The infection, however, seemed now to be retiring to the place from whence it originally came. In 1666, or soon after, it seems to have totally abandoned the island of Britain; with the attack in 1711 it left the western countries of the continent next to that island; in 1713, 1714 and 1715 we are informed by baron Van Swieten that it ravaged Austria; in 1721, or soon after, it abandoned France; in 1743 it made its last attack on Messina; and in 1784 we find it confined to Dalmatia and the eastern territories, where it has so long reigned without interruption.
From the view then which we have taken of the conduct of the human race, and the consequences of that conduct, we may reasonably conclude, that war will produce famine and pestilence, and that after all violent wars a violent pestilence may be expected, especially if the contending parties interfere with those nations where it is most frequent. Another piece of conduct by which mankind expose themselves to pestilential contagions is, the practice of cooping themselves up in great cities. Mr. Gibbon, speaking of earthquakes, says, that men, though always complaining, frequently bring mischief upon themselves. “The institution of great cities (adds he) which enclose a nation within the limits of a wall, almost realises the wish of Caligula, that the Roman people had but one neck. In these disasters (earthquakes) the architect becomes the enemy of mankind. The hut of a savage, or the tent of an Arab, is thrown down without injury to the inhabitant; and the Peruvians had reason to deride the folly of the Spanish conquerors, who with so much cost and care erected their own sepulchres. The rich marbles of a palace are dashed on its owner’s head, a whole people is buried under the ruins of public or private edifices, and the conflagration is kindled and propagated by innumerable fires necessary for the subsistence and manufactures of a great city.” In plagues, great cities are unquestionably as pernicious as in earthquakes; not indeed by reason of the weight and bulk of the materials, but the confinement of the people within the sphere of infection, and their continual exposure to the causes which prepare the body for receiving it. In fact, it has always been found that plagues begin in cities; and were it not for the multitudes that continually fly out of them there can be no doubt that the mortality would be much greater than it is. The intercourse of many nations with one another, the carrying from one end of the earth to the other of goods capable of bringing with them the infection, must also be supposed a very principal cause of pestilence; but this last will be more fully considered in the next section. At present we may conclude, that, the pestilential contagion having originally fallen upon mankind for their sins, it is still kept alive by the same causes; and, as far as we can conjecture, these sins are, the propensity to murder and destroy which breaks forth in war; the vanity, pride and luxury which produces great cities; and the same vanity, &c. joined with avarice, which gives life to commerce. Add to all this the neglect of the cultivation of the earth, which ought to be the principal business of man. In consequence of this neglect, immense tracts of it are still overrun with woods, covered with stagnant and noxious waters, or lying in waste and now uninhabitable deserts, fit only for serpents and the most destructive animals. Thus the very climate is changed from what it ought to be; the elements become hostile to man in an extreme degree, and the whole system of nature, originally designed to give life and happiness to the human race, is, through their own misconduct, changed into a system of misery, disease and death.
The account just now given of the ways in which mankind bring upon themselves the plague, and other diseases almost equally terrible, is so conformable to the opinions of the learned Dr. Mead, that I shall conclude this section with a few extracts from his works. Of the small pox he says, that he supposes this “to be a plague of its own kind, originally bred in Africa, and more especially in Ethiopia, as the heat is excessive there; and thence, like the true plague, was brought into Arabia and Egypt, after the manner above mentioned” (i. e. by war and merchandise.) “Now (adds he) if any one should wonder why this contagion was so long confined to its native soil, without spreading into distant countries, I pray him to consider, that foreign commerce was much more sparingly carried on in ancient times than in our days, especially between Mediterranean nations; and likewise that the ancients seldom or never undertook long voyages by sea, as we do. And Ludolfus observes, that the Ethiopians in particular were ignorant of mercantile affairs. Therefore when in process of time the mutual intercourse of different nations became more frequent by wars, trade and other causes, this contagious disease was spread far and wide. But, towards the end of the eleventh century, and beginning of the twelfth, it gained vast ground by means of the wars waged by a confederacy of christian powers against the Saracens, for the recovery of the Holy Land; this being the only visible recompense of their religious expeditions, which they brought back to their respective countries.” Of the true plague he says, “It appears, I think, very plainly, that the plague is a real poison, which, being bred in the southern parts of the world, is carried by commerce into other parts of the world, particularly into Turky, where it maintains itself by a kind of circulation from persons to goods; which is chiefly owing to the negligence of the people there, who are stupidly careless in the affair: that, when the constitution of the air happens to favour infection, it rages there with great violence; that at that time, more especially, diseased persons give it to one another, and from them contagious matter is lodged in goods of a soft, loose texture, which, being packed up and carried into other countries, let out, when opened, the imprisoned seeds of the contagion, and produce the disease whenever the air is disposed to give them force; otherwise they may be dissipated without any considerable ill effects. The air of our climate is so far from being ever the original of the true plague, that most probably it never produces those milder infectious distempers, the small pox and measles. For these diseases were not heard of in Europe before the Moors had entered Spain; and, as already observed, they were afterwards propagated and spread through all nations, chiefly by means of the wars with the Saracens. The sweating sickness was most probably of foreign original. It began in the army with which king Henry VII came from France, and landed in Wales; and it has been supposed by some to have been brought from the famous siege of Rhodes, three or four years before, as may be collected from one place of what Dr. Keyes says in his treatise on the disease. We had here the same kind of fever in 1713, about the month of September, which was called the Dunkirk fever, is being brought by our soldiers from that place. This, probably, had its original from the plague which broke out at Dantzick a few years before, and continued some time among the cities of the north.”
