Though this was not asking in direct terms whether the plague is infectious or not, all to whom it was proposed seem to have viewed it in this light, Raymond of Marseilles only excepted, who answered directly, “Sometimes it is.” All the rest, except Giovanelli, agreed that it might be communicated by the touch, or by the breath. Verdoni gave an instance of its being communicated by a flower which three persons smelt at; two remained free, but the third sickened and died in twenty-four hours.
2. Does the plague ever rise spontaneously?
In this Verdoni alone answered positively in favour of the spontaneous rise of the plague. They spoke ambiguously.
3. To what distance is the air infected? How far does actual contact, wearing infected clothes, or touching other things, produce the disease?
To this question Verdoni answered in a manner seemingly inconsistent with his former answer; allowing not only that the plague was infectious, but that infected things might communicate the disease after an interval of many years. All agreed that the strength of the infection was greater or less according to circumstances; the distance at which it could act was likewise uncertain. Raymond said that the sick might be safely conversed with, across a barrier, at a few paces distance; the Jew said at two ells distance, provided the chamber windows be not all shut. Giovanelli said it had been proved that the infection did not extend beyond five geometrical paces. The touch of infected clothes, or drawing in the breath of the sick, was looked upon by him and Fra. Luigi to be very dangerous.
4. What are the seasons in which the plague chiefly appears; and what is the interval between the infection and the disease?
To this it was answered by Raymond, that the two solstices are the times in which it has least power. The others agreed that hot and moist weather was favourable to its ravages; the spring, summer and first month of autumn are dreaded. These circumstances, however, must be variable in different countries. As to the time in which the infection shows itself, the answer was various. According to They, it “sometimes acts slowly, sometimes like a stroke of lightning.” According to Verdoni, “the disease generally shows itself at the instant of touch, like an electrical shock.” Sometimes the infection will be communicated from a sick person to a sound one, who without any disease may communicate it to a second, and that second to a third, in whom alone it would become active.
The other questions, relative to the symptoms, prevention and cure of the distemper, will be taken notice of in the course of the treatise. In the mean time having discussed, with a prolixity almost exceeding our bounds, such preliminaries as seemed most likely to throw some light on the nature of the distemper, we shall now proceed to the medical history of the plague, as we find it laid down in different authors.
Though this distemper has most frequently been accounted a fever in the highest degree, yet, as we have already noticed, it seems to be essentially different.[99] The testimonies there quoted are sufficient to establish the fact; and, were it needful, many others might be brought from authors both ancient and modern. In the plague said to have taken place in the days of Romulus,[100] Plutarch relates, that the people died without any sickness. To this very ancient testimony we shall add that of Dr. Patrick Russel, who closes the account of his first class of patients with the following paragraph: “That the plague, under a form of all others the most destructive, exists without its characteristic eruptions, or other external marks reckoned pestilential, can admit of no doubt; and it is to be regretted that mankind have so often, from the absence of these, been betrayed into errors of fatal consequence on its first invasion; at which early period human prudence can only be exerted in the way of defence with any probability of success.”
The symptoms of this fatal disease were sometimes a sudden loss of strength, confusion or weight in the head, giddiness at intervals, oppression about the præcordia, dejection of spirits, taciturnity, an anxious aspect, but without any symptoms of fever. In these, death ensued within twenty-four hours; some were said to have died within a few hours, but our author saw none of these, and is inclined to doubt the truth of the accounts, having in several instances, where this is said to have happened, found upon inquiry that matters had been inaccurately stated, and that the patients had really been ill one or two days.