Kicked Out of Heaven The Untold History of The White Races cir. 700 - 1700 a.d. Vol. 2, Compiled by Keenan Booker

1  Kicked Out of Heaven The Untold History Of The White Race Cir. 700-1700 Anno Domini This Book is Dedicated to My Sons The Lost Children of The Western World All Souls that Have been Dedicated to Sacrifices All Extinct Magic, Occult & Medicine Systems of Man 2 Intro………………………………………………………………………………..……………………………………..………………………………………9 Part 5: The IMP: Insanity, Manias & Plagues Chapter 1: The Vices of Hallucinations………………………………………………………….……………….……….…………………….17 Chapter 2: Diseases & Sickness…………………………………………………………………….……..………….…….…………….........43 Chapter 3: The Purely Insane…….………………………………………………………………….………..…….…….……………..…….…73 Chapter 4: The Manias………………………………………………………………………………….………………..…………….……….…….92 Chapter 5: Plague Causes .…………………………………………………………..…………………..……….……….……………………...147 Chapter 6: The Black Death…..……………………………………………………………………...………….…….…………………….……180 Chapter 7: The Psychosocial Effects of the Plague………………………………………..……….…...…………………………….205 Chapter 8: The Plague Battles……………………………………………………………….……………….……….………………………...222 Part 6: Witchcraft Chapter 1: Folklore & Superstition………………………………………………………………………...…….…………….…….……….266 Chapter 2: Magic……………….………………………………………………………………………….…….……….………………….………….287 Chapter 3: The Occult Serial Killers……………………………………………………….…….…….……….………………………….……313 Chapter 4: The Witchcraft……………………………………………………………………..………….……….…………………….…………340 Chapter 5: The Witches……………………………………………………………………….…………….……….……………………………….375 Chapter 6: The Witches Vices…………………………………………………………………………….…..….………………………………..398 Chapter 7: Partying with Lucifer……………………………………………………………………….…..…………………………………...422 Chapter 8: The Tribunal………………………………………………………………………………….…………………………………………..453 Part 7: Hell: Above & Below Chapter 1: Lycanthropy & Shape Shifting……………………………………….…………….…………………………………………….471 Chapter 2: The Werewolf ………………………………………………………….……………….………………………………………………496 Chapter 3: The Undead & the Vampires……………………………………….……………………………………………………………515 Chapter 4: Death & Ghosts…………………..……………………………………………..…….………………………………………………534 Chapter 5: Welcome to Hell ……………………………….…………………………………………..…………………………………………559 Chapter 6: T H E D E V I L . ……………………………………………………………………...……………………………………………...583 The Coda……………………………………………………………………………………..………….………………………………………….………608 3  List of Illustrations Cover: St. Antonio Primaldo and his companion martyrs (Italian: I Santi Antonio Primaldo e compagni martiri), also known as the Martyrs of Otranto (Inverted) Spinal: Mason Gargoyle, St. Vitus Cathedral, Prague, Czech Republic Back: The Labyrinth of Bones in the Paris Catacombs (Inverted) 1. Fig. 1.). Beer Street & Gin Lane by William Hogarth, London 1751 pg. 18 2. Fig. 2.). A man suffering from gout; represented by a group of blue demons dancing around him. Coloured etching by R. Newton, 1795. (Copyright © The Welcome Library, London) pg. 24 3. Fig. 3.). The Drunkard's Progress, anonymous print, 1846. By the early nineteenth century, the culture of heavy drinking in North America had given rise to a home-grown temperance movement. Pg. 27 4. Fig. 4.). Left: A patients hands showing the effects and discoloration of Ergotism pg. 30 5. Fig. 5.). Right: Fungied Rye pg. 30 6. Fig. 6.). Left: Amanita muscaria commonly known as fly agaric, or fly amanita pg. 38 7. Fig. 7.). Right: Toad: A Cartoon character from the Nintendo video game Mario Bros. pg. 38 8. Fig. 8.). A Human Body Chart showing the mulitiple effects of Lead poisoning on adults and children pg. 39 9. Fig. 9.). A Jenkem advertisement pg. 44 10. Fig. 10.). Thomas Rowlandson - Summer Amusement, Bug Hunting pg. 45 11. Fig. 11.). "Runaways Fleeing from the Plague" (1630), a woodcut from 'A Looking-glasse for City and Countrey' by H. Gosson pg. 50 12. Fig. 12.). Left: Charles II touching for King's Evil pg 54 13. Fig. 13.). Right: A man afflicted with Scrofula pg 54 14. Fig. 14.). A drawing of a man with Dysentery. Most likely a cut out from a Book of Hours or other manuscript. Pg. 55 15. Fig. 15.). Left: A Leper Mannequin used for an example at an Ancient Medicine exhibit in Rome pg. 56 16. Fig. 16.). Right: A drawing of a man with leprosy, comparing him to devils pg. 56 17. Fig. 17.). Left: Deformities present in a young woman with congenital syphilis. Progressed to the point of nasal caving, blindness, and mouth closure pg 62 18. Fig. 18.). Right: in oil of an undergrown girl, aged 16 years, showing some of the effects of congenital syphilis. The teeth are 'pegged' and the bridge of the nose is flattened. Both eyes are affected with interstitial keratitis and the right, which is also affected with kerato-globus, was absolutely blind. Large patches of necrosis of the cranial bones are exposed by ulceration of the scalp. [1875-1882] By: Thomas Godart pg. 62 19. Fig. 19.). An artificial nose from the 17-18th century. Such cosmetic replacements were sometimes used due to effects of the disease.pg. 64 20. Fig. 20.). Rhinoplasty in the Renaissance was a long, painful, and slow process in which the damaged nose flesh was replaced with flesh from the upper arm. Pg. 64 21. Fig. 21.). An old man palying the cello, while a devil applies a burning coal to his foot; a redrawn copy from the composition by Bunbury. c.1810 Etching with hand-colouring pg. 65 4 22. Fig. 22.). Left: A woman standing at a table has placed a leech on her left forearm; on the table is a large jar containing leeches. Illustrated In: Bossche, Guillaume van den, Bruxellas, Typis Joannis Mommarti, 1639 Historia medica, in qua libris IV. animalium natura, et eorum medica utilitas esacte & luculenter... pg. 66 23. Fig. 23.). Right: A Leech Jar pg. 66 24. Fig. 24.). A woman sitting in a chair is being bled by 2 physicians while a third physician kneels at her side holding a clyster; in the background an autopsy is taking place. National Library of Medicine pg. 67 25. Fig. 25.).Portable enema self-administration apparatus by Giovanni Alessandro Brambilla (18th century; Medical History Museum, University of Zurich) pg. 69 26. Fig. 26.). A real clyster in a French Museum pg. 69 27. Fig. 27.). A drawing of an enema most likely made of animal organs. pg. 69 28. Fig. 28.). Digital Picture of Bagpipes pg. 70 29. Fig. 29.). Painting cut out of a royal sticking his/her arse out of the window of a castle to receive the enema pg. 70 30. Fig. 30.). Painting of Louis XI by an anonymous pg. 70 31. Fig. 31.). Drawing of King louis XIII 31. Pg. 71 32. Fig. 32.). Picture of Medieval Clysters made out of materials mentioned Pg. 71 33. Fig. 33.). A Medical drawing showing the technological development of the clyster into our modern times Pg. 71 34. Fig. 34.). Cut out from a manuscript showing a person bent over on a bed receiving the clyster Pg. 71 35. Fig. 35.). The Madhouse 18th century Bedlam Insane Asylum from a painting by William Hogarth 1735 pg. 74 36. Fig. 36.). An Xray of a person with several foreign items in the body pg. 76 37. Fig. 37.). A 17th Century “Insanity Mask” pg. 76 38. Fig. 38.). "The Witch of Malleghem" (illustration 2) is Pieter Bruegel's contribution to the philology of folly. Pg. 84 39. Fig. 39.). "Le Médecin guérissant Phantasie," Mattheus Greuter, 1620 Dr. Wurmbrandt (Bibliothèque nationale de France) pg. 86 40. Fig. 40.). Caroline Allardts representation of a wide range of fools and their treatment pg. 87 41. Fig. 41.). Two prints from Armamentarium chirurgicum, by Johannes Scultetus (1655), showing how trepanation was performed (left) and a set of trepanation instruments (right). Pg. 88 42. Fig. 42.). Eclipsing the lobotomy in terms of age and pain, trepanning involved a physician cutting a hole into the skull of an individual suffering from what some believed to be mental illness, seizures or skull fractures. The hole was typically cut into the dura mater and, surprisingly, the survival rate was very high and chance of infection remained low. Pg. 88 43. Fig. 43.). Daniel Defoe: A Journal of The Plague Year c. 1665; The Heritage Press, Norwalk, Connecticut, 1722 pg. 25 pg. 91 44. Fig. 44.). The Dancing Plague of 1518 by Sherri Wilson pg. 102 45. Fig. 45.). Dancing mania on a pilgrimage to the church at Sint-Jans-Molenbeek. An engraving by Hendrick Hondius (1642) after a drawing by Pieter Brueghel the Elder (1564). Pg. 112 46. Fig. 46.). A Drawing of Italy’s La Tarantella pg. 113 47. Fig. 47.). A poster combining the St. Vitus Dance with the Dance of Death pg. 116 48. Fig. 48.). A painting of the Devil dying cloth. Pg. 118 49. Fig. 49.). Painting of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy by Rogier van der Weyden, from a dedication page of the Chroniques de Hainault, 1400-1464. [Public domain] pg. 120 5 50. Fig. 50.).A demon removes a tiny-replica Judas Iscariot from Judas Iscariot's disemboweled body. Canavesio, 15th c, pg. 127 51. Fig. 51.). Left:) Dictionnaire Infernal – Collin de Plancy (1863) As queen of the demons and sultana of the Indian (Hindu) hell, Cali is completely black and wears a collar of golden skulls. In older times, she was offered human victims. Pg. 129 52. Fig. 52.). Right:) "Compendium Rarissimum, Folio 23" (c1775) - Giclee Fine Art Print pg. 129 53. Fig. 53.). Left:) Pineapple-shaped cupola, Dunmore Park, Stirlingshire, Scotland pg. 131 54. Fig. 54.). Right:) King Charles II presented with a pineapple, detail. British School, c.1675 pg 131 55. Fig. 55.). Jan Breughel the Younger's Satire of the Tulip Mania pg. 133 56. Fig. 56.). Left: Pamphlet from the Dutch tulipomania, printed in 1637 pg. 135 57. Fig. 57.). Right: Gouda tulip bulb prices in guilders pg. 135 58. Fig. 58.). The Franciscans treating victims of the plague, miniature from La Franceschina, c1474, codex by Jacopo Oddi. Perugia, Biblioteca Capitolare (Library). (Photo by DeAgostini/Getty Images) pg. 146 59 Fig. 59.). Flea trap held at Louth Museum Louth museum in Lincolnshire holds one, although they are unsure of the date of their flea trap. It is made of ivory, with a carved pattern, and measures 7cm in length and 1½cm in width. Pg. 149 60. Fig. 60.). Left: Hortus Sanitatis 1517 Medieval Woodcut. Treating Head Lice pg. 150 61. Fig. 61.). Right: Mother Louse, of Louse Hall, near Oxford David Loggan (c. 1635-1692) C. Johnson, London: 1793 pg. 150 62. Fig. 62.). Model of Human body louse, WW1 display & workshop. Magnified & Actual size of body Louse pg. 152 63. Fig. 63.). Left: Bed bugs and head lice' - from Hortus Sanitatis, Strassburg pg. 152 64. Fig. 64.). Right: A random Medieval drawing of bed bugs pg. 152 65. Fig. 65.). Giant Locusts Grasshoppers, Africa pg. 155 66. Fig. 66.). Bubonic plague Sydney How a city survived the black death in 1900A-heap-of-rats-c.-Jul-1900 pg. 158 67. Fig. 67.).Ausschnitt Detail. Einblattdrucke einer Kometenerscheinung 1687 Leaflet of a comet. Pg 162 68. Fig. 68.). Left: 17th Century Assassins Poison Cabinet Disguised as a Book pg. 169 69. Fig. 69.). Right: 14th-century poison ring found near Bulgaria’s Kavarna (The hole administered poison to food or drink) pg. 169 70. Fig. 70.). Legend of the Jew calling the Devil from a Vessel of Blood (Christian baby blood) – Facsimile of a Woodcut in Boaistnau’s “Histores Prodigieuses.” In 4to, Pans, Annet Briere, 1560 pg. 173 71. Fig. 71.).”The Dead Cart” Daniel Defoe: A Journal of The Plague Year c. 1665; The Heritage Press, Norwalk, Connecticut, 1722 pg. 66 pg 183 72. Fig. 72.). Left: A makeup facsimile of a Plague buboe boil pg. 188 73. Fig. 73.). Right: Real picture of a man who received the Bubonic Plague from a bite from a cat while retrieving a rodent out of its mouth. He is the 17th person to be infected by the Medieval disease (Bubonic Plague) in Oregon since 1934 pg. 188 74. Fig. 74.). The plague in Leiden, the Netherlands, during the PLAGUE: LEIDEN, 1574 pg, 196 75. Fig. 75.). “A Chart of The Death Numbers” Daniel Defoe: A Journal of The Plague Year c. 1665; The Heritage Press, Norwalk, Connecticut, 1722 pg. 108 pg. 198 76 Fig. 76.). Burying Dead London Plague pg. 205 77 Fig. 77.). View of the Town Hall, Marseilles, during the Plague of 1720, detail of the carts laden with the dead. Notice the infant unknowingly suckling the corpse of its dead mother. Pg. 208 6 78. Fig. 78.). 1512 woodcut of a doctor and his assistants tending to a plague patient pg. 213 79. Fig. 79.). Tools of the trade A set of early 19th Century dissecting hooks pg. 227 80. Fig. 80.). Left: A plague doctor wearing his 'beak mask'. This mask would have been filled with lavender or other strong smelling substances which were thought to protect him from disease. Pg 228 81. Fig. 81.). Right: Paulus Furst’s 1656 engraving of Dr. Schnabel ("Beak") of Rome wearing protective clothing typical of the plague doctors of Rome at the time. Pg. 228 82. ig. 82.). Right: The Abracadabra Triangle: A charm. It is said that Abracadabra was the supremem deity of the Assyrians. Q. Severus Sammonicus recommended the use of the word as a powerful antidote against ague, flux, and toothache. The word was to be written on parchment, and suspended round the neck by a linen thread, in the form given here: pg 243 83. Fig. 83.). Bottom Left: Another definition for Abracadabra pg 243 84. Fig. 84.). Bottom Right: A 6 Point star sigil for abracadabra, I point this in because of the mention of broomsticks as this may had been part of a chant for witches and broomsticks. Pg 244 85. Fig. 85.). A coffin collar was used to prevent grave robbers from stealing corpses. Pg 250 86. Fig. 86.). Cemetery guns, as well, were designed to keep bodysnatchers at bay. These were set up at the foot of a grave, with three tripwires strung in an arc around its position. Pg 251 87. Fig. 87.). A drawing of a 2 body snatchers leaving the cemetery with a body in a bag pg 254 87b. Fig. 87b.). Flintlock Grave Robber's Trap Gun pg 256 88. Fig. 88.). A Map showing all the locations of Plague Pits discovered only in London. Pg 257 89. Fig. 89.). This picture is of Holywell Mount in 1665 and comes with the enscription 'View of the manner of burying the dead bodies at Holy-well mount during the dreadful Plague in 1665'. Pg 258 90. Fig. 90.). The Cross Bones Graveyard Memorial reads: In medieval times this was an unconsecrated graveyeard for prostitutes or “Winchester Geese”. By the 18th century it had become a paupers’ burial ground, which closed in 1853. Here, local people have created a memorial shrine. Pg 260 91. Fig. 91.). Right.). Julius Lipsius, De Cruce. Pg. 261 92. Fig. 92.). The oldest known picture of the Pied Piper copied from the glass window of the Market Church in Hameln/Hamelin Germany (c.1300-1633) pg . 268 93. Fig. 93.). Left: Two "wild men" circus performers CDV ca. 1860s pg 270 94. Fig. 94.). Right: A painting titled “Sylvan Men” by Albrecht Durer, 1499; “sylvan” means of the forest pg. 270 95. Fig. 95.). The Green Man; a depiction matching the Holly King and the Oak King, mythological pg 272 96. Fig. 96.). Fig. 96.). Supposedly real gnomes found in coffins in a tree. I don’t necessarily think they are real. Pg 276 97. Fig. 97.). Left & Right: The Kindlifresserbrunnen (German for Child Eater Fountain) is a fountain at the Kornhausplatz (Granary Place) in Bern, Switzerland. It is one of the Old City of Bern's fountains from the 16th century. Pg. 283 98. Fig. 98.). Found in Croatia a remarkable 1,800-year-old ring with an ‘eye’ that was used to protect the wearer from spells or a bad curse, often referred to as the ‘evil eye’. 6th century a.d. 99. Fig. 99.). Top: A list of the types of necromancy found in the Codex Latinus Monacensis 849 1-32 pg. 290 100. Fig. 100.). Bottom: A list of the types of necromancy found in the Codex Latinus Monacensis 849 33-47 pg 291 101. Fig. 101.).The North is teeming with demons. They can be found in pits, animal shelters such as stables and barns and may be encountered in cellars. On many occasions, people succeed in taking them on as helpers. In the pits, they mine for ore, crush it with spikes and transport it with various apparatus to locations a person commands them to. In horse stables, they feed the animals and clean their stalls. However, the 7  witches can also fling illnesses onto people, destroy buildings and cause all sorts of troubles and setbacks. Pg 296 102. Fig. 102.). Peter Binsfeld, Tractatus de confessionibus maleficorum et sagarum (1592). Pg. 297 103. Fig. 103.). Left: Witches cause a hailstorm, illustration from the "De Laniss et phitonicis mulieribus" [Concerning Witches and Sorceresses], by the scholar Ulrich Molitoris, published in 1489. Curious to note that the first image showing such a scene was published in a book arguing against witchcraft, as most scholars believed that only god was able to change the order of seasons or the weather (image in public domain). Pg. 297 104. Fig. 104.). Right: This wood carving from the medieval period shows witches cooking a thunderstorm. It wasn’t until the publication of Heinrich Kramer’s Malleus Maleficarum (or, Hammer of Witches) in 1487 that the specific connection between women and satanic magic became widespread. Pg. 297 105. Fig. 105.). Left: The image on the right is the frontispiece page from a book on witchcraft titled Saducismus Triumphatus first published in London in 1681. The levitation of a child. Pg 303 106. Fig. 106.). Right: The levitation of Daniel Dunglas Home at Ward Cheney's house interpreted in a lithograph from Louis Figuier, Les Mystères de la science 1887 pg. 303 107. Fig. 107.). Left: A cartoon drawing of Burke and Hare killing a victim. Bottom Left: A drawing of Burke and Hares faces. Bottom Right: Death of Mask Burke and hare pg. 314 108. Fig. 108.). Right: William Burke’s skeleton displayed at the Anatomical Museum of Edinburgh Medical School where, as of 2016, it remains. Pg. 314 109. Fig. 109.). Calling card case made from the skin of the murderer William Burke. For many years it was displayed in the Police Information Centre on Edinburgh's Royal Mile, but is now to be seen in The Cadies & Witchery Tours shop. Pg. 316 110. Fig. 110.). The Werewolf, or the Cannibal by Lucas Cranach the Elder (1509) pg 327 111. Fig. 111.). Composite woodcut print by Lukas Mayer of the execution of Peter Stumpp in 1589 at Bedburg near Cologne. Pg 328 112. Fig. 112.). John Hammond pamphlet issued 1643. The height of European witch trials were between 1560 and 1630. In England and Wales there were 228 recorded execution; the real number was approx. 300-1,000. pg 343 113. Fig. 113.). Left: Fig. 113.). Left: Illustration by Arthur Rackham, 1909 pg 348 114. Fig. 114.). Right: Illustration of Hansel and Gretel by Theodor Hosemann 1807-1875 pg 348 115. Fig. 115.). Pieter Bruegel the Elder's "Luilekkerland" (The Land of Cockaigne), 1567. Oil on panel. Pg 349 116. Fig. 116.). A medieval drawing depicting a woman getting ready for the obscene kiss as the devil preps himself. Pg. 360 117. Fig. 117.). English Witchcraft in the Museum of Witchcraft, Boscastle, Cornwal pg 361 118. Fig. 118.). Left: John Dees Magic Mirror case & Mirror in The British Museum pg 362 119. Fig. 119.). Right: A German 16th Century Magician's Mirror, from the collection of the Cuming Museum pg. 362 120. Fig. 120.). Left: Cecil Williamson's crystal ball photographed by us the Museum of Witchcraft, Boscastle, Cornwall pg 364 121. Fig. 121.). Right: Crystal ball Moon Crystal pg 364 122. Fig. 122.). Left: John Dee's crystal ball, housed in the British Museum. Photo via Wikipedia Commons pg 366 123. Fig. 123.). Right: "The Crystal Ball" (1902) by John William Waterhouse. Image via Wikipedia Commons pg 366 124 Fig. 124.). Left: Wax Poppet at the Museum of Witchcraft at Boscastle. Pg 367 8 125. Fig. 125.). Right: Wax Cursing Poppet A poppet created to cause victim to develop a hernia. The charge made for this charm was one old red ten-shilling note. Pg 367 126. Fig. 126.). Left: Ozark “witch woman”: makes doll of dirt and beeswax, names it after her enemy. She drives nails into the doll’s body to “hurt” corresponding parts of enemys body pg 368 127. Fig. 127.). Right: Placing a skull on a Bible and muttering secret spells, a jealous wife hopes to separate her husband from another woman. The dolls represent the adulterous pair pg 368 128. Fig. 128.). Left: Necropants at Museum of Icelandic Sorcery & Witchcraft pg 371 129 Fig. 129.). Right: The Museum of Icelandic Witchcraft and Sorcery at Hólmavík in the Westfjords of Iceland pg 371 130 Fig. 130.). Hanging of a farm woman declared by the Inquisition to be possessed by demons. From Rappresentatione della Passione, Florence, 1520. Pg 373 131. Fig. 131.). Royal Academy of Magick, London, class photo. Class 3T, 1897. Pg 379 132. Fig. 132.). Left: A witch casting spells over a steaming cauldron by H.S. Thomassin after Demaretz.(1687-1741) pg. 379 133. Fig. 133.). Right: Rite of Spring, England by Kate Pragnell 1905 pg. 379 134. Fig. 134.)A pittilesse Mother. That most unnaturally at one time murthe[red] two of her owne Children at Acton … uppon holy thursday last 1616, the ninth of May. Beeing a gentlewoman named M. Vincent … With her Examination, Confession and true discovery of all t[he] proceedings … Whereunto is added Andersons Repentance w[ho] was executed … the 18 of May 1616 pg. 380 135. Fig. 135.). "Penis Tree" Mural - "L'Albero della Fecondita" (The Tree of Fecundity)1265 pg. 385 136. Fig. 136.). “Roman de la Rose”, created in Paris in mid-14th century, and now kept in Bibliothèque Nationale de France (MS. Fr. 25526). Pg. 386 137. Fig. 137.). Witches of Various Ages. F. M. Guazzo, Compendium Maleficarum. Milan, Heirs of Augusto, Tradati, 1608. Pg 390 138. Fig. 138.). Left: A late-sixteenth-century illustration of a witch feeding her familiars from England pg 391 139. Fig. 139.). Right: A witch and her familiars, illustration from a discourse on witchcraft, 1621 pg. 391 140. Fig. 140.). Woodcut of Witches Boiling and Roasting Infants for Potions pg. 396 141. Fig. 141.). Witches exhuming a body from a grave, preparing a childs corpse on a table and in the back it looks like a criminal may be getting cut down for parts. Pg. 398 142. Fig. 142.).Évrart de Conty, Les Échecs amoureux, France 1496-1498 pg 403 143. Fig. 143.). False Elohim Jörg Breu the Elder (c. 1475-1537) pg. 406 144. Fig. 144.). James Gillray's Un Petit Souper a la Parisienne 1792 pg. 408 145.Fig. 145.). "Faim, Folie et Crime" ("Hunger, Madness and Crime") 1854 pg. 410 146. Fig. 146.). Left: The osculum infame illustrated in Francesco Maria Guazzo’s Compendium maleficarum of 1608 pg 412 147. Fig. 147.). Right: Osculum Infame from Tractatus contra sectam valdensium -Johannes Tinctor ~ 15th century (at the bottom of page on the same page as the photo below on the original document) pg. 412 148. Fig. 148.). Osculum Infame from Tractatus contra sectam valdensium -Johannes Tinctor ~ 15th century pg 413 149. Fig. 149.). A drawing of a Sabbath most likely a cut out from a larger canvas. The osculum infame is being performed from male on to male underneat the Devils close scrutiny. Pg 415 150. Fig. 150.). Left: Histoire-de-Merlin-France-Poitiers-1450-1455. Pg 421 151. Fig. 151.). Right: This is the Conception of Alexander the Great, from the Historiae Alexandri Magni of Quintus Curtius Rufus, produced in Bruges ca. 1468-1475 pg 421 9 152. Fig. 152.). Left: A devil seduces a witch, after an illustration in Ulrich Molitor's 15th century De Lamiis (1489) pg 424 153. Fig. 153.). Middle: The biblical dragon Leviathan. Hans Baldung Grien (1515) pg 424 154. Fig. 154.). Right: Urs Graf, Crippled Devil, engraving, 1512. Basle, Kunstsammlung pg 424 155. Fig. 155.). Left: The Nightmare is a 1781 oil painting by Anglo-Swiss artist Henry Fuseli pg 428 156. Fig. 156.). Right: Incubus Nicolai Abildgaard The Nightmare 1800 pg 428 157. Fig. 157.). Left: Display of witches' brooms at The Museum of Witchcraft in Boscastle, Cornwall, UK pg 430 158. Fig. 158.). Right: Besom Chant Reads pg 430 159. Fig. 159.). The Witches' Sabbath by Jan Ziarnko, 1613 pg 432 160. Fig. 160.). Witches Dancing on the Blocksberg. N. Remi, Daemonolatreia. Hamburg, T. von Wiering, 1693. Courtesy of the Division of Rare Books and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library. Pg 562 161. Fig. 161.). Title illustration of Johannes Praetorius (writer) (de)' Blocksbergs Verrichtung (1668) A German woodcut of a massive Witches' Sabbath, complete with the Osculum Infami (performed on women, devils, and a goat) and Old Scratch having violent diarrhea into a cauldron (bottom center).pg. 439 162. Fig. 162.). Francisco de Goya Mucho Hay Que Chupar (There Is Plenty To Suck) 1918 Note: Babies in the basket pg. 440 163. Fig. 163.). Martyrdom of Saint Vitus (Picture provided for reference of pots used during the times) pg. 440 164. Fig. 164.). Black mass held by Maria de Naglowska (she is in the middle) pg. 446 165. Fig. 165.). The hairy prospect or the devil in a fright Print made by: Thomas Rowlandson British 1800 (c.) pg 451 166. Fig. 166.). Frontispiece from Matthew Hopkins' The Discovery of Witches (1647), showing witches identifying their familiar spirits pg 458 167. Fig. 167.). Trial by water, a 1613 woodcut.This view of witchcraft beliefs is termed the ‘refusal-guilt syndrome’ and was originally described by Reginald Scot in 1584 when English witch trials were at there peak. Pg 466 168. Fig. 168.). “A Typial Day’s Torture” : Rossel Hope Robins: The Encyclopedia of Witchcraft & Demonology; Crown Publishers,Inc. New York 1959; pg. 510 pg 468 169. Fig. 169.). 17th Photograph - 1662 Schott Orangutan, Hypertrichosis by Paul D Stewart pg 476 170. Fig. 170.). Left: Portrait of Antonietta Gonzalez, Lavinia Fontana, 1595 pg. 476 171. Fig. 171.). Right: Humana Physiognomonia libri IIII (1586), a book on physiognomy by Giambattista della Porta (1535–1615)pg. 476 172. Fig. 172.). Witch turned werewolf attacking travelers, a woodcut by Hans Weiditz, from Die Emeis, written by Dr. Johann von Kaysersberg, 1517 pg. 486 173. Fig. 173.). Cunicularii or the wise men of Godliman in consultation: illustration by William Hogarth, 1726 (in Hunterian Aa.7.20) pg. 497 174. Fig. 174.). King Lycaon of Greece, portrayed in this 16th-Century copperplate engraving by Italian artist Agostino de' Musi as a ferocious wolf-headed man pg 504 175. Fig. 175.). Conrad Gessner’s Icones animalium quadrupedum viviparorum et oviparorum (Zurich, 1553) pg 510 176. Fig. 176.). “The furious beast that is supposed to be a hyena.” The text tells of two peasants who were made into national heroes for fighting the beast—a twelve-year-old boy who led an attack on the creature on January 12, 1765, and a mother who managed to wrest her six-year-old son, still living, away from the beast on March 12, 1765. (The child later died of his injuries.) pg. 518 177. Fig. 177.). This is a grave from the Victorian age when a fear of zombies and vampires was prevalent. The cage was intended to trap the undead just in case the corpse reanimated. Pg 521 10 178. Fig. 178.). Mortsafes at a church yard in Logierait, south of Pitlochry, Perthshire, Scotland.pg 521 179. Fig. 179.). Graves from the Victorian Age when a fear of zombies and vampires was common pg 523 180. Fig. 180.). Mortsafe (metal cage) over grave. Greyfriars Kirkyard, Edinburgh, Scotland. Pg 523 181. Fig. 181.). Museum of Icelandic Sorcery & Witchcraft one of the creepier exhibits depicting people rising from the ground. Pg 526 182. Fig. 182.). Top Left: Brother Simon, 13, and George, 11, both suffer from a condition called Porphyria pg 529 183. Fig. 183.). Top Right: (For the photo the lips are being displaced by retractors, seen at the corners) pg. 529 184. Fig. 184.). Bottom Left: Nosferatu 1922 Directed by F.W. Murnau. F. W. Murnau's landmark vampire film pg. 529 185. Fig. 185.). Bottom Right: Michael John Berryman (born September 4, 1948) is an American actor. Berryman was born with hypohidrotic ectodermal dysplasia which is a rare condition leaving him with no sweat glands, hair, fingernails or teeth. Pg. 529 186. Fig. 186.). Left & Right: Vampire Killing Kit complete with pistol, silver bullets, ivory cross Mercer Museum, Doylestown PA pg 540 187. Fig. 187.). The Dance of Death (1493) by Michael Wolgemut, from the Liber chronicarum by Hartmann Schede pg 546 188. Fig. 188.). Three Dead circa 1480. Denise Poncher before a Vision of Death circa 1500 pg 550 189. Fig. 189.). Giovanni da Modena, “Hell” (1412-15), fresco in Bolognini chapel pg 568 190. Fig. 190.). Michelangelo Buonarroti - The Torment of Saint Anthony 1487-88 pg 570 191. Fig. 191.). The Fall of the Rebel Angels by Pieter Brueghel The Elder 1562 pg 574 192A. Fig. 192A.). Right: Second part of the pact allegedly signed between Urbain Grandier and the Devil. This half is also signed by Satan, Leviathan, Astaroth, and a number of other demons. This image is from Dictionnaire infernal ou Bibliothèque universelle... by Collin de Plancy (1826) pg 595 192B. Fig. 192B.). The witch summoning the devil in the magic circle --from R. Boulton, History of Magic, 1715-16. Pg 595 193. Fig. 193.). Illustration of the devil, Folio 290 recto. Legend has it the codex was created by a monk who sold his soul to the devil. Pg 588 194. Fig. 194.). Illustration of the devil, Folio 290 recto. Legend has it the codex was created by a monk who sold his soul to the devil. Pg 590 195. Fig. 195.). Ancient wooden automaton, 16th-17th century. Applied Arts Collections Museum in the Sforza Castle in Milan, Italy. Pg 591 196. Fig. 196.). Etching by Francis Barlow, 1680. Vexilla Regis Prodeunt Inferni! Pg. 596 197. Fig. 197.). Hand-coloured etching titled 'The Devils Darling' by Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827) pg 603 11  Intro I’m glad you made it this far. This book is completely different than the first. This volume is a description of the sub conscious level of the mind. We will be approaching a lot of medical information. As we have seen in the first volume alcohol consumption was the way of the land. So alcoholism became culturally embedded. Alcoholism generationally will influence different forms of insanity and psychosis. Hallucinations are also a cousin of this ailment. Due to the depravation of the time periods and the conditions of the environment an escape route must be sought. Being a pleasure seeker and a treasure seeker is the natural ways of survival in the western world. At the same time these are the natural feel goods of man. The chemical alterations of the mind will give us the enjoyment we seek. This is our daily practice right now whether that is coffee, gum, cigarette, beer we need the chemical fix. The toxicity of life and the promoter of death is found in all cultures. Its extent of usage and abuse as documented in Europe cannot be found in any other culture or time period to my knowledge and I am not the greatest historian alive, I’ve read a couple of books. Usually in tribes the people only consumed some form of fermented drink to feel alebriated as a ceremonial practice during a celebration. I’ve never researched the orient civiliziations, I state this because I have walked on the soil of China, and I have slept in Hong Kong. There is a strict order maintained pertaining to western influence being allowed in their land. But there are many similar attributes relative to the experiences that have occurred in both locations. I mention this in connection with the alcoholism. The middle ages were exactly that, a middle stage in between the extreme ancient world of pyramids and possible aliens. We like to throw the alien picture in there because of the remnants of these civilizations prove to have operated off of an intellect which we like to tell ourselves is superior to our modern mind. Liquor is one of the great unifier of man and in order for a civil society to be maintained it must be controlled. As they have experienced with epidemics with alcohol such as the London Gin epidemic where over 10,000 children died in the late 1800’s. As during that time there was no age limit for alcohol. Even in old America I have heard old schoolers mention when I was younger how they were drinking and smoking at 15, and this was socially accepted by adults at the time. There is no America without alcohol and alcohol, wine, beer, ale and any other form of liquid intoxicant concocted off of natural elements was mastered during the dark ages. You had to have a license to make beer and if you made a bad batch you were sent to the gallows, this is the same for bread. Therefore there is no business without alcohol because alcoholism and its behaviors are interwoven into the thought pattern that we call success. The McLeod syndrome is important to note as this is definitely a part of what we see today with middle aged white males. The specifics are detailed. I ran into this information while briefing information on King Henry VIII. He had many difficulties with having children and he exhibited mental disorders as he grew older inclusive with obesity and other ailments. He was diagnosed to have this syndrome which has been proven to make fertilization difficult. This syndrome does create different forms of the melancholy. A hi rate of paranoia and distrust are 2 of them. You will encounter more details on this information shortly. Ergot poisoning will be very important to pay attention to. This information is very important when we consider a lot of our media and Hollywood. The imagery created from events of the effects of ergot are very drastic. For instance it was termed as St Johns Fire and the fire is in reference to the burning sensation felt at specifically the arm joints which was rotting away at the cartilage and said arm 12 would fall off in a way that they wouldn’t necessarily feel the tear off. These events are also related to the ring around the rosy song which also has roots with the plague. So any scenes you may have witnessed in a zombie film or anything of the like where a human is walking holding his limbs you must know that this exclusively European dna you’re looking at materialized in caricature format. Ergot is the key ingredient to the psychedelic drug LSD. LSD was first made by Albert Hofmann in Switzerland in 1938 from ergotamine, a chemical from the fungus ergot. I myself have been on LSD as a kid, only 2 times. It’s a long hi. But it is very obvious throughout my experiences in life that my form of thinking at my age now is unique not to sound arrogant and say advanced. I don’t know if this is a natural genetic position, astrologically ordained or happened like this from a chain of experiences throughout life. Once you take a drug of this type the wiring of the brain has sort of like a permanent bend that assists in the extension of thinking for those who are intelligent and illusion and fantasy for those who are stupid. This is the same for all drugs as the intelligent will enjoy in moderation for relaxation and the poor over indulge for escape. Due to the deprivation and the devil being at every corner and also the vices to be at availability all social classes experienced these same things. The lead poisoning is very serious. We must understand that the alcohol, the ergot, and the lead poisoning predates the Medieval times by at 700 years. It is documented well in Greece. So with this being included with the chronology of insanity in their history we see that it has grown to be genetic, addictive and habitual by the medieval times. So basically were living in a civilization that is the 5th civilization of a consistent insanity line. That would be Greece, Rome, All of Old European times embodied, Old America and New America. The lead has been with us the entire time. This is nothing new. The levels of intake that we are at now are nowhere near the levels of intake they used to consume. Literally and directly they would sweeten the wine with lead. Lead was being taken in by the plates and other utensils used at the time. The sickness and the disease is with us. The puss bump will be here, and there will be no stopping it. We will take pills and have surgery and still be inadequate. We are all prone to disease. The diseases of Old Europe are extreme as were the conditions that inflamed them. These diseases created many disfigurements of all sorts not just facial. These disfigurements became the entertainment of the children. These disfigurements created the root of what we know as the monster. This psychological monster development has other attachments such as branding and amputation done as consequence of course. Nonetheless, these disease disfigurements were excessively large and grotesque, very socially disruptive. To be honest I believe this is how Caucasians can keep a straight face with anything in any circumstance and immediately find a way to look at the bright side of a situation and turn it around. Venereal diseases were obviously rapid as so was the prostitution of the times. Nobody could really tell diseases apart from each other as for a long time the medical practices were fused with a backward folklore. The manias are very important as there were many. Especially right now, were in a beauty/perfection mania. This mania phenomenon usually lasts for about 350-450 years. The scholars that are used in this literature for the information based on the manias are doctors and historians. The defloration mania which we can find evidence of today by the simple fact a woman can sale her virginity for over $100,000 shows us a new picture of why this can occur. The spiritual development of pimping, the porn industry and the endless list of fetishes occurred all throughout Europe in different and similar forms. The information provided is more related to the region of England. Pimping has its origins in France. Macaroni’s, Dandies, Don Juan’s, Yankee Doodles and other characters will not be spoken about. 13  The dancing mania occurred for the spiritual attachment of idiocy with the ancient ceremonial practice of what we identify as dancing. Dancing of today is considered a foolish element amongst the higher social classes. Unless done in some type of ball masquerade fashion. Any other form dancing that doesn’t include choreography and concentrated focus and practice is considered foolish. Aggressive style or sexually related styles of dancing also fit underneath said category. Wild uncontrolled dancing is for children as their reasoning has yet to develop. So naturally, we will let the indigenous children dance and play the fool. As we will see it was highly correlated with the devil and other psychological issues. They killed themselves dancing and there are many reports of this. Demons names were screamed and the like. Please note here that all dances from the dancing mania and the sabbat all were described to be similar in initiation. They would begin by holding hands and going around in a circle; we will look at this closer in volume 3 as it is found in paintings. The plagues are intense. There is a lot of death that happens at alarming rates that you’ve never heard of before unless in movies. The plagues of this volume are comparative to the weather section in volume 1. Only in the sense of experiencing a repetitive potential genocidal attack coming from unknown and unseen forces sporadically over the course of hundreds of years. The plague also fit the description of a mania if we were to consolidate the time space between The Black Death of 1347 and the The Great Plague of London in 1665. There were literally a hundred plus small and large plagues but not as large as the 1347 and 1665 that occurred throughout all of Europe at different times and different diseases. Many things were termed as plague such as locusts, dysentery, typhus and other ailments. I must state here as I may say again that the terminology of plague is wise to consider. The reasoning is because it is a broad term that doesn’t designate exclusively what the disease is as others do with a first name as already stated. Secondly there were so many diseases going on at the time. The medical knowledge could not identify what the cause was as the symptoms and the effects of the disease affected people differently sometimes even by gender or age. There could have been other detailed factors but we can only go from what we see and no. The medical knowledge of the time was pretty basic as their medical ailments were exclusive to them on the mass level during these times and now they have fused onto the world. Their biological system is only for them meaning other races intake can’t be similar as they are built for it by generation for centuries and as many other races may have been disposed to others by generation yet and still it is not a millennium strong. I must state this that the plague has left to us a large percentage of our everyday social thinking especially in the areas of trust. On the other side of the same scale it has developed a form of love and care that was enforced for survival. It brought the adaptation of death. Besides all of the activity of death in the market that was intentional, expected and a form of entertainment, the plagues made sure the carcass was hardwired into the European psyche. The smells had to rewire the brain. The scenes had to alter the mind, rewire the nerves and the experiences had to encode the dna. We see all of these hellish images in our movies today. The plague experiences which were very vast round up to what they called the passions. The passions are the sum to the social equation of will power plus love. Which might end up into any level of ferocity to defend, offend or achieve any desire while disregarding and/or conquering any obstacle which may prevent your goal or bring potential demise. The passions will be dependent on your vitality. Your vitality will be dependent upon your essence and soul, your being of who you are; you’re natural self which also predicates your strength. After the plagues we go into the magic. We must understand that everything you think you know, you do not know and need to erase from your brain right now. Respect the fact that this 14 information is over 500 years old. It has not been through many hands and has been very kept and unwanted by mankind for some time now. There will always be people such as myself that will be born with the responsibility of the unknown. Getting back to the subject. The information you will be reading here which are all facts. If they are not facts because the historians want to play bullshit games on what is a hoax or we don’t know what’s real because of the time period, or its tongue and cheek. Say what the fuck it is, if it’s not real then throw the fucking shit away, destroy it. It’s detestable. I got this mentality from studying the material for volume 1. It is taint. Like I was saying, witchcraft, magic, sorcery, divination and necromancy are all different things. Please keep this in mind the entire time. Theoretically speaking I have observed certain coincidences in history that would lead to a wider scale of magic that is occurring. Those levels won’t be spoken about here. Basically the majority of this book is filled with extended explanations to stories and other forms of social data that has been paraded in front of us for eons. We are definitely underneath some magic here today and its very complex and in several different layers of life. You will have to pay attention very closely to how words are applied, what it’s being applied to and the cultural activity that defines the context. You must also pay attention to the words that are connected in the familiarity of usage with the original word. There are magic mirrors in this book, which I must state predates Europe and can be found in Egypt. There are also crystal balls. The magic practices that Europeans involved themselves in, especially for riches display a limitless ferocity sort of comparable to the atrocities committed during the slave trade and the Spanish inquisition. The Spanish Inquisition will be thoroughly reviewed in volume 3 as its approach to witchcraft has similarities to the municipality practices, regardless of this it was held as superior simply because of its church affiliation. Therefore there are unique differences. The inquisitor’s in-depth knowledge of demonolatry spilled over to the populace and provided a basis for individuals to identify witches and also to dibble and dabble in the arts of the arcane. Unless it was socially accepted in which we do find cases that allude to this communal status which is recognized in every region of the continent. The similarities in the folklore, witchcraft systems inclusive with how words are defined are a major link in the chain of their unification. We will be going over much information relative to the dark side. There are many elements thereof that will have to be reviewed. We will start with the Occult serial killers before we get into the Witches, Vampires and Werewolves. Last but not least the good ole boy Lucifer himself. We must understand that there is no life without death and death is eminent. So to face it with no fear is the highest form of conquering in the psyche faculties. I must state that witches are really women who project so much anger and confusion because they’ve been traumatized and neglected. This statement is not to remove or battle the possibility of the double xx chromosome having capabilities of supernatural powers besides just her beauty and scent. The drinking of blood is done by all parties of the dark side. The true reasons and origins for some of these practices are not mentioned here as they may be found in other time periods and cultures and would take a far more detailed research. These witches do fly on brooms but this is done year round not just Halloween. The Werewolves metamorph at will and not necessarily by the moon. The original Vampires used to get just come out the grave at will, could be seen at day time, and would kill people by beating them or plague not sucking the blood which was added to the character later. So get you garlic, your crucifix and Holy water as you read this volume. May god have mercy on your sol, be safe in your travels and wise in your dealings. 15  Those who are Silent are Knights of The Order Those who Dance are The Fools of Death Chronology of Ages Dark Ages (Europe, 476–800) Early Middle Ages (Europe, 500–1000) Viking Age (Scandinavia, Europe, 793–1066) High Middle Ages (Europe, 1000–1300) Late Middle Ages (Europe, 1300–1450) The Renaissance (Europe, 1300–1700) Early modern period (Europe, 1450–1750) Age of Discovery (or Exploration) (Europe, 1400–1700) Classicism (Europe, 16th–18th centuries) Industrious Revolution, (Europe, 16th–18th centuries) Periods & Eras In English History Anglo-Saxon (655-1066) Norman (1066-1154) Plantagenet (1154-1485) Tudor (1485-1603) Elizabethan (1558-1603) Stuart (1603-1714) Jacobean (1603-1625) Caroline (1625-1649) Interregnum (1649-1660) Restoration (1660-1688) Georgian (1714-1837) Victorian (1837-1901) 16  Part V The I.M.P Insanity, Mania, & Plagues 17 Fig. 1.). Beer Street & Gin Lane by William Hogarth, London 1751 18  Chapter 1 The Vices of Hallucination 720: During my research I was repeatedly made aware of activities which were completely abnormal. This abnormality had to have a source. I understood the effects of alcohol and their rates of intake were to extreme. Alcohol is an umbrella to many other vices. When I researched the weather there were many mentions of plagues and rotten food. The poisoning from the rotten food had drastic effects on the people. The many so called sightings and miracles that occurred were very odd as well. Their level of excitement and infatuation has always been odd to me. So I knew there was far more than just alcohol that was tampering with their minds. I have seen the art of many tribes and ancient civilizations. Putting together all that I’ve seen, I’ve never witnessed such confusion and insanity as is expressed in European art. There had to be a lot of experiences, sights, premonitions and random thoughts, majority of them being immoral in order to be able to visualize and reproduce such hellish imagery for centuries. So here we will begin with alcohol and some of their thoughts at the time about it and other facts. Alcoholism At this time gin was already being produced in England having been discovered as “Dutch Courage” by British naval sailors when supporting Holland during the Dutch War of Independence in 1568. William began by imposing high taxes on the popular imports of other spirits (such as French brandy) while equally offering tax benefits to help drive British subjects to distil their own spirits from, “good English corn” in an attempt to increase sale of national produce. Up to that point the production of national spirits were well controlled and monopolized through the London Guild of Distillers, a guild who was promptly disbanded as part of William’s grand plan. By the end of the first two years of activation, national gin production rocketed to 500,000 gallons a year. Enter “Madam Geneva”. By 1721 English Excise and Revenue accounts noted that approximately one quarter of London’s residents were employed in the production of gin, equating for almost 2 million gallons (9.1 million liters) of tax free product a year. Over the following decade, gin consumption (by the average adult over the age of 15) would double again and the cities half a million population would be able to purchase a dram of gin for little more than a penny at a choice of almost 7000 gin shops. Naturally the major cities in England began to fall into a “well-documented drunken stupor”. A 1736 pamphlet from some of the teetotal minority entitled, Distilled Liquors: The Bane of the Nation mentioned, “In one place not far from East Smithfield, a trader has a large empty room where, as his wretched guests get intoxicated, they are laid together in heaps, men women and children, until they recover their senses, when they proceed to drink on, or having spent all they had, go out to find the means to return to the same dreadful pursuit”. 19  Possibly the most horrendous crime in the name of gin was the case of Judith Defour and her female accomplice known simply as Sukey. The statement recorded during her trail at the Old Bailey, London on 27th February, 1734 – recorded the following confession from Miss Defour; “On Sunday [sic] Night we took the Child into the Fields, and stripp’d it, and ty’d a Linen Handkerchief hard about its Neck to keep it from crying, and then laid it in a Ditch. And after that, we went together, and sold the Coat and Stay for a Shilling, and the Petticoat and Stockings for a Groat. We parted the Money, and join’d for a Quartern of Gin”. The most sobering piece of this story lies in the fact that the victim was Miss Defours two year old daughter Mary…and all for 60 mls each of Gin. When the parliament finally passed the first Gin Act in 1736, the nation (long addicted) rioted from Bristol to London, Norwich to Warrington and Liverpool to Plymouth with mock funeral processions held by some in protest to, “The death of Madam Geneva”. Despite this first regulatory action, gin madness continued to rise and reached an all-time high in 1743 when it was recorded that 2.2 gallons (8 litres) were consumed per person per year (of ALL ages). Consumption of gin finally began to decline with the passing of a second official Gin Act in 1751. The success of this Act placed limitations on the production and retail of the spirit including increased excise taxes along with the manpower to help enforce it. Despite these final regulations coming into effect it was estimated that 9000 children in London alone died of alcohol poisoning that single year. The excessive consumption by the general English population during the gin epidemic is difficult to comprehend by today’s comforts. The two key elements of note to help understand the times were that Europe was undergoing what is known as “The Mini Ice Age” with frequent snow storms and even the River Thames commonly freezing over completely. As such, drinking spirits was a cheap and relatively simple way to help escape the chill. Additionally the general hygiene conditions of the time and the poor state of available drinking water meant that a distilled liquid guaranteed a purified hydration from any disease or parasites that were commonly found therein, and therefore gin not just safe to drink but very easy and cheap to obtain. In 1751, famous artist and brutally honest social critic William Hogarth, captured the darkest moments of London’s Gin epidemic in his etching entitled “Gin Lane”. The scene captured by Hogarth represents the slum of London’s St Giles district, a neighborhood understandably described by the artists as where, “nothing but idleness, poverty, misery and ruin are to be seen”. In the background is the spire of St George’s church in Bloomsbury, normally a symbol of London’s elegance yet in stark contrast to events below showing brawling drunkards, ruined buildings, housewives pawning goods for gin, babies being fed on gin, scenes of murder, suicide and various other images of inhumanity with the most prosperous house in the scene belonging to the undertaker. In the bottom left hand corner of this image is a local gin-palace (a cheap spirit shop) called “Gin Royal” with a sign above the door which famously states; “Drunk for a penny, dead drunk for two pence, clean straw for nothing”. Popular London novelist and Court Justice Henry Fielding would describe the life in such slums as, “excessive misery…oppressed with want, and sunk in every species of debauchery”. Fielding was also a close friend and partner at cards of Hogarth. In a stark comparison to the messages in Gin Lane was its counterpart entitled “Beer Street”, showing a more civil and humane society who imbibe beer instead of those who partake of ruinous gin. As explained by Hogarth himself, “[Beer Street] was given as a contrast, w[h]ere the invigorating liquor is recommend[ed] in order [to] drive the other out of vogue. Here all is joyous and thriving [.] industry and jollity go hand in hand“. Beer street shows us jovial people who are fat (therefore healthy), buildings rising up instead of falling down, a church spire flying the King’s standard high in the background against a pawnbrokers sign falling down in the foreground. Hogarth was well-known to represent many topics of alcoholic reform in his works, a subject which is suggested is 20 closer to Hogarth than most after his mother died “of a fright” in a brandy-shop fire 36 years previously. Hogarth also lived near the popular Fullers Brewery in London and as such would have been well experienced in the difference between these two juxtaposed drinking societies.[1] Distillation was common throughout Europe by the Middle Ages, but was fairly uncommon in England, compared to beer and ale production, because a domestic monopoly kept prices very high. In 1689, Parliament banned imports of French wines and spirits and at the same time cancelled the domestic monopoly. Subsequently, anyone who could pay the required duties could set up a distillery business. Distillers became not only producers, but also sellers. The cost of gin fell below the cost of beer and ale (see Spring and Buss, 1977) and gin drinking became the favourite alcoholic beverage among the ‘inferior class’. British statistical abstracts put the annual consumption of gin in England and Wales in 1700 at about 1.23 million gallons. By 1714, consumption was up to almost 2 million gallons per year. By 1735, it was 6.4 million gallons, and by 1751, 7.05 million gallons. In terms of population, per capita consumption increased by up to eightfold from between 1 and 2 pints in 1700 to between 8 and 9 pints, about a gallon per person in 1751 (Mitchell and Deane, 1962). Beer consumption for the same period remained relatively constant at 3 million gallons a year. George, one of the most influential historians of the early 20th century, blamed the increase in gin consumption for much of the social unrest that also increased during this period. The most commonly cited support for this argument was that after the passage of the Tippling Act of 1751, which George called a ‘turning point in the social history of London’, social unrest declined. The Tippling Act prohibited distillers from selling gin at retail, and levied severe penalties for non-compliance, such as imprisonment, whipping and even deportation for repeat offenders. As a result, gin prices rose, gin consumption steadily declined back to 2 million gallons [beer consumption, however, steadily increased to about 4 million gallons a year (Mitchell and Deane, 1962)], and social unrest did decline. However, in this article, I argue that the social unrest prior to and after the Tippling Act was the result of, and was fueled and exacerbated by, excessive gin drinking, rather than having been its cause. Whereas the gin-related drunkenness in 18th century England has typically been associated with the poor. Drunkenness itself was commonplace among all social classes. However, the attitudes of the genteel towards their own drunkenness and those of the ‘inferior people’ reflected class distinctions. For the middle and upper classes — the only ones to record their perspective — their own drunkenness was simply amusing. In his Midnight Modern Conversation, for example, William Hogarth depicted drunkenness among well-to-do revelers in a humorous light; the whole scene triangulates on an exuberant drinker in the back of the room who is raising his glass in a toast to all his fellow topers, a tribute, rather than a denunciation of drunken conviviality. When Hogarth turned to drinking among the poor, as he did in Gin Lane, his attitude was completely different. Gin drinking among the ‘inferior class’ in the second quarter of the 18th century was attacked as an unprecedented problem not because drunkenness was more commonplace, or because of benevolent concern that it was impairing the health of the poor as individuals, but because of its perceived dangers to the Nation’s welfare and economy. When a critic of cheap gin said that ‘it cannot be suppos’d that labouring people can spend their money in both beer and gin’, he wasn’t condemning drunkenness per se, he was merely pointing out that the money being spent was going to the gin makers and sellers instead of their counterparts in the beer industry. In the long run, he warned, the cheaper price for gin would lead to more drunkenness, which was a concern, he said, because their premature deaths would ‘deprive the landowners of a workforce which in turn would result in higher wages, (and) the demand for barley would also be reduced’. ‘To all this’ (i.e. the decrease in beer consumption and increased labour costs), our social critic added, was the added effect gin drinking had upon ‘the consumption of tobacco, no inconsiderable a branch of his Majesty’s revenue, and to which the populace do not a little contribute. 21 An honest man may smoke a pipe or two of tobacco, with a pint or two of good beer, a whole evening, but is so suddenly demolish’d by the force of tyrant gin, that he has scarcely time to puff out half a dozen wiffs’ (p. 13). Not only was gin drinking accused of contributing to idleness, it was also said to be responsible for an increase in crime. ‘Most of the Murders and Robberies lately committed’, said the London Grand Jury, ‘have been laid and concentrated at Gin Shops’. It explained that ‘being fired with these Hot Spirits, they are prepared to execute the most bold and daring Attempts’. In 1751, despairing of the vices of the ‘lower order of people’, Henry Fielding, a London Magistrate, author of Tom Jones and other popular books of the era, published an Enquiry into the Causes of the Late Increase of Robbers explaining that there were two main causes of crime in England. The first was that the ‘lower order’ was no longer frugal and hardworking because of its wish for ‘luxury’; and this envy drove them to crime to achieve their goal. The second cause was drunkenness on the part of the ‘inferior order’. While the crime rate did increase during the second quarter of the 18th century, it had been steadily increasing since the previous century and would be expected to increase with an increase in population and overcrowding. When those factors are taken into account, the crime rate remained relatively stable during the first half of the 18th century during the height of the gin epidemic and actually rose during the second half of the century, after the epidemic ended. Although the ‘inferior class’ was at least as much under siege, ‘criminality, like poverty, is never at an acceptable level from the perspective of propertied classes’ (Langford, 1989, p. 155). Most capital crimes were offences against property. London and Middlesex were considered the most lawless parts of the country, but fewer than 100 murders occurred there from 1749 to 1771 compared to 4000 in Rome, a city a quarter the size of London (Gilmour, 1992). While crime was a perennial concern, the perception that the gin epidemic was responsible for an increase in crime was due more to its changing character and to the way in which the literate and semi-literate public was made aware of it through the growing influence of the popular press, rather than to any real increase in its incidence (Langford, 1989). To a large degree, the social unrest of the mob, which the genteel class equated with ‘lawlessness’, was due to sharply rising food costs throughout the 18th century. Labouring families spent as much as 50% and sometimes as much as 80% on essential foodstuffs, especially bread or grain. While they could barely make ends meet in good years, when prices shot up in times of poor harvests, families faced starvation. Rioting often occurred, and desperate people turned to robbery and other crimes for money (Malcolmson, 1981), or to gin because it provided calories at a lower cost (Spring and Buss, 1977), although it lacked associated nutrients.[2] More than one learned physician, who have given their attestations to either existence of this most distressing complaint, have agreed that it actually occurs and is occasioned by different causes. The most frequent source of the malady is in the dissipated and intemperate habits of those who, by a continued series of intoxication, become subject to what is popularly called the blue devils, instances of which mental disorder may be known to most who have lived for any period of their lives in a society where hard drinking was a common vice. The joyous visions suggested by intoxication when the habit is acquired, in time disappear, and are supplied by frightful impressions and scenes which destroy the tranquility of the unhappy debauchee. Apparitions of the most unpleasant appearance are his companions in solitude, and intrude even upon his hours of society; and when by an alteration of habits the mind is cleared of these frightful ideas, it requires but the slightest renewal of the association to bring back the full tide of misery upon the repentant libertine. Of this the following instance was told to the author by a gentleman connected with the sufferer. A young man of fortune, who had led what is called so gay a life as considerably to injure both his health and fortune, was at length obliged to consult the physician upon the means of restoring at least, the former. One of his principal complaints was the frequent presence of a set of apparitions, resembling a band of figures dressed in green, who performed in his drawing-room a singular dance, to which he was compelled to bear witness, though he knew, to 22 his great annoyance, that the whole corps de ballet existed only in his own imagination. His physician immediately informed him that he had lived upon town too long and too fast not to require an exchange to a more healthy and natural course of life. He therefore prescribed a gentle course of medicine, but earnestly recommended to his patient to retire to his own house in the country, observe a temperate diet and early hours, practicing regular exercise, on the same principle avoiding fatigue, and assured him that by doing so he might bid adieu to black spirits and white, blue, green and grey, with all their trumpery. The patient observed the advice, and prospered. His physician, after the interval of a month, received a grateful letter from him, acknowledging the success of his regimen. The green goblins had disappeared, and with them the unpleasant train of emotions to which their visits had given rise, and the patient had ordered his townhouse to be disfurnished and sold, while the furniture was to be sent down to his residence in the country, where he was determined in future to spend his life, without exposing himself to the temptations of town. One would have supposed this a well-devised scheme for health. But, alas! No sooner had the furniture of the London drawing-room been placed in order in gallery of the old manor-house than the former delusion returned in full force: the green figurants, whom the patients depraved imagination had so long associated with these moveable’s, came capering and frisking to accompany them, exclaiming with great glee, as if the sufferer should have been rejoiced to see them, ‘here we all are-here we all are!’ The visionary, if I recollect right, was so much shocked at their appearance, that he retired abroad, in despair that any part of Britain could shelter him from the daily persecution of this domestic ballet. There is reason to believe that such cases are numerous, and that they may perhaps arise not only from the debility of stomach brought on by excess in wine or spirits, which derangement often sensibly affects the eyes and sense of sight, but also because the mind becomes habitually predominated over by a train of fantastic visions, the consequence of frequent intoxication; and is thus, like a dislocated joint, apt again to go wrong, even when a different cause occasions the derangement. It is easily to be supposed that habitual excitement by means of any other intoxicating drug, such as opium or its various substitutes, must expose those who practice the dangerous custom to the same inconvenience. Very frequent use of the nitrous oxide which affects the sense so strongly, and produces a short but singular state of ecstasy, would probably be found to occasion this species of disorder. But there are many other causes which medical men find attended with the same symptom, of embodying before the eyes of a patient with imaginary illusions which are visible to no one else. This persecution of spectral deceptions is also found to exist when no excesses of the patient can be alleged as the cause, owing, doubtless, to a deranged state of the blood or nervous system. [3] 720: Alcohol has been with mankind since there was a kind of man. Liquor moderately enjoyed is the band aid of stress. Over indulgence of alcohol definitely will bring peril to one’s life. The overt mental work and the multi layered lifestyle that is a mandate for survival in the western world damn near requires an escape route that doesn’t necessarily let you escape. You see the people who are entrepreneurs and owners of businesses are infatuated with their work. So whether they are drink with a friend or catching a buzz to make sleeping easy they are constantly thinking about work. Alcohol also referred to as spirits gives the mind a different point of view on how to see things. While under the influence of anything the decision making of the mind will be adjusted a tad bit not saying that your judgement skills will be wrong but they will be impaired which may bring new advancements. This is the true reason on why thinking has to be compartmentalized and unified all at once and liquor assists in that. Alcohol as well keeps a sexual excitation as well, which the ladies always love. It is the happy juice for those of the elite. And it is the devils syrup amongst those with no control. Alcohol, the spirits have control once you submit and there is no letting loose from it. The liquor of America and Europe were founded all by the families the liquors are all named by. Just research the names and you will find a long rich history. 23 Fig. 2.). A man suffering from gout; represented by a group of blue demons dancing around him. Coloured etching by R. Newton, 1795. (Copyright © The Welcome Library, London) 24 720: As was mentioned in the first volume, in Italy, infants were weaned on to wine directly after breast feeding. Also in the food section it had been noted that wine, ale, beer was preferred over water. There are health and environmental weather scares such as “The Little Ice Age” period that also influenced this habitual drinking. The threat of Cholera and many other diseases being rampant in the water made alcohol consumption the primary source of hydration. Even though, all forms of liquor dehydrate the body. During these times ale, which was a thick substance, thick enough to substitute bread, was not made off of the same ingredients as use today for our beers. In today’s standard thinking, the majority of people don’t know or understand the process of making beer. During Medieval times you had to have a license to make beer and if you made bad beer there is a high potentiality you could end up at the gallows. When we understand the social indirect acception of crime the people had during these times, you can assume that liquor or other mind altering chemicals were in the mixture. With this acknowledgement we can recognize the other elements that will interrupt the social order not related to crime. Such as family dysfunction, bad money management, low work ethic, emotional & mental instability, depression, stress and suicide. We must not also forget Liquors sisters: gambling, prostitution and infanticide. This section on alcohol is small because it is a more closely documented time period. It is obvious that if we do not see a dysfunction there need not be a hunt for a solution. When researching the topic I was looking for a more detailed activity that was related to the paintings I’ve witnessed. I didn’t come across to much because the angel I was looking for was Pyscho/Social and the material I did find was expensive. Besides this, the majority of the material on this subject focuses on the different types of beers during the times and how they were made not specifically the social debauchery from over usage. This is why I’ve only mentioned the early 1700’s when this activity is closely documented. Alcohol consumption (the spirits) is age old, damn near all of its short & long term effects have been documented by several civilizations. This inclusive with the experiences of London and the standardized vulgarity that was the basis of Old Europe gives us a better clarity on the struggles of Alcohol in our Modern Globalization. When we consider Epigenetics we can definitely see that damn near all Caucasians or Europeans are genetically predisposed to alcohol because of the amount and styles of consumption during the times. When paying close attention there isn’t a Medieval film that is not equipped with an ale house or individuals walking around with big led or wood mugs. Scientifically each different type of Liquor, Beer and Wine have a different effect on the mind. So each “drunk” is different. Everybody can’t consume the same type of liquors, nor will they feel the same way when drunk. It is this clause that assists in the split of happy, sad & violent type of drunks. Due to the deprivation of the Dark Ages which provided extreme mental stress makes the mind look for an escape. This search for escape by means of alcohol also created as stated above hallucinations that are genetically predisposed. This thing called the blue devils being dark in hue maybe related to the Caucasian mentality of being assaulted by or blaming failures on the invisible black man that wasn’t there. The Blue Devils of the Medieval times is more than likely the origins of the Dukes Basketball team logo. The liquor was definitely the drink to the meal of escaping reality during the Dark Ages. The children, men and women all constantly drank. The European love for alcohol shows up in American history during the Prohibition of the 1920’s. In truth all peoples of the Earth have had some form of liquid elixir that is based off of fermented grains, fruit or yeast. Usually, in all other peoples referred to, alcohol was regulated for specific ceremonies or the higher ranks of their social order. The lower orders of European society, the peasants, that is, the ones of the village and of the city, consistently drank. The knights, doges, nobles, barons, merchants and others consistently drank. This also goes for the many types of individuals in the King’s court. In the History of the Church, I haven’t found much liquor consumption. The amount of alcohol consumption which was extremely high for over 1000 years on all levels of life are directly related to the harsh environment which enforced a high amount of responsibility to survive and at 25 the same time the desire to perish. This mentality construct is now the basis of today’s work force. The good ole “Let’s get a drink after work”. Not only because the daily workload is stressful but also the evasion of the workload at the home. I can’t forget to mention the potential courtly love liaison that could occur with the coworker, that’s just oh so intense. Liquor has always created a social divide in all societies. This is because of maturity, intelligence, royal blood etc., and I don’t think anything else is a key ingredient to the divide. Of course there is a divide by the quality of liquor, financially/socially. The higher ranks of society are more intelligent because their parents loved them more than the parents of the lower ranks and that’s regardless if the rich parents started out in the slums or not. The common denominator is how one responds to trauma. Being in a celebrated condition in life, when one catches a strong buzz you feel good because the other worries of life are minimized by finances and one will admire the accomplishments they have achieved. You may also have the same effect when living in the slums until the happiness you seek becomes a sought after addiction which brings one to hell. Hence the reason why there are more drunkards living in the slums than living lavishly. People who live in the higher ranks of life have more to protect, they have more energy, mental clarity, and an immediate and extended family support structure. Therefore, they have more time and with strong intelligence and experience they can provide solutions to problems on a mass scale. When these type of people get drunk it usually puts them at a mind of good times, laughter, dancing and sex. Therefore they are encouraged to drink moderately as it extends their intelligence and health. The lower ranks of society do not have the education or the proper amount of energy and vitality in their essence to have liquor at their everyday availability. This is stated because of the communal effects. These communal effects of drugs, prostitutes, criminals, loitering, abandoned children, fatherless homes, infanticide (Abortion), hunger and overall deprivation are directly linked to the many characters of Old Europe. These characters: the vagabonds, beggars, vandals, housebreakers, highway men, jugglers, pipers, prostitutes, executioners, alchemists, witches, hangmen, tax collectors, priests, procurers, gamers, illusionists, pick pocketers, grave diggers and the like were all drunks. Of course you have your exceptions to the rule there are many cases of wino millionaires and sober peasants. But the majority rules in the appearance of things. You must understand that the majority of Europeans were all created out of hate and neglect. This hate and neglect comes from each other, of course and the question of God and the Devils existence in relation to who is the caster of judgement and punishment vs. who is the provider of joy and material items. These battles of the mind and the removal of the pain was done consciously by liquor and unconsciously by other elements that will be described later on. Between 2006-2010 the CDC reports that in America there are approximately 88,000 deaths that occur year related to alcohol. The numbers will get larger because liquor is big business. When one goes into detail on who runs what in the liquor world. All you have to do is research the names of the liquors or the type of liquor, for instance: the origins of brandy or the Hennessy family. Many of these names do date back to Old Europe. You could literally design a map on the whole country of Europe dividing the regions by liquor type. Each country/culture mastered a different type of liquor. As they mastered the art of making liquor. An example of the art would be the Remy Martin Louis XIII Cognac ranging anywhere from $1,000 to $3,500. I was told by a bar tender that one of the reasons why is because each bottle is aged for 100 years in a boat in the ocean and the constant rocking of the boat makes each bottle taste different. Below is a picture of The Drunkards Progress which shows their knowledge of the consequences from experience. 26 The Drunkards Progress Step 1-9: Step 5. The summit attained. Jolly Companions. A Step 1. A glass with a friend. confirmed drunkard. Step 2. A glass to keep the cold out. Step 6. Poverty and Disease Step 3. A glass too much. Step 7. Forsaken by friends. Step 4. Drunk and riotous. Step 8. Desperation and Crime Step 9. Death by Suicide. Fig.3) The Drunkard's Progress, anonymous print, 1846. By the early nineteenth century, the culture of heavy drinking in North America had given rise to a home-grown temperance movement. 27  McLeod Syndrome McLeod neuroacanthocytosis syndrome is primarily a neurological disorder that occurs almost exclusively in boys and men. This disorder affects movement in many parts of the body. People with McLeod neuroacanthocytosis syndrome also have abnormal star-shaped red blood cells (acanthocytosis). This condition is one of a group of disorders called neuroacanthocytoses that involve neurological problems and abnormal red blood cells. McLeod neuroacanthocytosis syndrome affects the brain and spinal cord (central nervous system). Affected individuals have involuntary movements, including jerking motions (chorea), particularly of the arms and legs, and muscle tensing (dystonia) in the face and throat, which can cause grimacing and vocal tics (such as grunting and clicking noises). Dystonia of the tongue can lead to swallowing difficulties. Seizures occur in approximately half of all people with McLeod neuroacanthocytosis syndrome. Individuals with this condition may develop difficulty processing, learning, and remembering information (cognitive impairment). They may also develop psychiatric disorders, such as depression, bipolar disorder, psychosis, or obsessive-compulsive disorder. People with McLeod neuroacanthocytosis syndrome also have problems with their muscles, including muscle weakness (myopathy) and muscle degeneration (atrophy). Sometimes, nerves that connect to muscles atrophy (neurogenic atrophy), leading to loss of muscle mass and impaired movement. Individuals with McLeod neuroacanthocytosis syndrome may also have reduced sensation and weakness in their arms and legs (peripheral neuropathy). Life-threatening heart problems such as irregular heartbeats (arrhythmia) and a weakened and enlarged heart (dilated cardiomyopathy) are common in individuals with this disorder. The signs and symptoms of McLeod neuroacanthocytosis syndrome usually begin in mid-adulthood. Behavioral changes, such as lack of self-restraint, the inability to take care of oneself, anxiety, depression, and changes in personality may be the first signs of this condition. While these behavioral changes are typically not progressive, the movement and muscle problems and intellectual impairments tend to worsen with age. Mutations in the XK gene cause McLeod neuroacanthocytosis syndrome. The XK gene provides instructions for producing the XK protein, which carries the blood antigen Kx. Blood antigens are found on the surface of red blood cells and determine blood type. The XK protein is found in various tissues, particularly the brain, muscle, and heart. The function of the XK protein is unclear; researchers believe that it might play a role in transporting substances into and out of cells. On red blood cells, the XK protein attaches to another blood group protein, the Kell protein. The function of this blood group complex is unknown. XK gene mutations typically lead to the production of an abnormally short, nonfunctional protein or cause no protein to be produced at all. A lack of XK protein leads to an absence of Kx antigens on red blood cells; the Kell antigen is also less prevalent. The absence of Kx antigen and reduction of Kell antigen is known as the "McLeod phenotype," and refers only to the red blood cells. It is not known how the lack of XK protein leads to the movement problems and other features of McLeod neuroacanthocytosis syndrome. McLeod neuroacanthocytosis syndrome is inherited in an X-linked recessive pattern. The gene associated with this condition is located on the X chromosome, which is one of the two sex chromosomes. In males (who have only one X chromosome), one altered copy of the gene in each cell is sufficient to cause the condition. In females (who have two X chromosomes), a mutation must be present in both copies of the gene to cause the disorder. Males are affected by X-linked recessive disorders much more frequently than females. Rarely, females with a mutation in one copy of the XK gene can have the characteristic misshapen blood cells and movement problems associated with McLeod neuroacanthocytosis syndrome. A characteristic of X-linked inheritance is that fathers cannot pass X- linked traits to their sons.[4] 28  The life of England’s King Henry VIII is a royal paradox. A lusty womanizer who married six times and canoodled with countless ladies-in-waiting in an era before reliable birth control, he only fathered four children who survived infancy. Handsome, vigorous and relatively benevolent in the early years of his reign, he ballooned into an ailing 300-pound tyrant whose capriciousness and paranoia sent many heads rolling—including those of two of his wives, Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard. A new study chalks these mystifying contradictions up to two related biological factors. Writing in “The Historical Journal,” bioarchaeologist Catrina Banks Whitley and anthropologist Kyra Kramer argue that Henry’s blood group may have doomed the Tudor monarch to a lifetime of desperately seeking—in the arms of one woman after another—a male heir, a pursuit that famously led him to break with the Roman Catholic Church in the 1530s. A disorder that affects members of his suspected blood group, meanwhile, may explain his midlife physical and psychological deterioration. The researchers suggest that Henry’s blood carried the rare Kell antigen—a protein that triggers immune responses—while that of his sexual partners did not, making them poor reproductive matches. In a first pregnancy, a Kell-positive man and a Kell-negative woman can have a healthy Kell-positive baby together. In subsequent pregnancies, however, the antibodies the mother produced during the first pregnancy can cross the placenta and attack a Kell-positive fetus, causing a late-term miscarriage, stillbirth or rapid neonatal death. While an exact number is hard to determine, it is believed that Henry’s sexual encounters with his various wives and mistresses resulted in at least 11 and possibly more than 13 pregnancies. Records indicate that only four of these yielded healthy babies: the future Mary I, born to Henry’s first wife, Catherine of Aragon, after six children were stillborn or died shortly after birth; Henry FitzRoy, the king’s only child with his teenage mistress Bessie Blount; the future Elizabeth I, the first child born to Anne Boleyn, who went on to suffer several miscarriages before her date with the chopping block; and the future Edward VI, Henry’s son by his third wife, Jane Seymour, who died before the couple could try for a second. The survival of the three firstborn children—Henry FitzRoy, Elizabeth and Edward—is consistent with the Kell-positive reproductive pattern. As for Catherine of Aragon, the researchers note, “it is possible that some cases of Kell sensitization affect even the first pregnancy.” And Mary may have survived because she inherited the recessive Kell gene from Henry, making her impervious to her mother’s antibodies. After scanning higher branches of Henry’s family tree for evidence of the Kell antigen and its accompanying reproductive troubles, Whitley and Kramer believe they have traced it back to Jacquetta of Luxembourg, the king’s maternal great-grandmother. “The pattern of reproductive failure among Jacquetta’s male descendants, while the females were generally reproductively successful, suggests the genetic presence of the Kell phenotype within the family,” the authors explain. The historian David Starkey has written of “two Henrys, the one old, the other young.” The young Henry was handsome, spry and generous, a devoted ruler who loved sports, music and Catherine of Aragon; the old Henry binged on rich foods, undermined his country’s stability to marry his mistress and launched a brutal campaign to eliminate foes both real and imagined. Beginning in middle age, the king also suffered leg pain that made walking nearly impossible. Whitley and Kramer argue that McLeod syndrome, a genetic disorder that only affects Kell-positive individuals, could account for this drastic change. The disease weakens muscles, causes dementia-like cognitive impairment and typically sets in between the ages of 30 and 40. Other experts have attributed Henry VIII’s apparent mental instability to syphilis and theorized that osteomyelitis, a chronic bone infection, caused his mobility problems. For Whitley and Kramer, McLeod syndrome could explain many of the symptoms the king experienced later in life. 29  So is time to absolve Henry VIII of his bloodthirsty reputation and cut him some slack as a Kell-positive McLeod syndrome sufferer? If Whitley and Kramer have anything to do with it, we may finally get a definitive answer: They are in the process of asking England’s reigning monarch, Queen Elizabeth, for permission to exhume her distant relative and perform DNA tests on his hair and bones.[5] 720: It is wise to assume that this disease was prevalent amongst all levels of society. We can see the traces of it then and now with their difficulty with pregnancy and child bearing. With close observation we can see this syndrome is deeply interwoven in the aging process of Caucasian males. Between the ages of 30 and 40 there is an extreme mentality change. This mental, emotional instability is shown in the business world that they created. The Caucasian male has a high paranoia and extreme distrust coupled with evasion of responsibility and secrecy. They have constant need for protein and exercising in order to battle muscle corrosion or spasms. Plus a lot of heart attacks start happening around this age. The biggest part of all of this is the unpredictable insanity this syndrome influences in the behaviors, which maybe the true definition of the multitude of serial killers, rapists, con-artists, lying politicians and the like who are in this age range. Ergot Poisoning Fig. 4.). Left: A patients hands showing the effects and discoloration of Ergotism Fig. 5.). Right: Fungied Rye Symptoms of ergot poisoning include nervous spasms, psychotic delusions, spontaneous abortion and convulsions and gangrene caused by severe vasoconstriction; some dancers claimed to have experienced visions of a religious nature.[6] St. Anthony’s Fire is a type of ergotism, caused by a poisonous fungus growing on rye, and the main symptoms are delusions and dancing mania (the actual poison is closely related, chemically, to dextro-lyserigic acid diethylamide, or LSD). It is possible, in fact, that the flagellants were suffering from St. Anthony’s Fire when they embarked on their nightmare pilgrimage; in any case, the spread of the ergotism and the spread of plague occurred together to produce uniquely horrible scenes of madness and death. St. Anthony's Fire, a poisoning caused by the ergot fungus in rye flour kept over winter. Ergot contaminates grains in the field, causes wild hallucinations, blood vessel constriction and limb loss and is still a threat to modern agriculture. St. Anthony’s Fire Epidemic of Paris (945 A.D.) The Problem: The people of Paris were plagued with great sores which encompassed their limbs. To which the only cure was a trip to St. Mary’s church in Paris where Duke Hugh the Great, Count of Paris nourished the ill with his 30 own holy stores of grain. The ill were quickly cured, but as soon as they returned home they came back down with the terrible sores. The Cause: Ergot poisoning. Ergot is a fungus that grows on rye during cold, damp conditions. When the grain is ground up and then made into bread, people consume the fungus and poisoning ensues. There are three different types of ergotism: gangrenous, convulsive, and hallucinogenic. In the case of the Paris epidemic, sufferers were stricken with the gangrenous type of ergotism. So why were they cured when they went St. Mary’s? The answer is quite simple. Duke Hugh’s stores of grain were better maintained, and therefore, not contaminated with ergot so when people ate his grains their ergotism went away, but as soon as they returned home they consumed their contaminated grain causing them to once again come down with the poisoning.[7] It was in the Rhine Valley, in 857 A.D., that the first major outbreak of gangrenous ergotism was documented. It was at this time that the symptoms (but not the knowledge of what caused the symptoms) from consumption of ergot was called Holy Fire. "Fire" because of the burning sensations, in the extremities, that were experienced by the victims of gangrenous ergotism, and "Holy" because of the belief that this was a punishment from God. The victims' toes, fingers, arms and legs often became blackened as a result of gangrene, and would eventually die from the infections in these extremities. In addition, the victims often suffered from convulsive ergotism, as well, from the psychoactive properties that may occur in the ergot. Numerous epidemics of ergotism followed, with thousands dying as a result of the continual consumption of infected rye, with the most susceptible victims often being children. In 1039, an outbreak of ergotism occurred in France. During this outbreak, however, a hospital was erected in order to care for the victims of ergotism, by Gaston de la Valloire. De la Valloire dedicated this hospital to St. Anthony, and through this gesture Holy Fire came to be called St. Anthony's Fire. Monks would eventually start the order of St. Anthony and over 370 hospitals would be built for those ailing from Holy Fire, in the name of St. Anthony. Each hospital was symbolically painted red to inform the illiterate that aide was available to help alleviate their pain. Those who came often did find relief from ergotism. This was probably due to the absence of rye bread from the victims' diet during their care in the hospital. However, those inflicted by ergotism, and healed, were likely to be inflicted again since the cause of this strange disease was unknown. Although there is no doubt that ergotism occurred in the Middle Ages, medicine was at a very primitive state at this time, and some of the symptoms that we associate with ergotism can be due to other illnesses. Thus, the outbreaks of ergotism couldn't always be confirmed. However, it seems rather certain that by the 8th. and 9th. centuries, in the kingdom of the Franks, ergotism was present and would continue to be present in this area for the next eight hundred years. From the year 900 AD, when records evidently became common in what is now France and Germany, to around 1300 AD, there were severe epidemics of ergotism over large areas every five to ten years. What is now France was the center of many of these severe epidemics because rye was the staple crop of the poor, and the cool, wet climate was conducive for the development of ergot. Ergot infection of rye was more likely during these wet periods because the rye flower remained opened longer, which provided more opportunity for the fungus to infect the flower. The regular rye grain and the hard, purplish black, grain-like ergot produced by the fungus were harvested and ground together during milling. The flour produced was then contaminated with the toxic alkaloids of the fungus. In 944 AD, in southern France, 40,000 people died of ergotism. Because the cause was unknown, no cure was available (you don't have to know the cause of a disease to cure it, but it sure helps; also knowing the cause of a disease does not mean an immediate cure will be found). Until people realized that the consumption of ergot was the cause of the disease, there was no rational way by which treatment could proceed. 31 It was not until 1670 that a French physician, Dr. Thuillier, put forth the concept that it was not an infectious disease, but one was due to the consumption of rye infected with ergot that was responsible for the outbreaks of St. Anthony's Fire. Dr. Thuillier was all too familiar with the symptoms of ergotism for he had seen hundreds of such victims. From treating such victims, he had formulated some generalities concerning Holy Fire. He recognized that it was far different from infectious diseases with which he was familiar. Unlike those diseases, ergotism was not common in urban areas, where the population density was great and conditions were unsanitary, but rather in rural areas among the poor. It also did not seem to be contagious since it might strike only one member of a family and not the others, or if an entire family has the malady, their immediate neighbors may not become sick. Some victims were even known to be living in isolation for months, yet still contracted this dreaded disease. Children and feeble people were more susceptible than others and nursing mothers might see the symptoms in their babies. However, the strangest feature of this disease that Thuillier observed was that it appeared money could buy one's freedom from St. Anthony's Fire since the rich did not seem to contract the disease. Thus, Dr. Thuillier believed the disease was not infectious and that the symptoms that arose must have something to do with the victim's environment. Some causes could be immediately eliminated. It seemed unlikely that the fresh country air and sunshine could be responsible for the disease, and the country and city folks all drank from the same source of water could not be the cause. Thus, he thought diet was the key to the disease. On his visits to his patience, in the country, he noted the food that was set out on the tables. There was usually pork or beans, but the main staple and what always seemed to be present was a loaf of rye bread, which always seemed to be prominently displayed in the center of the table. A few families began eating potatoes by this time and Thuillier initially believe that this was the possible cause of this disease, but at this time it had not yet become popular enough to be a standard fare in family meals and St. Anthony's Fire had been known hundreds of years prior to the introduction of the potato to Europe. As farmers brought their goods to market, Thuillier also noted that the city dwellers consumed rich beef, poultry, truffles and white bread. All the information that he required to solve the puzzle of St. Anthony's Fire was there and Thuillier must have had it for quite some time before all the pieces of the puzzle would fall into place. The answer came one day while he was walking through the country as he had done on so many occasions before. Passing through fields of rye infected with ergot, Thuillier suddenly realized that he had walked by this answer countless numbers of time. The ergot or what the French farmers called cockspurs, were well known, but have never been considered harmful. Thuillier also knew of these structures from his readings. He knew that they had been used by alchemist in their potions to hasten child birth. However, he also realized that even medicine must be carefully measured out in their dosage for too much of a good medicine could just as well be a poison. He then looked into his records and found that in years when ergot infection was high, the "Fire" raged and thousands died. Although he was convinced that this was the answer, the evidence at hand was still not conclusive and Thuillier could not convince the farmers that this was the cause of this dreaded disease. It would be another two hundred years before Ergot was demonstrated to be a fungus that was causing gangrenous and convulsive ergotism. The plague of Holy Fire (gangrenous ergotism) was also responsible for some of the geographical boundary of Europe today. France suffered many waves of ergotism throughout its history beginning around the eight and ninth century and continuing for the next 800 years. During the one hundred years between 800-900 A.D., The Holy Roman Empire, which was formed by Pope Leo III (750-816), was one of those areas affected by Holy Fire. This was a part of Europe that was populated by the Franks and during this period thousands of peasants ate bread made from the infected grain and thousands died as a result of Holy Fire. At the same time, from Scandinavia, a race of people, the Northmen (Vikings) invaded the Holy Roman Empire. With their superior size and fighting ability, and of 32 course the fact that a large population of the Franks had just suffered from ergot poisoning, they easily defeated the Franks who lived along the coastal regions. Before this time, the Vikings had already settled permanently on the northwest coast of France and had already exerted pressure on the Holy Roman Empire with their numerous raids. Because of the constant successful raids in this area, Charles the Third was forced to abdicate the throne of the Holy Roman Empire by 887 and this led to the split of the Holy Roman Empire into two kingdoms. The kingdom of the West Franks became France and the kingdom of the East Franks became Germany. Through it all the Northmen were unaffected by the ergotism because Rye was not their staple food. By 911, the Northmen's hold on the northwest coast of France was complete, and the king of France ceded to them what would become Normandy. The people that settled Normandy adopted the French religion, language and culture, and would eventually become assimilated by France. Today, Normandy is a part of France, but its recognition as a region is still recognized. Without question the Northmen were warriors of superior size and fighting skill, but it is impossible to say how successful their invasion, against the Franks, would have been if the wave of ergotism had not occurred at this same time. However, it is difficult to imagine that with much of the Frank population sick with ergotism that they were able to put up much of a fight regardless of the fighting prowess of the invading army. Ergotism and the Bubonic Plague In order to understand the disease, let us first go over its life history. The bacterium, Yersinia pestis, is the actual pathogenic agent that causes the Bubonic Plague. However, it does not directly infect humans, most commonly, Xenopsylla cheopis, a species of flea that specifically infects rats is the carrier of the disease. Pulex irritans, a flea that typically infects human can carry also carry the disease, but this is uncommon. The disease cycle begins when the bacterium enters the stomach of a flea that has bitten an infected rat and dined on its blood. If the rat host dies of the disease or for some other reason, the flea will have to find another host. If the flea should bite a human and sucks its blood, it regurgitates blood and plague bacilli into the bite site thereby infecting its human host. It was believed that during the High Middle Ages, the 1100s-1200s, Europe was in a period of relatively good health and population growth. However, this ended between 1348-1350, when a major epidemic of the Bubonic Plague struck. It is estimated that 1/3 of Europe’s population died as a result of the plague. Although the death toll on this occasion was high, a depression in the population of Europe lasted until 1490. This puzzled historians since even with such a high number of deaths, population recovery should have occurred by the next generation, unless other factors were involved. Necrosis, bleeding and an ulcerous swollen throat, symptoms of damage to cells in the bone marrow were observed in many victims. These symptoms indicated widespread damage to the human immune system. Matossian (1988) believed that while deaths could ultimately be attributed to Bubonic Plague, the consumption of grains infected with T-2 or related mycotoxins compromised the immune system and increased the likelihood of death in human and rats. Because of the increase in death of rats, the fleas carrying the disease would require a new host, which in heavily populated area, often was a human host. This led to a higher death rate than might have normally occurred. She also presented evidence, based on what seemed to be selectivity of the disease, based on age and wealth, grain storage and environmental moisture. The age groups that were most impacted by the plague were children 5-14 years and youths 15-24 years. The latter groups had mortality rates that were three times normal during the plague while the children between 1 to 4 years had a mortality rate of less than average. Matossian believed that age, activity and diet played a major role in the mortality rate. The youngest children during this period tended to be on a diet of porridge, which would normally be boiled long enough to break down the mycotoxin. Those in the age groups with the high mortality rate, because of their growth spurts and activity, consumed more calories per unit body weight than other age groups and therefore consumed more mycotoxin. The poor also had a greater mortality rate than the rich. This can 33 probably be attributed to the ability of the latter groups ability to move away from areas of plague and to be more selective in their diet. The poor were often forced to consume substandard food that more than likely were contaminated with mold during the plague. The highest incidents of plague occurred in areas where there were large surpluses of grain stored. The large surpluses of grain attracted large populations of rats who were the vector transmitting the plague. There also appeared to be a strong correlation between the occurrence of plague and the amount of rain, humidity and flooding. Areas of Europe where such conditions prevailed were hit hardest with the plague. For example, England had a very wet summer, during 1348, where the mortality was high. However, neighboring Scotland that same year and the plague did not spread widely there, until the wet summer of 1350. Areas that were cold, but dried, such as Iceland, northern Norway and Sweden, Finland, and large areas of Russia and the Balkans escaped the the plague, entirely. Thus, the plague did not find its way throughout Europe, but was rather restricted in its distribution. Matossian cites Graham Twigg (1936) was a historian who believed that the plague was only present in Mediterranean ports and a few cities where there was a dense human and rat population. Due to the cold and wet years that occurred in 1348-50, in certain areas of Europe, grain crops, which were the staple for Europe at this time, were thought to have been contaminated with T-2 or related toxins that damaged the immune systems of both rats and humans. The damage to the immune systems of both rats and human is believed to be one the contributing factors that led to the high mortality during the Bubonic Plague. However, other causes of depressed immune systems, other than fungal in origin, may also have occurred at this time. When the greatest mortality due to the Bubonic Plague had passed, areas that were hard hit with the plague did not recover. This puzzled historians, although there were still some incidents of famine and diseases, after the plague, generally there was not a lack of food nor a great deal of disease since the populations in many areas had been drastically reduced by the plague. However, there was still a population depression even a generation after the plague, and longer . Populations in many areas had still not reached levels that were present before the plague. After the plague, the winters were unusually cold. This affected the diet of the poor more than the wealthy. In those years where the winters were cooler, Rye would be more likely to survive than wheat. This made it more likely that Rye would be consumed, and while the Rye survived the cold temperatures, the plants were traumatized and were more susceptible to infections by Ergot. Evidence that Ergot poisoning was occurring was based on reports of nervous system disorders. In summer of 1355, there was an epidemic of “madness” in England. People believed that they saw demons. In 1374, a wet year, marked by a lack of food, there was an outbreak of hallucinations, convulsions and compulsive dancing in the Rhineland. Some people imagined they were drowning in a stream of blood. In addition to nervous system disorders such as those described above, Ergot poisoning is also known to reduce fertility and cause spontaneous abortions. With the greater consumption of Rye, coupled with consumption of grains infected with T-2 and related mycotoxin that is believed to have shortened the consumer's life span by compromising their immune system, were possibly the reason for the population depression during this period of time. It would not be until almost the 15th. Century that an upward trend in population would begin. In victims where convulsive ergotism has occurred, during the Dark Ages, what can the uninfected people around them be thinking? It has recently been postulated that such victims of ergotism were often thought to be witches. In talking about witches and witchcraft, just how would one go about deciding that someone is a witch? One thing to keep in mind is that these incidents that we will be talking about happened centuries ago. So, you may think the criteria kind of silly when you hear them. If you saw someone with the symptoms of ergotism, and you didn't know about ergotism, you may guess that the individual having a muscle spasm, tremors and writhing had 34 some type of physical problem, such as epilepsy, or maybe even be on drugs, especially if they were hallucinating. Most people wouldn't think that witchcraft was involved. However, you now know that even during the last century the cause of diseases was still not known. Even today, there are people that not only believe in witchcraft, but even practice witchcraft. It seems that people have always been willing to believe in fanciful explanation for a given phenomenon rather than a simple one. So when there were large number of people that came down with the symptoms of ergotism, it was concluded that they must have been the victims of witchcraft. It was especially true for convulsive ergotism since some people would claim to hear the devil speaking to them and were thought to be possessed. Matossian (1988) linked the occurrence of ergotism with periods where there were high incidents of people persecuted for being witches. Emphasis was placed on the Salem Witch Trial, in Massachusetts, in 1692, where there was a sudden rise in the number of people accused of being witches, but earlier examples were taken from Europe, as well. How did Matossian arrive at the conclusion that the bewitched individuals were victims of ergotism rather than something else? There are many symptoms that are attributed to ergotism and while together they may be rather unique, there are other diseases, or physical afflictions that may also have some of these symptoms. However, Matossian did not rely on just one indicator (the symptoms) to determine that ergotism was responsible for witchcraft hysteria, but looked at several other parameters as well. She looked at where these incidents occurred, the temperature, rainfall, the crops grown in that area and who was affected. In looking at the geography of where witch trials occurred in Europe, Matossian found that a large proportion of the trials were concentrated in the alpine regions of France and central Europe where Rye was usually grown as the staple. Also, it was in these areas that the best source of "primary" records were kept. In Swabia, in southwestern Germany, they even kept annual records as to the number of trials. Other records such as the price of Rye would give an indicator as to how much Rye was available in a given year and more contemporary research compiling the widths of annual rings of trees in given localities gave an indication as to approximately what the spring and summer temperature may have been. For example, in years where there were a large number of witch trials, there were usually high Rye prices, indicating that it was a poor growing year for Rye and people may not be as selective in what they consumed. Trials were also more common during years when the spring and summer months were usually cooler, and even more so if the climate was colder and wetter than the norm. Cooler temperatures would be more favorable for ergot formation on Rye and even more Ergot would form if the rainfall was greater. How did the witch hunt begin? Once victims of ergotism began exhibiting symptoms of alkaloid poisoning of Ergot, people began to look for the "witch or witches" that caused this sickness and misery to occur. In Salem, Massachusetts, the witch hunt began, on January 20, 1692 when three pre-teen girls began began to exhibit symptoms of what Matossian interpreted as convulsive ergotism. This would, of course, have been interpreted as acts of strange behavior on the part of the people of Salem. They began blasphemous screaming, had convulsive seizures, were in a trance-like states. They were taken immediately to a doctor, but after about a month, since a physical answer to for the behaviors of the girls could not be found, the doctor concluded that the girls had been bewitched. Soon other girls were found to "contract" this disease. Even though people were ignorant as to the cause of disease, they knew that disease was commonly contagious and that everybody that came in contact with people with disease often got it as well. However, since ergotism was not a disease, it didn't have the same characteristics as other diseases previously encountered. If this were a typical disease, more people would have showed these symptoms, but it seemed restricted to the girls at this time. It appeared that a "selective force" was causing ergotism. In order to determine who had bewitched them, a witch cake was baked with the infected girls urine. Consumption of such a cake would reveal to the girls who had bewitched them. After consuming the cake, 35 pressure was placed on the girls to reveal the names of the witches, which they did. They named three women: Tituba, Reverend Samuel Parris' Carib Indian slave (Moor or Moorish representation), Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne. The Reverend Samuel Parris was the minister in the town of Salem. Of the three women, Tituba was the only one to confess to being a witch. The two Sarah’s maintained their innocence throughout. Sarah Good would be hanged for witchcraft and Sarah Osborne would die in prison. During her confession, Tituba testified that there was a conspiracy led by witches that was occurring in Salem and from there the witch hunt was on. Soon more people came forward to tell stories of how they were somehow harmed by witches and of the visions that they had seen. This led to accusing more people of witchcraft. As the end of the year neared, 20 people accused of being witches were executed. Who would be the most likely people, in a community, to be blamed? The people that were accused of witchcraft were likely the ones that were trying to help the unfortunate victims. They were usually the doctors, or herbalists, a person who uses plants for medicinal purposes. So these were not the professions to be in during times of witch hysteria. These particular people were selected as the "witches" because, as healers, they had what seemed to be magical powers over the human body when they cured their patients of what ailed them. And the healers were in some cases able to heal symptoms that were associated with ergotism. For example, mistletoe was effective against some kinds of convulsions and spasms. However, during these bouts of ergotism, their accusers reasoned that if someone could cure illness, they also had the power to cause it as well. Which is why they weren't accused of causing bubonic plague and other diseases for which they did not have a cure. Doctors today actually don't have it that different. If you become sick or just say you became sick while a doctor is treating you, you can probably blame the doctor. This situation in which the healer is accused of being a witch is very much analogous to the doctor being sued for malpractice. However, there are also some records where there did not seem to be any correlation between witchcraft and ergotism. What explanation can be offered for these cases. One explanation of which we cannot be certain is that the symptoms described on records were real. It seems very likely that at least some of the accused people were framed for practicing witchcraft as a means of getting even with somebody. However, these types of events can sometimes be separated. For example, young children and adolescents were frequently the victims and it seemed unlikely that they were trying to "get even" with a neighbor. Another explanation was that during bad times when many people became sick and ill, witchcraft persecution would also be prevalent. Witchcraft in this case was used since something or somebody had to be blamed for what occurred.