The Epidemics of the Middle Ages

I i 1^-77^ * * . % is THE JPID E M I C S “ s S' T* OF THE f*- *v«* r ** • «r MIDDLE AGES: FROM THE GERMAN OF >*>’ '\C- *”S "w I. F. C. HECKER, M.D. PROFESSOR AT FREDERICK WILLIAM’S UNIVERSITY AT BERLIN, AND MEMBER OF VARIOUS LEARNED SOCIETIES IN BERLIN, BONN. COPENHAGEN, ERLANGEN, HANAU, LONDON, LYONS, METZ, NAPLES. NEW YORK, PHILADELPHIA, AND ZURICH. TRANSLATED BY B. G. BABINGTON, M.D. F.R.S. SECOND EDITION. LONDON: PRINTED FOR SHERWOOD, GILBERT, & PIPER, PATERNOSTER ROW. 1835 . Dr. BABINGTON’S Translation of “ HECKER’S BLACK DEATH,” having passed into the hands of the present Proprietors, they beg to announce that the “ DANCING MANIA,” by the same Author, is also now published. These Works, together with the “ ENGLISH SWEATING SICKNESS,” which will appear with as little delay as possible, form a complete Series of the prin- cipal Epidemics of the Middle Ages ; and thus an authentic Account of the greatest natural calamities on record is presented to the pro- fessional and general reader, and an important desideratum in medical history supplied. PATERNOSTER- ROW, Feb. 1835. No. I. THE BLACK DEATH IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. ERRATA. Page 35, line 3, omit to — 72, — 4, for inumerable, read innumerable. — 81, — 9, note, for begun, read began. — 116, — for civitalen read 19, , civitatem. — 122 — insert ax. , 16, — 124, — 5, for tooth, read smooth. — 131, The stops in the last sentence should be commas. — 179, line 4, inverted double commas wanting at the begin- ning and end. \ CONTENTS. Translator’s Preface ..... i Preface ix Chapter I. —General Observations . 1 Chapter II.—The Disease .... 4 Chapter III. —Causes— Spread . 28 Chapter IV.—Mortality 54 Chapter V.—Moral Effects ... 82 Chapter VI.— Physicians .... 128 Appendix — I. —The Ancient Song of the Flagellants . 172 II. — Trial of the Jews ac- cused of poisoning the Wells 181 III —Extracts from “A Boke or Counseill against the Sweate or Swea- tyng Sicknesse” . 191 TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE. In reading Dr. Hecker’s account of the Black Death which destroyed so large a portion of the human race in the fourteenth century, I was struck, not only with the peculiarity of the Author’s views, but also with the interesting nature of the facts which he has collected. Some of these have never before been made generally known, while others have passed out of mind, being effaced from our memories by subsequent events of a similar kind, which, though really of less magnitude and im- portance, have, in the perspective of time, appeared greater, because they have oc- curred nearer to our own days. Dreadful as was the pestilence here de- scribed, and in few countries more so than in England, our modern historians only slightly allude to its visitation: — Hume 11 deems a single paragraph sufficient to de- vote to its notice, and Henry and Rapin are equally brief. It may not then be unacceptable to the medical, or even to the general reader, to receive an authentic and somewhat detailed account of one of the greatest natural calamities that ever afflicted the human race. My chief motive, however, for translating this small work, and at this particular period, has been a desire that, in the study of the causes which have produced and propagated general pestilences, and of the moral effects by which they have been fol- lowed, the most enlarged views should be taken. The contagionist and the anti-contagionist may each find ample support for his belief in particular cases ; but in the construction of a theory sufficiently com- prehensive to explain throughout the origin and dissemination of universal disease, we .shall not only perceive the insufficiency of either doctrine, taken singly, but after ad- mitting the combined influence of both. Ill shall even then find our views too narrow, and be compelled, in our endeavours to explain the facts, to acknowledge the existence of unknown powers, wholly uncon- nected either with communication by con- tact or atmospheric contamination. I by no means wish it to be understood, that I have adopted the author's views re- specting astral and telluric influences, the former of which, at least, I had supposed to have been, with alchemy and magic, long since consigned to oblivion; much less am I prepared to accede to his notion, or rather an ancient notion derived from the East and revived by him, of an organic life in the system of the universe. We are constantly furnished with proofs, that that which affects life is not itself alive; and whether we look to the earth for exhalations, to the air for electrical phenomena, to the heavenly bodies for an influence over our planet, or to all these causes combined, for the form- ation of some unknown