Curiosities of Medical Experience Part 43

This specious reasoning, however, is overthrown by observation. In the first instance, this character of the country does not affect its other inhabitants; and secondly, the _goitre_ is found in warm lat.i.tudes, and Mungo Park observed it amongst the Africans of Bambara, on the banks of the Niger. Marsden has also seen it at Sumatra. Moreover, this affection is scarcely ever seen in the mountains, but princ.i.p.ally prevails in the valleys.

It is more than probable that these ill-favoured creatures belong to a particular race; for we must take care not to confound goitre with cretinism, since goitre is common where cretinism is prevalent. It has been remarked that the offspring of the natives of the Valais who intermarry with persons from the Italian side of the Alps, are more subject to goitres than those born of native parents; and that females who have husbands from the higher Alps, seldom have children affected with this infirmity. It is pretty clear that in these observations, goitre and cretinism are confounded.

That these miserable cagots belong to a particular race of men, most probably accidentally degraded in their transmission from our primitive stock, appears most likely. We have sought the derivation of the several terms of contempt and disgust attached to them in different countries, to which migration may have led their parents. Some writers have traced their descent to the Goths and Vandals, thus chastised for their devastations.

Gebelin, Belleforet, and Ramont consider them as descendants of the Visigoths; while Marca, bishop of Couserans, denounces them at once as Jews and Saracens; and other clerical writers have maintained that they are the miserable relicts of the heretic Albigenses who had escaped the holy ma.s.sacres of 1215; although there did exist cagots in the year 1000, in the abbey of St. Luc, as they are described in a _for_ of Navarre, bearing date 1074, and issued by Ramirez.

These helpless beings have also been considered as the offspring of Bohemians and gipsies. Bishop, or rather Senator Gregoire, maintained that they sprung from the hordes of northern barbarians who overran the south of Europe in the third and fourth centuries. Whatever might have been the origin of these poor creatures, they seem to share that ignominious destiny that has marked various races in different countries. The _Agotos_ of Navarre, the _Maragotos_ of Leon, the _Batuecos_ of Castile, the _Wendes_ of Silesia, are all held in as much contempt as the _Parias_ and the _Vaddahs_ of India. Even in Otaheite a degraded caste was found, from which victims were selected to appease Divine wrath, or propitiate their G.o.ds.

The traditional contempt in which certain races are held, a contempt that seems to have affected their physical appearance, may perhaps be traced to the degradation of slavery, that seems to deprive man of all his proud attributes, both in a moral and physical point of view. The effects of tyranny, and the distinctions that oppression has created in the several castes and ranks of mankind, are every where evident. What a difference exists in Scotland between the chieftains and the humbler individuals of their clans!--between the nares of India and their va.s.sals! In France, said Buffon, you may distinguish by their aspect, not only the n.o.bility from the peasantry, but the superior order of n.o.bility from the inferior, these from the citizens, and citizens from the peasants. "The field-slaves in America," observes the enlightened Dr. Smith, "are badly clothed, fed, and lodged, live in small huts in the plantations, remote from the example and society of their superiors. Living by themselves they retain many of the customs and the manners of their ancestors. The domestic servants, on the other hand, who are kept near the persons or employed in the families of their masters, are treated with great lenity, their service is light, they are well fed and clothed. The field-slaves, in consequence of their condition, are slow in changing the aspect and figure of Africa; while the domestic servants have advanced far before them in acquiring the agreeable and regular features, and the expressive countenance, of civilized society. The former are frequently ill-shaped; they preserve in a great degree the African lips, and nose, and hair; their genius is dull, and their countenances sleepy and stupid. The latter are straight and well proportioned; their hair extends to three or four, sometimes even to six or eight inches; the size of their mouth is handsome, their features regular, their capacity good, and their looks animated." Dr. Prichard has also stated that similar changes become visible in the third and fourth generations in the West India islands; and I have seen several negresses in those colonies perfectly beautiful. In the Bahama islands I knew a female slave of the name of Leah, belonging to my late friend Mr.

