verted 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 th