CHAPTER VIII.
FROM A.D. 1795 TO 1848.
A.D. 1795, a severe earthquake was felt on the 17th of July at Manchester and in its neighbourhood: there was a second shock afterwards on the 18th of October. On the 6th of November, in the same year, a violent storm destroyed many lives and much property in England. On the 24th of the following month, December, a severe frost set in, and continued until the 23rd of January. Murrain committed great ravages in Lombardy amongst horned cattle. Professor Count Moscati and Drs. Deho, Bonvicini, and Gherardini published a description of its symptoms, amongst which were observable great rigidity and tension in the necks of animals, and also great sensibility along the spinal column, towards the termination of the malady. Two years after, 1797, a similar epidemic prevailed in the Venetian States, especially in Friuli: horses, sheep, and poultry suffered from this malady, as well as horned cattle. A severe earthquake, this year, 1796, destroyed the whole country between Santa Fé and Panama, including the cities of Cusco and Quito; 40,000 of the inhabitants were in one second hurled into eternity. The seasons were intemperate in the United States. Bilious remittent or yellow fever prevailed at New York, Charleston, Boston, Newburyport, Philadelphia, and in various others of the States. The year following, 1797, the epidemic continued to cause great mortality in the States, especially in Norfolk, Providence, Portland, and Savannah, and it extended thence to New Orleans: it commenced with the symptoms of common remittent fever, and increased progressively in violence, carrying off numbers of the inhabitants.
A.D. 1798. The preceding winter was severe and long. The summer, this year, was remarkably dry and sultry; the rivers afterwards inundated the adjoining country, heavy rains falling at the same time. Catarrhs, pleurisies, and sore throats prevailed, with bilious fevers. In the autumn, grasshoppers infested the country round about Pennsylvania and New England, and a pestilential fever commenced and spread dismay among the inhabitants: many were carried off by it. The citizens of New York, Philadelphia, Wilmington, Newport, Albany, Boston, Portsmouth, and New London, suffered greatly from this disease, which exhibited both bubo and carbuncle, with many other symptoms of the true plague. A peculiar fog or vapour was observed in New York during the most fatal period of this pestilence, especially in the month of September. Lake and marsh fevers prevailed also about this period in the low and swampy districts, such as Milford, &c. This yellow pestilence was less generally characterized by inflammatory action, and venesection was attended with less salutary effects than on former occasions.
A.D. 1799. In Barbary, 3000 died daily from severe pestilence: at Fez alone, 247,000 persons are said to have perished in consequence. In Morocco, pestilence was preceded by famine, induced by extreme elemental disturbance. At Mogador it broke out, in April, in the form of virulent small-pox; by July it had assumed the type of the most deadly species of plague: this fatal disease ceased in October, after carrying off numbers. At a small village called Diabet, situated about two miles south-east of Mogador, it raged with great violence for twenty-one days, carrying off during that period one hundred persons out of one hundred and thirty. Many populous villages, in the extensive Shellah province of Haha, suffered in a similar manner. The birds deserted their former abodes during the prevalence of this pestilence. The Emperor, it is reported, had the plague twice during the time.
The summer in the United States of America, this year, 1799, was sultry and dry, with much thunder and lightning, succeeded by deluging rains; the autumn was variable, and the winter severe; the following spring was cold and late, and yellow fever showed itself to a certain extent in many of the States.
A.D. 1800, malignant yellow fever commenced at Baltimore, and raged in Boston, and in various other of the principal districts of the Union. In the autumn of this year, Cadiz became desolate from a similar pestilence; by the middle of September the deaths amounted to 200 daily: at this period the air, from its stagnant state, says Arejula, became so vitiated, that its noxious qualities affected even the lower orders of animals: canary birds died with blood issuing from their bills; and in none of the neighbouring towns, which were afterwards infected, did any sparrows appear during the epidemic. We saw, continues Arejula, many of the domestic animals die with some of the same symptoms as those presented by persons labouring under the disease. Dogs were affected by the epidemic more than any other animals; the cats next, and the horses, then poultry and canary birds; dogs and cats were also subject to hemorrhages, but more so to the black vomit, and to dark fœtid evacuations. The horses which I saw die, he says, had that marble coldness of the extremities, or the general convulsions, so remarkable in this disease. Another author, Fellows, states that all the physicians in Cadiz and in Malaga who have written on this disorder, and with whom he had conversed, confirmed to him the facts as detailed by Arejula. The inhabitants of Xeres suffered greatly from this yellow pestilence; it also prevailed at Malaga, and in various other parts of Spain: it persisted unto 1804.
A.D. 1801, anginas, pleurisies, and yellow pestilence continued to prevail for several years in the United States of America, and in other places: typhus was rife in Ireland and England, especially in London, from which city and countries it is scarcely ever absent.
A.D. 1802, a very hot and dry summer was succeeded in November by incessant heavy rain: thick fogs spread over the country, and enveloped such places in central Germany as were inaccessible to ventilation; amongst others, the small Franconian town of Roettingen, situated on the river Tauber, and surrounded by mountains. Towards the end of the month an extremely fatal disease broke out, which was without example in the memory of its oldest inhabitants, it being totally unknown to them previously. The young and strong were suddenly seized with pain and anguish at the heart, with violent palpitations, and lacerating pains in the nape of the neck; profuse, sour, ill-smelling perspiration broke out over the entire body, and a suffering, as though a violent rheumatic fever had seized on the tendinous expansions, accompanied this terrible malady: in the worst cases a spasmodic trembling ensued, the patient fainted, the limbs became rigid, and death closed the scene, frequently within twenty-four hours from the commencement of the attack.
A.D. 1803. Influenza overspread the British Isles in the spring of this year, causing great mortality: in severity it was similar to those prevalent A.D. 1762 and 1782, as described by Sir George Baker.
Tommasini describes a yellow pestilence which raged at Leghorn and at Lucca A.D. 1804. A similar disease was also prevalent in the West Indian Islands about this period, especially in the islands of Martinique and Grenada. The year following, 1805, spotted typhus, or petechial pestilence, was rife in various parts of the United States, and caused great mortality.