Show G1U PLAGUES V Dora THB EARTH GROW SICK IOUS I-OUS SPECULATIONS This it I a queatien a ked und partially par-tially answered hy the writer in a recent English magazine WDO proto eeds pro-to show tnut tub epidemics aa the plague of ancient timea and the cholera ol a more modern era are always heralded by peculiar pbenom due and sometimes by earthquakes and volcanic eruptions He sums up bit argument hy l remarkm t Those appalling clouJe or fogs which frequently herald too coming of I the plague UU tgb most noted for the ddrkoei8 wbicb they produce sometimes give sensible indication of their morbific influence In the plague in tbe year 262 when 5000 persons died daily at Borne Dueebiua states that the air was so corrupt as to form on objects a mould resembling tbe turbid dew on dead bodies Impressions of curious figures fig-ures on doors garments and other articles were noticed during tbe plagues of 532 and 600 and of like nature ware the crlfc cut which were beheld with superstitions horror in I the pesti cote of 746 A atmkmg miat was noticed during the visitation visita-tion ol the Blaok Death tbs fatal ilgina Moligna among cattle in 1662 was attended by a blue miat of dew on the herbage and pastures and the cholera mist at Dantzic in the present pres-ent century hada disagreeable smell and taste so that those who were exposed ex-posed to it were forced to wish their mouths with water In the case of these fetid mists and depositions of mold the air evidently contains deleterious mattereither from its own disorganization or decomposition composition or from noxious exhalations exhala-tions which are given forth from the earth It is wellknown that various exhalations occasionally take place during earthquakes Seneca states that a vapor caused by an earthquake in Calabria destroyed 6000 head of beep During the eruptions Italy in 1329 every species ol animal including eluding the birds of the air perished in great numbers In like manner the earthquake of Jamaica in 1690 produced a General sickness so that 3000 parcns of those who had sur survived the earthquake perished by the subsequent pestilence Among the well recorded instances of this escape or belching forth the vapors from the earth during earthquakes is stated that at Cairo during the earthquake of 1775 the river opened and seemed to discharge an immense quantity of air manifestly gasses which burst forth frorrijthe earth by momentary crevices in the bed of the river Previous to the earthquake in Cal abria in 1618j the sea wore a very unusual appearance those who hare seen a lake during a violent shower of rain Bass Father Kircher may have an idea of this very extraordinary extraordi-nary agitation of the seas surface As there was neither wind nor rain at the time the phenomenon could only be ascribed to an escape of air or gaseous vapors from the bottom of the sea A similar phenomenon has been observed during the visitations of pestilence the surface of ponds becoming muddledor bubbling from the escape of vapor which would be inviaibe when taking place on solid land An instance of this kind was observed at Havre in August 1832 when the cholera prevailed in France The citadel Havre is surrounded by a deep ditch or fosse and it was observed ob-served by many peesons that the water in the fosse suddenly changed its color and became exceedingly rmuddy when bubbles of air rose up quickly to the surface causing an appearance ap-pearance of ebulition At the same time the fish chiefly eels which usually remain at the bottom were eeen to spring above the surface of the water with a convulsive move mentand then to drop againlanguid and heavy and in a few hours the surface of the fosse was covered with dead fish The adjoining sea was likewise affected by the poisonous influence in-fluence for the shore was covered with a quantity of dead fiah It waa immediately after thii phenomenon that the cholera broke out in Havre flu u iiiiau the auuuiga ui a great yes tilence falls on the human species it i is too often the case that the beasts of the fieldlhe fish of the sea and river and even the plants and crops of thee the-e rth are affected to an unusual extent ex-tent with disease Webster baa remarked re-marked that pestilence murrain and famine occur simultaneously This was certainly the case as regards the earliest great pestilence of which we have a record for aa stated in scrip tare the plague of blotches and blains murrain of beasts and the blight producing a dearth of corn an visited Europe In close succession Let us note some other instances In A D 1222 a pestilence which destroyed des-troyed 100000 persons raged in Scotland Scot-land and simultaneously multitudes of dead fish were washed ashore on British coasts In 1249 Bays Webster Web-ster moral disease prevailed and < authors relate that the fish on the English coast had a battle ia which eleven whales and a multitude of other fisb were slain and cast ashore The cause to which this phenomenon phenome-non was ascribed he adds although al-though ludicrous enough is important ntj for it strengthens modern obaet Tationthat when pestilential dieease prevail onthe surface of the earihfish often perish beneath the waters During the Blaok Deathespecially t a pestilential influence affected all kinda of the lower animals as well as man A fatal murrain broke outant tin England 8000 sheep died in one pasture alone and in this case as also during the murrain in West Af rOl it is said that both the birds and beasts of prey refrain from touching the carcasses At the same time immense I I im-mense quantities of dead fish were cast ashore whose bodies were found to be covered with blotches The birds of the air likewise died And DimerDroeok also states that whenever when-ever the birds confined to their cages died the inhabitants of the house were invariably attacked shortly after by the plague It seems as though the cause of the grand epidemicsthat from time to time desolate the world lies beyond the sphere of human action and is to be found in a morbific disturbance or sickening in the earth itself Unquestionably Un-questionably those great plagues like common disease are in tensified in their severity by defective sanitary arrangements and are propagated by contagion to some extent beyond he actual zones or region of morbid tellurio action but still unlike email pox typhus and some otter ilisea ea whose origin may be ascribed wholly to vicious conditions of life maladies which swoop down upon mankind as from a higher world almost beyond his kena morbific breath whichalthough exhalingfrom our globe has its exciting cause in the various movements and conditions condi-tions in the faro worlds of orbs which surround us |