The Black Death and The Dancing Mania | Page 7

few
outlived the terrific event, whereby this fertile and blooming island was
converted into a desert. Before the earthquake, a pestiferous wind
spread so poisonous an odour, that many, being overpowered by it, fell
down suddenly and expired in dreadful agonies.
This phenomenon is one of the rarest that has ever been observed, for
nothing is more constant than the composition of the air; and in no
respect has nature been more careful in the preservation of organic life.
Never have naturalists discovered in the atmosphere foreign elements,
which, evident to the senses, and borne by the winds, spread from land
to land, carrying disease over whole portions of the earth, as is
recounted to have taken place in the year 1348. It is, therefore, the more
to be regretted, that in this extraordinary period, which, owing to the
low condition of science, was very deficient in accurate observers, so
little that can be depended on respecting those uncommon occurrences
in the air, should have been recorded. Yet, German accounts say
expressly, that a thick, stinking mist advanced from the East, and
spread itself over Italy; and there could be no deception in so palpable a
phenomenon. The credibility of unadorned traditions, however little
they may satisfy physical research, can scarcely be called in question
when we consider the connection of events; for just at this time
earthquakes were more general than they had been within the range of
history. In thousands of places chasms were formed, from whence
arose noxious vapours; and as at that time natural occurrences were
transformed into miracles, it was reported, that a fiery meteor, which
descended on the earth far in the East, had destroyed everything within
a circumference of more than a hundred leagues, infecting the air far
and wide. The consequences of innumerable floods contributed to the
same effect; vast river districts had been converted into swamps; foul
vapours arose everywhere, increased by the odour of putrified locusts,
which had never perhaps darkened the sun in thicker swarms, and of
countless corpses, which even in the well-regulated countries of Europe,
they knew not how to remove quickly enough out of the sight of the

living. It is probable, therefore, that the atmosphere contained foreign,
and sensibly perceptible, admixtures to a great extent, which, at least in
the lower regions, could not be decomposed, or rendered ineffective by
separation.
Now, if we go back to the symptoms of the disease, the ardent
inflammation of the lungs points out, that the organs of respiration
yielded to the attack of an atmospheric poison--a poison which, if we
admit the independent origin of the Black Plague at any one place of
the globe, which, under such extraordinary circumstances, it would be
difficult to doubt, attacked the course of the circulation in as hostile a
manner as that which produces inflammation of the spleen, and other
animal contagions that cause swelling and inflammation of the
lymphatic glands.
Pursuing the course of these grand revolutions further, we find notice
of an unexampled earthquake, which, on the 25th January, 1348, shook
Greece, Italy, and the neighbouring countries. Naples, Rome, Pisa,
Bologna, Padua, Venice, and many other cities, suffered considerably;
whole villages were swallowed up. Castles, houses, and churches were
overthrown, and hundreds of people were buried beneath their ruins. In
Carinthia, thirty villages, together with all the churches, were
demolished; more than a thousand corpses were drawn out of the
rubbish; the city of Villach was so completely destroyed that very few
of its inhabitants were saved; and when the earth ceased to tremble it
was found that mountains had been moved from their positions, and
that many hamlets were left in ruins. It is recorded that during this
earthquake the wine in the casks became turbid, a statement which may
be considered as furnishing proof that changes causing a decomposition
of the atmosphere had taken place; but if we had no other information
from which the excitement of conflicting powers of nature during these
commotions might be inferred, yet scientific observations in modern
times have shown that the relation of the atmosphere to the earth is
changed by volcanic influences. Why then, may we not, from this fact,
draw retrospective inferences respecting those extraordinary
phenomena?

Independently of this, however, we know that during this earthquake,
the duration of which is stated by some to have been a week, and by
others a fortnight, people experienced an unusual stupor and headache,
and that many fainted away.
These destructive earthquakes extended as far as the neighbourhood of
Basle, and recurred until the year 1360 throughout Germany, France,
Silesia, Poland, England, and Denmark, and much further north.
Great and extraordinary meteors appeared in many places, and were
regarded with superstitious horror. A pillar of fire, which on the 20th of
December, 1348, remained