Αὐτὰρ ἔπειτ’ αὐτοîσι βέλος ἐχεπευκὲς ἐφιεἰς
Βάλλ’.”
In India, we are informed that poultry and dogs frequently perished during the prevalence of cholera, and with similar symptoms. At Marienburgh, in Prussia, in the year 1831, the fish in the large ponds in that government are all said to have perished during the prevalence of the epidemic, and forty tons of them were buried from the single pond of Dinperburgh. In Warsaw, some examples of a disease resembling cholera were also noticed among the lower animals.
In the beginning of this year, A.D. 1834, the Egyptian dominions of the Pasha suffered greatly from the ravages of pestilence or plague. It first appeared in Alexandria, where it was reported to have been brought from Malta: sanitary precautions were adopted, but the prejudices of the people rendered them unavailing, and they were consequently abandoned as being useless. By the end of February, the deaths in Alexandria amounted to 200 daily. The disease then extended to Grand Cairo, and soon after stretched up the valley of the Nile, sweeping off the greater part of the population. In the month of March, the deaths were computed to be from 300 to 400 daily at Cairo; in May they had increased to nearly 2000. The town of Fua, situated on the banks of the Nile, containing a population of 2500 inhabitants, was stated to have lost 1800 in a very short period. The distemper disappeared as the year advanced, but its ravages, together with the long-continued military exertions of the Pasha, left Egypt almost depopulated.
In the early part of the year 1835, there happened an eruption of Vesuvius, which has been thus described by an eye-witness:—A new crater having burst out, a stream of red-hot lava issued therefrom, in the direction of Castelmare, spreading itself over several miles in a few hours’ time, its course being marked by flames rising in volumes from the ground over which it flowed. The intense heat occasioned by this body of fire was felt at Sorrento. The same year, an earthquake was experienced in South America on the 20th of February; it caused the destruction of the cities of Talar and Carico, with the towns of Conquenes, Linares, and Chillian: not a house was left standing in a place called Conception, and the workmen who were engaged repairing the cathedral of that city were buried in the ruins. In the month of June, hail and thunderstorms did much damage in various parts of England; on the 9th, 10th, and 11th, different parts of the country suffered greatly; the destruction of glass in the neighbourhood of Cambridge, on the 9th, was estimated at £2000. In Newmarket a similar loss of property occurred. In Durham the lightning struck the western tower of the cathedral, and hurled down an immense mass of stone, which, alighting upon the pavement beneath, was dashed into innumerable fragments, at the moment when a party of students belonging to the university, who had been inspecting a monument recently erected, alarmed by the crash, rushed from the cathedral; two of the party were killed instantly by the falling ruin, and ten others were severely wounded. About this period, in the month of January, the little village of Raffhaten, on the frontiers of Wallachia, was the locality in which there occurred the singular phenomenon of a shower of meteorolites: about 6 A.M., on the 29th of January, the inhabitants were aroused from sleep by a noise as of a heavy shower of hail, which was immediately succeeded by a violent crashing of windows; great was the astonishment subsequently to find that the earth, for the space of nearly two leagues in circumference, was covered with a vast number of small stones, the smallest of them being about a quarter of an inch in diameter, while the largest were about the size of a marble; they were of a light slate colour, and very heavy, as much so as pieces of metal of the same size; when put into the fire, they burnt like coal, emitting a considerable quantity of gas at the same time.
On the 10th of August the shock of an earthquake was felt in different parts of the county of Lancaster: at Clitheroe two shocks were experienced,—the first, occurring about twelve at night, was slight; the second happened about half-past three in the morning; a rumbling noise like distant thunder was first heard, and was instantaneously followed by a violent shaking of the doors, windows, and furniture in all the houses in the district; many persons started from their beds in great terror, and rushed into the streets. It was felt at Downham, Wisewell, Pendleton, Milton, Waddington, and in all the surrounding villages to Blackpool. The shock was also felt at Liverpool, at Ulverstone, Kendal, Garstang, Preston, and Blackburn, where it caused serious and general alarm.
Cholera, this year, 1835, was rife at Leghorn, where it carried off sixty or seventy persons daily. On the 25th of August, Odessa suffered from a severe shock of an earthquake; it was first felt about five in the afternoon, when a thick smoke of vapour arose at the foot of Mount Ard-scheh (on the side of which Kassarich is situated), from which columns of flames burst with a tremendous noise; it was like the eruption of a volcano. At the same moment the earth was felt to rock, and a terrible earthquake began, the shocks of which continued for seven successive hours, accompanied with heavy thunder; persons felt as though they were on the ocean when agitated violently by a storm: about two thousand houses were thrown down; confusion and terror were at their height; the inhabitants fled into the country, but many were overtaken in their flight and buried in the ruins: an incredible number thus perished. Up to the 1st of September, there were three or four shocks daily, but of a trifling nature, doing but little mischief. About this time the inhabitants of Kassarich, who had taken up their abode in the fields, or fled into the villages, were able to return to the town; all the villages to the distance of more than 140 miles had suffered dreadfully; a great number of lives had been lost in most of them, and many houses and other property had been destroyed. The following are those who suffered the most;—at Tanlusia upwards of sixty houses were thrown down, and many lives lost; great numbers were killed at Tapirarchi, and Kerwer suffered greatly. The village of Mantzofir was that which suffered the most. In Welekes only one house was left standing, and great numbers lost their lives. Wersan was completely swallowed up, as was also Kumetzi, on the site of which a great lake afterwards arose. This year, 1835, may be said to have been marked by a series of commotions; for in the month of November, in the middle of the night, an earthquake was felt generally throughout Calabria, Citra, &c.; it was followed by ten shocks at intervals. In the midst of these commotions, Castiglioni, a commune in the district of Cosenza, was levelled with the ground, and the greater part of the population met an untimely death. The small village of Bonello shared a similar fate. In Leppano, in Ronda, in Casole, and various other places, great sufferings from the falling of the houses were endured. Epidemics were prevalent all this year and the year following, 1836, in various parts of the globe. In Europe, America (North and South), and in the greater part of the West Indian Islands, an apoplectic, pernicious fever, as it was termed, was prevalent in the northern hemisphere.
A.D. 1836. For two days the weather was exceedingly boisterous, and the wind blowing hard from the north-east. On Sunday, the 1st of May, the stormy winds increased, the land was darkened with heavy clouds of dust, and the Thames all day appeared as rough as a troubled sea. The effects of the storm were visible both on the land and sea: numbers of houses were unroofed, and nursery gardens, with other property, destroyed.
On the 18th of October, at about eight in the evening, the heavens presented one of the most splendid of those phenomena known as the ‘auroræ boreales,’ or northern lights. There first appeared a large luminous arch extending nearly from north to south, from which streamers extended very low in the sky, running from north-east to south-west, and increasing in number until they began to approach the zenith, apparently with an accelerated velocity. Suddenly the whole hemisphere was covered with them. This splendid scene, however, lasted only about forty seconds: the variety of colours disappeared, and the beams lost their lateral motion, and were converted, as is usual, into flashing radiations, which kept diminishing in splendour until the whole disappeared, leaving only a pale white light near the horizon.
A.D. 1837, cholera prevailed at Rome, causing great mortality, from 200 to 300 dying daily. Of the frightful mortality of this dire scourge one writer states, that in the Indian peninsula, from the years 1817 to 1830, of a population numbering somewhat more than 4,000,000, 1,800,000 became victims. Another author gives the following summary of the numbers carried off during this pestilential period:—