Commissary Brookes, as black as jet, and descended in the third generation from African parents, whose features would have vied in symmetry with the fairest specimen of the Caucasian race.

Let us not, therefore, seek in snow-water or calcareous impregnations for the causes of deformity and degradation in any unfortunate castes of mankind. Their misery may more probably be traced to the iron rod of despotism, or the oppression of bigotry,--influences that mark out races as abject slaves, or objects of Divine wrath, that ought to be scorned by the wealthy and the powerful, and spurned and persecuted by the faithful and the elect; although, when it has served its purposes, priestcraft has held up the cagot, and the leper, and the idiot, as objects of veneration.

When the tourist, in his Alpine and Pyrenean excursions, meets a wretched cagot, let him pause and contemplate the offspring of slavery, and reflect on what man is, and on what man might be,--nay, on what man _will_ be.

TEMPERAMENTS.

The different prevalent propensities in various individuals, the development of which appeared to be under the influence of a certain and const.i.tutional organization, have received the name of temperaments; or, rather, this term applies to this peculiar organization of the const.i.tution or idiosyncrasy. The Greek physiologists were the first to cla.s.sify these peculiarities, or _temperamenta_,--the _naturae_ of Hippocrates, the _mixturae_ of Galen. They considered organized bodies as an a.s.semblage of elements endowed with different properties, but combined in such manner that their union should const.i.tute a whole, in which none of them should predominate in a healthy condition; but, on the contrary, they were to modify and _temper_ each other, their simultaneous action being directed and controlled by the spirit of life, _spiritus_. It was the due combination of these elements that const.i.tuted a perfect temperament; their aberrancy produced disease of body or of mind.

The ancients divided these elements into cold and hot, dry and moist; from the combination of these principles they cla.s.sified the fluids of the body. The blood was hot and moist, the bile hot and dry, the phlegm cold and damp, and the melancholy cold and dry. This division led to a further cla.s.sification; and temperaments, according to the predominance of these elements, were divided into the _sanguineous_, the _bilious_, the _phlegmatic_, and the _melancholic_.

These supposed radical fluids, influencing the whole animal frame, were dependent upon certain organs for their specific production. The blood was furnished by the heart, the phlegm by the head, the yellow bile by the gall-duct, and the black bile or atrabile,--the principle of melancholy,--by the spleen. Notwithstanding the many revolutions in the doctrine of physiology that have shaken the schools since the days of Hippocrates, this cla.s.sification of his has remained to a certain degree to the present day, and has laid the foundation of all the systems of temperaments, const.i.tutions, and natural characters, that have at various periods been advanced by philosophers; the only novel introduction in this ancient cla.s.sification being the nervous temperament, which, after all, is only a modification of the four other categories.

To ill.u.s.trate the operations of these temperaments, it became necessary to adopt terms expressive of their combination, and _temper_ and _humour_ were adopted. Both are Latin terms; the first, in its original sense, imports mingling, modifying, tempering the four radical fluids, and producing that equilibrious condition of the frame, termed _const.i.tution_.

_Humour_ was derived from the Greek [Greek: chumos], _chumos_; and its radical sense imported moisture, or fluid of any kind. Hence _humid_ and _humidity_. This doctrine of fluidity is still applied to many functions that we cannot otherwise describe, and we talk, although in a figurative manner, of the nervous fluid, the vital fluid; and a good humour, a bad humour, a vein of humour, or a humorous vein, are ill.u.s.trations of peculiar tempers and temperaments,--for temperaments are still distinguished by the same terms applied to them by the ancients, and we describe one man as _choleric_, or bilious, for _choler_ ([Greek: chole]) means bile; another as being _melancholic_; a third of a _sanguine disposition_; and a fourth of a _phlegmatic habit_. The _sanguine_, that imports a predominance of the blood, indicated a warm and ardent exuberance of spirits; whereas the _phlegmatic_, denoting a thin and cold watery fluid, referred to a frigid and spiritless indolence.

