place, perhaps have been even prevalent in many places, is, from a
consideration of the nature of the disease, by no means to be
denied; for every putrid decomposition of the fluids begets a
tendency to hemorrhages of all kinds. Here, however, it is a
question of historical certainty, which, after these doubts, is by
no means established. Had not so speedy a death followed the
expectoration of blood, we should certainly have received more
detailed intelligence respecting other hemorrhages; but the malady
had no time to extend its effects further over the extremities of
the vessels. After its first fury, however, was spent, the
pestilence passed into the usual febrile form of the oriental
plague. Internal carbuncular inflammations no longer took place,
and hemorrhages became phenomena, no more essential in this than
they are in any other febrile disorders. Chalin, who observed not
only the great mortality of 1348, and the plague of 1360, but also
that of 1373 and 1382, speaks moreover of affections of the
throat, and describes the back spots of plague patients more
satisfactorily than any of his contemporaries. The former
appeared but in few cases, and consisted in carbuncular
inflammation of the gullet, with a difficulty of swallowing, even
to suffocation, to which, in some instances, was added
inflammation of the ceruminous glands of the ears, with tumours,
producing great deformity. Such patients, as well as others, were
affected with expectoration of blood; but they did not usually die
before the sixth, and, sometimes, even as late as the fourteenth
day. The same occurrence, it is well known, is not uncommon in
other pestilences; as also blisters on the surface of the body, in
different places, in the vicinity of which, tumid glands and
inflammatory boils, surrounded by discoloured and black streaks,
arose, and thus indicated the reception of the poison. These