[8] 720: During my research on ergot poisoning, I began to realize many of the descriptions provided of the events that occurred are a good percentage of things we see in today’s movie industry especially in the Horror genre. As mentioned earlier this activity went on in one location consistently for 800 years. The large numbers of people passing during these outbreaks and the longevity of repetitive hellish scenes over such a large time span would clearly augment the DNA while at the same time download a wide variety of traumas and imagery. The St. Anthony’s Holy Fire was called this because the toxicity would rot the joints of the bones in a way where body parts would fall off and not be felt. Hence, the song ring around the rosies, pocket full of posies, ashes, ashes, we all fall down. The rose is the color of the puss bump, hence a pocket full of puss (which is not part of ergot poisoning), the burning sensation of the fire alluded to with the “ashes, ashes, we all fall down” would make limbs and other parts such as testicles, ears and toes fall off. Any scene in a film where there is an individual carrying one of his limbs or as our modern day zombie walks around holding one of his detached limbs is related to the everyday visuals of these time periods. When ergot is milled it turns into a red powder. People would cover themselves in this red powder and act as if it was the blood of Jesus. There is information I’ve come across that makes one assume there is a possibility the biological adaptation of ergot could have turned into an addiction. Indirect evidence of this is in 36 the drug LSD. Ergot is the main ingredient of LSD, which was created and manufactured and distributed to the youth of society as a psychopathic feel good pass time during the 1960’s. Supposedly, Ergot is an explanation for many different types of hallucinations, mainly being attacked by animals or acting like animals. Ergot has also been blamed for bad trips which turned people homicidal to the point of cannibalistic activities being committed. There are also reports of extreme convulsions. These convulsions were uncontrollable and would make the body contort. The body would twist in styles of legs behind the head, twisting of the neck and the like similar to the girl in the exorcism film. We must understand there is a large possibility ergot could have combined with other ailments occurring at the time which could have influenced odder activity and hallucinations then already mentioned. Mushrooms Magic Mushrooms (Psilocybin mushrooms, or psychedelic mushrooms) Shrooms are fungi that contain this fancy worded alkaloid known as psychoactive indole. About 180 species of this stuff is known to exist today. After the Spanish conquest, Catholic missionaries campaigned against the “pagan idolatry“, and the use of hallucinogenic plants and mushrooms was banned. Catholics and pagans always did see things differently, and mushrooms were almost as wicked as worshipping a false God as far as Christianity was concerned. That’s deep. The Spanish believed the mushroom allowed the Aztecs and others to communicate with “devils”. Tis’ believed that while converting Jews and Muslims to Catholicism, (by torturing and occasionally executing them via the Spanish Inquisition), the Spanish insisted on a switch from hallucinogenic fungi to the Catholic sacrament of the Eucharist. Certainly prohibiting the use of mushrooms as a demonic entity while simultaneously torturing people for their religious beliefs makes a lot of sense. The Eucharist, a type of thin bread and quite delicious, is a considerably tamer form of spiritual ingestion than shrooms. The Spanish Inquisition was a force to be reckoned with and understandably, most people chose to ditch the mushrooms and eat the bread. However, here and there stubborn, well-hidden groups of Catholics retained their hallucinogenic high while practicing spiritual worship. There are serious changes to the audio, visual, and tactile senses that takes about 30 minutes to an hour after ingestion. There is an enhancement and contrast of colors; strange light phenomena (such as auras or “halos” around light sources); surfaces that seem to ripple, shimmer, or breathe; images, objects that warp, morph, or change colours; a sense of melting into the environment; and trails behind moving objects. Like acid, in a negative environment, shrooms can lead to a bad trip, whereas a familiar environment provides a pleasant experience. Many users find it preferable to ingest the mushrooms with friends, or people who are also ‘tripping.’ You may have wondered where the term magic originated. Wonder no more.[9] Hallucinogenic fungi, also known as magic mushrooms, were discovered in Queen Elizabeth’s royal garden at Buckingham Palace. Alan Titchmarsh, a TV presenter and gardening expert for ITV’s gardening show titled “The Queen’s Garden” found the mushrooms while researching the Queen’s 40-acre private plot for the television special.Together Alan Titchmarsh and ecology expert Professor Mick Crawley identified the popular red and white spotted Amanita muscaria mushroom (also called the fly agaric) in the midst of filming the garden special. “It’s eaten in some cultures for its hallucinogenic affects,” Crawley elaborates. “But it also makes people who eat it very sick.The old-fashioned thing to do was to feed it to the village idiot, then drink his urine because you get all of the high without any of the sickness.” A spokesperson from Buckingham Palace confirmed the identity of the fly agaric, but reported that they are not to be eaten, but are rather to help the garden’s ecosystem. “There are several hundred fungi species in the palace garden, including a small number of naturally occurring fly agaric mushrooms,” he said. “[They are only 37 used] to help trees take in nutrients they need.” Typically, magic mushrooms contain the hallucinogen called psilocybin. However, fly agaric mushrooms are different. They do not contain psilocybin, but rather the hallucinogenic chemicals muscimol and ibotenic acid. Powerful visual and auditory hallucinations come from the ingestion of this species, and is well known by shamans and psychonauts alike. Is it possible that there is a deeper, symbolic reason that this mysterious fungi is located in such a royal setting? Decide for yourself.[10] Fig. 6.). Left: Amanita muscaria commonly known as fly agaric, or fly amanita Fig. 7.). Right: Toad: A Cartoon character from the Nintendo video game Mario Bros. 720: There was probably way more mushroom consumption going on then what has been found in documentation. I state this because it is very clear that Old European society had a common knowledge of the usage of herbs and mushrooms. This is once again all levels of society. The many famines documented would leave one in a position of eating anything that grows. There are several different mushrooms that can make you hallucinate. The Psilocybin mushrooms are supposedly one of the strongest in alkaloids and psychoactivity. The Amanita muscaria also is linked to the origins of the colors and activity used by Santa Claus and his Reindeer. This folklore will be reviewed in Vol. III in the religious holiday. All other relations with the color red will be reviewed here. I thought the link between the mushrooms and the Mario brother video game was important. As I had been told this information as a child. There is also a type of mushroom that grows out of manure that can be taken for a trip. Supposedly, the consumption of mushrooms was one of the excuses the Spaniards used against the Aztecs. As the Spaniards claimed they used these mushrooms to talk to devils. But no other people on the planet have more literature, time and energy dedicated towards demons but Europeans. We still can see this from rock and roll and horror movies. Regardless of this it’s evident that they consumed many different drinks, herbs and other concoctions to alter their thinking pattern. Which over time became the normal thinking pattern whether that is while intoxicated or sober. The behavior patterns and thinking structures developed over centuries of consumption has become a part of the culture. 38  Lead Poisoning Fig. 8.). A Human Body Chart showing the multiple effects of Lead poisoning on adults and children The medieval peasant often gets the bad reputation of being the poor, filthy, and unlucky one. Living in unsanitary conditions, being worked to the bone, and hardly eating any meat, one would imagine that the rural serfs of the Middle Ages were the ones to die young. But a new study re-examines that belief, finding that in reality being rich — or living in a city — in the Middle Ages put people at a higher risk of illness and death than previously believed. Why? Because their luxuries — glazed cups and plates and utensils — were filled with lead, a chemical that when ingested can lead to an array of health problems and even an earlier death. And in medieval cities, lead sources were everywhere: from stained glass windows and tiles on roofs, to drinking water collected from roofs. “Lead poisoning can be the consequence when ingesting lead, which is a heavy metal,” Kaare Lund Rasmussen, associate professor at the Department of Physics and Chemistry at the University of Southern Denmark, said in the press release. “In the Middle Ages you could almost not avoid ingesting lead, if you were wealthy or living in an urban environment. But what is perhaps more severe, is the fact that exposure to lead leads to lower intelligence of children.” In the study, the researchers examined 207 skeletons from six cemeteries in northern Germany and Denmark. Two cemeteries, Rathaus Markt in Germany and Ole Worms Gade in Denmark, were home to richer people from medieval towns; four other cemeteries were filled with rural skeletons. They found that lead levels were high in people who had lived in urban places, while rural individuals had little to no lead in their bones. People who lived in the country were considerably poorer than those who lived in cities; as such, they couldn’t afford glazed pottery. “In those days lead oxide was used to glaze pottery,” Rasmussen said in the press release. “It was practical to clean the plates and looked beautiful, so it was understandably in high demand. But when they kept salty and acidic foods in glazed pots, the surface of the glaze would dissolve and the lead would leak into the food.” 39  However, about 30 percent of the country folk had been exposed to lead — meaning that even poor people had occasional contact with it.[11] The first medical hypotheses related to lead poisoning were formulated during the Renaissance. From this period on, the medieval artisans acquired the dignity of artists and their professional life became worthy of being studied and analyzed. The economic and cultural development in the fifteenth century drew workshop instructors and young apprentices into big cities, where they were engaged in the decorations of cathedrals and mansions of the new emerging masses, consisting of the commercial and financial middle-upper class. Among workers, the greatest exposure to lead were most likely the painters, because of the use of lead-based colors, including lead carbonate or cerussite (also known as "white lead"), a substance which was irreplaceable with the realization of the color "white" until the nineteenth century. Remarkable painters who became victims of lead poisoning may have been Piero della Francesca (c. 1416-1492), Rembrandt (1606-1669), and Francisco Goya (1746-1828). In addition, workers who engaged in other craft occupations were highly exposed to the metal. For example, in 1473, the German physician, Ulrich Ellenbog (1440-1499) pointed out to the goldsmiths and metalworkers the benefit of preventive measures to avoid poisoning and subsequent death arising from lead and mercury; he practically advised them "to keep the windows open" and "to cover the mouth with a rag" while working with metals. In addition, during the Renaissance, there was a strong interest for metals, certainly influenced by alchemy; in this regard, we must mention the "De Re Metallica" (1556), written by the Saxon physician Georgius Bauer (better known as Agricola, 1494-1556), pioneer of the study of health problems amongst German miners. Considering the described scenario, the inclusion of lead, mercury, and arsenic in the pharmacopoeia of the German-Swiss physician and alchemist Paracelsus (1493-1541) might appear as a counter-current theory, but it has to be considered in compliance with his own principle, "dosis sola facit, ut venenum not fit" ("only the dose permits something not to be poisonous"). The theories of Paracelsus, while representing the basis for the future development of toxicology, were bitterly criticized and condemned by the scientific world at the time. Two centuries later, in 1656, Samuel Stockhausen, a German physician openly against the Paracelsian medical model, advised the miners of the mining town of Goslar to avoid the aspiration of dusts, attributing the etiology of miners' asthma to the "noxious fumes" of a lead compound, the litharge. In the following decades, the "Transactions of the Royal Society of England" published numerous articles about the risks of the manufacturers of white lead and glass. Meanwhile, Bernardino Ramazzini (1633-1714) identified all the lead processing techniques, used by potters, tinsmiths, and painters, as dangerous. In his "De Morbis Artificum Diatriba" (1700), the Italian physician said about the workers in metal mines, "since […] the use of metals is practically indispensable in all kinds of production, their health deserves attention and their illnesses ought to be studied so precautions and remedies may be offered." In particular, Ramazzini stated about the potters who worked with lead, "first of all they suffer from palsied hands, abdominal colic, fatigue, cachexia, and they lose their teeth. It is, therefore, extremely rare that one can see a potter who does not have a lead-coloured, cadaverous looking face." Once the harmful effects of lead were evidenced in working populations, it took little to understand its non- occupational toxicity. The use of wine preservatives derived from the ancient sapa had persisted until the seventeenth century and it was a cause of recurring collective poisoning in some European areas. During that period, sudden outbreaks of saturnine colic periodically hit the French region of Poitou (Colica Pictonum) and some areas of the English countryside (the Devonshire Colic among cider drinkers). This intensely painful and debilitating disease, which frequently ended in death, was first described by Francis Citois (1572-1652) in 1639. During an epidemic of the "Colica Pictonum" in Ulm, the largest wine-trading center in Germany, Eberhard Gockel (1636- 1703), one of the doctors of the city, gave forth his observations in "De vini acidi per acetum lithargyri cum maximo bibentium damno dulcificatione" (1697) or, he held the lead level in wine responsible for the clinical manifestation. 40 For the first time in history, the consideration of the exposure to the metal was not only limited to an occupational concern, it was extended to the general population as well. The epidemics of saturnine colic that occurred during the 17th century provided evidence for the acute effects of ingestion of this metal, even though some physicians did not initially acknowledge the etiology. For example, an epidemic of "Devonshire colic" lasted for many decades before being diagnosed as lead poisoning by Sir George Baker (1722-1809) in 1767, 70 years after the first acknowledgment by Gockel. Only during the beginning of the 19th century have scientists clearly understood the mechanisms of lead poisoning by dietary intake. In his "A Complete System of Medical Policy," the German hygienist Johann Peter Frank (1745-1821) had suggested avoiding water that flows in pipes of lead, reporting some cases of saturnine colic observed by him and other physicians.[12] In 1713, Italian physician Bernardinus Ramazzini described in his De Morbis Artificum Diatriba a mysterious set of symptoms he was noticing among artists: "The business of a Painter or Varnisher is generally, and not without reason, considered an unhealthy one." “Of the many painters I have known, almost all I found unhealthy … If we search for the cause of the cachectic and colorless appearance of the painters, as well as the melancholy feelings that they are so often victims of, we should look no further than the harmful nature of the pigments…” He was one of the first to make the connection between paint and artists' health, but it would take centuries for painters to switch to less-harmful materials, even as medicine gradually clued into the bodily havoc “saturnism” could wreak. The 1834 London Medical and Surgical Journal describes sharp stomach pains occurring in patients with no other evidence of intestinal disease, thus leading the authors to suspect that this “painter’s colic” was a “nervous affection” of the intestines that occurs when lead “is absorbed into the system.” Paints weren’t the only source of lead overdose in past centuries, though. Through the 1500s, lead was a common sweetener in wine, in the form of “litharge,” causing periodic outbreaks of intestinal distress throughout Europe. Occasionally, lead was even used as a medicine; the 11th-century Persian physician Avicenna’s Canon mentioned its usefulness in treating diarrhea. In the Middle Ages, lead could be found in makeup, chastity belts, and spermicides. Though typesetters, tinkers, and drinkers of lead-poisoned wine fell victim to saturnism, the disease was perhaps most widespread among those who worked with paint. The symptoms of this “colic” ranged, but they often included a “cadaverous-looking” pallor, tooth loss, fatigue, painful stomach aches, partial paralysis, and gout, a buildup of uric acid that causes arthritis—all of which resemble the symptoms of chronic lead poisoning seen today. In fact, the ailments that many renowned artists experienced didn't just prompt their gloomy works—they might have been caused by them, too. Lead poisoning among historical figures is famously difficult to prove, in part because the condition was not known or recognized in most of their lifetimes. We can’t know whether the delusions, depression, and gout many Renaissance masters experienced can be attributed to their paint or just their physiologies. Julio Montes-Santiago, and internist in Vigo, Spain, recently evaluated the existing evidence of lead poisoning among artists across five centuries for a new paper in Progress in Brain Research. Based on the available descriptions of their materials and symptoms, history’s most famous sufferers of lead poisoning, he argues, likely included Michelangelo Buonarroti, Francisco Goya, Candido Portinari, and possibly Vincent Van Gogh. Michelangelo, for example, was painted into Raphael's fresco, The School of Athens, with a deformed, likely arthritic knee, according to the author. That, combined with letters from Michelangelo in which he complains of 41 passing stones in his urine, suggests to Montes-Santiago that he might have suffered from paint- and wine-induced gout. Many art historians think Van Gogh might have suffered from epilepsy and bipolar disorder, but Montes- Santiago argues that lead poisoning likely contributed to his delusions and hallucinations. The artist was known to have sucked on his brushes, possibly because lead has a sweet aftertaste. Meanwhile, other scholars have disputed the lead poisoning hypothesis, arguing that the root of Van Gogh’s distress was porphyria, malnutrition, and absinthe abuse. Goya occasionally applied his paints directly to the canvas with his fingers, which Montes-Santiago argues is one reason he experienced problems like constipation, trembling hands, weakness of the limbs, blindness, vertigo, and tinnitus. In his famous 1820 self-portrait, Goya painted himself being embraced by his doctor. Musicians Beethoven and Handel also might have been afflicted with saturnism, but not because of the nature of their craft. Samples of Beethoven’s hair examined by the Pfeiffer Research Center in Illinois showed high lead concentrations, possibly as a result of the “high content of lead in the Hungarian wines that the musician drank, the repeated biting of his lead pencils, and lead-rich medicines prescribed by his doctor,” Montes-Santiago notes. The best evidence for lead poisoning, though, exists for Candido Portinari, the 20th-century Brazilian painter of massive, neorealist murals. Portinari used paints that were similar to those used by Van Gogh and was diagnosed with saturnism after digestive hemorrhages prompted a hospitalization in 1954. He was advised by doctors to switch materials, and he tried, but he ultimately returned to his old paints. He died at age 58 in 1962 after a bout of severe digestive bleeding. Though some of the earlier artists may not have known about the connection between their materials and their health, Portinari certainly must have.[13] Lead was used in the manufacturing of many items, including utensils, cups and plates, in ceramic glazes, as well as in vessels used to manufacture wine and cider. Sapa was made by boiling acidic wine in lead-lined vessels. “This yields a sweet syrup due to the formation of lead acetate. Most early Greek and Roman wines contained sapa, which also was used to sweeten food because these civilizations had no readily available source of sugar. Recent analyses of ancient Greek and Roman wine vessels indicated that wine stored in them had a considerable lead content”. Waldron wrote that the practice of adding sapa was “so universal that Pliny remarked indignantly that ‘genuine, unadulterated wine is not to be had now, not even by the nobility.’ And he was right to complain for, he comments, ‘From the excessive use of such wines arise dangling . . . paralytic hands, echoing Dioscorides, who wrote that corrected wine was ‘most hurtful to the nerves’”. As the Roman Empire expanded, the mining and manufacturing of lead increased across Europe. And while several notable historians have suggested that lead poisoning contributed to the fall of the Roman Empire, this theory is still rather contentious. Lesser indicates that during the Middle Ages, “the writings of medieval physicians indicated an awareness of both the sources and symptoms of lead poisoning. U. Ellenberg in 1473 published “On the Poisonous and Noxious Vapors and Fumes of Metals” and later G. Agricola (1556) published “De Re Metallica.”” Even with this awareness, “the Middle Ages saw a marked increase in the use of lead and lead-containing products”. According to Neil Beagrie, “in the Medieval period there were essentially two main grades of pewter used for vessels. A hard high-quality alloy of tin with perhaps 1-3% copper used for plates and dishes and a softer cheaper alloy of tin with 10 to 20% lead used for hollow-ware such as pots or flagons [pitcher]. Analysis has shown that sepulchral chalices [footed cups] and patens [plates] of the late medieval period could contain much higher levels of lead, in some cases as much as 75%”. 42  Milton Lesser adds that, during the Colonial period, “there was extensive manufacture and use of glazed earthenware, pewter, lead pipe, lead shot, and lead type for printing. Red and white lead was used as pigments for paints and lead acetate and lead oxide were used to sweeten and whiten bread. Lead intoxication was rampant during the Colonial Period in America and may have been involved in accusations of witchcraft because individuals with lead poisoning neuropathy often show weird behavior”.[14] In 1047, Pope Clement II suddenly died from an unknown cause. A 1959 examination showed that he suffered from chronic lead poisoning, most likely from lead acetate in wine. Clement II was German, and the Germans of that time had a custom of sweetening their wines in the Roman way. There are even rumors that Ludwig van Beethoven, another wine lover, was ill from chronic low-level lead poisoning related to his consumption of lead-laced wines. A study of his bones showed high levels of lead, which is the most likely cause of his well- known deafness in later years.[15] 720: As you can see Lead Poisoning is another hallucinogen that has a possibility to have had turned into an addiction. There is evidence of this with our current plight in America. There is documented lead poisoning all across the country, specifically in the urban communities of major cities. There is enough medical documentation that proves the effects of lead poisoning obviously before America was even established. So it is not obscure for America to have such a long history with lead poisoning from the paint used on buildings in the 1940’s on the east coast, to modern day schools having lead in the water and some areas the sink water is brown. Have we been intentionally set up to be degenerated as humans? Because lead may had been a cheaper source and it was smarter for gain on profits regardless of the effects on people. Regardless of business tactics, it is clear that this information was widely known. During the Dark Ages it was called “Saturnism”. From my personal understanding of Occultic matters a title like that for a disease means the activity they committed while being affected must have been highly immoral and outrageous. Alchemically lead is controlled by the planet Saturn. I’ve also come across information that states lead poisoning makes you passive to violence occurring but yet at the same time encourage and invite it. Basically, you become numb or indifferent to it. A form of melancholy, if you will. It has been cited as a possible reasoning for the violent activites that occurred with the executioners, knights and wars. Also, in Greece it was used like chocolate syrup on food. It is very clear that their decision to remain intoxicated off of a wide range of hallucinogens and other forms or drugs and poisons was voluntary and socially accepted and influenced. Next you will read on the Jenkem. The reason I put this in here is because of the air, the atmosphere. The air had to be so strong that they were getting hi off of that alone. A mixture of rotting bodies in the air and animal carcasses at your feet, inclusive with feces being thrown out of every window would definitely create nausea. As these conditions went on for over a millennium they became embedded in the structure of thinking. For Instance when they say campaign smear the word smear means shit streak. There has been a friendship developed with the dookie. Another example is how I saw an interview online of prostitutes talking about a millionaire Caucasian male wanting her to shit in his mouth. The shit log is the essence of a human being on the lowest vibration. One must understand that all fluids that come out of the human body in essence holds the entirety of that being. So it can be considered another form of unification by scent alone rewiring the brain. So get ready for more shit. Jenkem Jenkem is a recreational drug that is used in the form of gas and is made from fermented human sewage that can result in dissociation and hallucinations. It is made by scraping the edge of sewage pipes and storing in plastic bottles that are closed for several days. At the top of the bottle is left enough room for the formation of 43 methane. User inhales the gas from the bottle that was previously connected to a bottle with feces. There is a general concern about the using jenkem because of several reasons. First, the unhygienic conditions of its production increase the risk from diseases such as salmonella, hepatitis A, pinworm infection, diarrhea, Norwalk virus and different gastrointestinal infections. Then, a research about the impact of sewer gas on mice has shown that it causes lack of oxygen which can lead to serious brain damage and even death.In addition, there are some testimonies that jenkem causes auditory and visual hallucinations. Sixteen year old boy from Lusaka said that inhaling glue make him to hear voices in his head but using jenkem he can see his deceased mother and forget the problems. However, a report by Kelly Cheatham from the WSBT news station in Indiana confirms that sewage gases do not produce hallucinations. Also, it can cause low blood pressure and slow heart rate, which leads to fainting. And finally, the worst thing about using jenkem is the flavor of sewage that draws in the mouth for several days after its use. Thanks to the British Broadcasting Corporation report in 1999. jenkem has got huge media attention. Fountain of Hope, a non-profit organization, said that jenkem was used by Street Children in Lusaka, to obtain a \"powerful high.\" Statistics show that jenkem is the third most popular drug in Zambia, after cannabis and glue, but in front of uncured tobacco and petrol. In Lusaka, the sources of these drugs are freely available from the open sewers in the form of fecal matter. In November 2007. in the U.S. media appeared reports about the popularization of jenkem among American teenagers. However, Erowid, a website providing access to information about psychoactive plants and chemicals, states that these stories are almost certainly the result of fraud, because there is no credible evidence that anyone in the United States, Canada, or Europe inhales sewage gas from bottled human or animal waste in order to get psychoactive effects. Beside that, neither the composition and active components of the jenkem gas nor its chemical acting on the body have been described in a scientific journal. None of the usual authorities on psychoactive drugs have involved themselves in the investigation of this drug.[16] The effects of jenkem inhalation last for around an hour and consist of auditory and visual hallucinations for some users. In 1995, one user told a reporter it is "more potent than cannabis." A 1999 report interviewed a user, who said, "With glue, I just hear voices in my head. But with jenkem, I see visions. I see my mother who is dead and I forget about the problems in my life." Fumito Ichinose, an anesthesia specialist in Boston who conducted a study on the effects of hydrogen sulfide gas, or "sewer gas," on mice, found out that holding your breath, choking, or "the inhalation of gases like those produced from jenkem could result in hypoxia, a lack of oxygen flow to the body that could be alternately euphoric and physically dangerous."[17] Fig. 9.). A Jenkem advertisement 44 Fig. 10.). Thomas Rowlandson - Summer Amusement, Bug Hunting Chapter 2 Diseases & Sickness 720: There were many diseases during these times. All of them cannot be explained here, one reason is because all of them have not been diagnosed. Paracelsus and his writings was the medical authority at the time besides him it was Pliny. You will encounter many references to him throughout this book. Similar to all peoples, Europeans also mixed their folklore/superstition with their medical practices. The repetition of plagues, outbreaks and mysterious deaths enforced them to “get it right” through trial and error. For a long time people with gross disfigurements, as there were many different types, were shunned and expelled from the community. Looking at deformities was an everyday part of life during the Medieval times. You will see some of these shortly. It is safe to say that the minds of children were built on looking at monsters of all sorts. Also these children would make fun of the local idiots, beggars, the diseased and handicap. Over time this deformity turned into a normality that was encouraged. The executioner for example pricked pieces of body parts for specific crimes especially the nose and eyes were a favorite. Sometimes human body parts were sold in the markets. Today’s mentality has also accepted deformities as a normality but this is a recent scenario. In the old America any form of retardation, abnormality or deformity by default usually fell into the circus freak shows, insane asylums, the closed off section of the school 45 building or family members never let them leave the house. It was highly shunned upon, nobody wanted to be socially shamed by being connected to anything that was out of the regular order of existence and human design. We must visit the mentality of the time relative to medical approaches based off of superstition. The reason why is, we can get a wider view on the social thought pertaining to righteousness v.s. evil. All diseases were considered evil and caused by a devil or demon as a consequence for unholy acts. This thought pattern concluded that serving the penance, which was sporadically designed but did have a base similarity, would cure ailments and afflictions. The European mentality is to fight fire with fire, dirt with dirt and disease with disease. Whether this mentality comes from circumstance or not is irrelevant because it is effecting us all today. It is peculiar to see that everything during these times had some form of reference to religion. If God, the Bible, all of its characters and holiness was so important and inculcated into the social paradigm, with repetitive teachings and government sanctioned, then why were there so many unclean animals and insects used in their practices? The bible classifies many things unclean such as frogs, scorpions, spiders, etc. They clearly understood these things as the bible was compiled in 1611. This will be discussed more later on in the book. Superstitions About Diseases Perhaps under this head may be chased the notion that a galvanic ring, as it is called, worn on the finger, will cure rheumatism. One sometimes see people with a clumsy-looking silver ring which has a piece of copper let into the inside, and this, through in constant contact throughout, is supposed (aided by the moisture of the hand) to keep a gentle, but continual galvanic current, and so to alleviate or remove the rheumatism. This notion has an air of science about it which may perhaps redeem it from the character of mere superstition; but the following case can put in no such claim. I recollect that when I was a boy a person came to my father (a clergyman), and asked for a ‘sacramental shilling’ i.e, one out of the alms ring, and worn as a cure for epilepsy. He naturally declined to give one for ‘superstitious uses’, and no doubt was the thought very cruel by this unfortunate applicant. Ruptured children are expected to be cured by being passed through a young tree, which has been split for the purpose. After the operation has been performed, the tree is bound up, and, if it grows together again, the child will be cured of its rupture. I have not heard anything about this for many years; perhaps it has fallen into disuse. There is an article on the subject in one of Hone’s books, I think, and there the witch elm is specified as the proper tree for the purpose; but whether from the scarcity of that tree, or from any other cause, I am not aware that it was considered necessary in this locality. Ague (Malaria) is a disease about which various strange notions are prevalent. One is that it cannot be cured by a regular doctor – it is out of their reach altogether, and can only be touched by some old woman’s nostrum (fake medicine). It is frequently treated with spiders and cobwebs. These, indeed, are said to contain arsenic; and if so, there may be a touch of truth in the treatment. Fright is also looked upon as a cure for ague. I suppose that, on the principle that similia similibus curantur, it is imagined that the shaking induced by the fright will counteract and destroy the shaking of the ague fit. An old woman has told me that she was actually cured in this manner when she was young. She had had ague for a long time, and nothing would cure it. Now it happened that she had a fat pig in the sty, and a fat pig is an important personage in a poor man’s establishment. Well aware of the importance of piggy in her eyes, and determined to give her as great a shock as possible, her husband came to her with a very long face as she was tottering down the stairs one day, and told her that the pig was dead. Horror at this fearful news overcame all the other feelings; she forgot all about her ague, and hurried to the scene of the catastrophe, where she found to her great relief that the pig was alive and well; but the fright had done its work, and from that day to this (she must be about eighty years old) she has never had a touch of the ague, though 46 she has resided on the same spot. Equally strange are some of the notions about smallpox. Fried mice are relied on a specific for it, and I am afraid that it is considered necessary that they should be fried alive. *Mrs. Delany, in a letter dated March 1, 1743-4, gives these two infallible recipes for ague:- 1st. Pounded ginger, made into a paste with brandy, spread on sheep’s leather, and a plaister of it laid over the navel. 2nd. A spider put into a goose-quill, well sealed and secured, and hung about the child’s neck, as low as the pit of his stomach. Either of these I am assured will give ease.-Probatum est. Upon this Lady Llanover notes:-‘ Although the prescription of the spider in the quill will probably only create amusement from its apparent absurdity, considered merely as an old charm, yet there is no doubt of the medicinal virtue of spiders and of their webs, which have been long known to the Celtic inhabitants of Great Britain and Ireland. Dr. Graham (in his Domestic Medicine) prescribed spiders’ webs for ague and intermittent fever, and also names powder made of spiders given for the ague; and mentions his knowledge of a spider having been sewn up in a rag and worn as a periapt round the neck to charm the ague. With respect to whooping-cough, again, it is believed that if you ask a person riding on a piebald horse what to do for it, his recommendation will be successful it attended to. My grandfather at one time used always to ride a piebald horse, and he has frequently been stopped by people asking for a cure for whooping-cough. His invariable answer was, ‘Patience and water-gruel;’ perhaps, upon the whole, the best advice that could be given. Earrings are considered to be a cure for sore eyes, and perhaps they may be useful so long as the ear is sore, the ring acting as a mild seton; but their efficacy is believed in even after the ear is healed. Warts are another thing expected to be cured by charms. A gentlemen well known to me, states that, when he was a boy, the landlady of an inn where he happened to be took compassion on his warty hands, and undertook to cure them by rubbing them with bacon. It was necessary, however, that the bacon should be stolen; so the good lady secretly took it from her own larder, which was supposed to answer the condition sufficiently. If I recollect rightly, the wart remained as bad as ever, which was due to the bacon not having been bon a fide stolen. I do not know whether landladies in general are supposed to have a special faculty against warts; but one, a near neighbor of mine, has the credit of being able to charm them away by counting them. I have been told by boys that she has actually done so for them, and that the warts have disappeared. I have no reason to think that they were telling me a down right lie, but suppose their imagination must have been strong to overcome even such horny things as warts. A mere coincidence would have been almost more remarkable. There is a very distressing eruption about the mouth and throat, called thrush, common among infants and persons in the last extremity of sickness. There is a notion about this disease that a person must have it once in his life, either at his birth or death. Nurses like to see it in babies; they say that it is healthy, and makes them feed more freely; but if a sick person shows it, he is given over as past recovery, which is really indeed extremely rare in such cases. I am no doctor, and do not know whether the disease is really the same in both cases, but it appears to be so. C.W.J. Suffolk. The following conversation, which took place in a Doretshire village, illustrates the popular nosology and therapeutics of that county:- ‘Well Betty,’ said a lady, ‘how are you?’ ‘Pure, thank you ma’am; but I has been rather poorlyish.’ ‘What has been the matter with you?’ ‘Why ma’am, I was troubled with the rising of the lights; but I tooked a dose of shot, and that has akeepit them down.’* 47 As a pendant to this take the following, hitherto unprinted. An old cottager in Morayshire, who had long been bed- rid, was charitably visited by a neighbouring lady, much given to the administration of favourite medicines. One day she left a bolus for him, from which she expected strengthening effects, and she called next day to inquire for her patient, as usual. ‘Well, John, you would take the medicine I left with you?’ ‘Oh no ma’am, replied John; ‘it wadna gang east.’ The Scotch, it must be understood, are accustomed to be precise about the ‘airts’ or cardinal points, and generally direct you to places in that way. This poor old fellow, constantly lying on one side, had come to have a geographical idea of the direction which anything took in passing into his gullet.[18] This is the case of 3 children who were murdered by a farm servant while the parents were out of the town. This what happened during his execution and after it: His cries of pain were terrible, and might be heard for miles. The country fold left their homes until after his death. “It is to be hoped,” says Mr. Dodd, the local historian, “that the statement about the man being gibbeted alive is a fiction.” Some years ago, a local playwright dramatized the story for the Spennymoor theatre, where it drew large audience. Long after the body had been removed, a portion of the gibbet remained, and was known as “Andrew Mills’s Stob,” but it was taken away bit by bit as it was regarded a charm for curing toothache.[19] Spider remedies were considered efficacious in folk medicine. For common contagion, people in England were advised to carry a spider in a silk bag around the neck or in a nut shell in the pocket. For ague one should be tied up and bound on the left arm. Live spiders were rolled in butter and swallowed, or taken in molasses, or rolled in a cobweb and swallowed like a pill.[20] Catching a cold: The poor, of course, were too busy to bother about cleanliness. Finding food and shelter was a full-time occupation, and in any case, if you have only the clothes you stand up in, you do not lightly embark on the business of washing them, especially in cold water and with no fire to dry them. ‘Taking cold’ usually meant death: in an environment where smallpox, typhus, typhoid, cholera, and ‘London ague’ (a kind of malaria that affected, among others, Oliver Cromwell and Charles II) made sure that only one child in four or five survived, a feverish cold could be the first sign of any one of several revolting deaths. Chills were avoided like the plague that was still a vivid and terrible memory. Mental Depression and anxiety were recognized as an illness, although the symptoms of depression, despair or melancholy, and lethargy were considered by the Church the sin of accidia or sloth. [21] Life expectancy was short owing to overwork, overexposure, and the afflictions of dysentery, tuberculosis, pneumonia, asthma, tooth decay, and the terrible rash called St. Anthony’s Fire, which by constriction of the blood vessels (not the understood) could consume a limb as by “some hidden fire” and sever it from the body. In modern times the disease has been identified in some cases as erysipelas and in others a poisoning caused by a fungus on rye flour kept too long over the winter.[22] Sweating Sickness Another scourge spread by lice, and perhaps also by ticks, was the sweating sickness that swept through the nation, and particularly the armies, in 1485, 1507,1517,1528, and 1551. It travelled through northern and eastern Europe, reached London in 1528 (causing Henry VIII to retire hastily to Hampton Court and then to various other centres, avoiding the sickness rather as a man avoids a persistent wasp). John Caius, the eminent physician, has left a memoir of the large great outbreak in 1551: the disease began with a sense of foreboding, then cold shivers, giddiness, headache, and sever pains in the neck. These shivers 48 lasted an hour or two only before they were suddenly overtaken by heat and violent sweating, delirium, and collapse. Many sufferers died in as little as 3 hours from the first chill. Nashe describes the disease as seen through the eyes of the English soldiers: This sweating sickness, was a disease that a man then might catch and never goe to a hot-house. Manie masters desires to have such servants as would worke till they sweate again, but in those dayes hee that sweate never wrought againe. That scripture then was not thought to necessarie, which says, Earne thy living with the sweat of thy browes, for then they earned their dying with the sweat of their browes. It was inough if a fat man did but trusse his points, to turne him over the pearch: Mother Cornelius tub why it was like hell, he that came into it, never came out of it. Cookes that stand continually basting their faces before the fire, were now all cashierd with this sweat into kitchin stuff: their hall fell into the kings hands for want of one of the trade to uphold it. Felt makers and Furriers, what the one with the hot steame of their wooll new taken out of the pan, and the other with the contagious hear of their slaughter budge and conie-skinnes, died more thick than of the pestilence: I have seen an old woman at that season having three chins, wipe them all away one after another, as they melted to water, and left hir selfe nothing of a mouth but an upper chap. Looke how in May or the heat of Summer we lay butter in water for feare it should melt away, so then were men faine to wet their clothes in water as Diers doo, and hide themselves in welles from the heat of the Sunne. Then happie was he that was an asse, for nothing will kill an asse but colde, and none dide but with extreme heate. The fishes called Sea-Starres, that burne one another by excessive heate, were not so contagious as one man that had the Sweate was to another… From the descriptions left by Caius and Nashe, the sweating sickness seems to have been a particularly violent form of relapsing fever.[23] Thus, when in 1529 the English sweating disease passed into Germany the Romanists raised their voices and said “that a new religion must necessarily be followed by a new torment of villains.”[24] A remarkable form of disease, not known in England before, attracted attention at the very beginning of the reign of Henry VII. It was known indeed a few days after the landing of Henry at Milford Haven on the 7th of August 1485, as there is clear evidence of its being spoken of before the battle of Bosworth on the 22nd of August. Soon after the arrival of Henry in London on the 28th of August it broke out in the capital, and caused great mortality. This alarming malady soon became known as the sweating-sickness. It was regarded as being quite distinct from the plague, the pestilential fever or other epidemics previously known, not only by the special symptom which gave it its name, but also by its extremely rapid and fatal course. From 1485 nothing more was heard of it till 1507, when the second outbreak occurred, which was much less fatal than the first. In 1517 was a third and much more severe epidemic. In Oxford and Cambridge it was very fatal, as well as in other towns, where in some cases half the population are said to have perished. There is evidence of the disease having spread to Calais and Antwerp, but with these exceptions it was confined to England. In 1528 the disease recurred for the fourth time, and with great severity. It first showed itself in London at the end of May, and speedily spread over the whole of England, though not into Scotland or Ireland. In London the mortality was very great; the court was broken up, and Henry VIII left London, frequently changing his residence. The most remarkable fact about this epidemic is that it spread over the Continent, suddenly appearing at Hamburg, and spreading so rapidly that in a few weeks more than a thousand persons died. Thus was the terrible sweating- sickness started on a destructive course, during which it caused fearful mortality throughout eastern Europe. France, Italy and the southern countries were spared. It spread much in the same way as cholera, passing, in one direction, from north to south, arriving at Switzerland in December, in another northwards to Denmark, Sweden 49 and Norway, also eastwards to Lithuania, Poland and Russia, and westwards to Flanders and Holland, unless indeed the epidemic, which declared itself simultaneously at Antwerp and Amsterdam on the morning of the 27th of September, came from England direct. In each place which it affected it prevailed for a short time only — generally not more than a fortnight. By the end of the year it had entirely disappeared, except in eastern Switzerland, where it lingered into the next year; and the terrible "English sweat" has never appeared again, at least in the same form, on the Continent. England was, however, destined to suffer from one more outbreak of the disease, which occurred in 1551, and with regard to this we have the great advantage of an account by an eyewitness, John Kaye or Caius, the eminent physician. Fig. 11.). "Runaways Fleeing from the Plague" (1630), a woodcut from 'A Looking-glasse for City and Countrey' by H. Gosson The symptoms as described by Caius and others were as follows. The disease began very suddenly with a sense of apprehension, followed by cold shivers (sometimes very violent), giddiness, headache and severe pains in the neck, shoulders and limbs, with great prostration. After the cold stage, which might last from half-an- hour to three hours, followed the stage of heat and sweating. The characteristic sweat broke out suddenly, and, as it seemed to those accustomed to the disease, without any obvious cause. With the sweat, or after that was poured out, came a sense of heat, and with this headache and delirium, rapid pulse and intense thirst. Palpitation and pain in the heart were frequent symptoms. No eruption of any kind on the skin was generally observed; Caius makes no allusion to such a symptom. In the later stages there was either general prostration and collapse, or an irresistible tendency to sleep, which was thought to be fatal if the patient were permitted to give way to it. The malady was remarkably rapid in its course, being sometimes fatal even in two or three hours, and some patients died in less than that time. More commonly it was protracted to a period of twelve to twenty-four hours, beyond which it rarely lasted. Those who survived for twenty-four hours were considered safe. The disease, unlike the plague, was not especially fatal to the poor, but rather, as Caius affirms, attacked the richer sort and those who were free livers according to the custom of England in those days. "They which had this sweat sore with peril of death were either men of wealth, ease or welfare, or of the poorer sort, such as were idle persons, good ale drinkers and taverne haunters." Some attributed the disease to the English climate, its moisture and its fogs, or to the intemperate habits of the English people, and to the frightful want of cleanliness in their houses and surroundings which is noticed by Erasmus in a well-known passage, and about which Caius is equally explicit. But we must conclude that climate, season, and manner of life were not adequate, either separately or collectively, to produce the disease, though 50 each may have acted sometimes as a predisposing cause. The sweating-sickness was in fact, to use modern language, a specific infective disease, in the same sense as plague, typhus, scarlet fever, or malaria.[25] For nearly 70 years, the Middle Age’s other plague ravaged England and parts of Europe. This disease was called the English sweat, as people with it could sweat themselves to death in a matter of hours. Beginning in 1485, the sweat afflicted England in the summers of 1508, 1517, 1528 and 1551 and then it vanished completely. Doctors of the time desperately tried to figure out what caused this strange affliction, but to no avail. The sweat began with feelings of apprehension, fever, extreme aches, stomach pain and vomiting. Profuse sweating followed extreme chills, then weakness, difficulty breathing, chest pain and finally death. Highly contagious, the disease mainly affected the English, only once escaping across the Channel to Germany where it immediately killed thousands. While not a huge killer like the Black Death, the English sweat still managed to kill hundreds of thousands during its reign of terror. There was no known cause and no cure, although a few people did survive, including Anne Boleyn. Today, doctors speculate it could have been a hantavirus, as the clinical manifestations resemble those of the English sweat.[26] Typhus Typhus is a sudden severe illness caused by infection with Rickettsia bacteria. Outbreaks of typhus tend to occur in developing countries and areas where there is poverty, homelessness, close human contact and poor sanitation. The Rickettsia bacteria that cause typhus are carried by body lice, ticks, mites and fleas. This page covers the main types: • epidemic typhus (the most serious form) – this type occurs in Africa, South America and Asia, and is transmitted by body lice • endemic typhus (the milder form of the disease) – it occurs throughout the world and is transmitted by ticks, mites and fleas • scrub typhus (also called Tsutsugamushi fever) – this type is caught from mites infected with Orientia tsutsugamushi bacteria, which live in heavy scrub vegetation in parts of rural southeast Asia, Oceania and northern Australia Typhus is generally not a problem in the UK. But you may become infected abroad if you catch Rickettsia- infected lice from infested people or bedding (in budget accommodation or on a sleeper train, for example), or if you are bitten by a Rickettsia-infected tick, mite or flea. Epidemic typhus is passed from human to human by body lice. These are not the same as head lice or pubic lice, which are a nuisance, but don't transmit disease. The body lice become infected with Rickettsia prowazekii bacteria when they feed on the blood of an infected person. If you catch these infected body lice (for example, by using a louse-infested blanket), their infected faeces will be deposited on your skin as they feed on your blood. You only need to scratch a bite to rub the contaminated lice faeces into the tiny wound on your skin to become infected. Less commonly, you can catch epidemic typhus by breathing infected dried body louse faeces in airborne dust. The symptoms of epidemic, endemic and scrub typhus are similar. Typically, someone with typhus will start to feel unwell 10 to 14 days after becoming infected. 51 A sudden, severe headache is often the first symptom. Other symptoms may include: • a fever – where body temperature rises above 38.9C/102F for up to two weeks • a pink or red rash that starts on the chest and spreads to the arms, hands, legs and feet – but not the face, palms and soles • nausea and vomiting • abdominal pain and diarrhoea • joint and muscle pain – backache is common • a cough In addition, the person with typhus is often mentally dazed or delirious – the word "typhus" comes from the Greek word meaning "a cloud". They may become deaf or have ringing in the ears (tinnitus). These symptoms usually last around two weeks. If typhus is not diagnosed and treated promptly, there is a risk of developing complications, including: • long-term hearing loss or tinnitus • low blood pressure • organ damage and kidney failure • secondary bacterial infection, such as pneumonia • seizures • confusion • drowsiness • gangrene The patient may need to have hospital follow-up for some months after recovering from an attack of typhus to receive treatment for these long-term problems. Some people who previously had epidemic typhus will develop a milder form of the disease years later called Brill-Zinsser disease. This tends to happen when the bacteria were not properly killed off the first time and lie dormant (inactive) in the body. The bacteria then reactivate at a later date when the person's immune system is weak.[27] Typhus is any of several similar diseases caused by Rickettsia bacteria. The name comes from the Greek typhus (τύφος) meaning smoky or hazy, describing the state of mind of those affected with typhus. The causative organism Rickettsia is an obligate intracellular parasitic bacterium that cannot survive for long outside living cells. It is transmitted to humans via external parasites such as lice, fleas, and ticks. While "typhoid" means "typhus-like", typhus and typhoid fever are distinct diseases caused by different genera of bacteria. The first reliable description of the disease appears during the Spanish siege of Moorish Granada in 1489. These accounts include descriptions of fever and red spots over arms, back, and chest, attention deficit, progressing to delirium, gangrenous sores, and the stink of rotting flesh. During the siege, the Spaniards lost 3,000 men to enemy action, but an additional 17,000 died of typhus. In historical times "Gaol Fever", or "Aryotitus fever" was common in English prisons, and is believed by modern authorities to have been Typhus. It often occurred when prisoners were crowded together into dark, filthy rooms where lice spread easily. Thus "Imprisonment until the next term of court" was often equivalent to a death sentence. Prisoners brought before the court sometimes infected members of the court itself. Following the assizes held at Oxford in 1577, later deemed the Black Assize, over 300 died from gaol fever, including Sir Robert Bell, Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer. The Black Assize of Exeter 1586 was another notable outbreak. During the Lent assizes court held at Taunton in 1730, gaol fever caused the death of the Lord Chief Baron, as well as the High Sheriff, the sergeant, and hundreds of others. During a time when persons were executed for capital offenses, more 52 prisoners died from 'gaol fever' than were put to death by all the public executioners in the British realm. In 1759, an English authority estimated that each year a quarter of the prisoners had died from gaol fever. In London, gaol fever frequently broke out among the ill-kept prisoners of Newgate Prison and then moved into the general city population. In May 1750, the Lord Mayor of London, Sir Samuel Pennant, and a large number of court personnel were fatally infected in the courtroom of the Old Bailey, which adjoined Newgate Prison. Epidemics occurred routinely throughout Europe from the 16th to the 19th centuries, including during the English Civil War, the Thirty Years' War, and the Napoleonic Wars.[19] Pestilence of several kinds raged among combatants and civilians in Germany and surrounding lands from 1618 to 1648. According to Joseph Patrick Byrne, "By war's end, typhus may have killed more than 10 percent of the total German population, and disease in general accounted for 90 percent of Europe's casualties."[28] Scrofula The practice of touching for the king’s evil had its origin in England from Edward the Confessor, according to the testimony of William of Malmesbury, who lived about 100 years after that monarch. Mr. Giles’s translation of this portion of the Chronicle of the Kings of England is as follows: ‘But now to speak of his mireacles. A young woman had married a husband of her own age, but having no issue by the union, the humours collecting abundantly about her neck, she had contracted a sore disorder, the glands selling in a dreadful manner. Admonished in a dream to have the part affected washe by the king, she entered the palace, and the king himself fulfilled this labour of love by rubbing the woman’s neck with his hands dipped in water. Joyous health followed his healing hand; the lurid skin opened, so that worms flowed out with the purulent matter, and the tumour subsided; but as the orifice of the ulcer was large and unsightly, he commanded her to be supported at the royal expense till she should be perfectly cured. However, before a week was expired, a fair new skin returned, and hid the ulcers so completely that nothing of the original wound could be discovered. One of Charles II’s proclamations, dated January 9, 1683 has been given above. Evelyn in his Diary, March 28, 1684, says: ‘There was so great a concourse of people with their children to be touched for the evil, that 6 or 7 were crushed to death by pressing at the chirurgeon’s door for tickets.’ The London Gazette, October 7, 1686, contains an advertisement stating that his Majesty would heal weekly on Fridays, and commanding the attendance of the king’s physicians and surgeons at the Mews, on Thursdays in the afternoon, the examine cases and deliver tickets. [29] Black, painless masses of the king’s evil covered the necks of suffers. The masses multiplied over time and often ruptured resulting in large open sores. Even stranger than the disease was the proposed cure. People believed the royal touch of the king cured sufferers of their symptoms. The Book of Common, an Anglican prayer book, included a ceremony in which the king or queen would hand a person afflicted with the king’s evil a coin with an angel on it in order to cure the disease. It is also documented that King Henry the IV of France touched and cured 1,500 sufferers of the ailment. This type of tuberculosis is called scrofula and is not the kind of tuberculosis known to most because it infects the lymph nodes. It is hard for the scientific-minded to believe that the touch of a monarch would cure such a disease and whether sufferers were actually cured by this is certainly debatable.[30] Scrofula (scrophula or struma) is any of a variety of skin diseases; in particular, a form of tuberculosis, affecting the lymph nodes of the neck. In adults it is caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis and in children by nontuberculous mycobacteria. The word comes from the Latin scrofula, meaning brood sow. In the Middle Ages it was believed that royal touch, the touch of the sovereign of England or France, could cure diseases due to the divine right of sovereigns. 53 Fig. 12.). Left: Charles II touching for King's Evil Fig. 13.). Right: A man afflicted with Scrofula Scrofula was therefore also known as the King's Evil. From 1633, the Book of Common Prayer of the Anglican Church contained a ceremony for this, and it was traditional for the monarch (king or queen) to present to the touched person a coin – usually an Angel, a gold coin the value of which varied from about 6 shillings to about 10 shillings. In England this practice continued until the early 18th century, and was continued by the Jacobite pretenders until the extinction of the House of Stuart with the death of the pretender Henry IX. King Henry IV of France is reported as often touching and healing as many as 1,500 individuals at a time. Queen Anne touched the infant Samuel Johnson in 1712, but King George I put an end to the practice as being "too Catholic". The kings of France continued the custom until Louis XV stopped it in the 18th century, though it was briefly revived by Charles X in 1825. In the 18th century, Elizabeth Pearson, an Irish herbalist, proposed a treatment for scrofula involving herbs and a poultice and extract of vegetable; and in 1815, Sir Gerard Noel presented a petition to the House of Commons advocating her treatment. In the 19th century in the United States, the patent medicine Swaim's Panacea was advertised to cure scrofula.[31] Dysentry Dysentery - is a disease involving the inflammation of the lining of the large intestines. The inflammation causes stomach pains and diarrhoea. Some cases involve vomiting and fever. The bacteria enters the body through the mouth in food or water, and also by human feaces and contact with infected people. The diarrhea causes people suffering from dysentery to lose important salts and fluids from the body. This can be fatal if the body dehydrates. This disease struck the men in the trenches as there was no proper sanitation. Latrines in the trenches were pits four to five feet deep. When they were within one foot they were supposed to be filled in and the soldiers had the job of digging a new one. Sometimes there was not time for this and men used a nearby shell-hole.[32] 54 Fig. 14.). A drawing of a man with Dysentery. Most likely a cut out from a Book of Hours or other manuscript. During the Middle Ages, most people were sick with something for most of their lives. Newborns were often born small because their mothers had not had enough to eat when they were pregnant. Babies caught dysentery and typhoid from drinking water with sewage mixed in it. About a quarter of all babies died before they were a year old. Children caught one cold virus after another. They also were infested with worms that made them tired all the time. Mosquitoes gave them malaria. Medieval doctors didn't know of any treatments that worked for these sicknesses (we still can't cure colds). Doctors bled kids to reduce the fever, but that was worse than doing nothing. People tried praying to God and visiting Catholic healing shrines like Toulouse or Westminster Abbey. Kids also caught measles, mumps, rubella, and chickenpox. Most children recovered from these colds and illnesses on their own, especially if somebody took good care of them while they were sick. Smallpox killed more people. By about 1150 AD, many doctors in Europe had read Ibn Sina's medical encyclopedia, and knew that people caught measles and smallpox and tuberculosis from other people, so they began to try to quarantine sick people - to keep them away from other people for forty days (quarante, in French). They used quarantine to deal with the great bubonic plague - the Black Death - of the 1300s, too. Medieval doctors treated tuberculosis as the Romans had, with good food, rest, and clean air - but also by bleeding the patient. Like the Greeks and Romans, they gave people henbane seeds for toothache, and used aloe to cure burns, and mint tea for stomachaches. Children also had frequent eye infections and skin diseases like scabies. If kids got cuts, the cuts became infected, and sometimes kids died of the infection. Doctors sometimes successfully treated infections and skin diseases by pouring vinegar on them, but many doctors thought wrongly that if you got a lot of pus in your wound that would help it heal. Almost everybody had lice, and many people caught typhus from the lice. They caught ergotism, a form of poisoning from eating infected bread. Because they didn't get fresh fruits and vegetables or enough sunshine in the winter, they had vitamin deficiencies like scurvy and rickets and blindness. Some children suffered from epilepsy. Teenagers sometimes developed mental illnesses like schizophrenia, psychosis or depression. People often found some relief from mental illnesses at healing shrines. Many women died in their 20s either in childbirth or right afterwards, of infections they caught while giving birth. Birth control didn't exist for most people. Some women became very depressed after having a baby. As 55 people got older, frequent eye infections often led to trachoma, where your eyelids get so scarred that you go blind. By the time people were in their 30s, they began to have a lot of trouble with cavities in their teeth and gum disease. People often died of an abcess (an infection) in a tooth. Many women (and some men) got breast cancer, and other types of cancer also killed people. People also complained about kidney stones and bladder stones.[33] Water Elf’s Disease Catching Water Elf Disease resulted in painful and itchy red sores, blackened nails, fever, fatigue and watery eyes. Sufferers believed it was caused by witch’s stab or spell. Some cures and treatments were recorded by Anglo-Saxons in the 10th century. One such cure was described in Cockayne’s “Saxon Leechdoms,” which includes a mix of 13 herbs placed in a pot that is then put under an altar. Nine masses should be sung over the pot of herbs, which then should be boiled in butter, sheep’s grease and salt, strained, and the herbs thrown into a stream. Sufferers should smear the resulting salve on their forehead, eyes and any sore body parts. Another treatment recommends certain chants to remove the witch’s curse. Medical practitioners today believe the malady known throughout medieval times as Water Elf’s Disease to be chickenpox or measles.[34] Sufferers of this strangely named disease, developed sores, blackened nails, and watery eyes. It was believed to be caused by a witch’s stab. Much like the king’s evil, this disease had some fantastic treatments which call for giving the victim a dozen different plants and herbs, soaking him in ale, and then singing the first song below three times and the latter repeatedly. “I have bound on the wounds the best of war bandages, so the wounds neither burn nor burst, nor go further, nor spread, nor jump, nor the wounds increase, nor sores deepen. But may he himself keep in a healthy way. May it not ache you more than it aches earth in ear. “May earth bear on you with all her might and main.”[35] Fig. 15.). Left: A Leper Mannequin used for an example at an Ancient Medicine exhibit in Rome Fig. 16.). Right: A drawing of a man with leprosy, comparing him to devils 56  Leprosy Leprosy was designated by Paracelsus as one of the four monarchs of disease (with epilepsy, dropsy, gout). The Arabic Gospel of the Infancy tells the story of a leper cured by washing in the bath water of the infant Jesus. Galen (2nd century) said that wine infected with serpent venom would change various diseases into leprosy which could then be cured “in the traditional fashion.” This traditional fashion has been the bath of blood, especially human blood, from ancient Egyptian times to the Middle Ages in Europe. King Richard of England was told to bathe in infants’ blood and then to eat the heart of the infant as an infallible cure. Bathing in the blood of 2 year old children “undoubtedly cures leprosy” said Michael Scott (13th century). A bit of cooked snake sneaked into a lepers food was a palliative, if not a cure, recommended by Bartholomew of England (13th century.) Lepers were suspect everywhere in Europe and accused of poisoning wells in France and Italy from the 14th century on, but a certain healing well near Acqui lost its powers as soon as the people forbade its use by lepers. Louis XI of France became a leper in his later years, and there is record that on July 8, 1483, he sent ships to the Cape Verde Islands to bring back turtles of the Isles, the blood of which he had heard would cure leprosy. In the 16th century magic gold chains were sometimes worn to prevent or cure leprosy. Sixteenth century German medicine included a horrid oil from little green lizards which was said to be good for leprosy. In 1313 Philip the Fair of France ordered all lepers to be burned; the order was zealously fulfilled, but before complete annihilation of the unfortunates the monasteries of St. Lazarus (patron of lepers) were opened to them. Many were crowded together in these lazarettes and cared for and treated by monks who were also lepers. The Order of St. Lazarus founded for the protection of lepers, established its houses all over Europe. Those who entered were regarded as dead to the world and their former associations, and the burial ritual was performed for them. If they came forth from their segregation they wore the special garb of the leper, sometimes masks, and carried the leper’s bell or rattle which warned of their approach.[36] Many as returned warrior musing over the strange sunlit landscape and the exotic luxuries of the Arabs, must have felt a peculiar deadness in the hand-perhaps when he clutched a sword hilt or a horses rein- and realized, with a sudden chill, that the words of Leviticus could be applied to him: ‘And the leper in whom the plague is, his clothes shall be rent, and his head bare, and he shall put a covering upon his upper lip, and shall cry, Unclean, unclean. All the days wherein the plague shall be in him he shall be defiled; he is unclean: he shall dwell alone; without the camp shall his habitation be.’ It seemed inconceivable to the medieval mind that Crusaders of all people could have done anything deserving of Divine punishment, and many of the ‘new lepers’ were a little too powerful to be whipped away from the city boundaries, which had been the standard Old Testament treatment meted out in Italy to lepers. The old notion that leprosy was something like venereal disease, a just reward for sin, suddenly appeared wildly out of date. Fortunately, the Church can always find unassailable arguments for any policy which it seem expedient to follow. The Old Testament was forgotten, and the New Testament provided the answer. Christ himself had eaten in the house of Simon the Leper, and had cured a leper in ‘a certain city’: obviously leprosy was not a punishment for sin, but a mark of divine grace. Even more ingenious commentators deduced that the passage in Isiah: “vere languores nostros ipse tulit, et Dolores nostros ipse protavit et reputavimus eum quasi leprosum, percussum a Deo et humilitatum’, which has up to now been used as a authority to banish lepers from the company of society, was really a prophecy that Christ would be ‘treated like a leper’ or even that he might have been a leper in fact. Leprosy suddenly became respectable, and many of the faithful set up leper hospitals to care for the unfortunate bearers of the divine stigma. The first English hospital was Nottingham, but they soon began to spring up all over England. 57  Leper-hospitals, or lazar-houses, became the fashionable way of purchasing ones way to Heaven, and the supply soon began to exceed the demand. There were at one time nearly three hundred in England and two thousand in France, thrown up in an atmosphere of religious mania. These were often tended by friars and other religious men trained in the best traditions of St. Benedict, so they were by no means the hygenic places that the word ‘hospital’ suggests today, but rather insanitary holes suitable for the poor to die in.[37] The word leprosy comes from ancient Greek meaning ‘scaly skin’ or ‘scaly back’. Most people are naturally immune to the disease and nowadays it mostly affects people in developing countries where resources are scarce. It is not highly infectious and is probably transmitted through airborn droplets. After infection symptoms can take up to 20 years to develop and begin by affecting the nerves that control feeling in the skin. If left untreated, further nerve damage occurs and ulcers may develop. Because of the loss of sensation, wounds and cuts go unnoticed and the consequent damage leads to the visible signs commonly associated with leprosy. Leprosy appeared in Europe in the early 11th century and by the 15th century it had all but disappeared. It is thought that the disease may have been brought to Europe from Middle Eastern countries by those who had been on Crusade and it was regarded as being an upper-class disease rather than a disease of the poor. In fact early sufferers were pitied and treated well, but as the prevalence of the disease grew those with leprosy were reviled and seen as unclean and sinful. They were forced to carry a clapper, and later a bell, to warn of their coming so that people could avoid them and not come into close contact with them. The bell may have been to attract charitable donations as well as warning that a diseased person was in the vicinity. In the Middle Ages, many skin conditions were labelled as ‘leprosy’. These may have included such conditions as eczema, psoriasis and skin cancers and by the 12th century those with leprosy became regarded as unclean. Around this time many leper houses were built to keep sufferers separate from society as it was believed that the disease was very contagious. The Benedictine monk and chronicler, Matthew Paris, who lived from around 1200 to 1259, estimated that there were 19,000 leper houses in Europe, with 2000 being in France and over a hundred in England. These houses were run along similar lines to monasteries and convents and were for care as well as quarantine. In fact those with leprosy were sometimes viewed as experiencing purgatory whilst still on earth and their suffering was viewed as holy. The residents spent much time in prayer and, as it was also popularly thought to have been a sexually transmitted disease, the leper houses made the sufferers take a vow of chastity. Those who did not enter leper houses took the vows that are listed in the Mass of Separation including vowing not to enter any church or marketplace and not to touch the rim or rope of a well except with gloved hands. They were also excluded from inheriting. Famous sufferers include Baldwin IV, king of Jerusalem, who continued to rule despite his illness and Alice the Leper, a Cistercian nun who became a leprous martyr. There is also, of course, Richard FitzEustace, was a prominent 12th-century noble.[38] Witches were seldom accused of poisoning wells, though the crime was frequently charged to Jews, lepers and other hated minorities. The disease was commonly believed to be a product of moral decay, and lepers were spurned not only because of fear of contagion but also because they were considered evil. It is even more astonishing that the mobs who persecuted and lynched lepers never thought to view them as witches, especially since the whiteness of the lepers’ skin might have seemed a manifestation of the pallidity associated with heretics and demons.* *In 1321 in Aquitaine, for example, lepers were charged with using a compound of urine and powdered Eucharist to poison wells: Cauzons, II, 313-316[39] 58  Syphilis History doesn't recount who gave Cesare Borgia syphilis, but we do know when and where he got it. In the summer of 1497, he was a 22-year-old cardinal, sent as papal legate by his father, Pope Alexander VI, to crown the king of Naples and broker a royal marriage for his sister, Lucrezia. Naples was a city rich in convents and brothels (a fertile juxtaposition in the male Renaissance imagination), but it was also ripe with disease. Two years earlier, a French invasion force including mercenary troops back from the new world, had dallied a while to enjoy their victory, and when they left, carried something unexpected and deadly back home with them. His work accomplished, Cesare took to the streets. Machiavelli, his contemporary and a man with a wit as unflinching as his politics, has left a chilling account of his coupling with a prostitute who, when he lights a lamp afterwards, is revealed as a bald, toothless hag so hideous that he promptly throws up over her. Given Cesare's elevated status, his chosen women no doubt were more enticing, but the sickness they gave him (and suffered themselves) was to prove vicious. First a chancre appeared on his penis, then crippling pains throughout his body and a rash of itching, weeping pustules covering his face and torso. Fortunately for him and for history, his personal doctor, Gaspar Torella, was a medical scholar with a keen interest in this startling new disease and used his patient (under the pseudonym of "Niccolo the young") to record symptoms and attempted cures. Over the next few years, Torella and others charted the unstoppable rise of a disease that had grown men screaming in agony as their flesh was eaten away, in some cases down to the bone. I still remember the moment, sitting in the British Library, when I came across details of Torella's treatise in a book of essays on syphilis. There is nothing more thrilling in writing historical fiction than when research opens a window on to a whole new landscape, and the story of how this sexual plague swept through Europe during the 1490s was one of the turning points in Blood and Beauty, the novel I was writing on the rise and fall of the Borgia dynasty. By the time that Cesare felt that first itch, the French disease, as it was then known, had already spread deep into Europe. That same year, Edinburgh town council issued an edict closing brothels, while at the Italian university of Ferrara scholars convened an emergency debate to try to work out what had hit them. By then the method of the contagion was pretty obvious. "Men get it from doing it with women in their vulvas," wrote the Ferrarese court doctor boldly (there is no mention of homosexual transmission, but then "sodomy", as it was known then, was not the stuff of open debate). The theories surrounding the disease were are as dramatic as the symptoms: an astrological conjunction of the planets, the boils of Job, a punishment of a wrathful God disgusted by fornication or, as some suggested even then, an entirely new plague brought from the new world by the soldiers of Columbus and fermented in the loins of Neopolitan prostitutes. Whatever the cause, the horror and the agony were indisputable. "So cruel, so distressing, so appalling that until now nothing more terrible or disgusting has ever been known on this earth," says the German humanist Joseph Grunpeck, who, when he fell victim, bemoaned how "the wound on my priapic gland became so swollen, that both hands could scarcely encircle it." Meanwhile, the artist Albrecht Dürer, later to use images of sufferers in propaganda woodcuts against the Catholic church, wrote "God save me from the French disease. I know of nothing of which I am so afraid … Nearly every man has it and it eats up so many that they die." It got its name in the mid 16th century from a poem by a Renaissance scholar: its eponymous hero Syphilus, a shepherd, enrages the Sun God and is infected as punishment. Outside poetry, prostitution bears the brunt of the blame, though the real culprit was testosterone. Men infected prostitutes who then passed it on to the next client who gave it back to a new woman in a deadly spiral. Erring husbands gave it to wives who sometimes passed it on to children, though they might also get it from suckling infected wet-nurses. 59  Amid all this horror there were elements of poetic justice. In a manifestly corrupt church, the give-away "purple flowers" (as the repeated attacks were euphemistically known) that decorated the faces of priests, cardinals, even a pope, were indisputable evidence that celibacy was unenforceable. When Luther, a monk, married a nun, forcing the hand of the Catholic church to resist similar reform in itself, syphilis became one of the reasons the Catholic church is still in such trouble today. Though there has been dispute in recent years over pre-15th-century European bones found with what resemble syphilitic symptoms, medical science is largely agreed that it was indeed a new disease brought back with the men who accompanied Columbus on his 1492 voyage to the Americas. In terms of germ warfare, it was a fitting weapon to match the devastation that measles and smallpox inflicted travelling the other way. It was not until 1905 that the cause of all this suffering was finally identified under the microscope – Treponema pallidum, a spirochete bacterium that enters the bloodstream and, if left untreated, attacks the nervous system, the heart, internal organs and the brain; and it was not until the 1940s and the arrival of penicillin that there was an effective cure. Much of the extraordinary detail we now have about syphilis is a result of the Aids crisis. Just when we thought antibiotics, the pill and more liberal attitudes had taken the danger and shame out of sexual behaviour, the arrival out of nowhere of an incurable, fatal, highly contagious sexual disease challenged medical science, triggered a public-health crisis and re-awoke a moral panic. Not surprisingly, it also made the history of syphilis extremely relevant again. The timing was powerful in another way too, as by the 1980s history itself was refocusing; from the long march of the political and the powerful, to the more intimate cultural stories of everyman/woman. The growth of areas such as history of medicine and madness through the work of historians such as Roy Porter and Michel Foucault was making the body a rich topic for academics. Suddenly, the study of syphilis became, well, there is no other word for it, sexy. Historians mining the archives of prisons, hospitals and asylums now estimate that a fifth of the population might have been infected at any one time. London hospitals during the 18th century treated barely a fraction of the poor, and on discharge sufferers were publicly whipped to ram home the moral lesson. Those who could buy care also bought silence – the confidentiality of the modern doctor/patient relationship has it roots in the treatment of syphilis. Not that it always helped. The old adage "a night with Venus; a lifetime with Mercury" reveals all manner of horrors, from men suffocating in overheated steam baths to quacks who peddled chocolate drinks laced with mercury so that infected husbands could treat their wives and families without them knowing. Even court fashion is part of the story, with pancake makeup and beauty spots as much a response to recurrent attacks of syphilis as survivors of smallpox. And then there are the artists; poets, painters, philosophers, composers. Some wore their infection almost as a badge of pride: The Earl of Rochester, Casanova, Flaubert in his letters. In Voltaire's Candide, Pangloss can trace his chain of infection right back to a Jesuit novice who caught it from a woman who caught it from a sailor in the new world. Others were more secretive. Shame is a powerful censor in history, and in its later stages syphilis, known as the "great imitator", mimics so many other diseases that it's easy to hide the truth. Detective work by writers such as Deborah Hayden (The Pox: Genius, Madness, and the Mysteries of Syphilis) count Schubert, Schumann, Baudelaire, Maupassant, Flaubert, Van Gogh, Nietzsche, Wilde and Joyce with contentious evidence around Beethoven and Hitler. Her larger question – how might the disease itself have affected their creative process – is a tricky one. Van Gogh paints skulls and Schubert's sublime last works are clearly suffused with the awareness of death. But in 1888, when Nietzsche, tumbling into insanity, wrote work such as Ecce Homo is his intellectual grandiosity genius or possibly the disease talking? There is a further layer of complexity to this. By the time Nietzsche lost his wits, tertiary syphilis had undergone a transmutation, infecting the brain and causing paralysis alongside mental 60 disintegration. But many of its sufferers didn't know that then. Guy de Maupassant, who started triumphant ("I can screw street whores now and say to them 'I've got the pox.' They are afraid and I just laugh"), died 15 years later in an asylum howling like a dog and planting twigs as baby Maupassants in the garden. Late 19th-century French culture was a particularly rich stew of sexual desire and fear. Upmarket Paris restaurants had private rooms where the clientele could enjoy more than food, and in opera foyers patrons could view and "reserve" young girls for later. At the same time, the authorities were rounding up, testing and treating prostitutes, often too late for themselves or the wives. As the fear grew, so did the interest in disturbed women. Charcot's clinic exhibited examples of hysteria, prompting the question now as to how far that diagnosis might have been covering up the workings of syphilis. Freud noted the impact of the disease inside the family when analysing his early female patients. "It's just as I thought. I've got it for life," says the novelist Alphonse Daudet after a meeting with Charcot in 1880s. In his book In the Land of Pain, translated and edited by Julian Barnes in 2002, the writer's eye is unflinching as he faces "the torment of the Cross: violent wrenching of the hands, feet, knees, nerves stretched and pulled to breaking point," dimmed only by the blunt relief of increasing amounts of morphine: "Each injection [helps] for three or four hours. Then come 'the wasps' stinging, stabbing here, there, everywhere followed by Pain, that cruel guest … My anguish is great and I weep as I write." Of course, we have not seen the end of syphilis – worldwide millions of people still contract it, and there are reports, especially within the sex industry, that it is on the increase in recent years. But the vast majority will be cured by antibiotics before it takes hold. They will never reach the point, as Cesare Borgia did in the early 16th century, of having to wear a mask to cover the ruin of what everyone agreed was once a most handsome face. What he lost in vanity he gained in sinister mystery. How far his behaviour, oscillating between lethargy and manic energy, was also the impact of the disease we will never know. He survived it long enough to be cut to pieces escaping from a Spanish prison. Meanwhile, in the city of Ferrara,his beloved sister Lucrezia, then married to a duke famed for extramarital philandering, suffered repeated miscarriages – a powerful sign of infection in female sufferers. For those of us wedded to turning history into fiction, the story of syphilis proves the cliche: truth is stranger than anyone could make up.[40] 720: As I stated earlier. The diseases were so rampant there was no way one could categorize and diagnose them all. Especially when you bring in the high possibility of disease combinations. As you can see our modern day scholar’s debate with each other on if there was really any leprosy at all as the symptoms described by chroniclers also fit the descriptions of syphilis. Syphilis rotted away the skin as did leprosy. My synopsis of the scenario is that both were in existence and were different even based on the descriptions. From the medical information I’ve obtained out of the public sector of course it seems as if leprosy was specific as was syphilis. Syphilis seemed to rot down to the bone and deteriorate it entirely leaving life at the brink of existence. Leprosy on the other had melted the skin and rotted the hands and legs, nonetheless the whole body was affected especially the face. I myself am not credited with being a doctor or a medical historian. But this is the summation from what I’ve reviewed. Due to the nature of disease overall there could be a multitude of variations pertaining to each disease that may coincide in appearance and may not. In essence both diseases rotted the body away to classify one as a social reject, a monster. 61 Fig. 17.). Left: Deformities present in a young woman with congenital syphilis. Progressed to the point of nasal caving, blindness, and mouth closure Fig. 18.). Right: in oil of an undergrown girl, aged 16 years, showing some of the effects of congenital syphilis. The teeth are 'pegged' and the bridge of the nose is flattened. Both eyes are affected with interstitial keratitis and the right, which is also affected with kerato-globus, was absolutely blind. Large patches of necrosis of the cranial bones are exposed by ulceration of the scalp. [1875-1882] By: Thomas Godart The French Disease (1490’s) During the siege of Naples in 1493 a strange disease spread quickly from the French to the Italians causing sores at the site of infection, which later spread. Victims ended up covered with dark green, pussy boils which burned horribly. The disease eventually affected the mental capacities, leading to insanity. Because it wasn’t until the French invasion, the illness became known as the French disease. It quickly spread throughout Europe, but within fifty years symptoms of the disease became sufficiently mild. The Cause was Syphillis. The people of Europe had no immunity to this sexually transmitted disease and so the first epidemic had the worst symptoms. Some hypothesize the syphilis originally came from Native Americans and was brought to the French soldiers by Spanish sailors who had been to the New World, but that is debatable. So why did the symptoms become so mild so quickly? That is quite simple. It was easy to identify anyone with the disease and no one would have sex with them. Only strains with milder symptoms began to spread because they weren’t as easy to identify. [41] The first well-recorded European outbreak of what is now known as syphilis occurred in 1495 among French troops besieging Naples, Italy. It may have been transmitted to the French via Spanish mercenaries serving King Charles of France in that siege. From this center, the disease swept across Europe. As Jared Diamond describes it, "[W]hen syphilis was first definitely recorded in Europe in 1495, its pustules often covered the body from the head to the knees, caused flesh to fall from people's faces, and led to death within a few months." The disease then was much more lethal than it is today. Diamond concludes, “By 1546, the disease had evolved into the disease with the symptoms so well known to us today." The epidemiology of this first syphilis epidemic shows that the disease was either new or a mutated form of an earlier disease. Researchers concluded that syphilis was carried from the New World to Europe after Columbus' voyages. Many of the crew members who served on this voyage later joined the army of King Charles VIII in his invasion of 62 Italy in 1495, resulting in the spreading of the disease across Europe and as many as five million deaths. The findings suggested Europeans could have carried the nonvenereal tropical bacteria home, where the organisms may have mutated into a more deadly form in the different conditions and low immunity of the population of Europe. Syphilis was a major killer in Europe during the Renaissance. In his Serpentine Malady (Seville, 1539) Ruy Diaz de Isla estimated that over a million people were infected in Europe. The name "syphilis" was coined by the Italian physician and poet Girolamo Fracastoro in his pastoral noted poem, written in Latin, titled Syphilis sive morbus gallicus (Latin for "Syphilis or The French Disease") in 1530. The protagonist of the poem is a shepherd named Syphilus (perhaps a variant spelling of Sipylus, a character in Ovid's Metamorphoses). Syphilus is presented as the first man to contract the disease, sent by the god Apollo as punishment for the defiance that Syphilus and his followers had shown him. From this character Fracastoro derived a new name for the disease, which he also used in his medical text De Contagionibus ("On Contagious Diseases"). Until that time, as Fracastoro notes, syphilis had been called the "French disease" in Italy, Poland and Germany, and the "Italian disease" in France. In addition, the Dutch called it the "Spanish disease", the Russians called it the "Polish disease", and the Turks called it the "Christian disease" or "Frank (Western European) disease" (frengi). These "national" names were generally reflective of contemporary political spite between nations and frequently served as a sort of propaganda; the Dutch, for example, had a colonial rivalry with the Spanish, so referring to Syphilis as the "Spanish" disease reinforced a politically useful perception that the Spanish were immoral or unworthy. The inherent xenophobia of the terms also stemmed from the disease's particular epidemiology, often being spread by foreign sailors and soldiers during their frequent sexual contact with local prostitutes. During the 16th century, it was called "great pox" in order to distinguish it from smallpox. In its early stages, the great pox produced a rash similar to smallpox (also known as variola). However, the name is misleading, as smallpox was a far more deadly disease. The terms "lues” (or Lues venerea, Latin for "venereal plague") and "Cupid's disease" have also been used to refer to syphilis. In Scotland, syphilis was referred to as the Grandgore. The ulcers suffered by British soldiers in Portugal were termed "The Black Lion". Fig. 19.). Left: An artificial nose from the 17-18th century. Such cosmetic replacements were sometimes used due to effects of the disease. Fig. 20.). Right: Rhinoplasty in the Renaissance was a long, painful, and slow process in which the damaged nose flesh was replaced with flesh from the upper arm. 63  There were originally no effective treatments for syphilis, although a number of remedies were tried. Mercury was a common, long-standing treatment for syphilis, and its use has been suggested to date back to The Canon of Medicine (1025) by the Persian physician Ibn Sina (Avicenna), although this is only possible if syphilis existed in the Old World prior to Columbus. Giorgio Sommariva of Verona is recorded to have used mercury to treat syphilis in 1496, and is often recognized as the first physician to have done so, although he may not have been a physician. During the sixteenth century, mercury was administered to syphilitic patients in various ways, including by rubbing it on the skin, by applying a plaster, and by mouth. A "Fumigation" method of administering mercury was also used, in which mercury was vaporized over a fire and the patients were exposed to the resulting steam, either by being placed in a bottomless seat over the hot coals, or by having their entire bodies except for the head enclosed in a box (called a "tabernacle") that received the steam. The goal of mercury treatment was to cause the patient to salivate, which was thought to expel the disease. Unpleasant side effects of mercury treatment included gum ulcers and loose teeth. Mercury continued to be used in syphilis treatment for centuries; an 1869 article by TJ Walker discussed administering mercury by injection for this purpose. Guaiacum was a popular treatment in the sixteenth century and was strongly advocated by Ulrich Von Hutten and others. Because guaiacum came from Hispaniola where Columbus had landed, proponents of the Columbian theory contended that God had provided a cure in the same location from which the disease originated. In 1525, the Spanish priest Francisco Delicado, who himself suffered from syphilis, wrote El modo de adoperare el legno de India discussing the use of guaiacum for treatment of syphilis. Although guaiacum did not have the unpleasant side effects of mercury, guaiacum was not particularly effective, at least not beyond the short term, and mercury was thought to be more effective. Some physicians continued to use both mercury and guaiacum on patients. After 1522, the Blatterhaus — an Augsburg municipal hospital for the syphilitic poor — would administer guaiacum (as a hot drink, followed by a sweating cure) as the first treatment, and use mercury as the treatment of last resort. Another sixteenth-century treatment advocated by the Italian physician Antonio Musa Brassavola was the oral administration of Root of China, a form of sarsaparilla (Smilax). In the seventeenth century, English physician and herbalist Nicholas Culpeper recommended the use of heartsease (wild pansy).[42] Sexually transmitted diseases such as syphilis were common among all social classes. Symptoms included unsightly skin rashes, recurring bouts of fever, blindness, mental illness and ultimately, death.[43] Gonorreha It has been suggested that mercury was used as a treatment for gonorrhea. Surgeons' tools on board the recovered English warship the Mary Rose included a syringe that, according to some, was used to inject the mercury via the urinary meatus into any unfortunate crewman suffering from gonorrhea. The name "the clap", in reference to the disease, is recorded as early as the sixteenth century. Silver nitrate was one of the widely used drugs in the 19th century. However, It became replaced by Protargol. Arthur Eichengrün invented this type of colloidal silver, which was marketed by Bayer from 1897 on. The silver-based treatment was used until the first antibiotics came into use in the 1940s. The exact time of onset of gonorrhea as prevalent disease or epidemic cannot be accurately determined from the historical record. One of the first reliable notations occurs in the Acts of the (English) Parliament. In 1161, this body passed a law to reduce the spread of "...the perilous infirmity of burning". The symptoms described are consistent with, but not diagnostic of, gonorrhea. A similar decree was passed by Louis IX in France in 1256, replacing regulation with banishment. Similar symptoms were noted at the siege of Acre by Crusaders. 64  Coincidental to, or dependent on, the appearance of a gonorrhea epidemic, several changes occurred in European medieval society. Cities hired public health doctors to treat afflicted patients without right of refusal. Pope Boniface (1235-1303) rescinded the requirement that physicians complete studies for the lower orders of the Catholic priesthood. Medieval public health physicians in the employ of their cities were required to treat prostitutes infected with the "burning", as well as lepers and other epidemic victims. After Pope Boniface completely secularized the practice of medicine, physicians were more willing to treat a sexually transmitted disease.[44] Gout In 1683, Thomas Sydenham, an English physician, described its occurrence in the early hours of the morning and its predilection for older males: Gouty patients are, generally, either old men or men who have so worn themselves out in youth as to have brought on a premature old age—of such dissolute habits none being more common than the premature and excessive indulgence in venery and the like exhausting passions. The victim goes to bed and sleeps in good health. About two o'clock in the morning he is awakened by a severe pain in the great toe; more rarely in the heel, ankle or instep. The pain is like that of a dislocation and yet parts feel as if cold water were poured over them. Then follows chills and shivers and a little fever... The night is passed in torture, sleeplessness, turning the part affected and perpetual change of posture; the tossing about of body being as incessant as the pain of the tortured joint and being worse as the fit comes on. Dutch scientist Antonie van Leeuwenhoek first described the microscopic appearance of urate crystals in 1679. In 1848, English physician Alfred Baring Garrod identified excess uric acid in the blood as the cause of gout.[45] Fig. 21.). An old man playing the cello, while a devil applies a burning coal to his foot; a redrawn copy from the composition by Bunbury. c.1810 Etching with hand-colouring 65 Fig. 22.). Left: A woman standing at a table has placed a leech on her left forearm; on the table is a large jar containing leeches. Illustrated In: Bossche, Guillaume van den, Bruxellas, Typis Joannis Mommarti, 1639 Historia medica, in qua libris IV. animalium natura, et eorum medica utilitas esacte & luculenter... Fig. 23.). Right: A Leech Jar Leeches & Blood Letting In early modern Europe, leeches were in high demand for their medicinal uses in bloodletting, a demand which only increased during a ‘leech craze‘ in the first half of the 1800’s. To meet this demand there was a whole profession devoted to the collection of leeches. Collectors, mostly women, waded into ponds populated by leeches, and attracted the worms with their bare legs. Some used animals instead, for example horses that were too old for hard physical labour. While this work was not physically demanding, leech collectors suffered from the loss of blood and frequently from infections they caught from the leeches. Wordsworth describes an encounter with a leech collector in ‘Resolution and Independence’, a poem of 1807: ...to these waters he had come To gather leeches, being old and poor: Employment hazardous and wearisome And he had many hardships to endure: From pond to pond he roamed, from moor to moor; Housing, with God's good help, by choice or chance, And in this way he gained an honest maintenance.[46] Bloodletting has been employed since ancient times as a method to keep the body’s so-called four humors in balance. By the second millennium, the belief in the four humors began to decline, but bloodletting remained popular. Because surgery was still a crude practice, many physicians avoided it. Instead, people turned to the church for medical help. However, in 1163 a church edict by the Council of Tours forbade monks and priests to practice bloodletting. Barbers performed a wide variety of functions at that time. In addition to cutting hair, a barber might pull teeth, perform surgery on minor wounds, amputate limbs or administer leeches. Already prepared with the tools needed to perform venesection, barbers developed a thriving bloodletting practice from 1100 to 1500. This 66 included the development of barber organizations, entrance into schools to learn the trade and a distinguishing symbol, the barber pole. As more was learned about surgery, a transition began from barbers to more experienced physicians performing bloodletting. By the 1800s, the popularity of bloodletting had reached an all-time high. Multiple methods of administration were detailed in medical books, from dry cupping to scarification, venesection and arteriotomy. In areas considered too constricted or in patients too weak for the usual methods of bloodletting, leeches were considered useful. Rubbing the skin with sugar-water, milk or blood would persuade the leech to bite after which it would suck blood until gorged. Leeches could be applied to the anus and rectum for relief of abdominal inflammations such as hepatitis, enteritis and puerperal fever; to the mucous membrane of the nose to relieve chronic nose bleeds; and sometimes to the vagina to stimulate menstrual flow. Detailed methods were developed for the administration of leeches to almost any body part. For example, a physician might tie a string to a leech to avoid suffocation when attaching a leech to a patient’s tonsils. Fig. 24.). A woman sitting in a At the end of the 1700s leeches were a low-priced commodity. chair is being bled by two However, by the turn of the century the growing medicinal use of leeches – physicians while a third and their scarcity due to overuse – drove the cost up 300%. physician kneels at her side The cultivation of leeches by leech farmers or medical facilities holding a clyster; in the became a thriving industry, and the import of leeches also increased rapidly background an autopsy is during this time. Some research suggests that France imported about 42 taking place. million leeches in one year. National Library of Medicine When they were in short supply, techniques were developed to extend the use of a single leech. Immersing the leech in vinegar or applying salt to its mouth would cause the animals to disgorge, allowing them to be reused. Bellatomy, or cutting open a leech’s digestive tract, would allow leeches to continuously consume blood without limit. Multiple leeches were used; early records show that over 100 leeches were sometimes applied to a single patient over a few days. In 1828, Pierre Charles Alexandre Louis was one of the first physicians to openly criticize bloodletting for the treatment of diseases. His research found that in patients with pneumonia, 44% of those who were bled within the first four days died, compared with 25% of those patients who were bled later in their illness. He deduced that those patients bled later had already passed through the worst phases of the disease and that bloodletting was thus useless in the treatment of pneumonia. By the 1870s, bloodletting was so popular among patients that, although medical use of the practice was declining, many patients had to be convinced not to be bled when they fell ill.[47] Right up until Europe’s Modern Age and arguably into it, Western medical practitioners could be physicians—many of whom assumed a theoretical, hands-off role—but also surgeons, religious figures, wise women, apothecaries, and barbers. Because they already had the tools required to perform simple surgeries (i.e. straight razors), a barber would often be the go-to option for a person’s local surgical needs. In 1540, British 67 surgeons—skilled tradesmen who were distinct from trained physicians— joined with barbers to form the Company of Barber-Surgeons livery group under Henry VIII, which remained active until 1745. Barbers would frequently perform cupping therapy, which creates localized suction on the body (thought to induce heightened circulation), bloodletting therapy (for draining excess blood in the case of imbalanced humors), and pulling teeth (if an herbal compress or a flaming twig failed to make the worm—thought to be burrowing in the tooth’s cavity—fall out). These barbers could also, of course, cut hair, give shaves, and perform enemas. Wasting and wanting not, Renaissance healers put not just any available plants, minerals, and religions to use in their remedies, but all sorts of scraps and waste products from human and animal bodies, too. Human fecal matter was used in variously ingested and externally applied medicines, earwax (mixed with mud) was used for treating migraines, and saliva was applied for skin irritation. Weakened patients drank human blood, which was also available for lepers to soak their limbs. Meanwhile, the droppings of dogs and crows were prized for treating colic and dysentery, respectively. Pig urine fought fevers, and the roasted flesh of “well nourished kittens” relieved jaundice.