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 largely to the effect of
the spirit of terror which hung like a pall over men's minds. After
some months had passed, the practice of opening the hard boils was
adopted, with very good effect, and many lives were thus saved. But
the havoc wrought by the disease in England was terrible. It is said
that 100,000 persons died in London, nearly 60,000 in Norwich, and
proportionate numbers in other cities. These figures seem incredible,
but a recent writer, who has spent much time in the investigation of
records, asserts that at least half the population, or about 2,500,000
souls, of England perished in this outbreak. The ravages of the
pestilence over the rest of the world were no less terrible.