A History of Epidemics in Britain, Volume 1 (of 2) by Charles Creighton

[278] The author of the _Eulogium_, who wrote not later than 1367, and is for his own period an authority like Knighton, gives the following prices: wheat, 12 pence a quarter, barley 9 pence, beans 8 pence; a good horse 16 shillings (used to be 40 sh.), a large ox 40 pence, a good cow 2 sh. or 18 pence. Of the scarcity of servants he says: “Pro quorum defectu mulieres et parvuli invise missi sunt ad carucas et ad plaustra fuganda.” [279] “The English Manor;” two articles in the _Saturday Review_, 9th and 16th Jan. 1886, p. 82 [by Professor Sir Frederick Pollock], the sources of information being as yet unpublished. He says: “The prospect of better terms brought in new tenants.” [280] Stubbs, _Constitutional History of England_, 1875, II. 434. Höniger, dealing with the German evidence of the Black Death, concludes that the great mortality was almost without significance for the political course of affairs; that the great loss of life was unable to check the revival of trade and industry which had already begun or to retard the splendid development of the German free towns; that the low state of morals belonged to the period and was no worse after the epidemic than before; that no new impulse was given or point of view brought out, unless, perhaps, the idea of sanitary regulation; and that the scarcity of labour was merely an incident to be taken advantage of in the struggle against the existing order which was already going on. (_Der schwarze Tod in Deutschland._ Berlin, 1882, p. 133.) [281] Richter, _Geschichte der Medicin in Russland_, I. 215. [282] _Histoire des Huns_, V. 223-4. [283] _Ib._ p. 226, note. [284] _Der schwarze Tod im vierzehnten Jahrhundert_, Berlin, 1832. Engl. Transl. by Babington, Lond. 1833. This well-known work presents the more picturesque aspects of the Black Death in various countries, without thoroughness for any. England has a large space in the book; but the author has not gone for his information farther than the chapter on the Black Death in Barnes’s _Life of Edward III._ [285] Printed in Häser’s _Archiv für die gesammte Medicin_, 1842, II. pp. 26-59; and reprinted in his _Geschichte der Med. u. epid. Krankheiten_, III. 157, 3d ed., Jena, 1882. [286] _Geschichte der Medicin_, Bd. III. “Epidemische Krankheiten.” Jena, 1882, p. 139. He gives point to this phrase by an account of the local plagues of recent times in Gujerat and Kumaon. [287] His essay is one of the Escurial MSS., and has been printed, with a German translation, by M. H. Müller, in the _Sitzungsberichte der Münchener Akad. der Wissensch_. 1863. [288] _Voyages d’Ibn Batoutah_ in 4 vols., for the Société Asiatique, Paris, 1853, I. 227-9, and IV. 309. [289] See Sir Henry Yule’s _Cathay and the Way Thither_ (2 vols. Hakluyt Society) and his edition of _The Book of Marco Polo_, for numerous particulars of the overland trade to China by the northern parallels, in the 14th century. [290] The stages, distances, expenses, &c. from Tana to Peking are given in Pegolotti’s mercantile handbook (written about 1340), in Yule’s _Cathay and the Way Thither_, vol. II. [291] C. A. Gordon, M.D. in _Reports of Med. Officers to the Imperial Maritime Customs of China_, London, 1884. [292] Gaubil, _Histoire de Gentchiscan_, Paris, 1739. [293] _The Famine in China_, London, 1878--a translation of a Chinese appeal for charity, with illustrations. [294] Parliamentary Papers, 1878, China, No. 4. [295] In Yule’s _Cathay