A.D. 1773, the town of Guatimala in Mexico, with all its riches and eight thousand families, was swallowed up by an awful earthquake, and every vestige of its former existence obliterated, the spot being now indicated by a frightful desert four leagues distant from the nearest town.
The Severn this year was turned from its natural course by a great mass of land moving from its place across the current near Bildewas Bridge in Shropshire: this happened on the 27th of May. The year following, a severe earthquake was felt at Altdorf in Switzerland on the 10th of September.
A.D. 1775, on the 8th of September, a severe earthquake shook Wales and its neighbourhood. On the 19th of October, thunderstorms did much damage in the North of England; it was about this time that the three Dublin packets foundered at sea: and on the 14th of November, a tremendous hurricane was experienced on the coast of Holland.
A.D. 1776, on the 10th of July a shock of an earthquake was experienced at Andries in Italy, which overthrew the town, and destroyed vast numbers of its inhabitants.
A.D. 1777, a dreadful hurricane visited St. Petersburgh; it was attended by an inundation on the 14th of September, which did much damage.
A.D. 1778, an earthquake did much harm at Smyrna on the 3rd of July. This same year, after the British army had vacated the city of Philadelphia, United States, bilious, yellow, or remittent fever prevailed to a great extent amongst the inhabitants. The plague was rife at Constantinople; an epidemic angina ravaged Manchester and various other parts of England, and the city of Carthagena in Spain again suffered from pestilence, similar to that which was observed A.D. 1771; it continued, in fact, in an aggravated form, the following years until 1779, and caused great mortality.
A.D. 1780, the winter was severe, both in Europe and America. In England, on the 14th of January, the mercury fell 26° below zero, and in Glasgow 46° below the same point. The summer of this year was very hot; bilious remittent fevers raged in Philadelphia and in other parts of the States; a ‘break-bone fever,’ as it was called, also prevailed extensively, but was not fatal. The thermometer at times stood at 102°. At this time cholera prevailed in the East Indies, and is reported to have carried off at Hurdwar, during a festival which is annually held there, some 20,000 persons, and during the following year, 1781, to have assailed, in its most malignant form, a division of the Bengal troops stationed at Garigani. During the summer of 1780, epidemic pestilence broke out in various parts of Spain: it first made its appearance in a village of Passages in the month of May, and continued for some time; it was supposed to have arisen from intramural burial, the stench from the overcrowded graveyards being intolerable. The burning heats, this year, may be said to have caused much suffering in several parts of Europe, there having been scarcely any rain; the summer having been succeeded by a heavy, cloudy winter, predisposed the inhabitants of various parts of Europe to catarrhal fevers: pernicious epidemics also prevailed in many parts of Spain; and a malignant fever was rife amongst the inhabitants of Pampeluna: the city of Olite was also similarly affected; after a time it extended to Bericayú, Andosella, Mendaira, Toledo, Vidaurreta, and other cities and places. In Pampeluna it persisted for six years, until 1787. A disease termed ‘Andalusian fever’ prevailed this year in South America among the Spanish colonists, and also at Rio de Janeiro and other Brazilian settlements. At Tauris, 15,000 dwellings were demolished, and vast multitudes were swallowed up by an earthquake.
From the year 1781 down to 1789, epidemic pestilence committed great havoc in various parts of the world. In England, an epizootic was fatal to horses and horned cattle: of one hundred and sixteen horses located in one barrack stable, all but thirteen were attacked; seventy-eight died. The Channel fleet were great sufferers from epidemic disease; 11,732 sick were sent to Haslar Hospital; 1457 had scurvy; 240 dysentery, and 5539 suffered from severe fever. This may be taken as a specimen of the health of the British navy down to the close of the eighteenth century. Epidemic puerperal fever, about this period, was very fatal in London. Measles raged in New York, Philadelphia, and in other parts of the United States; and numerous cases of hydrophobia occurred in the more southern States. In the month of July the weather was so hot that the thermometer in the shade stood at 103°. In the state of Maryland there was great mortality among horses and horned cattle; and fish at this period died in vast quantities on the coasts of Lapland and Norway.
A.D. 1782, in the month of July, there was a dreadful fire at Constantinople, which destroyed upwards of 7000 houses; and in the following month, a similar catastrophe caused the destruction of 20,000 more, many lives being lost: from the consequent crowding together of the inhabitants, and from other suffering, famine and pestilence followed. The epidemic pestilence which attacked the Bengal troops the year previously at Garigani, extended to Sir E. Hughes’ squadron then stationed in the East, and caused great mortality. The inhabitants of the provinces of Languedoc and Roussillon were attacked with a terrific epidemic, which caused great devastation. The governor of Catalonia, in consequence of the great mortality, sent Dr. Masdevall to inquire into the character of the epidemic, whether it was, as it was publicly reported to be, the true plague, and whether it was or was not contagious. Earthquakes during this year were frequent in Calabria; they continued from time to time for four years, until the end of 1786, producing many fissures, landslips, lakes, ravines, falls of the sea-cliffs, and other changes, which taken together afford one of the finest examples of the complicated alterations which may result from a series of subterranean movements, even though of no great apparent violence at the time. During this calamitous period, the city of Messina in Sicily was destroyed, and 40,000 persons perished by an earthquake; the city of Thessalonica suffered from a similarly severe shock. A most intense frost commenced this year in England on Christmas-day; it continued until the end of February in the following year. A frightful epidemic broke out in the city of Lerida, which ran rapidly through the extent of Tarragona, Manresa, Llasanes, Solsona, Igualada, and Villafranca del Panades; it soon after prevailed over nearly the whole of Catalonia. Pestilence broke out also in Tortosa and in several of its districts; it soon extended all over the kingdom of Aragon. This disease was principally variola.
A.D. 1784, nearly all the districts in the province of Alcarria, especially Pastrana, suffered from pestilence,—an epidemic tertian fever, which commenced in the month of November. About this period, there was a great scarcity of water occasioned by the previous hot and burning weather during a dry summer. The following spring was rainy and damp, and there broke out exanthematous fevers, rheumatisms, and intermittent quotidians, throughout all Spain; the small-pox, which had prevailed the year before, and which at first appeared in a benign form, soon degenerated, and assumed a malignant character. Dr. Don Felix Ibañez, a physician of the city of Huete, but long resident at Pastrana, describes the various diseases of this period in a work entitled ‘Topographia Hipocratica ó Descripcion de la Epidemia de Calenturas, tercianas intermittentes, malignas, continuo-remittentes perniciosas, complicadas que re han padecido en la provincia de la Alcarria desde el año 1784, hasta 1790, y 1791, y riguentes,’ &c.