principle noxious to animal existence, still, if we found our b * I IV reasoning on ascertained facts, we can perceive nothing throughout this vast field for physical research which is not evidently governed by the laws of inert matter, nothing which resembles the regular suc- cession of birth, growth, decay, death, and regeneration, observable in organized beings. To assume, therefore, causes of whose existence we have no proof, in order to account for effects which, after all, they do not explain, is making no real advance in knowledge, and can scarcely be considered otherwise than an indirect method of con- fessing our ignorance. Still, however, I regard the author’s opinions, illustrated as they are by a series of interesting facts diligently collected from authentic sources, as, at least, worthy of examination before we reject them, and valuable, as furnishing extensive data on which to build new theories. I have another, perhaps I may be allowed to say a better, motive for laying before my countrymen this narrative of the sufferings V of past ages,— that by comparing them with those of our own time, we may be made the more sensible how lightly the chas- tening hand of Providence has fallen on the present generation, and how much reason, therefore, we have to feel grateful for the mercy shewn us. The publication has, with this view, been purposely somewhat delayed, in order that it might appear at a moment when it is to be presumed that men’s thoughts will be especially directed to the approaching hour of public thanksgiving, and when a knowledge of that which they have escaped, as well as of that which they have suffered, may tend to heighten their devotional feelings on that solemn occasion. When we learn that, in the fourteenth century, one quarter, at least, of the popu- lation of the old world was swept away in the short space of four years, and that some countries, England among the rest, lost more than double that proportion of their inhabitants in the course of a few months, b* * VI we may well congratulate ourselves that our visitation has not been like theirs, and shall not justly merit ridicule, if we offer our humble thanks to the “ Creator and Preserver of all mankind” for our de- liverance. Nor would it disgrace our feelings, if, in expiation of the abuse and obloquy not long since so lavishly bestowed by the public, we should entertain some slight sense of grati- tude towards those members of the com- munity, who were engaged, at the risk of their lives and the sacrifice of their personal interests, in endeavouring to arrest the pro- gress of the evil, and to mitigate the sufferings of their fellow men. I have added, at the close of the Appen- dix, some extracts from a scarce little work “ in black letter, called A Boke or Counseill against the Disease commonly called the Sweate or Sweatyng Sicknesse,” published by Caius in 1552. This was written three years before his Latin treatise on the same subject, and is so quaint, and, at the same / ; time, so illustrative of the opinions of his day, and even of those of the fourteenth century, on the causes of universal diseases, that the passages which I have quoted will not fail to afford some amusement as well as in- struction. If I have been tempted to reprint more of this curious production than was necessary to my primary object, it has been from a belief that it would be generally ac- ceptable to the reader to gather some particu- lars regarding the mode of living in the six- teenth century, and to observe the author’s animadversions on the degeneracy and cre- dulity of the age in which he lived. His advice on the choice of a medical attendant cannot be too strongly recommended, at least by a 'physician and his warning against quackery, particularly the quackery of painters, quaere score who “scorne ( ?) you behind your backs with their medicines, so filthy that I am ashamed to name them,” seems quite prophetic. In conclusion, I beg to acknowledge the obligation which I owe to my friend Mr. viii H. E. Lloyd, whose intimate acquaintance with the German language and literature will, I hope, be received as a sufficient pledge that no very important errors re- main in a translation which he has kindly revised. PREFACE. We here find an important page of the history of the world laid open to our view. It treats of a convulsion of the human race, unequalled in violence and extent. It speaks of incredible disasters, of despair and unbridled demoniacal passions. It shews us the abyss of general licentiousness, in consequence of an universal pestilence, which extended from China to Iceland and Greenland. The inducement to unveil this image of an age, long since gone by, is evident.

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