ored in 1243, and finally conquered in
1244 by a horde of Kharesmian Turks. In 1517 Palestine was conquered by
Sultan Selin I., and since then has been under the rule of the Ottoman
Empire, except for a brief period--from 1832 to 1840, when it was in the
hands of Mahomet Ali Pasha of Egypt, and his son Ibrahim had his seat of
government in Jerusalem.

THE BLACK DEATH.--- This great plague, known as the "Black Death," was
the most deadly epidemic ever known. It is believed to have been an
aggravated outburst of the Oriental plague, which from the earliest
records of history has periodically appeared in Asia and Northern
Africa. There had been a visitation of the plague in Europe in 1342;
the Black Death, in terrible virulence, appeared in 1348-9; it also
came in milder form in 1361-2, and again in 1369. The prevalence and
severity of the pestilence during this century is ascribed to the
disturbed conditions of the elements that preceded it. For a number
of years Asia and Europe had suffered from mighty earthquakes, furious
tornadoes, violent floods, clouds of locusts darkening the air and
poisoning it with their corrupting bodies. Whether these natural
disturbances were the cause of the plague is not certainly known, but
many writers on the subject regard the connection as both probable and
possible. The disease was brought from the Orient to Constantinople,
and early in 1347 appeared in Sicily and several coast towns of Italy.
After a brief pause the pestilence broke out at Avignon in January,
1348; advanced thence to Southern France, Spain and Northern Italy.
Passing through France and visiting, but not yet ravaging, Germany, it
made its way to England, cutting down its first victims at Dorset, in
August, 1348. Thence it traveled slowly, reaching London early in
the winter. Soon it embraced the entire kingdom, penetrating to every
rural hamlet, so that England became a mere pest-house. The chief
symptoms of the disease are described as "spitting, in some cases
actual vomiting, of blood, the breaking out of inflammatory boils in
parts, or over the whole of the body, and the appearance of those dark
blotches upon the skin which suggested its most startling name. Some
of the victims died almost on the first attack, some in twelve hours,
some in two days, almost all within the first three days." The utter
powerlessness of medical skill before the disease was owing partly to
the physicians' ignorance of its nature, and la