[48] When letting blood, the "patient" would hold on to a pole to make their veins more visible. The barber would then place leeches on their arm and after a while extract them and wipe the blood up with a cloth. The blood soaked cloth would then be wrapped around this pole. Have you ever seen the outside of a barber shop and a rotating pole with red stripes? Well, it's believed that it originated from the barber's old practice of bloodletting. Physicians would prescribe the leeches for all types of illnesses; everything from headaches to pneumonia. Leeches were prescribed so often by physicians, that the doctors developed a nickname and were actually referred to as "leeches". Leeches also had a cosmetic role during the 1800's. Women would apply them around their face, as they believed it gave their face a more glowing, radiant look.[49] The Enema In medieval times appear the first illustrations of enema equipment, a clyster syringe consisting of a tube attached to a pump action bulb made of a pig bladder and the 15th century Simple piston syringe clysters came into use. Beginning in the 17th century enema apparatus was chiefly designed for self-administration at home and many were French as enemas enjoyed wide usage in France. When clyster syringes were in use in Europe, the patient was placed in an appropriate position (kneeling, with the buttocks raised, or lying on the side); a servant or apothecary would then insert the nozzle into the anus and depress the plunger, resulting in the liquid remedy (generally, water, but also some other preparations) being injected into the colon. Because of the embarrassment a woman might feel when showing her buttocks (and possibly her genitals, depending on the position) to a male apothecary, some contraptions were invented that blocked all from the apothecary's view except for the anal area. Another invention was syringes equipped with a special bent nozzle, which enabled self-administration, thereby eliminating the embarrassment. Clysters were administered for symptoms of constipation and, with more questionable effectiveness, stomach aches and other illnesses. In his early-modern treatise, The Diseases of Women with Child, François Mauriceau records that both midwives and man-midwives commonly administered clysters to labouring mothers just prior to their delivery. In the 16th century, satirists made physicians a favorite target, resembling Molière's caricature whose prescription for anything was "clyster, bleed, purge," or "purge, bleed, clyster."[18] In Roper's biography of his father-in-law Sir Thomas More, he tells of Thomas More's eldest daughter falling sick of the sweating sickness. She could not be awakened by doctors. After praying, it came to Thomas More: 68  There straightway it came into his mind that a clyster would be the one way to help her, which when he told the physicians, they at once confessed that if there were any hope of health, it was the very best help indeed, much marveling among themselves that they had not afore remembered it. 19th century satirical cartoon of a monkey rejecting an old style clyster for a new design, filled with marshmallow and opium. In the 18th century tobacco smoke enemas were used to resuscitate drowned people. Tobacco resuscitation kits consisting of a pair of bellows and a tube were provided by the Royal Humane Society of London and placed at various points along the Thames. Clysters were a favourite medical treatment in the bourgeoisie and nobility of the Western world up to the 19th century. As medical knowledge was fairly limited at the time, purgative clysters were used for a wide variety of ailments, the foremost of which were stomach aches and constipation.[50] Fig. 25.). Left: Portable enema self-administration apparatus by Giovanni Alessandro Brambilla (18th century; Medical History Museum, University of Zurich) Fig. 26.). Right: A real clyster in a French Museum The first recorded apparatus was the enema syringe; however, there is debate as to who should be credited with first describing the enema syringe. Lieberman gives credit to Avicenna (980-1036 A.D.) as the first to describe the enema syringe, while Friedenwald indicates that honor should be given to Albucasis of Cordova 1000 (1013-1106) who also developed the ear syringe. Fig. 27.). A drawing of an enema most likely made of animal organs. 69  The preferred and most readily available apparatus remained a tube made of bone, reed or metal connected to a sleeve or animal bladder called the "clyster purse". The bag was emptied by squeezing it between the two hands. Dr. Russell reports that 1000+ in Spain, the method was called "playing the bagpipes". Fig. 28.). Digital Picture of Bagpipes During the middle ages, information on the enema continued to grow and the use of the enema became the popular vogue of the wealthy and even reached to the highest levels of the royalty. 1300 Fig. 29.). Painting cut out of a royal sticking his/her arse out of the window of a castle to receive the enema In 1480, Louis XI suffered an attack of apoplexy which was relieved by an enema, tendered under the direction of his physician, Angelo Catho. "The king became such an ardent advocate of clysters, that he even had his pet dogs clysterized when 1480 he thought they required it." Fig. 30.). Painting of Louis XI by an anonymous 70  The 17th Century became known as the "age of the enema", or the "age of clysters". It was an acceptable practice in Parisian society to enjoy as many as three or four enemas a day, the belief being that an internal washing or "lavement" was essential to well-being. 1600 It is recorded that King Louis XIII had more than 200 enemas in one year. Fig. 31.). Drawing of King louis XIII By this time, the clyster syringes came in several styles. The clyster syringes were made of copper or porcelain, and the wealthy had syringes made of mother of pearl and silver. It was considered good form to own several syringes and some aristocrats, it is said, even owned 1600+ large collections of such instruments. Fig. 32.). Picture of Medieval Clysters made out of materials mentioned The clyster reached the ultimate height in the early years of the reign of Louis XIV (1638-1715) who, it is reported, had over 2,000 enemas during his career. The "Enema King" sometimes even held court 1700 functions and received visitors during the procedure. Fig. 33.). Cut out from a manuscript showing a person bent over on a bed receiving the clyster Edward Jukes developed two types of enema apparatus units that might have been the precursors for colon hydrotherapy equipment today. 1700+ Fig. 34.). A Medical drawing showing the technological development of the clyster into our modern times[51] 71 Some More Information On Healing Approaches Renaissance apothecaries compounded a vast array of medicines to treat the aches and pains early modern life. Monique Rossignol, in her book Medecine et medicaments au XVIe siècle à Lyon [Medicine and Medications in Sixteenth Century Lyon] (PUL 1990), describes four sorts of medicines popular during the Renaissance: those of human origin, derived from feces, urine, saliva, ear wax, and the like; those of animal origin, made from the milk, droppings, urine, fat, and body parts of beasts; vegetal medicines, compounded from herbs and other plants; and mineral medicines, fashioned from elemental matter. Medicines of human origin are probably the most repugnant to our contemporary sensibilities. Renaissance doctors and druggists relied heavily on human excrement, ingested as well as applied externally, for various cures. In this they followed the example of the doctors of antiquity, who prescribed a mixture of dried children's feces and honey for inflammation of the throat. But Renaissance doctors did not stop at excrement: they used a combination of mud and ear wax to cure migraine and applied saliva, preferably that of a "fasting young man" on dog bites and itchy rashes. Human blood was considered an excellent fortifier; weak patients were given blood to drink, while lepers soaked their limbs in tubs of blood. (I imagine with blood-letting being one of the most popular treatments for a variety of ailments, it wasn't difficult for apothecaries to provide the ingredients for these fortifying drinks.) Medicines of animal origin were equally inventive. Dog turds were considered remarkable for treating pleurisy and colic; pig urine lowered fevers. Crow droppings dissolved in wine were good for dysentery; the chopped meat of geese and "well nourished kittens," roasted and distilled, cured jaundice. Ground unicorn horns from India and Ethiopia (!) were of great repute for treating plague, rabies and scorpion bites. Even in the sixteenth century, viper's venom was known to be a powerful antidote to the bites of poisonous animals and was used to combat the effects of poisonous plants. All parts of the viper, not only the venom, were used in various cures; the bodies were dried, then pulverized and mixed with wine and other ingredients. The pharmacological properties of plants were well known to Renaissance healers. Apothecaries mixed innumerable aperitifs, digestifs, purges, and simples. Exotic herbs and spices from all over Africa and the Far East entered France through Lyon and found their way onto apothecaries' shelves. Tobacco was introduced into Europe by Spain and Portugal at the end of the fifteenth century and was consumed in many different forms: as oil, salt, syrup, perfume, water, leaves and powder. Smoking tobacco was considered useful for strengthening the memory, curing cataracts, and mitigating headaches and asthma. Tobacco oil was used on pimples; dropped in the ears it cured deafness. Tobacco salt whitened teeth; tobacco syrup arrested colds. Other plant products much used in medications included pepper, ginger, saffron, almonds, and fennel. Chewing on cloves relieved toothaches, a remedy Jollande's mother-in-law relies on in The Measure of Silence. As for inorganic medications, soluble salts of gold, silver, sulfur and mercury were used as elixirs for long life. Copper was used for stomach ailments; iron dissolved in vinegar soothed ulcers. Mercury, mixed with butter, killed lice; it was mixed with vinegar and oil and drunk as a treatment for syphilis. Precious stones such as agate, emeralds, onyx and pearls were ground and swallowed as powders or mixed into sauces. As you can see, the range of medications in the sixteenth century ran the gamut from useful and effective to outrageous and downright harmful. Apothecaries and doctors had their favorite cures which they prescribed based on their clinical experience. As the printing industry expanded, noted doctors and apothecaries began publishing books of their "recipes" for the benefit of others in the field. I'll leave you, as promised, with apothecary Jean Liébault's recipe for earthworm oil: "Take a half measure of earthworms, wash them diligently in white wine, then cook them in two measures of olive oil and a bit of red wine, until the wine is consumed, then pour off and squeeze out the entirety and save the oil. It 72 would be even better to put other worms in this oil and leave them there as long as the oil lasts. This oil is singular for comforting cold nerves and for joint pain." (quoted in Rossignol, p. 111; translation mine).[52] 720: So we see that they had a close relationship with shit. This may be why the word is so powerful today, “Holy Shit’, “Piece of Shit”, “Don’t have a Shitty Attitude”. The list goes on and on, you get the drift. What you just read is definitely not bullshit. It’s all factual boys and girls. They got hi off shit, bathed in it, and swallowed it with honey. Remind you, the information you’re reading is coming directly from the scholars. I have to reiterate this because to find such information one has to be tedious and be able to look far and inbetween. Unless, it is all compiled in one area and you find the gold mine, which does happen. I state this because many of these practices could be spread across the continent to different regions and done in different styles. The government of the city would treat the people afflicted with diseases that caused disfigurements like criminals. For instance, those with leprosy were usually banished from the town. They were half rotted beggars floating and moaning from city to city dressed in sackcloth that most likely was never washed. Till this day they still don’t know if it was leprosy or syphilis. The reason European society maintains beggars is to encourage a mentality of charity out of the citizens. There is a Psycho-Socio reasoning they keep this imagery around as well and it’s for fear of failure which keeps the common man working. The stage of deprivation to one strand of Caucasian means emanate death and they will control their destiny by suicide and will not allow Our Lady Poverty to claim their fate. It is evident that they stayed diseased and brought these same diseases to the world. Some of these diseases are documented in other locations of the same time period. Many diseases, some of them still have not been classified were exclusive to European lifestyle. There are many reasons on why. We will go over some of these further on when we get to The Plagues. One thing that needs to be remembered and maybe even further studied is how all of these diseases produced the color black or was the cause of the sickness (ergot, typhus, rotten food). So in essence, 1000 years ago the European/Caucasian mind was experiencing excruciating pain, deplorable sickness, and death at every corner just from disease alone. All while the color black was involved in the cause and the effect of the diseases. This is only one layer of how the color black was being heavily downloaded in the thought process. Then to sprinkle a lot of different forms of hallucinogens on top is detrimental. As we can see these sexual transmitted diseases come from Europeans. We don’t have to look at sexual activity to see this. You can see it in their hygiene practices, environmental conditions, social relations i.e., brothels & bathhouses. You will see that they lived in high risk health hazardous environments. Their social mentality of the time encouraged the backwardness that all the different European countries thrived upon. Next we will venture into the realms of Insanity. The hallucinations and diseases are the causes not the effects. What you are about to read is the behavior/results of centuries of being intoxicated with diseases interwoven into the everyday social activity. The enemas were rapid obviously. They liked a clean arse. For many centuries, there were alot of diseases. They battled these diseases with a medical system that was based off of the liquids of the body termed as the humors. The majority of the diseases dealt with puss removal. Over time the mind saw disease as congestion. Insanity can be seen as a form of mental congestion. Constipation is a form of congestion. So releasing and keeping a constant flow of the humors in the body was part of the base medical understanding. This is also seen with the bloodletting, leeching and trepanning. To take the pain which is the consequence for falling in love with your joy is the way of the western world. Being preventative is not a major part of the Caucasian thinking dynamic. They do not forget and create new measures after something has happened, this is called reactionary. You would think that for over 1000 years they would change their practices to avoid the pain. But no, they took on the pain and danced in it. It ended becoming a social philosophy for men to brag about who could take more pain or who could deliver more violence and pain to another. Gout is a part of all of this as well. Gout will always be with us because of the addiction to certain foods that provide a temporary euphoric feeling. 73 Fig. 35.). The Madhouse 18th century Bedlam Insane Asylum from a painting by William Hogarth 1735 Chapter 3 The Purely Insane During the medieval period, public authorities took only limited responsibility for the mentally deranged. Mentally or emotionally disturbed members of a community were left at liberty as long as they caused no public disturbance. Custody of the mentally ill generally rested with their relatives and friends; only those considered too dangerous to keep at home, or who had no one to care for them, or who were socially disturbing, were dealt with by communal authorities. Acutely disturbed, agitated patients were admitted to general hospitals in some places, as for example at the Hotel Dieu in Paris. Some institutions had either separate rooms or a special facility for such patients. In 1326, a Dollhaus (madhouse) was erected as part of Georgshospital at Elbing, in the domain of the Teutonic Knights. A Tolkiste (mad cell), is mentioned in the municipal records of Hamburg in 1375. At Erfurt, the Grosse Hospital, rebuilt in 1385, had a Tolkoben (mad hut), where the insane were locked up. Such arrangements also existed in England. In 1403, the Hospital of St. Mary of Bethlem in London had among its nine inmates, six men deprived of reason (mente capti). General infirmaries usually received the mentally disordered in other parts of the country. At the end of the 14th century, Holy Trinity (Salisbury) admitted insane patients as well as other sick people. At Paris, mentally deranged patients at the Hotel-Dieu were placed in beds that were enclosed and had two windows 74 through which the patient could be observed and things handed to him. Patients placed in ordinary beds were attached to them by strong bonds. Mentally disordered persons were also sent to places of detention such as the Chatelet of Melun, south of Paris. Not infrequently the insane were whipped before being transported. This seems to have been the practice in Basel in the 14th century. Instances known from other communities indicate that whipping was a punishment for behaviour considered outrageous, malicious, or sacrilegious. As a rule those who had been expelled and then returned were flogged out of town. In 1451, a madman who had cursed the Host was whipped out of Frankfurt a.M. Flogging for outrageous behaviour in church is also described in Thomas More’s Dialogue of Cumfurt of 1533. A lunatic who often disturbed religious services, especially at the elevation of the Host, by lifting the skirts of praying women, was seized at More’s order and flogged until the lesson “was beaten home. For he could then very well rehearse his faults himself, and speak and treat very well, and promise to do afterward as well.” The responsibility for conveying the insane to thieir destination was usually given to a public employee, such as a jailer or an executioner’s assistant. Maintenance costs during detention and outlays for transportation were borne by the municipality. Burnberg records show that from time to time articles of clothing were provided for the unfortunate kept in the subterranean prison under the town hall. Thus, in 1376, a lunatic was given a fur, a pair of shoes, and a cloak; in 1435 a woman received a skirt. A smith’s helper, who in 1427 lost his reason at Frankfurt a.M., was twice removed from the city but returned. When this happened a third time, he was taken to Bad Kreuznach, but not before he was newly clothed. Occasionally, instead of transporting mentally disordered persons, they were given some money and sent on their way. Thus, in 1427, a poor woman who was “out of her mind’ came with her child to Frankfurt. By order of the town council she was given some money” because it was feared she might kill her child.”[53] The view that mental derangement might be due to natural and/or supernatural causes was also held by physicians. While medical men usually presumed that an illness was due to natural causes and prescribed treatment accordingly, there is no doubt that is the circumstances were too bizarre or too far beyond their past experience physicians would accept supernatural explanations. A case reported by Antonio Benivieni (1443-1502) is an apt illustration. A new extraordinary disease [he wrote] is nowadays rife which, though I have seen and treated it, I scarcely dare to describe. A girl in her 16th year was seized with pain in the lowest part of her belly and kept on trying to pluck it away with her hands. Then she broke into terrible screaming and her belly swelled up at the spot, so that it looked as if she were eight months pregnant. When her voice failed she flung herself about from side to side on her bed, and, sometimes touching her neck with the soles of her feet, would spring to her feet, then again falling prostrate and again springing up. She would repeat these actions in exactly the same manner until she gradually came to herself and was somehow restored. When asked, she hardly knew what had happened. Investigating this disorder, I concluded that it arose from the ascent of the womb, harmful exhalations being thus carried upwards and attacking the heart and brain. I employed suitable medicines, but found them of no avail. Yet it did not occur to me to turn aside from the beaten track until she grew more frenzied and, glaring round with wild eyes, was at last violently sick and vomited up long bent nails and brass pins together with wax and hair mixed in a ball, and last of all a lump of food so large that no one could have swallowed it whole. As I saw her go through exactly the same procedure many times, I decided she was possessed by an evil spirit who blinded the eyes of the spectators while he was doing all this. She was handed over to physicians of the soul and then gave proof of the matter by plainer signs and tokens. For I have often heard her soothsaying and seen her doing other things besides, which went further than any violent symptoms produced by disease and even passed human power. [54] 75 Fig. 36.). A: Left: An X-ray of a person with several foreign items in the body Fig. 36.). B: Right: Trichobezoar at the Hunterian Museum, University of Glasgow William Langland described the “lunatick lollers” wandering over the countryside and referred compassionately to their sad state. Another instance in point was depicted by Thomas More in 1533. Writing of a poor lunatic, he stated that he was: “One which after that he had fallen into these frantick heresies, fell soon after into plaine open franzye beside. And all beit that he had therefore bene put up in Bedelem, and afterward by beating and correccion gathered his remembrance to him and beganne to come again to himselfe, being thereupon set at liberty, and walking aboute abrode, his old fransies beganne to fall againe in his heade. I was fro dyvers good holy places advertised, that he used in his wandering about to come into the churche, and there make many mad toies and trifles, to the trouble of good people in the divine service, and especially woulde he be most busye in the time of most silence, while the priest was at the secrets of the masse aboute the levacion . . . whereupon I beinge advertised of these pageauntes, and beinge sent unto and required be very devout religious folke, to take some other order with him, caused him, as he came wandering by my doore, to be taken by the counstables and bounden to a tree in the streets before the whole towne, and ther they stripped [striped] him with roddes therefore til he waxed weary and somewhat lenger. And it appeared well that hys remembraunce was goode ineoughe save that it went about in grazing [wool-gathering!] til it was beaten home. For he coulde then verye wel reherse his fautes himselfe, and speake and treate very well, and promise to doe afterward as well. And verylye God be thanked I heare none harme of him now.” A characteristic group among the vagrants and wandering beggars of Tudor England were the Abram-men or Toms o’ Bedlam. They were patients discharged from Bethlem Hospital, sometimes not entirely recovered, who were licensed to beg. As a means of quickly identifying those allowed to solicit alms, they wore a metal plate as a badge on the left arm. The Bedlam beggars were a familiar sight throughout England until well into the later 17th century. According to John Aubrey, Till the breaking of the Civil Warres, Tom o’ bedlams did travel about the country. They had been poore distracted men that had been putt into Bedlam, where, recovering to some sobernesse, they were licentiated to goe a-begging…they wore about their necks a grea horn of an oxe in a string or bawdric, which, when they came to 76 an house for almes, they did wind, and they did put the drink given to them into their horn, where they did put a stopple. Some of these beggars were undoubtedly impostors, and by 1675 the license to beg had been revoked. The ubiquitous presence of these vagrant mental patients is fully reflected in the literature of the Elizabethan and early Stuart periods.[55] The medieval hospital in all its varied forms was essentially an ecclesiastical institution, not primarily concerned with medical care. This type was eventually replaced in the 16th century by another kind of hospital whose goals were not religious but primarily social. That is, the hospital whose goals were not religious but primarily social. That is, the hospital from the 16th into the 19th century was intended chiefly to help maintain social order while providing for the sick and the needy. To achieve this aim the medieval hospital was to a large extent secularized, placed under governemental control, and its activities were accepted as a community responsibility. From the 13th century onwards the hospital had begun to come increasingly under secular jurisdiction. As cities in Europe prospered, and the bourgeoisie grew wealthy and powerful, municipal authorities tended to take over or to supplement the activities of the Church. In part this was politically motivated, a desire of the civil authorities to be independent of clerical domination or to render the ecclesiastical power subordinate to themselves. This does not mean that the clergy were eliminated. Monks and nuns continued to provide nursing care as they had done before. Administratively, the municipal authorities were responsible for the hospital facilities, but the Church might participate in some way. Secondly, hospitals and related establishments were considred increasingly inadequate to deal with situations in which problems of health and welfare were considered from a new viewpoint. From the medieval standpoint the poor, the sick and the infirm might almost be considered necessary for the salvation of the donor of charity. They did the almsgiver a service. Such an attitude, however, accepted the beggar as a necessary part of society and tended to encourage begging. Small consideration was given to bettering the condition of the poor and the infirm. During the late Middle Ages, and especially following the Reformation, the whole approach to this problem changed.[56] Conceptions of madness in the Middle Ages in Europe were a mixture of the divine, diabolical, magical and transcendental. Theories of the four humors (black bile, yellow bile, phlegm, and blood) were applied, sometimes separately (a matter of "physic") and sometimes combined with theories of evil spirits (a matter of "faith"). Arnaldus de Villanova (1235–1313) combined "evil spirit" and Galen-oriented "four humours" theories and promoted trephining as a cure to let demons and excess humours escape. Other bodily remedies in general use included purges, bloodletting and whipping. Madness was often seen as a moral issue, either a punishment for sin or a test of faith and character. Christian theology endorsed various therapies, including fasting and prayer for those estranged from God and exorcism of those possessed by the devil.[18] Thus, although mental disorder was often thought to be due to sin, other more mundane causes were also explored, including intemperate diet and alcohol, overwork, and grief. The Franciscan monk Bartholomeus Anglicus (ca. 1203 – 1272) described a condition which resembles depression in his encyclopedia, De Proprietatibis Rerum, and he suggested that music would help. A semi-official tract called the Praerogativa regis distinguished between the "natural born idiot" and the "lunatic". The latter term was applied to those with periods of mental disorder; deriving from either Roman mythology describing people "moonstruck" by the goddess Luna or theories of an influence of the moon. Episodes of mass dancing mania are reported from the Middle Ages, "which gave to the individuals affected all the appearance of insanity". This was one kind of mass delusion or mass hysteria/panic that has occurred around the world through the millennia. 77  The care of lunatics was primarily the responsibility of the family. In England, if the family were unable or unwilling, an assessment was made by crown representatives in consultation with a local jury and all interested parties, including the subject himself or herself. The process was confined to those with real estate or personal estate, but it encompassed poor as well as rich and took into account psychological and social issues. Most of those considered lunatics at the time probably had more support and involvement from the community than people diagnosed with mental disorders today. As in other eras, visions were generally interpreted as meaningful spiritual and visionary insights; some may have been causally related to mental disorders, but since hallucinations were culturally supported they may not have had the same connections as today. 16th to 18th centuries Some mentally disturbed people may have been victims of the witch-hunts that spread in waves in early modern Europe. However, those judged insane were increasingly admitted to local workhouses, poorhouses and jails (particularly the "pauper insane") or sometimes to the new private madhouses. Restraints and forcible confinement were used for those thought dangerously disturbed or potentially violent to themselves, others or property. The latter likely grew out of lodging arrangements for single individuals (who, in workhouses, were considered disruptive or ungovernable) then there were a few catering each for only a handful of people, then they gradually expanded (e.g. 16 in London in 1774, and 40 by 1819). By the mid-19th century there would be 100 to 500 inmates in each. The development of this network of madhouses has been linked to new capitalist social relations and a service economy, that meant families were no longer able or willing to look after disturbed relatives. Madness was commonly depicted in literary works, such as the plays of Shakespeare. By the end of the 17th century and into the Enlightenment, madness was increasingly seen as an organic physical phenomenon, no longer involving the soul or moral responsibility. The mentally ill were typically viewed as insensitive wild animals. Harsh treatment and restraint in chains was seen as therapeutic, helping suppress the animal passions. There was sometimes a focus on the management of the environment of madhouses, from diet to exercise regimes to number of visitors. Severe somatic treatments were used, similar to those in medieval times. Madhouse owners sometimes boasted of their ability with the whip. Treatment in the few public asylums was also barbaric, often secondary to prisons. The most notorious was Bedlam where at one time spectators could pay a penny to watch the inmates as a form of entertainment. 720: They could also pay for sticks to poke the insane with, through the bars of the cell. Concepts based in humoral theory gradually gave way to metaphors and terminology from mechanics and other developing physical sciences. Complex new schemes were developed for the classification of mental disorders, influenced by emerging systems for the biological classification of organisms and medical classification of diseases. The term "crazy" (from Middle English meaning cracked) and insane (from Latin insanus meaning unhealthy) came to mean mental disorder in this period. The term "lunacy", long used to refer to periodic disturbance or epilepsy, came to be synonymous with insanity. "Madness", long in use in root form since at least the early centuries AD, and originally meaning crippled, hurt or foolish, came to mean loss of reason or self- restraint. "Psychosis", from Greek "principle of life/animation", had varied usage referring to a condition of the mind/soul. "Nervous", from an Indo-European root meaning to wind or twist, meant muscle or vigor, was adopted by physiologists to refer to the body's electrochemical signaling process (thus called the nervous system), and was then used to refer to nervous disorders and neurosis. "Obsession", from a Latin root meaning to sit on or sit against, originally meant to besiege or be possessed by an evil spirit, came to mean a fixed idea that could decompose the mind. With the rise of madhouses and the professionalization and specialization of medicine, there was considerable incentive for medical doctors to become involved. In the 18th century, they began to stake a claim to 78 a monopoly over madhouses and treatments. Madhouses could be a lucrative business, and many made a fortune from them. There were some bourgeois ex-patient reformers who opposed the often brutal regimes, blaming both the madhouse owners and the medics, who in turn resisted the reforms. Towards the end of the 18th century, a moral treatment movement developed, that implemented more humane, psychosocial and personalized approaches. Notable figures included the medic Vincenzo Chiarugi in Italy under Enlightenment leadership; the ex-patient superintendent Pussin and the psychologically inclined medic Philippe Pinel in revolutionary France; the Quakers in England, led by businessman William Tuke; and later, in the United States, campaigner Dorothea Dix.[57] Through the Middles Ages, mental illness was believed to result from an imbalance of these humors. In order to bring the body back into equilibrium, patients were given emetics, laxatives, and were bled using leeches or cupping. Specific purges included a concoction developed by Ptolemy called Hiera Logadii, which combined aloes, black hellebore, and colocynth and was believed to cleanse one of melancholy. Confectio Hamech was another laxative developed by the Arabs that contained myrobalans, rhubarb, and senna. Later, tobacco imported from America was popularly used to induce vomiting. Other treatments to affect the humors consisted of extracting blood from the forehead or tapping the cephalic, saphenous, and/or hemorroidal veins to draw corrupted humors away from the brain. In addition to purging and bloodletting (also known as phlebotomy), customized diets were recommended. For example, “raving madmen” were told to follow diets that were “cooling and diluting,” consisting of salad greens, barley water, and milk, and avoid wine and red meat. Custody and care of the mentally ill were generally left to the individual’s family, although some outside intervention occurred. The first mental hospital was established in 792 CE Baghdad and was soon followed by others in Aleppo and Damascus—mass establishment of asylums and institutionalization took place much later, though. The mentally ill in the custody of family were widely abused and restrained, particularly in Christian Europe. Due to the shame and stigma attached to mental illness, many hid their mentally ill family members in cellars, caged them in pigpens, or put them under the control of servants. Others were abandoned by their families and left to a life of begging and vagrancy. Particularly in Europe during the Middle Ages, beatings were administered to the mentally ill who acted out as punishment for the disturbances their behavior caused and as a means of “teaching” individuals out of their illnesses. Others who were considered nuisances were flogged out of town. Through the Middle Ages and until the mass establishment of asylums, treatments for mental illness were offered by humanistic physicians, medical astrologers, apothecaries, and folk or traditional healers. Aside from secular exorcisms, prayers, charms, amulets, and other mystical treatments were available. In the 17th century, astral talismans were popular and were easily made using brass or tin emblems with astrological signs etched into them and cast at astrologically significant times. These were worn around the neck of the afflicted while they recited prayers. Also worn around the neck were scraps of Latin liturgy wrapped in paper, bundled with a leaf of mugwort or St. John’s Wort and tied with taffeta. Amulets were also used, supplemented by prayers and charms, to soothe troubled minds, prevent mystical infection, and protect against witches and evil spirits. Sedatives during the 17th century consisted of opium grains, unguents, and laudanum to “ease the torment” of mental illness. Some treatment options existed beyond family custody and care, such as lodging the mentally ill in workhouses or checking them into general hospitals where they were frequently abandoned. The clergy also played a significant role in treating the mentally ill as “medical practice was a natural extension of ministers’ duty to relieve the afflictions of their flocks”. Private madhouses were established and run by members of the clergy to treat the mentally afflicted who could afford such care. Catholic nations regularly staffed mental health facilities with clergy, 79 and most mentally ill individuals in Russia were housed in monasteries until asylums spread to this region of the world in the mid-1800’s. Fig. 37.). A 17th Century “Insanity Mask” To relieve mental illness, regular attendance in church had been recommended for years as well as pilgrimages to religious shrines. Priests often solaced mentally disturbed individuals by encouraging them to repent their sins and seek refuge in God’s mercy. Treatment in clergy-run facilities was a desirable alternative as the care was generally very humane, although these establishments could not treat the whole of the mentally ill population, especially as it seemed to grow in number. In order to accommodate the burgeoning amount of mentally ill individuals, asylums were established around the world starting, most notably, from the sixteenth century onward. The first institution to open its doors 80 in Europe is thought to be the Valencia mental hospital in Spain, 1406 CE (Butcher 36). Although not much is known about the treatment patients received at this particular site, asylums were notorious for the deplorable living conditions and cruel abuse endured by those admitted. For many years, asylums were not facilities aimed at helping the mentally ill achieve any sense of normalcy or otherwise overcome their illnesses. Instead, asylums were merely reformed penal institutions where the mentally ill were abandoned by relatives or sentenced by the law and faced a life of inhumane treatment, all for the sake of lifting the burden off of ashamed families and preventing any possible disturbance in the community. The majority of asylums were staffed by gravely untrained, unqualified individuals who treated mentally ill patients like animals. A case study describes a typical scene at La Bicetre, a hospital in Paris, starting with patients shackled to the wall in dark, cramped cells. Iron cuffs and collars permitted just enough movement to allow patients to feed themselves but not enough to lie down at night, so they were forced to sleep upright. Little attention was paid to the quality of the food or whether patients were adequately fed. There were no visitors to the cell except to deliver food, and the rooms were never cleaned. Patients had to make do with a little amount of straw to cover the cold floor and were forced to sit amongst their own waste that was also never cleaned up. These conditions were not all unique to La Bicetre, and this case study paints a fairly accurate picture of a typical scene in asylums around the world from approximately the 1500s to the mid-1800s, and in some places, the early 1900s. The most infamous asylum was located in London, England—Saint Mary of Bethlehem. This monastery- turned-asylum began admitting the mentally ill in 1547 after Henry VIII announced its transformation. The institution soon earned the nickname “Bedlam” as its horrific conditions and practices were revealed. Violent patients were put on display like sideshow freaks for the public to peek at for the price of one penny; gentler patients were put out on the streets to beg for charity. Soon after the establishment of “Bedlam,” other countries began to follow suit and founded their own mental health facilities. San Hipolito was built in Mexico 1566 and claims the title of the first asylum in the Americas. La Maison de Chareton was the first mental facility in France, founded in 1641 in a suburb of Paris. Constructed in 1784, the Lunatics’ Tower in Vienna became a showplace. The elaborately decorated round tower contained square rooms in which the staff lived. The patients were housed in the spaces between the walls of the rooms and the wall of the tower and, like at Bedlam, were put on display for public amusement. When staff did attempt to cure the patients, they followed the practices typical of the time period—purging and bloodletting, the most common. Other treatments included dousing the patient in either hot or ice-cold water to shock their minds back into a normal state. The belief that patients needed to choose rationality over insanity led to techniques aiming to intimidate. Blistering, physical restraints, threats, and straitjackets were employed to achieve this end. Powerful drugs were also administered, for example, to a hysterical patient in order to exhaust them. Around the mid-1700s, the Dutch Dr. Boerhaave invented the “gyrating chair” that became a popular tool in Europe and the United States. This instrument was intended to shake up the blood and tissues of the body to restore equilibrium, but instead resulted in rendering the patient unconscious without any recorded successes. Although cruel treatment in asylums surely felt to the patients as if it had been going on for ages, conditions began to improve in the mid-to- late 1800s as reforms were called for, and this shameful and unenlightened period was somewhat brief in relation to the span of world history. One of the earliest reforms occurred at an asylum in Devon, England. This facility had employed opium, leeches, and purges as cures for mental illness, but in the mid-1800s emphasized non-restraint methods to affect patients’ health.[58] During the Middle Ages there were so many health problems that treatment and distinctions became overwhelming. Outbreaks of bubonic plague, smallpox, and leprosy would come in waves and decimate 81 populations. However, mental illness was another major public concern. Madness, insanity, and lunacy were terms used to describe a variety of mental illness and mental handicaps. What caused these conditions and what to do about them was especially disputed. Devotion to Galen's medical teachings led the people of the day to adopt four major categories of mental illness: frenzy, mania, melancholy, and fatuity. Each of these was purportedly caused by an imbalance in the humors. To restore balance was a goal of the physicians. Folk beliefs and traditions, however, largely guided the perception of mental illness among the common people. The belief that the moon caused lunacy (the Latin word for moon is "luna") persisted well into the nineteenth century. The mentally ill person was thought to have slept where the moon beams hit his head, causing the erratic behavior. The Church had a different interpretation of people with mental illness, viewing such disorders as evidence of sorcery or possession by a demon. Later, people who had degrees of insanity, especially women, were considered to be dabbling in witchcraft. However, some viewed the mentally ill as having a divine gift, perhaps like the gift of tongues. Many villages would take mentally handicapped people under their wings and treat them like children. Some of the troubadours or traveling musicians sang of tragic love madness. Views concerning the treatment of mental illness were even more diverse. Bleeding was one of the primary treatments thought to balance the humors, but some physicians recommended drugs to sedate and calm the mentally unstable. A unique form of "shock" treatment was also tried—the mentally ill individual was hurled into the river to try to help him or her come to the senses. Certain saints were thought to be more active in the domain of madness. In northern France the shines of Saint Mathurin at Larchant and Saint Acairus at Haspres were known for healing. In Flanders, now Belgium, citizens of Geel developed at shrine to Saint Dymphna that became a hospice to house the mentally ill. When there were too many people for the building, villagers took them in, forming a special family colony that still exists at Geel. Attitudes toward the mentally ill varied from place to place. Some German communities cast out the mentally ill and mentally retarded by whipping them out of town or pointing them in the direction of other villages. Monasteries were often a welcome haven for such individuals. Some towns had madmen towers, in which the mentally ill were incarcerated in chambers called "narrenturme." Some hospitals, like the Hôtel Dieu in Paris, had special rooms set aside for the mentally ill. The Teutonic Knights at Elbing had a madhouse called the Tollhaus, serving as a special place for the mentally ill. Under the influence of Islam in Spain, specialized hospitals developed at Granada (1365), Valencia (1407), Zaragoza (1425), Seville (1436), Barcelona (1481), and Toledo (1483). In London, in 1247, Saint Mary of Bethlehem was established to house people "deprived of reason." By 1403, six people were housed there. The institution gained more and more patients and eventually developed into the infamous Bedlam, a perversion of the name Bethlehem. The asylum became notorious for its terrible conditions, under which people were chained and lived in squalor. Bedlam was like a living hell, and the name has come to signify conditions that are chaotic and hopelessly confused. In some areas the "fool" was romanticized. A ritualized "feast of fools" developed during the Middle Ages, serving as a vehicle by which society came to grips with the idea of madness by becoming mad themselves for a short period of time. This festivity was accompanied by much drinking and debauchery. As the medieval years progressed, insanity became linked to witchcraft and demon possession. Those considered to be possessed with demons were exorcised. This ritual, performed by a priest, would call upon the demon to come out of the individual and to transfer itself into an animal or inanimate object. 82  The Church, trying to find a scapegoat for the cause of plague and heresy, were convinced that these possessed people were the causes of their difficulties. The witchcraft delusion spread rapidly. In 1484 Pope Innocent VIII declared Germany full of witches that needed to be hunted out. The next 300 years were characterized by terrible witch-hunts designed to seize those thought to be possessed by the devil. Upward to 50,000 people, mostly women, were tortured and killed in these searches. People actually believed that witches existed and that they befriended the devil, brewed strange mixtures of toads, serpents, and poisons in cauldrons, rode broomsticks, and brought curses and plagues upon the earth. Witches were thought to be identifiable by the stigmata diaboli, or mark of the devil, on their body, providing the origin of the word "stigma." Worse still, a simple accusation of witchcraft was often enough for an individual to be found guilty and condemned. The treatment of mental illness deteriorated in the late Middle Ages and remained poor through the eighteenth century. It was only in the nineteenth century that scientists and society began to reconsider deviant behavior from the perspective of mental illness rather than as a manifestation of evil spirits.[59] A panic terror seized upon the weak, the credulous, and the guilty, who in those days formed more than nineteen-twentieths of the population. Forsaking their homes, kindred, and occupation, they crowded to Jerusalem to await the coming of the Lord, lightened, as they imagined, of a load of sin by their weary pilgrimage. To increase the panic, the stars were observed to fall from heaven, earthquakes to shake the land, and violent hurricanes to blow down the forests. All these, and more especially the meteoric phenomena, were looked upon as the forerunners of the approaching judgments.[60] We all know the strange pranks which imagination can play in certain diseases; that the hypochondriac can see visions and spectres; and that there have been cases in which men were perfectly persuaded that they were teapots. Science has lifted up the veil, and rolled away all the fantastic horrors in which our forefathers shrouded these and similar cases. The man who now imagines himself a wolf is sent to the hospital instead of to the stake, as in the days of the witch mania; and earth, air and sea are unpeopled of the grotesque spirits that were once believed to haunt them.[61] 720: The teapot reference is interesting. I wonder if this may be the true root to “Im a little teapot short and stout, here is my handle, here is my pout”. This brings a premonition that many things in our society whether they be nursery rhymes or our medical practices may stem directly out of insane behavior. So as you can see the insanity was very high rate and mixed in with a lot of other ailments. Even with all the rampant different forms of diseases going on, insanity and all of its different forms were closely observed and documented. The constant references of being beat into correction can only make one think of the African Slave Trade and Americas origins. Everybody was beat in order to inculcate the European format of thinking, as all classes of Euroepans regardless of the insane and dumb were taught in this style. As amongst the sane these tactics will either create a failure or an extreme master of the art. That would also be the nature of begging and I don’t mean the beggars themselves. What I’m referring to is the American nature of begging for a job(college intern), begging for a car(car note), begging your parents for new toys, so and so forth. Anything asking more than once or twice is considered begging. Extreme begging takes a person out of their character, into a stage of acting with an undertone of revenge for making one get out of character. The American spirit loves this game, when you express your passions and true desires and will fight the devil himself for your prize. The element of begging and also the element of feeling/being superior by giving to the less fortunate is one of the root balances to European thinking/American culture. Begging is a form of stripping of the pride, to sacrifice yourself and become nothing, to get the gain you seek. 83  The Fools Stone Fig. 38.). "The Witch of Malleghem" (illustration 2) is Pieter Bruegel's contribution to the philology of folly. Each of the figures in Breughel’s illustration (Above) had his hidden stone. Here’s the idea of the universality of the potential for madness in the presence of black bile within everyone had evolved into the universal potential for each man to had his foolishness revealed. With Allardt’s illustration of the range of mock treatments paralleling the cutting of stones, the idea of the treatment of madness is expanded. Paracelsus saw the source of madness in the abdominal region. In a 17th century German broadside, the quack doctor treats his patient, placed in the traditional position of the melancholic, for “hare fever”. Here the proverbial, as in the cutting of stone, is made literal. The German proverb reads: “One is covered with a hare and fed by a fool.” “Hare fever” is madness, but the doctor’s treatments, including feeding the patient with “the smell of roast capon,” are also mad. Hans Sachs, in his 1557 drama, “Cutting the Fool,” has the doctor prescribe equally foolish treatments to drive the fools out of the patient’s belly. They tumble out, forming a microcosm repeating (while quoting) the image of Sebastian Brant’s Ship of Fools. A similar mode of purgation is accompanied in Theodor de Bry’s illustration by a demonstration of distillation. On the left we see the opening of the gut and the release of the fool (with his ass-ears and his donkey). At the right the patients fantasies are expelled through the top of the apparatus while the proverbial “rats of the brain,” the cause of madness, are ejected from the bottom. The black rats, like the demons and the stones, are the concrete representations of the humors which, when distilled out, release the fantasies of the madman. The presence of a miniscule fool in the urine glass being inspected by the doctor points to a physical cause of madness. 84  The distillation of madness is also found in a 16th century broadside by Matthias Greuter depicting Doctor Wurmbrandt (= worm distilled ) and his cure for insanity. While one patient defecates demons, another had his demons literally burnt out of him. (In a later version of this broadside from 1648, the still as well as figures with the fool’s staff are added to the image.) The legend below the illustration points again to a physical source of madness in the “rats of madness”: You sick men and women: If you wish to entrust yourselves to me. I am the best healer of the human race. Just show me your urine and I shall soon see what has happened to your body and brains to make you act so foolishly and to associate with fools. I am a master of these things; can make the giddy and mad intelligent; can recognize immediately from the face what disjoints a person mentally and can conjecture easily from one’s manners what else might be wrong. If you have no rest because of worms, then hurry to me, Dr. Wurmbrandt: I shall cut away skillfully the worm from your worm-eatn brains. If you struggle and pick a quarrel with a mouse (in your imagination?), which no one can very well endure, then for a little money I will catch them for you; I have cats up my sleeve which are so full of cunning that no rat is safe. If you have too many rafters in your head (i.e., if you are crazy) then you are a very great fool; if there is a spar missing in your head then you are very close to being an arrant fool and children might laught at you. If you lose your senses, then fantastic notions, doves and other nonsense continually fly in and out of your head. Your mind then becomes its own house. See! I can name all that as vertigo and wild imaginings as when one s inflamed by wine or just as a coal fire burns, and as when you, having become quite drunk, do not know the east, south, west, or north, Yes. When you are conscious of nothing-whether you are man or woman-then trust me to bring you back to your right mind. If you do not get the mastery of just one of your evil troubles (so that my medicine must depart without any healing power and without proper working); if you do not wish to understand and do not wish to recognize who you are and what foolishness is in you; and if you display yourself pompously and believe that more wit is in your nose than in 12 wise minds- Oh Woe! then all medicine is useless. If my medicine is to refresh you then you must have faith in it. Faith establishes all things. Without it all craft is trifling. But come! We will test it in my alchemical laboratory. There I have set up my Brennhelm (a dome used for distilling). Come. Present your head and do not be afraid. We will in a short while see the mist go up in full current with the 1000 fold contents of a fools mind-contents which I noticed so well in you. Oho! They already come up. What distilling! What things fly out! What trash was stuck in your head! You confused simpleton! You have me producing more rubbish from your head than there is in almost a whole forest of monkeys. If I make you free of this illness then proclaim that I am a master. Whether as black bile, black demons, black stones, black rats or indeed gret hares or any other concrete form, the images of madness indicate the search for substantial physical source for the etiology of insanity; and whether these sources have any existence in reality, such as the goiter, or exist merely in the imagination, such as the stone, they are reflected in the representation of the insane. The physical position, gesture, and trappings of the insane serve to present as concrete manner of comprehending madness. As madness is never a clearly defined and limited concept, the icons for treatment and representation tend to evolve and interrelate, reappearing more and more as the image of an undifferentiated sense of deviancy.[62] At least in the majority of the European cases this operation of trepanning, as it is called, was undoubtedly performed during life. The surgeons only instrument in those Neolithic days was a flint scraper or knife, and yet there is evidence that the patient in the majority of cases lived for many years after the operation. Now, what could be the motive for this trepanning? We have seen how cases of convulsions, epilepsy, or any mental derangement, perhaps even of severe headache, were attributed to the possession of the patient by an evil spirit; what expedient therefore could appear more rational than to provide an outlet for the demon’s escape? This appears to have been the principle, as well as the practice, of the primitive medicine-man. He first cut a hole in the 85 head of the sufferer and then conjured the spirit forth. The Kabyles of Algeria practice trepanning in cases of epilepsy.[63] Fig. 39.). "Le Médecin guérissant Phantasie," Mattheus Greuter, 1620 Dr. Wurmbrandt (Bibliothèque nationale de France) Ambroise Paré (1517-1590), a barber-surgeon who often operated on the battlefield, employed trepanning instruments that had braces or drill stocks to which saws were attached with binding screws. In his treatises on surgery, Paré also described “trepanes or round saws for cutting out a circular piece of bone with a sharp-pointed nail in the centre projecting beyond the teeth,” and another trepan with a transverse handle. The mechanical cogwheel trepan was invented by Matthia Narvatio in Antwerp in 1575. The cogwheel was connected to a second wheel which rotated a circular saw that cut through the bone. This instrument was used much in the same way as a modern hand drill – held in one hand and cranked with the other. But it was extremely heavy and cumbersome, and therefore did not become popular among the surgeons of the time. A further and highly significant advance in trepanning instruments came with the invention of a central screw. In the mid-sixteenth century, a trepan consisting of a head brace and drill stock to which a circular saw or sharp perforator was widely available. In 1632, Joannis Scultetus, who was one of the most accomplished seventeenth century surgeons, described an instrument called a trioploides, which he used for raising depressed skull fractures. This was a three-legged instrument with a long centrally-placed screw, similar to the “crown” trepan in the image Fig. 42. In his book Armamentarium chirurgicum, which was published in 1655, Scultetus provided beautiful illustrations of various types of cranial surgery, including trepanation, as well as the instruments used to 86 perform them (below). He also described what he called “male” and “female” instruments, the former with, and the latter without, central screws, and explained how together they were used for trepanning: Fig. 40.). Caroline Allardts representation of a wide range of fools and their treatment Before we use the females, we must make a print on the skull with the male so that the female may stand faster upon it. Now for to trepan the skull the Chyrurgian must have at hand at least three trepans exactly equal to each other; one male and two females, so that he may oft-times change them.[64] 720: It is peculiar to note that all civilizations not necessarily tribes that I’ve encountered has some knowledge about an organ or fluid being directly related to the middle of the forehead and being the seat of the imagination of the mind. In these other civilizations: Egypt, Sumeria, Ancient China and Maya the social mentality was to be in unison with nature and to wholly survive off of it and in turn make nature flourish. It is to be noted that this organ alluded to is supposedly the pineal gland. The pineal gland is the conductor between the right and left hemisphres of the brain and also has many other functions. In my studies of Old Europe I have not read any information relating the fools stone with said pineal gland. Nonetheless, in Old Europe the concept of this organ and its effect upon the mind were obviously negative and looked at as the base malfunction of any behavior exhibiting social dysfunction. How is social dysfunction classified when damn near everybody is insane. In comparison with other civilizations the Eastern ways admired this organ. They existed for a couple thousand years and then dissolved back to its natural elements. The Western ways looked down on this organ to the point of extracting it out of the skull, they survive off of synthetics and have had the ferocity to take over the entire planet and enforce a culture that all have submitted to. So who is right and who is wrong in this, I ask? 87 Fig. 41.). Two prints from Armamentarium chirurgicum, by Johannes Scultetus (1655), showing how trepanation was performed (left) and a set of trepanation instruments (right). Fig. 42.). Eclipsing the lobotomy in terms of age and pain, trepanning involved a physician cutting a hole into the skull of an individual suffering from what some believed to be mental illness, seizures or skull fractures. The hole was typically cut into the dura mater and, surprisingly, the survival rate was very high and chance of infection remained low. 88  The element of the fool is a prime example of the standardized social neglect and depression. The fool was walking around anywhere at all times. Wearing loud colors and not necessarily being loud (unless he also played instruments) but his bodily activity was loud. He’d be dancing and skipping around and basically bothering people. In which I must state being a nuisance is part of the European dynamic as this was one of the first forms of extortion, but was socially accepted. Unless he was a fool of the castle. The rank of the fool in the castle was a tad bit different as his entertainment was by demand of the king or specifically required for festivals and ceremonies. Inclusive with the fact there was sometimes a mandate for him to be highly educated in history, verse and maybe even the acrobatic arts. The fool of the city and market was constant and his form of entertainment was more likely fairy tale stories of faraway lands and also an illusionist. What I’ve noticed in art is that the fool is depicted happy, dancing and confused about just as much as he’s seen depressed, lonely and wandering. This brings us to melancholy which has been mentioned many times here. The reason I do not have much direct study on melancholy is because it is related to too many medical drawings. There was so much insanity going on at the time that the study of Physiognomy was developed. Physiognomy also termed anthroposophy is the study of the facial features correlated to thought pattern or emotional status and I will extend it to state full body posture and movements. Melancholy is extremely based off of this study. In today’s western medical industry there is no public knowledge of this art and many others related to it like phrenology. The Idiot, the demented, the insane, the fool, the crazy, the dumb were all different characters in these times and their emotions appearance classified them into groups fitting by definition of mere look and behavior. In today’s world we have no direct definition of a human type classified by these words. We use words like autistic, special, savant, down syndrome which are all sympathetic and strikes an emotion of weakness. The terms of the old world are broadly used today to identify a person who doesn’t think on the standard speed rate or commits any form of social dysfunction. There were other characters such as men who lost their reason or understanding. In which today neither is required for you to survive. People by majority rule don’t need reasoning or understanding and they can be an idiot, insane or a fool all they want as long as you do what you’re told on your job, pay your bills and don’t harm anybody or get caught doing anything out of the so called social norm. When we bend the rules of what the norm is then unpredictable insanity will become the norm. I will also state this if you were to study Physiognomy you will realize how many insane depressed people are on the trains, buses, at work and the like. It will frighten you. As this is where we may be going given the fact, this is what our country is built off of. The study of Melancholy which I believe is the Mother of passive Insanity must be mentioned. There is no way you can study the psycho/socio thought pattern of Old Europe without encountering Melancholy. Melancholy is a term that truly embodies and divides all of the different forms of depression, stress, confusion, disappointments, mental effects from lies, horror surprises and the unpredictability of the future that effects your emotions. This is a response from living in an unstable and spontaneous violent society. The depression and melancholy is seen in all peoples of the times. From suicides and assassinations of the kings court and in the popes church all the way down to the weather destroying crops and witches creating erectile dysfunction in men and killing their own babies because of depravation and neglect. Physiognomy is the term that was common in Middle English, often written as 'fisnamy' or 'visnomy', as in the The Tale of Beryn, a spurious addition to The Canterbury Tales: "I knowe wele by thy fisnamy, thy kynd it were to stele". Physiognomy's validity was once widely accepted. Michael Scot, a court scholar for Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, wrote Liber physiognomiae in the early 13th century concerning the subject. English universities taught it until Henry VIII of England outlawed "beggars and vagabonds playing 'subtile, crafty and unlawful games such as 89 physnomye or 'palmestrye'" in 1530 or 1531. Around this time, scholastic leaders settled on the more erudite Greek form 'physiognomy' and began to discourage the whole concept of 'fisnamy'. Leonardo da Vinci dismissed physiognomy in the early 16th century as "false", a chimera with "no scientific foundation". Nevertheless, Leonardo believed that lines caused by facial expressions could indicate personality traits. For example, he wrote that "those who have deep and noticeable lines between the eyebrows are irascible". The principal promoter of physiognomy in modern times was the Swiss pastor Johann Kaspar Lavater (1741–1801) who was briefly a friend of Goethe. Lavater's essays on physiognomy were first published in German in 1772 and gained great popularity. These influential essays were translated into French and English. Johann Kaspar Lavater found 'confirmation' of his ideas primarily from the English physician-philosopher Sir Thomas Browne (1605–1682), and the Italian Giambattista Della Porta (1535–1615). Browne in his Religio Medici (1643) discusses the possibility of the discernment of inner qualities from the outer appearance of the face, thus: there is surely a Physiognomy, which those experienced and Master Mendicants observe....For there are mystically in our faces certain Characters that carry in them the motto of our Souls, wherein he that cannot read A.B.C. may read our natures. R.M. part 2:2 Late in his life, Browne re-affirmed his physiognomical beliefs, stating in Christian Morals (circa 1675): Since the Brow speaks often true, since Eyes and Noses have Tongues, and the countenance proclaims the heart and inclinations; let observation so far instruct thee in Physiognomical lines....we often observe that Men do most act those Creatures, whose constitution, parts, and complexion do most predominate in their mixtures. This is a corner-stone in Physiognomy… there are therefore Provincial Faces, National Lips and Noses, which testify not only the Natures of those Countries, but of those which have them elsewhere. — C.M. Part 2 section 9 Sir Thomas Browne is also credited with introducing the word caricature into the English language, whence much of physiognomical belief attempted to entrench itself by illustrative means, in particular through the medium of political satire. Della Porta's works are well represented in the Library of Sir Thomas Browne including Of Celestial Physiognomy, in which Porta argued that it was not the stars but a person's temperament that influences their facial appearance and character. In De humana physiognomia (1586), Porta used woodcuts of animals to illustrate human characteristics. Both Della Porta and Browne adhered to the 'doctrine of signatures'—that is, the belief that the physical structures of nature such as a plant's roots, stem, and flower, were indicative keys (or 'signatures') to their medicinal potentials. Phrenology, also considered a form of physiognomy, was created around 1800 by German physician Franz Joseph Gall and Johann Spurzheim, and was widely popular in the 19th century in Europe and the United States. In the U.S., physician James W. Redfield published his Comparative Physiognomy in 1852, illustrating with 330 engravings the "Resemblances between Men and Animals". He finds these in appearance and (often metaphorically) character, e.g. Germans to Lions, Negroes to Elephants and Fishes, Chinamen to Hogs, Yankees to Bears, Jews to Goats.[65] 720: Next you will begin to enter into the realms of magic. While I was doing research on Necromancy I found a ritual to turn one demented. I thought it was kind of interesting due to the fact there was already so much retardation prevalent, I didn’t think it had a possibility to be enforced though the realms of magic. After the ritual information you will be reading the last hallucination I provide for this section. Hallucinations were socially encouraged, the question is why? Were they so high (inclusive with eating habits) that their nerves actually put them into a dimension of seeing what the normal nerve wiring does not allow one to see. Because, most of these hallucinations are religiously related another question arises. Did they know that religion was not vaild and they 90 had to impress it into their own mind and soul in order to believe it and they did this by lieing to their own mind by hallucinations. This style of thinking, lieing to yourself will also create a hight state of paranoia which does assist a strong work ethic. Last but not least, Could these sightings really had have occurred? The other experiment in this category in the Munich handbook (no. 2) is intended to inflict dementia. The practitioner goes to his victim and openlyrecites a conjuration commanding the malign spirit Mirael to enter and afflict his brain. Then he makes a pen with wood from a the victim’s door, and he inscribes a brief conjuration and a magic circle – a single band with the names of Mirael and the victim in the centre, and the names of 10 demons within the band – on a piece of linen, and conjures the demons thrice. A set of sympathetic operations follows. The master goes to the victim’s house, urinates ‘in the manner of a camel’, and buries the cloth; while doing so he says, ‘I bury you, so and so, in the name of the demons written round about you, so that these demons may always be around him, and all your power may be buried.’ He goes home and makes a candle, inscribed as was the circle. He lights the candle, saying, ‘Just as this candle, made for the destruction of N., burns and is consumed, so may all the power and knowledge he possesses be turned to madness…He then extinguishes the candle, sayin, ‘Just as this candle is extinguished, so may all the power in N. be utterly consumed.’ When he has repeated the procedure over 7 days, the victim will become demented, and all who see him will marvel, though he himself will not recognize his condition and will assume that others are mad. If he wishes to restore the victim’s sanity, the master goes to his house and enjoins the demons to depart, thus counteracting the effects of his triple conjuration. Then he further nullifies the magic by removing the inscribed cloth and casts it into a fire, saying, ‘Just as this fire consumes this cloth, so may all this craft (ars) done by me against N. be wholly undone,’ then he casts the ashes into a flowing stream. While the countermagic is itself sympathetic magic involving the burning and extinguishing of a candle. There are recipes for madness in Picatrix, which involve not imitative magic but potions (made from the body parts of a cat, a hoopoe, a bat, a toad and other creatures) to be taken in food or drink, or a fume to be inhaled, whereupon the victim will be bedeviled (demoniabitur), losing his senses and memory, and not even knowing where he is. [66] Fig. 43.). Daniel Defoe: A Journal of The Plague Year c. 1665; The Heritage Press, Norwalk, Connecticut, 1722 pg. 25 91 An Hallucination predicting The Plague Next to these publick Things, were the Dreams of Old Women: Or, I should say, the Inerpretation of old Women upon other People’s Dreams; and these put abundance of People even out of their Wits: Some heard Voices warning them to be gone, for that there would be such a plague in London, so that the Living would not be able to bury the Dead: Others saw Apparitions in the Air; and I must be allow’d to say of both, I hope with out breach of Charity, that they heard Voices that never spake, and saw Sights that never appear’d; but the Imagination of the People was really turn’d wayward and possess’d: And no wonder, if they, who were poreing continually at the Clouds, saw Shapes and Figures, Representations and Appearances, which had nothing in them, but Air and Vapour. Here they told us, they saw a Flaming-Sword held in a Hand, coming out of a Cloud, with a Point hanging directly over the City. There they saw Herses, and Coffins in the Air, carrying to be buried. And there again, Heapes of dead Bodies lying unburied, and the like; just as the Imagination of the poor terrify’d People furnish’d them with Matter to work upon So Hypocondriac Fancy’s represent Ships, Armies, Battles, in the Firmament; Till steady Eyes, the Exhalations solve, And all to its first Matter, Cloud, resolve I could fill this Account with the Strange Relations, such People gave every Day, of what they had seen; and every one was so positive of their having see, what they pretended to see, that there was no contradicting them, without Breach of Friendship, or being accounted rude and unmannerly on the one Hand, and prophance and impenetrable on the other. One time before the Plague was begun, (otherwise than as I have said in St Giles’s,) I think it was in March, seeing a Crowd of People in the Street, I join’d with them to satisfy my Curosity, and found them all staring up into the Air, to see what a Woman told them appeared plain to her, which was an Angel cloth’d in white, with a fiery Sword in his Hand, waving it, or brandishing it over his Head. She described every part of the Figure to the Life; shew’d them the Motion, and the Form; and the poor People came into it so eagerly, and with so much Readiness; YES, I see it all plainly, says one. Theres the Sword as plain as can be. Another saw the angel. One saw one thing, and one another. I look’d as earnestly as the rest, but perhaps, not with so much Willingness to be impos’d upon; and I said indeed, that I could see nothing, but a white Cloud, bright on one side, by the shining of the Sun upon the other Part. The Woman endeavour’d to shew it me, but could not make me confess, that I saw it, which indeed, if I had, I must have lied: But the Woman turning upon me, look’d in my Face, and fancied I laugh’d; in which her Imagination deceiv’d her too’ for I really did not laugh, but was very seriously reflecting how the poor People were terrify’d by the Force of their own Imagination. However, she turned from me, call’d me prophane Fellow, and a Scoffer; told me, that it was a time of God’s Anger, and dreadful Judgments were approaching; and that Despisers, such as I, should wander and perish. Chapter 4 The Manias Mania is a state of abnormally elevated arousal, affect, and energy level, or "a state of heightened overall activation with enhanced affective expression together with lability of affect." Although mania is often 92 conceived as a "mirror image" to depression, the heightened mood can be either euphoric or irritable; indeed, as the mania intensifies, irritability may become more pronounced and eventuate in violence. The nosology of the various stages of a manic episode has changed over the decades. The word derives from the Greek μανία (mania), "madness, frenzy" and the verb μαίνομαι (mainomai), "to be mad, to rage, to be furious". The symptoms of mania are the following: heightened mood (either euphoric or irritable); flight of ideas and pressure of speech; and increased energy, decreased need for sleep, and hyperactivity. They are most plainly evident in fully developed hypomanic states; in full-blown mania, however, they undergo progressively severe exacerbations and become more and more obscured by other signs and symptoms, such as delusions and fragmentation of behavior. The People about her seem’d disgusted as well as she; and I found there was no perswading them, that I did not laught at them; and that I should be rather mobb’d by them, than be able to undeceive them. So I left them; and this Appearance pass’d for as real, as the Blazing Star itself.[67] Mania is a syndrome of multiple causes. Although the vast majority of cases occur in the context of bipolar disorder, it is a key component of other psychiatric disorders (as schizoaffective disorder, bipolar type) and may also occur secondary to various general medical conditions, as multiple sclerosis; certain medications, as prednisone; or certain substances of abuse, as cocaine or anabolic steroids. In current DSM-5 nomenclature, hypomanic episodes are separated from the more severe full manic episodes, which, in turn, are characterized as either mild, moderate, or severe, with specifiers with regard to certain symptomatic features (e.g. catatonia, psychosis). Mania, however, may be divided into three stages: hypomania, or stage I; acute mania, or stage II; and delirious mania, or stage III. This "staging" of a manic episode is, in particular, very useful from a descriptive and differential diagnostic point of view. Mania varies in intensity, from mild mania (hypomania) to delirious mania, marked by such symptoms as disorientation, florid psychosis, incoherence, and catatonia. Standardized tools such as Altman Self-Rating Mania Scale and Young Mania Rating Scale can be used to measure severity of manic episodes. Because mania and hypomania have also long been associated with creativity and artistic talent, it is not always the case that the clearly manic bipolar person needs or wants medical help; such persons often either retain sufficient self-control to function normally or are unaware that they have "gone manic" severely enough to be committed or to commit themselves. Manic persons often can be mistaken for being on drugs. A manic episode is defined in the American Psychiatric Association's diagnostic manual as a period of seven or more days (or any period if admission to hospital is required) of unusually and continuously effusive and open elated or irritable mood, where the mood is not caused by drugs/medication or a medical illness (e.g., hyperthyroidism), and (a) is causing obvious difficulties at work or in social relationships and activities, or (b) requires admission to hospital to protect the person or others, or (c) the person is suffering psychosis. To be classed as a manic episode, while the disturbed mood and an increase in goal directed activity or energy is present at least three (or four if only irritability is present) of the following must have been consistently present: Inflated self-esteem or grandiosity Decreased need for sleep (e.g., feels rested after 3 hours of sleep.) More talkative than usual or pressure to keep talking. Flights of ideas or subjective experience that thoughts are racing. Increase in goal directed activity, or psychomotor acceleration. Distractibility (too easily drawn to unimportant or irrelevant external stimuli). 93 Excessive involvement in activities that have a high degree for painful consequences.(e.g., extravagant shopping, sexual adventures or improbable commercial schemes). Though the activities one participates in while in a manic state are not always negative, those with the potential to have negative outcomes are far more likely. If the person is concurrently depressed, they are said to be having a mixed episode.The World Health Organization's classification system defines a manic episode as one where mood is higher than the person's situation warrants and may vary from relaxed high spirits to barely controllable exuberance, accompanied by hyperactivity, a compulsion to speak, a reduced sleep requirement, difficulty sustaining attention and often increased distractibility. Frequently, confidence and self-esteem are excessively enlarged, and grand, extravagant ideas are expressed. Behavior that is out of character and risky, foolish or inappropriate may result from a loss of normal social restraint. Some people also have physical symptoms, such as sweating, pacing, and weight loss. In full-blown mania, often the manic person will feel as though his or her goal(s) trump all else, that there are no consequences or that negative consequences would be minimal, and that they need not exercise restraint in the pursuit of what they are after. Hypomania is different, as it may cause little or no impairment in function. The hypomanic person's connection with the external world, and its standards of interaction, remain intact, although intensity of moods is heightened. But those who suffer from prolonged unresolved hypomania do run the risk of developing full mania, and indeed may cross that "line" without even realizing they have done so. One of the most signature symptoms of mania (and to a lesser extent, hypomania) is what many have described as racing thoughts. These are usually instances in which the manic person is excessively distracted by objectively unimportant stimuli. This experience creates an absent-mindedness where the manic individual's thoughts totally preoccupy him or her, making him or her unable to keep track of time, or be aware of anything besides the flow of thoughts. Racing thoughts also interfere with the ability to fall asleep. Manic states are always relative to the normal state of intensity of the afflicted individual; thus, already irritable patients may find themselves losing their tempers even more quickly and an academically gifted person may, during the hypomanic stage, adopt seemingly "genius" characteristics and an ability to perform and articulate at a level far beyond that which would be capable during euthymia. A very simple indicator of a manic state would be if a heretofore clinically depressed patient suddenly becomes inordinately energetic, cheerful, aggressive, or "over happy." Other, often less obvious, elements of mania include delusions (generally of either grandeur or persecution, according to whether the predominant mood is euphoric or irritable), hypersensitivity, hyper vigilance, hypersexuality, hyper-religiosity, hyperactivity and impulsivity, a compulsion to over explain, (typically accompanied by pressure of speech) grandiose schemes and ideas, and a decreased need for sleep (for example, feeling rested after only 3 or 4 hours of sleep); in the case of the latter, the eyes of such patients may both look and feel abnormally "wide" or "open," rarely blinking, and this often contributing to some clinicians’ erroneous belief that these patients are under the influence of a stimulant drug, when the patient, in fact, is either not on any mind- altering substances or is actually on a depressant drug, in a misguided attempt to ward off any undesirable manic symptoms. Individuals may also engage in out-of-character behavior during the episode, such as questionable business transactions, wasteful expenditures of money (e.g., spending sprees), risky sexual activity, abuse of recreational substances, excessive gambling, reckless behavior (as "speed driving" or daredevil activity), abnormal social interaction (as manifest via, for example, over familiarity and conversing with strangers), or highly vocal arguments. These behaviours may increase stress in personal relationships, lead to problems at work and increase the risk of altercations with law enforcement. There is a high risk of impulsively taking part in activities potentially harmful to self and others. 94  Although "severely elevated mood" sounds somewhat desirable and enjoyable, the experience of mania is ultimately often quite unpleasant and sometimes disturbing, if not frightening, for the person involved and for those close to them, and it may lead to impulsive behaviour that may later be regretted. It can also often be complicated by the sufferer's lack of judgment and insight regarding periods of exacerbation of characteristic states. Manic patients are frequently grandiose, obsessive, impulsive, irritable, belligerent, and frequently deny anything is wrong with them. Because mania frequently encourages high energy and decreased perception of need or ability to sleep, within a few days of a manic cycle, sleep-deprived psychosis may appear, further complicating the ability to think clearly. Racing thoughts and misperceptions lead to frustration and decreased ability to communicate with others.[68] 720: It looks like the definition of being a manic or maniac is the same as the behaviors one must have for success. This is a form of the blind fury. To only be focused on your goal and block anything that is not relative to said goal out of minds sight is what we call “tunnel vision” today. Extreme focus is what our current academia/scholastic system is based off . Even though this is optional, if one isn’t consistent and solidary in their industry and the connecting sub industries, then your chances of success are slim. One cannot bounce around from here to there and expect outcome. You must be so focused at gaining all the details that you become blinded to many other things in life. This world is not designed off of a scattered mind, nor will it be maintained by such. It is Ordo AB Chao. It is order out of chaos. For example: This 3 volume set I’m writing has an order of 1000 years, the chaos is the multitude of subjects involved and how they are all connected. This excitement called mania is not utilized or recognized in the guise of love. In the deepside of the European thinking, the depravation they experienced has created a behavior to be overtly excited, infatuated and attached to whatever strikes this specific nerve. Which brings on the desire to own and control which requires responsibility. Then after the boredom of responsibility, we must dissect and investigate to see how the thing operates. Then we will try to put it back together again and if we fail, we find out where we fail, then find something else and repeat. I didn’t find any difference amongst the words mania, craze or frenzy they were all used interchangeably then and now by scholars going over these subjects. The words do hide different subtle emotions when attached to other words. For instance: a witch craze doesn’t sound like anything violent, a witch mania sounds like something was going on and insanity is implied, witch frenzy sounds like something playful for kids but a witch hunt sounds aggressively violent towards women. Since, in our modern American folklore witches are defined by imagery exclusively to be women. From an repeated over view of different forms of manias, I began to notice a pattern. This pattern is a 300-500 (350-450 specific) year cycle. The majority of the manias that occurred lasted for this amount of time. The reason why? I personally believe all of the activity of the Dark Ages is the spiritual development of our modern day stereotypes and social activities. How? You might ask does a mania exist for that long it had to either become a cultural custom that carried on generationally usually or it was unknowingly astrologically enforced. This also brings me to state that we are in a mania now. The mania of today evolving out of the African slave mania would be a beauty mania starting at around 1700-1800 with the the Victorian age. Part of this theory is related to what the next mania will be which is the technology mania. It is connected by the invention of the camera. The camera is the first element in existence to demand perfection, out of the imperfections of man. Its precursor was oil painting and caricature drawings which were created and also could be manipulated and puzzled by the artist, allowing room for error and lie. The camera does not allow error it is exact, like numbers. Hence, the post mortem photography of the Victorian age. They were beautifying death. Once this 300-500 year cycle is complete. Technology will be our new world and all manias such as dancing, criminal movies, mystifying women as witches, the devil concept, the witchcraft/darkside concept, the overall infatuation of a new item entered into existence, (today this would be any sitting outside of a store overnight to wait for the new 95 product) will always socially remain until new vices defeat the old. During the Dark Age times the same infatuation level would occur over new fruits being brought to the community, it was expected if the king/queen or high ranking church official or a famous person visited or if a criminal was being executed. These events were the positive side of the scale on maniac activity. There was also forms of maniac activity correlated to wars, famines and plagues. These events brought much hellish behaviour and imagery to the soul. I also suspect this mania, craze, frenzy thing to be attached to today’s business structure. For the human to be naturally attracted to and initiate this hype/mania usually introduced using sex, violence, riches, superiority or unknown information makes one question if the human is naturally evil or not. When one understands propaganda, marketing and advertisement, the number one thing you must cause is hype in order to launch your product/service. You must cause a mania to take a product from ground level to a high peak, then it will collapse and reemerge with a standard purchase rate or extremely fail and be out of existence. It will never truly be out of existence, the element whether product or service will turn into an antique and preserve high value because of its survival. Due to the Europeans owning history by generational enforcement, certain elements will reappear from the past and trailblaze in the business world as it was proven in a past circa. Sometimes a mania or a craze can happen on its own by one infatuation being imitated by others or by unconscious suggestion, in which many events were initiated in this style during the times. Also, people can be hoaxed into a craze or frenzy. These large hoaxes are for social control and manipulation based upon political agendas whether that be from an outside kingdom or the regional ruling king. An example of a modern day social hoax is our Y2K event of 2001 and the so called Mayan Calendar date of December 21, 2012. These type hoaxes have drastic effects on the mind and the behavior I suspect. I personally will intentionally not follow hype for the sanctity of my mind and I was doing this before I knew what I was doing. Before you read all the data I collected relative to these manias I must mention the manias that are not documented here and have been mentioned by other scholars but I did not research them. The Mississippi Scheme (Money mania), Law mania, Physician mania, Alchemist mania, Fortune telling mania, Crusade mania, Religion mania, Railway mania(1840’s), Dromomania, Motor Hysteria Mania, Flaggelant/whipping mania an Interracial sex mania called the Negro mania and many others. A list of all manias and phobias discovered to this date will be in volume 3. A madman was supposed to be possessed by the manes or spirit of some dead man, wherefore the Romans used the word mania (which we borrow from them) to denote madness, even after they had ceased to hold the belief which suggested the use. [69] The Defloration Mania The practice of flagellation has generally been associated with the English educational system and the harsh naval life of the day. But the nabobs have been held responsible for the rise of a second perversion more widespread in the England of the 18th and early 19th centuries than anywhere else in the world, the mania for defloration. For a visitor to a brothel to demand virgins indicates not only the possession of considerable funds but in addition and in particular a degree of moral derangement amounting to definite eccentricity. As there could be no question of such a male expecting either special co-operation or any specific experience from such girls, he would be attracted merely by the prospect of destroying the innocence of a young, unsuspecting female. But however peculiar this mania may appear and however incomprehensible it may seem to a normally sensitive being, it was nevertheless rife in the London of George IV (1762-1830). 96  Bawds and the police agree that a good deal of the activity of brothel-keepers consists in procuring ‘fresh merchandise’, so as to be always prepared. The girls must be at least 16, in order not to expose clients to prosecution, and must be able to produce proof of virginity in order to justify the high price charged in such cases. Many of the young women endured the medical examination and what followed it good-humouredly and for a good fee. Others had to be drugged, or, if the client objected to that, reduced to obedience by blows. An astonishingly high proportion even of those who woke up with thick heads after being anaesthetized and were therefore quite unconscious of having been deflowered remained in the house where they had been ravished, or after once escaping soon returned to the pavement. From the case of a single one of these shady gentlemen, a rich London doctor who had up to 70 virgins placed at his disposal every year, it may readily deduced how many London girls were lured in this way on to downward path.[70] 720: As we can see human trafficking, forced prostitution, rape, child molestation and putting the child underneath intoxicants were the bottom line of the defloration mania. The London traffic in girls had a unique character and a decided bent in a certain direction on account of the widespread demand in England for virgins, i.e. the specifically English defloration mania, which was met with nowhere else in the world to such a great extent and accompanied by such brutal practices. The study of this morbid demand for virgins throws a surprising light on the influence of suggestion and on the fact that sexual customs and perversities are spread through imitation, and that it is not always necessary to look for a pathological reason for these abnormalities. ' Forty years ago', says Tarnowsky, 'not less than £50 was paid for a virgo intacta, now one can be had for £5. Forty years ago one did not dare demand a medical proof of virginity, now one can get this for £1. Formerly the training of young girls for prostitution was not understood, now a speciality is made of it. One deduces from these facts that with time further progress will be made in this direction1 .' One man requires 70 virgins a year, but would willingly take 100, and a doctor deflowered three virgins in a fortnight. If an explanation is sought of the reason why, amongst the English, defloration mania should have reached such epidemic dimensions, account must not only be taken of the horrible results of this passion, in which the worst side of the British national character came into play, but the deeper psychological basis must be sought for. For the Englishman, only the best is good enough. He must have something which can only once, and by only one person, be possessed, and of which he can boast before others. This is the case as regards the virginity of a girl, which attracts the Englishman primarily as something select and unique. According to an English author of the eighteenth century, who discourses in detail on the pleasures of defloration, the desire to seduce a virgin is an acquired taste, but none the less the acme of sensual pleasure. One holds truly that the enjoyment of a virgin, from the point of view of the physical as well as the psychic experiences of the seducer, is the highest peak of sensual pleasure. In the first place a man's fancy will be inflamed by the prospect of the enjoyment of a woman whom he has long desired and tried to win, and who has never before (as he believes) been in bed with a man, in whose arms no man has yet lain, and whose virgin charms he will be the first to see and triumphantly enjoy. This exquisite work of the fancy prepares the body in the highest degree for sensual pleasure.' The author then describes in great detail the delights of defloration and with special enjoyment dwells on the cries of pain and the resistance to seduction made by a virgin! In conjunction with the above-mentioned motives, the sadistic element in defloration mania may be cited as especially noteworthy. An English author points out that debauchees who pay large sums to procuresses for virgins for the purpose of seduction, are nearly always flagellomaniacs and, in fact, active flagellants, who obtain unique enjoyment from whipping young girls so brutally that the blood flows. 97  This mania for virgins was, as we saw, an old English vice, and had as its natural corollary child prostitution which, according to the unanimous evidence of all observers, had grown to frightful proportions in England. Von Schutz and Archenholtz have mentioned the astonishing number of very young prostitutes in London in the eighteenth century. Ryan mentions a brothel in Crispin Street, Spitalfields, that in the year 1810 was conducted and solely intended for the purpose of procuring and prostituting little girls of under 14. In 1830 there were many children's brothels in London, amongst others that of a certain Maxwell in Betty Street, Commercial Road, Catherine Keeley in Dock Street, Commercial Road, and other brothels in the neighbourhood of Bedford Square and Mile End Road. A certain John Jacobs and his wife kept a very well-known children's brothel for 25 years. The children's brothel of David Romaine in Mile End was famous; when it was closed by the police, three girls of 15 years were found, on whose prostitution the worthy pair lived. Every possible method of seducing children of both sexes was employed in this establishment. There were often assembled there on Saturday evening ten to fourteen boys, in ages from 10 to 15 years, for the purpose of the most horrible immorality with the girls. Usually one of the three little girls was sent out on the streets on Saturday evening in order to entice the boys into the house, when, the number and the total sum represented being large enough, they were let into the den of immorality, where the other two girls naturally visited them. This custom was frequently observed by the police, who often saw twelve boys go into the brothel together. Ryan rightly surmises that the results of these excesses would mean ruin for the boys. The most depraved activities were carried on by William Sheen, who had numerous brothels in the worst districts of the town (Wentworth Street, Spitalfields and others). He organized regular pornological clubs where men and women practised the most horrible immorality with the children! There were always from thirty to forty children in his brothels. The revelations of the Pall Mall Gazette principally referred to those crimes which Stead rightly classed as ' sexual outrages ' in contradistinction to 'sexual immorality'. To these outrages belong: (1) Buying, selling and seduction of children. (2) Procuring of virgins. (3) Enticing and ruin of women. (4) International girl-slave trade. With regard to the first point in particular, the enquiry has collected definite information which it is impossible to go into here in detail. I must confine myself to a short analysis of the important contents of the report of the Pall Mall Gazette. According to Stead it was a fact that in London a system was in full operation under which the rape of virgins was one of the most ordinary events, that these virgins were mostly of tender years, actually too young to understand the nature of the crime whose victims they were against their will; that these atrocities were continually being perpetrated and practically never punished, and that the arrangements for procuring these victims of London's lust, certifying their virginity, seducing them, and destroying the traces of the seduction, were carried out with a facility and an efficiency which to those who have not had actual experience of the ease with which crime can be perpetrated, is almost unbelievable. A brothel keeper made the following confession to Stead: 'There is always a demand for virgins as you call them, " fresh girls" as we call them in the trade, and a pander who understands his business has his eyes open in every direction. * His stock of girls is always being exhausted, so that he has to be continually filling it up and looking out for suitable "numbers" in order to keep up the reputation of his house. The hunt for 6 fresh girls takes a good deal of time, but it is simple and fairly easy once one knows the ropes. I myself have been into the country and have disguised myself in all manners of ways in order to get girls; occasionally I have worn the dress of a minister, let the girl believe that I intended to marry her and so obtained possession of her in order to oblige a good client. How was this done? When I had paid court for some time to my girl, I proposed to her that I should take her to London to show her the sights of the town. I brought her up with me, took her about and gave her a great deal to eat and drink—particularly to drink. I took her to the theatre and so arranged that she should miss the last train. She was now very tired, a little muddled with 98 drink and excitement and very frightened at finding herself alone in the town without friends. I offered her a suitable lodging for the night, she went to bed in my house, and thus the business was done. My client had a virgin, I received my commission of 10 or 20 pounds sterling and the next morning the girl, who had lost her character and did not dare go home, would in all probability do what the others do, she would become one of my “numbers” which means that she would earn her living on the streets for the benefit of my house. That is a very simple example of the way in which we recruit girls. Another very easy way of obtaining virgins is to breed them. 720: So it is very clear that the spirituality of today’s Pimping practices stem from these time periods and the Defloration mania may had been the social element inclusive with the medieval nature that transferred procuring done by women into pimping done by men. Then in America it transferred from white males to black males. Obviously the whoredom of European women made them be imitated and worshipped by women of all races. Regardless of white women being forced into training, other women will voluntarily follow the ways of white women exclusively because they’ve been worshipped in the sexual format both positively and negatively in more ways than any other race of women. Back to the facts. Many women who live on the streets have female children, and they have to earn their living. When they are 12 or 13 years old they are saleable. For a very attractive "number" of this sort they receive 20 to 40 pounds sterling. I send my own daughter from my own brothel on to the streets. I know now a couple of very pretty little girls who will soon be sold. They have only to take the first step, and it would be bad business not to make as much out of it as possible. Parents who are given to drink often sell their children to brothel keepers. In the East End of London you can buy as many "fresh girls '' as you want. In one street in Dalston you can buy a dozen of them. Sometimes the supply is greater than the demand and you have to seduce your girls yourself or get someone in to do it, which is very bad business. There is a man named S. who has an appointment at a well known house to seduce the young girls and fit them for the needs of the house when there is no demand for virgins but for girls who have already been seduced! ' In the year 1885 there was a systematically organized traffic in virgins in London. Particularly infamous was the 1 firm ' of the procuresses X. and Z., whose speciality was the provision of virgins. The house was founded in 1881 (almost immediately after her own defloration) by Miss X., a young, energetic and very cunning person. She was then 16 years old! She was introduced to a man by a young girl who had already been seduced, and who pocketed half the price of her innocence as commission. The ease with which her go-between had made a couple of pounds was a revelation to her, and immediately after her own fall she began to look for young girls. In two years' time the business had reached such proportions that she was obliged to take Miss Z., a somewhat older girl, as working partner. We deal in virginity,' said this worthy maiden to Stead, ' but not in virgins. My partner procures the girls, who are seduced and taken back to their relatives. The business is then at an end so far as we are concerned. We deal only in ' 6 first seduction "; a girl only goes through our hands once. Our customers desire virgins, not damaged goods, and usually they only see these once1 .' Most of the virgins in this institution were recruited from amongst children and shop girls, governesses, cooks and servants. ' Young girls from the country, fresh and rosy, are easily found in the shops or out walking. But the principal source of supply is the nursemaids. My old client always says to me: ' Why don't you supply nursemaids? In Hyde Park there are as many as you want, and they are all virgins.' The large parks were systematically searched by these procuresses for ' fresh girls '; Hyde Park and the Green Park gave the best results in the mornings in this respect, Regent's Park in the afternoons.' As we go on our way, we look out for a pretty girl; once found, we talk to her; during the next few weeks we try to meet her as often as possible, till we have won her confidence to such an extent that we can persuade her into considering how easy it is to make a pound sterling by receiving a visit from a man.' Certain it is that a great percentage of the girls submitted of their own free will to the enticements of the procuresses, knowing very well the fate that awaited them. Stead describes a scene at a procuress's, when she made a young girl go 99 through ' all sorts of movements ' in order to show off her good qualities to the best advantage. He asked the poor victim why she had let herself be seduced,whereon the girl told him candidly that it was on account of the money. The prices paid by men of the world for the provision of virgins was much higher in the West End of London than in the East End. In the wholesale house of the firm X. and Z. the price for a virgin was £5, in a brothel in the East End £10, and in the West End £20 sterling. In the case of a girl who was given to a man by force for defloration against her will, various methods were employed. Some brothel keepers made use of narcotics. ' She slept when he did it—she was fast asleep. To tell the truth she had been put to sleep, as often happens. I gave her a sleeping draught—it is a mixture of laudanum and something else, chloroform is often mixed with it, but I use either snuff or laudanum. We call it "black draught "; they lie there almost as dead, and the girl first knows in the morning what has happened. And then? Oh, then she cries a great deal with the pain, but she is surprised and hardly knows what has happened, except that she can hardly move for pain. We naturally tell her that everything is all right; all girls have to go through it once; she is over it now without knowing anything about it and no amount of crying will help.' Others tried to avoid any scandal by carefully choosing the situation of the house or the room. Many houses had an underground room from which no sound could be heard, and which would never be discovered. Or the room was thickly padded and thus the cries of the children were inaudible. ‘In my house', said a highly respectable woman who had a villa in the West End of London, ' you can gloat over the cries of the girls with the certainty that no one will hear them besides yourself.' In order to taste the full complete voluptuousness caused by the cries of the immature child, there was no necessity for a padded or underground room. ‘Here is a room where you will be quite safe. The house itself stands in its own grounds, the walls are thick, and a double carpet covers the floor. The only window, which looks on the garden at the back, is doubly protected, first with shutters then with heavy curtains. You can lock the door and do what you like. The girl can shriek murder till all is blue but no sound will be heard. The servants will be far away at the other end of the house, I only will be about to see that all is quiet. If some means of stopping the cries is at hand, a cushion, a bed-cover or even a handkerchief, there is no danger at all. To many men, the cries of pain of the tortured girl are the essence of their enjoyment.’ 