earth. Men died in hundreds, in thousands, in myriads,
until in places there were scarcely enough living to bury the dead, and
these so maddened with fright that dwellings, villages, towns, were
deserted by all who were able to fly, the dying and dead being left
their sole inhabitants. It was the pestilence called the "Black Death,"
the most terrible visitation that Europe has ever known.

This deadly disease came from Asia. It is said to have originated in
China, spreading over the great continent westwardly, and descending in
all its destructive virulence upon Europe, which continent it swept as
with the besom of destruction. The disease appears to have been a very
malignant type of what is known as the plague, a form of pestilence
which has several times returned, though never with such virulence as on
that occasion. It began with great lassitude of the body, and rapid
swellings of the glands of the groin and armpits, which soon became
large boils. Then followed, as a fatal symptom, large black or
deep-blue spots over the body, from which came the name of "Black
Death." Some of the victims became sleepy and stupid; others were
incessantly restless. The tongue and throat grew black; the lungs
exhaled a noisome odor; an insatiable thirst was produced. Death came in
two or three days, sometimes on the very day of seizure. Medical aid was
of no avail. Doctors and relatives fled in terror from what they deemed
a fatally contagious disease, and the stricken were left to die alone.
Villages and towns were in many places utterly deserted, no living
things being left, for the disease was as fatal to dogs, cats, and swine
as to men. There is reason to believe that this, and other less
destructive visitations of plague, were due to the action of some of
those bacterial organisms which are now known to have so much to do with
infectious diseases. This particular pestilence-breeder seems to have
flourished in filth, and the streets of the cities of Europe of that day
formed a richly fertile soil for its growth. Men prayed to God for
relief, instead of cleaning their highways and by-ways, and relief came
not.

Such was its character, what were its ravages? Never before or since has
a pestilence brought such desolation. Men died by millions. At Basle it
found fourteen thousand victims; at Strasburg and Erfurt, sixteen
thousand; in the other cities of Germany it flourished in like
proportion. In Osnabrueck only seven married couple