We thus see that modern physiology has scarcely advanced this branch of science, for the _nervous temperament_ may be considered as merely a modification of the other ones; and it is more than probable that the old cla.s.sification will long prevail, notwithstanding the ingenuity of modern hypotheses. Husson divided the temperaments into those that referred to the vascular system, to the nervous system, and to the muscular system, with subdivisions applied to regions and to organs; all these temperaments being either natural and primitive, or acquired. Dr. Thomas, of Paris, has founded his arrangement according to the predominance of the head, chest, or abdomen,--or the mental, circulatory, or digestive organs,--and according to the relative bulk and predominance of these three regions will be the relative energy of the mental, muscular, or abdominal functions. Notwithstanding the ingenuity of these systems, the old arrangement, as I have already observed, is likely to prevail; and as Blumenbach observes, that although this division was founded on an imaginary depravation of the elements of the blood, if made to stand alone it will prove both natural and intelligible.

This division I shall therefore endeavour to ill.u.s.trate. In the _sanguineous temperament_ the heart and arteries possess a predominant energy; the pulse is strong, frequent and regular; the veins blue, full, and large; the complexion florid, the countenance animated, the stature erect, the muscular forms marked and firm; the hair of a yellow, auburn, or chestnut colour; the nervous impressions acute, the perception quick, the memory retentive, the imagination lively and luxuriant, the disposition pa.s.sionate but not vindictive, and pa.s.sion is easily appeased; amorous, and fond of conviviality and good cheer.

In this temperament we find athletic strength and fort.i.tude of mind in resisting the power of external agency, with mental tranquillity in the midst of danger; a calmness arising from a consciousness of power, and from less acuteness of external impressions and mental perceptions. Such a man, when roused to action, will endeavour to surmount every physical difficulty; but he will rarely attain pre-eminence in sciences and the fine arts, which require exquisite sensibility and mobility,--qualities seldom met with in such forms as those described by the poets in Hercules and Ajax.

In the _choleric_ or _bilious_ temperament the liver and biliary organs are as redundant in their power as the sanguineous vessels, and, for the most part, at the expense of the excernent or cellulous and lymphatic system. The pulse is strong and hard, but more frequent than in the sanguineous; the veins superficial and projecting; the sensibility extremely acute and easily excited, with a capacity of pondering for a long time on the same object. The skin is sallow, with a tendency to a yellow tinge; the hair black or dark brown; the body moderately fleshy, the muscles firm and well marked, the figure expressive; the temper of the mind abrupt, impetuous, and violent,--bold in the conception of a project, inflexible in its pursuit, persevering and dauntless in its execution.

These are the temperaments that have urged men both to n.o.ble and to execrable deeds. Such were Alexander, Brutus, Mahomet, Cromwell, Charles the Twelfth, Robespierre, Napoleon. All these celebrated characters evinced from their earliest youth the ambitious nature of their dispositions; and though circ.u.mstances might have checked the development of their predominant pa.s.sions, it was also to advent.i.tious circ.u.mstances that they owed their elevation, and the opportunities of displaying their good or evil qualities. Most of these men were irascible, vindictive, and cruel, and equally susceptible of ardent love and mortal hate. In these temperaments we find a mixed exuberance of blood and bile in a constant struggle for predominance.

The _melancholy_ or _atrabilious_ temperament is of a different character.

