t also that of 1373 and 1382, speaks moreover
of affections of the throat, and describes the back spots of plague
patients more satisfactorily than any of his contemporaries. The former
appeared but in few cases, and consisted in carbuncular inflammation of
the gullet, with a difficulty of swallowing, even to suffocation, to
which, in some instances, was added inflammation of the ceruminous glands
of the ears, with tumours, producing great deformity. Such patients, as
well as others, were affected with expectoration of blood; but they did
not usually die before the sixth, and, sometimes, even as late as the
fourteenth day. The same occurrence, it is well known, is not uncommon
in other pestilences; as also blisters on the surface of the body, in
different places, in the vicinity of which, tumid glands and inflammatory
boils, surrounded by discoloured and black streaks, arose, and thus
indicated the reception of the poison. These streaked spots were called,
by an apt comparison, the girdle, and this appearance was justly
considered extremely dangerous.

CHAPTER III--CAUSES--SPREAD

An inquiry into the causes of the Black Death will not be without
important results in the study of the plagues which have visited the
world, although it cannot advance beyond generalisation without entering
upon a field hitherto uncultivated, and, to this hour entirely unknown.
Mighty revolutions in the organism of the earth, of which we have
credible information, had preceded it. From China to the Atlantic, the
foundations of the earth were shaken--throughout Asia and Europe the
atmosphere was in commotion, and endangered, by its baneful influence,
both vegetable and animal life.

The series of these great events began in the year 1333, fifteen years
before the plague broke out in Europe: they first appeared in China. Here
a parching drought, accompanied by famine, commenced in the tract of
country watered by the rivers Kiang and Hoai. This was followed by such
violent torrents of rain, in and about Kingsai, at that time the capital
of the empire, that, according to tradition, more than 400,000 people
perished in the floods. Finally the mountain Tsincheou fell in, and vast
clefts were formed in the earth. In the succeeding year (1334), passing
over fabulous traditions, the neighbourhood of Canton was visited by
inundations; whilst in Tche, after an unexampled drought, a plague arose,
which is said to have carried off about 5