| Show HISTORIC HIS T 0 R C SCOURGES SCOURGE'S S C 0 U R G E. E S III THE ilL-THE THE SWEATING SICKNESS S B Bv By F Frederic Frederi J. J Haskin Hakin I I It ft wait undoubtedly undo popularly popular Included under tinder tho the generic name nam WHILE W of If the tho plague which devastated from the fourteenth to the lie sixteenth centuries the tho sweating s sas a n distinct with Its own olvo peculiar symptoms IU Its deadly virulence viru virti- lence and the comparative c briefness of or Its It fatal course courso In Individual CUSPS cases g Death often t d Ill In iii four or five Irr hours hour while the tho usual visual seizure lasted Fr not nol longer longcr thour thou than r j twenty fo Five great rea t visita visitations ta aro chronicled chron chron- r In European I f. f S S annals In the thc years yearn arH S 1185 1155 1506 1106 1517 15 1528 S Sand and 1551 Tho The countries coun coun- tries comprising th tile the 1134 norl northeastern h part of or the tho continent wore most affected y Very young oun and ii as very cry old persons emeil to escapeS escape S e S Infection Tho The great cat 5 toll tt death wa was levied on men of or middle ago O In tn all walks of or orIe Ie who were of ot n a full ull or corpulent habit Climatic In Influence In- In fluence was thought to bo ho Involved Involved- damp foggy or marshy marsh countries being Ing i most severely sc swept For these reasons tho tIlo scourge was worst felt In Ia Genus Germany Gennan ny Denmark Holland Sweden dEn and d Norway and nd around the thc nOli mouths Ihs or courses coures ot of great rivers like the tho the Thames Thomes the lie Elbe lube und and the Scheidt Also Englishmen were cre attacked In vast hordes chiefly n It was thought ClU o of or their s-ro s gross habits habit of ot eating and drinking largo large quantities of animal food and fermented However this tIllS may he Fn certainly suffered the great Kt mortality from tile the sweating sickness Its itu ravages 13 on tho tile mainland bo- bo In lug comparatively light h by contrast As AR In tho tio cas-ca cas of the thio plague and tho the black death tho the utter titter abo absence of or all sanitation san sanS on oil the part rt of or tho people popl rich nich richand and poor la lach ch accounted for the various various vari earl ous outbreaks Of domestic drainage or oi sou sn ra erase o there was ab absolutely none either In castle or hovel ho Every village hall hail Us Its festering heaps of ot ordure sometimes some somo times In tho ho main street stagnant and putrid water waler accumulated In pools ev cv everywhere e and the thc sense of ot smell was wan as as' assaIled assailed 31 sailed h by foul odors which the tile well to do tic endeavored orr to dispel alon along with the borl body emanations emanation duo duc to pcr personal onal by the lavish use uro of ot artificial scents scent and anc perfumery such uch as musk ambergris and civet ft Fit conditions these for the tho breeding of or deadly fevers fe The Thc name nante sweating sickness sickness'S was do do- rived in the quaint language of or the time lime because CRI P. P it did lid most consist In from the beginning until the tho ending and it first t began hegan In England II it was vas nam named rt In other countries 8 the tIle English Eng Ena lish sweat It was vas al also known aa as the thi pestilent sweat eAt anti and an the English merit mcra The Tho symptoms of the tho attack be began bean begun be- be gun gan an with fever fr ever and Intense pain palo in the back hack loins shoulders and limbs came camo flushes of or heat oppression In the tho abdomen n headache delirium palpitation of or the tho heart drowsiness R coma and anti dc death ath Occasionally profuse e sweating set let in midway mid wa way which in some Mme cases led I d to convalescence eon con and recovery recovers Those stricken en wc were re liable to one or mor Nearly all those Infected died and th the consequent mortality Was Ws appalling Scarcely on one In a hundred that hat were werf attacked at at tacked escaped with life 11 but bul where de death th did lid not result in twenty four hours hourI th thit the danger langel from that attack ceased td and epidemics epi I rarely lasted more mOra than thirty da lays days It was called a rheumatic fever In the mo most t exquisite form forn that has ever been seen yet ct In tho the world Oth claimed th that t It was Val a t form of Influenza or catarrhal fever e while Dr GU Guy defined It Jt a RII as being of a malarial nature an ague tUI with short febrile and sweating stages often malignant and fatal In the th first 01 or congestive p period The Tile consisted con III slated t d of or r rest rent lIt blanketing warm nit air and warm drinks drink to promote and hasten haston I r. r Though tile the patients suffered In untold told agonies from Internal fever and burning pains pain anything in tho the shape shapo ol or refrigeration either b by cooling drink ot or bandages brought on Immediate collapse and death The sweating sickness first t appeared In the tile sultry month of or August Auguet 1485 In Ia Inthe Inthe the army of Henry VII lI then encamped near Milford South Wales shortly after the arrival nl of ot the troops from Franc In Ia Ina a a. few weeks the tho pest spread to London Two lord lorel mayors mayor of or the tho city and nix lib al aldermen aldermen oh al- dermen died within a week Raging all