I now take leave, for the present, of this subject, which exhibits the conduct of mankind in such a disagreeable view. Some, like M. Millot above quoted, may be apt to suppose that many of the accounts are exaggerated. But it is evident, that in our days it is impossible to determine any thing to be a falsehood, said to have happened in former ages, which is not absolutely contradictory to reason. Every one of the accounts inserted in this section has found a place in the works of historians reckoned authentic, particularly in the Universal History. All who believe the New Testament must certainly believe, from the words of our Saviour, that extraordinary things were to happen in the ages subsequent to his appearance. Can we then discredit the relations of those historians who inform us that extraordinary things have happened? Modern historians, making their own judgments the infallible measure of wisdom, and the strength of nations now existing the ultimate measure of human power, have endeavoured to turn into ridicule every thing which does not precisely accord with these two. In this the French are particularly culpable; accounting every thing to be incredible which exceeds the power of modern France to accomplish, though they certainly do not know even the extent of this power. Of such scandalous vanity we have a notable instance in the works of president Goguet, who positively determines that the walls of ancient Babylon, the pyramids of Egypt, and all the wonderful works of Semiramis, Nebuchadnezzar, &c. were not equal to the canal of Languedoc made by Louis XIV!
SECTION III.
Of Disease in general.—The nature of the Plague as a Disease considered.—Of Contagion.—Whether the Plague is really Contagious or not.—Medical History of the Distemper.—Inquiry into its Immediate Causes, and whether an approaching Plague is indicated by any visible Signs.
HITHERTO we have considered the origin of the plague entirely in a moral point of view. We have seen, that, in conformity to the general opinion of mankind, it may reasonably be supposed to have been inflicted upon mankind, the Jews particularly, for their transgressions; that, having been once introduced, it has been perpetuated, and spread from nation to nation, and that in proportion to the degree of immorality of a certain kind prevailing through the world. From this it is naturally to be inferred, that, were the human race to live at peace with one another, to disperse themselves over the face of the earth for the purpose of improving it by cultivation, and were they to be contented with what the produce of each country affords, there would be no plague among them. But we know that such a reformation is not to be expected, and we must take the world as we find it. The question then is, By what means shall individuals secure themselves from being destroyed by a plague which shall happen to invade any country; or how shall a person, already infected with it, be restored to health? For this purpose let us begin with considering the nature of disease in general, and of the plague particularly.
As to disease in general, physicians have differed very considerably in their definitions; and, though many have been given, few seem to be unexceptionable. That of Dr. Fordyce seems to be among the clearest and most expressive. “Disease (says he) is such an alteration in the chemical properties of the fluids or solids, or of their organization, or of the action of the moving powers, as produces an inability or difficulty of performing the functions of the whole or any part of the system, or pain, or preternatural evacuation.” But as this definition, however just, cannot be easily understood by such as are unaccustomed to medical language, I shall attempt the following explanation of the animal economy, and the diseases to which it is subject.
1. By nature our bodies are formed of certain solid and fluid parts, operating upon one another in a manner of which we know but little. Anatomists have described the structure of the human body and its parts in a certain degree, but have always found themselves lost in an inconceivable minuteness of texture. The whole structure of the human body, visible and invisible, is called its ORGANIZATION.
2. This organized body is acted upon by certain powers residing in the atmosphere, by which it becomes endowed with LIFE.