720: Now we are witnessing the origins of BDSM practices of today. Which brings further proof of behavior being genetically passed down by generation. As 2 to 3 centuries earlier this activity was not commercialized or common knowledge. All the elements of hardcore Pimping were mastered in these times. This information was documented in the late 1700’s early 1800’s. In all of my research, there were many references to the burning of women which will be talked about in this book. I understood after a while that the burning of women, the activities of the torture chamber and the executioners responsibility on the scaffold was exclusively designed to bathe in the sounds/screams of the soul. To bring the soul of the human to the front of the face and to no longer let the soul hide in the flesh. The barrier in-between life and death, the echo of the unknown from the other side. This is what they remind themselves of. In which the catholic churches mimics. Not to forget the power over life and death, the confusion on the victims face, the crying, the fear, the begging, the sexual power. All of these experiences are intertwined into the aura structure which makes one appear powerful on a spiritual/ether level, but humans will sense these things and respond accordingly. As we can see many of their own disappear to these practices. America has the largest kidnapping rate annually. Back to the Facts. In order to facilitate this abominable act for an impotent debauchee who no longer had strength to overcome the resistance of a powerful girl, the binding of the unfortunate child was often carried out. 6 In order to oblige a rich client, who had so dissipated his vitality in debauchery and excesses, that none but very young girls could satisfy his exhausted senses, an exceedingly worthy lady undertook to bind a girl, of 14 or 15 years old, hand and foot to the four corners of the bed, so that any resistance, with the exception of her useless cries, would be 100 impossible. Before it was finally decided to bind the girl, the lady of the house, a strong woman, placed her services gladly at the disposal of her client, holding the girl down forcibly while her rich patron carried out his desire. Even that was too much for him, and he requested that the lower part of the girl's body should be strapped down. Tying down for the purpose of rape is not at all unusual in Half Moon Street and in Anna Rosenberg's brothel in Liverpool.' How well organized down to the last detail this seduction traffic was in London, is shown by the fact that the brothels and procuresses had their own doctors (sit venia verbof), who had to supply so-called 6 certificates of virginity ' after a thorough examination of the girls in this respect. Stead bespoke one day at the house of the procuresses X.and Z. no less than five virgins, and relates in a lively manner the course the negotiations took, particularly in regard to the examination for virginity: 'The business was concluded, the advance payment handed over and the procuresses undertook to deliver the goods the following Saturday. At a certain place in the Marylebone Road I awaited the company at half-past four. A minute later I saw the women X. and Z. coming, but with only three girls. One was big, pretty and seemed to be about 16 years old; the others were younger with somewhat clumsy figures. Two of them were shop girls, the third was learning the trade of a dressmaker. The procuresses were full of profuse apologies. They had been to Highgate to make up the number of five virgins, but two of those in prospect could not go out that day. They would bring these on Monday without fail, and, indeed, to make up for loss of time, they undertook to bring three girls on Monday instead of two, altogether six virgins. We went in to the doctor's. The girls, who did not know one another, and did not dare to speak to one another, were examined separately, making no objection. After the examination they signed a paper agreeing to their seduction. To the great surprise of the girls two of them failed to obtain the certificate of virginity. The doctor could not be sure that they were not virgins, yet they were not "virgo intacta" in the technical sense. I gave the two girls five shillings for their trouble in coming, paid X. and Z. their commission for the one genuine virgin, and went away with the following document in my pocket St., London, W. "17th June 1885. "I hereby state that I have to-day examined D., sixteen years old, and confirmed her virginity. "Dr" Nothing could have been simpler or more business-like than this deal, which differed from the usual method of procedure of the firm X. and Z. only in that the doctor's examination took the place of seduction. Equipped with my scrap of paper, I could take my virgins to whom I liked. Last Friday morning they brought four young girls to the doctor; three were fourteen and one eighteen years old. The last was an assistant cook in one of the best-known hotels in the West End. The three younger girls were rejected by the doctor, only the eighteen- year-old received the certificate. "Can the little rascals have been seen already! " Mrs. Z. exclaimed in annoyance. It is always the young ones who cannot pass the examination." In ten days I have had nine girls delivered to me, of which four received a certificate of virginity, whilst five were rejected.[71] . The Dancing Mania This saint, St. Vitus has an importance from a purely accidental cause. In the Romish hagology, we only find that he was a Sicilian boy who was made a Christian by his nurse, and, subsequently fleeing from a pagan father’s wrath into Italy, fell a martyr under the sweeping persecution by Diocletian. Somehow a chapel near Ulm was 101 dedicated to him; and to this chapel came annually some women who labored under a nervous or hysteric affection impelling them to violent motion. This ailment came to be called St Vitus’s Dance, and perhaps the term was gradually extended to other affections involving involuntary muscular motion, of which there seems to be a considerable number. In modern times, in English medical practice, the name of St Vitus’s Dance is confined to an ailment which chiefly befalls young persons during the five or six year preceding puberty, and manifests itself in an inability to command the movements of the limbs. As to its cause, whether nervous or intestinal, and equally as to the means of its cure, the greatest dubiety seems to prevail.[72] In the Rhineland, unconnected with the plague, a new hysteria appeared in the form of a dancing mania. Whether it sprang from misery and homelessness caused by heavy spring floods of the Rhine that year, or whether it was the spontaneous symptom of a disturbed time, history does not know, but the participants were in no doubt. They were convinced that they were possessed by demons. Forming circles in streets and churches, they danced for hours with leaps and screams, calling on demons by name to cease tormenting them or crying that they saw vision of Christ or the Virgin or the heavens opening. When exhausted they fell to the ground rolling and groaning as if in the grip of agonies. As the mania spread to Holland and Flanders, the dancers appeared with garlands in their hair and moved in groups from place to place like the flagellants. They were chiefly the poor-peasants, artisans, servants, and beggars, with a large proportion of women, especially the unmarried. Sexual revels often followed the dancing, but the dominant preoccupation was exorcism of devils. In the agony of the times, people felt a demonic presence, and in their minds nothing pointed more surely to Satan’s handiwork in society than the fashion for wearing pointed shoes, which they had so often heard denounced in sermons. Something slightly insane about this crippling frivolity made it in the common mind the mark of the Devil. Hostility to the clergy marked the dancers as it had the flagellants. In their anxiety to suppress a craze which menaced them, priests performed as many exorcisms as they could while the public watched, sharing in the presence of demons. Processions and masses were held to pray for the sufferers. The frenzy died out within a year, although it was to reappear on and off over the next two centuries. Whatever its cause, it testified to a growing submission to the supernatural, of which the Pope took notice. In August 1374 he announced the right of the Inquisition to intervene in trials for sorcery, heretofore considered a civil crime. Because sorcery was made to work by the aid of demons, Gregory claimed it lay within Church jurisdiction.[73] Fig. 44.). The Dancing Plague of 1518 by Sherri Wilson 102  A curious children’s pilgrimage is reported from Erfurt in the year 1237: “Unknown to their parents more than a 1,000 children left the town and wandered, dancing and hopping, across the Steigerwald, to Arnstadt. Not till the next day did the parents hear of the occurrence and fetched them back on carts. No one could say who had taken them away. Many of them are said to have remained sickly afterwards, and to have suffered particularly from tremors in their limbs and even from fits.”[73b] 720: It would be wise for us to note here that if there is no knowledge of demons then the Church cannot claim jurisdiction over the matter. This is part of the reason why theology is invisible in America’s law but that does not mean it is not there and it is not applicable to the soul when judgement is passed, in which it is. Also, we see they have a fully detailed court system 100 years before exploration to other countries and enslavement of other people began. Hence, all indigenous people have no true knowledge of the essence of the social/cultural systems of Europeans especially their law. Taking theology out of court and law removes the social intelligence of devils and their operations but this does not mean that the devils aren’t still operating. Also the name Frisck is the name of a cat food. Back to the Facts. It was called the dance of St. John or of St. Vitus, on account of the Bacchantic leaps by which it was characterized, and which gave to those affected, while performing their wild dance, and screaming and foaming with fury, all the appearance of persons possessed. They formed circles hand in hand, and appearing to have lost all control over their senses, continued dancing, regardless of the by-standers, for hours together in wild delirium, until at length they fell to the ground in a state of exhaustion. They then complained of extreme oppression and groaned as if in the agonies of death, until they were swathed in cloths bound tightly round their waists, upon which they gain recovered, and remained free from complaint until the next attack. While dancing they neither saw nor heard, being insensible to external impressions through the sense, but were haunted by visions, their fancies conjuring up spirits whose names* they shrieked out; and some of them afterward asserted that they felt as if they had been immersed in a stream of blood, which obliged them to leap so high. (*Joh. Wiers ample Catalgoue of Spirits gives no information on this point. Pseudomonarchia daemonum. Opera omnia, Amstelod. 1660. 4to. P. 659.-Raynald mentions the word Frisckes as the name of a sprit; but this mistake is easily accounted for by his ignorance of the language; for, according to the Chronicle of Cologe, the St. John’s dances sang during their paroxysm: “Here Sent Johan, so so, vrisch ind vro, here Sent Johan.” St. John so, so, brisk and cheerful, St. John. Die Cronica can der hilliger Stat can Coellen, fol. 277. Coellen, 1499. fol.) Those affected fell to the ground senseless, panting and laboring for breath. They foamed at the mouth and suddenly springing up began their dance amid strange contortions. Yet the malady doubtless made its appearance very variously, and was modified by temporary or local circumstances, whereof non-medical contemporaries but imperfectly noted the essential particulars, accustomed as they were to confound their observation of natural events with their notions of the world spirits. A few months after this dancing malady had made its appearance at Aix-la-Chapelle, it broke out at Cologne, where the number of those possessed amounted to more than 500, and about the same time at Metz, the streets of which place are said to have been filled with 1100 dancers. Peasants left their plows, mechanics their workshops, housewives their domestic duties, to join the wild revels, and this rich commercial city became the scene of the most ruinous disorder. Secret desires were excited, and but too often found opportunities for wild enjoyment; and numerous beggars, stimulated by vice and misery, awaited themselves of this new complaint to gain a temporary livelihood. Girls and boys quitted their parents, and servants their masters, to amuse themselves at the dances of those possessed, and greedily imbibed the poison of mental infection. Above a hundred unmarried women were seen raving about in consecrated and unconsecrated places, and the consequences were 103 soon perceived. Gangs of idle vagabonds, who understood how to imitate to the life the gestures and convulsions of those really affected, roved from place to place seeking maintenance and adventures and thus, wherever they went, spreading this disgusting spasmodic disease like a plague; for in maladies of this kind the susceptibe are infected as easily by the appearance as by the reality. As last it was found necessary to drive away these mischievous guests, who were equally inaccessible to the exorcisms of the priests and the remedies of the physicians. Strasburg was visited by the “Dancing Plague” in the year 1418, and the same infatuation existed among they people there, as in the towns of Belgium and the Lower Rhine.* Many who were seized at the sight of those affected, excited attention at first by their confused and absurd behavior, and then by their constantly following the swarms of dancers. These were seen day and night passing through the streets, accompainied by musicians playing on bagpipes, and by innumerable spectators attracted by curiosity , to which were added anxious parents and relations, who came to kook after those among the misguided multitude who belonged to their respective families. *J. of knigshoven, the oldest German Chronicle in existence. The contents are general, but devoted more exclusively to Alsace and Strasburg, published by Schiltern, Strasburg, 1698. 4to. Observat 21, of St. Vitus’s dance, p. 1085. F. “Many hundreds of men and women began to dance and jump in the public market-place, the lanes and the streets of Strasburg. Many of them ate nothing for days and nights, until their mania again subsided. The plague was called St. Vitus’s Dance.” Chorus Sancti Viti, or St. Vitus’ Dance: the lascivious dance, Paracelsus calls it, because they that are taken with it, can do nothing but dance till they be dead, or cured. It is so called that for the parties so troubled were wont to go to St. Vitus for help; and, after they had danced there awhile, they were certainly freed. ‘Tis strange to hear how long they will dance, and in what manner, over stools, forms, tables; even great-bellied women sometimes (and yet never hurt their children) will dance so long that they can stir neither hand nor foot, but seem to be quite dead. One in red clothes they cannot abide. Musick above all things they love; and therefore magistrates in Germany will hire musicians to play to them, and some lusty, sturdy companions to dance with them. This disease hath been very common in Germany, as appears by those relations fo schenkius and Paracelsus in his book of madness who brags how many several persons he hath cured of it. Felix Platerus (de Mentis Alienat. Cap. 3) reports of a woman in Basle whom he saw, that danced a whole month together. The 15th of June is St. Vitus’s day, Tom. II. P. 1013. Antwerp, 1698, fol. From which we shall merely add that Mazara, in Sicily, is supposed to have been the birth-place of our Saint, and that his father’s name was Hylas; that he went from thence with Crescentia (probably his nurse) and Modestus to Lucania, with both of whom he suffered martyrdom under Diocletian. They are all said to have been buried at Florence, and it was not long before the miraculous powers of St. vitus, which had already manifested themselves in his lifetime, were acknowledged throughout Italy. The most celebrated of his chapels were situated on the promontory of Sicily (called by his name), in Rome and in Polignano, whither many pilgrimarges were made by the sick. Or had been bitten by mad dogs believed that they would find and infallible cure at his altars, though the power of the Saint curing wounds of this kind was afterward disputed by the followers of St. Hubertus, the Saint of the Chase. In 672, his body was with much pomp moved to Apulia, but soon after the priests of many churches and chapels in Italy, gave out that they were in possession of portions of the saints body which worked miracles. In the 8th century the veneration of this youthful martyr extended itself to France, and the honor of possessing his body was conferred on the church of St. Denys. By command of the Pope it was solemnly delivered on the 19th of March, 836, by the Abbot Hilduwinus, of St. Denys, to the Abbot Warinus, of Corvey (founded in 822). 104  As the worship of these saints was however at that time stripped of all historical connections, which were purposely obliterated by the priesthood, a legend was invented at the beginning of the 15th century, or perhaps even so early as the 14th, that St. Vitus had, just before he bent his neck to the sword prayed to god that he might protect from the Dancing Mania all those who should solemnize the day of his commemoration, and fast upon its eve, and that thereupon a voice from heaven was heard, saying, “Vitus, thy prayer is accepted.” 720: It is important to note that this occurred with the majority of the Saints. This is part of the reason Catholicism is not popularized in America. The martyred saints were killed in ways 100 times worst than Jesus. Also they conducted a large amount of so called miracles that are to be questioned. Not only this but some of them also killed many people that were so called pagans. Last but not least a lot of their bodies after death were dissected and spread out amongst the countries to different churches and held as precious relics used for miracles, inclusive with some saints bodies not corroding and are still in glass coffins till this day. These non rotting saints will be visited in Vol. 3. In the metaphysical realm this activity is inculcating and representing the innocence and purity of Jesus. Which is the highest form of admiration and worship for punished justice. The innocent being slaughtered by the guilty and for the guilty as a rejuvenation of purity which clears the filth only to become filth again and then repeat. Back to the Facts. From the remotest period, perhaps even so far back as the 4th century, St. Johns day was solemnized with all sorts of strange and rude customs, of which the originally mystical meaning was variously disfigured among different nations by supernatural relics of heathenism. Thus the Germans transferred to the festival of St. Johns day an ancient heathen usage, the kindling of the “Nodfyr” which was forbidden them by St. Bonafice, and the belief subsists even to the present day that people and animals that have leaped through these flames, or their smoke, are protected for a whole year from fevers and other disease, as if by a kind of baptism by fire. The Bishop Theodoret of Cyruus in Syria, states, that, at the festival of St. John, large fires were annually kindled in several towns, through which men, women, and children jumped; and that young children were carried through by their mothers. He considered this custom as an ancient Asiatic ceremony of purification, similar to that recorded of Ahaz, in 2 Kings xvi.3. (2 Kings XVI 3: But he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, yea, and made his son to pass through the fire, according to the abominations of the heathen, whom the Lord cast out from before the children of Israel.) When we observe, however, that the first dances in Aix-la-Chapelle appeared in July with St. John’s name in their mouths, the conjecture is probably that the wild revels of St. John’s day, A.D. 1374, gave rise to this mental plague, which thenceforth has visited so many thousands with incurable aberration of mind, and disgusting distortions of body. Thus, throughout the western parts of Germany, and especially in the districts bordering on the Rhine, There was a wretched and oppressed populace; and if we take into consideration, that among their numerous bands many wandered about, whose consciences were tormented with the recollection of the crimes which they had committed during the prevalence of the black plague, we shall comprehend how their despair sought relief in the intoxication of an artificial delirium. (*What took place at the St. John’s fires in the middle ages (about 12800 we learn by a communication from the Bishop guil. Durantes of Aquitania. (Rationale divinorum officiorum. L. VII. C. 26. In Reiske, loc. Cit. p. 77.) Bones, horns, and other rubbish, were heaped together to be consumed in smoke, while persons of all ages danced round the flames as if they had been possessed, in the same way as at the Palilia, an ancient Roman lustration by fire, whereat those who took part in them sprang through a fire made of straw. (Ovid. Met. XIV. 774, Fast. IV. 721.) Others seized burning flambeaux, and made a circuit of the fields, in the supposition that they thereby screened them from danger, while others, again, turned a cart-wheel, to represent the retrograde movement of the sun.)[74] 105  The dancing mania of the year 1374 was, in fact, no new disease, but a phenomenon well known in the middle ages, of which many wondrous stories were traditionally current among the people. In the year 1237, upward of a hundred children were said to have been suddenly seized with this disease at Erfurt, and to have proceeded dancing and jumping along the road to Arnstadt. When they arrived at that place they fell exhausted to the ground, and, according to an account of an old chronicle, many of them, after they were taken home by their parents died, and the rest remained affected, to the end of their lives, with the permanent tremor. Another occurrence was related to have taken the place on the Mosel bridge at Utrecht, on the 17th day of June, A.D. 1278, when 200 fanatics began to dance, and would not desist until a priest passed who was carrying the Host to a person that was sick, upon which, as if in punishment of their crime, the bridge gave way, and they were all drowned. A similar event also occurred so early as the year 1027, near the convent church of Kolbig, not far from Bernburg. According to an oft-repeated tradition, 18 peasants, some of whose names are still preserved, are said to have disturbed divine service on Christmas eve, by dancing and brawling in the churchyard, whereupon the priest, Ruprechy, inflicted a curse upon them, that they should dance and scream for a whole year without ceasing. This curse is stated to have been completely fulfilled, so that the unfortunate sufferers at length sank knee deep into the earth, and remained the whole time without nourishment, until they were finally released by the intercession of 2 pious bishops. It is said, that upon this they fell into a deep sleep, which lasted 3 days, and that 4 of them died: the rest continuing to suffer all their lives from a trembling of their limbs.[75] Paracelsus (1493-1541) divides the St. vitus’s dance into 3 kinds. First, that which arises from imagination (Vitista, Chorea Imaginativa, estimative), by which the original dancing plague is to be understood. Secondly, that which arises from sensual desires, depending on the will (Chorea lasciva). Thirdly, that which arises from corporeal causes (Chorea naturalis, ccacta), which, according to a strange notion of his own, he explained by maintaining, that in certain vessels which are susceptible of an internal pruriency, and thence produce laughter, the blood is set in commotion, in consequence of an alteration in the vital spirits, whereby involuntary fits of intoxicating joy, and a propensity to dance, are occasioned. To this notion he was, no doubt, led from having observed a milder form of St. Vitus’s dance, not uncommon in his time, which was accompanied by involuntary laughter; and which bore a resemblance to the hysterical laughter of the moderns, except that it was characterized by more pleasurable sensations, and by an extravagant propensity to dance. There was no howling, screaming, and jumping, as in the severer form; neither was the disposition to dance by any means insuperable. Patients thus affected, although they had not a complete control over their understandings, yet were self-possessed, during the attack, to obey the directions which they received. There were even some among them who did not dance at all, but only felt an involuntary impulse to allay the internal sense of disquietude, which is the usual forerunner of an attack of this kind, by laughter, and quick walking carried to the extent of producing fatigue. The St. Vituss dance attacked people of all stations, especially those who led a sedentary life. Such as shoemakers and tailors; but even the most robust peasants abandoned their labors in the fields, as if they were possessed by evil spirits; and thus those affected were seen assembling indiscriminately, from time to time, at certain appointed places, and, unless prevent by the lookers-on continuing to dance without intermission, until their very last breath was expended. Their fury and extravagance of demeanor so completely deprived them of their senses, that many of them dashed their brains out against the walls and corners of buildings, or rushed headlong into rapid rivers, where they found a watery grave. Roaring and foaming as they were, the bystanders could only succeed in restraining them by placing benches and chairs in their way, so that, by the high leaps they were thus tempted to take, their strength might be exhausted. Many there were who, even with all this exertion, had not expended the violence of the tempest which raged within them, but awoke with newly revived powers, and again and again mixed with the crowd f dancers, until at length the violent excitement of their disordered 106 nerves was allayed by the great involuntary exertion of their limbs; and the mental disorder was calmed by the extreme exhaustion of the body. The cure effected by these stormy attacks was in many cases so perfect, that some patients returned to the factory or the plow as if nothing had happened. Others, on the contrary, paid the penalty of their folly by so total a loss of power, that they could not regain their former health, even by the employment of the most strengthening remedies. Medical men were astonished to observe that women in an advanced state of pregnancy were capable of going through an attack of the disease, without the slightest injury to their offspring, which they protected merely by a bandage passed round the waist. Cases of this kind were not unfrequent so late as Schneck’s time. That patients should be violently affected by music, and their paroxysms brought on and increased by it, it natural with such nervous disorders; where deeper impressions are made through the ear, which is the most intellectual of all the organs, than through any one of the other senses. On this account the magistrates hired musicians for the purpose of carrying the St. Vitus’s dancers so much the quicker through the attacks, and directed, that athletic men should be sent among them in order to complete the exhaustion, which had been often observed to produce a good effect.* (*It is related by Felix Plater (born 1536, died 1614) that he remembered in his youth the authorities of Basle having commissioned several powerful men to dance with a girl who had the dancing mania, till she recovered from her disorder. They successively relieved each other; and this singular mode of cure lasted above 4 weeks, when the patient fell down exhausted, and being quite unable to stand, was carried to an hospital, where she recovered. She had remained in her clothes all the time, and entirely regardless of the pain of her lacerated feet, she had merely sat down occasionally to take some nourishement, or to slumber, during which the hopping movement of her body continued. Felic. Plateri Praxeos medicae opus. L. I. ch. 3. P. 88. Tom. I. Basil. 1656. 4to. Ejusd. Observation. Basil. 1641. 8. P. 92.) Throughout the whole of June prior to the festival of St. John, patients felt a disquietude and restlessness which they were unable to overcome. They were dejected, timid, and anxious; wandered about in an unsettled state, being tormented with twitching pains, which seized them suddenly in different parts, and eagerly expected the eve of St. Johns day, in the confident hope, that by danging at the altars of this saint or of St. Vitus ( for in the Breisgau aid was equally sought from both), they would be freed from all their sufferings. This hope was not disappointed; and they remained, for the rest of the year, exempt from any further attack, after having thus by dancing and raving for 3 hours, satisfied an irresistible demand of nature. There were at that period chapels in the Breisgau, visited by the St. Vitus’s dancers; namely, the Chapel of St. Vitus at Biessen, near Wasenwieler; and it is probable that in the south-west of Germany they disease was still in existence in the 17th century. They were not satisfied, however, with a dance of 3 hours duration, but continued day and night in a state of mental aberration, like personsk in an ecstasy, until they fell exhausted to the ground; and when they came to themselves again, they felt relieved from a distressing uneasiness and painful sensation of weight in their bodies of which they had complained for several weeks prior to St. Vituss day. [76] This numerous class of patients certainly contributed not a little to the maintenance of the evil, for their fantastic sufferings, in which dissimulation and reality could scarcely be distinguished even by themselves, much less by their physicians, were imitated, in the same way as the distortions of the St. Vitus’s dancers, by the impostors of that period. It was certainly by these perosns also that the number of subordinate symptoms was increased to an endless extent, as may be conceived from the daily observation of hysterical patients, who, from a morbid desire to render themselves remarkable, deviate from the laws of moral propriety. Powerful sexual excitement had often the most decided influence over their condition. Many of them exposed themselves in the most indecent manner, tore their hair out by the roots, with howling and gnashing of their teeth; and when, as was 107 sometimes the case, their unsatisfied passion hurried them on to a state of frenzy, they closed their existence by self-destruction; it being common at that time for these unfortunate beings to precipitate themselves into the wells. [77] Closely related to the flagellants were the dancers of chorisants, a fantastic sect believed by their contemporaries to be under diabolic influence, who appeared in 1374 on the Rhine and in Flanders. Their antics were particularly remarkable at Cologne, Treves, Metz, and Liege. The chronicler reports as follows: “In the year 1374, in summer, there happened a curious thing on the earth, and particularly in districts of Germany on the Rhine and the Moselle-it being that the people began to dance and rush about; they formed groups of 3 and danced in one place for half a day, and while dancing they fell to the ground and allowed others to trample on their bodies. By this they believed that they could cure themselves of illness. And they walked from one town to another and collected money from the people, wherever they could procure any. And this was carried on to such an extent that in the town of Cologne alone more than 500 dancers were to be found. And it was found to be a swindle, undertaken for the purpose of obtaining money, and that a number of them both women and men might be tempted to unchastity and succumb to it. And there were found at Cologne more than a 100 women and servant maids who had no husbands. And in their dancing bout they were all with child, and when they danced they laced up their bodies closely, so as to appear more slender. He reupon a good many masters, particularly many good physicians, said that many of those who took to dancing were affected with too full-blooded constitutions and other natural infirmities.” Another contemporary, the Dutchman Radulfus de Rivo (1350-1403), relates that the dancers went about half naked and wore wreaths in their hair, “and they engaged without shame in their dances, both sexes as if possessed, in churches and in houses, and while dancing they sang and invoked the names of unheard-of devils. When the dance was over the devils tormented them with violent pains in their chests, so that with terrible voices they shouted that they were dying if they were not tightly wrapped up round their bodies. From September to October their number increased to many thousands. From Germany new dancers came flocking every day and at Liege and in the neighbourhood many who up till then had been healthy in body and soul were suddenly seized by the demons, held out their hands to the dancers, and joined in the dance. Many of the people blamed the clergy, who lived in concubinage for this, saying that probably they had not baptized the children properly. About the time of the festival of All Saints there assembled in the market town of herstal, near Liege, a number of dancers, men and women, who resolved to proceed to Liege and to massacre all the clergy. But when they arrived at Liege and to massacre all the pious people to the clergy, they did them no harm, but, on the contrary, submitted to being healed by them and their devils being exorcised. Some were taken to the Lady Chapel of the Monastery of St. Lambert, where the priest Ludwig Loves put a consecrated stole on them and read them the Gospel “In the beginning was the word.’ Thus he healed 10 dancers, and gained such a reputation that sufferers of this kind were brought to him from all sides. In a similar manner dancing devils were exorcised in other churches at Liege. At Aix-la-Chapelle the priest dipped a girl, whose demon up to then had resisted all exorcism; up to her mouth in holy water. According to his statement the demon had dwelt in the girl for 2 years, but he was forced to come out and take himself off. By such and similar spiritual means the sect of dancers, which in the course of a year had grown beyond control, was gradually reduced. The clergy of Liege at that time acquired a agreat reputation.” A second great dancing epidemic broke out at Strasbourg in 1518: To dance at Strasbourg many hundreds began, To dance and to hop, both woman and man, In the market place, in the lanes, in the street, Day and night not a single bit did they eat, 108  Until their raging was set to rest St. Vitus’s dance they called this pest The chronicle of Daniel Speckling narrates: “In 1518 there began a dancing of young and old people; they danced day and night till they fell down; in Strasbourg over a hundred could be seen dancing at the same time. Several guildhalls were allotted to them, and in the horse and corn market a platform was erecfted for them and people were appointed to dance with them and make music with drums and pipes, but it was all of no avail. Many of them danced themselves to death. Then they were sent to the monastery of St. Vitus on the Rock, behind Zabern, in wagons, and they were given crosses and red shoes, and mass was said over them. On the shoes crosses were made, both underneath and above, and chrisam (consecrated oil mixed with balm) was poured over them. And they were sprinkled with holy water in the name of St. Vitus-this cured nearly all. This evil attacked mane people in consequence of being cursed by others with the wish that they should have St. Vitus’s dance, and much knavery was committed in this respect.” “God send you St. Vitus’s dance” or “St. Vitus plague” you were at that time a very common form of curse. On account of their evil, magic effect, they were in many towns prohibited by severe punishment. The dancing miracle of Koelbiogk shows that choreomania in consequence of a curse was by no means unknown in the 12 century. In his book, “Schimpf und Ernst” (Joke and Truth), the Barefoot Friar Johann Paulus narrates the following story, which is also to be found in many other chroniclers: “In the time of Emperor Henry II, in the 10th year of his reign, a tragic event took place in a village in Saxony. The patron saint of the village was St. Magnus, and in the church there was a priest whose name was Rupertus. When on Christmas morning he began to sing the first mass at midnight 18 persons began to sing at the same time and to dance in the churchyard, women and men. One of them was called Obertus, he was the ringleader, and they interrupted the priest at the altar and he ordered them to desist from shouting, but they would not do so. Then the priest said: ‘May it please God and St. Magnus that you should dance for a whole year.’ And the curse came over them and they could not stop dancing. And a daughter of the priest was one of the dancers. Her brother ran up and seized his sister by the arm and wanted to drag her away from the dance. And he pulled off her arm. But not a drop of blood did there fall to the ground. And there these 18 people danced and sang for a whole year without eating or drinking and without sleeping, and neither rain nor snow could touch them. They dance a hole which reached up to their waists; they did not grow weary, nor were their clothes and boots worn out. When the year was passed a bishop of Cologne came there. His name was Herebertus; he absolved them from the curse, so that they released one anothers hands and led them into the church to the altar of St. Magnus. The daughter of the priest and 2 other women died at once, and the others fell asleep and slept 3 nights and 2 days. Some died, and those who remained alive walked about the country with trembling heads and quivering limbs.” The last celebrated case of choreomania is reported from Basle in the year 1615. A servant maid made herself ill by dancing a whole month and wore out the soles of her feet. “She ate and drank but little, but danced continuously till she had wasted all her strength and had to be taken to a hospital, where she was cured. But during her dancing fit the Basle authorities ordered her to be attended by 2 strong men clad in red with a white feather in their hats, and these were ex officio obliged to relieve one another in dancing with the maniac.” As a curiosity I should like to mention what Paraclesus relates of a Mrs. Troffaea, who was really the first to invent the disease of choreomania. “she was subject to curious humours, was obstinate with her husbande; if he told her to do anything she did not like it. She invented and illness, danced and pretended she could not help dancing. She hopped about, jumped into the air, sand and hummed, wriggled for some time and then fell asleep. Hereupon it came about that other women followed her example, and one put the other up to it.”[78] 109  One of the earliest movements of social protest was the passage through France in 1251 (it was repeated in 1320) of the Pastoureaux, peasants and urban workers who wandered about pillaging, burning, and demanding betterment of their condition. Even more grotesque were the dance manias. Though these proliferated after the plagues of the next century, they commenced early in the 13th. At Erfurt in 1237 more than a hundred children attempted to jump and dance all the way to Armstadt, and many were killed.** The mania was a reality. By the end of the 13th century the dance of death began to be a popular moral theme in art and literature and reached its height in the 15th century along with the obsession with grisly memento mori. Though the danse macabre was originally a dance of the dead, it soon became a dance of living people who were reminded of the nearness of death and the vanity of the world. In the typical dance-of-death story, revelers would be checked in the midst of their dance by the appearance of a spectral figure which caused them to stop still in terror and grief. The dance of death was to a large extent a literary and artistic invention for moral purposes.*** **Fredericq, DeSecten der Geeselaars. This movement was reflected in the more grotesque dances of death that passed into art and literature. See Hecker, p. 153, for the Erfurt incident. The great outbreak of the dancers occurred in 1374. Some dance stories seem to be moral exempla rather than actual fact. At Utrecht in 1278 (Hecker, p. 153), 200 dancers are said to have danced on a bridge over the Moselle until it collapsed and they drowned; but this is similar to the famous account of the dances of Kolbig (Hecker, pp. 143-154), who in 1021, unheeding the pleas of the priest to stop their revels, were forced supernaturally to continue their dance for a full year without ceasing. ***”The Dance is a kind of sermon,” says Clark, p. 94. On the dance, see Clark, Rosenfeld, and Stegemeier.[79] Low Countries, Germany, and northern France in 1374 and continued at least until 1420, were more than responses to plagues and famines; they were manifestations of the misery and fear caused by uncontrollable and unpredictable change in a Christian society in which change was not valued. The flagellants were active into the 15th century. The dance craze had appeared in the 13th century, but the 1st wide outbreak occurred in 1374, at which time it spread rapidly throughout northwestern Europe. Called St. John’s Dancers or St. Vitus’ Dancers** in the north, they were paralleled by the Tarantella dancers of Italy, whose mania apparently began about 1350 in Apulia and spread by 1400 to northern Italy. The peak of the dance craze in the north was about 1430, but outbreaks continued through the next century and even into the 16th. Typically, the dancers would gather in the town or village, strip half naked, and dance in a circle until they fell from exhaustion. Over the prostrate bodies of the fallen the other dancers would continue until all were exhausted. Sometimes their gyrations were frighteningly grotesque. As they danced, they would call out the names of demons. Probably they believed themselves possessed and were imploring the demons to cease tormenting them; usually they were treated with kindness as needing a cure, though some authorities took a dimmer view and believed that their cries were meant to invoke demonic assistance. The dancers were for the most part poor and illiterate people; in addition, a large proportion of them were, it seems, unmarried women. Part of the explanation for this may be individual hysteria, but there have always been eager virgins and frustrated old maids, and such ladies do not always join in hysterical mass demonstrations. Witchcraft was increasingly being associated with women, and the special position of the female sex in these movements must be considered. The plagues and famines, with their concomitant shifts in population distribution- the country side being in some measure abandoned for the prosperous towns-may have put women in a peculiarly difficult position. Women tend to outlive men; often the old or even middle-aged mother, aunt, or grandmother ay have been left at home and lone in the village while the family went off to town to get better work. Perhaps the plague had carried off most of her contemporaries, increasing her sense of isolation and bitterness. Reliable demographic statistics are lacking, but men may conceivably have suffered greater mortality in the plagues, 110 increasing the number of women that were left alone. If women did in fact feel particularly anomalous and helpless in the changing society of the 14th and 15th centuries, they might well have tended more readily to participate in the antisocial frenzies of the dancers or the rites of the witches. **St. John’s Day, June 24, fell on the same day as an old pagan festival (James, Seasonal Feasts, pp. 225-226). A chapel of St. Vitus stood at Strasbourg during the dancing outbreak there in 1418. The frenzied dancers were brought there by the authorities and cured of their mania through the intercession of that saint, a 15th century martyr.[80] The occurrence of compulsive or continued dancing is also reported after the 14th century. In 1428 some women danced in the Water Church at Zurich. Another instance is reported as having occurred between 15 June and 23 June, during the feast of St. Vitus, in the cloister of St. Agnes at Schaffhausen. Here a monk danced himself to death. A third report comes from the records of the Zurich council. In 1452 a man danced in the vestibule of the Water Church. In 1518 a large epidemic of continued dancing occurred in Strassburg. Eight days before the feast of mary Magdalene a woman began to dance, and after this went on for some 4 to 6 days she was sent to the chapel of St. Vitus at Hohlenstein, near Zabern. Soon thereafter more dancers appeared and the number grew until more than a hundred danced at a time. Eventually the municipal council forbade all public gatherings and music, restriced the dancers to 2 guild halls, and then sent them off to the chapel of St. Vitus. According to one account, more than 400 people were affected within 4 weeks. Various chroniclers point out htat this was a period of ruined harvests, severe famine, general want, and widespread disease. This was also the time of the early Reformation and thus of religious unrest. Two other instances involving a single person and a small group of children occurred in 1536 at Basel and in 1551 in Anhalt, respectively. Far more interesting is a drawing by Pieter Breughel of a dance epidemic in 1564 at Moelenbeek Sint Jans, a locality which is now a section of Brussels, and when they have danced over a bridge and hopped a great deal they will be cleansed for a whole year of St. Johns disease.” Breughel was probably an eyewitness, for he depicts the participants marching and dancing in groups of 3, a woman in the middle flanked by 2 men. The arrangement is that of the 2 and 1 dance, a form of folk dance common at the time. The appearance and behaviour of the women are clearly those of persons in ecstatic trance. The occurrence of dance epidemics during this period is further confirmed by various comments and discussions in the writing of Paracelsus. In his book on invisible diseases, written about 1532, he discussed the so- called St. Vitus’ dance, attributing it to the irrational power of imagination and belief. Of considerable interest is his comparison between participants in dance frenzies and the fanatical Anabaptists, a point to which we shall return. The same condition is also considered in his treatise on diseases that deprive man of reason, where St. Vitus’ dance is described as “nothing but an imaginative sickness’ arising more frequently in women from a voluptuous urge to dance.[81] About thirty years ago London resounded with one chorus, with the love of which everybody seemed to be smitten. Girls and boys, young men and old, maidens and wives and widows, were all like musical. There was an absolute mania for singing, and the worst of it was, that, like good Father Philip in the romance of The Monastery, they seemed utterly unable to change their tune. “Cherry ripe!” “Cherry ripe!” was the universal cry of all the idle in the town. Every unmelodious voice gave utterance to it, every crazy fiddle, every cracked flute, every wheezy pipe, every street organ was heard in the same strain, until studious and quiet men stopped their ears in desperation, or fled miles away into the fields or woodlands to be a peace. This plague lasted for a 12 month, until the very name of cherries became an abomination in the land. 111  It was next thought the height of vulgar wit to answer all questions by placing the point of the thumb upon the tip of the nose, and a twirling the fingers in the air. If one man wished to insult or annoy another, he had only to make use of this cabalistic sign in his face, and his object was accomplished. At every street-corner where a group was assembled, the spectator who was curios enough to observe their movements would be sure to see the fingers of some of them at their noses, either as a mark of incredulity, surprise, refusal, or mockery, before he had watched two minutes. There is some remnant of this absurd custom to be seen to this day; but it is thought low even amoung the vulgar. About sixteen years ago, London became again most preposterously musical. The vox populi wore itself hoarse by singing the praises of “The Sea, the Sea!” If a stranger (and a philosopher) had walked through London, and listened to the universal chorus, he might have constructed a very pretty theory upon the love of the English for the sea-service, and our acknowledged superiority over all other nations upon that element, “No wonder,” he might have said, “that this people is invincible upon the ocean. The love of it mixes with their daily thoughts; they celebrate it even in the marketplace; their street-minstrels excite charity by it; and high and low, young and old, male and female, chant Io poeans in its praise. Love is not honoured in the national songs of this warlike race- Bacchus is no god to them; they are men of sterner mould, and think only of ‘the Sea, the Sea!’ and the means of conquering upon it.” Such would, doubtless, having been his impression if he had taken the evidence only of his ears. Alas, in those days for the refined ears that were musical! Great was their torture when discord, with its thousand diversities of tone, struck up this appalling anthem-there was no escape from it. The migratory minstrels of Savoy caught the innermost and snuggest apartments re-echoed with the sound. Men were obliged to endure this crying evil for full six months, wearied to desperation, and made sea-sick on the dry land.[82] Fig. 45.). Dancing mania on a pilgrimage to the church at Sint-Jans-Molenbeek. An engraving by Hendrick Hondius (1642) after a drawing by Pieter Brueghel the Elder (1564). 112 Fig. 46.). A Drawing of Italy’s La Tarantella The Tarantella Dance The word tarantula is apparently the same as terrantola, a name given by the Italians to the stallion of the Old Romans, which was a kind of Lizard.* (*Lacerta Stellion. It need scarcely be observed that the venomous nature or this harmless creature was a pure invention of Roman superstition. ) The symptoms which Perotti enumerates as consequent on the bite of the tarantula agree very exactly with those described by later writers. Those who were bitten generally fell into a state of melancholy, and appeared to be stupefied, and scarcely in possession of their senses. This condition was, in many cases, united with so great a sensibility to music, that, at the very first tones of their favorite melodies, they sprang up, shouting for joy, and danced on without intermission, until they sank to the ground exhausted and almost life-less. In others the disease did not take this cheerful turn. They wept constantly, and as if pining away with some unsatisfied desire, spent their days in the greatest misery and anxiety. Others again, in morbid fits of love cast their longing looks on women, and instances of death are recorded, which are said to have occurred under a paroxysm of either laughing or weeping. The symptoms which followed the bite of venomous spiders were well known to the ancients, and had excited the attention of their best observers, who agree in their descriptions of them. It is probable that among the numerous species of their phalangium, the Apulian tarantula is included, but it is difficult to determine this point with certainty, more especially, because in Italy the tarantula was not the only insect which caused this nervous affection, similar results being likewise attributed to the bite of the scorpion. Lividity of the whole body as well as of the countenance, difficulty of speech, tremor of the limbs, icy coldness, pale urine, depression of spirits, head- 113 ache, a flow of tears, nausea, vomiting, sexual excitement, flatulence, suncope, dysuria, watchfulness, lethargy, even death itself, were cited by them as the consequences of being bitten by venomous spiders, and they made little distinction as to their kinds. To these symptoms we may add the strange rumor, repeated throughout the middle ages, that persons who were bitten, ejected by the bowels and kidneys and even by vomiting, substances resembling a spiders web. Gariopontus, a Salernian physician of the 11th century, was the first to describe a kind of insanity, the remote affinity of which to the tarantula disease is rendered apparent by a very striking symptom. The patients in their sudden attacks behaved like maniacs, sprang up, throwing their arms about with wild movements, and, if perchance a sword was at hand, they wounded themselves and others, so that it became necessary to carefully secure them. They imagined that they heard voices, and various kinds of sounds, and if during this state of illusion, the tones of a favorite instrument happened to catch their ear, they commenced a spasmodic dance, or ran with the utmost energy which they could muster, until they were totally exhausted. [83] Under such favorable circumstances it is clear that Tarantism must every year have made further progress. The number of those affected by it increased beyond all belief, for whoever has either actually been, or even fancied that he had been, once bitten by a poisonous spider or scorpion, made his appearance annually wherever the merry notes of the tarantella resounded. Inquisitive females joined the throng and caught the disease, not indeed from the poison of the spider, but from the mental poison of the spider, but from the mental poison which they eagerly received through the eye; and thus the cure of the Tarantali gradually became established as a regular festival of the populace, which was anticipated with impatient delight. The attack consequent upon the bite of theTarantula, Matthioli describes as varying much in its manner. Some became morbidly exhilarated, so that they remained for a long while without sleep, laughing, dancing, and singing in a state of the greatest excitement. Others, on contrary, were drowsy. The generality felt nausea and suffered from vomiting, and some had constant tremors. Complete mania was no uncommon occurrence, not to mention the usual dejection of spirits. Another no less extraordinary symptom was the ardent longing for the sea which the patients evinced. As the St. Johns dancers of the 14th century saw, in the spirit, the heavens open and display all the splendor of the saints, so did those who were suffering under the bite of the Tarantula feel themselves attracted to the boundless expanse of the blue ocean, and lost themselves in its contemplation. Some songs, which are still preserved, marked this peculiar longing, which was moreover expressed by significant music, and was excited even by the bare mention of the sea. Some in whom this susceptibility was carried to the greatest pitch, cast themselves with blind fury into the blue waves, as the St. Vitus's dancers occasionally did into rapid rivers. This condition, so opposite to the frightful state of hydrophobia, betrayed itself in others only in the pleasure afforded them by the sight of clear water in glasses. These, they bore in their hands while dancing, exhibiting at the same time strange movements, and giving way to the most extravagant expressions of their feelings. They delighted also when, in the midst of the space allotted for this exercise, more ample vessels, filled with water and surrounded by rushes and water plants, were placed, in which they bathed their heads and arms with evident pleasure. Others there were who rolled about on the ground, and were, by their own desire, buried up to the neck in earth, in order to alleviate the misery of their condition, not to mention an endless variety of other symptoms which showed the perverted action of the nerves. It was customary, therefore, so early as the commencement of the 17th century, for whole bands of musicians to traverse, Italy during the summer months, and, what is quite unexampled either in ancient or modern times, the cure of the Tarantati in the different towns and villages was undertaken on a grand scale. This season of dancing and music was called “the women’s little carnival,” for it was women more especially who conducted the 114 arrangements; so that throughout the whole country they saved up their spare money, for the purpose of rewarding the welcome musicians, and many of them neglected their household employments to participate in this festival of the sick. Mention is even made of the benevolent lady (Mita Lupa) who had expended her whole fortune on this object. The music itself was of a kind perfectly adapted to the nature of the malady, and it made so dep an impression on the Italians, that even to the present time, long since the extinction of the disorder, they have retained the Tarantella, as a particular species of music employed for quick lively dancing. The different kinds of Tarantella were distinguished, very significantly, by particular names, which had reference to the moods observed in the patients. Whence it appears that they aimed at representing by these tunes, even the idiosyncracies of the mind as expressed in the countenance. Thus there was one kind of Tarantella which was called “Panno rosso,” a very lively impassioned style of music, to which wild dithyrambic songs were adapted; another, called “Panbno verde,” which was suited to the milder excitement of the senses, caused by green colors, and set to Idyllian songs of verdant fields and shady groves. A 3rd was named “Cinque tempi;” a 4th “Moresca,” which was played to a Moorish dance,” a 5th “Satena,” and a 6th with a very appropriate designation, “Spallata,” as if it were only for to be played to dancers who were lame in the shoulder. This was the slowest and least in vogue of all.* For those who loved water they took care to select love songs, which were sung to corresponding music, and such persons delighted in hearing of gushing springs and rushing cascades and streams. (* Ferdinand. P. 259. Slow music made the Tarantel dancers feel as is they were crushed: spezati, minuzzati, p. 260.) [84] In Italy at the end of the 14th century a species of choreomania developed from the bite of a poisonous spider-the tarantula-or rather from the dread of its consequences. As in Germany St. Vitus’s dance, so this illness spread in Italy by sympathy. Music had an irresistible power over sufferers from this disease. “If during the dance the clarionets and drums broke down, for these maniacs wore out the most energetic musicians, they immediately let their joyfully agitated limbs relapse, they sank sick and exhausted to the ground, and could find no other relief than in renewed dancing. On that account care was taken that the music should continue till they were quite exhausted, and it was preferred to pay a few extra musicians to relieve one another than to allow the patients to relapse in the midst of the health restoring dance into so discomforting a malady. A no less surprising symptom was the longing of the patients for the sea. As the dancers of St. Johns night in their imagination saw the heavens open and all the glory of the saints, those who were suffering from the bite of tarantula felt themselves attracted by the endless blue surface of the sea and lost themselves in its contemplation.” “Many demanded red clothing or to wield shining swords in their hands and with these latter imitated the fights of gladiators; others, when taking a short rest after dancing, made holes in the earth, filled these with water and wished to grovel in them like swine; others again demanded mirrors and sighed when they regarded their own reflecdtion. Many restored to graves and desert places, lay down as if dead on funeral biers, threw themselves into wells, rolled about in filth, demanded to be beaten in various parts of their bodies, and found great relief in the exertion of running; otherwise modest maidens and matrons lost all sense of shame, sighed, howled, amade indecent gestures, and uncovered obscene parts of their bodies.”[85] Attacks occurred at the height of the summer in July and August. People would suddenly feel an acute pain, which they attributed to the bite of a tarantula; there upon they would jump up and run in to the street where they hopped, jumped, and danced wildly. While all ages and both sexes were affected, the majority of the dancers were young, and more women than men were affected. Most of the dancers were peasants, but members of the gentry and the clergy were involved. By contract with some of the dancers of northern Europe who abhorred anything red, the Italian tarantati could not endure the sight of black. Some bound reeds or vines around 115 their necks; others tore their clothes, immodestly revealing their nakedness; still others beat each other with whips. The physician Baglivi who described tarantism in 1695 reported that women exhibited particularly strange behaviour. Some women dug holes in the earth and rolled about the ground; others liked to be tossed in the air; while still others uttered sighs and howls and made obscene signs. All this took place at the accompaniment of music. Dancing was considered the sovereign remedy for the tarantula bite, and the dancers continued for days until exhausted. Then, like the dances described by Schneck and Horst, they were relieved until the following year. In many instances the music alone was sufficing to revive the frenzy, and this happened every summer. Tarantism is believed to have been present in Italy in the 14th century or even earlier, but did not become prominent until the 17th century, and by the middle of the following century had apparently become a subject for historical study.[86] Fig. 47.). A poster combining the St. Vitus Dance with the Dance of Death 720: Dancing is considered foolish. I must admit that I personally see it as foolish in the western civilization thought. In tribal environments I don’t see it as foolish because it signifies purpose and there is usually much magic and importance involved. Some people may need to dance. Who knows. It’s a scientific fact that the more intelligence gain the less danger and stress you apply to your body. In the medieval mind all dancing was correlated with the devil directly or indirectly. This goes for the mania and other forms of dancing that are witchcraft related. The spiritual development to build the gas which is the aura to the activity was done here. In a spirit to die and yell out demon names. Which could be compared to todays club atmosphere. We can also see that there was a large influence to dance on urban culture coming from the media. This was seen in movies like marching band and the like. For instance I have seen black fraterneties do a dance slapping their feet and elbows everywhere. But I’ve never seen a white fraternity do a dance, not to say that there isn’t one. It’s all about how the business is conducted. These type of activities they keep amongst themselves and behind closed doors. I just found out that the Irish jig could be the true origins of today’s Crip walk. It was danced during the appellation of the angelitos in the case of the death of children. This motif of cheer and consolation pervades the Spanish wakes for children 116 “Estan con los angeles.” Note the connection between Los Angeles being sung for the death of children as the crip walk was being danced. In our society dancing has been adjusted to the nature of children as well. As a sign of uncontrolled freedom. As the wares of the day remind one thoroughly that work must be done. With eminent danger at every corner and blatant symptoms from disease which threaten your existence a sense of do whatever before you die satisfies the soul or worrying. Therefore that’s exactly what they did. They did whatever they wanted to do regardless of who it effected and how. Color Mania They were still more irritated at the sight of red colors, the influence of which on the disordered nerves might lead us to imagine an extraordinary accordance between this spasmodic malady and the condition of infuriated animals; but in the St. Johns dancers this excitement was probably connected with apparitions consequent upon their convulsions. There were likewise some of them who were unable to endure the sight of persons weeping.[87] The abhorrence of certain colors and the agreeable sensations produced by others, were much more marked among the excitable Italians than was the case in the St. Vitus’s dance with the more phlegmatic Germans. Red colors, which the St. Vitus’s dancers detested, they generally liked, so that a patient was seldom seen who did not carry a red handkerchief for his gratification, or greedily feast his eyes on any articles of red clothing worn by the by-standers. Some preferred yellow, others black colors, of which an explanation was sought, according to the prevailing notions of the times, in the difference of temperaments. Others again were enraptured with green; and eye-witnesses describe this rage for colors as so extraordinary, that they can scarcely find words with which to express their astonishment. No sooner did the patients obtain a sight of the favorite color than, new as the impression was, they rushed like infuriated animals toward the object, devoured it with their eager looks, kissed and caressed it in every possible way, and gradually resigning themselves to softer sensations, adopted the languishing expression of enamored lovers, and embraced the handkerchief, or whatever other article it might be, which was presented to them, with the most intense ardor, while the tears streamed from their eyes as if they were completely overwhelmed by the inebriating impression on their senses. At the site of colors which they disliked, patients flew into the most violent rage, and, like the St. Vitus’s dancers when they saw red objects, could scarcely be restrained from tearing the clothes of those spectators who raised in them such disagreeable sensations.[88] 720: Before I go any further, I’d like to mention my theory pertaining to colors. Each main color has 7 definitions that’s 3 positive, 3 negative and 1 neutral. For Instance black is a color which means judgement, mystery, death it’s neutral would be unknown knowledge, its positives would be graduation, birth, power. Depending on color combination as well, definitions can be merged. The colors that excited them either into sexual passions or extreme violence are used in our everyday lives. What they are used for are aimed specifically for a response. For instance: a stop light, sign, or brake lights are all red indicating stop and emergency. The same is the natural response of seeing blood on one’s self, a person or just spilled on the ground it does create an excitement in the mind to react in some way. Red also means love, hot, sex, fertility, war/planet mars, conquer, virginity and it is considered a masculine color and so is yellow, this is also may differentiate by the shade. Yellow, which is also used as a warning color that is both on street lights, car lights, hazard signs, it is an awareness of your surrounding color. Yellow also is defined as sickness, fat, puss, disease, cowardice, gold/sun (as gold & silver are colors that can’t be created supposedly), wealth, happiness, cleanliness, honey and when combined with pink or white it will mean 117 fertility. When red and yellow are put into combination as all of our modern day fast food restaurants use them in their logos it represents fire, fat for your blood here, emergency hunger sufficed here, love, cooked now. So basically you are subconsciously driven towards products/services by the proper utilization of colors this also includes shapes. Part of the reason you do not see a popular color like blue exciting violent or even sexual behavior because it is the color of brotherhood, unity, freedom and truth. I also believe during the Medieval times the Crimson types of colors were invented, as there was much reliance on the strength of these colors to represent families in banners and crests. I can’t say the same for neon colors which I’ve seen in Ancient Egypt. Fig. 48.). A painting of the Devil dying cloth. The statements made subsequently by many of the dancers were most fantastic. They had felt as if they had been immersed in a stream of blood. Others in their ecstasy saw the heavens open and the Saviour throning on high with the mother of God. The pathological abhorrence for pointed shoes displayed by the dancers was remarkable, and the sight of anything of a red colour drove them to raving madness. There were also some who could not bear the sight of anyone weeping. [89] This listing is designed to meet the needs of people looking for the symbolic meanings of Medieval and Renaissance clothing colors. It also describes the colors worn by certain members of society. The meaning of colors is not a simple and exact body of knowledge. Even during the Renaissance and Medieval periods, the meanings of colors were debated (more about this below the list). So, consider yourself forewarned about the vagaries of color symbolism in clothing. The list below, while not comprehensive, does provide ideas from secondary sources about what different colors represented and how they were used. • Reds - Renaissance o High social status, royalty, gentlemen, men of justice. o Worn by judges and similar persons (Scotland, the Holy Roman Empire, England’s Court of Common Pleas, occasionally by peers in English Parliament); royal magistrates, king’s chancellor (France); high government posts (Venice and Florence). o Cosmopolitan man with access to international trading centers. o Power and prestige. 118  o In the Church, red was a symbol of authority, Pentecostal fire, the blood of Christ, martyrdom, crucifixion, Christian charity. Also, could symbolize the satanic and color of hellfire. o At the universities of Padua and Bologna, red was symbolic of medicine. • Reds - Medieval o ’A lover wears vermilion, like blood’ (later Middle Ages). o A sign of otherworldly power in European legends and folktales. Also, protection: red thread to ward off witches, red coral necklaces to guard against illness. o Sometimes the color of the Virgin Mary’s robes. o The color of kings, identified with kingly virtues of valor and success in war. Also, fire. o A rich man. • Oranges - Renaissance o The peasants and middle ranked persons imitated upper class reds by dyeing their Renaissance clothes with cheaper orange-red and russet dyes. • Oranges - Medieval - nothing currently noted. • Yellows - Renaissance o In almost all Italian cities, a prostitute was required to wear yellow. o In Venice, Jews were required to sew a yellow circle onto clothing. • Yellows - Medieval o In later Middle Ages, a harmonious color expressing the balance between the red of justice and the white of compassion. o Late 1300s in Venice, a prostitute is known by her yellow dress. • Greens - Renaissance o Youth, especially in May. o In the secular sphere, chastity. o Love and joy. • Greens - Medieval – nothing currently noted. • Blues - Renaissance o Light blue represented a young marriageable woman. o In England, blue was the traditional color of servitude. Servants or members of a City company were to wear bright blue or gray Renaissance clothing. o Indigo or deep blue means chastity in the sacred sphere. o “. . . turquoise was a sure sign of jealousy . . .” • Blues - Medieval o In the late Middle Ages, blue replaced royal purple in the mantle of the Virgin Mary and robes and heraldry (especially in France). o A lover wears blue for fidelity (late Middle Ages). o By the 1300s, peasants owned blue Medieval clothing due to woad dye being readily available. o Early Middle Ages, blue was associated with darkness, evil. Later blue was associated with light. • Purples - Renaissance and Medieval o During the Renaissance, the Medici family in Florence, Italy wore purple. o Since Antiquity, the color of kings and emperors, but mostly nonexistent in Renaissance and Medieval era due to near extinction of the snail used to make imperial purple. Imperial purple disappeared in 1453. • Browns - Renaissance o Modest and religious dress. o Beige was the color of poverty. o In England, dull browns were worn by lower classes. • Browns - Medieval - nothing currently noted. 119 • Grays - Renaissance o Modest and religious dress. o The color of poverty. o Female slaves in 1400s Florence were constrained to wear course woolens and no bright colors. o In England, servants or members of a City company were to wear bright blue or gray. Grays for the lower classes. • Grays - Medieval o Color of peasant clothing (eighth century, by order of Charlemagne). • Blacks - Renaissance o Seriousness. o Mourning. o Color of clothing for nobility and wealthy, representing refinement and distinction. o Worn by Philip the Good, Duke of Burgandy after 1419 as a symbol to the French that he did not forget the death of his father. “His black is at once dangerous, retributive . . .” o Worn by king’s ministers as a sign of their selves being submitted to the will of the king. Also, symbolizes defeat, humiliation and humility. o In the 1400s, black began to suggest smartness, importance, sophistication, great dignity and state. Also, sad, melancholy, a humble color worn by mourners and monks. An expensive color to produce indicating social distinction and thus not worn by the lower classes. o In the 1400s, merchants regularly wear black. o Traditional color of Venice, and attributed to piety and virtue. Piety, to a Venetian, was that which increased the empire. o A high fashion color in the mid-1500s. o A Venetian senator wore black. o In Genoa, Italy, the Doge and aristocracy wore black. o In England, lower class women wore primarily black Fig. 49.). Painting of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy by Rogier van der Weyden, from a dedication page of the Chroniques de Hainault, 1400-1464. [Public domain] 120  • Blacks - Medieval o Black worn by a melancholy lover yearning with love. o Color of peasant clothing (eighth century, by order of Charlemagne). Note that the quality of black may not be the same as the black referenced above for the Renaissance period, thus less expensive and accessible to peasants. o According to Pope Innocent III about 1200, black is color of penance and mourning, used for Advent and Lent. o The color of mourning in Brittany. • Whites - Renaissance o White is purity for women and chastity for men. o At the universities of Padua and Bologna, white was symbolic of the humanities. • Whites - Medieval o A lover wears white for purity (later Middle Ages). o According to Pope Innocent III about 1200, white is color of innocence and purity, and was used on the feasts of the Virgin. o Compassion (later Middle Ages). o In France, white was the color of mourning. Color symbolism during the Renaissance and Medieval periods has much in common with color symbolism today. Consider, for example, the current meanings of colors. In present-day U.S. culture, black is usually associated with mourning, unless it is in the form of a little, black cocktail dress in which case it signifies sophistication and elegance. White means purity in the form of a wedding dress, unless you are in China or Japan where it means mourning. Blue is for feeling sad unless you win a blue first prize ribbon. Green is for youth and it also means ‘go’ at a stoplight. Stop at red and yet on Valentine’s Day send your loved one a red heart. In a similar manner, the symbolic meanings of color during the Renaissance and Medieval periods differed over time, and depended on local culture and geographic area. As John Gage points out in his book Color and Meaning, colour-perceptions are unstable, making it difficult to confidently name colour-meanings and preferences in cultures. The primary problem for students of the Renaissance and Medieval era is a lack of universally agreed-upon symbols. Not only was there more than one system of color symbols in place, but the different systems contradicted each other. For instance, “The regal purple of Christ’s robe may be the same as the scarlet of sin.” Or another example, in the 1500s, writers in Venice, Italy “. . . began to compare the various opinions and to find that they had very little in common. In a series of dialogues on love, where, of course, the expressive force of colours was seen to play a vital role, Mario Equicola in 1525 admitted the dangers of talking of colours at all, because of the differences in ancient and modern terms and because different authorities gave different equivalents for the colours of the elements or the planets; worse, ‘the meanings of colours are somewhat different among the Italians, the Spanish and the French’. . . An assortment of colours according to their meaning, said Morato, might even have a very disagreeable aesthetic effect.” Nevertheless, it is possible to see that some colors were considered more valuable and had more significant meanings than others. Often these were the colors with high economic value, like red and purple. Since, the economic values tended to be the same for much of Europe, general conclusions can be drawn. However, if historical accuracy for clothing colors is important, then focusing a particular region and time period is recommended.[90] A pamphlet from 1542-chosen at random from the many precursors of the newspaper published in Antwerp at this time-contains a sensational report of a plague of grasshopperlike creatures that were afflicting 121 Italy. These insects, though, were much more terrifying than grasshoppers, because they were purported to be an instrument of God’s wrath. They were monstrous in every sense and “of a color similar to goose dung.” To describe a color with the greatest possible accuracy, the author chose a frame of reference that reflected the general knowledge and realm of experience of his readers, who certainly knew what goose droppings looked like. Nowadays we would probably have to look it up, unless we happen to be farmers, biologists, or bird-watchers. In any case, “goose-turd green’ is doubtless a different hue now than it was then. Clearly, we will never be able to ascertain the true color of those insects. Color is not a substance but a quality made manifest by light. It is based on our perception of the light reflected by an object. This concept has been generally accepted only since the 17th century, when Newton used a prism to refract a ray of white light into its component colors, producing chromatic dispersion. Without light there is no color. The color of an object is determined by 2 factors: the type of light and its intensity. The sensitivity of an illuminated surface to the different components of light also plays a role. If an object reflects the red in a light ray but absorbs the other components, we perceive that object as red. Color thus depends on the capacity of a surface, whether painted or not, to absorb light of various intensities.[91] It was also prevalent in popular culture, so often a breeding ground for exempla, the exemplary stories used to spice up lay sermons. The following story serves to illustrate this point: A heavily pregnant woman lay tossing and turning in bed, dwelling on the blackamoor’s heade on the signboard across the street. All day long she lay there staring, unable to take her eyes off it. Shortly thereafter she gave birth to a black baby, much to her husband’s consternation. The couple concluded that the sign must have been to blame. Woe betide those who underestimate the power of color![92] Similar tall tales were even told by the enlightened Karel van Mander, a Renaissance literary man and painter obsessed with classicist ideals. Van Mander’s education did not prevent him from dredging up old superstitions about color in his 1604 treatise Foundation of the noble, liberal art of painting. He, too, tells stories of women giving birth to babies who were the color their mothers had been thinking of at conception or who displayed blemishes of a hue that had frightened the mother when pregnant. If she had been particularly afraid of bleeding, for example, her children would be born with red birthmarks.[93] The title of a 14th century Dutch verse leaves us in no doubt: “On 6 colors and the 12 year stages of life, the one explained by the other”: Six colors our God did bestow On his Creation here below, In his munificence and grace, So with free will the human race Could know their God and thereby learn To thank and worship him in turn. The author then connects white-silver (referring to the color by both its common name and its heraldis tincture, argent) with the first 12 year stage of human life, when the child is pure and untainted-in fact angelic. Green-vermilion stands for the age of youth between 12 and 24, a period of growth comparable to spring, a season bursting with energy. The stages continue until the black-sable stage between 60 and 72, expressive of simplicity and acquiescence. Despite all these differences in interpretation, the tone was set by a color scheme dominated by white, red, and black-the colors of the horses in the Book of Revelation-sometimes joined by green or yellowish green, This notion persisted until the end of the Middle Ages, as did the rather fixed associations of these colors with the gifts 122 of the Holy Spirit: piety, fortitude, charity, and hope. Anyone who did not know enough to wear these colors was obviously mad. In a late-medieval song, fools proudly declare their aversion to green, white, black, and red: where was greater idiocy to be found? Were crazy sots, it is our lot; To this we are not blind! In this world of sin, we make a din, We’ve clearly lost our mind. We know not green, white, black, or red; Have you seen greater fools of late? Our lunacy is so widespread, We’ll be quite mad until we’re dead; For spouting nonsense is our fate! These colors, it was generally believed, had shaped the world, and they still reigned supreme. The great Flemish poet Jacob van Maerlant, for example, reported that these were the colors that had decorated the walls of Troy. And the German author Walther von der Vogelweide maintained that these 4 colors held sway over the whole of Creation: “On the outside the world is beautifully white, green, and red, and on the inside black and somber as death.” Red-white-black became the basic color scheme, a development that is more logical than it might seem at first glance. For centuries, red-not black-was thought to be the exact opposite of white. The devil, for example, was often portrayed in red. In tales of chivalry such as walewein, red-clad knights are cast in a negative role. Even more revelating is the fact that until well into the 12th century such intellectual games as chess and checkers were played with with red and white pieces. Gradually, however, darker hues began to make head way. The devil was portrayed with increasing frequency in black, and red knights were pushed to the sidelines by black knights. In the knightly epic Karel ende Elegast, Elegast chooses black armor when he is forced to conceal his identity. When his blamelessness emerges at the end of the story, however he immediately sheds his black exterior. The persistence of this color scheme can also be explained by its mythical underpinnings. In the fairy tale “Little Red Riding Hood,” a girl dressed in red brings white butter to a supposed grandmother decked out in black. In “Snow White,” a witch dressed in black brings a red apple to a girl whose complexion is whiter than white. The same mythical values return in Hitler’s swastika symbolism, which made use of these 3 ur-colors.[94] In class satire, a popular literary genre in those days, similar attacks on dyers and painters form a proper subgenre. Around 1562, in Harlem, a black comedy was performed in which the devil-in-chief-Lucifer-extols cloth dyers as the best-loved in habitants of his diabolical domain: “The cloth dyers daily go about their cunning business. They habitually hang their cloth in the smoke, to make it look more blue. And if I were to reveal all I know about their mischievous malpractices, I would surely put these impostors to shame.” Elsewhere in the play, Lucifer also introduces painters, glassblowers, and sculptors as kindred crooks “who mislead folk with their bizarre transformations.” Colors emphasized wealth and were therefore used to express power, ostentation, consequence, and distinction. Both the higher clergy and the nobility exploited these uses, while at the same time claiming to distance themselves from the overpowering language of color. Peasants, workers, and the lower middle classes, however, simply couldn’t afford brilliant or even lasting colors. Shirts, doublets, stockings, and kerchiefs were often treated with vegetable dyes, with such inadequate results that a shower of rain would wash out the color in the peasants’ blue smocks. Unlike the picture painted by many films, medieval villages and cities were inconceivably gray and dismal, even more than we imagine a 19th 123 century manufacturing town to have been. As a result, a nobleman riding past in his scarlet or purple cloak would have stood out all the more.[95] Contemporaries considered the switch to dark colors in the higher circles to be connected with the great plague epidemics of the mid-14th century. This unmistakable sign of God’s wrath, which they felt could not go unheeded, gave rise to an atmosphere of penitence, resignation, reticence, and grief-and colors to match. This is testified to with a leaden heart in a late-14th century song from aristocratic circles in Bruges: A habit my heart now doth wear, It’s black, the one it has put on. And underneath it, always there, A gray one it has chosen to don. How can my heart’s cares e’er be gone? For black is mourning, gray is toil. From lust and mirth it doth recoil. Black and blue became the colors associated with keeping a respectable silence, distancing oneself, and, in particular, retreating from public exposure. This is why the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V ordered black tapestries for his walls after his abdication in 1556. His royal household, however, soon put such melancholy contrition to good use by devising new ways to distinguish themselves. They had their black wall hangings and clothing made of the costliest silk-the perfect backdrop for precious stones of subtle colors. Just as long as there was no trace of color in the cloth itself. The colorful effects of stained class, so essential to the medieval sense of beauty, were also toned down to earth colors, enlivened by some yellow. 16th-century stained-glass windows-both sacred and profane-were dominated by shades of gray, brown, white, and yellow. The effect of the sun shining through them was to make the walls warmer and more earthly. Apparently, it was becoming less acceptable to see lightning like flashes of contrasting color bursting through the church windows.[96] Apart from hair, however, there are no other constants determining the ideals of womanly beauty. Blue eyes were not part of the medieval ideal, whereas in our time they have an almost clichéd connection with blond hair. The medieval aversion to blue eyes probably harks back to classical antiquity, when blue eyes were reminders of the barbarians from the north. Women with blue eyes were thought to be wanton, while blue-eyed men were considered effeminate or even insane. Terence, a Roman writer of comedies, endowed his foolish characters with blue eyes and bright red faces. Green eyes were thought to be wicked, especially when combined with yellow hair, because this gave rise to the green-yellow color scheme indicative of folly or lunacy. In the Middle Ages, blondes were supposed to have brown eyes and black-or at the very least dark brown- eyebrows. This combination, so strange to us nowadays, paved the way for hair-dyeing methods that enabled all those dark-eyed brunettes to achieve the ideal with relative ease. Why brown or black eyes, though? One can choose any reason one likes from the mind-boggling number of theories on offer. Medieval color symbolism practically works on demand, offering a limitless range of possible applications. Brown is the color of the earth. This was immediately suspect because the earth was also the devil’s playground. Brown, moreover, stood for everything that was dark and sinister. On the other hand, the color brown could also express the utmost humility and a profound awareness of one’s own mortality. In fact, it was usually taken to have the latter sense, viewed as a kind of noncolor that neutralized the habits of Franciscan monks and proclaimed penance, voluntary humiliation, and utter mortification. The challenging combination of blond hair and brown eyes constituted an unusual contrast that was, for whatever reason, associated with the ultimate in beauty. Blond hair and brown eyes are, after all, a rarity among 124 Western peoples. Except for this combination, though, brown and black were signs of extreme ugliness in women.[97] Yellow was the color of sorrow, covetousness, hunger, and death, all of which were portrayed on the late- medieval stage as the embodiment of discomfort and disaster. A favorite starting point for such discourse was the apocalyptic “pale” horse in the Book of Revelation (6:8), upon which Death sat. Perhaps yellow also derived its negative connotations from the fact that it was often worn by such outsiders as Jews and Muslims, who were thought to be traitors, just like all non-Christian inhabitants of the Mediterranean region. By dressing in yellow, therefore, people could express their disapproval-not only at courtly festivities but in real life as well-by means of their color-coded clothes. Hadn’t the nobleman Hendrik van Wurttemberg worn yellow as a way of demonstrating his dislike of the duke of Burgundy? The chronicler Olivier de la Marche reports that in 1474 this knight had ordered his entire retinue to dress in yellow livery to express his loathing as they marched past Charles the Bold. The wearing of certain colors to make a statement during a procession was not at all unusual. In 1411, for example, Parisians demonstrated their allegiance to the duke of Burgundy by wearing the blue caps bearing the ducal coat of arms. Yellow was the color of heathens past and present. The knightly badge of yellow contained an unwritten message: this man will be a heathen. The 4th Lateran Council of 1215 made it compulsory for Jews to wear-preferably over the heart-a yellow identification bade. Alternatively, they could be ordered to wear a pointed yellow hat. The French court followed suit half a century later (in 1269) and decreed that all Jews had to wear a yellow mark of identification. They had to be clearly recognizable in daily life, so that no one would mistake them for Christians, hence a circle the size of the palm of the hand had to be worn on the chest and back. This ordinance was immediately coupled to another one, offering a reward to anyone denouncing Jews in violation of this law. The reward consisted of the outer garments of the offender in question. Such yellow badges of infamy were also pressed on Muslims, whores, adulterous women, heretics, witches, sorcerers, and even ignoble figures such as executioners. In Lubeck, in 1402, a wandering monk by the name of William, who had been accused of heresy, was sentenced to life imprisonment. Even in the dungeon he was made to wear a penitential yellow cross, which he tore off and trampled underfoot. Yellow, in fact, was used in medieval society to punish all who disgraced themselves in any way. There is evidence that in the Meuss region and Flanders the houses of defaulters and conterfeiters were ordered by the court to be painted yellow. The best evidence for the sinister significance of yellow was provided, however, by the “science” of physiognomy, which teaches that character and disposition can be judged from facial features, such as the color and position of the eyes. Dots around the iris were said to be indicative of wickedness, in accordance with the notion that multicoloredness and wild patterns seldom meant anything good. If such eyes were also brown, however, with the irises ringed with yellow, the person in question was certainly a murderer. The combination of green and yellow denoted folly, the total madness demonstrated by those who had lost control of the senses and emotions and , like animals, had no power of reason whatsoever. Court jesters and all other fools, real or feigned, typically wore green and yellow. The negative connotations of yellow have endured. Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, it was common to wear-or suggest that others wear-yellow hose, yellow breeches, or yellow shoes as a sign of jealousy. Moreover, yellow is the traditional color of cowardice, hence references to people with a “yellow streak.” And a yellow traffic light, just like a yellow card in soccer, is a warning to be ignored at ones peril. When yellow meets red, things go from bad to worse, and all the wicked elements in the latter are activated. The result is orange, thought to be very negative indeed. In medieval times, people with red or carrot- colored hair were considered downright evil, the prime example being the redheaded Judas, the achtraitor who 125 committed the worst betrayal imaginable in exchange for money. In this last respect, he also functioned as the prototype of the Jewish usurer, typically portrayed with red hair. Judasis redness was also evident from his last name Iscariot-intepreted in German-speaking regions “is gar rot” (“is very red”).[98] Red headedness was also a characteristic of recalcitrant servants, rebellious sons, perjured brothers, adulterous women, executioners, whores, usurers, money changers, counterfeiters, acrobats, clowns, barber- surgeons, swindling smiths, greedy millers, bloodthirsty butchers, heretics, Jews, Muslims, Bohemians, hypocrites, lepers, the weak and infirm, suicides, beggars, vagabonds, and the destitute. The words used to characterize this motley crew are heathendom, betrayal, usury, and disrepute. It is not surprising, therefore, that warnings were constantly issued against redheads. One scholarly text points with alarm to blushing red faces, which were thought to be indicative of lunacy, aggression, slyness, and betrayal. A 14th century etiquette book cautions against staying in the house of a redhead for the same reasons. Seek lodgings elsewhere, it advises, for such people are impostors and cheats. We cannot rule out the possibility that redheads were tacitly assumed to be the sinful product of conception during menstruation. Any sexual activity not aimed at procreation was thought to be the work of the devil. Furthermore, it was known that menstrual blood could precipitate disaster. One look from a menstruating woman was enough to cause an infant to break out in spots. A dog who swallowed menstrual blood would instantly turn rabid. Redheaded children, innately crazy and aggressive, must have been conceived at a time when the devil had unleashed his lewd arts of seduction on the unsuspecting. Nature-God’s handiwork all the same-took revenge by creating a ruddy mutant that bore witness to such devilry. The devil himself was also portrayed in red or as a redhead. This is the legacy of ancient and heathen bloodthirstiness, which manifested itself in the color red. In any case, Germanic battle scenes seem to cry out for red. The combatants dyed their hair red before riding out to battle; their war gods, Donar and Wotan, wore red cloaks just like the Roman god of war, Mars. No wonder, then, that Christianity was suspicious of this color, seeing devilry in all things red. Red indicates the presence of Satan, and witches who have made a pact with the devil must be destroyed by red fire. In the Book of Revelation, he who has the power “to take peace from the earth” sits on a red horse (6:4), while the Whore of Babylon is “arrayed in purple and scarlet” and sits on “a scarlet colored beast” (17:3-4). Generally speaking, physical characteristics involving the color red are hardly ever good. In the 15th century, a number of people who were banished from Sint Winoksbergen in Flanders for gross misconduct were recorded as having physical characteristics that matched their offensive behavior. There was not only a Gielis with red hair but also a Jacob with a red eye and a Katlijn with 2 red eyes.[99] Earth (cold, dry) Black bile Melancholic Spleen Autumn Prone to sadness Water (cold, wet) Phlegm Phlegmatic Lungs Winter Prone to apathy Air (warm, wet) Blood Sanguine Head Spring Prone to optimism Fire (warm dry) Yellow bile Choleric Gall bladder Summer Prone to anger [100] 126 Fig. 50.).A demon removes a tiny-replica Judas Iscariot from Judas Iscariot's disemboweled body. Canavesio, 15th c, 720: We definitely can see that the European culture is so hate related that before they were able to institutionalize racism on other races of the earth it was sharply practiced in Old Europe. The red head is considered extremely evil and untrustworthy and this may be why it is associated with Irish people in our modern day stereotype. The hatred of the Irish is definitely seen during the beginning of the slave trade in America. I don’t know the deeper roots to this hatred. Also women were labelled evil for menstruating and the prostitutes inclusive with Jews (this was also done during WWII) had to be identified with yellow patches. This singling out mentality is deep rooted in the Caucasian psyche. At all times we must have a clear dividing line on who is who and what is what and if we can do this with colors at the same time defame and slander then it shall be done with color. As in truth, colors are silent. The madman was already visible in the Middle Ages, through a vocabulary of images which blended schematic representations of various symptoms and symbolic references to madness into an integrated portrait of 127 the insane. This iconography was extended to all the figures associated with any divergence from the societies accepted norms for sanity, whether the maniac, the idiot, the melancholic, the wild man, or the possessed. As the images of the madman evolved, aspects of the imagery of each group permeated the others, generating an interchangeable set of icons by which the insane were either observed or identified. Such an icon of insanity can be found within the medieval romance. In the Ywain legend, part of the myth associated with Brittany, a pivotal incident is Ywains betrayal of his promise to return to his wife, Alundyne. This drives him into madness. In Hartmann von Aue’s German version of the legend, written about 1200, Ywain roams throught he forest, creating fear wherever he is seen. In his appearance he becomes more and more the image of the madman as wild man, echoing the biblical description of the madness of Nebuchadnezzar, who, in Daniel 4:33, “was driven from men and did eat grass as oxen, and his body was wet with dew of heaven, till his hairs were grown like eagles’ feathers, and his nails like birds’ claws.” Hartmann’s description adds one further aspect to the appearance of the madman, not present in the biblical text. For this Ywain is black! Ywain is not the only madman depicted as black. In Wirnt von Grafensbergs Wiglois, written about a decade after Hartmann’s poem, the hero is confronted with a monster: Soon the Knight of the Wheel saw floating on the water a small raft which was tied to a post by the bank at a large willow twig. He squeezed through the dense underbrush, took the raft, and pulled it back to where he had left his horse. In a nearby rock was a cave from which he saw running toward him a woman who was all black and shaggy as a bear. She had neither great beauty nor good manners; indeed she was a monster. Here the madness of the wild woman is characterized by her description as being both hairy and black. This tradition appears again in the anonymous Wolfdietrich of the mid 13th century: A monstrous woman, born from the wild, came toward him through the trees. There was never any bigger woman. The noble knight thought to himself: “O dear Christ, protect me!” Two monstrous breasts were hung from her body. “Whoever gets you,” the wise knight spoke: “Gets the devil’s mother, I do believe.” Her nose hangs over her chin; stringy, black is her hair. The association of madness and blackness seems a commonplace, at least in the medieval German romance. Richard Bernheimer, in his study of the wild man in art and literature, observes: “It must be added in parenthesis, that the writers of the romances do not regard hairiness as a necessary symptom of wildness induced by insanity; they are satisfied with describing the victims total disarray, or with letting him turn all black as a sign of his demonic state.” However, just as the madness of Nebuchadnezzar is associated with hairiness, so too there is a clear biblical allusion to the association of blackness with madness. When the biblical discussions of blackness and their exegesis in the Middle Ages are examined, one text assumes a central position. It is the passage from the beginning of the Song of Songs (1:5), “I am black, but comely.” This passage provided medieval commentators with a text upon which to base a discussion of the nature (and implications) of blackness. St. Hippolytus (c. 170-c. 236), one of the early theologians of the Roman Church, in a fragment of his commentary on the Song of Songs, equates the blackness of the speaker, the Shulamite, with man’s fall from grace. Hippolytus, like all of the early commentators, both Jewish and Christian, reads this first dialogue of the Song of Songs as an allegorical portrayal of the relationship of God with the individual soul. The figure of the black woman becomes an allegory for the soul falled from grace. The soul, however, still contains the potential for salvation. Such a simplistic interpretation provided the allegorical groundwork for a more complicated presentation of the means by which the soul is blackened in the fall. St. Ambrose (c. 339-397), In his commentary on this text in his discourse on Isaac, or the Soul, also refers to the concept of madness as a means of perceiving the state of the soul after the fall: 128 Fig. 51.). Left: Dictionnaire Infernal – Collin de Plancy (1863) As queen of the demons and sultana of the Indian (Hindu) hell, Cali is completely black and wears a collar of golden skulls. In older times, she was offered human victims. Fig. 52.). Right: "Compendium Rarissimum, Folio 23" (c1775) - Giclee Fine Art Print And yet the selfsame soul, knowing that she has been darkened by her union with the body, says to the other souls or to those powers of heaven that have charge of the holy ministry, “Look not on me, because I am of a dark complexion, because the sun has not looked upon me. The sons of my mother have fought against me”; that is the passions of the body have attacked me and allurements of the flesh have given me my color; therefore the sun of justice has not shown on me. St. Ambrose sees the figure of the black woman in the Song of Songs as an indicator of the dominance of the physical (the body) over the spiritual (the soul and the mind). He articulates this within the Greek medical model, speaking of the passions, and their sources, the humors, as the determinants of mental states. After the fall the soul is trapped in a body racked by the conflicts of the humors which control the body. The humors literally color the soul by their presence, and the visible sign of the effect of the humors on the soul is the change in skin color. This manner of perceiving the outward manifestation of the humors is exemplified in the most famous reading of the Song of Songs, that of St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153): Or, blinded by the unparalleled splendours of the Divine Majesty, they may be overcast with a cloud of denser darkness than belonged to their former state. O whosoever thou be that art such a soul, do not, I implore thee, do not regard as mean or contemptible that place where the holy Penitent laid aside her sins and clothed herself in the garment of sanctity! There the Ethiopian woman changed her colour, being restored to the whiteness of her long-lost innocence. Then indeed, she was able to answer those who addressed her in words of reproach, “I am black but beautiful, O daughters of Jerusalem.” Do you wonder, my brethren, by what art she effected such a change, or by what merits she obtained it? I will tell you in a few words. She “wept bitterly,” she heaved deep sighs from her inmost heart, she was agitated interiorly with salutary sobbings, and thus she spat out the venomous humor. The heavenly Physician came speedily to her aid, because His “word runneth quickly.” Is not the word of God a spiritual medicine? Yea, truly, and a medicine that is “strong and active, searching the heart and the veins.” 129  St. Bernard sees the affliction caused by the fall mirrored in the blackness of the humor. Moreover he sees associated with the dispelling of the humorial blackness a set of symptoms-the Shulamite’s despair, her bitter weeping, her sighs, her sobbing-which could be categorized as an emotional or mental illness. Christ is cast in his traditional role as the heavenly physician to cure her. Here one can return to the Ywain legend. Penelope Doob, in her study of madness of Ywain as the direct result of his grief at having violated his word to his wife: “’For wa he wex al wilde and wode’…Considered medically, this passion produces excess melancholy and deprives Ywain of his reason, after which-like other melancholy madmen-he wishes to shun men’s sight by flight into the forest.” Grief, despair, madness and blackness are inexorably linked in the Middle Ages. What Shakespeare calls “sable melancholy” in Love’s Labour Lost (I,v) becomes a link between the classical medical theory and the visual understanding of madness. In Galen’s various works on insanity, texts that canonize numerous classical Greek medical theories, the 4 humours are the predominant manner of perceiving all psychopathological states. Those suffering from an excess of black bile, the melancholics, are described as bloated and swarthy. The association is also present in the classic work of Greek physiognomy long ascribed to Aristotle: Why is it that some people are amiable and laugh and jest, others are peevish, sullen and depressed, some again are irritable, violent and given to rages, while others are indolent, irresolute and timmid? The cause lies in the 4 humours. For those governed by the purest blood are agreeable, laugh, joke and have rosy, well-coloured bodies; those governed by yellow bile are irritable, violent, bold, and have fair yellowish bodies; those governed by black bile are indolent, timid, ailing and, with regard to body, swarthy and black-haired; but those governed by phlegm are sad, forgetful, and with regard to the body, very pale. Among the illnesses ascribed to a dominance of black bile are a variety of psychopathologies, including melancholia, hypochondriases, epilepsy, and hysteria. Indeed mania may also be caused by the overheating of the yellow bile which in turn creates black bile. All of these illnesses have specific physical signs related to the presence of black bile, such as the blackness of the patients skin. This symbolic perception of the uniqueness of the mentally ill is rooted in the significance of the dominance of black bile as the etiology of their illness. Since black bile itself is a physiological function-unlike the yellow bile (gall), blood, and phlegm-it is a symbol which easily generates other symbols. The humors become a manner of structuring the universe, based on the model of man, for not only does black bile generate specific diseases, it is also the equivlanet of a season (autumn), a physical quality (cold and dry), a segment of the 4 fold world (earth), a zodiacal sign (Saturn), and much more. Psychopathologies are seen as the result of the close relationship between the mind and the body, for as the author of a pseudo-Aristotelian physiognomy observes: “It seems to me that soul and body react on each other; when the character of the soul changes, it changes also the form of the body, and conversely, when the form of the body changes, it changes the character of the soul.” This is the key to the understanding of all early theories of the appearance of the mentally ill. By the Renaissance these theories have given way to a radical monistic view of the body dominating and forming the mind and soul. In terms of the appearance of the mentally ill this movement occurs on a symbolic plane. The appearance of the individual is seen as a classifiable, interpretable reference to his mental state. The loss of the significance of individual variations, of the sense of human diversity, begins with the etiology of mental illness in the humors and is easily transformed into icons of insanity, representing madness. [101] 720: So as we see part of the theology of Catholicism holds the black woman as the mother of devils. It is stated by a saint in the 12th century that the Ethiopian woman is black because of sin. The picture provided comes from the Dictionairre Infernal which is a book based on Demonology and has several drawings of so called demons. 130 There are 65 demons listed in this book and they are all higher rank demons that have control over large regions of spirits and lower ranked demons. Here’s the other facts on the book: The Dictionnaire Infernal (English: Infernal Dictionary) is a book on demonology, describing demons organised in hierarchies. It was written by Jacques Auguste Simon Collin de Plancy and first published in 1818. There were several editions of the book; perhaps the most famous is the 1863 edition, which included sixty-nine illustrations by Louis Le Breton depicting the appearances of several of the demons. [102] 720: What’s really peculiar here is that when both of these books were written the slave trade was going on. I only state this because the same way they have the female looking in this picture resembles how black women of poverty stricken areas adorn their hair today, if not fixed with some accessory. It is clear, that it is not just the color itself which was used in a negative way but this definition was also added to dark (black) skin to brown skinned individuals. There are soial/religious reasonings for this. This could be a way to solidify the European thought structure of us against them. During these times anything of a black, brown, green, yellow and sometimes blue color was considered a demon, evil, an animal, a monster, a worshipper of the Nature God, or something foreign to the local cultural/religious dynamic. This includes individuals that lived in the same region but weren’t necessarily of the same cultural/religious dynamic. This means that any Moor, Saracean, Turk, Berber, Jew, Gypsie inclusive with beggars, vagabonds, vagrants, highwaymen and depending on the local attitude about prostitutes of these individuals would be correlated with the prior mentioned colors. This is the silent racism that is done by a color coding system. The full Latin title of Compendium rarissimum totius Artis Magicae sistematisatae per celeberrimos Artis hujus Magistros, roughly translates to “A rare summary of the entire Magical Art by the most famous Masters of this Art”. With a title page adorned with skeletons and the warning of Noli me tangere (Do not touch me), one quickly gets a sense of the dark oddities lurking inside its pages. The bulk of the illustrations depict a varied bestiary of grotesque demonic creatures up to all sorts of appropriately demonic activities, such as chewing down on severed legs, spitting fire and snakes from genitalia, and parading around decapitated heads on sticks. In additon there seem also to be pictures relating to necromancy, the act of communicating with the dead in order to gain information about, and possibly control, the future. Written in German and Latin the book has been dated to around 1775, although it seems the unknown author tried to pass it off as an older relic, mentioning the year 1057 in the title page.