Here the biliary organs are brought into a constant and a morbid action, while the sanguineous system is weak and irregular. In these gloomy subjects the skin a.s.sumes a sallow, unearthly tinge, the pulse is hard and contracted, the digestive functions torpid and irregular, the imagination is gloomy and full of suspicion, and a dark gloom is shed on all around the morbid sufferer, for such he may be called, since the condition under which he labours may be considered one of disease. These subjects are p.r.o.ne to various monomanias; uncertain, fickle, and oftentimes capriciously cruel. Tiberius and Louis the Eleventh are quoted as examples of this temperament. Many melancholic individuals have displayed great genius, and at the same time great depth of thought. Richerand considers Ta.s.so, Pascal, Zimmermann, and Rousseau as ill.u.s.trating this unhappy disposition.

The fourth temperament is the _phlegmatic_, _lymphatic_, _pituitous_, or _watery_, for all these terms used by different physiologists are synonymous. Here the proportion of fluids is too considerable for that of the solids; hence the body attains a considerable, unwholesome bulk. The muscles are soft and flaccid, the skin fair and transparent, the hair flaxen or sandy, the pulse weak and slow, all the vital actions are languid, the memory little tenacious, and the attention wavering; an insurmountable indolence prevails; and, averse to mental and corporeal exercise, the _far niente_ is their greatest enjoyment, and a nightcap is preferable to a diadem. These subjects are generally good, easy persons; susceptible of kindly feelings, but of a transient nature. Their mind is generally depraved by effeminacy, and their love is purely animal. They are not courageous; yet they show great tranquillity of mind in moments of danger, and would rather quietly sink than struggle with the waves. If their dwelling was on fire, they would calmly walk out of it, but not exert themselves to put down the conflagration; and, when hereditary power places them at the helm of a state, a wreck of the vessel may be speedily expected, unless the sceptre is wrested from their feeble hands by the choleric or the atrabilious enthusiast.

The fifth, or _nervous_ temperament, as I have already stated, may be considered of a complex nature, as it influences the sanguineous as well as the choleric, the melancholy, and the phlegmatic. In this const.i.tution the sentient system predominates, and there exists a great susceptibility to all external impressions. This temperament is generally acquired, and proceeds from a sedentary life, too great an enjoyment of sensual pleasures, and fanciful ideas brought on by romantic readings and romantic thoughts indulged in hours of idleness. The determination of such individuals is prompt, but uncertain; their affections warm for a while, are selfish and fickle; their sensations are vivid, but leave no impressions. Women, especially when educated in boarding-schools, essentially belong to this cla.s.s, and are subject to hysterical and convulsive affections that render them a plague to others and a nuisance to themselves. In man the muscles are small, flabby, and wasted. The nervous may possess much vivacity of conception, but no depth of judgment; and, in general, their productions are as morbid as their mind. This condition frequently attends the melancholy temperament, "that wings the soul, and points her to the skies."

Nervous excitability seldom prevails in the sanguineous const.i.tution, where muscular ma.s.ses are p.r.o.nounced in athletic forms. Hence the sanguineous are not easily brought into action; but, when once roused, their energies are irresistible. This power is beautifully described by Virgil in the conflict between Entellus and Dares; still are these exertions governed by nervous influence, and the result of the excitability and contractibility of the muscular fibre, termed by Chaussier its _myotility_.

Mason Good has very justly observed that these temperaments, or generic const.i.tutions, are perpetually running into each other, and consequently that not one of them, perhaps, is to be found in a state of full perfection in any individual; he further aids this remark by the following ill.u.s.tration: "Strictly speaking, Mr. Pitt and Mr. Fox belonged equally, in the main, to the second temperament; there was the same ardour, genius and comprehensive judgment in both, with a considerable tendency to the sanguineous, and hence with more irritability, but more self-confidence, audacity, and sanguine expectation: the latter, while possessing the same general or bilious temperament, was at the same time more strongly inclined to the lymphatic, and hence his increased corporeal bulk, and with less bold and ardent expectation he possessed one of the sweetest and most benevolent dispositions to be met with in the history of the world. The first was formed to be revered, the second to be beloved; both to be admired and immortalized."