through the thc autumn months month many thousands thousand thou sands sand died the tho physIcians physician and leeches If of ol the time lime heln being powerless to check it its ravages On New Years Year's da day a violent st swept over pr the tha south ol of England which was popularly supposed to hate hac blown the tho pestilence out to sea pea s oa Another visitation of ot the sweating sickness sIckness sick sIck- n ness came conic In the summer of or 1506 but this tills idle the tho mortality W was I not very ety se so- le- le rious rlou It reappeared In England In 1617 1517 breaking out In London In a most virulent form This time the scourge was so 10 rapid and deadly that lint It carried off ote those who were ere attacked In Ir three or four hours hour Among the poor few fw escaped and th the ranks of or the thc ruling CI classes and t the hI nobility Wc were rc greatly Uy thinned Scarcely a town In England escaped In man many of or them full a third and nd even eyen a half of at the inhabitants inhabitant were swept away during the six months' months reign of or thin tho terror Again in May Ja 1528 1525 tho the sweating sickness sickness sick sick- ness nells broke out In London spreading rapidly over the whole kingdom Fourteen Fourteen Four Four- Fourteen teen months later hater It brought H a scene ol of horror upon all the nations of ot northern o scarcely equalled d during an any other epidemic This seizure was called calle great mortality b by hi tho the chroniclers of the time but what was as the thc pt Percentage percentage n tage of deaths I is I. unknown King ICing Henry VIII showed his heroism by personally visiting th the most sorely ly stricken districts of his realm re-alm anI anti and heartening hi hIs hlA afflicted subjects In lii the ensuing summer of l th the scourge o died out In England but suddenly sudden sudden- nh n. n I ly h appeared In Hamburg where died The rhe cities ItIs of or Lubeck Lubek k Stettin Co Cologne I and Hanover Hano were tere next at- at j tacked In September Holland Denmark Denmark Den Den- mark Norway and amI Sweden were ero scourged d whence the thA sickness spread In Into In to RU Russia lIla Poland and Livonia But Dut In three months the disease c disappeared although h c even cn n In that short time the mortality had be ben been enormous For twenty three years tIm the sweating sickness lay hay dormant or Ot entirely pearld Then In April of at 1551 It sudden sudden- I Iv lv hurst burst forth with great greaL fur fury fun at Shrews Shrews- bury bur England n I-n and with such virulence that thai within a few days nearly 1000 robust were carried oft otT men heads of or families tho the dillea disease o spread over tho who whole of l- l ln following the val viii- valleys England n seemingly l leys heys of or the thc great reat rivers ers such as the Sev era ern tho Ouse the Thames and tho the Avon The historians declare that this ibis tho ho or ot the me disorder r caused a a. depopulation kingdom dom yet ct by September r all ull danger seems to have a ac parsed c. c d. d and by hy ho late bite autumn had hall vanished forever er from the tile earth It ii has never r reappeared The curious fact remains to bo be chronicled chronicled chroni chroni- this lal- lal lat latter cled clod that It wu wits observed during ter visitation that the tho sweating 8 sickness Invariably In spared t f foreigners reiners sojourning In England while of or Englishmen abroad few escaped Infection or death dath Profuse sweating of ot course mil may bo be a symptom of or other oilier dl diseases such as ever rc and thud a agite cholera arid and yellow fever There Ther are also abro still occasionally m punt met t with Ith case of blood s c sweat t which as ns tho the name namo uno Implies consists of thin exudations of blood Nood and water through tho the pores of the skin Sweating Is also allo often orten brought on oil methodically and medically b by means menns of lr If for tor pure purely benign purposes and the virtue of or a a. sweating treatment Is well vell reco recognized In our called so-called Turkish and Russian baths and at certain of or the Iho European cures Indeed In tho the reign o ot of Queen Anne sweating hou houses housed eH were a awell awell well known public Institution In common uso 1150 In London a as a means to a curative process In lit c certain humors of the thc Ia da day But with these thes recognized limitations limitation tho the sweating sickness like the lie dance danco o of d death uth and nd or wolf madness ha Ibis has not come back nor Is 18 It likely to Tho reasons are arc not far tar to seek As W we have seen cn the sweating sickness largely or wholly duo due to local causes cause K or t to 10 personal onal habits of or those seized Medical authorities aro are generally n agreed reed that tha with our b bettor better antI and more hygienic l Il living n 1 modern quarantine regulations better an and more Intelligent nursing and the elimination among nations nation of If those gross ross practices of ot eating and drinking drinking- to In excess which th the middle a ages there Is hI very ary little chance chanc that nn any such virulent scourge o us its the tile thew I sweating w a ling sickness could ever r ns n's reappear r among mankind or gain gaul a foothold anywhere any any- where I Mond Monday Monday HIstoric ly Historic Scourges IV IV Smallpox Smallpox |