[103] Fig. 53.). Left: Pineapple-shaped cupola, Dunmore Park, Stirlingshire, Scotland Fig. 54.). Right: King Charles II presented with a pineapple, detail. British School, c.1675 131  Pineapple Mania Converting exactly how much a whole pineapple cost back in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries to modern day dollars is almost impossible to do with any real accuracy. That said, the general ballpark estimates tend to ring in at around five to ten thousand dollars per pineapple, depending on such things as the quality of the fruit and season. After the pineapple was first encountered by Europeans on the island of Guadeloupe during Christopher Columbus’ second trip to the Caribbean in November of 1493, efforts were quickly set in motion to find a way of reliably producing the fruit back in Europe. (The fruit itself is indigenous to South America and had been cultivated there for centuries prior to its “discovery” by Columbus.) Despite sinking vast sums of money into the problem, European royalty, who positively adored the fruit for its natural sweetness (sugar and sugary items being in short supply), for centuries after its “discovery” the only real way to obtain a pineapple was to pay to have one directly imported, which was no cheap affair. Many transport ships of the age were too slow and conditions too hot aboard the vessels to keep whole pineapples from rotting during the journey. So to get a whole pineapple fruit safely from the plant to one’s table in Europe took the fastest ships and most favorable weather conditions. As a result, virtually the only people who could afford to purchase a whole pineapple, let alone eat one while it was perfectly ripe, were royalty or the ridiculously wealthy. The first step to allowing the rich, instead of just the super rich, a chance to own or even look at a pineapple wouldn’t come for another two centuries after its “discovery”, when the Dutch were able to begin successfully cultivating the fruit in the very late 1600s.Exactly who first managed to grow a pineapple in a non- tropical climate isn’t known for sure, though a woman named Agnes Block is generally credited as being the earliest to do so around 1687. While earlier accounts of fruit producing pineapple plants in Europe do exist, whether or not these plants were cultivated in Europe or simply transferred to the continent as juveniles isn’t clear. More important than Block in the pineapple saga, however, was Dutch cloth merchant, Pieter de la Court, who is often cited as the individual who devised the most efficient (at the time) method of growing pineapples in a non-tropical climate. His method was mostly comprised of utilising hotrooms that were kept consistently warm and humid. These had to be carefully designed in order to vent the smoke and hot fumes out of the structure, while keeping the weather inside, as well as the soil temperature, within very specific ranges. Accidentally burning down one’s pineapple hotroom or killing the plants with smoke was a very common thing in the early going. After news of Court’s ability to grow pineapples and other exotic plants and fruits year round reached England, many nobles sent their gardeners to the Netherlands to learn his techniques first hand at considerable expense. If you’re curious about why the Dutch had such a stranglehold on Pineapple production, it’s largely because the Dutch West India Company enjoyed an almost total monopoly on trade in the Caribbean at the time, allowing wealthy Dutch citizens to import numerous pineapple plants to experiment with, despite the expense. As you can probably imagine from the many stereotypes that exist about British weather, growing pineapples in England proved to be rather difficult and it’s noted that only exceptionally skilled or vastly wealthy gardeners were capable of such a feat. A man called John Rose is often mistakenly attributed with growing the first pineapple in England because of the existence of a painting commissioned by Charles II in 1675 in which he’s clearly shown presenting the king with a ripe pineapple. As it turns out, the pineapple seen in that painting, which was based on a real encounter the King had, was imported from the Bahamas and ripened in England by Rose. As for the real first pineapple grown on English soil, that didn’t exist until around 1714-1716 when a Dutchman called Henry Telende was able to grow one for his employer, Matthew Decker, who subsequently had a painting commissioned in 1720 to celebrate the not unimpressive achievement. 132  Telende’s method of growing pineapples was quite involved, managing to maintain the perfect soil temperature via a specially designed hothouse containing tan pits lined with pebbles inside. On top of the pebbles, he placed manure, then on top of that sat tanners’ bark (oak bark soaked in water). Finally, the pot containing the pineapple plant was placed in that. Manure by itself created too much heat in the early going, but the tanners’ bark helped regulate that and provide a more even heat over time, keeping a steady soil temperature within the very specific range needed for growing pineapple plants. Even after growing pineapples on English soil became a possibility, getting hold of one was still so costly that many nobles didn’t eat them, opting instead to simply display them around their homes as one would a precious ornament or carry them around at parties. Those who weren’t quite as affluent could also rent a pineapple for a few hours at a time. This pineapple would be passed around from renter to renter for their respective parties over the course of several days until finally being sold to the individual who could actually have the right to eat it. Because of this, even among those who’d handled pineapples, very few ever actually experienced what it was like to eat a pineapple. Due to the natural sweetness of the pineapple, which was described as being akin to “Wine, Rosewater and Sugar” all mixed together, the fruit was seen as nothing short of a delicacy by the notoriously sweet-toothed English elite living in a time when refined sugar was a very expensive commodity.Charles II in particular was said to love pineapple, partly due to its sweetness and partly due to him being amused by the fact the fruit looked like it was wearing a tiny crown; as a result, Charles II often referred to the fruit as the “King- pine”. A final reason the pineapple was so popular, at least with artists, was its unconventional, striking appearance. As 16th century Spanish historian Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo y Valdes stated, “I do not suppose that there is in the whole world any other of so exquisite and lovely appearances… My pen and my words cannot depict such exceptional qualities, nor appropriately blazon this fruit so as to particularize the case fully and satisfactorily without the brush or the sketch.” In fact, after the pineapple’s introduction to England, it became a prominent feature of art and architecture of the period, such as Scotland’s now famous Dunmore Pineapple (pictured right, Fig. 54), commissioned in 1761 by the Earl of Dunmore.[104] Fig. 55.). Jan Breughel the Younger's Satire of the Tulip Mania Note: Monkeys re being used to replace human activity relative to the obsession of tulips and obviously its ridiculousness. 133  Tulip Mania Tulip prices steadily rose with their growing popularity and bulbs were purchased at higher and higher prices by speculators who planned to turn around and sell them for a profit, similar to modern-day house "flippers." From 1634 to 1637, an index of Dutch tulip prices (see chart Fig. 57) soared from approximately one guilder per bulb to a lofty sixty guilders per bulb. Traders who sold their bulbs for a profit began to reinvest all of their profit into new tulip bulb contracts or new bulbs to sell to other Dutch citizens or to take with them on trips around the world to sell alongside with spices from the Dutch East India Company. Many merchants sold all of their belongings to purchase a few tulip bulbs for the purpose of cultivating and selling them for more profit than they could have ever made in a lifetime as a merchant. As the tulip bulb bubble crescended, already pricey tulip bulbs experienced a twentyfold price explosion in just a single month (Investopedia, 2012). By the peak of tulipmania in February of 1637, a single tulip bulb was worth about ten times a craftsman’s annual income and a single Viceroy tulip bulb was allegedly exchanged for the following goods (The Tulipomania, n.d): • Two lasts of wheat • Four lasts of rye • Four fat oxen • Eight fat swine • Twelve fat sheep • Two hogsheads of wine • Four tuns of beer • Two tons of butter • 1,000 lb. of cheese • A complete bed • A suit of clothes • A silver drinking cup • Successful Dutch tulip bulb traders, the archaic counterparts to the day traders of the late 1990s Dot-com bubble and the house flippers of the mid-2000s U.S. housing bubble, could earn up to 60,000 florins in a month– approximately $61,710 in current U.S. dollars (Allan Bellows, 2012). Tulip bulb speculation became so widespread by 1636 that they were traded on Amsterdam’s Stock Exchange and in Rotterdam, Haarlem, Leyden, Alkmar, Hoorn, and other towns. Around the same time, tulip speculation even spread to Paris and England, where tulips were traded on the London Stock Exchange. In both cities, traders strove to push tulip prices up to the lofty levels seen in Amsterdam but were only moderately successful in their attempt (The Tulipomania, n.d). Astronomically-high tulip bulb prices resulted in some equally astonishing anecdotes such as the sailor who mistakenly ate an extremely rare Semper Augustus tulip bulb thinking it was an onion. This "onion" was so valuable that it could have fed his whole ship’s crew for an entire year. The hapless sailor was jailed for several months for his innocent but costly mistake. Another similar anecdote is of an traveling English botanist who was unaware of the Dutch tulip mania of the time, who peeled and dissected a wealthy Dutchman’s four thousand florin Admiral Von der Eyk tulip bulb mistaking it for an unusual species of onion. The bewildered English traveller was quickly led through the streets, followed by a mob, to be brought before a judge who sentenced him to prison until he could pay for the damage (The Tulipomania, n.d). 134  Like all bubbles, the Dutch tulip bulb bubble continued to inflate beyond people’s wildest expectations until it abruptly "popped" in the winter of 1636-37. A default on a tulip bulb contract by a buyer in Harlem was the main bubble-popping catalyst and caused the tulip bulb market to violently implode as sellers overwhelmed the market and buyers virtually disappeared altogether. Some traders attempted to support prices, to no avail. Within just a few days, tulip bulbs were worth only a hundredth of their former prices, resulting in a full-blown panic throughout Holland. Dealers refused to honor contracts, further damaging confidence in the tulip bulb market. Eventually, the government attempted to stem the tulip market meltdown by offering to honor contracts at 10% of their face value, which only caused the market to plunge even further. The brutal popping of the tulip bulb bubble ended the Dutch Golden Age and hurled the country into a mild economic depression that lasted for several years. The traumatic tulip bulb crash resulted in a suspicion toward speculative investments in Dutch culture for a very long time after. (One also has to wonder if this is how the Dutch reputation for frugality arose!)[105] Fig. 56.). Left: Pamphlet from the Dutch tulipomania, printed in 1637 Fig. 57.). Right: Gouda tulip bulb prices in guilders 720: One can only assume that our modern day stock market crashes are based off similar events correlating to the tulip mania. The tulip – so named, it is said, from a Turkish word, signifying a turban – was introduced into western Europe about the middle of the sixteenth century. Conrad Gesner, who claims the merit of having brought it into repute, - little dreaming of the commotion it was shortly afterwards to make in the world, - says that the first saw it in the year 1559, in a garden at Augsburg, belonging to the learned Counsellor Herwart, a man very famous in his day for his collection of rare exotics.[106] In 1634, the rage among the Dutch to possess them was so great that the ordinary industry of the country was neglected, and the population, even to its lowest dregs, embarked in the tulip trade. As the mania increased, prices augmented, until in the year 1635, many persons were known to invest a fortune of 100,000 florins in the purchase of forty roots.[107] The demand for tulips of a rare species increased so much in the year 1636, that regular marts for their sale were established on the Stock Exchange of Amsterdam, in Rotterdam, Harlaem, Leyden, Alkmar, Hoorn, and other towns. People of all grades converted their property into cash, and invested it in flowers. [108] 135  Hundreds who, a few months previously had begun to doubt that there was such a thing as poverty in the land suddenly found themselves the possessors of a few bulbs, which nobody would buy, even though they offered them at one quarter of the sums they had paid for them.[109] In the year 1636 tulips were publicly sold in the Exchange of London, and the jobbers exerted themselves to the utmost to raise them to the fictitious value they had acquired in Amsterdam. In Paris, also the jobbers strove to create a tulipomania. In both cities they only partially succeeded. However, the force of example brought the flowers into great favour, and amongst a certain class of people tulips have ever since been prized more highly than any other flowers of the field. The Dutch are still notorious for their partiality to them, and continue to pay higher prices for them than any other people. As the rich Englishman boasts of his fine race horses or his old pictures, so does the wealthy Dutchman vaunt him of his tulips.[110] Yawning Yawning took place at the commencement in all cases, but as the violence of the disorder increased, the circulation and respiration became accelerated, so that the countenance assumed a swolled and puffed appearance. When exhaustion came on, patients usually fainted, and remained in a stiff and motionless state until their recovery. The disorder completely resembled the St. Vituss dance, but the fits sometimes went on to an extraordinarily violent extent, so that the author of the account once saw a woman, who was seized with these convulsions, resist the endeavors of 4 or 5 strong men to restrain her. Those patients who did not lose their consciousness were in general made more furious by every attempt to quiet them by force on which account they were in general suffered to continue unmolested until nature herself brought on exhaustion. Those affected complained, more or less, of debility after the attacks, and cases sometimes occurred in which they passed into other disorders: thus some fell into a state of melancholy, which, however in consequence of their religious ecstasy, was distinguished by the absence of fear and despair; and in one patient inflammation of the brain is said to have taken place. No sex or age was exempt from this epidemic malady. Children 5 years old and octogenarians were alike affected by it, and even men of the most powerful frame were subject to its influence. Girls and young women, however, were its most frequent victims.[111] 720: So basically yawning got inculcated into the spirit/physiology of humans thru this process. As it is a sickness embedded in European/Western culture who ever lives in theses cultural customs will be vulnerable to all ailments. Poisoning Mania Early in the 16th century, the crime seems to have gradually increased, till in the 17th it spread over Europe like a pestilence. It was often exercised by pretended witches and sorcerers, and finally became a branch of education amongst all who laid any claim to magical and supernatural arts. In the 21st year of Henry VIII. An act was passed rendering it high treason. Those found guilty of it were to be boiled to death. One of the first in point of date, and hardly second to any in point of atrocity, is the murder by this means of Sir Thomas Overbury, which disgraced the court of James I. in the year 1613. A slight sketch of it will be a fitting introduction to the history of the poisoning mania, which was so prevalent in France and Italy 50 years later. Robert Kerr, a Scottish youth, was early taken notice of by James I. and loaded with honours, for no other reason that the world could ever discover than the beauty of his person. James, even in his own day, was suspected of being addicted to the most abominable of all offences; and the more we examine his history now, the stronger the suspicion becomes. However that may be, the handsome Kerr, lending his smooth cheek even in 136 public to the disgusting kisses of his royal master, rose rapidly in favour. In the year 1613, he was made Lord High Treasurer of Scotland, and created an English peer by the style and title of Viscount Rochester. Still further honours were in store for him. In this rapid promotion he had not been without a friend, Sir Thomas Overbury, the king’s secretary-who appears, from some threats in his own letters, to have been no better than a pander to the vices of the king, and privy to his dangerous secrets-exerted all his backstair influence to forward the promotion of Kerr, by whom he was doubtless repaid in some way or other. Overbury did not confide his friendship to this-if friendship ever could exist between 2 such men-but acted the part of entremetteur, and assisted Rochester to carry on an adulterous intrigue with the Lady Francis Howard, the wife of the Earl of Essex. This woman was a person of violent passions, and lost to all sense of shame. Her husband was in her way, and to be freed from him she instituted proceedings for a divorce, on grounds which a woman of any modesty or delicacy of feeling would die rather than avow. Her scandalous suit was successful, and was no sooner decided than preparations on a scale of the greatest magnificence were made for her marriage with Lord Rochester. Sir Thomas Overbury, who had willingly assisted his patron to intrigue with the Countess of Essex, seems to have imagined that his marriage with so vile a woman might retard his advancement. He accordingly employed all his influence to dissuade him from it; but Rochester was bent on the match, and his passions were as violent as those of the countess. On one occasion, when Overbury and the violent were walking in the gallery of Whitehall, Overbury was overheard to say, “Well, my lord, if you do marry that base woman, you will utterly ruin your honour and yourself. You shall never do it with my advice or consent; and if you do, you had best look to stand fast.” Rochester flung from him in a rage, exclaiming with an oath, “I will be even with you for this.” These words were the death-warrant of the unfortunate Overbury. He had mortally wounded the pride of Rochester in insinuating that by his (Overbury’s) means he might be lowered in the king’s favour; and he had endeavoured to curb the burning passions of a heartless, dissolute, and reckless man. Overbury’s imprudent remonstrances were reported to the countess; and from that moment she also vowed the most deadly vengeance against him. With a fiendish hypocrisy, however, they both concealed their intentions; and Overbury, at the solicitation of Rochester, was appointed ambassador to the court of Russia. This apparent favour was but the first step in a deep and deadly plot. Rochester, pretending to be warmly attached to the interests of Overbury, advised him to refuse the embassy, which he said was but a trick to get him out of the way. He promised at the same time to stand between him and any evil consequences which might result from his refusal. Overbury fell into the snare, and declined the embassy. James, offended, immediately ordered his committal to the Tower. He was now in safe custody, and his enemies had opportunity to commence the work of vengeance. The first thing Rochester did was to procure, by his influence at court, the dismissal of the Lieutenant of the Tower, and the appointment of Sir Jervis Elwes, one of his creatures, to the vacant power. This man was but one instrument; and another being necessary, was found in Richard Weston, a fellow who had formerly been shopman to a druggist. He was installed in the office of under-keeper, and as such had the direct custody of Overbury. So far all was favourable to the designs of the conspirators. In the meantime the insidious Rochester wrote the most friendly letters to Overbury, requesting him to bear his ill-fortune patiently, and promising that his imprisonment should not be of long duration; for that his friends were exerting themselves to soften the king’s displeasure. Still pretending the extreme of sympathy for him, he followed up the letters by presents of pastry and other delicacies, which could not be procured in the Tower. These articles were all poisoned. Occasionally, presents of a similar description were sent to Sir Jervis Elwes, with the understanding that these articles were not poisoned when they were unaccompanied by letters: of 137 these the unfortunate prisoner never tasted. A woman named Turned, who had formerly kept a house of ill-fame, and who had more than once lent it to further the guilty intercourse of Rochester and Lady Essex, was the agent employed to procure the poisons. They were prepared by Dr. Forman, a pretended fortune-teller of Lambeth, assisted by an apothecary named Franklin. Both these persons knew for what purposes the poisons were needed, and employed their skill in mixing them in the pastry and other edibles, in such small quantities as gradually to wear out the constitution of their victim. Mrs. Turner regularly furnished the poisoned articles to the under-keeper, who placed them before Overbury. Not only his food but his drink was poisoned. Arsenic was mixed with the salt he ate, and cantharides with the pepper. All this time his health declined sensibly. Daily he grew weaker and weaker; and with a sickly appetite craved for sweets and jellies. Rochester continued to console with him, and anticipated all his wants in this respect, sending him abundance of pastry, and occasionally partridges and other game, and young pigs. With the sauce for the game, Mrs. Turner mixed a quantity of cantharides, and poisoned the pork with lunar-caustic. As stated on the trial, Overbury took in this manner poison enough to have poisoned 20 men; but his constitution was strong, and he still lingered. Franklin, the apothecary, confessed that the prepared with Dr. Forman 7 different sorts of poisons, viz. aquafortis, arsenic, mercury, powder of diamonds, lunar-caustic, great spiders, and cantharides. Overbury held out so long that Rochester became impatient, and in a letter to Lady Essex, expressed his wonder that things were not sooner dispatched. Orders were immediately sent by Lady Essex to the keeper to finish with the victim at once. Overbury had not been all this time without suspicion of treachery, although he appears to have had no idea of poison. He merely suspected that it was intended to confine him for life, and to set the king still more bitterly against him. In one of his letters he threatened Rochester that, unless he were speedily liberated, he would expose his villany to the world. He says, “You and I, ere it be long, will come to a public trial of another nature” “Drive me not to extremities, lest I should say something that both you and I should repent.” “Whether I live or die, your shame shall never die, but ever remain to the world, to make you the most odious man living.” “I wonder much you should neglect him to whom such secrets of all kinds have passed.” “Be these the fruits of common secrets, common dangers?” All these remonstrances, and hints as to the dangerous secrets in his keeping were ill-calculate to serve him with a man so reckless as Lord Rochester: they were more likely to cause him to be sacrificed than to be saved. Rochester appears to have acted as if he thought so. He doubtless employed the murderer’s reasoning, that “dead men tell no tales,” when, after receiving letters of this description, he complained to his paramour of the delay. Weston was spurred on to consummate the atrocity; and the patience of all parties being exhausted, a dose of corrosive sublimate was administered to him in October 1613, which put an end to his sufferings, after he had been for 6 months in their hands. On the very day of his death and before his body was cold, he was wrapped up carelessly in a sheet, and buried without and funeral ceremony in a pit within the precincts of the Tower.[112] The man from whom Buckingham is said to have procured his poisons was one Dr. Lamb, a conjuror and empiric, who, besides dealing in poisons, pretended to be a fortune-teller. The popular fury, which broke with comparative harmlessness against his patron, was directed against this man, until he could not appear with safety in the streets of London. His fate was melancholy. Walking one day in Cheapside, disguised, as he thought, from all observers, he was recognized by some idle boys, who began to hoot and pelt him with stones, calling out, “The poisoner! The poisoner! Down with the wizard! Down with him!’ A mob very soon collected, and the doctor took to his heels and ran for his life. He was pursued and seized in Wood Street, and from thence dragged by the hair through the mire to St. Pail’s Cross; the mob beating him with sticks and stones, and calling out, “Kill the wizard! Kill the poisoner!” 138  Charles I., on hearing of the riot, rode from Whitehall to quell it; but he arrived too late to save the victim. Every bone in his body was broken, and he was quite dead. Charles was excessively indignant, and fined the city 600 pounds for its inability to deliver up the ringleaders to justice. But it was in Italy that poisoning was most prevalent. From a very early period, it seems to have been looked upon in that country as a perfectly justifiable means of getting rid of an enemy. The Italians of the 16th and 17th centuries poisoned their opponents with as little compunction as an Englishman of the present day brings an action at law against anyone who has done him an injury. The writing of contemporary authors inform us that, when La Spara and La Tophania carried on their infernal trade, ladies put poison bottles on their dressing tables as openly, and used them with as little scruple upon others, as modern dames use eau de Cologne or lavender-water upone themselves. So powerful is the influence of fashion, it can even cause murder to be regarded as a venial peccadillo. In the memoirs of the last Duke of Guise, who made a Quixotic attempt, in 1648, to seize upon the government of Naples, we find some curious particulars relative to the popular feeling with regard to poisoning. A man named Gennaro Annese, who, after the short and extraordinary career of masaniello the fisherman, had established himself as a sort of captain general of the populace, rendered himself so obnoxious to the Duke of Guise, that the adherents of the latter determined to murder him. The captain of the guard, as the duke himself very coolly informs us, was requested to undertake the office. It was suggested to him that the poniard would be the most effectual instrument, but the man turned up his eyes with pious horror at the proposition. He was ready to poison Gennaro Annese whenever he might be called upon to do so; but to poniard him, he said, would be disgraceful, and unbecoming an officer of the guards! At last, poison was agreed upon, and Augustino Molla, an attorney in the dukes confidence, brought the bottle containing the liquid to shew it to his master. The following is the duke’s own account: “Augustino came to me at night, and told me: “I have brought you something which will free you from Gennaro. He deserves death, and it is no great matter after what fashion justice is done upon him. Look at this vial, full of clear and beautiful water: in 4 days’ time, it will punish all his treasons. The captain of the guard has undertaken to give it him; and as it has no taste at all, Gennaro will suspect nothing.’” The duke further informs us that the dose was duly administered; but that Gennaro, fortunately for himself, ate nothing for dinner that day but cabbage dressed with oil, which acting as an antidore, caused him to vomit profusely, and saved his life. He was exceedingly ill for 5 days, but never suspected that he had been poisoned. In process of time, poison-vending became a profitable trade. 11 years after this period, it was carried on at Rome to such an extent, that the sluggish government was roused to interference. Beckmann, in his History of Inventions, and Lebnret, in his Magazinzum Gebrauche der Staaten Kirche Gerschichte, or Magazine of Materials for a History of a State Church, relates that, in the year 1659, it was made known to Pope Alexander VII. That great numbers of young women had avowed in the confessional that they had poisoned their husbands with slow poison. The Catholic clergy, who in general hold the secrets of the confessional so sacred, were shocked and alarmed at the extraordinary prevalence of the crime. Although they refrained from revealing the names of the penitents, they conceived themselves bound to apprise the head of the Church of the enomities that were practised. It was also the subject of general conversation in Rome that young widows were unusually abundant. It was remarked too, that if any couple lived unhappily together, the husband soon took ill and died. The papal authorities when once they began to inquire, soon learned that a society of young wives had been formed, and met nightly, for some mysterious prurpose, at the house of an old woman named Hieronyma Spara. This hag was a reputed witch and fortune-teller, and acted as president of the young viragos, several of whom, it was afterwards ascertained, belonged to the first families of Rome. 139  In order to have positive evidence of the practices of this female conclave, a lady was employed by the government to seek an interview with them. She dressed herself out in the most magnificent style; and having been amply provided with money, she found but little difficulty, when she had stated her object, of procuring an audience of La Spara and her sisterhood. She pretended to be in extreme distress of mind on account of the infidelities and ill-treatment of her husband, and implored La Spara to furnish her with a few drops of the wonderful elixir, the efficacy of which is sending cruel husbands to ‘their last long sleep’ was so much vaunted by the ladies of Rome. La Spara fell into the snare, and sold some her “drops” at a price commensurate with the supposed wealth of the purchaser. The liquor thus obtained was subjected to an analysis, and found to be, as was suspected, a slow poison; clear, tasteless, and limpid, like that spoken of by the Duke of Guise. Upon this evidence, the house was surrounded by the police, and La Spara and her companions taken into custody. La Spara, who is described as having been a little ugly old woman, was put to the torture, but obstinately refused to confess her guilt. Another of the women Named La Gratiosa, had less firmness, and laid bare all the secrets of the infernal sisterhood. Taking a confession extorted by anguish on the rack at its true value (nothing at all), there is still sufficient evidence to warrant posterity in a belief of their guilt. They were found guilty, and condemned, according to their degrees of culpability, to various punishments. La Spara, Gratiosa, and 3 young women, who had poisoned their husbands, were hanged together at Rome. This severity did not put a stop to the practice, and jealous women and avaricious men, anxious to step into the inheritance of fathers, uncles, or brothers, resorted to poison. As it was quite free from taste, colour, and smell, it was administered without exciting suspicion. The skillful vendors compounded it of different degrees of strength, so that the poisoners had only to say whther they wanted their victims to die in a week, a month, or 6 months, and they were suited with corresponding doses. The vendors were chiefly women, of whom the most celebrated was a hag named Tophania, who was in this way accessory to the death of upwards of 600 persons. This woman appears to have been a dealer in poisons from her girl hood, and resided first at Palermo and then at Naples. That entertaining traveler, Father Lebat, has given, in his letters from Italy, many curious particulars relating to her. When he was at Civita Vecchia, in 1719, the Viceroy of Naples discovered that poison was extensively sold in the latter city, and that it went by the name of aqueta, or little-water. On making further inquiry, he ascertained that Tophania (who was by this time near 70 years of age, and who seems to have begun her evil courses very soon after the execution of La Spara), sent large quantities of it to all parts of Italy in small vials, with the inscription, “Manna of St. Nicholas of Barri.” The tomb of St. Nicholas of Barri was celebrated throughout Italy. A miraculous oil was said to ooze from it, which cured nearly all the maladies that flesh is heir to, provided the recipient made use of it with the due degree of faith. La Tophania artfully gave this name to her poison, to elude the vigilance of the custom-house officers, who, in common with everybody else, had a pious respect for St. Nicholas de Barri and his wonderful oil. The poison was similar to that manufactured by La Spara. Hahnemann the physician, and father of the homeopathic docrine, writing upon this subject, says it was compounded of arsenical neutral salts, o0ccasioning in the victim a graduals loss of appetite, faintnteeess, gnawing pains in the stomach, loss of strength, and wasting of the lungs. The Abbe Gagliardi says, that a few drops of it were generally poured into tea, chocolate, or soup, and its effects were slow, and almost imperceptible. Parelli, physician to the Emperor of Austria, in a letter to Hoffmann says it was crystallized arsenic, dissolved in a large quantity of water by decoction, with the addition (for some unexplained purpose) of the herb cymbalaria. The Neapolitans called it Aqua Toffnina; and it became notorious all over Europe under the name of Aqua Tophania. 140  Although this woman carried on her infamous traffic so extensively, it was extremely difficult to meet with her. She lived in continual dread of discovery. She constantly changer her name and residence; and pretending to be a person of great godliness, resided in monasteries for months together. Whenever she was more than usually apprehensive of detection, she sought ecclesiastical protection. She was soon apprised of the search made for her by the Viceroy of Naples, and, according to her practice, took refuge in a monastery. Either the search after her was not very rigid, or her measures were exceedingly well taken; for she contrived to elude the vigilance of the authorities for several years. What is still more extraordinary, as shewing the ramifications of her system, her trade was still carried on to as great an extent as before. Lebat informs us that she had so great a sympathy for poor wives who hated their husbands and wanted to get rid of them, but could not afford to buy her wonderful aqua, that she made them presents of it. She was not allowed, however, to play at this game for ever; she was at length discovered in a nunnery, and her retreat cut off. The viceroy made several representations to the superior to deliver her up, but without effect. The abbess, supported by the archbishop of the diocese, constantly refused. The public curiosity was in consequence so much excited at the additional importance thus thrust upon the criminal, that thousands of persons visited the nunnery in order to catch a glimpse of her. [113] Giulia Tofana: Giulia Tofana (also spelled Toffana, Tophana) (died in Rome, July 1659) was an Italian professional poisoner. She was famous for selling poison to women who wanted to murder their husbands. She was the inventor of the famous poison Aqua Tofana, which is named after her. The information about her background is sparse. She was possibly the daughter of Thofania d'Adamo, who was executed in Palermo on 12 July 1633, accused of having murdered her husband Francis. Tofana was described as beautiful, and she spent a lot of time with apothecaries, was present when they made their potions, and eventually developed her own poison, Aqua Tofana. It is, however, also possible that it was her mother, Thofania d'Adamo, who made the poison and passed the recipe on to her daughter. She began to sell this poison to women who wanted to become widows. Her daughter, Girolama Spera, was also active in this. She eventually moved her business to Naples and Rome.Giulia was sympathetic to the low status of women and most often sold her poison to women trapped in difficult marriages. She became known as a friend to the troubled wife and received many referrals. Tofana's business was finally revealed to the Papal authorities by a customer; however she was so popular that the locals protected her from apprehension. She escaped to a church, where she was granted sanctuary. When a rapid rumour, claiming that she had poisoned the water, tore through Rome, the police forced their way into the church and dragged Tofana in for questioning. Under torture, she confessed to killing 600 men with her poisons in Rome alone between 1633 and 1651, but this cannot be confirmed owing to the torture and the widespread distribution of the poison. She was ultimately executed in Rome (in the Campo de' Fiori), together with her daughter (Girolama Spera, known as "Astrologa della Lungara") and three helpers, in July 1659. After her death, her body was thrown over the wall of the church that had provided her with sanctuary. Some of the users and purveyors were also arrested and executed, while other accomplices were bricked into the dungeons of the Palazzo Pucci.[114] What is known about Tofana is limited and often prone to conjecture. Some claim that she was the daughter of a murderess hanged for the crime of matricide, but others assert that she and her helpers ran a school for poisoners out of their home base in the Sicilian city of Palermo. Whatever the exact information, Tofana confessed while under torture that she was responsible for over 600 deaths during her decades-long career. Along with her daughter and several servants, Tofana was executed in Rome in the summer of 1659.[115] 141 Giovanna Bonanno (c. 1713 – 30 July 1789): Giovanna Bonanno was an alleged Italian witch and professional poisoner. Little is known of Giovanna Bonanno's early life, though she is believed to have been the same woman as Anna Panto, mentioned in 1744 as the wife of one Vincenzo Bonanno. She was a beggar in Palermo, Sicily in the reign of Domenico Caracciolo, Viceroy of Sicily (term 1781–1786). During her trial, she confessed to being a poisoner, and that she sold poison to women who wanted to murder their husbands. The typical client was a woman with a lover; she bought the first dose to give her husband stomach pains, the second to get him to hospital, and the third to kill him. The doctor was, in these cases, unable to ascertain the cause of the deaths. In the Ziza quarter in Palermo, several suspicious cases had occurred. The wife of a baker, a nobleman who had wasted his family's fortune, and another baker's wife (who was thought to have had an affair with a gardener) had all become ill. One day, a friend of Bonanno, Maria Pitarra, was delivering a poison when she realized that the victim was to be the son of a friend, and decided to warn the mother. The mother made an order for the poison herself, and when Bonanno arrived, she was arrested. The trial opened in October 1788. Bonanno was accused of sorcery. Some of the apothecaries who were selling her potions were called to testify. She was executed by hanging on 30 July 1789.[116] Catherine Monvoisin, or Montvoisin, née Deshayes, known as "La Voisin" (c. 1640 – February 22, 1680) Catherine was a French fortune teller, poisoner, and an alleged sorceress, one of the chief personages in the affaire des poisons, during the reign of Louis XIV. Her purported cult (Affair of the Poisons) was suspected to have killed anywhere between 1000-2500 people in Black Masses. Catherine Deshayes was married to Antoine Monvoisin, a jeweller with a shop at Pont-Marie in Paris. After her husband was ruined, La Voisin started her career by practising chiromancy and face-reading to support her family. She practiced medicine, especially midwifery, and performed abortions. As for her practice in fortune telling, she was to say that she developed the talent God had given her. She was taught the art of fortune telling at the age of nine, and after her husband became ruined, she decided to profit by it. She studied the modern methods of physiology and reading the client's future by reading their faces and hands. She also spent a lot of money to provide an atmosphere which could make the clients more inclined to believe in the prophecies. For example, she acquired a special robe of crimson red velvet embroidered with eagles in gold for a price of 1,500 livres to perform in. In 1665/66, her fortune telling was questioned by the priests of Saint Vincent de Paul's order, the Congregation of the Mission, but La Voisin defended herself successfully before the professors at Sorbonne university. During her work as a fortune teller, she noticed the similarities between her customer’s wishes about their future: almost all wanted to have someone fall in love with them, that someone would die so that they might inherit, or that their spouses would die, so that they might marry someone else. Initially, she told her clients that their will would be true if it was also the will of God. Then, she started to recommend to her clients some action that would make their dreams come true. These actions were initially to visit the church of some particular saint; eventually, she started to sell amulets and recommend magical practices of various kinds. The bones of toads, teeth of moles, Spanish flies, iron filings, human blood and mummy, or the dust of human remains, were among the alleged ingredients of the love powders concocted by La Voisin. Finally, she started to sell aphrodisiacs to those who wished for people to fall in love with them, and poison to those who wished for someone to die. Her knowledge of poisons was not apparently so thorough as that of less well-known sorcerers, or it would be difficult to account for Louise de La Vallière's immunity. The art of poisoning had become a regular science at the time, having been perfected, in part, by Giulia Tofana, a professional female poisoner in Italy, only a few decades before La Voisin. She arranged black masses, where the clients could pray to 142 the Devil to make their wishes come true. During at least some of these masses, a woman performed as an altar, upon which a bowl was placed: a baby was held above the bowl, and the blood from it was poured into the bowl. She had a large network of colleagues and assistants, among them Adam Lesage, who performed allegedly magical tasks; the priests Étienne Guibourg and abbé Mariotte, who officiated at the black masses; and poisoners like Catherine Trianon. La Voisin had many clients among the aristocracy and made a fortune from her business. Among her noted clients were Olympia Mancini, Comtesse de Soissons; Marie Anne Mancini, duchess de Bouillon; Elizabeth, Comtesse de Gramont ("la belle Hamilton"); François-Henri de Montmorency, duc de Luxembourg; princesse Marie Louise Charlotte de Tingry; marchioness Benigne d'Alluye; comtesse Claude Marie du Roure; the comte de Clermont-Lodéve; comtesse Jacqueline de Polignac; duchesse Antoinette de Vivonne; marquis Louis de Cessac; marquis Antoine de Feuquieres and the marechal de la Ferthe. La Voisin resided at Villeneuve-sur-Gravois, where she received her clients. She tended to her clients all day and entertained at parties with violin music in her gardens at night, attended by Parisian upper class society. The house also included a furnace for the bodies of dead babies, who were then buried in the garden. She regularly attended the services at the church of the Jansenist abbé de Sant-Amour, principal at the Paris University, and the godmother of her daughter was the noblewoman de la Roche-Guyon. She supported a family of six, including her mother, and among her lovers were the executioner Andre Guillaume, Latour, vicomte de Cousserans, the count de Labatie, the alchemist Blessis, the architect Fauchet and the magician Adam Lesage. At one point, Adam Lesage tried to induce her to kill her husband, but she regretted the plan and aborted the process. La Voisin was interested in science and alchemy and financed several private projects and enterprises, some of them concocted by con artists who tried to swindle her. Privately, she suffered from alcoholism, was apparently abused by Latour, and engaged in severe conflicts with her rival, the poisoner Marie Bosse. The most important client of La Voisin was Madame de Montespan, official royal mistress to King Louis XIV of France. Their contact were often performed through the companion of Montespan, Claude de Vin des Œillets. In 1667, Montespan hired La Voisin to arrange a black mass. This mass was celebrated in a house in Rue de la Tannerie. Adam Lesage and abbé Mariotte officiated, while Montespan prayed to win the love of the king. The same year, Montespan became the official mistress of the King, and after this, she employed La Voisin whenever a problem occurred in her relationship with the King. In 1673, when the King's interest in Montespan seemed to wane, Montespan again employed La Voisin, who provided a series of black masses officiated by Étienne Guibourg. On at least one occasion, Montespan herself acted as the human altar during the mass. La Voisin also provided Montespan with an aphrodisiac, with which Montespan drugged the King. During the King's affair with Soubise, Montespan used an aphrodisiac provided by Voisin's colleague Francoise Filastre and made by Louis Galet in Normandy. In 1677, Montespan made it clear that if the King should abandon her, she would have him killed. When the King entered into a relationship with Angélique de Fontanges in 1679, Montespan called for La Voisin and asked her to have both the King and Fontages killed. La Voisin hesitated, but was eventually convinced to agree. At the house of her colleague, Catherine Trianon, La Voisin constructed a plan to kill the King together with the poisoners Trianon, Bertrand and Romani, the last being the fiancé of her daughter. Trianon was unwilling to participate and tried to make her change her mind by constructing an ill-fated fortune for her, but Voisin refused to change her mind. The group decided to murder the King by poisoning a petition, to be delivered to his own hands. On 5 March 1679, La Voisin visited the royal court in Saint-Germain to deliver the petition. That day, however, there were too many petitioners and the King did not take their petitions, which foiled her plan. Upon her return to her home in Paris, she was castigated by a group of monks. She handed the petition to her daughter and 143 asked her to burn it, which she also did. The next day, she made plans to visit Catherine Trianon after mass, to plan the next murder attempt upon Louis XIV. The death of the King's sister-in-law, the duchesse d'Orléans, had been falsely attributed to poison, and the crimes of Madame de Brinvilliers (executed in 1676) and her accomplices were still fresh in the public mind. In parallel, a riot took place where people accused witches of abducting children for the black masses, and priests reported that a growing number of people were confessing to poisoning in their confessions. In 1677, the fortune teller Magdelaine de La Grange was arrested for poisoning, and claimed that she had information about crimes of high importance. The arrest of the successful fortune teller and poisoner Marie Bosse and Marie Vigoreux in January 1679 made the police aware that there existed a network of fortune tellers in Paris who dealt in the distribution of poison. On 12 March 1679, La Voisin was arrested outside Notre-Dame de Bonne- Nouvelle after having heard mass, just before her meeting with Catherine Trianon. In April 1679, a commission appointed to inquire into the subject and to prosecute the offenders met for the first time. Its proceedings, including some suppressed in the official records, are preserved in the notes of one of the official court reporters, Gabriel Nicolas de la Reynie. At the arrest of La Voisin, her maid Margot stated that the arrest would mean the end of a number of people in all levels of society. The arrest of La Voisin was followed by the arrest of her daughter Marguerite Monvoisin, Guibourg, Lesage, Bertrand, Romain and the rest of her network of associates. La Voisin was imprisoned at Vincennes, where she was subjected to questioning. On 27 December 1679, Louis XIV issued an order that the whole network should be exterminated by all methods regardless of the rank, gender or age. La Voisin confessed to the crimes she was accused of and described the development of her career. She was never subjected to torture: a formal order was issued giving permission for the use of torture, but it was made clear that the order was not to be put in effect, and consequently it was never made use of. The reason it suggested to be the fear that she might give away the names of influential people if she was questioned under torture. La Voisin never mentioned the names of any of her clients during the interviews. She once mentioned to the guards that the question she feared most was that they would ask her about her visits at the royal court. It is likely that she was referring to Montespan as her client and her attempt at murdering the King, and that she feared that such a confession should result in her execution for regicide. Her list of clients, the arranging of the black masses, her connection to Montespan and the murder attempt on the King were not revealed until after her death, when it was stated by her daughter and confirmed by the uncontaminated testimonies of the other accused. La Voisin was convicted of witchcraft and was burned in public on the Place de Grève in Paris on 22 February 1680. In July, her daughter Marguerite Monvoisin revealed her connection to Montespan, which was confirmed by the statements of the other accused. This caused the monarch to eventually close the investigation, seal the testimonies and place the remaining accused outside of the public justice system by imprisoning them under a lettre de cachet.[117] The Abbé Étienne Guibourg (c. 1610 – January 1686) Etienne Guibourg was a French Roman Catholic abbé and occultist who was involved in the affaire des poisons, during the reign of Louis XIV. He has been variously described as a "defrocked" or "renegade" priest and is said to have also had a good knowledge of chemistry. He is best known for performing a series of Black Mass rituals with Catherine Monvoisin for Madame de Montespan. Guibourg claimed to be the illegitimate son of Henri de Montmorency. He was the sacristan of the Saint- Marcel church at Saint-Denis which was later destroyed during the French Revolution but described as being "the most beautiful of the parish churches of the town of Saint-Denis". He was formerly the chaplain to the Comte de 144 Montgomery. Despite his position, he is said to have kept a long-term mistress, Jeanne Chanfrain, with whom he had several children. According to later accounts, confessions and trials, Guibourg performed a series of Black Masses with Catherine Monvoisin (known as La Voisin). The most famous of these were performed for Madame de Montespan around 1672-3. Montague Summers gives an account of one such ritual: A long black velvet pall was spread over the altar, and upon this the royal mistress laid herself in a state of perfect nudity. Six black candles were lit, the celebrant robed himself in a chasuble embroidered with esoteric characters wrought in silver, the gold paten and chalice were placed upon the naked belly of the living altar [...] All was silent save for the low monotonous murmur of the blasphemous liturgy [...] An assistant crept forward bearing an infant in her arms. The child was held over the altar, a sharp gash across the neck, a stifled cry, and warm drops fell into the chalice and streamed upon the white figure beneath. The corpse was handed to la Voisin, who flung it callously into an oven fashioned for that purpose which glowed white-hot in its fierceness. Summers provides a further account of the incantation used by Guibourg himself: Astaroth, Asmodeus, princes of friendship and love, I invoke you to accept the sacrifice, this child that I offer you, for the things I ask of you. They are that the friendship and love of the King and the Dauphin may be assured to me, that I may be honoured by all the princes and princesses of the Court, that the King deny me nothing I ask whether it be for my relatives or for any of my household. Accounts suggest that La Voisin performed rituals with a number of priests (including at least one whose work was uncovered by Church authorities, forcing him into exile) as well as Guibourg. It is unlikely Guibourg took part in all of La Voisin's Black Masses. Nevertheless, upon her arrest, investigators discovered the corpses of 2,500 infants buried in her yard, most likely sacrificed the same way as in Guibourg's ritual. It was alleged that La Voisin had paid prostitutes for their infants for use in the rituals. In 1680, Françoise Filastre, under interrogation in connection with the poison affair, claimed that Guibourg had performed Black Masses. Guibourg was arrested and confessed to this and to other crimes. He was sentenced to life imprisonment and sequestration and died in prison in 1686.[118] The words "pharmacy" and "pharmaceutical" are derived from the Greek word, pharmakeia..[119] 720: Any activities realative to any form of combining different elements to create liquids to be used by humans either externally, internally of for defense or offense reasons, falls into the category of witchcraft during these time periods. With respect in earlier times towards white witches who then fell into the categories of witchcraft as well. In today’s mind the activity still occurs as noted in the Dark Ages “Poison is a woman’s form of killing” as we see in our current news all the time. The poisoning isn’t called witchcraft and the poisoner is not called a witch in our modern times. Part of the reason for this is because poisoners of today just use anti-freeze or somehold chemicals and slowly put it into their husbands soup or coffee etc.,. The majority of the modern world aren’t educated enough nor do they have the temperance and diligence for such detailed witchcraft practices. Some of the reasonings stated for the poisonings were either: women who were being abused by their husbands, bitter women who just wanted to be single again or the one we all have witnessed by way of the television, killing a loved one for insurance money. They were doing this before the indigenous children of the world knew what insurance was. It is safe to say that there was so much poisoning going on and also so many people involved during this time period it had to have built the spirituality to our science/chemistry world and also our current pharmaceutical/medical industry. To understand how to poison either slowly or quickly by ingestion or skin application takes a lot of trial and error. The practice involved would call 100’s of victims alone to perfect the craft. Due to the fact that this poisoning was termed as a mania and also sighted as spread across the entire continent, one can only expect this is the basis of our society today and a good percentage of base Caucasian thinking. Poison those who don’t agree. 145  Pharmakeia the Greek word is found in the Dark Ages to be a type of witch which specializes in the art of salves and unguents. I would not be surprised if the word is also used as a name of a demon for conjuring and séances. The pharmaceutical industry of today claims billions of dollars from its minions and put millions of these minions to death a year. People don’t know what they are doing, nor is medicine a common knowledge as it had once been. Due to this lack of knowledge by default people have become dependent on these unknown entities. The entities im referring to would be poisons like sprit,e coca cola, fast food industry, processed foods. A lot of these products are named after demons and are designed to destroy. Its safe to say when we include the medical industry and all of its allied industries, the food industires and its cronies, the cologne, perfume, scent industry which are all owned and operated by the children of the dark ages we could all be getting poisoned in a multitude of different ways. I guess the death rates haven’t fulfilled their void of joy as it has gotten more blatant with chemtrails. Something is going on on this planet and it needs to be addressed. The habits that are shown in this material are not condusive for the progress of globalization. Fig. 58.). The Franciscans treating victims of the plague, miniature from La Franceschina, c1474, codex by Jacopo Oddi. Perugia, Biblioteca Capitolare (Library). (Photo by DeAgostini/Getty Images) 146  Chapter 5 Plague Causes Fleas Plague is carried by fleas, which in their turn are passengers on rats and other rodents. Xenopsylla cheopis, the flea mostly concerned, is harboured by mamots in Central Asia, and then transfers to rats in the Western countries. The rats themselves are susceptible to plague, and this may be one of the reasons why epidemics finally fade out, but the fleas can spread to human beings or other animals and pass from one victim to another, taking a little blood and paying for it in a deadly currency of plague germs. It is ironic that, without the flea as a go-between, bubonic plague is not really very infectious: it requires very close contact with the sick person for the germs to transfer. While the frightened medieval citizens and the baffled doctors were devising elaborate defences against the ‘miasma’ of plague, against breathing the same air as the plague victims, or smelling them, and even against the supposed malignant powers of the sufferers eyes, they still allowed their houses to run with rats and their bodies and beds with fleas. Fleas were so common that they were regarded almost affectionately as a constant companion to man certainly fleas and lice, if not mans best friends, might be considered his closest friends-and those who were lucky enough to have the best and warmest clothes often had the most fleas. [120] Not suspecting the humble flea, and knowing nothing of bacteria, contemporaries of the Black Death sought for the evil spirits, poisonous atmospheres, or deadly rays from comets that must have spread the disease. Martin Luther (1483-1546), during a later outburst of the plague, declared that evil spirits ‘poisoned the air or otherwise infected the poor people by their breath and injected the mortal poison into their bodies. Credulous observers reported a blue flame flying through the air and developing on the lips of the dying. In 1338 the plague was ascribed to the poisonous remains of a great infestation of locsuts that appeared from the east and ravaged Italy and Germany-it was reported that the locusts settles so thickly on the thatched roofs of houses that their liquid excrement dripped through like a foul rain into the rooms below. Forestus Alcmarianos covers all the possibilities: Newly developed flies, worms, and midges are observed on the snow, the fruit and other crops fail to mature or rot, disease is observed particularly among sheep and swine, dogs go mad, many move like shadows on the wall, black vapours are observed to rise from the earth like a mist, the ravens are prompted by unusual impulses and fly around the hospitals in pairs. In the neighbourhood of water there is for a full hour a sound of washing and beating of clothes at night which is heard quite close, and it has been observed that this is indicative of a plague birds appear, some maintain that a ghost with a voice like some lowing domestic animal is heard, frogs sit huddled together in scores or one on top of the other, in the hospitals and sick houses a great rushing wind is heard, and when one perceives among men a great lack of reliability, jealousy, and hatred and wantonness, if then the plague does not ensue, some other inscrutable disease that is difficult to cure is sure to come.[121] Fleas had been carrying bubonic plague around Europe ever since the Black Death in 1348-149, and about the beginning of the 17th century the outbreaks grew more serious. In 1610-1611 several towns and villages suffered epidemics as catastrophic as in the Black death, and the disease spread more rapidly, so that one infected person could swiftly bring all his or her neighbours into danger. In Bottesford, Leicester, the burial of Katheringe 147 Havett in February 1609-1610 (the year still ended on 25 March, so that February counted as nearly the end of 1609, not nearly the beginning of 1610) inspired the local vicar to doggerel verse: And here the Plage began, she dying poyson’d many, Th’ infection was so great wher’t came yt scarce left any. Sometimes plague was apparently associated with moral turpitude: an entry in the Great Coggeshall, Essex, parish register shows a regrettable lack of Christian charity: 1578 August 10 Lore Smith wife of John Smith was buried the first to die of the Plague. This Lore Smith was the instrument of the Lord used to bring the infection of the Plague into this town. She was the first that died of that infectious sickness and the most of those that followed dyed of the same, until the Winter time came, when the Lord in mercie stayed the same. The woeman was comanlie noted to be notable harlot. In 1625, London was struck by a particularly sudden outbreak: John Evelyn, recalling this event in his childhood (he was five at the time) says: ‘I was this year ( being the first of the reign of King Charles) sent by my father to Lewes, in Sussex, to be with my grandfather, Standfield, with whom I passed my childhood. This was the year in which the pestilence was so epidemical, that there died in London 5000 a week, and I wll remember the strict watches and examinations upon the ways as we passed; and I was shortly after so dangerously sick of a fever, that (as I have heard) the physicians despaired of me.’ The ‘strict watches’ were set up by every village and town to drive away any wanderers who might be suffering from the plague or carry the infection with them. As in the worst period of Black death, self-preservation came before humanitarianism or hospitality.[122] By January 1664-1665 the numbers of deaths in the poorer parishes was increasing with alarming rapidity, from the usual weekly average of about 240 to 394, 415, 474..then there was a merciful slackening until June, when in St. Giles parish alone more than 100 people died of plague. Pepys had the unpleasant truth forced into his consciousness by this outbreak: ‘This day (June 7th 1665), much against my will, I did in Drury Lane see two or three houses marked with a red cross upon the doors, and “Lord have mercy upon us” writ there; which was a sad sight to me, being the first of the kind that, to my remembrance, I ever saw. It put me into an ill conception of myself and my smell, so that I was forced to buy some roll tobacco to smell to and chaw, which took away the apprehension.’ By July death was parading openly in the streets; Evelyn noted 1100 deaths in the week up to 16 July and 2000 in the following week, 4000 a week by 8 August and 5000 in the following week, and 10,000 weekly by 7 September. ‘…however, I went all along the city and suburbs from Kent Street to St. Jame’s a dismal passage, and dangerous to see so many coffins exposed in the streets, now thin of people; the shops shut up, and all in mournful silence, not knowing whose turn it might be next…’ And on 11 October, he added: ‘To Longon, and went through the whole City, having occasion to alight out of the coach in several places about business of money, when I was environed with multitutdes of poor pestiferous creatures begging alms: the shops universally poor shut up, a dreadful prospect!’ Business in the city had almost ceased: on 16 August Pepys recorded that 2 shops in 3 were shut up, and very few people remained. The universal fear of contamination pervaded everyones behaviour-‘Thence with a lanthorn, in great fear of meeting of dead corpses, carried to be buried; but, blessed be God, met none, but did see now and then a linke (which is the mark of them) at a distance.’ And Pepys again, on 22 August: 148  “… I went away and walked to Greenwich, in my way seeing a coffin with a dead body therein, dead of the plague, lying in an open close belonging to Coome farme, which was carried out last night and the parish have not appointed any body to bury it; but only set a watch there day and night, that nobody should go thither or come thence, which is a most cruel thing: this disease making us more cruel to one another than if we are dogs…”[123] Back in the eighteenth-century fleas were a common problem for all classes and would happily live in beds, inside wigs and on pets, and everyone was prey to them. Bathing of course helped, and there was the tried and tested method of painstakingly searching for and picking off the little critters. The Parisian artist Nicolas Lancret (1690-1743), in a couple of his genre paintings, depicted some ladies searching themselves for fleas (and offering the viewer a titillating glimpse of flesh while doing so). One other way, popular for a short period in the eighteenth-century, was to use a flea-trap which became something of a popular fashion accessory. It consisted of a hollow perforated cylindrical tube, sometimes ornately carved and made of silver or ivory, inside which would be a small rod, tuft of fur or a piece of cloth. This would be smeared with a few drops of blood, to attract the fleas, and also fat, honey resin, designed to make the fleas stick fast to it as they crawled inside, and which was removed as necessary to get rid of them. The flea trap was worn on a ribbon as a necklace, hanging down inside a dress – it could also be placed in a bed to attempt to rid that of fleas. A German doctor named Franz Ernst Brückmann (1697-1753) designed the first flea trap in the early 1700s. Fig. 59.). Flea trap held at Louth Museum Louth museum in Lincolnshire holds one, although they are unsure of the date of their flea trap. It is made of ivory, with a carved pattern, and measures 7cm in length and 1½cm in width. The French name for the flea was ‘la puce’, which is supposedly how we have the name for the colour today – it is taken from the colour of a squashed flea or one full of blood, or from the bloodstains left behind by a flea on the bedsheets. Reputedly, this brownish purple was one of Marie Antoinette’s favourite colours, and it was Louis XVI who jokingly compared it to the colour of a flea and so named it. From Domestic anecdotes of the French nation, during the last thirty years, indicative of the French revolution, written in 1800 by Isaac D’Israeli (author and father of the British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli): In the summer of 1775, the queen being dressed, in a brown lutestring, the king good humouredly observed, it was “couleur de puce”, the colour of fleas; and instantly every lady would be drest in a lutestring of a flea colour. The mania was caught by the men; and the dyers in vain exhausted themselves to supply the hourly demand. They distinguished between, an old and a young flea, and they subdivided even the shades of the body of this insect; the belly, the back, the thigh, and the head, were all marked by varying shades of this colour. This prevailing tint promised to be the fashion of the winter. The venders of silk, found that it would he pernicious to their trade; they therefore presented new satins to her majesty, who having chosen one of a grey ash-colour, Monsieur, exclaimed that it was the colour of her majesty’s hair! Immediately the fleas ceased to be favourites, and all were eager to be drest in the colour of her majesty’s hair. Servants were sent off at the moment from Fontainebleau to Paris, to purchase velvets, rateens and cloths of this colour. The current price in the morning had been forty livres per ell, and it rose towards the evening to the price of eighty to ninety livres.[124] 149  Lice A company of coystrell Clearkes…outface the greatest and most magnanimous Servitors in their sincere and finigraphicall cleane shirts and cuffs. A Lowce (that was anie Gentlemans companion) they thought scorne of, their nerebitted beards must in a devill’s name be dewed everye day with Rose-water, Hogges could have nere a haire on their backs for making them rubbing-brushes to rouse their crab-lice. They would in no wise permit that the moates in the Sunbeames should be full mouthd beholders of their cleane phinified apparel, their shooes shined as bright as a silkestone, their hands troubled and soyled more water with washing, than the Cammell doth, that never drinks till the whole streame be troubled. Summarily never anie were so fanaticall the one halfe as they. The ‘gentlemans companion’ clung closely to those manly fellows who could not be troubled with rubbing brushes and other louse disturvers. Lice like a quiet life, grazing peacefully on the blood of their hosts, holding on to the body hairs with the highly efficient claws at the ends of their six legs-the claws of the crab-louse are large enough to be seen with the naked eye, hence the name. Those that infest man are of three types, each keeping to its natural boundaries as carefully as trade unionists in a demarcation dispute. The head loue, Pediculus capitis, clings to the hair on the head, and lays its egss in small horny cells, nits, which are so firmly stuck to the hair that only methylated spirit will remove them (hairdresses have, or used to ave, a special concoction made with soft soap and spirit which was swiftly brought out when a customer appeared with the characteristic lumps attached to the hair). The body louse, Pediculus corporis, ranges over the rest of the body but is rarely seen above the ears; even so it likes hair to cling on to, and chooses the legs, arms, underarms, and the masculine chest for most of its activity. Fig. 60.). Left: Hortus Sanitatis 1517 Medieval Woodcut. Treating Head Lice Fig. 61.). Right: Mother Louse, of Louse Hall, near Oxford David Loggan (c. 1635-1692) C. Johnson, London: 1793 In Nashe’s The Unfortunate Traveller he puts forward the traditional soldiers view: 150 The crab louse, Phthirus pubis, is a smaller creature that confines its attentions to pubic hair, and is the most resistant to removal, owing to the number of places that it can find in which to hide. All of them creep quietly about from place to place on the body, without the vulgar ostentation of the flea, and all of them suck blood. Very often the bites themselves are not noticed, only the irritation set up by the infection, so that the host to the lice is always scratching a little too late to disturb the creatures themselves. Unfortunately, although lice do not usually infect bites by regurgitating infected blood, they are careless about other points of hygiene, and deposit infected excrement near bites. Scratching opens up the bites and disease germs from the near-by excrement are rubbed into the wound. It is this insidious attack which is so repulsive about lice. One can sympathize with Thomas Moufet (1553-1604) (reputed father of the better-known Miss muffet, unwilling entomologist) who wrote in praise of fleas: ‘Though they trouble us much, yet they neither stink as Wall lice doe, not is it any disgrace to a man to be troubled with them, as it is to be lowsie.’ ‘Wall lice’ are obviously bugs, but it is interesting to note that even in Elizabeth’s reign there was some distinction between lice and fleas as a criterion of hygiene. The main disease carried by lice is typhus, known variously as ‘jail fever’, ‘trench fever’, pestilential fever, putrid fever, Brills disease, and hospital fever: most of the names suggest its association with crowded conditions or its demoralizing effects. First the temperature rises, the teeth and tongue become coated, there is a feeling of intense thirst. Then an eruption appears on the body and spreading to the face: dark red blotches or spots. This is the most merciful stage of the disease, as the patients become torpid and stupid, succumbing to the ‘typhous stupor’, with delirium, and they lie with their eyes wide-open muttering, but unconscious of anything going on around them. For typhus victims in the trenches, or in an early hospital, this stage must have been a happy release from reality. Some, but not many recovered from the stupor: for most it deepened into eternal sleep. Contemporary treatment, in Elizabethan times, was to administer opium, which no doubt eased the discomfort of the last hours, but cannot have produced any startling cures. Lice, and the typhus they carried with them from soldier to soldier, must have done more than any of the warring factions to make England, as Shakespeare said henry VI, ‘his realm a slaughter-house, his subjects slain’, and the little creatures contributed greatly to the losses on both sides of the Channel in the long drawn out struggle for France. However, they lacked Shakespeare to immortalize them. [125] A portrait of the English alewife Mother Louse of Louse Hall, holding an ale tankard and a pitcher. It is accompanied by a humorous poem and coat of arms featuring three lice and a tankard, with the motto “Three Lice Passant.” Louse Hall (as it was known from about 1547) was an asylum for the poor, though originally it was Gosford Hospital in Oxfordshire, established in the 12th century. Louse Hall subsequently became an alehouse kept by Mother Louse as its alewife. According to legend, Mother Louse was the last English woman to wear a ruff, and the verse printed below her portrait refers to that. This engraving was made in 1793 after the original 17th-century version by David Loggan, and published in volume 1 of Wonderful Magazine. The National Portrait Gallery has one of these engravings in its collection, with "Wonderful Magazine" printed in the top margin (see References below). In the example offered here, that portion of the margin been trimmed off. 720: I must state that I myself have been infested with fleas and it is not a pleasant experience. Not only this but as a child me and my friends would always here from our parents “Sleep tight, Don’t let the bed bugs bite”. At the time there wasn’t a bed bug insite and we didn’t know what the hell they were talking about. The Bed bugs do look like they could be a crossbreed between a tick and a flea. 151 The verse reads: You laugh now Goodman two shoes, but at what? My Grove, my Mansion House, or my dun Hat; Is it for that my loving Chin & Snout Are met, because my Teeth are fallen out; Is it at me, or at my RUFF you titter; Your Grandmother you Rouge nerewore a fitter; Is it at Forebead's Wrinkle, or Cheek's Furrow, Or at my Mouth, so like a Coney-Borrough, Or at those Orient Eyes that nere shed tear, But when the Excisemen come, that's twice a year. Kiss Me & tell me true, & when they fail, Thou shalt have larger Potts & stronger Ale.[126] Fig. 62.). Model of Human body louse, WW1 display & workshop. Magnified & Actual size of body Louse Fig. 63.). Left: Bed bugs and head lice' - from Hortus Sanitatis, Strassburg Fig. 64.). Right: A random Medieval drawing of bed bugs 152  Bed Bugs One of the consequences of the richer furnishings of the Regency and Victorian homes, among the middle- class, was the enormous increase in the numbers of bugs. Bed-bugs, Cimex lectularius, are retiring little creatures that do not like to be disturbed during the hours of daylight, and need plenty of warm cover in which to hide until they can creep out at night in search of their prey. Bugs have been in England since about the 15th century, and indeed the earlier versions of the Bible mention them. Where King James Bible, in Psalms 91 5-10, says: 5: ‘Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day,’ 6: Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday. 7: A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at the right hand; but it shall not come night thee. 8: Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked. 9: Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation; 10: There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling. Coverdale’s Bible of 1535 has: ‘Thou shalt not need to be afrayed for any bugges by night.’ Unlike Blakes ‘invisible worm’ they do not fly, but as they can run over any surface, even upside –down, this does not debar them from any bed where they are determined to join the human occupant: ‘There are well authenticated records of people isolating their beds by means of saucers of paraffin placed under the legs so that the bugs could not climb up, and retiring to rest with a pleasant feeling of having foiled their enemies, only to be disturbed later in the night by bugs dropping from the ceiling.’[127] The Jesuit Father, Athanasius Kircher (1602-1680), of Fulda, was of opinion-as we read in the treatise on the plague by Johannes Amerianos in 1667-that he had discovered something peculiar and got to the bottom of the matter: `“Thus, he writes that the plague is nothing but a multitude of small animals and diminutive worms which fly about in the air, and when drawn into the body by the action of breathing they vitiate the blood, impair the spirits, and finally gnaw into the flesh and glands. When received by a healthy subject, the plague is spread by them. Protection against them could be attained by lighting large and flaming fires by means of which their wings, feet, or proboscis, etc., are burnt off, so that they can no longer fly about and vitiate the blood of human beings and gnaw their bodies.” By means of magnifying glasses he had observed that the air was full of worms, and by various experiments he proved that decaying matter produced worms and described accurately how the experiment was carried out, and that they could then be seen under the microscope. “But,” he added, “it must not be believed that any usual microscope will serve; it must be like mine, which enlarges a thousandfold.”[128] Locust Plagues Indeed, the attempt was sometimes made to get rid of them by setting a price one their heads, as was the case with the plague of locusts at Rome in 880, when a reward was offered for their extermination, but all efforts in this direction proving futile, on account of the rapidity with which they propagated, recourse was had to exorcisms and besprinklings with holy water.[129] Thus in the latter half of the 15th century, during the reign of Charles the Bold (1433-1477), Duke of Burgundy, a plague of locusts threatened the province of Mantua in Northern Italy with famine, but were dispersed by excommunication. He quotes some florid lines from the poet Altiat descriptive of these devastating swarms, which “came, after so many other woes, under the leadership of Eurus (i.e. brought by the east wind), more 153 destructive than the hordes of Attila or the camps of Corsicans, devouring the hay, the millet and the corn, and leaving only vain wishes, where the hopes of August stood.” Again in 1541, a cloud of locusts fell upon Lombardy, and by destroying the crops, caused many persons to perish with hunger. These insects “were as long as a man’s finger, with large heads and bellies filled with vileness; and when dead they infected the air and gave forth a stench, which even carrion kites and carnivorous beasts could not endure.” Another instance is given, in which swarms of 4 winged insects came from Tartary, identified in the popular mind with Tartarus, obscuring the sun in their flight and covering the plains of Poland a cubit deep. In the year 1338, on St. Bartholomew’s Day, these creatures began to devastate the region round botzen in the Tyrol, consuming the crops and laying eggs and leaving a numerous progeny, which seemed destined to continue the work of destruction indefinitely. A prosecution was therefore instituted against them before the ecclesiastical court at Kaltern, a large market-town about 10 miles south of Botzen, then as now famous for its wines, and the parish priest instructed to proceed against them with the sentence of excommunication in accordance with the verdict of the tribunal. This he did by the solemn ceremony of “inch of candle,” and anathematized them “in the name of the Blessed Trinity, Father, son and Holy Ghost.” Owing to the sins of the people and their remissness in the matter of tithes the devouring insects resisted for a time the power of the Church, but finally disappeared. Under the reign of Lotharius II (1075-1137)., early in the 12th century, enormous quantities of locsuts, “having 6 wings with 2 teeth harder than flint” and “darkening the sky and whitening the air like a snowstorm,” laid waste the most fertile provinces of France. Many of them perished in the rivers and the sea, and being washed ashore sent forth a putrescent smell and produced a fearful pestilence.[130] In 1338 the plague was ascribed to the poisonous remains of a great infestation of locusts that appeared from the east and ravaged Italy and Germany – it was reported that the locusts settled so thickly on the thatched roofs of houses that their liquid excrement dripped through like a foul rain into the rooms below. Forestus Alcmarianos covers all the possibilities: Newly developed flies, worms, and midges are observed on the snow, the fruit and other crops fail to mature or rot, disease is observed particularly among sheep and swine, dogs go mad, many move like shadows on the wall, black vapours are observed to rise from the earth like a mist, the ravens are prompted by unusual impulses and fly around the hospitals in pairs. In the neighbourhood of water there is for a full hour a sound of washing and beating of clothes at night which is heard quite close, and it has been observed that this is indicative of a plague among women. Birds, contrary to their habits, are restless at night, fly about hither and thither, certain birds called plague birds appear, some maintain that a ghost with a voice like some lowing domestic animal is heard, frogs sit huddled together in scores or one on top of the other, in the hospitals and sick houses a great rushing of wind is heard, and when one perceives among men a great lack of reliability, jealousy, and hatred and sick houses a great rushing wind is heard, and when one perceives among men a great lack of reliability, jealousy, and hatred and wantonness, if then the plague does not ensue, some other inscrutable disease that is difficult to cure is sure to come. [131] This phenomenon is one of the rarest that has ever been observed, for nothing is more constant than the compostion of the air, and in no respect has nature been more careful in the preservation of organic life. Never have naturalists discovered in the atmosphere, foreign elements, which evident to the senses, and borne by the winds, spread from land to land, carrying disease over whole portions of the earth, as is recounted to have taken place in the year 1348. It is, therefore, the more to be regretted, that in this extraordinary period, which, owing to the low condition of science, was very deficient in accurate observers, so little that can be depended on respecting those uncommon occurences in the air, should have been recorded. Yet, German accounts say expressly, that a thick, stinking mist advanced from the East, and spread itself over Italy; and there could be no deception in so 154 palpable a phenomenon. The credibility of unadorned traditions, however little they may satisfy to physical research, can scarcely be called in question when we consider the connection of events; for just at this time earthquakes were more general than they had been within the range of history. In thousands of places chasms were formed, from whence arose noxious vapors; and as at that time natural occurences were transformed into miracles, it was reported, that a fiery meteor, which descended on the earth far in the East, had destroyed everything within a circumference of more than a hundred leagues, infecting the air far and wide. The consequences of innumerable floods contributed to the same effect; vast river districts had been converted into swamps; foul vapors arose everywhere, increased by the odor of putrefied locusts, which had never perhaps darkened the sun in thicker swarms, and of countless corpses, which even in the well-regulated countries of Europe, they knew not how to remove quickly enough out of the sight of the living. It is probable, therefore, that the atmosphere contained foreign, and sensibly perceptible, admixtures to a great extent, which at least in the lower regions, could not be decomposed, or rendered ineffective by separation.[132] As the plague was in the first instance attributed to the visitation of the air, the plague-engendering nature of the locusts was evident. The horribly stinking vermin used to like a foot high in the ponds and wells, and their filth dripped as an oily, stinking mass from the roofs. The famine which in consequence of the lack of means of communication and the prejudice existing against commerce in corn invariably followed every inroad of locusts also tended to weaken the constitutions and to render them more susceptible to an epidemic of plague. Already St. Augustine relates of a fearful plague which was announced by swarms of locusts. Towards the end of June 1338 there appeared coming from Asia swarms of migratory locusts in such numbers that they darkened the sun and, if they alighted, covered the ground for several miles round. With the exception of the vines everything in the fields was devoured. Only 3 years later were they completely eradicated. Again, in the year 1346 the locusts and white mice had announced the plague in Germany. “In 1478 the whole of Latin Europe was plagued by locusts which devastated everything, gardens, meadows and fields, after which a great epidemic came into the land, and in Venice alone there died more than 300,000 persons.” Fig. 65.). Giant Locusts Grasshoppers, Africa 155  “Memorable for the year 1335 is the pernicious inroad of locusts which, coming through Poland, Bohemia, and Austria from the East, penetrated into the Empire. As described by Aventinus, these soldiers possessed 6 wings each and teeth which gleamed like precious stones. They flew so thick in the air that they darkened the sun and cast a shadow on the earth. They always dispatched a vanguard a day before which, so to say, had to find quartes for the main body and select a place for their encamprment-a word very applicable to this invasion, as it was indeed a was against fields, whose leaves and grass, flowers and seed, stalks and herbs were bitten off and consumed by these hosts; but, as Bonfinius relates, the vineyards were spared. They were seemingly divided into regiments-they rose at dawn and did not descend to the ground till 9 o’clock. Monsignor Carl in Moravia once endeavoured to measure the extent of their camp and found that its breadth amounted to 35,000 pacesor 3 German miles, but it was impossible to ride along its full length in a single day. In winter they crept into holes to reappear next summer; this was carried on for 4 successive summers. In Bavaria someone raised an army of fowls to encounter them, but the more they destroyed and swallowed of these uninvited guests the more there came up to take their places. At last the storks, ravens, vultures, and magpies fell upon them in the 4th year and destroyed the majority; the rest were smothered by a thick snow which fell upon them.” Just as the rotting locusts were held responsible for the plague, so were all other extensive sources of putrefaction by which the air was infected. Thus Forestus Alcamarianos relates that he himself saw a whale “28 ells in length and 14 ells broad which, coming from the western sea, was thrown upon the shore of Egemont by great waves and was unable to reach the open again; it produced so great a foulness and malignity of the air that very soon a great epidemic broke out in Egemont and neighbourhood.’ Further indications are unusual insects, strange worms, big-bellied roads, unknown frogs with tails with which the medical men of the period were not familiar, large quantities of all kinds of bettles, large, black vineyard moths, large spiders, gnats “of uncanny shape and colour.” “Further, when snakes, bats, badgers, and other animals, which dwell in deep holes in the earth, come out in the fields in great multitude and forsake their ordinary dwellings; when the fruit and leguminous plants become very rotten and full of worms, when poisonous fungi sprout up, when the fields and woods are full of spider webs; when cattle fall ill or even die on the pastures, as well as the wild animals in the woods, when bread readily turns mouldy and mildewed. Newly developed flies, worms, and midges are observed on the snow, the fruit and other crops fail to mature or rot, disease is observed particularly in sheep and swine, dogs go mad, many move about like shadows on the wall , black vapours are observed to rise from the earth like a mist, the ravens are prompted by unusual impulses and fly round the hospitals in pairs. In the neighbourhood of water there is for a full hour a sound of washing and beating of clothes at night which is heard quite close, and it has been observed that this is indicative of an epidemic among women . Birds, contrary to their habits , are restless at night, fly about hither and thither, certain birds called plague birds appear, some maintain that a ghost with a voice like some lowing domestic animal is heard, frogs sit huddled together in scores or one on the top of the other, in the hospitals and sick houses a great rushing wind is heard, and when one perceives among men a great lack of reliability, jealousy, and hatred and wantonness, if then the plague does not ensue, some other inscrutable disease that is difficult to cure is sure to come. If newly baked bread is placed for the night at the end of a pole and in the morning is found to be mildewed and internally grown green, yellow and uneatable, and when thrown to fowls and dogs causes them to die from eating it, in a similar manner if fowls drink the morning dew and die in consequence, then the plague poison is near at hand. Nor are extraordinary things both visible and invisible at all times to be considered diabolical machinations superstition of idolatry, but may be regarded as the work of God.”[133] 156  Rats The native black rat (Mus rattus) was already engaged in fierce competition with the larger and more combative brown rat (Mus norvegicus) for the available feeding places, and the rebuilding hastened the process by which the brown rats, introduced from ships, drove out their smaller and blacker cousins. All rats carry fleas, but the black rat is happier in houses where there are human beings, and therefore tends to be a more dangerous plague carrier. The brown rat does not like the disturbance caused by human inhabitants, and prefers to live in buildings that are not inhabited, such as warehouses and stores. London reaped the benefit of this ecologocial change, and the plague was virtually eliminated.[134] Another prevalent notion regarding rats was, that they had a presentiment of coming evil, and always deserted in time a ship about to be wrecked, or a house about to be flooded or burned. So lately as 1854, it was seriously reported in a Scotch provincial newspaper that, the night before a town mill was burned, the rats belonging to the establishment were met migrating in a body to a neighbouring pease-field. The notion acquires importance as the basis of a new verb in the English language-to rat-much used in political party janglings. Mr. Bewick, the ingenious wood-engraver, has put on record a fact regarding rats nearly as mystical as any of the above. He alleges that ‘the skins of such of them as have been devoured in their holes [for they are cannibals to a sad extene] have frequently been found curiously turned inside out, every part of them being completely inverted, even to the ends of the toes.’[135] The Church on various occasions pronounced against the fatalistic opinion that certain conjunctions of the stars were the cause of the plague. In astrology she perceived remnants of paganism, and Cecco d’Ascoli, who cast the nativity of Christ and from it deduced His death on the Cross, was in 1327 condemned to be burnt at the stake. In spite, and of Paul III we know that he never held a consistorium without having previously had the hour determined by astrologists. On the other hand, a sinister significance was attributed to comets by the Church. Thus the Pope excommunicated the comet which appeared in 1532, and a ban was placed on the grubs, caterpillars, locusts, rats, mice, and even cockchafers as precursors of the plague in 1478 by the Bishop of Berne, 1516 by the Bishop of Troyes, and 1541 by the Bishop of Lausanne. A particularly remarkable action was taken against mice in France in 1540. The circumstances of this legal farce are: “In certain districts of France the mice had completely devoured the corn in the fields and done immense damage. The rural population was greatly incensed, but did not know how to wreak their vengeance on the vermin. At last it occurred to them that they could do no better than to lodge a complaint against the mice with the bishop, requesting him to pronounce a ban on them, then they would be rid of them once and for all. Immediately they drew up and submitted their complaint, requesting the grant of the needed official protection. The bishop summoned a consistorium and discussed this difficult case with the clergy. The opinion of all was that the request of the poor people must be granted. But in order to condemn no one without having heard his defense, they decided that it was necessary to summon the mice 3 times; this was done. When, then the mice did not put in an appearance the bishop still refrained from pronouncing the ban, and maintained that before this could be done a counsel must be appointed for the accused who could plead for the absentees. The council did his best, and pointed out to the judges that the mice had not been served with summons in the legal manner, and that therefore they could not be expected to appear, and he attained that much that the mice were once more summoned from all pulpits for a certain day. Although the mice remained irresponsive and did not appear, their counsel still set forth how it was impossible for the mice to arrange an appearance in short a time, and pleaded for an extension. In addition they had not been assured of safe- conduct, and had therefore not been able to come. Everywhere in villages, towns, and on the roads the cats cruelly waylaid them. He therefore begged to delay judgment. The care was adjourned sine die.”[136] 157  Fleas, though a common household nuisance, are not once mentioned in contemporary plague writings and rats only incidentally, although folklore commonly associated them with pestilence. The legend of Pied Piper arose from an outbreak of 1284. The actual plague bacillus, Pasturella pestis, remained undiscovered for another 500 years. Living alternately in the stomach of the flea and the bloodstream of the rat who was the fleas host, the bacillus in its bubonic form was transferred to humans and animals by the bite of either rat or flea. It traveled by virtue of Rattus rattus, the small medieval black rat that lived on ships, as well as by the heavier brown or sewer rat. What participated the turn of the bacillus from innocuous to virulent form is unknown.[137] Fig. 66.). Bubonic plague in Sydney How a city survived the black death in 1900 A heap of rats about 600 c. Jul 1900 Animals & The Plague Among which matter of marvel let me tell you one thing, which if the eyes of many (as well as mine owne) had not seene, hardly could I be perswaded to write it, much lesse to believe it, albeit a man of good credit should report it. I say. That the quality of this contagious pestilence was not onely of such efficacy, in taking and catching it one of another either men or women: but it extended further, even in the apparent view of many, that the cloathes or anything else wherein one died of that disease, being toucht, or lyen on by any beast, farre from the kind or quality of man, they did not onely contaminate and infect the said beast, were it Dogge, Cat, or any other; but also it died very soone. “Mine owne eyes (as formerly I have said) among divers others, one day had evident experience hereof: for some poor ragged cloathes of linen and wollen, torn from a wretched body dead of that disease, and hurled in the open streete; 2 Swine going by, and (according to their natural inclination) seeking for foode on every dung-hill, tossed and tumbled the cloathes with their snouts, rubbing their heads likewise upon them; and immediately, each 158 turning twice or thrice about, they both fell down dead on the saide cloathes, as being fully infected with the contagion of them: which accident, and other the like, if not far greater, begat divers feares and imaginations in them that beheld them, all tending to a most inhumane and uncharitable end; namely, to flie thence hence from the sicke, and touching anything of theirs by which means they thought their health should be safely warranted.[138] During the plague in Austria in the year 1679 the sick are said to have succumbed within 24 hours. That animals were also subject to infection is reported by the majority of chronicle writers. Dogs and cats died, horses, oxen, goats and sheep grew mangy, wasted away and died within a few days. It is reported that even the wolves fled at the approach of the grazing cattle of the farmers. A fact reported from Vienna is worthy of mention. The physicians during the month of April, in hot weather, tested the danger to be feared from the quantity of corpses. They hanged up a dog about a trench in which some thousand people were lying buried. When after 3 hours the dog had ceased to live, they concluded that more earth should be heaped on the trench.[139] Here, too, there is a lack of hands to bury the dead. Here, too, in many places the work of the fields, even the harvest work, had to be suspended, and the cattle strayed from their never closed byres, abandoned to their own instincts, to return again at night. What the Italian Frari reports from Italy is repeated frequently in the North. “Savage wolves roamed about in packs at night and howled round the walls of the towns. In the villages they did not slake their thirst for human blood by lurking in secret places, as was otherwise their wont, but boldly entered the open houses and tore the little ones from their mothers’ sides; indeed they did not only attack children, but even armed men and overcame them. To the contemporaries they seemed no longer wild animals but demons. Other quadrupeds forsook their woods, and in herds approached the vicinity of human habitations, as if aware of the extraordinary conditions. Ravens in innumerable flocks flew over the towns with loud croaking. The kite and the vulture were heard in the air, and other unusual migratory birds appeared. But on the houses the cuckoos and owls alighted and filled the night with their mournful lamet. The field-mice had lost all fear and took up their abode among human beings.”[140] In many places an order was issued that all cats in plague houses should be destroyed, and that the dogs should be chained up. Cattle may not be taken over by the heirs until driven at least 3 times through deep water.[141] 720: Locusts can travel at the length of 20 miles and width of 5 miles. That is largest that has been documented in them all travelling at once. Which would blacken out the sky. Wherever there destination is going to be that location is going to be destroyed. As they destroyed the crops and the fecal matter of the locusts created disease. This is also with the rats. We can see how both characters have had so many experiences and run INS with white people. That over time the Caucasian mind romanticized these characters. The Locust would be the Jimmity Cricket of Pinochio. The mouse would be Mighty mouse, Mickey and Minnie mouse, Stuart Little, The rat of Chuck E Cheese, and many other little rats plagued throughout our society in the social form. Not to exclude the titan rats New York are famous of having and we can’t forget splinter of the Ninja Turtles. Tom and Jerry is important to mention with the black cat chasing the mouse. Tom and Jerry was a play in London that caricaturized, embodying all of the London stereotypes into a play that traveled from theatre to theater all around Europe. So the cartoon carries all the different auras of all the different types of people that were frequent throughout the London streets. Watching the cartoon opens you to these energies. 159  Comets & Astrology during The Plague Above all, it was the constellations which determined the destiny of man, and particular positions of the planets were regarded as the direct cause of the plague. For this, support was found in the principle authority of the mediaeval ages-in Aristotle, who regarded the conjunction of Mars and Jupiter as specially menacing. Thus the outbreak of the great plague in 1348 was preceded by the conjunction of Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars under the 14th degree of Aquarius, on March 20, 1345, at 1 p.m. Later on this conjunction of has always been regarded as the true cause of the plague: “For one (Saturn) collects the evil vapours in the depth of the earth, the other draws them up into the heights of the air, particularly when the moon is subject to eclipse in the sign of Aquarius, the Scales or the Scorpion. Such an eclipse took place on April 15, 1679. On this day there was the first case of plague in the Leopold’s Town quarter of Vienna.” That Saturn in Aquarius was regarded as giving rise to plague was stated in the foundation document of the University of Wittenberg, and many were of opinion Saturn was the horseman on the pale horse. In the year 1447 the celebrated physician, Marsilius Ficinus, then aged a 108 years. Prophesied from the conjunction of the planets Saturn and Jupiter together with other signs and constellations the plague which arrived 2 years later, “carrying off even cats and dogs.” In the year 1664 the astrologer, Dr. Engelhardt, predicted to Czar Alexei Michailovitch for the year 1665 a terrible plague which would affect more countries than Russia. This bold prophecy was actually fulfilled, and the terrible outbreak in London in 1665 caused terror and horror in all countries, and particularly there where this pretended prophecy had drawn attention to the fearful event. Intercourse was, therefore, prohibited with foreign countries at all frontiers by an express order of the Czar. The port of Archangel was closed, and even such foreigners who arrived at Plesskov and Novgorod from the Swedish frontier were subjected to a severe examination and were not allowed to proceed to Moscow without special permission of the Czar. As particular instigators and precursors of all great universal plagues the comets were regarded, which in the centuries when these epidemics were most prevalent were extraordinarily frequent. In the period from 1298 to 1314 seven were enumerated, 26 between 1500 and 1543, 15 or 16 between 1556 and 1597. Frequently several appeared one after another every year. For the year 1618 alone the number is stated to have been 8 or 9. Seneca had already declared comets to be malicious apparitions, preceding disease, civil strife, war and earthquake. Hippocrates and Avicenna, the 2 chief medical authorities, taught that: “Comets, auroras, and particularly eclipses of the sun and moon, were the cause and precursors of future pestilences.” Aristotle had explained the comets as apparitions of the air due to exhalations of the earth, and the Mastersinger of Nuremberg, Hans Folz, in his rhymes of the plague of 1482, attributes their baneful effect to their power of extracting all moisture: . . . and comets with their fiery tails, In Germany as dry stars they are known, And everywhere that one had flown From that same land all moisture it withdraws, Which from all things it takes by Nature’s laws, From men, from beasts, from earth, So that they are deprived, and dearth Must suffer of their vital essence Which causes drought, fever, and excrescence. This may be seen, as is revealed quite clear By war, great plague, or famine year- This too is cause of the foul atmosphere. 160  Comets were also said to be God’s letters of renunciation or his chastisement rods. “In 1117, in January, a comet passed like a fiery army from the North towards the Orient, the moon was o’ercast blood-red in an eclipse, a year later a light appeared more brilliant than the sun. This was followed by great cold, famine, and plague, of which 1/3 of humanity is said to have perished. At this time a child lying swaddled in its cradle at Cremona is said to have addressed its mother by her name, and to have related that it had seen the Holy Virgin Mary beseeching her son that he would not destroy the world; hereafter the child spake never a word till the rightful time had come.” A particularly terrible comet, of awe-inspiring blackness, is said to have preceded the outbreak of the “Black death” in Europe. Again, in the year 1618, a large comet spread general terror, and was regarded as the precursor of the calamity which overtook the world 14 years later. Pope Urban VIII found it necessary to institute public prayers and a jubilee for the purpose of allaying the public anxiety. “What wretchedness and misery,” an author writes in 1683, “has been brought about in this country alone, in which we live, by comets? And now we have the plague-announcer, the comet, before our very eyes. It stands above our heads, Flagellium Dei, the Scourge of God, Attila, a cruel tyrant and king of the Huns was called. Oh who can tell what punishment this comet which God has sent may mean?” Here again the relation of the comet to the other constellations was of particular significance. From this could be determined what country, what people, what animals had most to fear from the comet and the nature of the evil threatened. A comet in the Ram signified grievous wars, deadly epidemics, the fall of the mighty and the rise of the lowly; great drought in places situated in the realm of this tropic. In the Virgin it signified premature and dangerous delivery of pregnant women, heavy taxation, imprisonment, and death of many women. In the Scorpion it meant, in addition to the above evils, insect plagues and locusts in innumerable hosts. In the Fishes, religious strife, terrible disturbances of the atmosphere, war, plague, and most certainly death of the mighty. The dread of comets was so deeply rooted in human imagination that no one dared to advance arguments to pacify the anxiety of the people at the comet of 1618. The celebrated mathematician, Jacques Bernoulli, got out of the difficulty in a discussion with upholders of the mission of comets by declaring: “The crown of the comet could not be a sign of divine anger, because it was of eternal nature, but the tail of the comet might well admit of this interpretation.” Thus Peter Bayle’s treatis-“Various considerations on the occasion of the Comet of 1680” –was an act of great scientific and moral courage and a literary sensation of the first order. When Halley had established the nature of comets as stars and had predicted the reappearance of the particularly brilliant comet of 1682 for the year 1758, and his calculation had proved to be right, the constellations of planets and the appearance of comets had to be suppressed in the predictions of plagues. In addition to comets there were all kinds of other fiery signs which were considered precursors of the plague. Thus on December 20, 1348, there stood at dawn a column of fire above the palace of the Pope at Avignon, and in August of the same year there was seen above Paris a ball of fire which remained visible for a considerable time. To this category belongs an event which happened in Austria, at Vienna, in the year 1568, “When in sun and moonlight a beautiful rainbow and a fiery beam were seen hovering above the church of St. Stephanie, which was followed by a violent epidemic in Austria, Swabia, Augsburg, Wuertemberg, Nuremberg, and other places, carrying off human beings and cattle.” Further stinking mists, rains of snakes and frogs, storms and floods, earthquakes, famines and locusts, were all considered as precursors of the plague. Hecker, in his celebrated book on the “Black Plague,” 1832, and haeser, in his “Historical Pathological Enquiries,” 1839, by no means question the casual connection of the cosmic and telluric events with the outbreak of the plague. “The most terrific revolutions in the existence of the earth, floods, volcanic eruptions, tempests, heavy, moist pestilential fogs (a feature which preceded the epidemic nearly throughout its whole course)-these products of an outburst of the inorganic forces of Nature, to which in the lower organic life of Nature as a parallel feature the production of innumberable swarms of 161 insects (Chinese reports even mention a rain of snakes), the failure of corps, etc. may be added- served as an introduction of the place of its first origin, China.”