I apprehend that a profound study of human temperaments and propensities may afford a more desirable guide in the education of youth, and the selection of men in the different concerns of life, than that of either physiognomy or phrenology; although the temperament must materially affect the general character of the countenance. Yet, from the apparent prevalence of any temperament we are not to form a rash and hasty judgment in regard to the future capacities or propensities of youth. As one temperament runs into another, and a.s.sumes a complex form, so can education regulate the one that naturally predominates, and modify it by a fusion with another. Thus, the restlessness of the bilious and choleric may be attuned to a phlegmatic state by the power of reason, and the brute courage and audacity of the sanguineous checked by inspiring sentiments of true valour. That every temperament, excepting perhaps the phlegmatic, is capable of displaying bravery, has been well described by Joanna Baillie in the following lines:

The brave man is not he who feels no fear, For that were stupid and irrational; But he whose n.o.ble soul its fear subdues, And bravely dares the danger nature shrinks from.

As for your youth, whom blood and blows delight, Away with them!--there is not in their crew One valiant spirit.

SOLAR INFLUENCE.

While both ancient and modern physiologists were of opinion that the various phenomena of organized bodies were influenced by lunar phases, the power of the solar rays was not less active in regulating our functions both in health and in disease. The name of Phoebus signified the torch of life, and Apollo was the father of medicine and the fine arts. The sun was considered as a deity in most countries, the Supreme Being,--the father of light, Diespiter,--Jupiter, Jehovah, the creator of all living matter,--the residence of the Most High--_In sole posuit tabernaculum suum_, said the Psalmist;--and in Egypt three hundred and sixty-five priests were ordained to watch its heavenly movements during the year, while many philosophers attributed the propagation of the human race to the union of man with the orb of day. The disciples of Plato and Pythagoras considered it as possessing a soul; and Origenus, in his Periarchon, maintained that it displayed both virtues and vices,--an heretical doctrine very properly condemned by the second Synod of Constantinople; and, although St. Augustin was of that opinion, it was warmly combated by St. Basil and St. Ambrose, and many other beatified divines. Anaxagoras, on the contrary, considered this luminary to be a burning stone; Plato called it a compact fire; Aristotle maintained that it was formed of one-fifth of the elements that const.i.tute the planets; Epicurus, a ma.s.s of lava, or ignited pumice-stone; Xenophon a.s.serted that it was fed by exhalations, and Zeno by watery vapours; Empedocles considered it a translucent body; Philolaus, a concave mirror, concentrating the rays of light from every part of the universe to reflect it upon nature. Kepler was of a similar opinion, and further insisted that the sun was composed of a limpid fluid upon which a luminous aether was reflected, whence its centre was blue, while the limbs were yellow. A modern philosopher, Woodward, attempts to show that the sun and fixed stars are ma.s.ses of electric fluid, requiring no alimentation, yielding no smoke, and the light that emanates from them offers the bluish brilliancy of the electric spark. It has been justly observed, that if, like Eudoxus, we endeavoured to approach this luminary, the better to study and describe its nature, we should still remain in impenetrable darkness,--in which I must leave the matter, to confine myself to those influences which experience seems to show that the sun actually exercises on the animal economy.

The genial and invigorating glow that moderate solar heat produces has ever been considered as tending to prolong our life. Hippocrates observed, that old men are double their age in winter, and younger in summer. To enjoy this reviving influence, the ancients had terraces on their house-tops called _solaria_, in which, to use their own expression, they took a solar air-bath. Pliny the younger, in speaking of his uncle, tells us, _Post cib.u.m, aestate, si quid otii, jacebat in sole_. The ancients fancied that when the sun rose diseases declined, and _Levato sole levatur morbus_ became a medical axiom. Aristotle records the case of an innkeeper of Tarentum, who, although able to attend to his business by day, became insane so soon as the sun had set. The moderns relate many similar instances of derangement brought on by the absence of solar influence.

