Gart de la fan que tant com lo dir val.”
During this year, 1568, the sea broke down the dykes, and almost all Friesland was under water. Seventy-two villages were inundated, and more than 20,000 persons lost their lives. Pestilence ensued.
A.D. 1570, epidemic pestilence was prevalent all over Spain; it was similar to the maladies which prevailed some years previously, and were called ‘febris diaria,’ and another, called sudorific fever, of which Luis de Torro speaks: “Nonne pestilens aliquando diaria et nostris diebus quædam appellata sudorifica visæ sunt, quarum nec nomen quidam prisci audierunt?” It was carried to America through our commercial intercourse, and prevailed with great mortality in the city of Mexico. Dr. Francesco Bravo, a native of Ossuna, a celebrated physician, wrote an extensive work on this subject, entitled ‘Opera medicinalia’ in quibus quam plurima extant scitu medico necessaria,’ in quatuor libros digesta,’ which he dedicated to Don Martin Enriquez. During this year, A.D. 1570, epidemic pestilences in the shape of measles, erysipelas, malignant fever, &c., prevailed in various parts of the world. 400,000 persons were drowned in Holland by the inundation caused by the breaking down of the dykes. In Poland the plague, and in Basle a malignant fever, were especially fatal.
A.D. 1572, the city of Augusta de Alemania was visited by a pestilence, as recorded by Agricola. Dresden suffered from plague.
A.D. 1574, a remarkable aurora borealis was observed on the 14th of November. Pestilence, causing great mortality, prevailed in various parts of Spain and Italy; and during the months of September, October, and November of the same year, epidemic disease was rife in London: it continued during the following year, and prevailed in Verona, Venice, Africa, the Levant, and in Egypt: it persisted for three years, until 1577. In the latter year, pestilence occurred at Oxford, owing to some prisoners having been brought for trial in a filthy state, from the foul condition of the cells: a stench arose, which was supposed to have emanated from their persons. Some of the judges and justices, among whom was Robert Bell, Lord Chief Baron, and many of the jurors, with the high sheriff, died; and from the 6th to the 12th of July it is reported that 510 persons died from the infection: it was termed in consequence ‘the black assizes.’ The symptoms were described as consisting of a violent pain in the head, with delirium; distress in the abdomen, and general prostration of strength. Some were of opinion that this disease was generated by the confinement of the prisoners, and that although they themselves did not suffer from it, they communicated it to others by contagion: others were of opinion that the disease was not in any way contagious.
The Court was held in a yard of the castle, a short distance from the river Isis, the banks of which are low. It is recorded that a great damp breath or fog existed at the time, the weather being excessively hot and sultry. The physicians could not give the disease a name: although it did not appear to them to be the true plague, it was as destructive as that pestilence generally is.
A.D. 1579, the summer was moist and rainy, and was succeeded by a cold dry north wind; the winter was open and chilly. An epidemic catarrh pervaded all Europe: it began in Sicily, and showed itself in Italy, Venice, and Constantinople: it infected Hungary, Bohemia, and Saxony, and it afterwards prevailed in Norway, and raged in Sweden, Poland, and Russia. The symptoms were, violent fever for some days,—four or five generally,—with pains in the head and chest, and severe cough, terminating in profuse perspiration. 4000 persons died of it in Rome, 8000 in Lubeck, and 3000 in Hamburgh; and great numbers were carried off in other places by epidemic pestilence. Whilst this fatal catarrh ravaged Europe, one of the most destructive plagues ever known began at Grand Cairo. Prosper Alpinus reports the deaths from November, 1580, to July in the following year,—a period of eight months,—to have amounted to 500,000. It has frequently been observed that epidemic anginas, catarrhs, measles, &c., generally precede great and destructive plagues or pestilences,—a fact that has been frequently noticed in our day. The terrible pestilence cholera, of 1817 and subsequent years, was preceded by influenza, &c. For the constitution of the seasons, by which these diseases are caused, becomes increased in its malignancy and powers by the repeated accumulation of the peculiar poison, and it consequently induces the highest gradation of disease, pestilence, or plague,—all these distempers being essentially similar, differing in appearance only, as modified by climate, season, &c., and also by the duration and energy of various efficient causes. This year the plague raged at Marseilles.
A.D. 1580, a comet was seen. In the month of August, epidemic catarrh broke out in Spain, and raged with such violence at Madrid, that it almost depopulated the city. Variola prevailed principally amongst children, to whom it was fatal in the city of Seville. The year following, this city suffered from plague.
A.D. 1582, epidemic pestilence prevailed in various parts of Spain; Cadiz suffered greatly. Dr. Juan de Carmona, a celebrated physician and philosopher, wrote a work on the disease, entitled ‘Tractatus de Peste ac Febribus cum puncticulis, vulgò tabardillo.’ In this work, which was dedicated to the Inquisitorial Tribunal of Llerena, the author endeavoured to show that the puncticular fever was unknown to the ancients, and that bleeding from the arm was of great service in pestilential fevers: he states that by this method he treated more than 10,000 persons, and always with fortunate results, provided the practice was not contra-indicated by the presence of buboes, carbuncles, and menstrual or hemorrhoidal fluxes; he did not find the celebrated bezoar stone so efficacious as it was represented to be, although it was in great repute amongst the practitioners of Seville and other parts.
A.D. 1582, an earthquake was felt at Peru for 500 leagues, some time after the city of Arequipa was overthrown. Pestilence continued to prevail in various provinces of Spain the following year, 1583, with carbuncles, anginas, &c. Francisco Valles speaks of leprosy in his work entitled ‘De iis quæ scripta sunt phisice in libris sacris, sive de sacra philosophia.’ Plague, famine, and war destroyed numbers, this year, in Flanders, and epidemic pestilence ravaged Moravia, and was rife in London, Germany, and Holland. Egypt and Rome also suffered from famine and disease.