[142] Fig. 67.). Ausschnitt Detail. Einblattdrucke einer Kometenerscheinung 1687 Leaflet of a comet. APPENDIX As To Whether Death Sent Certain Precursors To Vienna and Warned of His descent (Abraham a Santa-Clara) Before proceeding to describe in full detail the course of the fell disease, it would appear incumbent to know it no unusual signs and indications had preceded it from which as outbreak of the plague in Vienna might 0have been predicted. Such signs are commonly divided into 4 kinds-namely, in air, water, earth, and heavenly signs; to the heavenly signs belong sinister aspects and baneful constellations, as well as the miserable comets, which generally prove to be reliable precursors of the plague, as in the year 1618 a comet appeared after which plagues ensued in various places. In the year 1606 a comet was seen, after which a general plague traversed the world. In 1582 a comet brought so violent a plague upon Majo, Prague, Thuringia, the Netherlands, and other places that in Thuringia it carried off 37,000 and in the Netherlands 46,415. That at this time a comet appeared here no one with truth could maintain. But that this year there was from above a baneful conjunction of the stars was proved recently beyond all doubt by a well-known physician in a treatise. Regarding the air signs, they consist in variations of the weather in different seasons, a prevalence of south wind, excess of rain, which in this year has 162 been incessant; then evil smelling mists are blamed, as indicative of the plague, and of these, indeed, several were observed last autumn. In my opinion the plague is caused not only by the mists but by godless misters. Water signs are generally sudden overflowing of the rivers, also when the wells turn muddy and brackish, also it is a sure sign when fish and crabs leave their water and holes and withdraw to the shores, also when frogs and toads are seen in great quantities. But it is also certain that when fishy methods are used in the law courts and common decency assumes the crooked walk of the crab, and in all dark corners and taverns frivolous and shameless toads are to be found, that this will not tarry to send the plague. Earth signs are unusual lack of fertility of the soil and failure of the crops of trees, the fields, and the vineyards, also the earthquakes; further when in the autumn the spring flowers and herbs once more grow green and flower, when the multitude of locusts, beetles, vineyard moths and mice devour the fruit of the earth everywhere. It cannot be denied that this year there was decided failure of the crops in Vienna, especially of the grain crops, but many more growths of fungus nature and the like have been found than in other years. But it should be known that not only mice, but also wicked little human mice announce the approach of plague. Thus, too, when human ill weeds grow apace, sow thistles, goats’ beards, and the like, you know well what is meant-all these are frequently precursors of a plague. In addition there are other signs which generally precede a plague, such as frequent meteors or shooting- stars. Thus in 1538 Swabia, Switzerland, and Bavaria sustained a plague together with an unheard-of outbreak of dysentery, and this is said to have been announced by shooting stars. In the year 1536 shooting stars of this kind were observed in Hungary in the form of a tongue, as if drawn with black pumice-stone. Around Vienna the common people, particularly the vineyard guards, swore on oath that at this time they frequently observed shooting stars. To this category belongs what is heard at night time-a weeping and wailing which by the credulous populace is called “the wail,” but in the Salzburg district the common people call it “death and his wife”; experience shows that such things, any of them, announce an epidemic.[143] The necessary connection with theology endowed all mediaeval medicine with the character of quackery, against which minds like Petrarch and Gerson inveighed so sarcastically. It must be admitted that even the most enlightened minds were swayed by astrology and magic, which occupy a prominent place in the opinions of medical faculties of that period, of which the opinion of the Paris faculty that was drawn up by order of the king Philip of Valois in 1348 is the best known. The influence of astrology on medicine attained its climax in the 15th and 17th centuries. Physics and chemistry at that period throughout Europe taught in an occult manner, nearly as if they had been magic. If one turns to the works of Albertus Magnus it is difficult to determine where the language of simile begins and where it ends. In Italy, Peter of Apone maintained that he had been instructed in the 7 free arts by 7 spirits which he had conjured into a crystal. All money that he spent returned to his pocket (this may be easily believed, as this physician charged 150 lires for every visit paid outside the town and demanded 400 ducats a day from the sick Pope Honorius IV). In fact, most people were incapable of understanding his symbolic language and ideas, and he was seized by the Inquisition when, fortunately for him, he died, whereupon his effigy was burnt and his corpse secretly buried by his mistress. [144] The medical faculty of Paris, the most celebrated of the 14th century, were commissioned to deliver their opinion on the causes of the Black Plague, together with some appropriate regulations with regard to living, during its prevalence. This document is sufficiently remarkable to find a place here. “We, the Members of the College of Physicians, of Paris, have, after mature consideration and consultation on the present mortality, collected the advice of our old masters in the art, and intend to make known the causes of this pestilence, more clearly than could be done according to the rules and principles of astrology and natural science; new, therefore, declare as follows: 163  “It is known that in India, and the vicinity of the Great Sea, the constellations which combated the rays of the sun, and the warmth of the heavenly fire, exerted their power especially against the sea, and struggled violently with its waters. Hence, vapors often originate which envelope the sun, and convert his light into darkness. These vapors alternately rose and fell for 28 days; but at last, sun and fire acted so powerfully upon the sea, that they attracted a great portion of it to themselves, and the waters of the ocean arose in the form of vapor; thereby the waters were in some parts, so corrupted, that the fish which they contained, died. Those corrupted waters, however, the heat of the sun could not consume, neither could other wholesome water, hail or snow, and dew, originate there from. On the contrary, this vapor spread itself through and the air in many places on the Earth, and enveloped them in fog. “Such was the case all over Arabia, in a part of india; in Crete; in the plains and valleys of Macedonia, in Hungary; Albania and Sicily. Should the same thing occur in Sardina, not a man will be left alive; and the like will continue, so long as the sun remains in the sign of Leo, on all the islands and adjoining countries to which this corrupted sea-wind extends, or has already extended from India. If the inhabitants of those parts do not employ and adhere to the following or similar means and precepts, we announce to them inevitable death – except the grace of Christ preserve their lives. “We are of opinion, that the constellations, with the aid of Nature, strive, by virtue of their divine might, to protect and heal the human race; and to this end, in union with the rays of the sun, acting through the power of fire, endeavor to break through the mist. Accordingly, within the next 10 days, and until the 17th of the ensuing month of July, this mist will be converted into a stinking deleterious rain, whereby the air will by much putrified. Now, as soon as this rain announces itself, by thunder or hail, every one of you should protect himself from the air; and, as well before as after the rain, kindle a large fire of vine-wood, green laurel, or other green wood; worm- wood and chamomile should also be burnt in great quantity in the market places, in other densely inhabited localities, and in the houses. Until the earth is again completely dry, and for 3 days afterwards, no one ought to go abroad in the fields. During this time the diet should be simple, and people should be cautions in avoiding exposure in the cool of the evening, at night and in the morning. Poultry and water-fowl, young pork, old beef, and fat meat, in general, should not be eaten; but on the contrary, meat of a proper age, of a warm and dry nature, by no means, however, heating and exciting. Broth should be taken. Seasoned with ground pepper, ginger and cloves, especially by those who are accustomed to live termperately, and are yet choice in their diet. Sleep in the day-time is detrimental; it should be taken at night until sunrise, or somewhat longer. At breakfast, one should drink little supper should be taken an hour before sunset, when more may be drunk than in the morning. Clear light wine, mixed with a 5th or 6th part of water, should be used as a beverage. Dried or fresh fruits with wine are not injurious; but highly so without it. Beet-root and other vegetables, whether eaten pickled or fresh, are hurtful; on the contrary, spicy pot-herbs, as sage or rosemary. Are wholesome. Cold, moist, watery food is, in general, prejudicial. Going out at night, and even until 3 o’ clock in the morning, is dangerous, on account of the dew. Only small river fish should be used. Too much exercise is hurtful. The body should be kept warmer than usual, and thus protected from moisture and cold. Rain-water must not be employed in cooking, and everyone should guard against exposure to wet weather. If it rain, a little fine treacle should be taken after dinner. Fat people should not sit in the sunshine. Good clear wine should be selected and drunk often, but in small quantities, by day. Olive-oil, as an article of food, is fatal. Equally injurious are fasting or excessive abstemiousness, anxiety of mind, anger, and excessive drinking. Young people, in autumn especially, must obtain from all these things, if they do not wish to run a risk of dying of dysentery. In order to keep the body properly open, an enema, or some other simple means, should be employed, when necessary. Bathing is injurious. Men must preserve chastity as they value their lives. 164 Everyone should impress this on his recollection, but especially those who reside on the coast, or upon an island into which the noxious wind has penetrated.”[145] Of the astral influence which was considered to have originated the “Great Mortality”, physicians and learned men were as completely convinced as of the fact of its reality. A grand conjunction of the 3 superior planets, Saturn, Jupiter and Mars, in the sign of Aquarius, which took place according to Guy de Chauliac, on the 24th of March, 1345, was generally received as its principal cause. In fixing the day, this physician, who was deeply versed in astrology, did not agree with others; whereupon there arose various disputations, of weight in that age, but of none in ours; people, however, agreed in this-that conjunctions of the planets infallibly prognosticated great events; great revolutions of kingdoms, new prophets, destructive plagues, and other occurrences which bring distress and horror on mankind. No medical author of the 14th and 15th century, omits an opportunity of representing them as among the general prognostics of great plagues; nor can we, for our parts, regard the astrology of the middle ages, as a mere offspring of superstition. [146] The causes of the pestilence and epidemic are, first of all, astral influences, especially on occasion of planetary conjunctions; then extensive putrefaction of animal and vegetable bodies, and terrestrial corruptions; to which also, bad diet and want may contribute. Santa Sofia considers the putrefaction of locusts, that had perished in the sea, and were again thrown up, combined with astral and terrestrial influences, as the cause of the pestilence in the eventful year of the “Great Mortality”.[147] To this, as I said before, the Astrologers added Stories of the Conjunctions of Planets in a malignant Manner, and with a mischievous Influence; one of which Conjunctions was to happen, and did happen, in October; and the other in November; and they filled the People’s Heads with Predictions on these Signs of the Heavens, intimating, that those Conjunctions foretold Drought, Famine, and Pestilence; in the 2 first of them however, they were entirely mistaken, For we had no droughty Season, but in the beginning of the Year, a hard Frost, which lasted from December almost to March; and after that moderate Weather, rather warm than hot, with refreshing Winds, and in short, very seasonable Weather; and also several very great Rains.[148] One Mischief always introduces another: These Terrors and Apprehensions of the People, led them into a Thousand weak, foolish, and wicked Things, which, they wanted not a Sort of People really wicked, to encourage them to; and this was running about to Fortune-tellers, Cunning-men, and Astrologers, to know their Fortune, or, as ‘tis vulgarly express’d, to have their Fortunes told them, their Nativities calculated, and the like; and this Folly, presently made the Town swarm with a wicked Generation of Pretenders to Magick, to the Black Art, as they call’d it, and I know not what; Nay, to a Thousand wose Dealings with the Devil, than they were really guilty of; and this Trade grew so open, and so generally practised, that it became common to have Signs and inscriptions set up at Doors; here lives a Fortune-teller; here lives an Astrologer; here you may have your Nativity calculated, and the like; and Fryars Bacon’s Brazen-Head, which was the usual Sign of these Peoples Dwellings, was to be seen almost in every Street, or else the Sign of Mother Shipton, or of Merlins Head, and the like. With what blind, absurd and ridiculous Stuff, these Oracles of the Devil pleas’d and satisfy’d the People, I really know not; but certain it is, that innumerable Attendants crouded about their Doors every Day; and if but a grave Fellow in a Velvet Jackey, a Band, and a black Cloak, which was the Habit those Quack Conjurers generally went it, was but seen in the Streets, the People would follow them in Crowds, and ask them Questions, as they went along. I need not mention, what a horrid delusion this was, or what it tended to; but there was no Remedy for it, till the Plague itself put an End to it all; and I suppose, clear’d the Town of most of those Calculators themselves. One Mischief was, that if the poor People ask’d these mock Astrologers, whether there would be a Plague or no? they all agreed in the general to answer, Yes, for that kept up their Trade; and had the People not been kept in a 165 Fright about that, the Wizards would presently have been kept in a Fright about that, the Wizards would presently have been rendered useless, and their Craft had been at an end: But they always talked to them of such and such Influences of the Stars, of the Conjunctions of such and such Planets, which must necessarily bring Sickness and Distempers, and consequently the Plague: And some had the Assurance to tell them, the Plague was begun already, which was too true, tho’ they that said so, knew nothing of the Matter.[149] Pursuing the course of these grand revolutions further, we find notice of an unexampled earthquake, which, on the 25th of January, 1348, shook Greece, Italy and the neighboring countries. Naples, Rome, Pisa, Bologna, Padua, Venice and many other cities suffered considerably: whole villages were swallowed up. Castles, houses and churches, were overthrown, and hundreds of people were buried beneath their ruins. In Carinthia, 30 villages, together with all the churches, were demolished; more than 1000 corpses were drawn out of the rubbish; the city of Villach was so completely destroyed, that very few of its inhabitants were saved; and when the earth ceased to tremble, it was found that mountains had been moved from their positions, and that many hamlets were left in ruins. It is recorded, that during this earthquake, the wine in the casks became turbid, a statement which may be considered as furnishing a proof, that changes causing a decomposition of the atmosphere had taken place; but if we had no other information from which the excitement of conflicting powers of nature during these commotions, might be inferred, yet Scientific observations in modern times have shown, that the relation of the atmosphere to the earth is changed by volcanic influences. Why then, may we not, from this fact, draw retrospective inferences respecting those extraordinary phenomena?[150] "In France . . . was seen the terrible Comet called Negra. In December appeared over Avignon a Pillar of Fire. There were many great Earthquakes, Tempests, Thunders and Lightnings, and thousands of People were swallowed up; the Courses of Rivers were stopt; some Chasms of the Earth sent forth Blood. Terrible Showers of Hail, each stone weighing 1 Pound to 8; Abortions in all Countries; in Germany it rained Blood; in France Blood gushed out of the Graves of the Dead, and stained the Rivers crimson; Comets, Meteors, Fire-beams, corruscations in the Air, Mock-suns, the Heavens on Fire . . ."[151] 720: There are a ton of reports made by chroniclers of very odd weather patterns and also its effect on the people. The foretelling of plagues is also peculiar. These events especially the futuristic premonitions were either done by hallucination or astrology. So far all of the information correlated to astrology was correct and exact. Hallucinations and visions can only be vouched by those who were there. Honestly I believe the hallucinations may have a percentage of reliability relative to prophetic announcements but so may insanity. The raining of blood which in this book many of these cases are mentioned. This book: A history of the Air was written in 1690 and has much theology intertwined with the events. I’d also like to state that is now becoming obvious that the bible is specifically designed based upon a large amount of events that occurred all compared and compiled to make the singular stories inside the book. This also goes for events in America’s history. Plague Powders & Poisons It was in a lesser degree due to atrocities of this nature which, after all, were only of sporadic occurrence, than to they incapacity to believe that so uncanny a disease as the plague could be attributable to natural causes, that the fateful misconception of the artificial production of the plague developed. Already in Livy we find the belief that human malice is capable of artificially producing an epidemic among human beings and animals. He relates that under the consulate of M. Claudius Marcellus (268 B.C. – 208 B.C.) and C. Halelius 170 persons were arrested for strewing powders productive of disease and were put to death. Seneca also believed that wells were poisoned and that pestilence could be artificially produced. Moses and Aaron “took ashes of the furnace and stood 166 before Pharaoh; and Moses sprinkled it up toward heaven, and it became a boil breaking forth with blains upon men and upon beast” (Exod. ix. 10) Archbishop Agobardus (779-840) relates that the great cattle epidemic in the year 800 was produced artificially by Grimvaldus, Duke of Benevento. Prompted by enmity for Emperor Charlemagne, he sent people to France, who strewed poison over the fields, mountains, and meadows. Several of the miscreants were caught and put to death. The marvelous part of the matter was that none of those who, under torture, confessed their crime was capable of explaining how such an efficacious and secret powder could be prepared that was noxious to cattle alone and to practically no other animal. On a broadsheet printed at Prague in 1682 we find information relating to an epidemic among cattle produced by witchcraft. The conclusion of the broadsheet runs: “It is reported that in Switzerland, close to Lindau, there were 2 sorcerers who achieved the following: 2 Frenchmen in Switzerland went to a woman who was lying in and demanded 3 drops of her milk and 3 hairs from her head, which she refused them, but told them to come back in 2 hours; her husband was not at home-before the 2 hours had passed he returned. Then the woman told him what the 2 persons had demanded from her. Her husband ordered her to take 3 drops of cows milk and 3 hairs from the tail of foal, and when they came back to give them to them. And behold the 2 persons came back at the time appointed, and demanded the same things as before; the woman gave them to them, as her husband had ordered; they took them and went away with them. And, as one subsequently confessed, they put them together in a glass and used them for the purpose of sorcery. They proceeded in the following manner; They made a boy climb up a tree with the glass and told him he should look into the glass. They asked him a first and a second time what he saw in the glass? He replied: ‘Nothing.’ But when they asked him a 3rd time, he replied that he saw a whole field full of dead cattle. When they heard this they cried, ‘We have been cheated.’ Shortly after, these 2 miscreants were to be arrested, but 1 immediately sprang into the water and drowned himself. The other was caught and was subsequently immured alive, but before he was asked if there was no way of saving the cattle. Whereupon he replied: Yes, there would develop on the tongue of the cattle a small boil. This should be opened with a fine silver lancet till the raw flesh was laid bare, then honey should be rubbed on it. But this sorcery was not intended for the cattle but for human beings; for if the woman had given them some of her milk and her hair the epidemic would have come over human beings; that was why they had said, ‘We have been cheated.’ The Lindau beadle stated that he himself had been close to the wall when the man was immured, and that sorcerer had said that this epidemic would spread every 2 days a distance that could be covered in a walk of 2 hours. The cattle would suffer 16 hours before falling dead. If help were not forthcoming in the first 8 hours nothing would be of avail. And all this proved to be correct.” In reply to the question how it was possible that an artificially produced plague could have such virulence and strength and carry off more people than a natural plague, we receive the genuinely mediaeval reply: because to Satan all poisonous animals, herbs, and minerals are known throughout, and he is thus easily able to extract a quintessence from them. The pestilential poison was mostly enclosed in ointment by the sorcerers, and could thus be transported through towns and whole empires. Certainly many of the abstruse brains of the Middle Ages have endeavored to prepare such ointments, and were themselves convinced of the efficacy of their preparations. Even such scholars as Athanasius Kircher (1601-1680) and Antoninus Portus pretend to have been conversant with the art, but were wisely silent about it. “The composition of plague ointment and plague powder I will pass over in silence and not bring this work of the lower world again to the light of day” (Kircher). Quercetanus (1544-1609) relates that Swiss people confessed to him and his colleagues that they obtained instruction in the preparation of plague poisons and antidotes from the Devil. The plague poison was composed mainly of aconite, arsenic, and napellum mixed with other poisons, which he also refuses to mention. Paracelsus also narrates that in his time the plague was artificially produced at Rothweil, Wasserberg, Passau, Eger, St. Veit, Willach, etc., by the burying of 167 diabolical mummies. Many plague regulations had special paragraphs referring to ointment spreaders and greasers, as they were called. Thus in the Venetian plague regulations for the years 1576 to 1577 the 20 second regulations runs: “Anyone who within 40 days from the publication of these regulations can denounce any member of the company engaged in greasing with poisonous ointments on doors, handles and bolts, or other things, shall reveice a reward of 500 crowns and shall be granted permission to kill 2 bandits.” Particular terror was caused by a band of 500 miscreants who at Genoa, Leghorn, and Lucca, as well as in Neopolitan territory and in the Abruzzi, were said to have smeared walls, windows, doorposts, trapdoors in the houses, canals, well, church pews, and holy water containers with poisonous matter, in order to produce a general epidemic. Although a close look-out was kept for these poisoners and 2,000 crowns’ reward was offered to anyone who lead to their discovery, “not a single one could be found.” Everywhere, in all countries, it was believed that the traces of such miscreants were to be seen, and thus the general hallucination became coupled with the most terrible ideas of persecution. “No longer did one neighbor trust another-husbands and wives, parents and children, brothers and sisters, all suspected one another.” After the Reformation it was commonly assumed that Germany was the home of the plague-makers, and in Naples and Milan plague making was attributed to the Lutherans. Several authors praise King Philip IV (1605-1665) because he cause all the Spanish coasts to be carefully guarded so that the raging madness of Lutherism should not be introduced into the country by stealth. 720: He is referring to the Lutheran Christians of today. With the detail description of the ingredients for poisons, it is evident that it was real. If you were to listen to any of the scholars of today, they will not mention this information and it will be extremely ignored as a possibility of the cause of many plagues. The reason why is because the creation of said powders and poisons are correlated to directions given by the devil. If this was to be publicly known then it will make scholars revisit the subject and retest things in laboratories which may ensue further problems. Not to mention a different view on history which will augment the publics view on activity of Old Europe. As we see the term “plague” doesn’t directly identify a specific disease. The fact that powders and poisons were the unnatural causes may be a good reason on why. The occultic principles used during the creation of these powders effect more than just the body itself. The spontaneous ingredients used over time obviously would create different effects, which would make the disease more difficult to discover by specific and also to prevent. This is why the term plague is used. Also to combine all the events underneath a single term and specific event. The most of this information explains that there were a lot of plagues both large and small spread throughout the whole continent and Russia. In Rostock, a Catholic ecclesiastic, Hildensem, who had been tending the sick and dying, was suspected of plague-making. He was said to have been bribed with Jewish money. He was cast into a narrow prison where, with fettered limbs and gagged mouth, he lay for 26 weeks on bread and water. During the cold of winter his feet were for some time roasted in the fire, he was found innocent, he was made to swear an oath to retain silence on what had been done to him and not to raise any complaints. During the plague at Lyons in 1564 “the heretics, when they saw the number of their adherents decreasing, had recourse to the children of Satan. With ointment received from hell they smeared the houses of Catholics. But by the grace of God it was achieved that the plague recoiled on the heretics and that most deaths were among the sectarians. During the plague in Spain in 1630 it was averred that it was the heretics from Geneva who had invented a diabolical poisonous powder to kill the people. In consequence of this all Frenchmen, as if they had all been from Geneva, became so unpopular that at Madrid names were called after them in the streets and they were exposed to all kinds of insults. Ultimately a royal edict was issued that all Frenchmen in Spain had to be registered. This edict had the following terrible introduction: “As some enemies of humanity who, as rebels against the Catholic religion, have determined the destruction of the human race and have invented a powder by the spreading 168 of which they have produced the plague in the territory of Milan and other royal territories, anyone who can denounce a person engaged in such works shall be rewarded wih 20,000 ducats.” Fig. 68.). Left: 17th Century Assassins Poison Cabinet Disguised as a Book Fig. 69.). Right: 14th-century poison ring found near Bulgaria’s Kavarna (The hole administered poison to food or drink) The most celebrated plague-makers’ trial was that of Milan. At last it was believed that the traces of a great conspiracy of poisoners had been discovered. On the rack, which at that time no one considered unjust or barbaric, the barber John Jacob Mora and the Public Commissioner of the Office of Health, William Platea, as well as some other unfortunate individuals, had confessed what the judges and the exceedingly excited people wished to hear. As their chief they denounced Don Juan Gaetano de Padilla, the son of the Spanish commandant of the fortress, who, while suffering from syphilis, had unfortunately had recourse to the services of the barber. On the 17th July they were executed in the following manner: “First they were placed upon a cart and driven to the place of execution. On the way they were pinched with glowing tongs at every place where poison had been smeared; before Mora’s house they both had their right hands cut off and subsequently they were both broken on the wheel, being placed living on the wheel and strangled after 6 hours, their corpses were burnt with fire, their ashes strewn upon the water, Mora’s dwelling was pulled down and in its place a column of disgrace was erected with the following inscription: ‘On this spot stood the barbers shop of John Jacob Mora who conspired, together with William Platea, an official of the public health offices during an epidemic of plague, by smearing mortal ointments to contrive the cruel death of many.’ Both were condemned as guilty of high treason to be pinched with glowing tongs on high wagons, and after having had their right hands cut off, to be placed on the wheel, there to remain for 6 hours and finally to be burnt. And that nothing should remain of such criminals the Senate decreed that their possessions should be confiscated and their ashes strewn in the river. For the everlasting memory of their misdeed it was further decreed that the scene of their crime should be levelled to the ground and never reconstructed, and in its stead a column should be erected which should be called the ‘column of disgrace.’ All good citizens keep away 169 from the place, so that the unhappy ground may not defile you. Dated the 1st day of August 1630. The President of the Public Health Council, John Baptist Trotto; the Representative of the Royal Justice, John Baptist Visconti.” The Devil, at whose suggestion the 2 unfortunate men are said to have prepared the poison, was seen by all people at the outbreak of the epidemic. He appeared in the form of a prince in most costly attire with a suite of many servants driving about at noon in an open coach. He was said to have the appearance of a man of about 50 who had already turned grey. He said his name was Prince Mammon. He also went to many who had contracted the plague and asked if they desired to be healed. Some who expressed the wish he immediately restored; others who refused his services he finished off with many blows. One of those who pretended to have conversed with him related the following: One day when he was standing in the Piazza del Duomo he saw a coach drive up, it was drawn by 6 white horses and in it, accompanied by a large suite, a man of terrifying appearance was to be seen. His brow was lowering, his eyes agleam, his hair matted, his lips menacing and imperious. While open-mouthed he stood staring at this curious apparition, the coachman pulled the reins and stopped the coach and the prince invited him to get in and have a drive with him. From politeness he accepted and he was driven about the town until at last they stopped at the gate of a certain house which he entered together with the stranger. This house, the narrator continues, was very like the man who had invited him to get into the coach and whose orders were obeyed implicitly by all in the house. The description of the house shows a remarkable similarity with Homer’s description of Circe’s cave. The terrible and majestic, the charming and the horrible were standing cheek by jowl. Here light and the sheen of precious stones, there darkness and artificial night. Uncanny forms were grouped in a circle, broad wastes, woods and gardens were scattered around, and to the screech of vultures water rushed with resounding din into huge receptacles. The narrator maintains further that he was shown in the house immense treasures, chests filled with gold and precious stones, and he was promised as much of them as he desired if he would swear by the name of the prince to lend a helping hand in all that was required from him. If he was willing to accept, the sign of consent should be that he should walk round the prince with upraised finger and strike the ground with his knuckle. When he manfully refused to do this he suddenly found himself transferred to the Piazza del Duomo, where he had entered the coach. When one reads this fantastic yarn, which was circulated in Germany particularly by broadsheets at the present day, and considers how few centuries it lies behind us, it seems nearly incredible. In later years the protest was discovered which Mora and Platae had dictated to their confessor on the night preceding the execution of their sentence: “In the name of Jesus, the 31st of July 1630. I, Jacobus Mora, barber, enter protest against my sentence to death and, as I do not wish to leave this world with a weight upon my conscience, I once more protest and declare in this document that all who in the course of the trial were accused by me to have been concerned in the manipulation of pestilential ointments are completely innocent. I write this in the presence of the Capuchin fathers and witnesses for the salvation of my soul.” It is to be assumed that among the gravediggers there were really men who spread poison. It is reported from Leyden that they defiled the walls with plague pus to drive the inhabitants from the houses so that they might acquire all that was left behind. In Leipzig several people are said to have made use of the services of poisoners and sorcerers to get rid of their relations and reap legacies. It is also credible that thieves, and foremost among them the gravediggers, circulated alarming rumours of this nature so that the people should leave their houses and make it easy for them to steal. In any case, the imagination of the people was terribly excited and highly strung and, as they attributed the disease rather to magic than to natural causes, they demanded victims and could only be appeased by the ruthless execution of the pretended miscreants. Full of horror, they heard the confessions of the plague smearers, which for the most part originated on the rack. One of them confessed that when smearing his ointments, he felt the same pleasure as the sportsman when he shoots birds for fun, being unable to obtain any 170 better game. Another maintained that for him there could be no human pleasure that the plague immediately decreased if the heads were cut off the bodies of witches and sorcerers who had already been buried. Mohsen reports that in German districts where there were no Jews, in Saxony at Leipzig, Plauen, Weyda, and Wolkenstein, as well as in the Archbishopric of Magdeburg and in various town of Silesia such as Brieg, Guhrau, Reichenstein, Frankenstein, and Praussnitz, the gravediggers were collected from all parishes, forced to confess by means of torture and legally condemned to be burnt alive publicly. On the 10th of September 1606, there were arrested at Frankenstein, on confession, 2 gravedigger assistants who were under the influence of drink, 2 master gravediggers, Wenzel Foerster who had been a gravedigger for about 28 year, and Freidiger of Striegau; on the 14th of September the wives of the 2 masters, together with Caspar Schleiniger, gravedigger and corpse-bearer at Frankenstein; and on the 18th of September old Caspar Schetts, a messenger and beggar aged 87 years, on a charge of strewing poison during the plague; on the 4th of October Susanna Matz, the daughter of the late municipal official, together with her mother Magdalena on a charge of strewing poison, etc. On September 12, 1607, there was found at Wenzel Foerster’s, the old gravediggers house, one year after his execution, a whole chest full of paper bags with poison powder by which the plague was to be spread. On the 15th of October,, a gravedigger Johann Laken and his son, a boy of 14 years, were beheaded and their heads and bodies burnt on a wood pile. Together with these, 17 persons who had strewn and prepared powders were sentenced and burnt. In Guhrau, on their confession, the gravediggers were flayed and their bodies pinched with red hot tongs. Criminal proceedings on charges of creating plague may be traced till the end of the 17th century. Roch’s chronicle of calamites is full of them, and the examples quoted from it prove that not only gravediggers but also other people, particularly vagabonds and vagrants, were pinched with tongs and burnt for strewing posion powders.[152] As pope and emperor had come to loggerheads, as one of the innumerable versions expressed it, the Jews were of the opinion that the destruction of the Christians had been decreed. And therefore they had secretly conspired to exterminate them by poison. The specific order to poison the wells was said to have been issued by the secret heads of the community of Toledo, who had procured the poison for the Black Death from the Orient or had prepared it themselves from spiders, owls, and other poisonous animals. Orders for the forging of the currency, the murder of Christian children, etc., were said to have emanated from the same quarter. Others maintained that the plague had been produced by Jewish spells. The old myth of the poisoning of wells was first revived in the South of France, and from there spread over the whole of Europe. But at first there was no agreement as to whom this terrible crime was to be attributed. The nobility suspected the common people, the hatred of the poor caused them to charge the rich. Many considered the Jews the perpetrators of this godless outrage, others again the lepers. Already in 1313 all lepers in France had been burnt without reason of Philip the Fair. For the suspicion that they had poisoned the wells was simply trumped up to cover the fear of being infected by them. Ultimately it was agreed that the Jews were the well-poisoners, and as early as May 1348 in a town in Provence all Jewish inhabitants fell victims to the rage of the populace. The burning of Jews was particularly thorough at Narboone and Carcassone. In Burgundy alone 50,000 Jews were massacred in the most cruel manner. Although the Pope in the 2 bulls of July 4th and September 26th, 1348, forbade the plundering and slaughtering of Jews of pain of excommunication, the accusation passed like wildfire through Savoy and Burgundy. In September1348 the rack tore a confession from the Jews on the shores of the lake of Geneva. Already on September 21 a solemn resolution was passed at Zurich never again to admit Jews into the town. The Council of the little town of Zofingen in Argau forwarded little bages of poison, alleged to have been found in the cisterns, to the authorities of the towns on the upper Rhine. And from Berne solemn exhortations were addressed to the towns of Basle, Freiburg in Breisgau and Strasbourg to prosecute the Jews as poisoners. At Bennefeld in Alsace, a 171 formal diet was held at which bishops, lords and barons, as well as representatives of the counts and municipalities, discussed what measures were to be taken against the Jews. The deputies of the town of Strasbourg raised their voice in defence of the persecuted. But, as the Bishop of Strasbourg proved himself a violent fanatic, they aroused loud dissention and were assailed with questions as to why they had covered in their wells and removed their buckets. It was thus that a bloody resolution was carried and at the hands of the rabble, willing to obey the summons of the great and high clergy, found but too willing executors. As in all cases the rack here again provided detailed confessions. One of those subjected to it asserted that all the Jews in the neighbourhood of the Lake of Geneva had held a formal council outside the gates of Villeneuf to discuss by what means they could best poison the Christians. From another the confession was torn that at Venice, in Apulia, Calabria, and at Toulouse he had thrown little bags of poison into the wells.[153] In the North of Germany, where only a few Jews were settled, the appearance of the great plague in 1350 was the first cause of their persecution. As is reported by the Brunswick town secretary the Jew Rumbold carried on his nefarious handicraft in Prussia from Easter to the day of St. Gallus, 1350, and poisoned many people. At Elbing alone more than 9,000 perished in consequence from St. Bartholomew’s to Christmas. In the same manner numerous inhabitants were said to have been killed at Koenigsberg, Marienburg, Preussisch, Holland heiligenbeil, Frauenburg, and Muehlhausen by poison. In the Hanse Towns, Wismar, Rostock, Stralsund, and Greifswald, the few Jews settled there were partially burnt, partially immured alive. Where there were no adherents of the Mosaic faith, as, for instance, in the territory, for it was to be feared that the ravages of the plague among the Christians would never end so long as the Jews found protection with the princes.[154] During one of the plagues in the Thirty Years’ War the inhabitants of Eschau (Main district), according to a popular legend, sank various wells, but everywhere the water showed a bluish colour and was plague water. When they wanted to sink a fifth well in the middle of the village there was a lack of hands to do the work, for the plague had already carried off so many. The rumour of the poisoned wells was by no means void of foundation. The water supply in the plains was drawn from open wells by means of buckets, or taken from the rivers at drawing stations established on bridges-a circumstance which explains that the inhabitants were constantly exposed to the danger of typhus, dysentery, and other epidemics. Now already at that time the Jews possessed so much medical knowledge as to avoid the use of well-water carefully in times of epidemics. This naturally aroused the greatest suspicions against them among the ignorant people. Tschudi, in his Helvetian Chronicle, reports the following: ‘Many wise persons hold the opinion that the Jews are not guilty of poisoning the water, and that they only confessed it in excess of torture, but attribute the poisoning to the great earthquake which took place in January of last year, 1348; this burst open the crust of the earth and allowed the bad, noxious moistures and vapours to enter the wells and springs, as these impurities also fouled the air. This the Jews, of whom a large proportion are physicians and scientists, had learnt from their art and borne in mind, and on that account avoided the wells and springs, and in many places warned the people against them. For it would be impossible for them to have poisoned all wells throughout Christendom. In short, the people were incensed against the Jews, and they could expect no justice.” That the Jews should fall victims to the fantastic charge of poisoning the wells was due less to religious or racial enmity than to the accumulated hatred of capitalism among the people. Roscher rightly describes the great persecution of the Jews in the 14th century as a financial crisis of a barbaric nature, a mediaeval form of what to-day we should describe as a social revolution. It is characteristic that particularly the guilds, which must be regarded as social institutions, hated and persecuted the Jews on account of their privilege or enriching themselves by usury from the earliest times of the Middle Ages. As the Jews were refused admission to the merchant guilds, they were 172 excluded from every participation in trade, and from the 12th century were practically restricted to financial enterprise, and as they were not bound by any canonical laws against usury, they became for every one-for princes, lords, municipilaties, burghers, peasants-the real privileged money-lenders.[155] At Languedoc, from whence witches were said to have come to the Puy de Dome celebrations, a horrible story circulated in 1321 that sorcerers had poisoned the wells and streams with a ghastly paste made from distillation of blood, urine, and herbs, mixed together with the holy sacrament stolen from churches. One woman who was arrested was found in possession of a gruesome paste made from the head of a snake, legs of a toad, and strands of human hair. Horrified by the public outcry, King Philip V (1683-1746) commanded that all guilty be burned alive: 600 accused witches went to the stake.[156] Nevertheless Porta merely mentions Medicines which cause sleep. He describes How to make men mad with Mandrake: and how “To make a man believe he was changed into a Bird or Beast”, which is done by infusing mandrake, stramonium or aolanum manicum, belladonna, and henbane, into a cup of wine. Porta says that he has known those who on drinking this menstruum imagined themselves to be fish, endeavouring to swim; or geese, hissing and trying to peck grass, and similar idle fancies. “These, and may other most pleasant things, the curious Enquirer may finde out: it is enough for me only to have hinted at the manner of doing them.”[157] Fig. 70.). Legend of the Jew calling the Devil from a Vessel of Blood (Christian baby blood) – Facsimile of a Woodcut in Boaistnau’s “Histores Prodigieuses.” In 4to, Pans, Annet Briere, 1560 173  Jewish Confessions Confessions of the Jews made in the year of the Lord, 1348, on September 15th, at the castle of Chillon, who had been arrested in the New Town concerning the poisoning of which they were accused, of wells and springs here and elsewhere, also of food and other things with the purpose of killing and extermining the whole of Christendom. 1. Balavignus the Jew, a surgeon and inhabitant of Thonon, although arrested at Chillon, as he was found within the Castle, was only placed on the rack for a short time, and when he had been taken off he confessed after some considerable time that about 6 weeks ago Master Jacob, who since Easter had been staying at Chambery, in accordance with orders, and who had come from Toledo, sent him to Thonon by a Jew Boy poison in an eggshell; this was a powder in a thin sewn leather bag, together with a letter in which he was ordered on pain of ban and in obedience to their law to put this same poison into the larger and smaller wells of his town, as much as was required to poison the people who fetched their water from there, and that he should reveal this to no one on pain of the above punishment. Further, in the same letter he was instructed to forward the same order to several other places by command of the Jewish Rabbis or masters of their law; and he confessed that he had secretly placed the quantity of poison or powder indicated in a well on the lake shore near Thonon one evening beneath a stone. He confessed further that the above-mentioned boy had brought him more letters dealing with the same matter which were addressed to many other Jews, and particularly some were directed to Mossoiet, Banditono and Samole to at Villeneuf, one to each and others to Musseo and Abramo and Aqueto of Montreux, to the Jews of Vevey, and others again to benetono at St. Moritz and to his son: further, others to Viviands Jacobus, Aquetus and Musset, Jews at Moncheoli, and many other letters were borne by the boy, as he said, to various out-of-the-way places, but he could not say to whom they were addressed. Further, in the well at Thonon, he expressly forbade his wife and children to make further use of the well, but refused to tell them the reason. He swore by his law and by all contained in the Pentateuch, in the presence of several reliable witnesses, that all he had confessed was entirely true. Further on the following day, Balavignus, in the presence of many reliable witnesses, of his own free will and without application of the rack, affirm that the above-quoted confession was true, and repeated it word for word, and of his own free will confessed that one day coming from Thur, near Vevey, he placed a quantity of the poison wrapped in a rag of about the size of a walnut which had been given him by Aqueto of Montreux, and inhabitant of the above-mentioned Thur, in a well below Mustreuz, called the Fontaine de la Xonerayde-that he had deposited this poison, he told and revelaed to the Jew Mamssiono and his son Delosaz, inhabitants of Villeneuf, that they should not drink of the well; he stated the the colour of the poison was red and black. Further, on the 19th day of the month of September, the above-mentioned Balavignus confessed, without application of the rack, that the Jew Mussus of Villeneuf had told him 3 weeks before Whitsuntide that he had placed poison in his own well at Villeneuf, in the tollhouse, and that he no longer drank its water, but water from the lake. He confessed, further, that this same Jew Mussus had told him that he had put poison in the tollhouse well at Chillon under the stones, of which well an examination was made and the above-mentioned poison found, of which a sample was given to a Jew, who died in consequence. He further stated that the rabbis had ordered him and other Jews to refrain from drinking of the poisoned water for the first 9 days after the placing of the posion. Further, that as soon as he had placed the poison, as stated above, he immediately revealed it to the other Jews. He confessed, further, that, about 2 months ago, he had been at Evian and had discussed the matter with the Jew Jacob, and, among other things, asked him if he, like the others, had received a letter and poison. Jacob answered that he had. He asked him, further, if he had obeyed the order, and Jacob replied that he had not placed the 174 poison, but had handed it to the Jew Save to, who had placed it in the well de Morer at Evian, and he ordered him, Balavignus, that he should carry out carefully the instructions he had received. He said that Aqueto of Motreux had reported that he had placed some of the poison in the well above Thur. He confessed that Samolet had told him that he had placed the poison he had received in a well, but he refused to tell him which. Balavignus alleged, further, that as a surgeon he knew that if anyone was affected by this poison and anyone touched him in this condition, when overcome by weakness, he was sweating, that by this contact he might easily be infected, as also by the breath of anyone infected; and of this he was convinced, as he had heard it from experienced medical men, and he was further convinced that the Jews could not deny these charges, as they were fully conscious that they were guilty of the actions with which they were charged. The said Balavignus was taken across the lake in a boat from Chillon to Clarens to verify and point out the well into which, as he alleged, he had placed the poison he said: “That is the well in which I put the poison.” This well was examined in his presence, and the linen bag in which the poison was wrapped was found in the mouth of the well by a public notary, Heinrich Gerhard, in the presence of many people and was shown to the said Jew. He then admitted and confessed that this was the linen cloth in which the poison had been, and that he had placed it in the open well, and that it was parti-coloured, black and red. The linen cloth was taken away and is preserved as evidence. The said Balavignus admitted that all that he had narrated above was true to the last detail, and that he believed that this alleged poison contained some part of the basilisk, as he had heard say that the poison could not be prepared without basilisk, and of this he felt sure. 2. Banditono, of Villeneuf, was also on September 15th subjected to slight torture on the rack; afterwards, when taken off the rack, after a long time, he confessed that he had placed a quantity of poison, roughly of the size of a walnut, which had been given him by Mussus, a Jew, at Thur, near Vevey, in the well at Carutet to poison the gentiles. Further, on the following day, the said Banditono, of his own free will and without torture, confessed and admitted that his previous statement was true, and further confessed that Master Jacob of Pasche, who hailed from Toledo and had settled at Chambery, had sent him a supply of this poison, roughly of the size of a large nut, to Pilliex by a Jewish servant, together with a letter containing instructions that he was to put the poison in the wells on pain of ban. This poison he placed in the well Cecleti de Roch, it being contained in a leather bag. He confessed, further, that he had seen many other letters which the said servant was conveying, and which were addressed to Jews. He also saw that the said servant had delivered a letter to the Jew Samoleto at Velleneuf, above the upper gate outside the town. He further said that the Jew Massolet had informed him that he had placed poison in the well near the bridge at Vevey, to wit on the Evian side. 3. The said Mamsson, a Jew of Villeneuf, was on the above-mentioned 15th day of the stated month placed on the rack, he confessed nothing of the above-mentioned incidents, alleging that he knew nothing at all about them, but on the following day he admitted of his own free will and without the application of torture in the presence of many people that on a certain day in the Whit week of the previous year he and another Jew called Provencal of Moncheolo had been walking together and whilst walking the said Provencal had said to him: “It must be done. You must put the poison I am going to give you into that well, or woe betide you.” And that was the well of Chabloz Cruez, between Vyona and Mura. He, Mamsson, took the quantity of poison, roughly the size of a nut, and placed it in the well, and he believed that the Jews of the places round Evian had held a council among themselves concerning this poison business before Whitesuntide. Further, he alleged that the said Balavignus had one day revealed to him that he had placed poison in the well de la Conery, below Mustruez. Alleged further that none of the Jews could deny participation in this matter, as they were all implicated and guilty. The said Mamsson was on the following 3rd of October brought before the Commissioners and changed nothing in his statement, except that he had not himself placed poison in the well. 175  All this the above-mentioned Jews swore by their law before execution, stating that it was true, and all Jews above the age of 7 were implicated, for they had all had knowledge of and were guilty of this matter. [The other 7 interrogations contained in the document differ from the above only in regard to the persons interrogated, and offering little variety. A characteristic place at the end of the document may therefore be quoted. The whole document speaks for itself.] Dear Friends, when I received your communication and saw its purport I could not refrain from having the confessions of some Jews copied. But there still remained many other accusations and proofs against the said Jews and others living in the county of Savoy which have been brought forward both by Jews and Christians, who have already suffered punishment for the exceedidngly great crimes, which for the moment were not available and could not be forwarded. And you should be informed that all Jews resident at Villeneuf have been burnt by legal sentence. In August, 3 Christians were flayed for poisonings, at which execution I was present myself. At many other places also Christians have been arrested of the charge of such crimes. Particularly at Evian, Gebenne, Crusilien, and Hochstett, who finally with their last breath have admitted and confessed that they had received the poison they had laid from the Jews. Some of these Christians were quartered, some flayed, and some hanged. And commissions have been appointed by the authorities for the prosecution of the Jews, of whom I believe that none will be spared.[158] Still, however, all this was within the bounds of barbarous enthusiasm; but horrible were the persecutions of the Jews, which were Committed in most countries with even greater exasperation than in the 12th century, during the first Crusades. In every destructive pestilence, the common people at first attribute the mortality to poison. No instruction avails; the supposed testimony of their eyesight, is to them a proof, and they authoritatively demand the victims of their rage. On whom then was it so likely to fall as on the Jews, the usurers and the strangers who lived at enmity with the Christians. They were everywhere suspected of having poisoned the wells or infected the air. They alone were considered as having brought this fearful mortality among the Christians. They were, in consequence, pursued with merciless cruelty; and either indiscriminately given up to the fury of the populace, or sentenced by sanguinary tribunals, which, all the forms of law ordered them to be burnt alive. In times like these, much is indeed said of guilt and innocence; but hatred and revenge bear down all discrimination, and the smallest probability, magnifiest suspicion into certainty. These bloody scenes, which disgraced Europe in the 14th century, are a counterpart to a similar mania of the age, which was manifested in the persecutions of witches and sorcerers; and, like these, they prove , that enthusiasm, associated with hatred, and leagued with the baser passions, may work more powerfully upon whole nations, than religion and legal order; nay, that it even knows how to profit by the authority of both, in order the more surely to satiate with blood, the sword of long suppressed revenge. The persecution of the Jews, commenced in September and October, 1348, at Chillon, on the Lake of Geneva, where the 1st criminal proceedings were instituted against them after they had long before been accused by the people of poisoning the wells; similar scenes followed in Bern and Freyburg, in January, 1349. Under the influence of excruciating suffering, the tortured Jews confessed themselves guilty of the crime imputed to them; and it being affirmed that poison had in fact been found in a well at Zoffingen, this was deemed a sufficient proof to convince the world, and the persecution of the abhorred culprits, thus appeared justifiable. Now, though we can take as little exception at these proceedings, as at the multifarious confessions of witches, because the interrogatories of the fanatic and sanguinary tribunals, were so complicated, that by means of the rack, the required answer must inevitably be obtained; and it is besides conformable to human nature, that crimes which are in every body’s mouth, may, in the end, be actually committed by some, either from wantonness, revenge, or 176 desperate exasperation: yet crimes and accusations, are, under circumstances like these, merely the offspring of a revengeful, frenzied, spirit in the people; and the accusers, according to the fundamental principles of morality, which are the same in every age, are the more guilty transgressors. Already in the autumn of 1348, a dreadful panic, caused by the supposed poisoning, seized all nations; and in Germany especially, the springs and wells were built over, that nobody might drink of them, of employ the water for culinary purposes; and for a long time, the inhabitants of numerous towns and villages, used only river and rain water. The city gates were also guarded with the greatest caution,-only confidential persons were admitted; and if medicine, or any other article, which might be supposed to be poisonous, was found in the possession of a stranger,-and it was natural that softie should have these things by them for their private use,-they were forced to swallow a portion of it. By this trying state of deprivation, distrust they were forced to swallow a portion of it. By this trying state of deprivation, distrust and suspicion, the hatred against the supposed poisoners, became greatly increased, and often broke out in popular commotions, which only served still further to infuriate the wildest passions. The noble and the mean, fearlessly bound themselves by an oath, to extirpate the Jews by fire and sword, and to snatch them from their protectors, of whom the number was so small, that throughout all Germany, but few places can be mentioned where these unfortunate people were not regarded as outlaws-martyred and burnt. Solemn summonses were issued from Bern to the towns of Basle, Freyburg in the Breisgau, and Strasburg, to pursue the Jews as poisoners. The Burgomasters and Senators, indeed, opposed theis requisition; but in Basle the populace obliged them to bind themselves by an oath, to burn the Jews, and to forbid persons of that community from entering their city, for the space of 200 hundred years. Upon this, all the Jews In Basle, whose number could not have been inconsiderable, were enclosed in a wooden building, constructed for the purpose, and burnt together with it, upon the mere outcry of the people, without sentence or trial, which indeed would have availed them nothing. Soon after, the same thing took place at Freyburg. A regular Diet was held at Bennefeld, in Alsace, where the bishops, lords and barons, as also deputies of the counts and towns, consulted how they should proceed with regard to the Jews; and when the deputies of Strasburg-not indeed the bishop of this town, who proved himself a violent fanatic-spoke in favor of the persecuted, as nothing criminal was substantiated against them; a great outcry was raised and it was vehemently asked, why, if so, they had covered their wells and removed their buckets? A sanguinary decree was resolved upon, of which the populace, who obeyed the call of the nobles and superior clergy, became but the too willing executioners. Wherever the Jews were not burnt, they were at least banished; and so being compelled to wander about, they fell into the hands of the country people, who without humanity, and regardless of all laws, persecuted them with fire and sword. At Spires, the Jews driven to despair, assembled in their own inhabitations, which they set on fire, and thus consumed themselves with their families. The few that remained, were forced to submit to baptism; while the dead bodies of the murdered, which lay about the streets, were put into empty wine casks, and rolled into the Rhine, lest they should infect the air. The mob was forbidden to enter the ruins of the habitations that were burnt alive in their own burial ground, where a large scaffold had been erected: a few who promised to embrace Christianity, were spared, and their children taken from the pile. The youth and beauty of several females also excited some commiseration; and they were snatched from death against their will: many, however, who forcibly made their escape from the flames, were murdered in the streets. The senate ordered all pledges and bonds to be returned to the debtors, and divided the money among the work-people. Many, however, refused to accept the base price of blood, and, indignant at the scenes of blood-thirsty avarice, which made the infuriated multitude forget that the plague was raging around them, presented it to monasteries, in conformity with the advice of their confessors. In all the countries on the Rhine these cruelties continued to be perpetrated during the succeeding months; and after quiet was in some degree restored, the people thought to render an acceptable service to God, by taking the bricks of the destroyed 177 dwellings, and the tombstones of the Jews, to repair Christians, and killed several; but when they saw their inability to withstand the increasing superiority of their enemies, and that nothing could save them from destruction, they consumed themselves and their families, by setting fire to their dwellings. Thus also, in other places, the entry of the Flagellants gave rise to scenes of slaughter; and as thirst for blood was everywhere combined with an unbridled spirit of proselytism, a fanatic zeal arose among the Jews, to perish as martyrs to their ancient religion. And how was it possible, that they could from the heart embrace Christianity, when its precepts were never more outrageously violated? At Eslingen, the whole Jewish community burned themselves in their synagogue; and mothers were often seen throwing their children on the pile, to prevent their being baptized, and then precipitating themselves into the flames. In short, whatever deeds, fanaticism, revenge, avarice and desperation, in fearful combination, could instigate mankind to perform,-and where in such a case is the limit?-were executed in the year 1349, throughout Germany, Italy and France, with impunity and in the eyes of all the world. It seemed as if the plague gave rise to scandalous acts and frantic tumults, not to mourning and grief: and the greater part of those who, by their education and rank, were called upon to raise the voice of reason, themselves led on the savage mob to murder and to plunder. Almost all the Jews who saved their lives by baptism, were afterwards burnt at different times; for they continued to be accused of poisoning the water and the air. Christians also, whom philanthropy or gain had induced to offer them protection, were put on the rack and executed with them. Many Jews who had embraced Christianity, repented of their apostasy,-and, returning to their former faith, sealed it with their death. The humanity and prudence of Clement VI (1291-1352), must, on this occasion, also be mentioned to his honor; but even the highest ecclesiastical power was insufficient to restrain the unbridled fury of the people. He not only protected the Jews at Avignon, as far as lay in his power, but also issued 2 bulls, in which he declared them innocent; and admonished all Christians, though without success, to cease from such groundless persecutions. The Emperor Charles VI was also favorable to them, and sought to avert their destruction, wherever he could; but he dared not draw the sword of justice, and even found himself obliged to yield to the selfishness of the Bohemian nobles, who were unwilling to forego so favorable an opportunity of releasing themselves from their Jewish creditors, under favor of an imperial mandate. Duke Albert of Austria burned and pillaged those of his cities which had persecuted the Jews- a vain and inhuman proceeding, which, moreover, is not exempt from the suspicion of covetousness; yet he was unable, in his own fortress of Kyberg, to protect some hundreds of Jews, who had been received there, from being barbarously burnt by the inhabitants. Several other princes and counts, among whom was Ruprecht von der Pfalz, took the jews under their protection, on the payment of large sums: in consequence of which they were called “Jew-masters”, and were in danger of being attacked by the populace and by their powerful neighbours. These persecuted and ill-used people, except indeed where humane individuals took compassion on them at their own peril, or when they could command riches to purchase protection, had no place of refuge left but the distant country of Lithuania, where Boleslav V, Duke of Poland (1227-1279), had before granted them liberty of conscience; and King Casimir the Great (1333-1370), yielding to the entreaties of Esther, a favorite Jewess, received them, and granted them further protection: on which account, that country is still inhabited by a great number of Jews, who by their secluded habits, have, more than any people in Europe, retained the manners of the middle ages.[159] Other Causes Dr. Daniel Sennert inquires whether diseases can be brought upon a man by means of spells and black magic, so that such a one will wither, consume and decay, peak and pine, and even fall away into death. It is universally agreed that if such an evil charm can prevail it will be wrought in one (or more) of three ways: firstly , by 178 a look, a malign glance, the evil eye; secondly, by the voice, the mutter of some occult rune, and especially by presumptuously over-praising and in scorn extolling him to be harmed; thirdly, by a touch, a contact, exsufflation or gesture.[160] The Errores Gazariorum follows the tradition of attributing epidemics of disease to magical means in describing a powder made from the body of a cat stuffed with herbs, grain, and fruit, which is then hurled down from the mountaintops in order to cause plague.[161] Onwards they went, with the rapidity of the wind, the stranger speaking no word, until they stopped before a door in the high-street of Milan. There was a crowd of people in the street, but, to his great surprise, no one seemed to notice the extraordinary equipage and its numerous train. From this he concluded that they were invisible. The house at which they stopped appeared to be a ship, but the interior was like, a vast half-ruined palace. He went with his mysterious guide through several large and dimly-lighted rooms. In one of them, surrounded by huge pillars of marble, a senate of ghosts was assembled, debating on the progress of the plague. Other parts of the building were enveloped in the thickest darkness, illumined at intervals by flashes of lightning which allowed him to distinguish a number of gibing and chattering skeletons, running about and pursuing each other, or playing at leapfrog over one another’s backs. At the rear of the mansion was a wild, uncultivated plot of ground, in the midst of which arose a black rock. Down its sides rushed with fearful noise a torrent of poisonous water, which, insinuating itself through the soil, penetrated to all the springs of the city, and rendered them unfit for use. After he had been shewn all this, the stranger led him into another large changer, filled with gold and precious stones, all of which he offered him if he would kneel down and worship him, and consent to smear the doors and houses of Milan with a pestiferous salve, which he held out to him. He now knew him to be the Devil, and in that moment of temptation prayed to God to give him strength to resist. His prayer was heard-he refused the bribe. The stranger scowled horribly upon him-a loud clap of thunder burst over his head-the vivid lightning flashed in his eyes, and the next moment he found himself standing alone at the porch of the cathedral. He repeated this strange tale day after day, without any variation, and all the populace were firm believers in its truth. Repeated search was made to discover the mysterious house, but all in vain. The man pointed out several as resembling it, which were searched by the police; but the Demon of the Pestilence was not to be found, nor the hall of ghosts, nor the poisonous fountain. But the minds of the people were so impressed with the idea, that sores of witnesses, half crazed by disease, came forward to swear that they also had seen the diabolical stranger, and had heard his chariot, drawn by the milk-white steeds, rumbling over the streets at midnight with a sound louder than thunder. The number of persons who confessed that they were employed by the Devil to distribute poison is almost incredible. And epidemic frenzy was abroad, which seemed to be as contagious as the plague. Imagination was as disordered as the body, and day after day persons came voluntarily forward to accuse themselves. They generally had the marks of disease upon them, and some died in the act of confession.[162] 720: Weve already seen much poisoning and we have much more to go over in other sub culturual settings of the times. Due to the evidence left over about the plague it clearly alludes to something else going on as the cause besides the natural elements. We can see this when we compare the amount of plagues in Old Europe against the world picture excluding China. How these plagues were caused nobody knows. With the ingredients mentioned for the poisons it would be hard to tell today if they were used as a poison because most likely the poison was plant based, in which a perosns diet could be as well. This would cause complications. 179  Chapter 6 The Black Death How the Plague Traveled To Constantinople, the plague had been brought from the northern coast of the Black Sea, after it had depopulated the countries between those routes of commerce; and appeared as early as 1347, in Cyprus, Sicily, Marseilles and some of the seaports of Italy. The remaining islands of the Mediterranean, particularly Sardinia, Corsica and Majorca, were visited in succession. Foci of contagion existed also in full activity along the whole southern coast of Europe; when, in January 1348, the plague appeared in Avignon, and in other citiesin the south of France and north of Italy, as well as in Spain. The precise days of its eruption in the individual towns, are no longer to be ascertained; but it was not simultaneous: for Florence, the disease appeared in the beginning of April; in Cesena, the 1st of June; and place after place was attacked throughout the whole , so that the plague, after it had passed through the whole of France and Germany, where, however, it did not make its ravages until the following year, did not break out till August, in England, where it advanced so gradually, that a period of 3 months elapsed before it reached London. The Northern Kingdoms were attacked by it in 1349. Sweden, indeed, not until November of that year: almost 2 years after its eruption in Avignon. Poiland received the plague in 1349, probably from Germany, if not from the northern couuntries; but in Russia, it did not make its appearance until 1351, more than 3 years after it had broken out in Constantinople. Instead of advancing in a north-westerly direction from Tauris and from the Caspian Sea, it had thus made the great circuit of the Black Sea, by way of Constantinople, Southern and Central Europe, England, the Northern Kingdoms and Poland, before it reached the Russian territories; a phenomenon which has not again occurred with respect to more recent pestilences originating in Asia. Whether any difference existed between the indigenous plague, excited by the influence of the atmosphere, and that which was imported by contagion, can no longer be ascertained from the facts; for the contemporaries, who in general were not competent to make accurate researches of this kind, have left no data on the subject. A milder and a more malignant form certainly existed, and the former was not always derived from the latter, as is to be supposed from this circumstance-that the spitting of blood, the infallible diagnostic of the latter, on the first breaking out of the plague, is not similarly mentioned in all the reports; and it is therefore probable, that the milder form belonged to the native plague,-the more malignant, to that introduced by contagion. Contagion was, however, in itself, only one of many causes which gave rise to the Black Plague. This disease was a consequence of violent commotions in the earths organism-if any disease of cosmical origin can be so considered. One spring set 1000 others in motion for the annihilation of living beings, transient or permanent, of mediate or immediate effect. The most powerful of all was contagion; for in the most distant countries which had scarcely yet heard the echo of the first concussion, the people fell a sacrifice to organic posion- the ultimately offspring of vital energies thrown into violent commotion.[163] Two freight-ships then carried the disease from Messina to Pisa. The crews of both the ships were suffering from the plague, and all those in Pisa who spoke to the sailors of Piazza dei Pesci were seized and died immediately. This was in the first days of the year 1348. “And thereupon,” the chronicle writes Sercambi continues, “there began 180 a great dying in Pisa, and from there spread over the whole of Tuscany. And it raged most fearfully at Lucca. During this great epidemic of death there died of an hundred more than eighty, and the air was so infested that death overtook men everywhere, wherever they might flee. And when they saw everybody dying they no longer heeded death and believed that the end of the world was at hand.”[164] In 1563 the inhabitants of Burgundy were ordered to refrain from using public places for the satisfaction of their physical needs, and to restrict themselves to their houses. Those who had no accommodation in their houses were to provide such immediately.[165] In the night preceding the death of the Deacon one of our older servants, a man called Schaffhausen, was on night duty in the monastery. Before midnight he had carefully announced the hours, but in the early morning, seized by a certain terror, without thinking of illness, he had gone home. After a few hours he sent to our cellar master requesting white bread and wine, but he did not mention that he was ill, and said he would return to the monastery next day. But having said this in the morning, he was a corpse by the afternoon. It may easily be seen that all the rooms of the convention, indeed of the whole monastery, were infected. Another servant, a carter, was seized with the plague and taken to St. George, where in the space of 3 days he died. To the same place they took our cleric, Hieremias, who had been our partner at meals, and who had read to us. In him the plague had produced in the course of 3 days so high a degree of madness that, as he was locked up in his room and could escape in no other way, he jumped out of the window and ran into the neighbouring wood. From there he was fetched back on the 30th of September, about 9 o’clock in the evening and died.[166] We have already heard from Luther of the malicious manner in which plague patients infected healthy people: Nicolas Selneccerus also relates similar cases: “Thus godless, desperate arch-rogues and villains are to be found who, when God has stricken them with this plague in their bodies, go to churches, markets, and houses for the sole purpose of infecting and poisoning others, and thus, as they believe, getting rid of their disease, or simply because they don’t want to have the plague alone. I know of a case in which a man who visited another, and blew and breathed into his face, afterwards confessed that he had done so to get rid of his disease passing it on.” In Normandy sorcerers particularly advised patients to pass on their plague. A case is reported from the time of the epidemic at Danzic in which a man fastened to the peephole of his neighbor, with whom he was on bad terms, a plaster covered with pus which had been on a plague boil. When he thrustout his head to see who was there it stuck to his beard without his noticing it, and for some time he went about with it, till his wife saw it and asked him what he had on his beard Upon which they were both seized with great terror. To what excesses hate may lead among scholars is shown by a case reported by Arnim: “A Greek manuscript had carried the infection of the plague to the celebrated Hemkengripper at Leyden, who in his malicious joy of refuting his learned adversary Zahnebrecker had neglected every precaution. The manuscript arrived on a ship infected by the plague and should have been passed through vinegar. Hemkengrippers servant recognized the disease as soon as her master was attacked. But the latter ordered her to keep silent. He sent a ceremonial offer of reconciliation to Zahnebrecker, who, in accordance with his frank character, immediately accepted. At a feast in honour of the reconciliation Hemkengripper embraced him, and infected him so effectually with his first kiss of reconciliation that both died nearly within an hour. Half the town followed them first as mourners to the grave and then as corpses to their own graves, and only few suspected that their whole misfortune was due to the hatred of two scholars.”[167] And here I may be able to make an Observation or 2 of my own, which may be of use hereafter to those, into whose Hands this may come, if they should ever see the like dreadful Visitation. (1.) The Infection generally came into the Houses of the Citizens, by the Means of their Servants, who, they were obliged to send up and down 181 the Streets for necessaries, that is to say, for Food or Physick, to bake-houses, Brew-houses, Shops, &c., and who going necessarily through the streets into Shops, Markets, and the like, it was impossible, but that they should one way or other, meet with distempered people who conveyed the fatal Breath into them, and they brought it Home to the Families, to which they belonged. (2.) It was a great Mistake, that such a great City as this had but one Pest- House; for had there been, instead of one Pest House viz. beyond Bunhilfields, where, at most, they could receive, perhaps, 200 or 300 People; I say, had there instead of that one been several pesthouses, every one able to contain 1000 people without lying 2 in a bed, or 2 beds in a Room; and had every master of a Family, as soon as any Servant especially, had been taken sick in his house, been obliged to send them to the next Pest House, if they were willing, as many were, and had the Examiners done the like among the poor People, when any had been stricken with the Infection; I say, had this been done where the People were willing (not otherwise) and the Houses not been shut, I am perswaded, and was all the While of that Opinion, that not so many, by several Instances within the Compass of my own Knowledge, where a Servant had been taken sick, and the Family had either Time to send them out or retire from the House, and leave the sick Person, as I have said above, they had all been preserved; whereas, l when upon one, or more sickning in a family, the House has been shut up, the whole Family have perished, and the Bearers been oblig’d to go it to fetch out the dead Bodies, not being able to bring them to the Door; and at last none left to do it. (3.) This put it out of Question to me, that the calamity was spread by Infection, that is to say, by some certain Steams, or Fumes, which the Phsyicians call Effluvia, by the Breath, or by the Sweat, or by the Stench of the Sores of the sick Persons, or some other way, perhaps, beyond even the Reach of the Physicians themselves, which effluvia affected the Sound, who come within certain Distances of the Sick, immediately penetrating the Vital parts of the said sound Persons, putting their Blood into an immediate ferment, and agitating ther Spirits to that Degree which it was found they were agitated; and so those newly infected Persons communicated it in the same Manner to others; and this I shall give some Instances of, that cannot but convince those who seriously consider it; and I cannot but with some Wonder, find some People, now the Contagion is over, talk of its being an immediate Stroke from heaven, without the agency of means, having Commision to strike this and that particular Person, and none other; which I look upon with Contempt, as the Effect of manifst Ignorance and Enthusiasm; likewise the Opinion of others, who talk of Infection being carried on by the Air only, by carrying with it vast Numbers of Insects and invisible Creatures, who enter into the Body with the Breath, or even at the Pores with the Air, and there generate, or emit most acute Poisons, or poisonous Ovae, or eggs, which mingle themselves with the Blood, and so infect the Body; a Discourse full of learned Simplicity, and manifested to be so by universal Experience; but I shall say more to this case in its Order. I must here take farther Notice that Nothing was more fatal to the Inhabitants of this City, that the Supine Negligence of the people themselves, who during the long Notice, or Warning they had of the visitation, yet made no Provision for it, by laying in Store of Provisions, or of other Necessaries; by which they might have liv’d or retir’d, and who were in a great Measure preserv’d by that Caution; nor were they, after they were a little hardened to it so shye of conversing with one another, when actually infected, as they were at first, no tho; they knew it. I acknowledge I was one of those thoughtless Ones, that had made so little Provision, that my Servants were obliged to go out of Doors to buy every Trifle by Penny and Half-penny, just as before it begun, even till my Experience shewing me the Folly, I began to be wiser so late, that I had scarce Time to store my self-sufficient for our common Subsistence for a Month. I had in Family only an ancient Woman, that managed the House, a Maid- Servant, 2 Apprentices, and my self; and the plague beginning to increase about us, I had many sad Thoughts about what Course I should take, and how I should act; the many Dismal Objects, which happened everywhere as I went about the Streets, had fill’d my Mind with a great deal of Horror, for fear of the Distemper itself, which was indeed, 182 very horrible in it self and in some more than in others; the swellings which were generally in the Neck, or Groin, when they grew hard, and would not break, grew so painful, that it was equal to the most exquisite Torture; and some not able to bear the Torment threw themselves out at Windows, or shot themselves, or otherwise made themselves away, and I saw several dismal Objects of that Kind: Others unable to contain themselves, vented their Pain by incessant Roarings, and such loud and lamentable Cries were to be heard as we walk’d along the Streets, that would Pierce the very heart to think of, especially when it was to be considered, that the same dreadful Scourge might be expected every Moment to seize upon our selves. [168] Fig. 71.).”The Dead Cart” Daniel Defoe: A Journal of The Plague Year c. 1665; The Heritage Press, Norwalk, Connecticut, 1722 pg. 66 And here I must observe again, that this Necessity of going out of our Hourses to buy Provisions, was in a great Measure the Ruin of the whole City, for the People catch’d the distemper, on these Occasions, one of another, and even the Provisions themselves were often tainted, at least I have great Reason to believe so; and therefore I cannot say with Satisfaction what I know is repeated with great Assurance, that the market People, and such as brough Provisions, to Town, were never infected: I am certain, the Butchers of White-Chapel, where the greatest Part of the Flesh-meat was killed, were dreadfully visited, and that at last to such a Degree, that few of their Shops were kept open, and those that remain’d of the, kill’d their meat at Mile-End, and that Way, and brought it to Market upon Horses. Innumerable dismal Stories we heard every day on this very Account: Sometimes a Man or Woman dropt down Dead in the very Markets; for many People that had the Plague upon them, knew nothing of it; till the inward Gangreen had affected their Vitals and they dy’d in a few Moments; this caus’d, that many died frequently in that Manner in the Streets suddainly, without any Warning: Others perhaps had Time to go to the next Bulk or Stall; or to any Door, Porch, and just sit down and die, as I have said before.[169] 183  Sex & The Plague I might also cite the treatise of Ripa de Sannazar, who wrote in 1522, among other things, that the plague spread through immoderate sexual intercourse. [170] Before the outbreak of the Black Death the general dissolution of morality had already reached a very high degree. “From the greatest to the most insignificant,” Boccaccio reports, “bishops, prelates, and temporal lords worshipped voluptuousness in the most disgraceful manner, and abandoned themselves not only to natural but also to unnatural lust without shame or restraint, so that by the influence of harlots, male and female, the most important things could be obtained from them.” But in middle-class society, up till then, a certain appearance of respectability had been preserved; this too had disappeared after the terror of the Black Death had swept away not only all law courts and police, but had destroyed the last conventions of decency. “Without heed of what is decent or indecent the people live alone of in company , whatever their inclincation may prompt them. And it is not only the laity who behave thus, but the nuns in the convents also, neglecting their rules, abandon themselves to carnal lust, and deem that by voluptuousness and excess they will prolong their lives.” As once in Athens, many in Florence were now convinced that for reasons of health it was incumbent to lead as dissolute a life as possible “The most reliable medicine, they maintained, was to drink extensively and to have a good time, to wander about with song and merriment, satisfying, as far as possible, every desire, and to laugh and jeer at what was bound to come.” In Corsica, in 1355, one party introduced the community of women and goods, and represented this to the Corsicans as the advent of the golden age. In Rome, during the plague, brilliant festivals and drunken revels were held. Everyone kept open-house not only for his friends, but particularly for strangers. In the same way in Paris, balls, banquets, sports, and tournaments formed a continuous sequence. “The French, so to say, danced on the corpses of their relations. It was actually as if they wished to display their joy at the upset in their houses and at the death of their friends.” The bas-reliefs and capitals in the French churches are of extraordinary interest; they represent erotic scenes. In the cathedral of Alby a fresco even depicts sodomites engaged in sexual intercourse. That homosexuality was also well known in parts of Germany is proved by the trials of the Beghards and Beguins in the 14th century, particularly by the confessions of the brethren Johannes and Albert of Bruenn which are preserved in a Greifswalkd manuscript. From these it is evident that the Brethren of the Free Mind did not consider homosexuality as sinful. “And if one brother desires to commit sodomy with a male, he should do so without let or hindrance and without any feeling of sin, as otherwise he would not be a Brother of the Free Mind.” In a Munich manuscript we read: “And when they go to confession and come together and he preaches to them, he takes the one who is the most beautiful among them all and does to her according to his will, and they extinguish the light and fall one upon the other, a man upon a man, and a woman upon a woman, as it just comes about. Everyone must see with his own eyes how his wife or daughter is abused by others, for they assert that no one can commit sin below his girdle. That is their belief.” The other curious doctrines that incest is permissible, even when practised on the altar, that no one has the right to refuse consent, that Christ risen from the dead had intercourse with Magdalena, etc., all indicate that such deterioration and confusion of moral ideas was only caused by the great plagues, particularly by that of 1348. In England, where immorality had also attained a high degree, the ladies appeared at the great tournaments in male attire with a sword at their sides. During the plague at Milan in 1586 the “Political Chamber Fraternities” were formed; they spent the whole day “with all kinds of games at cards, dice and the like , and also with bestial amusement and over eating and drinking.” The “Academia d’amore” became celebrated: it was a company of young nobles who in imitation of Deamerone retired to a castle and there spent the days with stories, games, and the pleasures of love. The chroniclers of those days 184 report with evident satisfaction that the plague mocked at the moats and drawbridges of the castle and made a thorough clearance among those “worldly excrescences and sinful worldly felines.” And in later times of plague it is reported that at night, or even in daytime, women ran about the streets in shameless nakedness. Although these were certainly cases of fever delirium, this involutionary prostitution was certainly cases of fever delirium, this involuntary prostitution was certainly inductive of much immorality. Another seductive element was the circumstance that the healthy people of both sexes in many cases formed small plague societies and lived promiscuously, often in restricted space, during the duration of the plague. In Germany just at that time it became customary to go to bed entirely without night clothing. Finally the great riches inherited suddenly and unexpectedly by many seduced to extravagances of all kinds. The poor, too, had become customed to indolence and led a life of carelessness. In consequence of the lack of man power, workmen were so much in demand that, for instance, in Brandenburg after the plague years 1502-1504, the workmen earned so much in 2 days that they could live on it for the rest of the week. That there is no power on earth so irresistible as that of Eros is fully borne out by the experience of plague times. Kundmann relates the following: “In the large, beautiful village of Netsch the plague was raging most violently, on account of which, in order that the disease should not spread to the still uninfected villages, these placed vigilant guards day and night for their protection. Now it happened that a young agricultural labourer from Stampen was among the guards and was violently enamoured of a peasant wencfh at Netsch. As this girl was attacked by the plague and her sweet heart heard of it, he resolved to bid her goodnight before she passed into the other world . On this account he left his post during the night, ran into the infected village and approached his swwet heart so close that he returned with a boil in the same place in which she had had one. Now, he had carried this out so secrectly that if what he had left in the wench’s belly had not betrayed the matter, it would have remained unknown. In the meanwhile the lad fell sick in his watchmans hut, went home to his fathers house, infected it with the plague and returned to his hut. As soon as it was observed that there was illness in his father’s house and the son was sick in his hut, a guard was set both on the house and on the son in his hut, but the whole house died out, and only he who had caused the whole evil escaped.” “At Ludwigsdorf, which is situated not far from Oels, the plague was also raging most violently; a young peasant wench was attacked. So soon as her sweetheart heard of it, he went to see her in the night and indulged so long in amorous sport till he brought home a plague boil as a reward. But this had not been done so secretly that the parents of both the girl and the lad had not noticed it, and although both pairs of parents rebuked their children with harsh words for this crime, they could not prevent this pair of lovers from coming together every night, now in one place, now in another, and mutually squeezing out their plague boils. Dr. Eggerdes happened to come to the place where the parents of these 2 lovers were, and they begged him for Gods sake to permit them to fetch a priest from Oels to marry their children before they died in their sins, as they were both infected by the plague and yet could not be restrained from coming together every night and doing that which they had no right to do. And a few days before their boils had actually burst. The doctor replied to the mother: ‘As your childrens boils have burst and they are still so strong that they can go to meet each other and indulge in amorous sport, they will certainly not die of the disease.’” Abraham a Santa-Clara, in his pamphlet Merk’s Wein, is a classical example of how the ecclesiastics in whom the true medieval spirit survived, availed themselves of the plague to combat sexuality which they hated violently: “Come here, ye worldly apes, face-loving fools. Venus champions, come with me to several places in Vienna, where huge trecnches have been filled with corpses; just contemplate what you have adored, to what you 185 have paid so many compliments, given more flattery than was lavished on Egyptian cats, with what you drove to the pleasure gardens, there in the cool grottos by the clear water sullied your own consciences, what frequently you clothed in red robes and dresses and in return deprived of the white of innocence; look at what robbed you of sheep and sleep, of peace and plenty, of science and conscience: come here, and gaze into the graves in which so many thousands lie. There she lies who charmed you with her crinkly curls-now they are but lousy mats and no longer powdered with mush, but stuck together with matter and dirt like a dried-up varnish-brush; behold there she who with her magnetic eyes attracted your heart, the clearness of whose eyes you valued more than diamonds-now they lie sunken in her head and are but hollows made for worms to nest in; look, take away that handkerchief from your nose, so that you may the better see there the roses of her whose cheeks often converted you into a golden butterfly. Follow me still farther; there is another trench and in it lie many thousand persons like pickled game in a barrel, solely with the difference that instead of salt quicklime is used. Behold there her whose ruddy lips were sweeter to you than sugar-candy-now the quicklime has consumed these delicacies, that now the teeth grin out like those of a snarling dog on its chain. Come here and gaze on that which has enticed you, charmed you, maddened you, delighted you; what was your pleasure, all that is now a stinking mass, a confused heap, a conglomeration of filth, a bait for worms, a repulsice heap of matter. Take but one handkerchief full of this stench home with you and meditate what it means for such an abomination to suffer for all eternity. Oh, for all eternity!- think how many such a green wench must feel who used to lie in your arms and is now in the burning pitch of hell! Oh, what repentance would overcome such a miserable dupe, if once more she could escape; but no, it is in vain- for all eternity, eternity, eternity! O Eternity, eternally forever, eternally never, never to escape for all eternity! Ever to remain there for all eternity!” Nearly all physicians and plague authors warn earnestly against matrimonial relations, in the first place on account of the extraordinary danger of infection and then because they consume the strength and render the body liable and prone to attract disease. In peste Venus pestem provocat, i.e. “In times of plague the sport of Venus invites the plague,” was proverbial. “And there is nothing that predisposes the body to more lasciviousness. This too the reason why the newly married, because more prone to sexual excesses, at Nimeguen, for many bridegrooms on the 2nd or 3rd day after marriage mortuary candles had to be burnt instead of the nuptial torch, and on this account it is altogether wrong to give wives to young men, but still worse to give them to old men.” In spite of these wise warnings, marrying mania raged and the plague acted like a clever matchmaker. An acquaintanceship of 24 hours was considered sufficient foundation for the conclusion of a matrimonial bond. Widows whose faces were still stained with the tears at the loss of their recently dead husbands were seen to take comfort with a new husband who in the course of a few days was again torn from their sides. Particularly among the lower classes the mattying mania assumed fantastic proportions. Enriched by undreamt-of wages or unexpected inheritance, quite old maids formed nuptial alliances, and quite young men put marriage rings on the fingers of toothless hags. Even sick people whose plague boils were still runnin satisfied their desire for matrimonial joys by marriage. “A woman at Nimeguen in 6 weeks married 3 men. The priest must have recognized her and lent a helping hand. But Diemerbrock recommends the following treatment: that a harlot scourger should cleanse the lascivious cow of her maternity mania (furor uterinus) with keen rods.” Cornarius (1500-1558) is not of this opinion; he says “that as so many men had fled from the plague, the women could find no satisfaction and were thus left to vain desire, which was the real reason why so many women died of the plague.” He also quotes an example of how the plague was healed by venereal lasciviousness: “Such things occured in the year 1636 during the plague in Holland, where a servant with carbuncles and fiery boils. Had intercourse with a young man, her lover, who came to her every night in the garden in which she had been lodged and without inflicting harm upon the poet in a fine ballad which on account of its pleasing and clever character was printed at Hamburg.” 186  Rondinelli, in his history of the plague at Florence, relates an amusing case: A woman who had been buried with several plague corpses recovered from her coma, got out of the grave and returned home to her husband, who was expecting anything but this. He treated her as a ghost and drove her away, shouting after her that his wife was well and thoroughly dead. Full of horror at her reception, the unfortunate woman went to Rondinellis, grandfather, who knew her well and who pleaded for her with her husband until he received her. “One is not so incredulous,” Rondinelli adds, “if one really loves.” Peter Bayle relates a case of connubial love. When Theodor Koornhert was cast into prison for heresy, his wife, imagining that he would not be set free again, is said to have endeavoured to catch the plague and to infect him with it, so that they might die together. Koornhert, however, was liberated, and fortunately his wifes endeavours were not successful. Most remarkable things are related by many plague authors of the excesses of lepers. Thus at Nuremberg the feeding of the sick (by which the lepers are meant) was discounted, because they had become quite lascivious, and one of them molested a beautiful woman in the public street with his affection. “The hot blood of the lascivious goat,” it is stated, “was cooled by the headman’s sword.” The same is reported of syphilists.[171] After the plague marriages were everywhere so numerous that the priests were scarcely able to cope with the work. At Cologne after the plague of the year 1451, which carried off 21,000 people, 4,000 marriages were celebrated in the following year. Nearly all these unions were prolific and the birth of twins and triplets were more frequent than usual. On festive occasions the people were not content with expressing their joy of life, but jeered and railed at death. From the year 1348 in many german towns the young people practised a ceremony called the expulsion of death on the first Sunday in Lent. In Leipzig this ceremony was carried out by the harlots, who at the time of the foundation of the University in the year 1409 were assembled at the Halle Gate of the town, as the so-called “5th faculty” of the University, in their best attire, and spent the day enticing the young men. At mid-Lent they bore a straw man on a pole to the River Parthe, marching in procession 2 abreast and singing. Here, with a derisive song on death, the effigy was hurled into the river, and it was assumed that the town had been delivered from death.[172] The marriage rate undoubtedly rose, though not for love. So many adventurers took advantage of orphans to obtain rich dowries that the oligarchy of Siena forbade the marriage of female orphans without their kinsmens consent. In England, Piers Plowman deplored the many pairs “since the pestilence” who had married “for greed of goods and against natural feeling,” with result, according to him, in “guilt and grief…jealousy, joylessness and jangling in private”-and no children. It suited Piers as a moralist that such marriages that followed the plague that many twins, sometimes triplets, were born and that few women were barren. Perhaps he in turn reflected a desperate need to believe that nature would make up the loss, and in fact men and women married immediately afterward in unusual numbers.[173] 720: Of course sex would be important during a time period of such peril. Im not saying that sarcastically neither. Sex is the greatest healer documented amongst man and this is recorded in several civilizations including this one. As a form of penance the plague provided a status of shameless ness, a status of no will power, to be in fear or to go madly insane as an attempted escape route. Suicide was prevalent and all levels of craziness exhibited. Due to the decrease in population, the women responded in a form of sexual mania with no social morality applied in order to survive. Out of this circumstance was birthed a myriad of odd sexual desires. These odd sexual desires are still with us today, hidden underneath the term fetishes. This is not to remove the activities of Greece and Rome. 187 Fig. 72.). Left: A makeup facsimile of a Plague buboe boil Fig. 73.). Right: Real picture of a man who received the Bubonic Plague from a bite from a cat while retrieving a rodent out of its mouth. He is the 17th person to be infected by the Medieval disease (Bubonic Plague) in Oregon since 1934 Plague Symptom Description In the years 1345 to 1350 half the population, or, as is maintained by others, one-third of the population, had succumbed to the plague. Two hundred thousand market towns and villages in Europe were completely depopulated, and in the dwellings encumbered with corpses wild beasts took up their abode. Statistics drawn up at the instigation of Pope clement VI state the number of deaths for the whole world at 42,836, 486. The name “Black Death,” which was commonly given to the plague of 1348, must be regarded as the expression of the horror aroused by this uncanny disease. Popular imagination depicted it as a man mounted on a black horse, or else as a black giant striding along, his head reaching above the roofs of the houses.[174] “During the whole of the year 1382 there was no wind, in consequence of which the air grew putrid, so that an epidemic broke out, and the plague did not pass from one man to another, but everyone who was killed by it got it straight from the air. In 1434 there were in Switzerland such quantities of hazel-nuts as no one had hitherto seen, thereupon there followed a rapid murderous plague, so that there was no place, however secluded in the mountains and valleys in which at this time people were not carried off. In the year 1480 the rivers Tiber, Po, Danube, and others overflowed their banks so much that many people and cattle were drowned, and thereupon a plague ensued.”[175] The symbolic blackness of the plague deeply impressed those who watched its progress. For a short time in France it was called la mort bleue, because of the septicaemic blue bruises on the skin in the later stages, but universally it earned its somber names, the Black Death , la pests noire, der schwarze Tod: it was swift, appallingly infectious, and seemed designed by a malign Providence to make death not only terrifying, but demoralizing and disgusting to the utmost degree. The living body began to rot before death came to finish the process. ‘..all the matter which exuded from their bodies let off an unbearable stench; sweat, excrement, spittle, breath, so foetid as to be overpowering; urine turbid, thick, black or red…’ Boccaccio, in the introduction to the Decameron, describes the disease from which his aristocratic story- tellers had shut themselves away. ‘It began in both men and women with certain swellings in the groin or under the armpit. They grew in the size of a small apple or egg, more or less, and were vulgarly called tumours 188 (gavoccioli). In a short space of time these tumours spread from the two points named all over the body. Soon after this the symptoms changed and black and purple spots appeared on the arms or thighs or any other part of the body, sometimes a few large ones, sometimes many little ones. These spots were a certain sign of death, just as the original tumour had been and still remained.’ The gavocciolo is the bubo or boil that gives the name to the Black Death and similar pestilences-bubonic plague. The pain of the buboes was often intolerable, as the lymphatic glands in the underarm, groin, or neck suppurated and swelled. ‘…it is seething, terrible, wherever it may come, a head that gives pain and causes a loud cry, a burden carried under the arm, a painful angry knob, a white lump. It is of the form of an apple, like the head of an onion, a small boil that spares no one. The black or blue spots, the “tokens”, were smaller boils or patches of gangrened flesh, coloured like a bruise where the blood had escaped under the skin. They occurred on the skin in patterns, following the lines of the lymphatic system underneath, and were regarded, not unreasonably, as the special marks of angel of death. Some English parish registers form a macabre memorial to the ‘tokens’, as the vicars have used the patterns of dots as a sign of plague, in the burial registers-perhaps the word itself seemed too dreadful to write. Usually sufferers died 3 to 4 days after the appearance of the tokens, but in the Black Death there was a more deadly form of plague, pneumonic plague, which attacked the lungs and caused death in as little as 24 hours, from the fist signs of the tokens to the final collapse.[176] 720: So as it is termed Black Death we can definitely see that the color black is deeply rooted in the psyche of all Caucasian people. This also goes for brown, blue and obviously green (Gangrene). I didn’t provide any data related to the origin of the plague being the Muslims because I didn’t run into it. I state this because this is what is said by scholars on documentaries pertaining to the plague. Here is the fact: Plague was reportedly first introduced to Europe via Genoese traders at the port city of Kaffa in the Crimea in 1347. After a protracted siege, during which the Mongol army under Jani Beg was suffering from the disease, the army catapulted the infected corpses over the city walls of Kaffa to infect the inhabitants. The Genoese traders fled, taking the plague by ship into Sicily and the south of Europe, whence it spread north. Whether or not this hypothesis is accurate, it is clear that several existing conditions such as war, famine, and weather contributed to the severity of the Black Death.[177] 720: Relative to human skin color and who was classified as an enemy because of religious background is all connected to the imagery of any and everything pertaining to death and evil. The peculiar part about this is all of these things are natural. The corrosion of the body, the food, the poison, the water all being black and bringing death has instilled an eternal fear and/or premonition to attack in their soul. All at the same time they are going to war with Muslims, Moors and the like. As we can see today the racism in them is obviously genetic. As I have always concluded as it is unnecessary and comes from sources that has nothing specifically to do with black/brown people. As we can see they have committed far more atrocities on their own then what they have done other peoples or have they? The descriptions of these puss bumps are the likes of what we have never seen. This may be part of the reason medical information isn’t promoted as a common knowledge to the public. We don’t need a bunch of quacks running around thinking they’re doctors, physicians and surgeons. As a matter of fact it would be best to develop a singular system in health. In October 1347, two months after the fall of Calais, Genoese trading ships put into the harbor of Messina in Sicily with dead and dying men at the oars. The ships had come from the Black Sea port of Caffa (now Feodosiya) in the Crimea, where the Genoese maintained a trading post. The diseased sailors showed strange black swellings about the size of an egg or an apple in the armpits and groin. The swellings oozed blood and pus and were followed by spreading boils and black blotches on the skin from internal bleeding. The sick suffered severe pain 189 and died quickly within five days of the first symptoms. As the disease spread, other symptoms of continuous fever and spitting of blood appeared instead of the swelling of buboes. These victims coughed and sweated heavily and died even more quickly, within three days or less, sometimes in 24 hours. In both types everything that issued from the body –breath, sweat, blood from the buboes and lungs, bloody urine, and blood-blackened excrement-smelled foul. Depression and despair accompanied the physical symptoms, and before the end “death is seen seated on the face.” The disease was bubonic plague, present in two forms: one that infected the bloodstream, causing buboes and internal bleeding, and was spread by contact; and a second, more virulent pneumonic type that infected the lungs and was spread by respiratory infection. The presence of both at once cause the high mortality and speed of contagion. So lethal was the disease that cases were known of persons going to bed well and dying before they woke, of doctors catching the illness at a bedside and dying before the patient. So rapidly did it spread from one to another that to a French physician, Simon de Covino, it seemed as if one sick person “could infect the whole world.” The malignity of the pestilence appeared more terrible because its victims knew no prevention and no remedy.