Bouillon mentions a woman who lost her senses at sunset, but who recovered them at break of day. Other cases are recorded of a different nature, when maladies were aggravated by this influence. Sauvage tells us of a woman who became maniacal whenever the sun was at its zenith; an influence that could not be prevented even by various stratagems, such as keeping her in a dark room, and deceiving her in regard to the hour. Humboldt knew a Spanish lady in Madrid who lost her voice the moment the sun dipped in the horizon, but the paralysis of the nerves of the tongue ceased the following morning. A removal to Naples cured this singular affection.

Parham relates the cases of several individuals who were deprived of vision when the sun had set. In a former paper I have alluded to the effects of a vivid flood of light upon the Italian peasantry, as observed by Ramazzini. Daily practice shows us that the paroxysms of fever and various maladies are under a similar influence; and the evening gun in our garrisons is often the signal of severe exacerbation in certain febrile cases, while the _reveillee_ develops acute aggravation in others.

Sydenham and Floyer had observed that the gout and asthma were usually ushered in after our first sleep; and I have noticed that, during the prevalence of the cholera, the invasion of this fatal disorder generally occurred towards daybreak. The ancients divided their elementary predominance according to the diurnal cycle: thus, morning regulated the blood, noon the bile, evening the atrabile, and night the cold phlegmatic influence. Nor was this arrangement unnatural; we more or less observe it in a state of health, when man awakes refreshed and active at morn; towards noon his train of thoughts becomes more serious and busy; in the evening his mind is more gloomy and susceptible of unpleasant impressions; until night either sheds its poppies o'er his couch, or agitates his frame with its fearful dreams. The repose of night is ever more refreshing than that of day, however we may have changed the natural applications of our hours, and find, as Seneca said of Roman civilization, that _antipodes habemus in urbe_. The influence of night and day is equally observable in animals. Towards evening myriads of insects, who had shunned the solar heat, hum around us; while night calls forth its choristers; and as they cease to sing other creatures proclaim the dawn. Some animals, such as the _simia beelzebud_, and the _simia seniculus_, salute both the setting and the rising sun with fearful howls; and it may be considered as a law of nature, that we cannot turn night into day with impunity.

Dr. Balfour's opinion on the influence of the heavenly bodies is of great weight: he conceives that the influence of the sun and moon when in a state of conjunction, which he names solar-lunar influence, produces paroxysms or exacerbations in continued fever, in all cases at least where paroxysms are observable. As this influence declines in consequence of the gradual separation of these luminaries from each other, and their getting into a state of opposition, a way is left open for a critical and beneficial change; in other words, that paroxysms and exacerbations in fever may be expected to take place at spring-tides, and crises at neap-tides.

It has been observed in intermitting fevers, that paroxysms of the quotidian recur in the morning, the tertian at noon, and the quartan in the afternoon; in no instance do they take place at night.

There can be no doubt that lunation, more especially in tropical climes, influences diseases; but the effects of insolation are every where observable. One of the most serious accidents resulting from this exposure is the _ictus solis_, the _coup de soleil_ of the French, and the [Greek: siriasis] of the Greeks, from the star _Sirius_, to whose influence they attributed the scorching heat of the dog-days. This attack is in general sudden, and the patient falls down as if struck with a blow on the head.

Troops on a march, and labourers in the field, frequently are the victims of this solar power, which usually kills them on the spot. It has been known to destroy great numbers. In Pekin, from the 14th of July to the 25th, in the year 1743, it is related that eleven thousand persons were struck dead. On a hot day's march in Portugal, I lost six men in a brigade under my charge. They first reeled as if under the influence of liquor, and then fell dead with a slight convulsive struggle. One of them, the batman of the paymaster of the 3rd foot, or Buffs, was struck dead while speaking to me. A great number of greyhounds perished on the same march; but no other species of dog seemed to suffer, although we had many pointers and spaniels with us. Horses, mules, and cattle were also exempt from the attack, though it proved fatal to some weak donkeys who were following the troops. The shakos worn by our army are well calculated to preserve the soldier from these accidents, to which troops are constantly exposed during summer operations.

