[1] I might here enlarge on the general importance of the study of epidemics; but this has been so fully set forth in the author’s Address to the Physicians of Germany, which immediately follows, as well as in the Preface to the Sweating Sickness, at p. 177, that any further observations on this subject would be superfluous on my part.
[2] στε καὶ ἐλέχθη ὑπ’ αὐτῶν ὡς οἱ Πελοποννήσιοι φάρμακα ἐσβεβλήκοιεν ἐς τὰ φρέατα. Thucyd. Hist. B. ii. 49. “The disease was attributed by the people to poison, and nothing apparently could be more authentic than the reports that were spread of miscreants taken in the act of putting poisonous drugs into the food and drink of the common people.” Observations on the Cholera in St. Petersburg, p. 9. by G. W. Lefevre, M.D. 8vo. 1831.
[3] Only two copies are known to exist, one in the British Museum, and one in the library of the College of Physicians.
[4] La Mortalega Grande. Matth. de Griffonibus. Muratori. Script. rer. Italicar. T. XVIII. p. 167. D. They were called by others Anguinalgia. Andr. Gratiol. Discorso di Peste. Venet. 1576. 4to. Swedish: Diger-döden. Loccenii Histor. Suecan. L. III. p. 104.—Danish: den sorte Dod. Pontan. Rer. Danicar. Histor. L. VIII. p. 476.—Amstelod. 1631, fol. Icelandic: Svatur Daudi. Saabye, Tagebuch in Grönland. Introduction XVIII. Mansa, de Epidemiis maxime memorabilibus, quæ in Dania grassatæ sunt, &c. Part I. p. 12. Havniæ, 1831, 8.—In Westphalia the name of de groete Doet was prevalent. Meibom.
[5] Joann. Cantacuzen. Historiar. L. IV. c. 8. Ed. Paris. p. 730. 5. The ex-emperor has indeed copied some passages from Thucydides, as Sprengel justly observes, (Appendix to the Geschichte der Medicin. Vol. I. H. I. S. 73,) though this was most probably only for the sake of rounding a period. This is no detriment to his credibility, because his statements accord with the other accounts.
[6] Ἀποστάσεις μεγάλαι.
[7] Μελαίναι φλυκτίδες.
[8] ὥσπερ στίγματα μέλανα.
[9] Guidon. de Cauliaco Chirurgia. Tract 11. c. 5. p. 113. Ed. Lugdun. 1572.
[10] Et fuit tantæ contagiositatis specialiter quæ fuit cum sputo sanguinis, quod non solum morando, sed etiam inspiciendo unus recipiebat ab alio: intantum quod gentes moriebantur sine servitoribus, et sepeliebantur sine sacerdotibus, pater non visitabat filium, nec filius patrem: charitas erat mortua, spes prostrata.