[178] The Franciscan friar, Michael of Piazza, describes its arrival in Sicily: “At the beginning of October, in the year of the incarnation of the Son of God 1347, twelve Genoese galleys were fleeing from the vengeance which our Lord was taking on account of their nefarious deeds and entered the harbor of Messina. In their bones they bore so virulent a disease that anyone who only spoke to them was seized by a mortal illness and in no manner could evade death. The infection spread to everyone who had any intercourse with the diseased. Those infected felt themselves penetrated by a pain throughout their whole bodies and, so to say, undermined. Then there developed on their thighs or on their upper arms a boil about the size of a lentil which the people called ‘burn boil’ (antrachi). This infected the whole body, and penetrated it so that the patient violently vomited blood. The vomiting of blood continued without intermission for 3 days, there being no means of healing it, and then the patient expired. But not only all those who had intercourse with them died, but also those who had touched or used any of their things.[179] 720: This imagery of throwing up for 3 days straight and then dying must be where our current zombie imagery comes from. Also, the rotting of the bodies has been seen in many different forms for many different reasons in many different films. All said imagery inclusive with extracurricular activities other individuals may have done with bodies that we will be talking about shortly. It was Catania where the ‘burn blisters’ appeared, but there developed in different parts of the body gland boils in some on the sexual organs, in others on the thighs, in others on the arms, and in others on the neck. At first these were of the size of a hazel-nut and developed accompanied by violent shivering fits, which soon rendered those attacked so weak that they could no longer stand upright, but were forced to lie in their beds consumed by violent fever and overcome by great tribulation. Soon the boils grew to the size of a walnut, then to that of a hen’s egg or a goose’s egg, and they were exceedingly painful, and irritated the body, causing it to vomit blood by vitiating the juices. The blood rose from the affected lungs to the throat, producing on the whole body a putrifying and ultimately decomposing effect. The sickness lasted 3 days, and on the fourth, at the latest, and on the fourth, at the latest, the patient succumbed.[180] About the beginning of the yeare it also began in a very strange manner, as appeared by divers admirable effects; yet not as it had done in the East Countries, where Lord or Lady being touched therewith manifest signes of inevitable death, followed thereon, by bleeding at the nose. But there it began with young children, male and female, either under the armpits, or in the groine by certaine swellings, in some to the bignesse of an Apple, in others like an Egge, and so in divers, greater or lesser, which (in their vulgar Language) they termed to be a Botch or 190 Byle. In very short time after, those two infected parts were growne mortiferous , and would disperse abroad indifferently, to all parts of the body; where-upon, such was the quality of the disease, to shew itselfe by black or blew spottes, which would appear on the armes of many, others on their thighs, and every part elfe of the body in some great and few, in others small and thicke.[181] Defoe relates that the plague-boils, when they grew hard and would not burst, caused such terrible pain that they resembled the most exquisite torture, and that many, to escape their torments, threw themselves out of the windows, shot themselves, or took their own lives in some other way.[182] Gentilis de Fulgineo of Perugia, a professor of medicine celebrated throughout Italy, war carried off by the plague, a victim to his duty, in 1348. Under his auspices the corpses of plague victims were dissected several times at Perugia. What the medical men believed to have discovered was a small boil in the vicinity of the heart filled with poison, and they attributed the miserable death of young and old to the poisoning of the blood by secretions from this boil.[183] In the West, the following were the predominating symptoms on the eruption of the disease. An ardent fever, accompanied by an evacuation of blood, proved fatal in the first 3 days. It appears that buboes and inflammatory boils did not at first comeout at all, but that the disease, in the form of carbuncular affection of the lungs, effected the destruction of life before the other symptoms were developed. Thus did the plague rage in Avignon for 6 to 8 weeks, and the pestilential breath of the sick, who expectorated blood, caused a terrible contagion far and near; for even the vicinity of those who had fallen ill of plague was certain death; so that parents abandoned their infected children, and all the ties of kindred were dissolved. After this period, buboes in the axilla and in the groin, and inflammatory boils all over the body, made their appearance; but it was not until 7 months afterwards that some patients recovered with matured buboes, as in the ordinary milder form of plague. [184] In England the malady appeared, as at Avignon, with spitting of blood, and with the same fatality, so that the sick who were afflicted either with this symptom or with committing of blood, died in some cases immediately, in others within 12 hours, or at the latest in 2 days. The inflammatory boils and buboes in the groins and axillae were recognized at once as prognosticating a fatal issue, and those were past all hope of recovery in whom they arose in numbers all over the body. It was not till towards the close of the plague that they ventured to open, by incision, these hard and dry boils, when matter flowed from them in small quantity, and thus by compelling nature to a critical suppuration, many patients were saved. Every spot which the sick had touched, their breath, their clothes, spread the contagion; and, as in all other places the attendants and friends who were either blind to their danger or heroically despised it, fell a sacrifice to their sympathy. Even the eyes of the patient were considered as sources of contagion, which had the power of acting at a distance, whether on account of their unwonted luster of the distortion which they always suffer in plague, or whether in conformity with an ancient notion, according to which the sight was considered as the bearer of a demoniacal enchantment. Flight from infected cities seldom availed the fearful, for the germ of the disease adhered to them, and they fell sick, remote from assistance, in the solitude of their country houses.[185] That a vomiting of blood may not here and there, have taken 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 191 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 black 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 6th, and some-times, even so late as the 14th 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 discolored and black steaks, arose, and thus indicated the reception of the poison. These streaked spots were called, by an aptcomparison, the girdle, and this appearance was justly considered extremely dangerous. [186] I remember, and while I am writing this Story, I think I heard the very Sound of it, a certain Lady an only daughter, a young Maiden about 19 years old, and who was possessed of a very considerable Fortune; they were only Lodgers in the House where they were: The young Woman, her Mother, and the Maid, had been abroad for some Occasion, I do not remember what, for the House was not shut up; but about 2 Hours after they came home, the young Lady complain’d she was not well; in a quarter of an Hour more, she vomited, and had a violent Pain in her head. Pray God, says her Mother in a terrible Fright, my Child has not the distemper! The Pain in her Head increasing, her Mother ordered the bed to be warm’d, and resolved to put her to Bed; and prepared to give her things to sweat, which was the ordinary Remedy to be taken, when the first Apprehensions of the Distemper began. While the bed was airing, the Mother undressed the young Woman, and just as she was laid down in the Bed, she looking upon her Body with a candle, immediately discovered the Fatal Tokens on the Inside of her Thighs. Her Mother, not being able to contain herself, threw down her Candle, and scriekt out in such a frightful manner, that it was enough to place Horror upon the stoutest Heart in the World; nor was it one scream, or one Cry, but the Fright having seiz’d her Spirits, she fainted first, then recovered, then ran all over the House, up the Stairs and down the Stairs, like one distracted, and indeed really was distracted, and continued screeching, and crying out for several Hours, void of all sense, or at least, Government of her Sense, and as I was told, never came thoroughly to herself again: As to the young Maiden, she was a dead Corpse from that Moment; for the Gangrene which occasions the Spots had spread her whole Body, and she died in less than 2 Hours: But still the Mother continued crying out, not knowing and Thing more of her Child, several Hours after she was dead. It is so long ago, that I am not certain but I think the Mother never recover’d, but died in 2 or 3 weeks after. This was an extraordinary Case, and I am therefore the more particular in it, because I came so much to the Knowledge of it; but there were innumberable such like Cases; and it was seldom, that the Weekly Bill came in, but there were 2 or 3 put in frighted, that is, that may well be called, frighted to Death: But besides those, who were so frighted as to die upon the Spot, there were great Numbers frighted to other Extreams, some frighted out of their Senses, some out of their Memory, and some out of their Understanding.[187] It often pierc’d my very Soul to hear the Groans and crys of those who were thus tormented, but of the 2, this was counted the most promising particular in the whole Infection; for, if these Swellings could be brought to a Head, and to break and run, or as the Surgeons call it, to digest, the Patient generally recover’d; whereas those, who like the Gentlewoman’s Daughter, were struck with Death at the Beginning, and had the Tokens come out upon them, often went about indifferent easy, till a little before they died, and some till the Moment they dropt down, as In Apoplexies and Epilepsies, is often the Case: such would be taken suddenly very sick, and would run to a Bench or Bulk, or any convenient Place that offer’d itself, or to their own Houses, if possible, as I mentioned 192 before, and there sit down, grow faint and die. This kind of dying was much the same, as it was with those who die of common Mortifications, who die swooning, and as it were, go away in a Dream; such as died thus, had very little Notice of their being infected at all, till the Gangreen was spread thro’ their whole Body; nor could Physicians themselves, know certainly how it was with them, till they opened their Breasts, or other Parts of their Body, and saw the Tokens.[188] 720: The sections that have words capitalized when they aren’t supposed to be is how it is written in the original literature: A Journal of The Plague Year 1665 by Daniel Defoe. This book is detailed and held as one of the leading documents relative to the plague. Part of the reason is because it is one of the most recent. The capitalizing of the words are significant to how the word is being used and the times. As if, during these times specific words were being inculcated with a large mixture of different type of energies to build a spiritual aura to the word that is unbreakable. You need to pay attention to this element throughout this entire book. Also, the social definitions attached to these words during their embryo stages are undertoned behaviors to the same words today even though the same word used today may not have a similar direct definition. For instance the word token which means a small piece or plastic or metal, a form of money not distributed by the government, a small percentage of something or an ideal/highly esteemed member of a group. Where can we find the connection? Usually the word token is used to identify fiat money distributed to children at circuses and amusement parks for rides which makes one sick and dizzy or candy and extremely unhealthy foods. In essence the word token being materialized as fiat money being used for transaction communication as the basis of the activity at an circus/amusement park solidifies the sickness of the environment, which also leaves a door open for other bad things to happen. The word token being used for an accomplished member of a group is in comparison to the priests, the king and the pope who kissed the tokens of the people to show his love and compassion in the face of pestilence. To compare ones sympathy and empathy to the understanding of Jesus and let this also be immortalized with their names for ever. Nevertheless the word token implies sickness directly or indirectly. This also goes for the usage of the colors we have discussed. I’m safe to say 80% to 90% of the English language is coded like this. It goes all the way down to words like who, anybody, poverty. Basically the English language is composed of words that are all live entities that have spirits loaded into them. The Death Numbers The plague was, however, known in Europe before nations were united by the bonds of commerce and social intercourse; hence there is ground for supposing that it sprung up spontaneously, in consequence of the rude manner of living and the uncultivated state of the earth; influences which peculiarly favor the origin of severe diseases. Now, we need not go back to the earlie centuries , for the 14th itself, before it was half expired, was visited by 5 or 6 pestilences. (1301, in the South of France; 1311, in Italy; 1316, in Italy, Burgundy and Northern Europe; 1335, the locust years, in the middle of Europe; 1340, in upper Italy; 1342, in France; and 1347, in Marseilles and most of the larger islands of the Mediterranean).[189] The Black Plague: The plague repeatedly returned to haunt Europe and the Mediterranean throughout the 14th to 17th centuries. According to Biraben, the plague was present somewhere in Europe in every year between 1346 and 1671. The Second Pandemic was particularly widespread in the following years: 1360–63; 1374; 1400; 1438–39; 1456–57; 1464–66; 1481–85; 1500–03; 1518–31; 1544–48; 1563–66; 1573–88; 1596–99; 1602–11; 1623– 40; 1644–54; and 1664–67. Subsequent outbreaks, though severe, marked the retreat from most of Europe (18th century) and northern Africa (19th century). According to Geoffrey Parker, "France alone lost almost a million people to the plague in the epidemic of 1628–31." 193  In England, in the absence of census figures, historians propose a range of pre-incident population figures from as high as 7 million to as low as 4 million in 1300, and a postincident population figure as low as 2 million. By the end of 1350, the Black Death subsided, but it never really died out in England. Over the next few hundred years, further outbreaks occurred in 1361–62, 1369, 1379–83, 1389–93, and throughout the first half of the 15th century. An outbreak in 1471 took as much as 10–15% of the population, while the death rate of the plague of 1479–80 could have been as high as 20%. The most general outbreaks in Tudor and Stuart England seem to have begun in 1498, 1535, 1543, 1563, 1589, 1603, 1625, and 1636, and ended with the Great Plague of London in 1665. Plague Riot in Moscow in 1771: During the course of the city's plague, between 50 and 100 thousand people died, comprising 1⁄6 to 1⁄3 of its population. In 1466, perhaps 40,000 people died of the plague in Paris. During the 16th and 17th centuries, the plague was present in Paris around 30 per cent of the time. The Black Death ravaged Europe for three years before it continued on into Russia, where the disease was present somewhere in the country 25 times between 1350 to 1490. Plague epidemics ravaged London in 1563, 1593, 1603, 1625, 1636, and 1665, reducing its population by 10 to 30% during those years. Over 10% of Amsterdam's population died in 1623–25, and again in 1635–36, 1655, and 1664. Plague occurred in Venice 22 times between 1361 and 1528. The plague of 1576–77 killed 50,000 in Venice, almost a third of the population. Late outbreaks in central Europe included the Italian Plague of 1629–1631, which is associated with troop movements during the Thirty Years' War, and the Great Plague of Vienna in 1679. Over 60% of Norway's population died in 1348–50. The last plague outbreak ravaged Oslo in 1654. In the first half of the 17th century, a plague claimed some 1.7 million victims in Italy, or about 14% of the population. In 1656, the plague killed about half of Naples' 300,000 inhabitants. More than 1.25 million deaths resulted from the extreme incidence of plague in 17th -century Spain. The plague of 1649 probably reduced the population of Seville by half. In 1709–13, a plague epidemic that followed the Great Northern War (1700–21, Sweden v. Russia and allies) killed about 100,000 in Sweden, and 300,000 in Prussia. The plague killed two-thirds of the inhabitants of Helsinki and claimed a third of Stockholm's population. Europe's last major epidemic occurred in 1720 in Marseille. We have no certain measure by which to estimate the ravages of the Black Plague, if numerical statements were wanted, as in modern times. Let us go back for a moment to the 14th century. The people were yet but little civilized. The church had indeed subdued them; but they all suffered from the ill consequences of their original rudeness. The dominion of the law was not yet confirmed. Sovereigns had everywhere to combat powerful enemies to internal tranquility and security. The cities were fortresses for their own defense. Marauders encamped on the roads. The husbandman was a feudal slave, without possessions of his own. Rudeness was general.-Humanity, as yet unknown to the people. –Witches and heretics burned alive. –Gentle rulers were condemned as weak; -wild passions, severity and cruelty, everywhere predominated. –Human life was little regarded. –Governments concerned not themselves about the numbers of their subjects, for whose welfare it was incumbent on them to provide. Thus the first requisite for estimating the loss of human life, namely, a knowledge of the amount of the population, is altogether wanting; and, moreover, the traditional statements of the amount of this loss, are so vague, that from this source likewise, there is only room for probable conjecture. In Florence there died of the Black Plague - - 60,000 In Venice - - 100,000 In Marseilles, in 1 month 16,000. In Siena - - 70,000 In Paris - - 50,000 In St. Denys - - 14,000 194 In Avignon - - 60,000 In Strasburg - - 16,000 In Lubeck - - 9,000 In Basle - -14,000 In Erfurt, at least - - 16,000 In Weimar - - 5,000 In Limburg - - 2,500 In London, at least – 100,000 In Norwich - - 51,000 Francescan Friars in Germany 124,434 Minorities in Italy - - 30,000 In many places in France not more than 2 out of 20 of the inhabitants were left alive, and the capital felt the fury of the plague, alike in the palace and the cot. 2 Queens, 1 Bishop, and great numbers of other distinguished persons, fell a sacrifice to it, and more than 500 a day died in the Hotel-Dieu, under the faithful care of the sisters of charity, who disinterested courage, in this age of horror, displayed the most beautiful traits of human virtue. For although they lost their lives, evidently from contagion, and their numbers were several times renewed, there was still no want of fresh candidates, who, strangers to the unchristian fear of death, piously devoted themselves to their holy calling. The church yards were soon unable to contain the dead , and many houses, left without inhabitants, fell to ruins. In Avignon, the pope found it necessary to consecrate the Rhone, that bodies might be thrown into the river without delay, as the church yards would no longer hold them; so likewise, in all populous cities, extraordinary measures were adopted, in order to speedily dispose of the dead. In Vienna, where for some time 1200 inhabitants died daily, the interment of corpses in the church yards and within the churches, was forthwith prohibited; and the dead were then arranged in layers, by thousands, in 6 large pits outside the city, as had already been done in Cairo and Paris. Yet still many were secretly buried; for at all times, the people are attached to the consecrated cemeteries of their dead, and will not renounce the customary mode of interment.[190] The Number everywhere was so great that nowhere were the churchyards sufficient. In Erfurt, in 1350, 11 huge trenches were dug and 12,000 corpses were thrown into them. A memorial tablet was placed there. In St. John’s churchyard at Nuremberg a gravestone from the year 1437 has been preserved: Was that not sad and painful to relate, I died with 13 of my house on the same date? And from the year 1533: Is it not sad and moving to relate, I, Hans Tuchmacher, died with 14 children on the same date? In Swabian Gmuend the inscription on a gravestone in the churchyard of St. Leonard’s runs: Is that not a painful sight 77 in the same night Died of the plague in the year 1637. To ascertain if anyone was still alive in a house the corpsebearers in many places threw peas or sand against the windows. If no one appeared they entered the dwelling and fetched out the victims of the plague.[191] 195 Fig. 74.). The plague in Leiden, the Netherlands, during the PLAGUE: LEIDEN, 1574. The number of victims of the plague in the 14th century in Europe is estimated by some to be too low if placed at 25 per cent. Of the population. The number of victims of later times with vastly superior hygienic and prophylactic conditions must be taken into consideration. Thus in 1467 Moscow mourned the loss of 127,000 victims, Novrgorod and district of 230,602, Venice in 1478 of 300,000, Milan 1576, with a population of 200,000 (almost 2/3 of the population are said to have left the town), of 51,000, Berlin in the same year of 1/3 of its population, Rome of 70,000 in 1591. In Thurgau in 1611 more than half the population died. Milan lost in 1623, 140,000, the Republic of Venice in 1630 and 1631 more than 500,000. In 1630 Cremona was nearly completely depopulated. In Turin there only remained 3,000 persons. In Lorraine, after the plague of 1637, hardly one per cent. Of the inhabitants was left. Naples lost in 1635, 300,000. London 160,000 in 1665, Vienna in the year 1579 with a population of 210,000, 123,000, Danzic in 1709 in the course of two months 40,000, Marseilles in 1720, 50,000. Toulon in the same year, with a population of 22,000, 13,160; Arles 8,110 from a population of 12,000. Germany, whose losses for 1348 are estimated at 1,244,434, is one of the countries that suffered least. In Strasbourg there died 16,000; in Erfurt, where there were 1,500 deaths on one single day, at least as many. In Basle 14,000, in Weimar 5,000. The losses were particularly great in the North of Germany. In Pomerania (1356) and Holstein 2/3 of the population died, in Schleswig 4/5. In Luebeck, which at that time was described as the German Venice, it is reported that of 100 inhabitants not 10 survived. The sum-total is given as 90,000. Hecker is greatly mistaken when he reduces this number to 9,000, as chroniclers report in unison that 1,500 died on a single day. In many German districts only 10 survived out of 100 inhabitants, in quite a number only 5. At Vienna between 500 and 700 died daily. On one day it is reported to have been even 960, and on another 1,200. The chronicler of Slazburg writes: “In Vienna there died daily 2 or 3 pounds.” Now, a pound comprised 240 pfennig or pence, thus the daily number of deaths was between 480 and 720. In the Certosa of Montrieux of the monks only 196 Gerado, the brother of Petrarch, remained alive. In the monastery of Marienberg in Vinstgau all the monks died with the exception of 4. In the same manner nearly all the monks of the monastery of Dissentis were carried off by the plague. At Meiningen the whole convent of the monastery of the Barefooted Friars died out with the exception of 3. Altogether there died of the Order of the Franciscans 124,434. According to Guy de Chauliac 3-quarters of the whole population of France died, according to other reports one-half. In many districts, as, for instance, at Viviers and in Burgundy, nine-tenths died. The thoroughly reliable Gilles de Massis relates of towns where out of 20,000 only 200 survived and of smaller towns where out of 1,500 hardly 100. At Avignon two-thirds were carried off. At Montpelier the losses were so immense that it became necessary to grant citizen rights to Italian merchants in order to repopulate the town. In Italy half the population died. At Venice 100,000, i.e. three-quarters of the population. In order to repopulate the town the doge Orseolo invited foreigners to settle at Venice, offering as enticement the acquirement of citizen rights after 2 years’ residence. Of this invitation it seems many Germans availed themselves. In Genoa six-sevenths died. At Bologna and at Padua two-thirds, at Piacenza one-half, at Pisa seven-tenths. The Prince of Carrarra granted an amnesty to all robbers and criminals who would settle in the deserted towns of Padua and Belluno. Scalinger did the same for Verona, which had lost 3-quarters of its population of roughly 130,000 inhabitants, according to Boccaccio more than 100,000 died. According to Petrarchs report hardly 10 out of 100 survived. From London it was reported that scarcely every tenth man survived. The number of deaths is said to be underestimated at 100,000. At Bristol hardly one-tenth of the population remained. At Norwich out of a population of 70,000 there died 57,374. In England of the clergy alone there died 25,000. From the town of Smolensk in Russia in 1386b there remained only 5 persons alive. The islands of Cuprus and Iceland are said to have been depopulated to the last inhabitant.[192] In the year 1578 the town of Lisbon was in great distress, nearly 70,000 people had died! Hard set was the town of Breslau in Silesia in 1542, where in the course of 22 weeks 5,900 people had been carried off. A sorry sight was then offered by Rome, where on a single day 10,000 people died. Indescribable tribulation descended on Prague in 1381, so that on a single day there died 1,916 men, as Hedius reports. In 1466 the town of Paris suffered a great scourge of dying, during which in a short time nearly 40,000 citizens were laid in the earth. Terrible misery overcame the town of Venice in 1576, when within 9 months nearly 60,000 people were carried off by death. Thus it may be seen that these towns were assailed with great misfortune; but he who lived in the year 1679, in the Wien quarter of Vienna in the month of September, he must proclaim that to depict such misery surpasses the art of all painters, for the ravages of death were such that many thought the general epilogue and end of the whole world had come-there is not a single street or by-lane, of which there are so many in this populous capital, in which death did not rage.[193] The plague raged to such an extent at Avignon that Clement was obliged to consecrate the Rhone so that corpses could be sunk in it. Alone in 3 days that followed the 4th Sunday in Lent 1,500 people died. Seven cardinals succumbed to the disease, among them the noble Giovanni Colonna, the Maecenas of Avignon, and patron of Petrarch. At Avignon and in the County Venaissin the number of victims deplored amounted to 120,000. Among these was Petrarch’s Laura, who expired in the early morning of April 6, 1348. In the year 1361 there succumbed to the plague at Avignon 100 bishops and 5 cardinals. The disease also raged among the clergy during the Council of Basle in 1429. Innumberable crowds of people, including numbers of disreputable women, had flocked to the ecclesiastic assembly and brought with them death, as in 1429 the plague had already become general. He who remained at his post to which Providence had called him was a hero, like the Cardinal of Arles, who said: “I will rather hold together the assembly of the Church at the risk of my life than save my life at risk of the assembly.”[194] 197  Then he proceeded to tell me of the mischievous Consequences which attended the Presumption of the Turks and Mahometans in Asia and in other Places, where he had been (for my Brother being a merchant, was a few Years before, as I have already observ’d returned from abroad, coming last from Lisbon) and how presuming upon their profess’d predestinating Notions, and of every Man’s End being predetermin’d and unalterably before- hand decreed, they would go unconcern’d into infected Places, and converse with infected Persons, by which Means they died at the Rate of 10 or 15,000 a Week, whereas the Europeans, or Christian Merchants, who kept themselves retired and reserv’d, generally escaped the Conatgion.[195] Fig. 75.). “A Chart of The Death Numbers” Daniel Defoe: A Journal of The Plague Year c. 1665; The Heritage Press, Norwalk, Connecticut, 1722 pg. 108 And, which tho’ a melancholy Article in it self, yet was a Deliverance in its Kind, namely, the Plague which raged in a dreadful manner from the Middle of August to the Middle of October, carried off in that Time 30 or 40 Thousand of these very People, which had they been left, would certainly have been an unsufferable Burden, by their Poverty, that is to say, the whole City could not have supported the Expence of them, or have provided Food for them; and they would in Time have been even driven to the Necessity of plundering either the City it self, or the country adjacent, to have subsisted themselves, which would first or last, have put the whole Nation, as well as the City, into the utmost Terror and Confusion. It was observable then, that this Calamity of the People made them very humble; for now, for about 9 Weeks together, there died near a 1000 a Day, one Day with another, even by the Account of the weekly Bills, which yet I have Reason to be assur’d never gave a full Account, by many thousands; the Confusion being such, and the Carts working in the Dark, when they carried the Dead, that in some Places no Account at all was kept, but they work’d on; the Clerks and Sextons not attending for Weeks together, and not knowing what Number they carried. This Account is verified by the following Bills of Mortality. So that the Gross of the People were carried off in these 2 Months; for as the whole Number which was brought in, to die of the Plague, was but 68,590, here is 50,000 of them, with in a Trifle, in 2 months; I say 50,000, because, as there wants 295 in the Number above, so there wants 2 Days of 2 Months, in the Account of Time. Now when, I say, that the parish Officers did not give in a full account, or were not to be depended upon for their Account, let anyone but consider how Men could be exact in such a Time of dreadful Distress, and when 198 many of them were taken sick themselves, and perhaps died in the very Time when their Accounts were to be given in, I mean the Parish-Clerks; besides inferior Officers for tho’ these poor Men ventured at all hazards, yet they were far from being exempt from the common Calamity, especially if it be true, that the Parish of Stepney had within the year, 116 Sextons, Grave-diggers, and their Assistansts, that is to say, Bearers, Bell men, and Drivers of Carts, for carrying off the dead Bodies. Indeed the Work was not of a Nature to allow them Leisure, to take an exact Tale of the dead Bodies, which were all huddled together in the Dark into a Pit, or Trench, no Man could come nigh, but at the utmost Peril. I observ’d often, that in the Parishes of algate and Cripplegate, White-Chappel, and Stepney, there was 5, 6, 7, and 800 in a Week, in the Bills, whereas, if we may believe the Opinion of those that liv’d in the City, all the Time, as well as I, there died sometimes 2,000 a Week in those Parishes; and I saw it under the Hand of one, that made as strict an Examination into that part as he could, that there really died and hundred thousand People of the plague, in it that one year, whereas the Bills, the Articles of the Plague, was but 68,590. If I may be allowed to give my Opinion, by what I saw with my Eyes, and heard from other people that were Eye Witnesses, I do verily believe, the same, viz. that there died, at least, 100,000 of the Plague only, besides other distempers, and besides those which died in the Fields, and High-ways, and secret Places, out of the Compass of the Communication, as it was called; and who were not put down in the Bills, tho’ they really belonged to the Body of the Inhabitants. It was known to us all, that abundance of poor despairing Creatures, who had the Distemper upon them, and were grown stupid, or melancholy by their Misery, as many were, wandred away into the Fields, and Woods, and into secret uncouth Places, almost anywhere to creep into a bush, or hedge, and DIE. The In habitants of the Villages adjacent would in Pity, carry them food, and set it at a Distance, that they might fetch it, if they were able, and sometimes they were not able; and the next Time they went, they should find the poor Wretches lie dead, and the Food untouch’d. The Number of these miserable Objects were many, and I know so many that perish’d thus, and so exactly where, that I believe I could go to the very Place and dig their Bones up still; for the Country People would go and dig a Hole at a distance from them, and then with long poles,and Hooks at the End of them, drag the Bodies into these Pits, and then throw the Earth in form as far as they could cast it to cover them; taking notice how the Wind blew, and so coming on that Side which the seamen call to windward, that the Scent of the Bodies might blow from them; and thus great Numbers went out of the World, who were never known or any Account of them taken, as well within the Bills of Mortality as without. This indeed I had, in the main, only from the Relation of others; for I seldom walk’d into the Fields, except towards Bednalgreen and Hackney; or as hereafter: but when I did walk I always saw a great many poor Wanderers at a Distance, but I could know little of their Cases; for whether it were in the Street, or in the fields, if we had seen any Body coming, it was a general method to walk away; yet I believe the Account is exactly true.[196] 720: I didn’t want to be exhausting with the subject but the details must be reviewed. It is safe to say that the numbers of death and its style of sickness deserves the right to preserve itself as an entity. The experiences Europeans encountered made one stare in the eyes of death, sit and have a drink and then dance. We have yet to visit the true essence of the matter this is only the beginning. In today’s intelligence I don’t believe the common man has the temperance for death at such an alarming rate. I’m pretty sure the reoccurences of death from fright would occur. Not only that I do believe many would give up as these type of experiences are very far away from the modern day intelligence as a possibility to occur. Inclusive with the fact we don’t live in a direct violent society which would condition one to blood, screams, burnings, public beheadings and the like. We do live in social conditions were a plague would move very quickly though. The only environmental condition which varies from those times and now is the excessive carcasses. The carcasses I refer to are not the ones of the plagues, but the bodies of criminals hanging in the gibbet/pillory and the animals. We must also remember that animals were rife in 199 the market and city, always running around. These things I believe would bring a maintenance for a form of atmospheric poison, sorta like my theory with the jenkem. We don’t have these things today, therefore it slims down the chances for a plague to reemerge. The dangerous element which may be an invitation is a society with to many animals in the home. Plagues & Pestilence During the reign of the emperor Justinian I (527-565 CE), one of the worst outbreaks of the plague took place, claiming the lives of millions of people. The plague arrived in Constantinople in 542 CE, almost a year after the disease first made its appearance in the outer provinces of the empire. The outbreak continued to sweep throughout the Mediterranean world for another 225 years, finally disappearing in 750 CE.[197] Between 538-594 Gregory describes an epidemic of dysentery that “attacked young children first of all and to them it was fatal: and so we lost our little ones, who were so dear to us and sweet, whom we had cherished in our bosoms and dandled in our arms, whom we had fed and nurtured with such loving care. As I write I wipe away my tears and I repeat once more the words of Job the blessed: ‘The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away…[198] In 1349 it resumed in Paris, spread to Picardy, Flanders, and the Low Countries, and from England to Scotland and Ireland as well as to Norway, where a ghost ship with a cargo of wool and a dead crew drifted offshore until it ran aground near Bergen. From there the plague passed into Sweden, Denmark, Prussia, Iceland, and as far as Greenland. Leaving a strange pocket of immunity in Bohemia, and Russia unattacked until 1351, it had passed from most of Europe by mid-1350. Although the mortality rate was erratic, ranging from 1/5 in some places to 9/10s in others or almost total elimination in others, the overall estimate of modern demographers has settled- for the area extending from India to Iceland-around the same figure expressed in Froissart’s casual words: “a third of the world died.’ His estimate, the common one at the time, was not an inspired guess but a borrowing of St. John’s figure for mortality from plague in Revelation, the favorite guide to human affairs of the Middle Ages. A third of Europe would have meant about 20 million deaths. No one knows in truth how many died. Contemporary reports were an awed impression, not an accurate count. In crowded Avignon, it was awed impression, not an accurate count. In crowded Avignon, it was said, 400 died daily; 7,000 houses emptied by death were shut up; a single graveyard received 11,000 corpses in 6 weeks; half the city’s inhabitants reportedly died, including 9 cardinals or 1/3 of the total, and 70 lesser prelates. Watching the endlessly passing death carts, chroniclers let normal exaggeration take wings and put the Avignon death toll at 62,000 and even at 120,000, although the city’s total population was probably less than 50,000. When graveyards filled up, bodies at Avignon were thrown into the Rhone until mass burial pits were dug for dumping the corpses. In London in such pits corpses piled up in layers until they overflowed. Everywhere reports speak of the sick dying too fast for the living to bury. Corpses were dragged out of homes and left in front of doorways. Morning light revealed new piles of bodies. In Florence the dead were gathered up by the Compagnia della Misericordia-founded in 1244 to care for the sick-whose members wore red robes and hoods masking the face except for the eyes. When their efforts failed, the dead lay putrid in the streets for days at a time. When no coffins were to be had, the bodies were laid on boards, two or three at once, to becarried to graveyards or common pits. Families dumped their own relatives into the pits, or buried them so hastily and thinly ‘that dogs dragged them forth and devoured their bodies.” In Paris, where the plague lasted through 1349, the reported death rate was 800 a day, in Pisa 500, in Vienna 500 to 600. The total dead in Paris numbered 50,000 or half the population. Florence, weakened by the famine of 1347, lost three to four fifths of its citizens, Venice two thirds, Hamburg and Bremen, though smaller in 200 size, about the same proportion. Cities, as centers of transportation, were more likely to be affected than villages, although once a village was infected, its death rate was equally high. At Givry, a prosperous village in Burgundy of 1,200 to 1,500 people, the parish register records 615 deaths in the space of fourteen weeks, compared to an average of thirty deaths a year in the previous decade. In 3 villages of Cambridgeshire, manorial records show a death rate of 47 percent, 57 percent, and in one case 70 percent. When the last survivors, too few to carry on, moved away, a deserted village sank back into the wilderness and disappeared from the map altogether, leaving only a grass-covered ghostly outline to show where mortals once had lived. “Father abandoned child, wife husband, one brother, another,” he wrote, “for his plague seemed to strike through the breath and sight. And so they died. And no one could be found to bury the dead for money or friendship…. And I, Angolo di Tura, called the Fat, buried my five children with my own hands, and so did many other likewise. There were many to echo his account of inhumanity and few to balance it, for the plague was not the kind of calamity that inspired mutual help. Its loathsomeness and deadliness did not herd people together in mutual distress, but only prompted their desire to escape each other. “Magistrates and notaries refused to come and make the wills of the dying,” reported a Franciscan friar of Piazza in Sicily; what was waorse, “even the priests did not come to hear their confessions.” A clerk of the Archbishop of Cantebury reported the same of English priests who “turned away from the care of their benefices from fear of death.” Cases of parents deserting children and children their parents, were reported across Europe from Scotland to Russia. The calamity chilled the hearts of men, wrote Boccaccio in his famous account of the plaguein Florence that serves as introduction to the Decameron. “One man shunned another…kinsfolk held aloof, brother was forsaken by brother, oftentimes husband by wife; nay, what is more, and scarcely to be believed, fathers and mothers were found to abandon their own children to their fate, untended, unvisited as if they had been strangers.” Exaggeration and literary pessimism were common in the 14th century, but the Pope’s physician, Guy de Chauliac, was a sober, careful o bserver who reported the same phenomenon: “A father did not visit hit son, nor the son his father. Charity was dead.” When the plague centered northern France in July 1348, it settled first in Normandy and, checked by winter, gave Picardy a deceptive interim until the next summer. Either in mourning or warning, black flags were flown from church towers of the worst-stricken villages of Normandy. “And in that time,” wrote a monk of the abbey of Four-carment, “the mortality was so great among the people of Normandy that those of Picardy mocked them.” The same unneighborly reaction was reported of the Scots, separated by the winter’s immunity from the English. Delighted to hear of the disease that was scourging the “southrons,” they gathered forces for an invasion, “laughing at their enemies.” Before they could move, the savage mortality fell upon them too, scattering some in death and the rest in panic to spread the infection as they fled. In another place villagers were seen dancing to drums and trumpets, and on being asked the reason, answered that, seeing their neighbors die day by day while their village remained immune, they believed they could keep the plague from entering “by the jollity that is in us. That is why we dance.” Flight was the chief recourse of those who could afford it or arrange it. The rich fled to their country places like Boccaccio’s young patricians of Florence, who settled in a pastoral palace “removed on every side from the roads” with “ wells of cool water and vaults of rare wines.” The urban poor died in their burrows, “and only the stench of their bodies informed neighbors of their death.” That the poor were more heavily afflicted than the rich was clearly remarked at the time, in the north as in the south. A Scottish chronicler, John of Fordun, stated flatly that the pest “attacked especially the meaner sort and common people-seldom the magnates.” Simon de Covino of Montpellier made the same observation. He ascribed it to the misery and want and hard lves that mde the poor 201 more susceptible, which was half the truth. Close contact and lack of sanitation was the unrecognized other hald.n It was noticed too that the young died in greater proportion than the old. In the countryside the peasants dropped dead on the roads, in the fields, in their houses. Survivors in growing helplessness fell into apathy, leaving ripe wheat uncut and livestock untended. Oxen and asses, sheep and goats, pigs and chickens ran wild and they too, according to local reports, succumbed to the pest. English sheep, bearers of the precious wool, died throughout the country. The chronicler Henry Knighton, Canon of Leicester Abbey, reported 5,000 dead in one field alone, “their bodies so corrupted by the plague that neither beast nor bird would touch them,” and spreading an appalling stench. In the Austrian Alps wolves came down to prey upon sheep and then, “as if alarmed by some invisible warning, turned and fled backed into the wilderness.” In remote Dalmatia bolder wolves descended upon a plague-stricken city and attacked human survivors. For want of herdsmen, cattle strayed from place to place and died in hedgerows and ditches. Dogs and cats fell like the rest. Women appear to have been more vulnerable than men perhaps because, being more housebound, they were more exposed to fleas. [199] In the spring of 1361, twelve years since the passing of the great plague, the dreaded black swellings reappeared in France and England, bringing “a very great mortality of hasty death.” An early victim was the Queen of France, Jean’s second wife, who died in September 1360 ahead of the main epidemic. The Pestis Secunda, sometimes called the “mortality of children,” took a particularly high toll of the young, who had no immunity from the earlier outbreak, and, according to John of Reading, “especially struck the masculine sex.” The deaths of the young in the Second Pest halted repopulation, haunting the age with a sense of decline. In the urge to procreate, women in England, according to Polychronicon, “took any kind of husbands, strangers, the feeble and imbeciles alike, and without shame mated with inferiors.” Because the pneumonic form was absent or insignificant, the death rate as a whole was less than that of the first epidemic, although equally erratic. In Paris 70 to 80 died daily; at Argenteuil, a few miles away where the Oise joins the Seine, the number of hearths was reduced from 1700 to 50. Flanders and Picardy suffered heavily, and Avignon spectacularly. Through its choked and unsanitary quarters the plague swept like flames through straw. Between March and July 1360 “17,000” were said to have died. Though less lethal, the Second Pest carried a more terrible burden that the first in the very fact of its return. Thereafter people lived in fear, repeatedly justified, of another recurrence, just as they lived in fear of the brigands’ return. At any time either the phantom that “rises like black smoke in our midst” or the steel-capped horsemen could appear, with death and ruin at their heels. A sense of overhanging disaster weighed on the second half of the century, expressed in prophecies of doom and apocalypse. [200] With the third advent of the plague, contagion was more strictly controlled if no better understood. While it raged in Milan, Barnaba ordered every victim to be taken out of the city and left to die or recover in the fields. Any person who nursed a plague patient was to be strictly quarantined for ten days; priests were to examine their parishioners for symptoms and report to a special commission under pain of death for failure; anyone who brought the disease into the city was subject to the death penalty and confiscation of property. Venice denied entry to all ships suspected of carrying infection, but with the flea and rat not yet implicated, the precautions, though groping in the right direction, failed to stop the carrier. At Piacenza, where Coucy’s war effort ended, half the population died, and at Pisa, where the plague lasted two years, it was said to have wiped out four fifths of the children. The most famous death of 1374 was Petrarch’s at age 70, not of plague but peacefully in a chair with his head and arms resting on a pile of books. His old friend Boccaccio, soured and ill, followed a year later.[201] The Black Death returned for the fourth time in 1388-1390. Earlier recurrences had affected chiefly children who had not acquired immunity, but in the fourth round a new adult generation fell under the swift 202  contagion. By this time Europe’s population was reduced to between 40 and 50 percent of what it had been when the century opened, and it was to fall even lower by mid-15th century. People of the time rarely mention this startling diminution of their world, although it was certainly visible to them in reduced trade, in narrowed areas of cultivation, in abbeys and churches abandoned or unable to maintain services for lack of revenue, in urban districts destroyed in war and left unrepaired after 60 years.[202] Other signs of forthcoming plague were crosses on the skin, particularly on the hands and feet where Christs stigmata occurred, and drops of blood found on bread taken from the oven. This last is not a fable, although it does not portend plague-there are certain types of fungus that can infect dough and produce blood-red drops or spots on the bread. They still find a use in the important Italian industry concerned with miraculous relics of saints blood that never solidify.[203] Every country in Europe, and Italy perhaps more than any other, was visited during the middle ages by frightful plagues, which followed each other in such quick succession, that they gave the exhausted people scarcely any time for recovery.[204] The population of Western Europe plummeted between 1400 and 1440. Waves of pestilence, and above all, recurrences of the plague, had produced catastrophic death rates everywhere. The epidemic in 1400 was the worst Lille saw during the entire Burgundian period; it wiped out between one-third and one-half of the population Perigueux; it took more than 12,000 victims in Florence. Contemporaries note that certain of these recurrent waves of plague struck children and young people particularly hard: the parva mortalitas or 1361-3 had already been dubbed ‘the children’s plague’ in England and Italy alike. The same was true of the Paris epidemic of 1418, and we know that 2 years later in the small city of Valreas 1/3 of the adults and 3 quarters of the young children died within a few months. For contemporaries, this long-standing torment appeared as a series of sudden collapses and disasters. They were fully aware of this precipitous population decline: they gazed on their depopulated cities and saw illustrious families disappear. The author of a chronicle of Montpellier written in 1395 states, ‘A long time ago the city of Montpellier was a notable city in which there usually were at least 10,000 households. It is now so reduced that it probably contains scarcely 800.’ The capitouls of Toulouse of the citizens were obliged to lodge in the suburbs….Today it has become most ruinous.’ In 1396 the syndics of Tarascon proposed to fight against the depopulation of their city and ‘the danger of total destruction that may ensue’. Other examples abound.[205] An outbreak in 1363-1364, labeled the “children’s plague,” extinguished few households but robbed a great many of infants and young children. Still another outbreak, lingering through the turns of the century, had a similar effect. By the 1420s the surviving population of Prato was top heavy with adults. Through 1347 and 1348 the original Black Death crept across Europe, reaching Britain in 1349. In the English countryside, recorded mortality in some districts ran as high as 65 percent. The records of a typical village in Leicestershire, Kibworth Harcourt, show a diminution in household size from an average of 5 persons to just under four. Many families disappeared. In some cases whole villages deserted.[206] Throughout the intervening centuries, the Black Death has remained the foremost historic example of human calamity, a metaphor for disaster, and a 1st class medical mystery. How could the original onslaught spread so far and so fast, and why the irregular pattern of its recurrences? (“Just when it seems to be over, “wrote despairing Petrarch, “it returns and attacks once more those who were briefly happy.”) Modern scholarship, still baffled by many aspects of the plague, has made 2 significant additions to the total picture. The first is the qualification of the demographic impact through the discovery that at the moment when the plague struck, the population expansion of the 12th and 13th centuries and in many place, already been halted and even reversed. Overpopulation and adverse economic factors had created a negative demographic trend to which the plague brutally contributed. 203  The 2nd discovery is that regardless of the demographic and economic factors at work in a region, the stunning shock did not bring the world to halt. Rather, the mechanisms of marriage and child-bearing quickly adjusted to disaster. The resilience of the family as an institution did not lessen the tragedy, but it nevertheless performed a remarkable feat in limiting long-term consequences.[207] As the Black Death repeated its visitations at roughly 10 year intervals, a response of the population everywhere became manifest in the records of marriage and childbirth. Jean de Venette wrote, with a chronicler’s exaggeration: After the cessation of the epidemic (of 1348)…the men and women who survived married each other. There was no sterility among the women but on the contrary fertility beyond the ordinary. Pregnant women were seen on every side. Many twins were born and even 3 children at once.” The ages of marrying couples dropped dramatically as aristocrats sought to ensure heirs and common people found economic opportunities improving. In Prato at the end of the 13th century men had married at close to forty, women at about 25. In 1371 the average age of men at marriage had dropped to 24, that of women to 16. With the stabilization of population in the 15 century, marriage ages began to rise, though not nearly to their old levels.[208] 720: As you can see the European mind is extremely fear shocked. Nature made them this way from what we can guess. To say that all the plagues mentioned were created off of poisons would most likely be wrong. The social and environmental conditions maintained and encouraged sickness. With that being stated it rounds up to a status of who knows, its an extreme chaotic situation. All situations were extremely chaotic, a pure babel. That’s everything, as you have witnessed so far and there is still more for us to go over. The sexual activity that is mentioned during the course of the plague is important. It definently proves an animus/environmental understanding that humans naturally have. It has been documented throughtout many events in history when the population is augmented or threatened from some drastic event, the reproduction rate will double or triple for the next generation. The threat of extinction will definently be met with a fight. Regardless of the extremities one must indulge in to survive. The outcome of life will be achieved. We can also see that there was a large social dischord that occurred, in which I believe we can still see today. The majority of the social of today is built off of the experiences from the plagues. Terms like “feed em with a long handle spoon” or “scared me to death or “for jesus sake, christs sake, or gods sake (which are all different)”or the theory of “the dog is a mans best friend” all come from the plague. Another one is spitting on the sidewalk which was against the law in early America and a slave could be hung behind it. Just as they would’ve hung a white man who spit on the sidewalk during Old Europe before slavery occurred. It was an ordinance to prohibit the spread or cause of the plague. This is the same for all animals as many were excommunicated, banned or killed during these events. It is safe to say that a good 70-80% of our current social, medical, law, etymology, love, crime and many more elements of our daily experiences have their manifestation, modificiations, maturity and mastery all during these times by repetitive practice. The question is did they know what they were doing or did they not? 204 Fig. 76.). Burying Dead London Plague Chapter 7 The Psychological Effects of the Plague When the inhabitants of Messina discovered that this sudden death emanated from the Genoese ships they hurriedly expulsed them from their harbor and town. But the evil remained with them and caused a fearful outbreak of death. Soon men hated each other so much that, if a son was attacked by the disease, his father would not tend him. If, in spite of all, he dared to approach him, he was immediately infected and could by no means escape death, but was bound to expire within 3 days. Not was this all: all those belonging to him, dwelling in the same house with him, even the cats and other domestic animals, followed him in death. As the number of deaths increased in Messina many desired to confess their sins to the priests and to draw up their last will and testament. But ecclesiastics, lawyers and attorneys refused to enter the houses of the diseased. But if one or the other had set foot in such a house to draw up a will or for any other purpose, he was hopelessly abandoned to sudden death. Minor friars and Dominicans and members of other orders who heard the confessions of the dying were themselves immediately overcome by death, so that some even remained in the rooms of the dying. Soon the corpses were lying forsaken in the houses. No ecclesiastic, no son, no father and no relation dared to enter, but they paid hired servants with high wages to bury the dead. But the houses of the deceased remained open with all their valuables, with gold and jewels; anyone who chose to enter met with no impediment, for the plague raged with such vehemence that soon there was a shortage of servants and finally none at all. When the catastrophe had reached its climax the Messinians resolved to emigrate. One portion of them settled in the vineyards and fields, but a larger portion sought refuge in the town of Catania, trusting that the holy virgin Agatha of Catania would deliver them from their evil. To this town the Queen of Sicily came and summoned her son Don Federigo. In November the messinians persuaded the Patriarch, Archbishop of Catania, to permit the relics of the saints to be 205 brought to their town. But the populace of Catania would not allow the sacred bones to be removed from their old place. Now intercessory processions and pilgrimages were undertaken to Catania to propitiate God. But the plague raged with greater vehemence than before. Flight was no longer of avail. The disease clung to the fugitives and accompanied them everywhere they turned in search of help. Many of the fleeing fell down by the roadside and dragged themselves into the fields and bushes to expire. Those who reached Catania breathed their last in the hospitals there. The terrified citizens demanded from the Patriarch prohibition on pain of ecclesiastical ban, of burying fugitives from Messina within the town, and so they were all thrown into deep trenches outside the walls.[209] In his chronicle under the year 1343 Sebastian Moelers relates that during a terrible visitation of the Black Death cases of vampirism were numerous in the Tyrol, and the Benedictine abbey of Marienberg was much infested, one at least of the monks, Dom Steino von Netten, being commonly reputed to have been slain by a vampire. In 1348 the plague swept off every inmate of this famous cloister except Abbot Wyho, a priest, one lay brother, and Boswin who later became the eminent chronicler.[210] The first regulation which was issued for this purpose, originated with Viscount Bernabo, (1325-1380) and is dated the 17th Jan. 1374. “Every plague patient was to be taken out of the city into the fields, there to die or to recover. Those who attended upon a plague patient, were to remain apart for 10 days, before they again associated with anybody. The priests were to examine the diseased, and point out to special commissioners, the persons infected; under punishment of the confiscation of their goods, and of being burned alive. Whoever imported the plague, the state condemned his goods to confiscation. Finally, none except those who were appointed for that purpose, were to attend plague-patients, under penalty and confiscation”.[211] “Now albeit these persons in their diversity of opinions died not all, so undoubtedly they did not all escape; but many among them becoming sicke, and making a general example of their flight and folly, among them that could not stirre out of their beds, they languished more perplexedly than the other did. Let us omit that one Citizen fled after another, and one neighbor had not any care of another, Parents nor kinred ever visiting them, but utterly they were forsaken on all sides: this tribulation pierced into the hearts of men, and with such a dreadfull terrour, that one Brother forsook another, the Unkle the Nephew, the sister the Brother, and the Wife the Husband: nay, a matter much greater, and almost incredible; Fathers and Mothers fled away from their owne Children, even as if they no way appertained to them. In regard whereof, it could be no otherwise, but that a countlesse multitude of men and women fell sicke; finding no charity among their friends, except a very few, and subject to the avarice of servants, who attended them constrainedly (for great and unreasonable wages) yet few of these attendants to be found any where too. And they were men and women but of base condition, as also of groser understanding, who never before had served in any such necessities, nor indeed were any way else to be imployed; but to give the sicke person such things as he called for, or to awaite the houre of his death; in the performance of which service, oftentimes for gaine, they lost their owne lives. “In this extreme calamity, the sicke being thus forsaken of neighbors, kinred, and friends, standing also in such need of servants; a custome came up among them, never heard of before, that there was not any woman, how noble, young, or faire soever she was, but falling sicke, she must of necessity have a man to attend her, were hee young or otherwise, respect of shame or modesty no way prevailing, but all parts of her body must be discovered to him, which (in the like urgency) was not to be seen by any but women: whereon ensued afterward, that upon the parties healing and recovering, it was the occasion of further dishonesty, which many being more modestly curious of, refused such disgracefull attending, chusing rather to die, than by such helpe to bee healed. In regard whereof, as well as through the want of convenient remedies (which the rich by no meanes could attaine unto) as also the violence of the contagion, the multitude of them that died night and day, was so great, that it was 206 a dreafull sight to behold, and as much to heare spoken of So that mere necessity (among them that remained living) begat new behaviours, quite contrary to all which had beene in former times, and frequently used among the City Inhabitants. “The custome of precedent days (as now againe it is) was that women, kinred, neighbours, and friends, would meete together at the deceased parties house, and there with them that were of nearest alliance, expresse their hearts sorrow for their friends losse. If not thus they would assemble before the doore, with many of the best Citizens and kindred, and (according to the quality of the deceased) the Cleargy met there likewise, and the dead body was carried (in comely manner) on mens shoulders, with funeral pompe of Torch light, and singing, to the Church appointed by the deceased. But these seemely orders, after that the fury of the pestilence began to increase, they in like manner altogether ceased, and other new costumes came in their place; because, not onely people died without having any women about them, but infinities also past out of this life, not having any witnesse, how, when, or in what manner they departed. So that few or none there were to deliver outward show of sorrow and grieving: but instead thereof, divers declared idle joy and rejoicing, a use soone learned or immodest women, having put off all feminine compassion, yea, or regard for their owne welfare. “Very few also would accompany the body to the grave, and they not any of the Neighbours, although it had beene an honourable Citizen, but onely the meanest kinde of people, such as were grave-makers, coffin- bearers, or the like, that did these services onely for money, and the beere being mounted on their shoulders, in a ll hast they would runne away with it, not perhaps to the Church appointed by the dead, but to the nearest at hand, having some foure or sixe poore priests following with lights or no lights, and those of the silliest; short service being said at the burial, and the body unreverently being throwne into the first open grave they found. Such was the pittifull misery of poore people, and divers, who were of better condition, as it was most lamentable to behold; because the greater number of them under hope of healing, or compelled by povery, kept still within their house weake and faint, thouseands falling sicke daily, and having no helpe or being soccoured any way with foode or physicke, all of them died, few or none escaping. “Great store there were, that died in the streetes by day or night, and many more beside, although they died in their houses; yet first they made it knowne to their neighbours, that their lives perished, rather by the noisome smell of dead and putrified bodies, then by any violence of the disease in themselves So that of these and the rest, dying in this manner everywhere, that neighbours observed one course of behavior, (moved thereto no less by feare, that the smell and corruption of dead bodies should harme them, then charitable respect of the dead that themselves when they could, or being assisted by some bearers of coarses, when they were able to procure them, would hale the bodies (already dead) out of their houses laying them before their doors, where such as passed by, especially in the mornings, might see them lying in no meane numbers. Afterward, Bieres were brought thither, and such as might not have the helpe of Bieres, were glad to lay them on tables, and Bieres have bin observed, not onely to be charged with 2 or 3 dead bodies at once, but many times it was seene also, that the wife with husband, 2 or 3 dead bodies at once, but many times it was seene also, that the wife with the husband, 2 or 3 Brethren together; yea, the Father and the Mother, have thus beene carried along to the grave upon one Biere. Concerning the form in which the plague developed in Europe there are varying reports. A Thuringian chronicle thus reports: “Those who were infected by the pestilential poison lay asleep for 3 days and nights and, when they awoke, they immediately began to struggle with death, until they gave up the ghost.”[212] Centuries later the attitude of the people remained unchanged as for instance in the Plague of London in 1665. When the scourge abated, during a general cleansing of the houses, decomposed corpses were found on all sides, some still in their beds, many beside the beds lying on the floor, they had to be shoveled up; among them were well-to-do citizens and many opulent merchants. Their servants had forsaken them, their relations had fled, 207 and thus they were overcome by death in the most terrible solitude without food, without attention. A German chronicler states, in regard to the suddenness of death, that many fell down and died without having felt ill before. “On this account many kept a linen cloth in readiness into which they sewed themselves so soon as they felt the slightest qualm. The corpse bearers found a woman who had just done this when she was struck down by death. The people fell like flowers at the approach of winter and the greed for inheritance assumed such proportions that many a one who a short time before had been seen in good health in the street was buried after the elapse of a few hours. [213] Reports from different countries and times concerning the suffering caused by the disease vary to an extraordinary extent. Boccaccio makes no reference to pain. Other chroniclers of the 14th century report that the sick died within 3 days gently, as if asleep. Of the children in Germany it is even said that they passed away laughing and singing. In the town of Thornberg the pestilence tormented the people to such a degree that they rent their hands and arms and tore out their hair. In many places in Transylvania they assailed one another in the alleys and streets, and in their frenzy bit and tore each other like dogs. Very frequently the sufferers became demented from horror and pain. Wrapped in their bed-clothes, they rushed to the graves to bury themselves, as they said. In Provence a man climbed to the roof of his house and hurled the tiles into the street. Another executed a mad grotesque dance on the roof till he was shot down by the guard. A third, who for 4 days had been lying as if dead, awoke suddenly as a prophet, rushed out into the fields and announced the last judgment, exhorted all to repentance, and cursed those who refused to kneel before him. Such scenes naturally augmented the general horror inspired already by the streets and squares. [214] Fig. 77.). View of the Town Hall, Marseilles, during the Plague of 1720, detail of the carts laden with the dead. Notice the infant unknowingly suckling the corpse of its dead mother. THE ASPECT OF THE PLAGUE APPENDICES A Letter from Naples of July 10, 1656 “The town is now only recognizable by its edifices and magnificent houses and no longer by its teeming population, the decrease and destruction of which is constantly augmented by the piled-up corpses, of which 60,000 were burned-one part on Sunday morning and one part on Wednesday night. 170,000 have further been buried in huge trenches, the most aristocratic in the churches. The air is always so thick and misty, and is further 208 obscured by multitudes of birds enticed by the carrion of the corpses, the stench of which is overwhelming. The dead are no longer counted. Misery and grief are great and general. Nearly all who are infected die, no one escapes. And those who survive the plague are killed by the famine. To avoid this latter many a nobleman is seen going about without a cloak with a bundle of wood on his back, bearing home bread, vegetables, wine, and other provisions, as there is a shortage of servants, all of whom are dead; and it is necessary to procure food with the sweat of ones brow and weight it with diamond scales, although it is of a nature that even the sight of it causes horror, to say nothing of eating it. “The most beautiful girls have now abandoned all pretensions to magnificent clothes, but are seen scurrying through the streets like shadows in search of food they are unable to find. Could they but only procure a little oil that they can have a light at night, so as not to have to die in the dark, like so many in the houses without the assistance of friends or servants, who die of starvation of are carried off by the plague and thus buried alive in their own houses. Gold and silver and costly furniture no longer possess the power to purchase bread. “In the house next to ours a nobleman died last Sunday who had lost all his servants by the disease. His wife and a cousin were still alive, but in the course of 2 days they died too, as they had nothing to eat or drink-they simply fell back on their beds and were found dead in their own beds. “in our neighbourhood there used to live more than a thousand nobles and rich people, of whom but 5 remain-a woman, 3 children, and a priest-but all are infected, and our house stands in the midst of them. In spite of this by the grace of God, we are still healthy, and as if by a miracle of God and His grace are still alive. “In consequence of the scourge more than 10,000 people in this town are said to be dead, and, in spite of this, many continue to die, and it seems as if the Almighty had decreed our complete destruction. “I have written a great deal, but have hardly succeeded in giving an idea of the misery. All kinds of people are to be seen here, who have lost their senses, running about in their shirts or even completely naked. In their distress they often fall down in the streets and die. “All that is heard is woeful weeping, fit to cause the deepest pity. The people are perishing, and there is such an abominable stench that it alone would suffice to kill, so that everyone longs for death, to be delivered from this fearful misery. Many die in despair, believing that hell can be no worse. Multitudes of dogs and cats scamper through the streets, appeasing their hunger on the corpses lying about everywhere. The churches, shops, and houses are all closed. There are neither doctors, physicians, apothecaries, nor priests to be had; thus all must die without medical attention or sacrament. Those who are fortunate are dragged with a rope round their necks to a field and burnt. The others remain lying in the streets and alleys, and are gnawed by dogs and cats. Thus we are suffering greater persecution and humiliation than the Jews under Titus Vespasianus, because we have deserved it more than they by our great sins. May god preserve the master in His mercy, and I submit my soul to the Almighty god. “Thy devoted John Baptista Spinell. “Post Scriptum. Dated Rome, October 17th: “The plague here is daily on the increase and nearly 300 people die everyday. In Naples the Viceroy is preparing a list describing all houses left ownerless, so as to acquire for the King the fortunes of those who have no blood relations. More than 300,000 people have died there, of whom 60,000 have been burnt and 20,000 have been thrown into the sea, as there was no one left to bury them.”[215] 209  Copy of A Doleful letter From Danzic of The 22nd of October, 1709 “I cannot refrain from conveying to you with sorrow laden pen a woeful account of our miserable condition which to our great misfortune has overwhelmed us with great intensity. The hand of God has for nearly 2 months lain heavily on us by the fearful plague, and has chastised us so heavily that already, according to the local lists supplied weekly by the gravediggers, more than 40,000 people have passed away. Day and night the mournful bell is heard tolling, and in every street one is met by coffins, some borne by hand, others upon carts or simply dragged along, which is a pitiful sight to see. Not far from my lodgings a stout woman who had died was being carried away, and, perhaps, because the bearers were too weak, they stumbled with the coffin, which flew from their shoulders and broke to pieces, so that the naked corpse fell out, revealing such a fearful sight that it so frightened one of the bearers that he immediately sank dead to the ground. “In all the streets nothing is heard but weeping and wailing, and one is half-choked by the horrible smoke of the plague powder, which is frequently burnt in many places. The doors and lower windows of most of the houses are nailed up, and those who live in them have handed up to them what they require to sustain their life, and those who require anything let down baskets by ropes from the upper windows and draw up what has been placed in them. Of the whole Town Council here only 2 are still alive, the others are all dead. And only nine of our clergy are still alive, five of our vergers and four of our medical men. The principal Patricians have gone; the best-known houses, both noble and bourgeois, have been devastated by the plague, and there are only 58 houses in which the gruesome scourge has not raged. My lodgings are among these. My pen is incapable of describing how wretched things are here everywhere. There are people here who do not leave the church the whole day, but put a little bread and a bottle of beer into their pockets and from morning till evening remain at prayers, till they return to go to bed, and this they do day after day. In the churches only people in deep mourning are seen, no coloured dress or bright ribbon. The whole time the people are on their knees, weeping, praying, and whining so miserably that it would melt a stone. No one is sure of his life for a single hour, for he may die at his meals, at his work, at home, at church, or in the street. In short, everywhere they are exposed to the arrow of death. In our house, thank God, all have remained well an healthy, except our maid, who, being sent to purchase bread, did not return, so that we do not know if she is dead or has met with some other misfortune. The manner in which people are affected is not always the same. For many people die a terrible death in the worst excess of raving madness; they rush about the streets in their shirts and rave so terrible that one’s hair stands on end. “Although one might think that the proximity of death would act as a deterrent from sin, yet desperate minds seem to be encouraged by the scourge of death to still greater misdeeds. For great wickedness is committed by godless men who turn to robbing and stealing and secretly slip into the houses. In cases where they know that there is something worth stealing and only one or two persons alive in the house, they ill-treat them or even murder them, and take possession of what they desire. The houses are searched daily, morning and evening; the dead are carried out and the sick handed over to the care of the plague doctors. It frequently happens that in a single day and night more than a hundred people are buried, of whom a few are provided with coffins; but the majority are simply placed in a grave 12, 20, 30, even 50 together, piled up above one another and I have often heard that the people are frequently not quite dead and are yet carried away by the impatient gravediggers like so many carcases. Alas! My pen revolts with grief and horror, for our daily life is fearful, and we would fain desire that places and towns as yet untouched by God’s avenging hand should see and know 1/10 part of our misery or could cast but one glance at our unhappy town, they would certainly be amazed and dumbfounded with terror, and day and night, pray to God graciously to preserve them from the plague. 210  “In short, I am in God’s hands and do not know if I shall live till to-morrow, and therefore I am constantly prepared that I may be ready to do God’s will, and, as I am by no means sure that this will not be the last letter I may be able to write, I take leave of you in this world, wishing you all prosperity both in this world and in the life to come.”[216] The inns are usually a resort of merriment, occasionally too of excesses; for it is well known that when the Blessed Virgin arrived at Bethlehem with Joseph they had to seek shelter in a draughty stable, there being no room for them in the inn; and it is true that in such houses our most benevolent Lord at the present time can find no room, because all is overcrowded with wickedness. That a swine should be born of a lamb, a raven of an eagle, a goat of a horse is not so prodigious a marvel; for experience has rendered such happenings familiar to us. Who has not heard that men by drink at the “White Lamb” have been converted into swine, at the “Golden Eagle” into gallow birds, at the “Red Horse” into licentious goats; let not this astonish you, for when Bacchus applies the bellows Venus sits by the fireside . But this does not apply to all inns, but only to such which in their accommodation include both wine and women. Inns, in short, are in many cases brothels, and in no other place does the piper reap a richer harvest for his inciting tune, and all mountebanks and clowns can here dispose of their wares in return for gleaming silver-but at that time populous Vienna the sad reverse of merriment was seen, and many a potman had more to do in making up a reckoning not of what had been drunk, but of the drinkers whom in the morning he found either before or behind the door-yea, frequently host and guests were borned away together on the corpse cart. The floor which formerly had to be sprayed to lay the dust for dancing was now sprayed with tears; nor did the hosts need to rinse the glasses with cool water to keep them whole, but their thoughts were more fragile than their glass; instead of sweet draughts they drew deep sighs, and there was more to be seen-oh transformation-of whining than of wine! And people walked the streets as if deprived of heart and stricken dumb, and their pale faces bore witness of the state of their internal works. Occasionally in some street the greeting was heard: “Well met, dear brother, are you still alive?” and to this came the answer with the addition said in a half-broken voice: “Yes, yes, I am still alive, but my father, my mother, my sister, all are dead,” which deprived conversation of all further voice, and tear- filled eyes alone bade still farewell.[217] That such apparitions (ghosts) were not always only the results of optical illusions, but that mentally and morally deranged men frequently endeavoured to terrify the public by all kinds of trickery, is borne out by a series of legal prosecutions with 15 strokes of the rod, because during an epidemic of plague she wandered about the suburbs dressed in white declaring she was death. In consequence of the frequency with which the outbreaks succeeded one another from the 14th to the 17th centuries-an outbreak may be recorded nearly every 20 years, frequently every 10 years-the minds of the people were highly excited and strained. Numerous other epidemics, earthquakes, famines, wars, and plagues of vermin contributed still further, so that they were daily in expectation of terrible events. A great role was played by the indications and precursors which, according to popular belief, preceded such happenings.[218] Further precursory indications are when pregnant women frequently produce abortions, when plaintice wailing is heard in graveyards, when funerals are seen passing in the clouds, when children in their playgrounds play at funeral processions.[219] The plague regulation of Troyes of 1523 orders that those who have died of the plague may only be buried at night-tome. The corpse-bearers, horses, and hearses must be provided with bells. Everyone who enter the town in spite of the prohibition is to be severly punished. Thus four poor women who had come from a neighbouring borough to sell old linen underclothing were condemned to be tied to a cart, driven through the town, and publicly whipped. The magistrates paid ten sous to all who took part in the whipping and 40 sous to the executioner for 211 particularly thorough work. Transgressors of the plague regulations were punished even after their death. The servant maid, Barbara Thutin, of Koenigsberg, had infected herself and her master by appropriating several articles belonging to people who had died of the plague. “As by this she had grossly contravened the strict prohibition, an execution was carried out on her after her death, she being exhumed on March 21, 1710, in the new cemetery where she had been buried, and on the 22nd hanged in her coffin on the gallows, and after a few days burnt at the foot of the gallows as an example for others.” A measure to be found in nearly all plague regulations is the expulsion of drunkards, beggars, lepers, and gipsies.[220] It is well known that in the medieval ages people did not wash every day, and that they wore their clothes till they fell off as rags. Saint Agnes was canonized because she refused to bathe.[221] Many writers inveighed against the flight of the rich, which gave rise to ill-feeling among the poorer classes. Nearly all reports of contemporaries agree in stating that the plague claimed most of its victims among the poor and badly nourished for whom, as Simon de Couvino says, life itself was a kind of death. This bitterness was carried so far that the people in various towns of Italy believed that the plague had been artificially caused by the rich. Andreas Musculus, in his pamphlet, “Certain and Tried Physic against the Epidemic of Plague,” 1561, emphatically denounces the rich who in times of need abandon their fellow citizens: “As in this recent epidemic we experienced how the children of the world were terrified at death, forsook home and belongings, and all halfdead with fear, pressed to the gates of the town to escape death and the epidemic, to prolong their lives and to continue to enjoy the delights and joys of the world. And on their return to resume even more intensely than before, like those who have escaped a heavy shower, in contempt of the Word of God, as they had don’t hitherto, the joys of this world, with scraping, grabbing, cheating, with ostentation and haughtiness. But, as the saying puts it: He who escapes his fathers falls into the hands of the judge. Thus, also, when the greatest among the rich who have been the main cause of Gods wrath and have brought down this scourge and chastisement for the purpose of atonement, reformation, and redemption, immediately rush for the gate and do not at once feel the wrath of the scourge of God, and with unrepentant hearts once more return, as they had issued forth, and worse than ever before profiteer, scrape, grab, and display their wanton haughtiness, and even oppress the poor and believe there is no fear, as the catastrophe is over, and that they may enjoy the pleasures of life more intensely than before. But before they are aware, when God has chastened his own children and the number of the poor to bliss, he arouses Jack, the hungry peasant, and Squire Plundersome, who, after shedding much blood, blocks the gates and beleaguers the town so that there is no escape. They take the town by assault and God lets Jack slay and murder, break open the coffers with blunderbusses and halbards, and to measure with long lances what was brough in with short ells, scraped together against the Will of God and with an evil conscience; and this procedure has been observed by God since the creation of the world, that by means of brother Jack he visits and chastises those who have escaped his paternal merciful scourge.”[222] No wonder that those organized terrible bands of robbers, the ill-famed companies, terrorized Italy, France, and all other European countries, mocked the Church, and displayed their atheism in the frankness of their cynical crimes. The German adventurer, Werner of Esslingen, who assumed the style of Duke of Guarineri and first assembled a large company from remnants of the bands he had broken up, a company which no one in Italy was capable of resisting, wore engraved on a medal attached to a chain round his neck the words, “Enemy of God, all charity, and mercy.” The astonishing words which occur in the miracle play of Theophil prove that atheistic sentiments of this nature were by no means rare at this period: “O thou thoroughly wicked God, if I could but lay hands on Thee! Truly I would tear Thee to pieces. I deny Thee, deny Thy faith and Thy power. I will go to the Orient, turn Mussulman, and live according to the law of Mahomet. He is a fool who puts his confidence in Thee!”[223] 212 Fig. 78.). 1512 woodcut of a doctor and his assistants tending to a plague patient More than once it is reported that the raging peasant roasted noblemen in the presence of their wives and children, and then forced the wives to eat their flesh and ultimately murdered them after the most brutal violation. There can be no doubt that the Black Death contributed essentially to the general deteriation of morals. In many places the terrible famine which preceded and followed the plague led to cannibalism. Children slaughtered their parents, parents their children. The atrocities during the epidemics of plague in the course of the Thirty Years’ War represent the height of European depravity. Of the numerous horrible stories one only need be related as an example and which occurred at Wollsin, a village and a half from Lippaen, in the neighbourhood of Stettin, in the year 1638: “In the village of Wollsin there was a man who hitherto had been honest and pious and enjoyed a good reputation, his name was Joachim Burghard. On account of the great famine, as for some years he was unable to reap any harvest from his farms and fields, he proceeded with 2 sons, Adam and Fritschen, to the little town of Lippaen, telling his wife he was going to town with the 2 boys to get his living; she should make her preparations at home and follow them, as owing to the famine they no longer had any means of preserving their lives. But as they were so exhausted that their weakness prevented them from reaching the town, and night came upon them too quickly, they stopped at Kleinbroeden, which lies close to the road where a brother of Joachim, Cristoph Burghard, used to live, but who had died of the plague together with his whole family, with the exception of his sisters daughter, who had been living with her cousins and who 4 days before had been delivered of a son. He greeted the woman and congratulated her on the child, and then with sorrow and weeping he related his distress. But as according to the statement of the youngest son, in the course of the last 11 weeks they had eaten no bread or proper food, but only roots, and occasionally acorns, which they had only consumed in the greatest necessity as a 213 means of sustaining life, their mental and physical constitution had undergone a change, and their human nature had been converted into that of a wolf. Thus the above mentioned Burghard stepped up to the miserable bed on which his niece, the daughter of his sister, was lying and addressed her with savage words: ‘Dear niece, have you nothing for us to eat? I and my sons must have something today or we can no longer preserve life.” Whereupon the woman who had been lying in for 6 weeks, produced a key and said he should look for himself, but he would find nothing but a few boiled lettuce leaves. This had been her food from the beginning of her lying in till her delivery. From the moment that she lay down to the present she had had nothing else to eat. When he now found that it was really so, he agreed with his 2 sons to kill the sick woman and with her flesh to stave off their hunger. He and his 2 sons set up a horrible howl and bellow, and he said: “Dear niece pray to our food.’ The sick woman was frightened, but could not hope for help, but said: “Dear uncle, you may eat me, but not my child; I should be starved anyhow; God have mercy on me!’ Hereupon they set upon her with their knives, stabbing her in the throat and the neck with great savagery so she should die soon, as she did without struggling or screaming. They then cleaned the corpse and cut and scraped the flesh from the bones, and, as they found a small vat containing rocksalt, they pickeled a part of it, another part they ate raw, and yet another slightly roasted, but most of it they took back home, having abandoned their intention of going to the town. When he reached home, Burghard said to his wife: ‘Dear wife, I am bringing you some meat; on my way I found a pig, which I slaughtered, and of which I am now bringing you a part. Perhaps it may be the means of preserving your life.’ The woman, who was also starving, took it greedily, boiled it a little, and ate it. But because the sick woman was full of plague they all died within 4 days, with the exception of the youngest son, Fredrick Burghard, who subsequently made a statement at Lippaen and died in prison on the 12th day. The gravediggers were ordered to search the house and found more than half the flesh, which was buried in the churchyard of the same place together with the little child, who was found dead. And on the 2nd of June the event was inscribed on a tablet and hung in the church for everlasting memory.”[224] 720: There are tons of stories like this sprinkled all throughout Europe based on the traumatic experiences coming from the plague. When you say plague you are also saying death and his fear. We must understand that the events that occurred during the plague were obviously created out of a unique immediate rewiring of the brain. The smells of the environment also altered this wiring. The even itself created a dimension that all people had to experience with no option. Not knowing if they were going to make it out alive, if any one was, when the death was coming, what was the death, how to stop it or when will it end would create a very strong insanity as it would’ve been built as a defense mechanism in order to survive. I state this to show as was alluded to in the last statement by example of the story, an odd array of emotions were created during these times due to the deprivation and the want for life. As these emotions are the base elements of survival in the human mind on the other side of the same scale they become the initiator at aggressing or “avenging” in order gain/win or survive. These emotions are termed as the “passions”. It is a scientific fact that love is stronger amongst a couple in the state of poverty. Because there is a reliance upon each other for survival. When all things needed for survival are met singularly there’s no true need to have a partner. Unless one truly loves. The passions that are loaded into the Caucasian thinking dynamic are based upon a yin/yang principle. You must fight to death for your love, you will also struggle and climb the highest mountain for your love, you cheat on your significant other for your true love, you will commit the most ridiculous crime to make your lover happy (this is capable as love has blinded one to the point where nobody else in existence is important), you must suck the puss of disease out of your loved one so they can live, even if they died, you tried with all your heart. This thinking dynamic is the acception and the enforcement of love in all the areas that are nonsexual. Even though they may have sexual undertones and symbology. The full extent that Caucasians go to for survival is also in comparison with Jesus, to knowingly sacrifice oneself for the betterment of others is what is being 214 attained. A lot of this activity can also be witnessed in their sexual practices. Yes the murder rates were high and there was nobody to bring consequence. With this being stated it can be seen that during the plagues a lot of individuals got rich with the criminal freedom that was available. In Italy, in the 14th century, during the plague, there was neither “order nor justice and no one to administer justice.” In other countries things were much the same. So soon as it came to the ears of the official or his commandant that anyone was lying ill of the plague, Chrysopolitanus relates of the epidemic at Parma in 1468, they immediately rushed to the house with a crowd of soldiers with great fury and din, and locked up the patient in the house or turned him out of the house; he then “had to make a journey to St. Leonard’s, where the slaughter- house of the poor people was, and where there was much indecency and immorality. In this place terrible and inhuman cruelty and assassination flourished much more than love and friendship. In the town itself such disgraceful things were done and vices practised which no tongue could relate nor hand describe. The furious servants of the commandant went through the whole town and killed the pigs of the poor people and sold them.” “As soon as the disease spread from the huts to the houses of the Patricians,” Schoeppler reports on the conditions at Regensburg, “the whole body entrusted with the carring out of the plague regulations fled and left the execution of their most urgent orders to a plague steward. He, a bankrupt merchant or a notorious adulterer or some other man of doubtful honesty, who in normal times occupied the post of prison master at some institituion for the improvement of vicious men and women now used as plague hospital, entrusted the execution of his duties to his rough servants, who were drawn from the dregs of the people and who under presence of combating the plague practiced all the arts of hell on the defenseless patients-women, children, and corpses. [225] This picture needs no additions. A lively image of the Black Plague, and of the moral evil which followed in its train, will vividly represent itself to him who is acquainted with nature and the constitution of society. Almost the only credible accounts of the manner of living, and of the ruin which occurred in private life, during this pestilence, are from Italy; and these may enable us to form a just estimate of the general state of families in Europe, taking into consideration what is peculiar in the manners of each country. “When the evil had become universal”, (speaking of Florence) “the hearts of all the inhabitants were closed to feelings of humanity. They fled from the sick and all that belonged to them, hoping by these means to save themselves. Others shut themselves up in their houses, with their wives, their children and households, living on the most costly food, but carefully avoiding all excess. None were allowed access to them; no intelligence of death or sickness was permitted to reach their ear; and they spent their time in singing and music, and other pastimes. Others, on the contrary, considered eating and drinking to excess, amusements of all descriptions, the indulgence of every gratification, and an indifference to what was passing around them, as the best medicine, and acted accordingly. They wandered day and night, from one tavern to another, and feasted without moderation or bounds. In this was they endeavored to avoid all contact with the sick, and abandoned their houses and property to chance, like men whose death-knell had already tolled. Amid this general lamentation and woe, the influence and authority of every law, human and divine, vanished. Most of those who were in office, had been carried off by the plague, or lay sick, or had lost so many members of their families, that they were unable to attend to their duties; so that henceforth every one acted as he thought proper. Others, in their mode of living chose a middle course. They ate and drank what they pleased, and walked abroad, carrying odoriferous flowers, herbs or spices, which they smelt from time to time, in order to invigorate the brain, and to avert the baneful influence of the air, infected by the sick, and by the innumerable corpses of those who had died of the plague. Others carried their precaution still further, and thought the surest way to escape death was by flight. They therefore left the city; women as well as men abandoning their dwellings and their relations, and retiring into the country. But of these also. Many were parried off, most of them alone and deserted by all the world, themselves having previously set 215 the example. Thus it was, that one citizen fled from another-a neighbor from his neighbors-a relation from his relations;-and in the end, so completely had terror extinguished every kindlier feeling, that the brother forsook the brother- the sister- the wife her husband; and at last, even this parent his own offspring, and abandoned them, unvisited and unsoothed, to their fate. Those, therefore, that stood in need of assistance fell a prey to greedy attendants; who for an exorbitant recompense merely handed the sick their food and medicine, remained with them in their last moments, and then, not infrequently, became themselves victims to their avarice and lived not to enjoy their extorted gain. Propriety and decorum were extinguished among the helpless sick. Females of rank seemed to forget their natural bashfulness, and committed the care of their persons indiscriminately, to men and women of the lowest order. No longer were women, relatives or friends, found in the house of mourning, to share the grief of the survivors-no longer was the corpse accompanied to the grace by neighbors and a numerous train of priests, carrying wax tapers and singing psalms, nor was it borne along by other citizens of equal rank. Many breathed their last without a friend to sooth their friends and kindred. Instead of sorrow and mourning, appeared indifference, frivolity and mirth this being considered, especially by the females, as conducive to health. Seldom was the body followed by even 10 or 12 attendants; and instead of the usual bearers and sextons, mercenaries of the lowest of the populace undertook the office for the sake of gain; and accompanied by only a few priests, and often without a single taper, it was borne to the very nearest church, and lowered into the first grave that was not already too full to receive it. Among the middling classes, and especially among the poor, the misery was still greater. Poverty or negligence induced most of these to remain in their dwellings, or in the immediate neighborhood; and thus they fell by thousands; and many ended their lives in the streets, by day and by night. The stench putrefying corpses was often the first indication to their neighbors that more deaths had occurred. The survivors, to preserve themselves from infection, generally had the bodies taken out of the houses, and laid before the doors; where the early morn found them in heaps, exposed to the affrighted gaze of the passing stranger. It was no longer possible to have a bier for every corpse,-3 or 4 were generally laid together-husband and wife, father and mother, with 2 or 3 children, were frequently borne to the grace on the same bier; and it often happened that 2 priests would accompany a coffin, bearing the cross before it, and be joined on the way by several other funerals; so that instead of one, there were 5 or 6 bodies for interment. [226] During seasons of great pestilence, men have often believed the prophecies of crazed fanatics, that the end of the world was come Credulity is always greatest in times of calamity. During the great plague, which ravaged all Europe between the year of 1345 and 1350, it was generally considered that the end of the world was at hand. Pretended prophets were to be found in all the principal cities of Germany, France, and Italy, predicting that within ten years the trump of the archangel would sound, and the Saviour appear in the clouds to call the earth to judgement.[227] At the time of the plague in Milan, in 1630, of which so affecting a description has been left us by Ripamonte, in his interesting work, De Peste Mediolani, the people, in this distress, listened with avidity to the predictions of astrologers and other impostors. It is singular enough that the plague was foretold a year before it broke out. A large comet appearing in 1628, the opinions of astrologers were divided with regard to it. Some insisted that it was a forerunner of a bloody war; others maintained that it predicted a great famine; but the greater number, founding their judgment upon its pale colour, thought it portended a pestilence. The fulfilment of their prediction brought them into great repute while the plague was raging. Early one morning in April of 1630, before the pestilence had reached its height, the passengers were surprised to see that all the doors in the principal streets of the city were marked with a curious daub, or spot, as if a sponge, filled with the purulent matters of the plague-sores, had been pressed against them. The whole population was speedily in movement to remark the strange appearance, and the greatest alarm spread rapidly. 216 Every means was taken to discover the perpetrators, but in vain. At last the ancient prophecy was remembered, and prayers were offered up in all the churches, that the machinations of the Evil One might be defeated. Many persons were of opinion that the emissaries of foreign powers were employed to spread infectious poison over the city; but by far the greater number were convinced that the powers of hell had conspired against them, and that the infection was spread by supernatural agencies. In the meantime the plague increased fearfully. Distrust and alarm took possession of every mind. Everything was believed to have been poisoned by the Devil, the waters of the wells, the standing corn in the fields, and the fruit upon the trees. It was believed that all objects of touch were poisoned, the walls of the houses, the pavements of the streets, and the very handles of the doors. The populace were raised to a pitch of ungovernable fury. A strict watch was kept for the Devil’s emissaries, and any man who wanted to be rid of an enemy, had only to say that he had seen him besmearing a door with ointment; his fate was certain death at the hands of the mob. An old man, upwards of eighty years of age, a daily frequenter of the church of St. Antonio, was seen, on rising from his knees, to wipe with the skirt of his cloak the stool on which he was about to sit down. A cry was raised immediately that he was besmearing the seat with poison. A mob of women, by whom the church was crowded, seized hold of the feeble old man, and dragged him out by the hair on his head, with horrid oaths and imprecations. He was trailed in this manner through the mire to the house of the municipal judge, that he might be put to the rack, and forced to discover his accomplices; but he expired on the way. Many other victims were sacrificed to the popular fury. One Mora, who appears to have been half a chemist and half a barber, was accused of being in league with the Devil to poison Milan. His house was surrounded, and a number of chemical preparations were found. The poor man asserted, that they were intended as preservatives against infection; but some physicians, to whom they were submitted, declared they were poison. Mora was put to the rack, where he for a long time asserted his innocence. He confessed at last when his courage was worn down by torture, that he was in league with the Devil and foreign powers to poison the whole city; that he had anointed the doors, and infected the fountains of water. He named several persons as his accomplices, who were apprehended and put to a similar torture. They were all found guilty, and executed. Mora’s house was raised to the ground, and a column erected on the spot, with an inscription to commemorate his guilt. While the public mind was filled with these marvelous occurrences, the plague continued to increase. The crowds that were brought together to witness the executions spread the infection among one another. But the fury of their passions, and the extent of their credulity, kept pace with the violence of the plague; every wonderful and preposterous story was believed. One, in particular occupied them to the exclusion, for a long time, of every other. The Devil himself had been seen. He had taken a house in Milan, in which he prepared his poisonous unguents, and furnished them to his emissaries for distribution.[228] In these Walks I had many dismal Scenes before my Eyes, as particularly of Persons falling dead in the Streets, terrible Shrieks and Skreekings of Women, who in their Agonies would throw open their Chamber Windows, and cry out in a dismal Surprising Manner; it is impossible to describe the Variety of Postures, in which the Passions of the poor People would Express themselves. Passing thro’ Token-House-yard in Lothbury, of a sudden a Casement violently opened just over my head, and a Woman gave 3 frightful Skreetches, and then cry’d, Oh! Death, Death, Death! In a most inimitable Tone, and which struck me with Horror and a Chillness, in my very Blood. There was no Body to be seen in the whole Street, neither did any other Window open; for People had no Curiosity now in any Case; nor could any Body help one another; so I went on to pass into Bell-Alley. Just in Bell-Alley, on the right-hand of the Passag, there was a more terrible Cry than that, tho’ it was not so directed out at the Window, but the whole Family was in a terrible Fright, and I could hear Women and Children run screaming about the Rooms like distracted, when a Garret Window opened, and some body from a Window on 217 the other Side the Alley, call’d and ask’d, What is the matter? upon which, from the first Window it was answered, O Lord, my Old Master has hang’d himself! The other asked again Is he quite dead? and the first answer’d, Ay, ay; quite dead; quite dead and cold! This Person was a Merchant, and a deputy Alderman and very rich. I care not to mention the Name, tho’ I knew his Name too, but that would be an Hardship to the Family, which is now flourishing again. But, this is but one; it is scarce credible what dreadful Cases happened in particular Families every Day; People in the Rage of the distemper, or in the Torment of their Swellings, which was indeed intolerable, running out of their own Government, raving and distracted, and oftentimes laying violent Hands upon themselves, throwing themselves out at their Windows, shooting themselves, &c. Mothers murthering their own Children, in their Luncacy, some dying of meer Grief, as a Passion, some of meer Fright and Surprize, without any Infection at all; others frighted into Idiotism, and foolish Distractions, some into despair and Lunacy; others into melancholy Madness.