. A Spanish writer, Andres Laguna, physician to Charles V., Philip II., and Julius III., wrote a work on this pestilence, (as did many other eminent physicians,) entitled, ‘Discurso breve sobre la Cura y Preservacion de la Pestilentia.’ In going minutely into the symptoms described by these authors, we recognize all the symptoms of bilious remittent or yellow fever, synocha, &c., as prevalent now-a-days, and termed ‘Andalusian fever.’
A.D. 1557. A new infirmity, as it was then considered to be, broke out this year in Spain, which nearly depopulated the peninsula: it continued with great destruction until 1570. This new pestilence was supposed to have originated with the Saracens, after the war of Granada, that is, after King Don Fernando de Aragon, and Doña Isabel, Queen of Castile, had conquered the city of Granada. That this disease originated with the Spanish Arabs, was known from the fact that all their disbanded soldiery communicated the disease to the inhabitants of the cities and towns, as Luis de Torro relates in his work entitled ‘De Febre Puncticulari,’ &c., to which type this pestilence belonged.
A.D. 1558, the city of Murcia suffered from pestilence, on account of which the bishops and principal inhabitants deserted the city. This fatal epidemic extended to all parts around Murcia and to the kingdom of Valencia. The Jesuit Fathers assumed the temporal as well as the spiritual care of the plague-striken. Many of the attendants fell victims to the disease, amongst whom was the celebrated Dr. Pedro de Cabera, son of the Viscount of the same name, together with the padre Marco Antonio Fontoba.
Barcelona also at this period suffered from mortal pestilence; it commenced in January, and continued unto July, when it ceased.
A.D. 1563, there was a great dearth of corn and other provisions in London; famine and disease were the result, and 20,000 persons perished in consequence. France suffered from pestilence, and Barcelona was again visited by it. Burgos—a city in which all the reverend Fathers of the Society of Jesus, who administered the rites to the dying, perished,—was nearly devastated by plague, as noticed by Franco; in fine, many European cities suffered more or less during this year from epidemic disease; among which were, Frankfort, Magdenburg, Dantzic, Hamburgh, Wismar, Lubeck, Bostack, and Dresden.
A.D. 1564, an epidemic prevailed in the form of fatal quinsies and spotted fever, in various parts of Europe. Barcelona again suffered from pestilence, which broke out in the month of June, and lasted unto November following. The city of Saragossa also suffered from a cruel epidemic, from May unto December, during which period there died 10,000 persons in the city alone: it was supposed that the disease was introduced from France by means of the clothes of persons who had died there from the disease. Dr. Porcell, who was singularly successful in treating the disease, wrote a work on it, and dedicated it to Don Philip II.; it was entitled ‘Informacion y Curacion de la peste de Zaragoza, y preservacion contra peste en general, por Juan Porcell Sardo, Doctor en Medicina, Zaragoza.’ The symptoms of this malady were, intense cephalalgia, sleeplessness and delirium, vomiting of bilious matter, urgent thirst, nausea, accompanied by pain in the stomach: dissection showed nothing particular in the humors; the gall-bladder was extremely large, and distended with black viscid bile,—sometimes, however, it was found empty. There was yellowness of the skin, and a similar tinge was observed internally.
A.D. 1565, a pestilential epidemic prevailed in France, in which bleeding was said to have been fatal to many; the disease raged with great severity at Lyons. Charles IX. having inquired of his physicians the most judicious mode of treatment, they expressed their disapprobation of venesection. Seville and various other parts of Spain suffered from a similar disease, which, however, was not very fatal; great numbers are said to have owed their preservation to the use of treacle, immense quantities of which the Catholic king Philip II. sent to the Christian king Charles IX. Schenckius describes this pestilence as having been preceded by a sharp frost in December, the distemper having commenced in January: the air being filled with gross vapours was supposed to have given rise to this malady.
Wierus informs us, that this pestilence afflicted all mankind; it was preceded by small-pox and measles; it proved very fatal, depopulating towns and cities, among which were Constantinople, Alexandria, Leyden, London, Dantzic, Vienna, Cologne, and the whole tract of the Upper Rhine, even unto Basle. The malady was accompanied by glandular tumors in the neck; it was an aggravated form of quinsy, proving fatal to many in one day. The sick were taken with vomiting, followed by a swelling of the tongue,—afterwards loss of speech and difficulty of swallowing anything, even in a liquid form; suffocation and death soon followed.