THE DISEASE.
The most memorable example of what has been advanced, is afforded by a great pestilence of the fourteenth century, which desolated Asia, Europe, and Africa, and of which the people yet preserve the remembrance in gloomy traditions. It was an oriental plague, marked by inflammatory boils and tumours of the glands, such as break out in no other febrile disease. On account of these inflammatory boils, and from the black spots, indicatory of a putrid decomposition, which appeared upon the skin, it was called in Germany and in the northern kingdoms of Europe,the Black Death, and in Italy, la Mortalega Grande,the Great Mortality[4].
Few testimonies are presented to us respecting its symptoms and its course, yet these are sufficient to throw light upon the
form of the malady, and they are worthy of credence, from their coincidence with the signs of the same disease in modern times.
The imperial writer, Kantakusenos
[5]
, whose own son, Andronikus, died of this plague in Constantinople, notices great imposthumes
[6]
of the thighs and arms of those affected, which, when opened, afforded relief by the discharge of an offensive matter. Buboes, which are the infallible signs of the oriental plague, are thus plainly indicated, for he makes separate mention of smaller boils on the arms and in the face, as also in other parts of the body, and clearly distinguishes these from the blisters
[7]
, which are no less produced by plague in all its forms. In many cases, black spots
[8]
broke out all over the body, either single, or united and confluent.
These symptoms were not all found in every case. In many, one alone was sufficient to cause death, while some patients recovered, contrary to expectation, though afflicted with all. Symptoms of cephalic affection were frequent; many patients became stupified and fell into a deep sleep, losing also their speech from palsy of the tongue; others remained sleepless and without rest. The fauces and tongue were black, and as if suffused with blood; no beverage would assuage their burning thirst, so that their sufferings continued without alleviation until terminated by death, which many in their despair accelerated with their own hands. Contagion was evident, for attenda
