A.D. 1734, an earthquake destroyed many houses and five churches in China, and many persons also lost their lives; it occurred in the month of August. About the latter end of this year, in the month of October, according to Albrecht, an epidemic dysentery, with swelling of the head, attacked poultry, especially geese, in the environs of the town of Coburg: they died with their bills open.
A.D. 1735, plague destroyed thousands in Egypt; various pestilential epidemics raged for more than ten years, afflicting France, England, Scotland, Ireland, Holland, Calabria, Switzerland, New Spain, Aleppo, Tangiers, and Smyrna; yellow pestilence, or fever, ravaged the United States of America, especially the cities of New York, Boston, Charleston, Philadelphia, and Albany; it extended also to the tribe of the Mohigan Indians, and was rife in the West Indies: in Barbados it caused great mortality. During the winter, in North America, which was cold and wet, a distemper, affecting the throat and respiratory organs, nearly exterminated the young children.
A.D. 1736, the lower orders of the population of Seville suffered from privations and disease, especially in the suburban districts, at St. Roque, Calzada, and Bernardo. In the same year, epidemic pestilence raged with great violence, at Grand Cairo, from the 1st of February to the 12th of March: more than 100,000 persons were carried off; 7000 were buried daily for some days. On the 24th of December, the river rose to an extraordinary height. The summer of this year was intensely hot in England, and swarms of gnats were so immense all over the country, especially in Salisbury in Wiltshire, as almost to constitute a plague; they appeared in dense clouds, and ascended above the height of the steeple of the cathedral. Ergotism again broke out in Silesia, in Suborth, and at Wealtemburgh, in Bohemia. Dr. Saine describes the disease as beginning with a disagreeable titillation of the feet, as if ants were creeping on them (formication), which was soon succeeded by a violent cardialgia, or pain in the stomach; the hands were next affected, then the head—many cried out that their hands and feet were on fire: epilepsy was one of the concomitants of the disease.
A.D. 1737, a comet was seen, and there was an eruption of Vesuvius.
A.D. 1738, another comet was seen in February; drought prevailed in Spain, and famine and pestilence followed: the malady, however, was not of a mortal character.
A.D. 1740, epidemic disease was rife in Ireland; it proved fatal to great numbers in the city of Dublin, and continued throughout the following year. Lord Chancellor Jocelyn, writing from Ireland, in the year 1741, to his brother Chancellor, Lord Hardwicke, in England, mentions the distressed state of the country at this period, owing to the entire failure of the potato crops, which was followed by famine and disease to a frightful extent: fevers, attended with convulsions, were epidemic in Germany: and the vomito negro was destructive to the inhabitants of Spain; it prevailed at Malaga, and in many other of its provinces. Pestilence broke out at Tobolsk, in Siberia, first attacking horned cattle and horses, and afterwards human beings; it prevailed in the form of pestilential carbuncle.
A.D. 1742–3, two comets were seen. In the archives of the Franciscan Convent of San Diego de Carthagena it is recorded that pestilence prevailed amongst the members, nearly all of whom suffered severely, three only escaping.
A.D. 1745, a murrain broke out amongst the cattle in Turkey, and was succeeded by a dire plague, which raged with great violence, especially in Constantinople. This murrain among the cattle spread and afflicted various parts of Europe; it was very destructive in Switzerland, then diffused itself through Germany, Poland, and Holland, and ultimately reached England: its progress was marked by the appearance of a bluish mist in the atmosphere. Professors Sauvages and Chaumel speak of a murrain as occurring about this period in the Viverais district of France: puerperal fever was epidemic there at the same time. An earthquake destroyed Lima and Callao, in Peru, on the 28th of October; out of 3000 inhabitants at Lima, only one individual escaped.
A.D. 1747, a comet was seen; and on the 14th of October the Thames rose to a very great height. In the spring of this year, there broke out in the territory of Huesca of Aragon, an epidemic of malignant catarrh, which was succeeded by petechial fever. In the Asturias, in March, the weather was variable and inclement, and an epidemic icterus, or jaundice, attended with fever of a malignant type, broke out, and continued unto the following May: it caused great mortality. Two hundred thousand of the inhabitants were taken off by pestilence in Constantinople about this time. Dysentery prevailed in various parts of the United States of America, especially at Hartford and Newhaven; yellow fever succeeded, and continued unto the year 1755.
A.D. 1748, swarms of locusts settled down in and about London, doing much damage to the vegetation. Two comets were seen this year.