and the Way Thither_ (Hakluyt Society), I. 156. [296] Etienne Pariset, _Causes de la Peste_. Paris, 1837. [297] Volney, _Voyages en Syrie et en Egypte_. Paris, 1792. [298] Cornelius de Pauw, _Philosophical Reflections on the Egyptians and Chinese_, Engl. Transl. Lond. 1795, 2 vols. [299] It is noteworthy that Herodotus represents the question of disposal of the dead as having been raised by the Egyptians: they decided in favour of embalming and rock entombment, as against cremation or burial, the reason given for the preference being that fire was “a savage beast,” in the one case, while in the other case, the devouring beast was the worm. Bk. III. § 16. [300] Curiously enough it was among the Christians of Egypt that the controversy as to the _corruptibles_ and the _incorruptibles_ raged most furiously. See Gibbon. [301] Clot Bey, _Peste en Egypte_. Paris, 1840. [302] Benoit de Maillet, _Description de l’Egypte_. Paris, 1735, p. 281. See also Wilkinson, _Ancient Egyptians_, III. 456, 465. [303] Justus Doolittle, _Social Life of the Chinese_, 2 vols. New York, 1867, I. 33, 198, 213. [304] T. T. Cooper, _Travels of a Pioneer of Commerce_, Lond. 1871, p. 23, 33. [305] This is one of the remarks in Dr Gilbert Skene’s treatise on the Plague, Edinburgh, 1568 (reprinted for the Bannatyne Club, 1840):--Among the causes are “deid cariounis unbureit, in speciale of mankynd, quhilkis be similitude of nature is maist nocent to man, as everie brutall is maist infectand and pestilentiall to thair awin kynd,” p. 6. [306] A. von Kremer, “Ueber die grossen Seuchen des Orients nach arabischen Quellen.” _Sitzungsber. der Wien. Akad._, Philos.-histor. Classe, Bd. 96 (1880), p. 69. [307] Ch. M. Doughty, _Travels in Arabia Deserta_, 2 vols. Cambridge, 1888. [308] Communicated to Herr von Kremer (_l. c._) by Nury Effendi, who visited Assir, and wrote a report preserved in MS. in the Archives at Constantinople. [309] “Report regarding Mahamurree in Kumaon and Garhwal in 1851-52.” By F. Pearson and Mookerjee. Agra, 1852 (Extracts in _Ind. Annals of Med. Sc._, I. 358). Also extracts (_Ib._) from Renny’s Report, 1851. [310] Planck, _Ninth Report of the Sanitary Commissioner, N. W. Prov._ Allahabad, 1877, pp. 40-95. (Extracts, p. 39, of _Papers relating to the Plague, Parl. Papers_, 1879.) [311] Baber, in _Parliamentary Papers_, 1878, “China.” No. 6. Rocher (_Province Chinoise de Yun-nan_) quoted, without the reference, in _Med. Reports of Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs_, No. 15, 1878, Shanghai, p. 25. [312] J. H. Lowry, _Med. Rep. Chinese Mar. Customs_, No. 24, 1882, p. 27. [313] D. J. Macgowan, _Ib._ 1882. Report for Wenchow. [314] Thomas Whyte, “Report on the Disease which prevailed in Kattywar, etc. in 1819-20.” _Trans. Med. Phys. Soc. Bombay_, I. 155. Bombay, 1838. [315] I have curtailed the evidence from Gujerat; it will be found at large in the following writers: Gilder, _Bombay Med. Trans._ I. 193; McAdam, _ib._ 183; F. Forbes, _ib._ II. |I, and Thesis on Plague, Edin. 1840; Glen, _Quart. Journ. Cal. Med. Soc._ I. 433; Ranken, _Report on Pali Plague_, Calcutta, 1838; and Whyte, as above. [316] L. Arnaud, _Peste de Benghazi_, Constantinople, 1875; _Essai sur la Peste_, Paris, 1888; _Une Mission pour la Peste_, Paris, 1888. [317] T. Farquhar, M.D., “Typhus Fever in the Eusofzai,” _Ind. Annals of Med. Sc._ II. 504; R. Lyell, M.D., “Fever of the Yusufzai Valley,” _Ib._ II. p. 16. [318] Surgeon-General J. Murray, M.D., at Epidemiological Society, 11 May,