SWEATING FEVER.

This disastrous pestilence, which proved, if possible, more fatal and terrific than the cholera, made its first appearance in London, in 1480 or 1483, first showing itself in the army of Henry VII. on his landing at Milford Haven. In London it only broke out a year or two after, and visited that capital occasionally for upwards of forty years. It then spread to Holland, Germany, Belgium, Flanders, France, Denmark, and Norway, where it continued its ravages from 1525 to 1530; it then returned to England, and was observed for the last time in 1551.

Dr. Caius calls it a pestilential fever of one day; and it prevailed, he says, with a mighty slaughter, and the description of it was as tremendous as that of the plague of Athens. Dr. Willis states that its malignity was so extreme, that as soon as it entered a city it made a daily attack on five or six hundred persons, of whom scarcely one in a hundred recovered.

This malignant fever ran its course in a single paroxysm; and the cold fit and hot fit were equally fatal. If the patient was fortunate enough to reach the sweating stage, he was in general saved. It commenced its attack with a pain in the muscles of the neck, shoulders, legs, and arms, through which a warm aura seemed to creep; after these symptoms a profuse perspiration broke forth. The internal organs grew gradually hot and burning, the pungent heat extending to the extremities; with an intolerable thirst, sickness soon followed by jact.i.tation, coma, and delirium. At Shrewsbury it raged for seven months, and carried off upwards of one thousand patients. The invasion of this terrific disorder was generally preceded by a thick noisome fog, especially in Shropshire. A dark cloud usually took the lead, and the distemper followed its course.

It is somewhat singular, but most fatal contagions have been ushered in, both in ancient and modern times, by noxious fogs or mists, with clouds of various insects, either bending their course in innumerable bodies, covering vegetation, or falling in dead heaps upon the ground. The disease was generally supposed to arise from inclement seasons and injured grain; particularly wheat infested with the mildew or s.m.u.t, or rye attacked with the spur. It was observed by Dr. Willan, that the contemporary inhabitants of Scotland and Wales, who fed on barley and oats, were not affected.

One of the most singular features of this malady was its only attacking the English. Foreigners, and even the Scotch and Irish, in England, seemed to be exempted from this scourge, which attacked the monarch himself, and two Dukes of Suffolk, who sunk under its virulence. In Westminster the number of daily deaths averaged one hundred and twenty. It may be easily imagined that this special liability of Englishmen to contract the disease was attributed to Divine wrath for their manifold offences; and we find the following lines in Phemtophius:

Coelestia numina n.o.bis Nil sunt quam nugae, fabula, verba, jocus: Inde fames n.o.bis, pestes, Mars; denique fontem Hinc etiam inclemens [Greek: idoonretos] habet, Saevum, horrendum, atrox genus immedicabile morbi, Nostrae perfidiae debitum.

Dr. Armstrong has also recorded this peculiar visitation in the following:

Some, sad at home, and, in the desert, some, Abjur'd the fatal commerce of mankind.

In vain: where'er they fled, the Fates pursued.

Others, with hopes more specious, cross'd the main, To seek protection in far distant skies; But none they found. It seemed, the general air From pole to pole, from Atlas to the East, Was then at enmity with English blood; For, but the race of England, all were safe In foreign climes; nor did this Fury taste The foreign blood which England then contained.

That the atmosphere was saturated by this disease was obvious from the circ.u.mstance of vast numbers of birds falling dead, when, upon examination, pestilential swellings were found under their wings. Schiller attributed the disease to sideral influence. England, however, was not the only country where the wrath of Heaven was considered as having fulminated this scourge! and at Marburg it had such an effect, that it actually put an end to the violent disputes between Luther and Zuingle concerning the Eucharist, and which were on the eve of kindling a religious war.