streaked spots were called, by an apt comparison, the girdle, and
this appearance was justly considered extremely dangerous.



CHAPTER III--CAUSES--SPREAD



An inquiry into the causes of the Black Death will not be without
important results in the study of the plagues which have visited
the world, although it cannot advance beyond generalisation
without entering upon a field hitherto uncultivated, and, to this
hour entirely unknown. Mighty revolutions in the organism of the
earth, of which we have credible information, had preceded it.
From China to the Atlantic, the foundations of the earth were
shaken--throughout Asia and Europe the atmosphere was in
commotion, and endangered, by its baneful influence, both
vegetable and animal life.

The series of these great events began in the year 1333, fifteen
years before the plague broke out in Europe: they first appeared
in China. Here a parching drought, accompanied by famine,
commenced in the tract of country watered by the rivers Kiang and
Hoai. This was followed by such violent torrents of rain, in and
about Kingsai, at that time the capital of the empire, that,
according to tradition, more than 400,000 people perished in the
floods. Finally the mountain Tsincheou fell in, and vast clefts
were formed in the earth. In the succeeding year (1334), passing
over fabulous traditions, the neighbourhood of Canton was visited