[229] THE GREAT PLAGUE OF LONDON The week ending the 19th of September 1665, was that in which this memorable calamity reached its greatest destructiveness. It was on the 26th of the previous April that the first official notice announcing that the plague has established itself in the parish of St. Giles-In-The-Fields, appeared in the form of an order of council, directing the precautions to be taken to arrest its progress. The evil had at this time been gradually gaining head during several weeks. Vague suspicions of danger had existed during the latter part of the precious year, and serious alarm was felt, which however gradually abated. But the suspicions proved to be too true ; the infection believed to have been brought over by Holland, had established itself in the parish of St Giles, remained concealed during the winter, and began to shew itself in that and the adjoining parishes at the approach of spring, by the increase on their usual bills of mortality. At the date of the order of council just alluded to, there could be no longer any doubt that the parishes of St Giles, St Andrews, Holborn, and one or two others adjoining, were infected by the plague. During the months of May and June, the infection spread in spite of all the precautions to arrest its progress, but, towards the end of the latter month, the general alarm was increased by the certainty that it had not only spread into the other parishes outside the walls, but that several fatal cases had occurred in the city. People now began to hurry out of town in great numbers, while it was yet easy to escape, for as soon as the infection had become general, the strictest measures were enforced to prevent any of the inhabitants leaving London, lest they might communicate the dreadful pestilence to the towns and villages in the country. One of the most interesting episodes in the thrilling narrative of Defoe is the story of the adventures of three men if Wapping, and the difficulties they encountered in seeking a place of refuge in the country to the north-east of London, during the period while the plague was at its height in the metropolis. The alarm in London was increased when, in July, the king with the court also fled, and took refuge in Salisbury, leaving the care of the capital to the Duke of Albemarie. The circumstance of the summer being unusually hot and calm, nourished and increased the disease. An extract or two form Defoe’s narrative will give the best notion of the internal state of London at this melancholy period. Speaking of the month in which the court departed for Salisbury, he tells us that already ‘the face of London was strangely altered – I mean the whole mass of buildings, city, liberties, suburbs, Westminster, Southwark, and altogether ; for, as to the particular part called the City, or within the walls, that was not yet much infected ‘ but, in the whole, the face of things, I say, was much altered ; sorrow and sadness sat upon every face, and though some part were not yet overwhelmed, yet all looked deeply concerned, and as we saw it apparently coming on, so every one looked on himself and his family as in the utmost danger : were it possible to represent those times exactly, to 218 those that did not see them, and give the reader due ideas of the horror that everywhere presented itself, it must make just impressions upon their minds, and fill them with surprise. London might well be said to be all in tears ; the mourners did not go about the streets indeed. For nobody put on black, or made a formal dress of mourning for their nearest friends ; but the voice of mourning was truly heard in the streets ‘ the shrieks of women and children at the windows and doors of their houses, where their nearest relations were perhaps dying, or just dead, were so frequent to be heard, as we passed the streets, that it was enough to pierce the stoutest heart in the world to hear them. Tears and lamentations were seen almost in every house, especially in the first part of the visitation ; for towards the latter end, min’s hearts were hardened, and death was so always before their eyes, that they did not so much concern themselves for the loss of their friends, next hour.’ As the infection spread, and families under the slightest suspicion were shut up in their houses, the streets became deserted and overgrown with grass, trade and commerce ceased almost wholly, and, although many had succeeded in laying up stores in time, the town soon began to suffer from scarcity of provisions. This was felt the more as the stoppage of trade had thrown workmen and shopmen out of employment, and families reduced their numbers by dismissing many of their servants, so that a great mass of the population was thrown into a state of absolute destitution. ‘This necessity of going out of our houses to buy provisions, was, in a great measure, the ruin of the whole city, for the people catched the distemper, on these occasions, one of another, and even the provisions themselves were often tainted, at least I have great reason to believe so ; and, therefore, I cannot say with satisfaction, what I know is repeated with great assurance, that the market-people, and such as brought provisions to town, were never infected. I am certain the butchers of Whitechapel, where the greatest part of the flesh meat was killed, were dreadfully visited, and that as last to such a degree, that few of their shops were kept open, and those that remained of them killed their meat at Mile-end and that way, and brought it to market upon horses. . . . It is true people used all possible precautions ; when any one bought a joint of meat in the market, they would not take it out of the butcher’s hand, but took it off the hooks themselves. On the other hand, the butcher would not touch the money, but have it put into a pot full of vinegar, which he kept for that purpose. The buyer carried always small money to make up any odd sum,that they might take no change. They carried bottles for scents and perfumes in their hands, and all the means that could be used were employed ; but then the poor could not do even these things, and they went at all hazards. Innumerable dismal stories we heard every day on this very account. Sometimes a man or woman dropped down dead in the very markets ; for many people that had the plague upon them knew nothing of it till the inward gangrene had affected their vitals, and they died in a few moments ; this caused that many died frequently in that manner to be raging on one side, there was scarce any passing by the streets, but in several dead bodies would be lying here and there upon the ground ; on the other hand, it is observable that though at first, the people would stop as they went along and call to the neighbours to come out on such an occasion, yet, afterwards, no notice was taken of them ; but that if at any time we found a corpse lying, to go across the way and not come near it ; or if in a narrow lane or passage, go back again, and seek some other way to go on the business we were upon ; and in those cases the corpse was always left, till the officers had notice to come and take them away ; or till night, when the bearers attending the dead-cart would take them up, and carry them away. Nor did those undaunted creatures, who performed these offices, fail to search their pockets and sometimes strip off their clothes if they were well dressed, as sometimes they were, and carry off what they could get.” As the plague increased in intensity, the markets themselves were abandoned, and the country-people brought provisions to places appointed in the fields outside the town, where the citizens went to purchase them with extraordinary precautions. There were stations of this kind in Spitalfields, at St George’s Fields in Southwark, in Bunhill-fields, and especially at Islington. The appearance of the town became still more frightful as the summer 219 advanced. ‘It is scarcely credible,’ continues the remarkable writer we are quoting, ‘what dreadful cases happened in particular families every; people, in the rage of the distemper, or in the torment of their rackings, which was in the street suddenly, without any warning ; others, perhaps, had time to the next bulk or stall, or to any door or porch, and just sit down and die, as I have said before. These objects were so frequent in the streets, that when the plague came indeed intolerable, running out of their own government, raving and distracted, and oftentimes laying violent hands upon themselves, throwing themselves put of their windows, shooting themselves, &c. Mothers murdering their own children, in their lunacy ; some dying of mere grief, as a passion ; some of mere fright and surprise, without any infection at all ; others frightened into idiotism and foolish distractions ; some into despair and lunacy; others into melancholy madness. The pain of the swelling was in particular very violent, and to some intolerable ; the physicians and surgeons may be said to have tortured many poor creatures even to death. The swellings in some grew hard, and they applied violent drawing plasters or poultices to break them ; and, if these did not do, they cut and scarified them in a terrible manner. In some, those swellings were made hard, partly by the force of the distemper, and partly by their being too violently drawn, and were so hard, that no instrument could cut them with caustics, so that many died raving mad with the torment, and some in the very operation. In these distresses, some, for want of help to hold them down in their beds, or to look to them, laid hands upon themselves, as above; some broke out into the streets, perhaps naked, and would run directly down to the river, if they were not stopped by watchmen, or other officers, and plunge themselves into the water, wherever they found it. It often pierced my very soul to hear the groans and cries of those who were thus tormented.’ ‘This running of distempered people about the streets,’ Defoe adds, ‘was very dismal, and the magistrates did their utmost to prevent it ; but, as it was generally in the night, and always sudden, when attempts were made, the officers could not be at hand to prevent it ; and, even when any got out in the day, the officers appointed did not care to meddle with them, because, as they were all grievously infected, to be sure, when were come to that height, so they were more than ordinary infections, and it was one of the most dangerous things that could be to touch them ; on the other hand they generally ran on, not knowing what they did, till they dropped down stark dead, or till they had exhausted their spirits so, as that they fall and the die in perhaps half an hour or an hour; and, which was most piteous to hear, they were sure to come themselves entirely in that half hour or hour, and then to make most grievous and piercing cries and lamenations, in the deep afflicting sense of the condition they were in.’ ‘After a while, the fury of the infection appeared to be so increased that, in short, they shut up no houses at all ; it seemed enough that all the remedies of that kind had been used till they were found fruitless, and that the plague spread itself with an irresistible fury , so that it came at last to such violence, that the people sat still looking at one another, and seemed quite abandoned to despair. Whole streets seemed to be desolated, and not to be shut up only, but to be emptied of their inhabitants ; doors were left open, windows stood shattering with the wind in empty houses, for want of people to shut them l in a wordm people began to give up themselves, to their fears, and to think that all regulations and methods were in vain, and that there was nothing to be hoped for but an universal desolation.’ In spite of this horrible state of things, the town was filled with men desperate in their wickedness ; robbers and murderers prowled about in search of plunder, and riotous people, as if in despair, undulged more than ever in their vices. One house, in special, the Pye Tavern, at the end of Houndsditch, was the haunt of men who openly mocked at religion and death. In the middle of these scenes, two incidents occurred of an almost ludicrious character. Such is the story of piper, which Defoe appears to have heard from one of the men who carted the dead to the burial-places, whose name was John Hayward, and in whose cart the accident happened. It was under this John Hayward’s care, he says, ‘and within his bounds, that the story of the piper, which people have made themselves so merry, happened, and he assured me that it was true. It is said that it was a blind piper ; but, an ignorant, weak, poor man, and usually went his rounds about ten o’clock at night, and went piping along from door 220 to door, and the people usually took him in at public-houses where they knew him, and would give him drink and victuals, and sometimes farthings ; and he in return would pipe and sing, and talk simply, which diverted the people, and thus he lived. It was but a very bad time for this diversion, while things were as I have told, yet the poor fellow went about as usual, but was almost starved ; and when anybody asked how he did, he would answer, the dead cart had not taken him yet, but that they had promised to call for him next week. It happened one night that this poor fellow, whether somebody had given him too much drink or no (John Hayward said he had not drink in his house, but that theu had given him a little more vitals that ordinary at a public-house in Colman Street), and the poor fellow having not usually had a bellyful, or, perhaps, not a good while, was laid all along upon the top of a bulk or stall, and fast asleep, at a door in the street near London-wall, towards Cripplegate, and that, upon the same bulk or stall, the people of some house in the alley, of which the house was a corner, hearing a bell, which they always rung before the plague just by him, thinking too, that this poor fellow had been a dead body as the other was, and laid there by some of the neighbors. Accordingly when John Hayward with his bell and the cart came along, finding two dead bodies lie upon the stall, they took them up with the instrument they used, and threw them into the cart ; and all this while the piper slept soundly. From hence they paused along, and took in other dead bodies, till, as honest John Hayward told me, they almost buried him alive in the cart, yet all this while he slept soundly ; at length the cart came to the place where the bodies were to be thrown into the ground, which, as do I remember, was at Mountmill ; and as the cart usually stopped some time before they were ready to shoot out the melancholy load they had in it, as soon as the cart stopped, the fellow awaked, and struggled a little to get his head out from among the dead bodies, when, raising himself up in the cart, he called out, “Hey, where am I?” This frighted the fellow that attended about the work, but, after some pause, John Hayward recovering himself, said : “ Lord bless us! There’s somebody in the cart and not quite dead !” So another called to him , and said : “Who are you ?” The fellow answered : “I am the poor piper : where am I?” “Where are you?” says Hayward : “why, you are in the dead cart, and we are going to bury you.” “But I an’t dead, though, am I?” says the piper ; which made them laugh a little, though, as John said, they were heartily frightened at first ; so they helped the poor fellow down, and he went about his business. The number of deaths in the week ending the 19th September was upwards of ten thousand. The weather then began to change, and the air became cooled and purified by the equinoctial winds. It took a good part of the winter, however, to allay the infection entirely, and it was only late in December that the people who had fledbegan to crowd back to the metropolis. The king and court only returned at the beginning of the following February. It has been calculated that considerably above a hundred thousand persons perishable by this terrible visitation.[230] Some thought there had been an improvement in public morals because many people formerly living in concubinage had now married (as a result of town ordinances), and swearing and gambling had so diminished that manufacturers of dice were turning their product into beads for telling paternosters. Unlike the dice transformed into prayer beads, people did not improve, although it had been expected, according to Matteo Villani, that the experience of God’s wrath would have left them “better men, humble, virtuous and Catholic.” Instead, “They forgot the past as though it had never been and gave themselves up to a more disordered and shameful life than they had led before.” With a glut of merchandise on the shelves for too few customers, prices at first plunged and survivors indulged in a wild orgy of spending. The poor moved into empty houses, slept on beds, and ate off silver. Peasants acquired unclaimed tools and livestock, even a wine press, forge, or mill left without owners, and other possessions they never had before. Commerce was depressed, but the amount of currency was in greater supply because there were fewer people to share it.[231] 221  As between landowner and peasant, the balance of impoverishment and enrichment caused by the palague on the whole favored the peasant, although what was true in one place often had an equal and opposite reaction somewhere else. The relative values of land and labor were turned upside down. Peasants found their rents reduced and even relinquished for one or more years by landowners desperate to keep their fields in cultivation. Better no revenue at all than that cleared land should be retaken by the wilderness. But with fewer hands to work, cultivated land necessarily shrank. The archives of the Abbey of Ramsay in England show that 30 years after the plague the acreage sowed in grain was less than half what it had been before. Five plows owned by the abbey in 1307 were reduced to one a century later, and 28 oxen to 5.[232] In 1357, eight years after the first plague, London was reported still one-third empty, but, though uncrowded, its sanitation was still careless enough to elicit repeated ordinances requiring citizens to clean their premises . Though it was against the law to empty chamber pots into the streets, their contents and kitchen garbage were often flung out of windows, more or less aimed at the gutters, which carried a steady current of water. Barns for keeping horses, cattle, pigs, and chickens were located inside the walls as well as outside, causing many complaints about accumulating piles of manure. At about this time London’s aldermen organized a system of hired “rakers; to carry the piles away in dump carts or in dung boats on the Thames.[233] Chapter 8 The Plague Battles Doctors & Physicians Doctors struggling with the evidence could not break away from the terms of astrology, to which they believed all human physiology was subject. Medicine was the one aspect of medieval life, perhaps because of its links with the Arabs, not shaped by Christian doctring. Clerics detested astrology, but could not dislodge its influence. Guy de Chauliac, physician to three popes in succession, practiced in obedience to the zodiac. While his Cirurgia was the major treatise on surgery of its time, while he understood the use of anesthesia made from the juice of opium, mandrake, or hemlock, he nevertheless prescribed bleeding and purgatives by the planets and divided chronic from acute diseases on the basis of one being under the rule of the sun and the other of the moon. With careful thesis, antithesis, and proofs, the doctors ascribed it to a triple conjunction of Saturn, Jupiter, and mars in the 40th degree of Aquarius said to have occurred on March 20, 1345. They acknowledged, however, effects “whose cause is hidden from even the most highly trained intellects.”[234] 720: I didn’t mention it before but I will state it now. I do believe that trying to combat the repetitive plague occurrence with herbs and other folkloric medicine and always ending up at a failure brought the European mentality to a halt with all natural homeopathic forms of medicine. Eventhough there was an Influenza pandemic in 1889-90 in Europe and America that killed a million people. Which again was met with direct natural elements. As I mentioned before the failure of not being able to cure or stop the plague with natural elements made them shun natural medicine over time. The plague of the late 1800s may had been the last straw, as that was the largest body count in recent times. There are other plagues documented here in America that have occurred in the 1900s all the way from California to Boston. Nevertheless, because of the events we now live in the first civilization 222 where there isn’t a common intelligence on how to use herbs and oils for medical purposes. Herbs have been reduced to spices and oils have been reduced to lotions and hair creams. Yes, the majority of the time there is some form of mystical juju added to the natural elements whether that be a god, a spirit, astrology or a lengthy process. With that being stated, I must also mention that the true understanding of healing is supremely based on what one thinks will heal them. If you cant think at all, then oh well, I guess! In reference to the plague that occurred in America in 1889. I do believe this is a large metaphysic, transforming the element of sickness and plague into the new world which is more cautious and built for progression. The plague was broken down into a sickness that comes around seasonally. As when I was growing up the flu came during the winter season and there was nothing you could really do about it but try to dodge it. As the same rules apply, don’t touch the person or any of their possessions. The plague, being the imposer of fear to get this ball of industry and progression going is exactly what occurred. There were other forms of fear implanted into the thinking but the plague is the basis. It is the holder of unpredictability of the swift wrath nature can bring at any given moment. It is the reminder that you have no control and to hold your loved ones dear and tight. To appreciate and also to disown and ignore. Which in turn ends up being our baseline understanding of “security” today. Relative to our medical industry today. I whole heartedly believed guaranteed 80-90% of all of its regulations and procedures stem from the events of the plague. For ills beyond their powers they fell back on the supernatural or on elaborate compounds of metallis, botanic, and animal substances. The offensive, like the expensive, had extra value. Ringworm was treated by washing the scalp with a boys urine, gout by a plaster of goat dung mixed with rosemary and honey. Relief of the patient was their object-cure being left to god-and psychological suggestion often their means. To prevent pockmarks, a smallpox patient would be wrapped in red cloth in a bed hung with red hangings. When surgery was unavailing, recourse was had to the aid of the virgin or the relics of saints. [235] The registers of the Florentine guild show that in Francesco’s time it included not only general practitioners, but surgeons, dentist, wound specialists for stone gravel. There were panel doctors, paid by the Commune to attend the poor, and yet others appointed for the care of prisoners and of men sentenced to flogging, amputation, or the loss of their eyes. There were even some women doctors-some of them relations of physicians, to whom the secrets of their profession had been imparted by their husband or father, but also some independent practitioners. And, finally, there were a great many people who lived-and very profitably-on the fringes of the medical profession, trading on the frailty of the human body and the infinite credulity of the human mind. Barbers applied plasters and leeches, practiced blood-letting and dentistry, and set fractured bones; apothecaries administered enemas, practiced massage, and prescribed elaborate nostrums which they themselves had brewed; witches and quacks prepared magic comfits, love-philtres and poisons and healing tisanes; herb-collectors and snake charmers and alchemists added to the chorus. Finally, as these letters show, a great many popular copied out of popular compendia (ricettari) in which a Popes prescription for blindness lay beside “a prayer to stop the flow of blood,” and an unguent for bruises invented by an English monk beside a nostrum to bring back lost youth-while the greater part of the book was given up to incantations and exorcisms, punctuated, as the patient recited them, by many signs of the Cross. What Francescos great contemporary Petrarca thought of even the most respectable pracititioners of his time, he has plainly recorded in a letter describing a fever that had laid him low. The physicians came running. Having disputed at length, as they are wont, they ordained that at midnight I would be dead; and the night had already begun… They said that the only remedy by which I might prolong my life would be to draw some little cords tightly around me, to keep me from sleep, and thus I might perchance live to see the dawn….Their orders were not carried out, for I have always besought my friends and bidden my servants to 223 do naught of what physicians have commanded, but if indeed something must be done, to do just the opposite. Wherefore I spent the whole night in a deep sweet sleep…I, who was like to die at midnight, was discovered by the physicians, when they came back on the morrow, writing. In Prato, as in Florence, there was a panel doctor for the poor, who received from the Commune a salary of 50 or 60 florings a year with an additional grant for his horse, but an established doctor might ask as much as 2 or 3 florins for a private consultation or for an opinion in a law-suit, and sometimes-especially during the Black death-a doctor would exact payment or a pledge before even crossing his patients threshold, after which his visit would often consist of no more than gingerly taking the sick mans pulse with an averted head, and examining his urine, while holding a little phial of scent to his nose.[236] On the whole the physicians were quite helpless in the face of the plague. The most eminent among them confessed it frankly. Chalin de Vinario declared: “Every pronounced case of plague is incurable.“ And Guy de Chauliac, the celebrated physician in ordinary to Clement VI, the father of French surgery, in his principal work “La Grande Chirugie,” who were unable to render any assistance, all the more as, for fear of infection, they did not venture to visit the patients, and if they did could do no good and consequently earn no fees, for all infected died with the exception of some towards the end of the epidemic, who escaped, as the boils had been able to mature.” They therefore restricted themselves mainly to prophylactic measures, and agreed with the Church that the best and most efficacious preventive means was the fear of God, “for by this the venomous astral arrows may be averted.”[237] Anatomy was the youngest and most hopeful branch of medical science of the period. The Council of Tours in 1163 had still prohibited the shedding of blood, i.e. to engage in surgical practice. Ecclesia abhorret a sanguine. Emperor Frederick II was the first to permit the dissection of the human body in his empire and to establish a chair of anatomy. It is to him and Charles Vi of France, who issued a decree ordering that every year the corpse of some executed criminal should be handled over to the medical faculty of Montpelier, to this we owe the foundation of a scientific doctrine of the disease of the human body. At Vienna the celebrated physician, Marsilius Galleati of Padua, introduced anatomy as a subject of medical instruction in 1404. The celebrated Viennese physician Sorbait, who succeeded in healing some hundreds in the hospital, overcame the plague twice, in 1665 and 1680. It is related of Heinrico Sayer that in 1665, when the plague was raging in England, he fearlessly attended all patients rich and poor, daily administered their medicine, and with his own hands bound up their boils, plague glands, and spots, thus saving the life of many. In this dangerous occupation he availed himself of no other means of preservation than to take a long draught of good strong wine before entering the houses of those infected; then he set about his work with his patients and repeated the same means on its completion; in this manner he preserved himself a long time. “But one must not be too bold and venturesome,” the chronicler continues, ‘nor undertake too much, lest one should meet with the same fate as this same medical man. For after having moved about in the midst of the plague for a assail him, he was requested as a second Aesculapius to repair to another place, where the plague was still more virulent; there he was soon seized by the plague when he ventured at the house of a great lord, with whom he was intimate and who was suffering from the plague, to sleep with him in the same bed, and as the arts which had saved all others were of no avail to their master and possessor, to the great sorrow and distress of many, was carried off by the disease.” In nearly all countries there was a repetition of what Rolandus Capellutus Chrysopolitanus relates of the epidemic of Parma in the year 1468: “When the epidemic of plague had abated the medical men and physicians who had attended the patiens were arrested by the authorities and thrown into the prison, being accused of all kinds of murders and manslaughter, and frequently the money which the medical men had acquired with great exertion and work and with extreme danger to their lives was taken from them by force.” What it could be 224 dangerous to be too successful in curing is shown by the example of the physician Marquier, who in 1601, at Saint- Lo in Normandy, was accused of magic because he had healed more sufferers than his colleagues and had saved too many from the plague. He appealed to the recognized authority and prescriptions of his teacher, the surgeon Ambroise Pare, but without avail, for after a six-day trial he was banished from Saint-Lo together with his daughter. At the beginning of the plague the people, particularly in Italy, were frequently of opinion that the doctors themselves caused the rumour of the outbreak to be circulated so as to induce the population to resort to them. A conception to which the aged, venerable Ludovico Settala, one of the leading physicians and philosophers of Milan, nearly fell victim in 1630. On his return from his patients he was suddenly surrounded by hordes of porters and market women, who howled at him that he was the principal physician and original instigator of those who with stick and beard were spreading terror throughout the town. Only the courage of the litter-bearers, who were devoted to him and carried him to the house of a friend, saved him from being lynched by the raving rabble.[238] Of the preventive and protective measures prescribed by the physicians I will first enumerate those recommended by the medical faculty of Paris in their report of October 1348: “No poultry should be eaten, no waterfowl, no sucking pig, no old beef, altogether no fat meat. The meat of animals of a warm, dry constitution should be eaten, but no heating or irritating meat. We recommend broths with ground pepper, cinnamon, and spices, particularly to such people who eat little but choice food. It is injurious to sleep during the daytime. Sleep should not be extended beyond dawn or very little beyond it. Very little should be drunk at breakfast, lunch should be taken at 11 o’ clock, and a little more wine may be drunk than at breakfast and the drink should be a clear, light wine mixed with 1/6 water. Dried or fresh fruit is innoxious if eaten together with wine. Without wine it may be dangerous. Beetroot and other fresh or preserved vegetables may prove injurious; spicy herbs such as sage and rosemary are, on the other hand, wholesome. Cold, moist, and watery foods are generally harmful. It is dangerous to go out at night till 3 in the morning on account of the dew. Fish should not be eaten, too much exercise may be injurious; the clothing should be warm, giving protection from cold, damp and rain, and nothing should be cooked in rain-water. With the meals a little treacle (theriaca) should be taken; olive oil with food is mortal. Fat people should expose themselves to the sun. Excess of abstinence, excitement, anger, and drunkenness are dangerous. Diarrhuea is serious. Bathing dangerous. The bowels should be kept open by a clyster. Intercourse with women is mortal; there should be no coition nor should one sleep in any woman’s bed.” The Italian physicians, e.g. Marsilio and Garbo, favoured epicurean precepts: “In the first instance no man should think of death; nor should he conceive any passion for any man. Nothing should distress him, but all his thoughts should be directed to pleasing, agreeable and delicious things. Social intercourse should be avoided. Beautiful landscapes, fine gardens should be visited, particularly when odiferous plates are flowering, and best when the vines are in flower. But it should be avoided to tarry too long in the gardens, as the air is much more dangerous at night. In times of plague light women should be entirely dispensed with as well as all intercourse with drunkards. Thirst should not be suffered, but only temperate drinking indulged in. Listening to beautiful, melodious songs is wholesome, as is also to enjoy the joys of the fine season in the company of agreeable people. The contemplation of gold and silver and other precious stones is comforting to the heart.” A German physician, Jobus Lincelius of Zwickau, evidently belongs to the Italian school, as he prescribes: “All physical exertions emotions of the mind should be avoided, such as running, jumping, jealousy, anger, hatred, sadness, horror or fear, licentiousness and the like, and those who, by the grace of God, are in a position to do so, may spend their time in relating tales and stories and with good music to delight their hearts, as music was given to man by God to praise God and give pleasure to mankind.” Serenity and light-heartedness were considered by the physicians as particularly important, as they believed they had observed that many had in some magic way taken the plague in consequence of fear and horror. 225 “Not the smallest preservation in these Morbis Popularibus is not to be afraid, and one should not imagine that one had the disease and not paint the devil on the wall. For as soon as the fear of death and imagination obtain the upper hand, then certainly what we dread will occur.’ Therefore all such fears and thoughts should be set aside entirely, or, as Paracelsus says, imagination loves to adhere to its own pitch and may easily be set alight. [239] We had at this Time a great many frightful Stories told us of Nurses and Watchmen, who looked after the dying People, that is to say, hir’d Nurses, who attended infected People, using them barbarously, starving them, smothering them, or by other wicked means, hastening their End, that is to say, murthering of them: And Watchmen being set to guard Houses that were shut up, when there has been but one person left, and perhaps, that one lying sick, that they have broke in and murthered that Body, and immediately thrown them out into the Dead-Cart! And so they have gone scarce cold to the Grave. I cannot say, but that some such Murthers were committed, and I think 2 were sent to Prison for it, but died before they could be try’d: and I have heard that 3 others, at several Times, were excused for Murthers of that kind; but I must say I believe nothing of its being so common a Crime, as some have since been pleas’d to say, nor did it seem to be so rational, where the People were brought so low as not to be able to help themselves, for such seldom recovered, and there was no Temptation to commit a Murther, at least, none equal to the Fact, where they were sure Persons would die in so short a Time; and could not live. That there were a great many Robberies and wicked Practices committed even in this dreadful Time I do not deny; the Power of Avarice was so strong in some, that they would run any Hazard to steal and to plunder, and particularly in Houses where all the Families, or Inhabitants have been dead, and carried out, they would break in at all Hazards, and without Regard to the Danger of Infection, take even the Cloths off, of the dead Bodies, and Bedcloaths from others where they lay dead. This, I suppose, must be the Case of a Family in Houndsditch, where a Man and his Daughter, the rest of the Family being, as I suppose, carried away before by the Dead-Cart, were found stark naked, one in one Chamber, and one in another, lying dead on the Floor; and the Cloths of the Beds, from whence, tis supposed they were roll’d off by Thieves, stoln, and carried quite away. It is indeed to be observ’d, that the Women were in all this Calamity, the most rash, fearless, and desperate Creatures; and as there were vast Numbers that went about as Nurses, to tend those that were sick, they committed a great many petty Thieveries in the Houses where they were employed; and some of them were publickly whipt for it, when perhaps, they ought rather to have been hanged for Examples; for Numbers of Houses were robbed on these Occasions, till at length, the parish Officers were sent to recommend Nurses to the Sick, and always took an Account who it was they sent, so as they might call them to account,if the House had been abused where they were placed. But these Robberies extended chiefly to Wearing Cloths, Linen, and what Rings, or Money they could come at, when the Person dyed who was under their Care, but not to a general Plunder of the Houses; and I could give an Account of one of these Nurses, who several Years after, being on her Death-bed, confest with the utmost Horror, the Robberies she had committed at the Time of her being a Nurse, and by which she had enriched her self to a great Degree: But as for murthers, I do not find that there was ever any Proof of the facts, in the manner, as it has been reported, except as above. They did tell me indeed of a Nurse in one place, that laid a wet Cloth upon the Face of a dying Patient, who she tended, and so put an End to his Life, who was just expiring before: And another that smother’d a young Woman she was looking to, when she was in a fainting fit, and would have come to herself: Some that kill’d them by giving them one Thing, some another, and some starved them by giving them nothing at all: But these Stories had 2 Marks of Suspicion that always attended them, which caused me always to slight them, and to look on them 226 as meer Stories, that People continually frighted one another with. (1.) That wherever it was that we heard it, they always placed the Scene at the farther End of the Town, opposite, or most remote from where you were to hear it: If you heard it in White-Chapel, it had happened at St. Gile’s, or at Westminister, or Holborn, or that End of the Town; if you heard of it at that End of the Town, then it was done in White Chapel, or the Minories, or about Cripplegate Parish: If you heard of it in the City, why, then it happened in Southwark; and if you heard of it in Southwark, then it was done in the City, and the like. In the next Place, of what Part soever you heard the Story, the Particulars were always the same, especially that of laying a wet double Clout on a dying Man’s Face, and that of smothering a young Gentlewoman; so that it was apparent, at least to my Judgment, that there was more of Tale that of Truth in those Things. However, I cannot say, but it had some effect upon the People, and particularly that, as I said before, they grew more cautious who they took into their houses, and who they trusted their Lives with; and had them always recommended, if they could; and where they could not find such, for they were not very plenty , they applied to the Parish Officers. But here again, the Misery of that Time lay upon the Poor, who being infected, had neither Food or Physick; neither Physician or Apothecary to assist them, or Nurse to attend them: Many of those died calling for help, and even for Sustenance out at their Windows, in a most miserable and deplorable manner; but it must be added, that whenever the Cases of such Persons or Families, were represented to my Lord-Mayor, they always were reliev’d. It is true, in some Houses where the People were not very poor; yet, where they had sent perhaps their Wives and Children away; and if they had any Servants, they had been dismist; I say, it is true, that to save the Expences, manmy such as these shut themselves in, and not having Help, dy’d alone. A Neighbour and Acquaintance of mine, having some Money owing to him from a Shopkeeper in White Cross street, or there abouts, sent his Apprentice, a youth 18 years of Age, to endeavor to get the Money: he came to the Door, and finding it shut, knockt pretty hard, and as he thought, heard some Body answer within, but was not sure, So he waited, and after some stay knockt again, and then a third Time, when he heard some Body coming down stairs. At length the Man of the Hosue came to the Door; he had on his Breeches or drawers, and a yellow Flannel Wastcoat; no Stockings, a pair or Slipt-shoes, a white Cap on his head, and as the young Man said, Death in his Face. When he open’d the Door, says he, what do you disturb me thus for? The Boy, tho’ a little surpriz’d, reply’d, I come from such a one, and my Master sent me for the Money, which he says you know of: Very well Child, returns the living Ghost, call as you go by at Cripplegate Church, and bid them ring the Bell, and with those Words, Shut the Door again, and went up again and Dy’d, the same Day; nay, perhaps the same Hour.[240] Fig. 79.). Tools of the trade A set of early 19th Century dissecting hooks 227 Fig. 80.). Left: A plague doctor wearing his 'beak mask'. This mask would have been filled with lavender or other strong smelling substances which were thought to protect him from disease. Fig. 81.). Right: Paulus Furst’s 1656 engraving of Dr. Schnabel ("Beak") of Rome wearing protective clothing typical of the plague doctors of Rome at the time. The “Beak Doctoros,” by their fantastic disguise, cheered the patients and were the terror of the children in the streets: As may be seen on picture here, In Rome the doctors do appear, When to their patients they are called, In places by the plague appaled, Their hats and cloaks, of fashion new, Are made of oilcloth, dark of hue, Their caps with glasses are designed, Their bills with antidotes all lined, That foulsome air may do no harm, Nor cause the doctor man alarm The staff in hand must serve to show Their noble trade where’er they go.[241] 228  Several physicians claim to have observed that no one suffering from venereal disease was ever attacked by the plague. Friedrich Schreiber (1819-1890) says in his experiences and thoughts of the plague; “Is not the plague a most rapid form of venereal disease? And is not veneral disease a slow plague? It makes no difference that the 2 veritable plagues in regard to rapidity are so different from one another, the seat of both diseases is the same, the pale membranes, the water vessels and water glands; in the consequences of both are the same curdling of the water in the blood producing either cold gangrene or slow-creeping how gangrene.” A Tartar physician reports on a remarakable manner of producing the plague which was practised by women belonging to the lower nobility at Bucarest in the 18th century. They understood the art “when in the country for a short time of amusing themselves without their husbands, particularly when urgent financial consideration rendered it necessary. For, as they did not possess the means to get themselves up like the most aristocratic ladies and yet wished to live with these, their lovers were frequently obliged to make considerable contributions. And as in town it was not so easy to deceive their husbands, close friends arranged at social gatherings when and where they would make a plague. For this purpose a gipsy woman or some other poor person was necessary of whom it was maintained that she had died of the plague-a report which these women by means of their connexions spread far abroad in a very short time. Everyone who can retires to the villages at the general alarm, with the exception of the noblemen who are retained in town by their service. And now the good wives can live with their lovers as long as they deem expedient.[242] But even those wholesome Reflections, which rightly manag’d would have most happily led the People to fall upon their Knees, make Confession of their sins, and look up to their merciful savious for Pardon, imploring his Compassion on them, in such a Time of their Distress; by which, we might have been as a second Nineveh, had a quite contrary extreme in the common People; who ignorant and stupid in their Reflections, as they were brutishly wicked and thoughtless before, were now led by their Fright to extremes of folly; and as I have said before, that they ran to Conjurers and Witches, and all Sorts of Deceivers, to know what should become of them; who fed their Fears, and kept them always alarm’d, and safe, on purpose to delude them, and pick their Pockets: So, they were as mad, upon their running after Quacks , and Mountebanks, and every practicing old Woman, for Medicines and Remedies; storeing themselves with such Multitudes of Pills, Potions, and Preservatives, as they were call’d; that they not only spent their Money, but even poison’d themselves before-hand, for fear of the Poison of the Infection, and prepar’d their Bodies for the Plague, instead of preserving them against it. On the other Hand, it is incredible, and scarce to be imagin’d, how the Posts of Houses, and Corners of Streets were plaster’d over with Doctors Bills, and Papers of ignorant Fellows; quacking and tampering in Physick, and inviting the People to come to them for Remedies; which was generally set off with such flourishes as these, (viz.) INFALLIBLE preventive Pills against the Plague. NEVER-FAILING Preservatives against the Infection. SOVERAIGN Cordials against the Corruption of the Air. EXACT Regulations for the Conduct of the Body, in case of an Infection: Antipestilential Pills. INCOMPARABLE Drink against the Plague, never found out before. An UNIVERSAL Remedy for the Plague. The ONLY-TRUE Plague-Water. The ROYAL-ANTIDOTE against all Kinds of Infection; and such a Number more that I cannot reckon up; and if I could, would fill a Book of themselves to set them down. Others set up Bills, to summons People to their Lodgings for Directions and Advice in the Case of Infection: These has spacious Titles also, such as these: An eminent High-Dutch Physician, newly come over from Holland, where he resided during all the Time of the great Plague, last Year, in Amsterdam; and cured multitudes of People, that actually had the Plague upon them. An Italian Gentlewoman, just arrived from Naples, having a choice Secret to prevent Infection, which she found out by her great Experience, and did wonderful Cures with it in the late Plague there; wherein there died 20,000 in one Day. 229  An antient Gentlewoman having practised, with great Success, in the late Plague there; in the late Plague in this City, Anno 1636, gives her advice only to the Female Sex. To be spoke with, &c. An experience’d Physician, who has long studied the Doctringe of Antidotes against all sorts of Poison and Infection, had after 40 Years Practise, arrived to such Skill, as may, with God’s Blessing, direct Persons how to prevent their being touch’d by any Contagious Distemper whatsoever. He directs the Poor gratis.[243] The Pain of the Swelling was in particular very violent, and to some intollerable; the Physicians and Surgeons may be said to have tortured many poor Creatures even to Death. The Swellings in some grew hard, and they apply’d violent drawing Plasters, or Pultices, to break them; and if these did not do, they cut and scarified them in a terrible Manner: In some, those Swellings were made hard, partly by the Force of The Distemper, and partly by their being too violently drawn, and were so hard, that no Instrument could cut them, and then they burnt them with Causticks, so that many died raving mad with the Torment; and some in the very Operation. In these distresses, some for want of Help to hold them down in their Beds, or to look to them, laid Hands upon themselves, as above. Some broke out into the Streets, perhaps naked, and would run directly down to the river, if they were not stopt by the Watchmen, or other officers, and plunge themselves into the Water, wherever they found it. [244] I will not treat of the persecutions of the Jews in plagues of later dates. Again and again they were accused and put to death in the most cruel manner. We will only cast a glance at the insults hurled at the Jewish physicians who in times of plague did extraordinarily good work. Owing to their knowledge of Arabic they possessed already in the 14th century an advantage over the northern physicians, who as yet had no translations from the Greek and Arabic. They played a particularly important role at Montpelier and Avignon, where they enjoyed special protection as physicians of the Pope. Although they had accompanied the Christians on their Crusades in 1338, at the Council of Aix Christians were forbidden to consult Jewish physicians. Pope Gregory made this prohibition to severe in 1581 that he not only imposed the most severe punishment on Jewish doctors who attended Christians who should die under the care of Jewish physicians, and they were even appointed a s physicians-in-ordinary to some of the popes, e.g. Leo X, Clement VII, and Paul III. Particular difficulties were placed in the way of the Jewish physicians in Germany. In the sermons of the 15th and 16th centuries we are constantly encountering the prohibition to employ Jews as physicians. “That you should not think,” says Geiler von Kaisersperg in one of his sermons, “that to accept the services of a Jew as a physician to regain your health is not a sin.” “In the same manner there are some who run to the scurvy Jews and bring them their urine and ask their advice. But it is strictly forbidden to use any medicine prescribed by a Jew, except in cases where no other physician is available.” As late as the year 1564 the appointment of a Jew as chief physician gave rise to a violent dispute at Thorn, the opponents asking “whether it was conscionable to appoint a blasphemer and vagrant to such a position. “[245] Vaccinations In all countries we meet in times of plague with complaints of the doctors of the obstinacy of the patients. The surgeon of the administrative district of Szabin in East Prussia applied in 1710 to be recalled, as all medical assistance was useless. The surviving remnant of the population had fled to the woods and were hopelessly abandoned to their fate. The only remaining peasant obstinately refused to take any medicine, and it was useless to incur further expenses for the prescribed treatment. “The incredible lack of obedience,” he continues his report, “prevents all benefit to those still alive. With all due submission I, therefore, inquire if an example should not be made of some of the others of them, particularly as the usual Lithuanian form of chastisement by the public executioner is of no avail.” The judicial authorities of the district had on July 26, 1710, an edict read from the pulpits threatening that all those would be regarded as suicides and that their corpses would be publicly hanged 230 who refused to take the prescribed medicines, even if these should prove to be of no avail. In the same manner the Prussian Sanitary Commission had submitted a resolution to the King that gallows should be erected for those who refused to take their concoctions, and that they should be hanged on them in their coffins. There is an interesting report of July 25, 1710, from the district of Insterburg containing complaints about the famous, well-known member of the Koenigsberg Sanitary Commision, Professor Dr. Emmerich, as well as about Dr. Rossler, who were on a tour of inspection in Lithuania. The report stater “Although the cures undertaken by the surgeons are accompanied by so little success, this would seem to cause them little anxiety, as with the help of stronInsterburg ale they spend their time in joy and merriment; thus, to give a particular instance, they spent the night of June 16th- 17th at the house of Sergeant Forstmann with drinking, dancing, and carousing. But that was not all: they were seen at 4 a.m. in full daylight with a band of music; and thereupon, without changing their clothes or lying down, they repaired to the house of Apothecary hering, their ordinary quarters, for breakfast, and continued their drinking theroughout the day until finally, towards the evening of the 17th, they drove from Insterburd to Goldap, and then further to Stallupoenen and Ragnit in company of the sheriff, during which journey, as their companion took them a somewhat circuitous route, there was no lack of merriment and only merry, and it would appear that this commission trip was by no means disagreeable to them, as up to the present all three have not returned.” The magic therapeutics of Paracelsus (1493-1541), where were further developed by his ingenious successors von Helmont (1580-1644) and Robert Flood (1574-1637), were based on the conception that a common original force, termed Magnale Manum, or Universal Soul, connected all bodies with one another. “Every body possesses a peculiar essence, a particular spirit by means of which it exerts an influence on bodies related to it and cause modifications in their state of health; he who is familiar with these spirits will prove a good physician. They are frequently recognizable by signature, certain exernal signs which coincide with their spirit, The sympathetic haling process is accomplished by magnetic force, stimulated to a higher degree of activity, reacting on the body in whose circle of vitality it is situated, and again stimulating the vital force of this body to an activity capable of expulsing the disease, of by itself attracting the disease and thus ridding the body of it. The activity of these magnetic forces hidden in the vital spirit is mainly determined by the essence of materials brought into with it. The Paracelsists were at great pains to procure magnets of this description which, on the one hand, stimulated the vital spirit in human beings, and, on the other, were supposed to attract diseases and, as it was believed that the vital spirit still adhered to human blood and human excrements, magnets were made consisting of the materials which, in the opinion of the time, were the most filthy imaginable. Paracelsus called these material bases of the spirit, mummies. The development of the forces within the mummy is generally effected by means of putrefaction-a process carried out in various manners. Thus, for instance, to convert blood into a mummy it was extracted from a healthy human subject, and let into an eggshell; the egg was firmly closed with isinglass and placed under a sitting hen till the chickens were hatched from the other eggs. A carneous mass is then found in the egg; this is placed in the bake-oven till the bread is baked, and is kept for use.’ This mummy taken from a healthy subject develops magnetic forces, taken from a diseased subject it serves to cure all diseases; for if the mummy is applied to the diseased limb so that it is mingled with its sweat, if given to eat to any animal or grafter into any tree the most obdurate disease may be overcome.[246] Of further interest is the predisposition theory expounded by Theodosius Tabernomontanus in his plague treatise in 1582. “This disease,” he writes, “is pernicious to blood relatives and all of the same family. For so soon as one among relations is attacked by the disease it generally affects all other relations. And this because their bodies are predisposed to receive poison of such a nature, and this on account of the similarity of their physical constitution which they have inherited from birth and from their origin from the same seed. It is an everyday experience that if the plague lays hold of a family it is reluctant to leave it. And although members may not be 231 living together in one town or place, and although the plague may have abated and returned after an interval of one year, 2 or 3 years, it starts again in such a family and carries off a few, so that it occasionally happens that a whole family is exterminated in the course of 10 or 20 years, as experience has often proved.”[247] Of extraordinary interest are reports from Poland, where, at Warsaw, when nothing could be found to stay the plague, the boils of the dead were cut out, dried, powdered, and given to the sick, as is maintained with success. Johann Christian Kundmann relates that this remedy “is particularly efficacious as a preservative against the plague so as to enable intercourse as a preservative against the plague so as to enable intercourse with those infected and the nursing of them.” Many, particularly among the poor, were so courageous that they swallowed the pus from the mature boils in spoonfuls. Wilhelm Sahm (1877-1939), in his history of the plague in east Prussia, relates the same from the district of Labiau, where the peelings of plague boils were given to those who remained healthy in their food and drink. That plague pus in itself is not necessarily infectious is corroborated by various authors on the plague. The best known case is that of the celebrated theologician Justus Jonas (1493-1555), who as a little boy ate the baked onion which had been lying on his fathers boil and had then been forgotten at the bedside, and which did him no harm at all. The most positive treatment during the plague was undoubtedly the surgical operation as executed by Guy de Chaulic and, following his example, by all other physicians/ The boils were cut open and burnt out with hot irons-an operation which, as Hecker affirms, was at all times successful and saved innumerable people.[248] Finally, we must mention the physicians of the 19th century whose names will remain immortal throughout all times. The first of them was Desgenettes (1762-1837), physician-in-chief to Napoleon’s Orient Army, which in Egypt was decimated by a terrible attack of plague. When fear and horror threatened to destroy the moral of the army, Desgenettes, with the same courage displayed by Napoleon, when in the plague hospital at Jaffe he touched the plague sufferers and the corpses of those dead of the plague, gave an example of heroic devotion by making injections of pus taken from plague boils in his groins and under his armpits in the presence of the soldiers. This bold action appeased the men and facilitated the treatment of the sick. A second inoculation, still more terrible than the first, and which made all standing round grow pale, was carried out under the following circumstances: A dying plague patient besought Degenettes, who was treating him, to share the rest of the medicine which had been prescribed for him. Without hesitation Desgenettes seized the glass of the patient and emptied it at a single draught. [249] Plague Hospital The dread of the pest-houses to which at the outbreak of an epidemic not only those who had contracted disease but also the healthy inhabitants of the house were brought was terrible. Wherever possible cases of plague were kept secret and the dead disposed of quietly; they were buried in the cellar or under the boards of the floor. Fear of the depraved behaviour of the hospital attendants was at Milan so great, particularly among the women, that many committed suicide rather than be taken to the pest-house. The number of suicides increased so alarmingly that the officials threatened to exhibit publicly the corpses of all who had destroyed themselves. This threat proved efficacious. Even during the last plague at Marseilles the hospitals were described as the ante-room of death. A poem of this time gives a lively description: “ God preserve you from headache. If you have it, make clear to yourself you are done; it is time to think of your end. You are taken to chapel. A priest eagerly orders you to confess. Think of your bygone misdeeds, for already your agony is upon you. Let us evoke together the Virgin Mary. They recite to you prayers for the tread the same path as those who died before you have trodden. Your heart is wrung with pain, for you hear nothing but sighs, cries of terror, and the sad wail of the dreaming and of those raving in their 232 fever. Alas! Good God, I dare not continue. I feel that grief will render me unconscious. When dawn breaks you hear the sick attendant come and say: ‘Lift up your shirts.’ When the surgeons come they will examine your boils. You are all drawn up in a row when they arrive. They look at you, and in their hands they bear plasters and instruments. They pass you like a gust of wind. What cries, what moans. Not for a moment is there peace. You hear nothing but cries of pain. One says: ‘Oh, how my boils burn.’ Another: ‘The pain in my thigh is intolerable.’ A third: ‘I have pains higher up.’ Others remain motionless in their place. Now you see the corpse-bearers coming, and that is an evil sign. Roughly they seize corpses by the head or by the legs, and cruelly drag them through the ward. They are capable of striking you dead. To see all that is heart rending. A few minutes later and they will be bearing you to the grave, and you will be shoveled in without ceremony, like a dead ass is thrown upon the field. How callous the healthy were towards the sick outside the pest houses is also shown by a description of the plague at Marseilles. No one rendered assistance. If they were thirsty they had to moisten their tongues in the gutter like cattle. They were driven away from benches and walls, and houseowners poured out water in front of their houses or scattered the lees of wine to keep them away.[250] I mention’d above shutting of Houses up; and it is needful to say something particularly to that; for this Part of the History of the Plague is very melancholy; but the most grievous story must be told. About June the Lord Mayor of London, and the Court of Aldermen, as I have said, began more particularly to concern themselves for the Regulation of the City. The Justices of Peace for Middlesex, by direction of the Secretary of State, had begun to shut up Houses in the Parishes of St Giles in Fields, St. Martins, St Clement danes, &c. and it was with good Success; for in several Streets, where the Plague broke out, upon strict guarding the Houses that were infected, and taking Care to bury those that died, immediately after they were known to be dead, the Plague ceased in those Streets. It was also observ’d, that the Plague decreas’d sooner in those Parishes, after they had been visited to the full, than it did in the Parishes of Bishopsgate, Shoreditch, Aldgate, White-Chappel, Stepney, and others, the early Care takenb in that Manner, being a great means to the putting a Cheque to it. This shutting up of Houses was a method first taken, as I understand, in the Plague, which happened in 1603, at the Coming of King James the First to the Crown, and the Power of shutting People up in their own Houses, was granted by Act of Parliament, entitled, As Act for the charitable Relief and Ordering of Persons infected with the Plague. On which Act of Parliament, the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of the City of London, founded the Order they made at this Time, and which took Place the 1st of July 1665, when the Numbers infected within the City, were but few, the last Bill for the 92 Parishes being but 4; and some Houses having been shut up in the City, and some sick People being removed to the Pest-House beyond Bunhill-Fields, in the Way to Islington; I say, by these means, when there died near 1,000 a Week in the Whole, the Number in the City was but 28, and the City was preserv’d more healthy in Proportion, than any other Places all the Time of the Infection.[251] This shutting up of houses was at first counted a very cruel and Unchristian Method, and the poor People so confin’d made bitter Lamentations: complaints of the Severity of it, were also daily brought to my Lord Mayor, of Houses causelessly, (and some maliciously) shut up: I cannot say, but upon Enquiry, many that complained so loudly, were found in a Condition to be continued, and others again Inspection being made upon the sick Person, and the Sickness not appearing infectious, or if uncertain, yet, on his being content to be carried to the Pest-House, were released. It is true, that the locking up the Doors of Peoples Houses, and setting a Watchman there Night and day, to prevent their stirring out, or any coming to them; when, perhaps, the sound People , in the Famiy, might have escaped, if they had been remov’d from the Sick, looked very hard and cruel; and many People perished in these miserable Confinements, which ‘tis reasonable to believe, would not have been distemper’d if they had had Liberty, 233 tho’ the Plague was in the House; at which the People were very clamorous and uneasie at first, and several Violences were committed, and Injuries offered to the Men, who were set to watch theHouses so shut up: also several People broke out by Force, in many Places, as I shall observe by and by: But it was apublick Good that justified the private Mischief; and there was no obtaining the least Mitigation, by any Application to magistrates, or Government, at the Time, at least, not that I heard of. This put the People upon all Manner of Stratagem, in order, if possible, to get out, and it would fill a little Volume, to set down the Arts us’d by the People of such Houses, to shut the Eyes of the watchmen, who were employ’d, to deceive them, and to escape, or break out from them; in which frequent scuffles, and Mischief happened; of which by it self. [252] Not far from the same Place, they blow’d up a Watchman with Gun-powder, and burnt the poor Fellow dreadfully, and while he made hideous Crys, and no Body would vernture to come near to help him; the whole Family tha were able to stir, got out at the Windows one Story high; 2 that were left Sick, calling out for Help; Care was taken to give them Nurses to look after them, but the Persons fled were never found, till after the Plague was abated they return’d, but as nothing cou’d be proved, so nothing could be done to them. It is to be consider’d too, that as these were Prisons without Barrs and Bolts, which out common Prisons are furnish’d with, so the People let themselves down out of their Windows, even in the Face of the Watchman, bringin Swords or Pistols in their hands, and threatening the poor Wretch to shoot him, if he stir’d, or call’d for Help.[253] 720: Its obvious that when you use the term “shut up” youre telling a person to prevent their plague which is the essence of what they are saying, their breath is the death and their body is the house that is being all shut up. Patients & Care The most terrible consequence of the danger of infection was that the patients were forsaken by everyone, even by their nearest relations. “Then there was no love, no faithfulness, no trust. No neighbor would lend a helping hand to another. One brother had forsaken the other, husbands had forsaken their wives, wives their busbands, parents their children, children their parents. The people died not only of plague, but from all kinds of want and privation.” “The patient lay helpless and forsaken in his dwelling, no relation came near him, at the most his best friends were huddled up in some corner. The physician did not dare to visit him, the terrified priest trembling offered the Sacraments of the Church. With heart-rending supplication children called for their parents, parents for their children, the husband for the help of his wife: ‘I am athirst, give me at least one drop of water. I am still alive. Do not be afraid of me!’ At last urged by piety someone placed a mortuary candle at the head of the sick man and fled from the house.” The only creature that in such distress remained faithful to the end was the dog. Its devotion is praised in various legens of the plague.[254] The descriptions of the plague from the great cities are particularly heart-rending. “When in London in July 1665 about 2000 died every week, most houses were closed, and the streets were empty. Ojnlygreat fires were to be seen everywhere, which had been lighted for the purification of the air, and, with the exception of the men who with carts and coffins came to fetch the corpses, no living being was to be seen.[255] 234  APPENDIX POST-MORTEM REPORT OF THE YEAR 1713 Your Honors, It being resolved to elucidate more fully the present Austrian epidemic which has caused so much trouble by means of an intrepid opening of a number of infected corpses, we yester morn at 4 o’ clock hurried to the hospital well provided with all necessaries, and after having found there 2 rows of corpses, we halted between the churchyard and the corpse cart, and after having suffered considerably from the stench, we selected the following corpses. I A woman of the middle class hailing from the Contumatz neighbourhood, of vigorous age, with whitish hair, staring eyes, and gaping lips, the whole appearance terrible and menacing; the tongue was protruding from the mouth, it was of a blackish colour. On the body there were neither boils nor carbuncles to be found, nor was it marked with any spots except on the left cheek, where here and there green spots or small markings were revealed, of which some larger ones, but of a red colour, were close to the ear. These spots were only on the skin and did not reach further, as was proved by the lancet. On opening the abdomen, we found the midriff quite normal and uninjured; the stomach was not excessively distended by the swollen veins, but the lower orifice of the stomach as well as the duodenum were quite discoloured by green gall, the other intestines were quite normal except that the ileum was speckled. The large intestine was quite empty, and from the spleen to the rectum much wrinkled and contracted. The liver was quite shriveled; the gall bladder was filled with green gall; the spleen was discoloured; the kidneys were hard and shriveled; the uterus contracted and the bladder void of urine; the uterus was quite natural; the lungs, either from birth or on account of disease, had become firmly attached to the pleura on the right side. There is nothing to report in regard to the pericardium and pericardial fluid, although the hearth appeared shrunken, the right and left ventricles were fouled with polypous blood and glutinous matter resembling black sticky tar, the pleura and peritoneum were healthy; and after we had removed the top of the skull with a saw, the dura mater was found to be healthy, but the bloodvessels of the pia mater were much strained with blood similar to that in the heart; the whole brain and the medulla spinali was collapsed and, like the heart, quite shriveled. This in respect to the corpse from outside the town. II We now proceed to the body from the town. An innkeeper with the constititution of a prize-fighter, marked on both shoulders and in the middle of the chest and all over the face with black stripes; the opening of the skin revealed the subcutaneous fat and the deep fascia. Among the glands of the right groin was a terrible boil. Which on pressure at its roots swelled so greatly that we examined it more closely and found that it extended to the psoas muscle; it contained no mature matter, although already somewhat putrid, so that it had infected the whole boil and all contiguous parts. The base was marked by a large carbuncle, the spread of which had affected all the membranes as far as the sinews and surrounding veins, which were unaffected. The stomach was very greatly distended, and internally covered with black spots, the pancreas was normal, and the duodenum full of green fall. The liver appeared quite shriveled and slippery; the gall bladder was full of a blackish green gall; the spleen in better case. The large and small intestines were found to be full of black stripes in the neighbourhood of the spleen and were quite putrid and decayed; the peritoneum revealed nothing remarkable; the kidnets were in a similar condition to the liver, the bladder full of urine similar to vomited wine. In the right pleural cavity we found water resembling green gall, which water of 235 efusion in the left pleural cavity between the lungs and pleura had formed a thick membrane. The pleura and mediastinum as well as the pericardium, but not the pericardial fluid, appeared satisfactory. The heart was quite shrunken, both ventricles being full of blood which was not thick, stagnant, curdled, or mucous, as in the former case, but quite pure and liquid. In the case of the first corpse, we did not need to fear that blood flowing from the opened veins would impede us in our work, but in this corpse the blood was quite liquid and thin. III A patient who died in the hospital had in the right groin beside the abdomen a boil; its roots extended into the cavity of the abdomen, but it contained no matter. The intestines, liver and spleen were shriveled, the stomach was, so to say, internally peeled, the peritoneum and pancreas were normal, the lungs normal, the heart, as in the former cases, quite shrunken, in the ventricles, however, we found the blood pure and liquid. And this we desire to submit to the honorable College of Medicine, that they might the better be enabled to penetrate and determine the present state and peculiarities of the disease. It should further be pointed out that our lances, although subjected to the usual thorough cleansing, have assumed a bluish colouring, as if they had been dipped in strong acid. The most humble servants of the Honourable College of Medicine. VALENTIN GORGIA, Phlac. et Medicinae Doctor. FRANTZ ANTONI FUX, Barber. Vienna in Austria, the 8th of July, 1713.[256] COMPLAINT OF THE JEWISH COMMUNITY AT PRAGUE IN THE YEAR 1714, TOGETHER WITH THE REPLY OF THE MEDICAL FACULTY The community of the Jews have presented a complaint to the Royal Court to the effect that medical men refuse to attend patients in the Jewish quarter and to prescribe medicine for them. The Royal Government has communicated this rely to the Lord Rector and the Academical Senate with the comment: that as it was known that the danger of infection has now entirely ceased, the public, on the other hand, demands that vigilant watch should be kept that nothing in any way liable to introduce such diseases should be tolerated, the worshipful duly appointed Royal Government does hereby order their Excellencies and Honours the Lord Rector magnificus and the Magistrates Academicus that they should interrogate the medical faculty and from them demand reasonable explanation why medical practitioners refuse to visit the Jewish quarters and prescribe medicine for Jewish patients, and forthwith report the nature of his explanation to the Royal Governor. Ex Consilo Regiae Cancellariae, Boh-Prague, die 14 Junii, 1714. Adalbery W. Wandau. Reply of The Medical Faculty. Magnifice Domine Rector and worshipful Academical Senate! The supplication and complaint of the Jewish Elders submitted to the most worshipful Royal Government stating that the Doctors of Medicine have been forbidden to visit in the Jewish quarter and there to treat patients, having been remitted to us by you for report, we have on July 6th summoned a medical council in which we had the complaint of the Jews read and examined, and have ascertained that it is an absolute untruth that the Doctors of Medicine have ever been forbidden to atten the Jewish community and to prescribe medicine for them, and it was ascertained that no member of the faculty had 236 any knowledge of any such prohibition, so that it cannot be deduced from the fact that some doctors of medicine have refused to fo to the Jewish quarters when called upon to do so. We, on the other hand, have full justification for complaint against the Jews that they practice deceit on the doctors, refuse correct information concerning their diseases, and secret other patients or dead persons, harbor foreign Jews, and have recourse to all kinds of quacks; only when these are of no further avail and hinder the patients in their recovery or render them incurable do they come to us to seek help, at a stage when we can no longer acquire the honour of healing. Besides it must not be left out of account that in the Jewish quarter, both in the public streets and the private houses, filth has become too prevalent and gives rise to such stench that one may easily feel repugnance to enter the Jewish quarter, so that it has frequently occurred that some of us who have gone there, on account of excessive stench, have returned with catarrh or other disease. And it is no wonder if from such filth and stench the people are attacked by various diseases or infected by an epidemic of the plague. Further, the pharmacies in the Jewish quarter are badly stocked, and the apothecaries so inexperienced that they are incapable of compounding a prescription, and consequently their medicines can have no proper effect. This reply we beg submit to the worshipful Academical Senate with the submissive request that they may be pleased to suggest to the most worshipful Royal Government the advisability of instituting an enquiry concerning the vagabonds and immoral elements harboured by the Jews. With which we beg to take leave and remain, The worshipful Academical Senate’s most obedient, Medical Faculty of The Carlo-Ferdinand University of Prague. This document was forwarded by the worshipful Academical Senate to the Royal Government.[257] In many places, it was rumoured that plague patients were buried alive, as may sometimes happen through senseless alarm and indecent haste; and thus the horror of the distressed people was everywhere increased. In Erfurt, after the church-yards were filled, 12,000 corpses were thrown into 11 great pits; and the like might, more or less exactly, be stated with resepct to all the larger cities. Funeral ceremonies, the last consolation of the survivors, were everywhere impracticable.[258] Plague Remedies When science cannot help, people turn to magic. Amulets were seized upon with desperation, and were produced in enormous numbers by business like magicians and quacks. The most popular was the ancient ABRACADABRA triangle, inscribed on parchment and rolled into various, mass-produced ‘unicorn’s horn’, and countless other materials were used. When it was obvious that the Christian prayers offered by the priests could not hold off the plague, many communities slipped back to older customs. The Wend peasants ploughed a protective furrow round their villages with a 4-ox plough drawn by 6 naked virgins and a widow who had been seven years in widowhood-a custom which apparently persisted until about 1890 in the face of much disapproval from the Church. Many communities found a scapegoat, animal or human-heaped it with the clothes or other remnants of plague victims, and drove it out of the village, in the hopes that it would take the pestilence with it. Medicine was little better than magic. The cures and prophylactics were based on fantastic flights of imagination and minimal practical experience (like much modern psycho-analytical writing) Paracelsus (Theophrastus Bombast von Hohenheim), (1493 –1541) the great father of medial quackery, reported on the widespread use of dried toads to relieve the pain of the buboes, explaining that, as a live toad is moist and slimy 237 material from the body: ‘when it is full it should be thrown away and a new one applied; no one should feel disgusted at such a physic.’ In such a time of trouble, no one could afford to be disgusted at even more repulsive practices. On an obscure reasoning that evil can drive out evil, the boils of dead plague victims were cut out and dried, and administered to the sick as a remedy; in Eat Prussia the peelings from the boils were given to the healthy in milk, as a prophylactic. The belief that one poison could drive out another induced many people, particularly the poor who could not afford doctors’ bills, to spoon the pus out of the buboes of the dying and dead, and swallow it. St. Catherine of Siena (1347-1380) is renowned for having subjugated the body by drinking a bowl of pus, but it may have been merely a mundane precaution against infection.[259] Plague waters were invented at various times, to pour on handkerchiefs or into pomanders (traditionally a dried orange filled with fragrant oils) for those who had to venture out: The original Eau de Cologne was in fact invented as a specific against plague, and uses a large proportion of oil of rosemary and similar herbal oils with a reputation for healing or prophylaxis. On the other hand, with the curious double-think that afflicts a community faced with a crushing disaster, it was also believed that other foul smells could keep away the plague and its attendant reek, and many householders spent their time crouched grotesquely over the privies inhaling the fumes. Alternatively the family or patient would share their bed with a goat: the worse the smell of the goat, the better their chances of escaping alive from the plague. (M.R. Taylor, in the journal Folk-Lore, volume 40, 1929, reports that in Norfolk, up to that time, there was a belief that whooping-cough could be cured by holding the child head- downwards in the privy. This had to be genuine stinking earth closet, not a water-closet.)[260] The desperation of ordinary parents in the face of such epidemics may be read in the penitentials, which reveal mothers resorting to magic to save their children. One extreme practice, punished by a severe penance, was for the mother to place an ailing child either on the roof of the house or in the oven “to cure it of fever sickness.”[261] The knight Hans von Schweinichen relates in the story of his life how, during the great plague at Cologne in 1576, he never yielded to fear but trusted in God, for he was sure that he would not die. But every morning on rising he had “a little vinegar of wine with toasted bread together with his breakfast, and followed it up with a copious draught of wine. Thus God preserved him and his master’s servants so that not a single one of them died.’ As the plague generally abated in October, its decrease on the Rhine was attributed to the new wine. That Clement Vi should have sat between 2 huge fires during the plague does not strike us, who know how little capable the plague bacillus is of resisting heat, as foolish. But the mad fumigating for the purpose of cleansing the air from the plague poison was of little use. They burnt incense, juniper shrubs and berries, laurel leaves, fir- wood, cypress and pine, beech and aloe, lemon and orange leaves, oak leaves, wormwood, balm mint, rosemary, thyme, green rue, amber, mastic laudanum storax, birchbark, red myrrh, sage, lavender, majoram, camphor, Sulphur. The fumigations were so intensive that canaries were suffocated in the rooms, sparrows fell from the roofs and the young swallows died in their nests and the ones flew away. The common people attributed the dying of the birds to infection in the air-Helmont claimed to have observed that in the Alps the clouds which he could tough with his hand stank-and the plague doctor Diderich (1713) was only able to cure the plague missionary of this erroneous conception by making beneath a swallow’s nest on a house a big fumigating fire with the usual poisonous fumes, on which the old birds flew away and the young ones were soon found to be dead in the nest. Another method of purifying the air was the use of essences and aromatic oils of various kinds of herbs, which were made to evaporate on glowing bricks. The whole house was also rubbed down with them, and they were poured on pocket-handkerchiefs so that they might be inhaled in the streets. The plague water and essences gave the initiative for the invention of Eau de Cologne, which was first prepared by the Italian, Johann Maria Farina, about 238 1700 at Cologne. An idea of the business done by doctors and apothecaries may be formed by reading the following arrangements for a week: To be held under the nose on going out and inhaled. Sunday: In the apothecaries I have prescribed an essence consisting of rue, roses, cloves, jumiper, etc., with which a clean sponge may be impregnated, and this placed in a small box made of silver or juniper, aloe, sandal or rose wood, and held at the nose; instead of this essence a few drops of amber, juniper oil, etc., may be poured on the sponce. Monday: Scent boxes for men and women will be ready containing green rue, wormwood, rosemary, majoram, poley and thyme. Tuesday: Valerian, alant, juniper, soaked in vinegar, juniper berries. Wednesday: Juniper, lavender, or angelica oil to be poured on a sponge; red fern, milfoil, lavender, roses. Thursday: Paradise of sandal wood, pomander, black softened cumin, coriander, myrrh and incense. Friday: Orange and lemon peel, cloves mace, each separate or mixed together with a little saffron poured on a rag and moistened with essence of roses or cloves. Saturday: Valerian, wormseed, angelica, either alone or mixed with other essences, bezoin, styrax calamita, civet thiesem, pomander, etc. The scent apple (Pomus ambrae) is to be seen in numerous woodcutsof the 16th century, and in portraits, particularly of royal personages, of the 16th and 17th centuries. It has only quite recently been recognized as a protective against the plague. In Holland and England tobacco was regarded as a particularly efficacious means of protection. To the present day the Dutch anti-plague pipes of the year 1665 are preserved in the South Kensington Museum. It was not till this period that Dutch clay pipes, as Sticker relates, spread throught Westphalia to the Rhineland. Snuff was also regarded as an efficacious protection. “reason, because in infectious places the poisonous atoms fly about, and if they are caught in the nose they penetrate the body and may easily cause inflammation, therefore snuff should be used that they may be expelled at once.” The Berlin municipal medical officer, Fleck, in his treatise on the plague in 1556, exhorts his readers to pay special attention to the cleansing of mouth, teeth, and nose; he recommends several mouth washes, tooth powders, and tooth-picks. The protective measures adopted by many doctos in the large towns produced a very amusing effect.[262] As the opinion prevailed that the air was, so to say, stiff in times of plague, it was deemed necessary to set it in motion artificially and break it up. For this purpose all bells were rung; cannons, muskets, and blunderbusses were discharged. The town of Tournai boasted that by pyrotechnics of this description at dawn and sunset it had redded itself of the plague in a short time. Even a prominent physician like Sorbait supported this idea, and for him the vitiation of the air was proved not only by the astral conjunctions, but by the departure of the birds, by the dying of canaries and cats as well as by the large numbers of toads. Many people had little birds flying about in their rooms so that they might absorb the poison and keep the air in motion. It was also believed that spiders, particularly the larger and speckled species absorbed all poison in the houses, thus preserving the inhabitants from infection. “On which account they were carefully preserved as conscientions purifies of the air and permitted to spin their webs everywhere.” The same faculties of absorption were attributed to toads and lizards as was believed by Helmont; “if dried, they are brought into contact with the body, as is also the case with diamonds, almandine, sapphire and topas, and particularly with jasper engraved with a scorpion.” Dishes with new milk were frequently placed in the rooms and were supposed to absorb the poisonous air. Some experimented with warm or new baked bread, that was stuck up on a stick in the air. A piece of warm bread was laid on the mouth of the dying to catch the poison which was supposed to develop most virulently at the moment of expiration. Large flocks of oxen and cows were driven through many town, that by their breath they might improve the air. Cardanus (1501-1576) attributes the same property to the breath of horses and recommends living in a stable. In the Balkans and in many places in Germany it was believed that the air could be changed by means of stinks. Leather, boot coles, buck’s horn were used for fumigating. In the Crimea numbers of mad dogs were thrown in the streets. The maddest of all 239 was that stinking billy-goats were constantly kept in living-and bedrooms. The Chief Chancellor of Hungary is said to have had a large billy goat in his room. Gruling reports that in a butchers house where a goat was kept no one died. Rivius, on the other hand, in his book on the plague at Leipzig, states that houses with stinking billy-goats were infected. The first to sing the praises of the billy, he says, stank himself like a rutting buck, and was called Pamphilus or Loveall, but he only loved girls who smelt like goats. According to the observations of some authors, tanners and people engaged in cleaning out latrines as well as servants at inns remained immune from the scourge. The tanners doubtless owed their immunity to the tannin contained in the bark. Rommel relates that it was actually recommended to stand early in the morning on an empty stomach above a latrine and inhale the stench. “But I cannot conceive what benefit be derived from this, particulatly by sensate people, who can hardly bear it if ithe air in the room is vitiated by someone. How could such a stench prove beneficial to them which is so horrible and is due to the excrements of all kinds of persons, healthy and sick, and to all kinds of rubbish and filth which have been thrown in? Quite on the contrary I believe that such poisonous stinks are rather the cause of more easy infection, although a certain town in Holland owes its immunity from the plague, which was raging quite close to it, solely to its piggish filth; but I think this is not the reason and other causes must exist to which this should be attributed. Besides, how can that be beneficial in times of plague which is not good at other times, but disgusting, and most repulsive, so that one covers one’s mouth and nose; unless indeed any person should have a strange liking and secret affinity for such-like filth, so that his hearth would be more easily comforted by dirt and filth than by the scent of musk and amber and other refreshing things-as I myself once made the acquaintance of such a filth-lover who preferred the smell of pigs’ dung to anything else, and could thoroughly enjoy it. But here the saying is applicable: ‘What does a cow care for mace?’ Such filthmongers may be left to enjoy their stinks and may, if they wish for nothing better, absord them to their full.” But these filth therapeutists had the support of an eminent authority-Paracelsus, who taught that in times of plague all excrements, were healthy. Diederich reports of a fire philosopher who recommended “bottled wind,” but adds that he did not state how the bottling was to be done. A monk recommended goat urine; Abraham Hossmann writes; “A wash with urine does more than any other preventive, more particularly when in addition the urine was drunk.” He also relates that 2 lovers at Liegnitz during the plague determined to stay together till death. Every day they made themselves a bath of their urine and by this means were preserved from the greatest danger. Rommel writes: “Some praise most highly that man should drink his own urine of a morning , as this counteracts constipation of the liver, the spleen, etc., prevents putrefection in the stomach and elsewhere; and this may be admitted, and is certainly of greater value, than to absorb the stinks of privy places, particularly if the person is of halthy constitution.’ An ‘experienced plague physician” expresses as his opinion, ‘that at one place those who have to bury plague dead preserved themselves by means of their urine by mixing it with a little cuckoldwort, wormwood, and ironwort, after which it is strained through a cloth and a drink prepared from it.” This same much-travelled imperial physician mentions further, that in the hospital or plague house of Paris the barbers and such persons who tend the sick, and take off and clean their plasters and dirty dressings, among other preventives use their own urine, put it in a glazed pot and boil it until it is evaporated to a salt; after this they take a good knife-point full of this sale on a piece of bread which has been dipped in sweet oil and eat it early of a morning on a empty stomach, drink a good draught of herb wine, and when in contact with their patients they chew a bit of plaguewort. By those much is said in praise in Sal Urinae, and it is at the discretion of any man to do the same.” It was particulatly known of the old corpse washer of Leipzig, who had closed the eyes of more than a thousand plague patients, that “it was only by means of his urine that he preserved himself, and that every morning he drank a handful of it in the name 240 of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.” But not only by means of urine, but also by menstrual blood, the plague was said to be successfully overcome.[263] But there was still another Madness beyond all this, which may serve to give Idea of the distracted humour of the poor People at that Time; and this was their following a worse Sort of Deceivers than any of these; for these petty Thieves only deluded them to pick their Pockets, and get their Money; in which their Wickedness, whatever it was, lay chiefly on the Side of the Deceiver’s deceiving, not upon the Deceived: But in this Part I am going to mention, it lay chiefly in the People deceiv’d, or equally in both; and this was in wearing Charms, Philters, Exorcisms, Amulets, and I know not what Preparations, to fortify the Body with them against the Plague; as if the Plague was not the Hand of God, but a kind of a Possession of an evil Spirit; and that it was to be kept off with Crossings, Signs of the Zodiac, Papers tied up with so many Knots, and certain Words or Figures written on them, as particularly the Word Abracdabra, form’d in Triangle, or Pyramid thus: Others had the Jesuits Others nothing but this Marks in a Cross. Mark thus: I H S Other Remedies For toothache-he wrote-“take 2 ounces of whole millet from the apothecary and place it in a small new pan and put therein 2 glassfuls of wine and boil it all together very well; then pour ot the wine and keep it in your mouth as hot as possible.” For the itch, from which both husband and wife suffered, they were to take a rough cloth and rub themselves down with it, “and doubtless it will disappear.” And for headaches Margherita had a prescription given her by a woman called a la Ghrardesca. She was to put some black pudding in a pan with the must of some good red wine and let it stew in the over for a day and a night. Then she was to take the lye, pass it through a sieve, and wash her head with it. As for the “mothers complaint,” her doctor gave her some comfits for it, but their recipe is not given. The popular remedy-since it was believed that St. Elizabeth had also suffered from this complaint-was to wear on one’s person any small object inscribed with the following prayer, and to read it aloud, making the sign of the Cross. [264] “Yet in all this their beastly behaviour, they were wise enough to shun (so much as they might) the weake sickly. In misery and affliction of our City, the venerable authority of the Lawes, as well divine as humane, was even destroyed, as it were through wat of lawfull Ministers of them. For they being all dead, or lying sicke with the rest, or else lived so solitary, in such great necessity or servants and attendants, as they could not execut any office, whereby it was lawfull for every one to do as he listed.[265] In Rome, in the plague year 1522, a Greek, Demetrius walked through the town with a bull which had been tamed by witchcraft, and sacrificed it according to ancient custom before the eyes of all the people at the Colosseum to propitiate the hostile demons. In Lower Lusatia, in the year 1612, the following custom prevailed among the Wend peasantry: 9 persons were selected-2 young chaste farm labourers, a widow who had lived 7 years in widowhood, and 6 pure maidens. These forgathered at midnight at the end of the village. One labourer brought a plough on 4 oven; another a rod of dead wood-with this he described a circle, into which the 7 women stepped and in which they divested themselves of all their clothing. Then the widow proceeded carrying the rod, the maidens harnessed themselves to the plough and drew a furrow round the whole village, followed by one of 241 the labourers, the other remaining to guard the clothes. When the work was completed they returned without uttering a word. This custom of ploughing round the village, by which it was believed that a barrier was set up against evil powers, persisted in the central and southern Volga Government and in Siberia in 1890. The belief in devils and spirits was also greatly stimulated by the plague. Even such a man as Martin Luther (1483-1546) shared the opinion that all pestilence was brought upon the people by evil spirits, “that they poisoned the air or otherwise infected the poor people by their breath and injected the mortal poison into their bodies.” Thus in nearly all countries we meet with the belief in the “plague virgin,” who only needs to raise her hand to scatter the plague poison. The spirit was sen in the shape of a blue flame flying through the air and developing on the lips of the dying and dead. Those who saw it rushed away calling “Run, the owlet is coming.” As recently as the beginning of last century the Lithuanian peasants are said to have sung a ballad to the following effect: “In a small townb the ‘plague virgin’ once appeared, in accordance with her custom she stroked the doors and windows with her hand and made her red scarf flutter in the wind. The inhabitants shut themselves up carefully in their houses. But hunger and other necessities obliged them to go out from time to time and thus expose themselves to death. Then a young nobleman, although sufficiently provided with stores and able to sustain a long siege by the plague virgin,’ resolved to sacrifice himself for the salvation of his fellow citizens. He took his broadsword, which was inscribed with the motto ‘Jesus and Mary,’ and boldly opened the door. When the hand of the spirit appeared he cut it off and took possession of the red scarf.” The result may be guessed. The nobleman died as well as his family. But since then the little town has never again had to suffer from any visitation of the plague. As late as the 17th and beginning of the 18th centuries it was endeavoured to exclude the white spirit of the plague from the houses by spinning threads across the opening of doors and windows.[266] In London during the plague of 1665 there appeared a host of sensational pamphlets all predicting the destruction of the town. Daniel Defoe mentions particularly “Lilly’s Almanach.” He also relates how many people were driven mad by such publications and rushed about the streets prophesying all kinds of horrors. The trade of soothsaying was carried on so commonly and openly that it was quite usual to find a sign above a door saying “Here lives a prophet, and astrologer, etc.” Sensible men like Adam von Lebenwald in his “Town and Country Book of House Medicine,’ 1695, strongly opposes such wanton mischief which cost many a man his life: “Credence should not be given to every tramp, false prophet, and news reporter who of every black cloud construct a bier, of every so-called shooting-star a flying dragon or a comet, from the reflection of starlight foretell I know not what judgment and infliction, and in every fiery celestial phenomenon see an opening of the heavens, and who then in uneven rhymes chant these miracles to the populace, even causing lying sheets to be printed by which they inspire the simple with great fear and tribulation, but themselves reap a rich harvest of money; verily the devil and his accomplices can conjure up marvelous and deceptive phantasms and imaginations in the elements with which to render us pusillanimous and superstitious.”[267] Extraordinarily popular were the various amulets and heart-bags which were sold and prescribed mainly by quacks, old women, and begging friars, but also by physicians. Guy de Chauliac, who no longer believed in the sorcery and magic which, particularly later on in the 16th and 17th centuries, claimed so many victims in Europe, yet recommended to follow the advice of Hermes, and in times when the sun was in the sign of the Lion and the moon did not turn towards Saturn to don a belt of lion-skin, which in pure goldand as clearly cut as possible stones had such a magic effect that an emerald which he placed on his tongue and held in his mouth appeased the violent grief which he felt at the death of his son, praises the hyacinth-stone “because it bears such similitude to the human spirit, gives hoy and comfort and, worn near the heart, preserves from plague.” Particularly pregnant women should wear all kinds of precious stones on neck and hands, and as often as possible touch the left breast with 242 them. In their drinking-cups they should at all times have “real unicorn,” for this revives the heart and corporeal spirits and preserves from pestilential infection. If they fall ill, they should drink red wine in which a new steel has been cooled several times; should hold bloodstones in their hands and frequently pass them from one hand to the other. Should also put ground red coral in their wine. A certain bone from the head of a toad attached to the breast is said to protect against every infection. Paracelsus writes “that against timid imagination or anxiety, which kills the greater part of humanity, the venomous tongues of snakes attached to the body are very good.” When Henry II of France was besieging Metz and the plague broke out in his army, the leaders as well as the sick attendants are said to have protected themselves by wearing hollowed-out hazel-nuts filled with “live mercury” round their necks. Others recommended arsenic or tragacanth made into a paste and wound round with silk, to be worn on the heart. Thus the Sibylla made a great mystery of nine letters which are said to have been the word “Arsenicum.” Celebrated Italian physicians, based on the principle that one poison counteracts another, are said to have attached great value to arsenic, and Pope Hadrian VI is said to have been preserved by an arsenic amulet that he wore above his heart. Daniel Defoe relates how in London during the Great Plague such amulets were worn by nearly everyone, particularly also spells, signs from the zodiac, papers fastened with so and so many knots on which certain words or figures were inscribed, among which the mysterious triangle “Abracadabra” was specially prominent: Fig. 82.). Left: The Abracadabra Triangle: A charm. It is said that Abracadabra was the supremem deity of the Assyrians. Q. Severus Sammonicus recommended the use of the word as a powerful antidote against ague, flux, and toothache. The word was to be written on parchment, and suspended round the neck by a linen thread, in the form given here Fig. 83.). Right: Many words and phrases relating to rituals, talismans and pentacles have a symbolic meaning, either in themselves or in the way they are used, which is expressed either phonetically or, more frequently, graphically. This word was in frequent use during the Middle Ages as a magic formula. It is derived from the Hebrew phrase abreq ad Habra, meaning ‘hurl your thunderbolt even unto death’. It was usually inscribed inside an inverted triangle or was set out so that it formed a triangle. The great Florentine satirist Poggio relates in his “Facetiae,” under the title “Plague Talisman,” the following story: “When recently staying at Tivoli on a visit to my children, whom I had sent there from Rome, on 243 account of theplague, I heard a curious story which I must insert in my “Tales and Stories.” A few days before a monk, one of those whowander about in the country and preach in the neighbouring villages to the peasants, had promised them an amulet, as they care called; if they wore it round their necks they could never die on the plague. The peasants, a stupid lot were tempted by it, bought the amulets and wore them attached by a new string round their necks. The monk had said that no one was to open the amulet before 14 days had elapsed, otherwise it would lose its power. He raked in a great quantityof money and decamped. As a very important and very rational means of preservation it was considered that in times of plague the bowels should be kept particularly open; “for during constipation the body is subject to infection by illness, and particulatly in times of plague it is very dangerous for a man to be swollen up and filled with moisture.” A curious preventive measure was the blistering of the thighs by means of Spanish flies, burning herbs, or surgical operation. The wounds were kept open artificially during the whole duration of the plague, and fresh butter of lard was rubbed into them. Thomas Plater relates of a member of some order who pierced the testicles of all his brethren in the monastery, and also operated on many other people, instead of using a seton he used a white hellebore and thus preserved them from the plague. The more filthy and disgusting the substances prescribed the greater the power of healing appeared to be. The physicians of Perugia attributed the deadliness of the plague to small worms, which they maintained they had found in particularly large numbers in the vicinity of the heart. To some extent they were quite good, but for the most part they’re call the words of Goether’s “Faust”: Here was the medicine, the patients died, And no one asked: Who then was healed? And thus with devilish confections We raged within these mountains and these dales Much worse than e’er the plague. Fig. 84.). Right: A 6 Point star sigil for abracadabra, I point this in because of the mention of broomsticks as this may had been part of a chant for witches and broomsticks The more filthy and disgusting the substances prescribed the greater the power of healing appeared to be. The physicians of Perugia attributed the deadliness of the plague to small worms, which they maintained they had found in particularly large numbers in the vicinity of the heart. Against these worms theriaca as well as the juice of scabiosa and hyssop was prescribed. Chrysopolitanos prescribes as a remedy of great virtue strong capon essence: 244 “Take a good fat capon or agood fowl, cut up into small pieces, grind the bones thoroughly, then place it in a glass retort to distil, and if it be desired to make the essence still stronger, pearls, ducats, red corals, or precious stones may be added, and this essence should be frequently administered to the patient. A heart warmer may be made in the following manner: Take: Flesh coloured wild roses Borade blossoms Ox tongue blossoms Rosemary blossoms Balm mint blossoms of the herb, 2 drachms of each Camphor, 2 ½ drachms Best balm, 1 scruple Hyacinth powder Prepared emerald Prepared garnet, ½ scruple Red and White ground sandal-wood Red coral, 1 drachm Saffron, 2 drachms Ground silver Ground gold leaves, 2 of each. With all these things a heart-warmer is made in the form of a little silk bag. Then take a warm brick, sprinkle it with rose water, and lay the bag on the brick, and when it has become heated place on the heart of the patient.” The bezoare stone was held in high esteem. The celebrated English physician Boyle was, however, of opinion “that a stone that had grown in a human being was of much greater avial in times of plague.” The plague elixir of Tycho de Brahe was frequently applied, and was supposed to produce a beneficial turn in the disease by inducing the patient to sweat. The main drug against plague, and one which was used in all countries without exception, was theriaca of snakes. In the first instance, the supposed obvious healing properties of this remedy may be attributed to religious considerations. “Not only did the serpent bring down upon us great and eternal tribulation by the fall of our first ancestors, but there is also a lasting enmity between man and the serpent, because its bite is injurious to us and its sting is mortal. But, however injurious it may be to us, we may yet expect some good from it; for, not to mention that if with true eyes of faith we gaze on the serpent raised on Mount Golgotha we are delivered from all poison in our souls and from the sting of conscience, and may become capable of the grace of God and eternal bliss, the snake is of great importance and use in medicine, as it is found to be efficient against diseases, especially against poison.” The most remarkable phramacopaeic production of the 17th century, “La Theriaue Francaise,” by Pierre Maginet, an apothecary of Salins, 1623, sings the praise of all the virtues and qualities of this renowned remedy and gives a lucid description of its preparation: The master well skilled in the theriac art, The female alone for his work sets apart, When in spring from its deeply hid lair it escapes On the fresh greening meadows its coils it now shakes. No young must she bear in her body as yet, 245  And her eyes must be red as the sun at its set, Her neck must by slender and her tail of such shape That, though moderate of length, like a lance it should tape. I state it quite clearly, a head broad and smooth, For by this the distincition ‘twixt viper and serpent is couth. And now to prepare without further delay On the back of the beast with a rod he must lay To excite it to anger, that the poison may swell And flood with its inrush throat and fangs well. Though the teaching of Paracelsus it became usual to lay dried toad on the plague boils. “For the other plague which has collected and formed a centre,” he writes, “toads should be take which have been dried thoroughly in the air of the sun and they should be laid on the boil, then the toad will swell and draw the poison of the plague through the skin to itself, and when it is full it should be thrown away and a new one applied; no one should feel disgust at the use of such physic, For thus God has ordered it hat the poison of the plague should be drawn out by dried toads are not to be procured. I have seen that a cock was taken and its posterior plucked and thus bare and alive applied, and that the cock died and collected all the poison in itself. Living sparrows are said to have the same effect.” If during the plague delirium and inflammation of the brain ensue, “a young pigeon should be taken and torn asunder and, still warm, applied to the head, in the same matter a puppy dog of one month old may be used.[268] In times of plague in many places country dances were instituted by the community with the express aim to dispel the general depression. It was thus that the Scheffertanz and the Metzgersprung at Munich originated, as well as the plague dance at Immenstadt and the siebentanz at Kreuzwetheim. The inhabitants of Wertheim are said to have danced round a pine-tree in the forest till the Black Death left their little town. Also in the neighbourhood of Basle, near Pratteln, great plague dances were held on the Witch’s Mead during the times of plague, according to popular local tradition.[269] In the year 1598 when a fatal epidemic was raging at Neustadt, near Marburg, a sorcerer by name John Kohler actually persuaded the burgomaster and leading citizens to assay this magic operation. All fires upon the hearths and elsewhere having been extinguished sparks were produced by friction and from these a pyre was kindled between the gates of the town and all the cattle driven through the smoke and flames. Throughout the town all fires were relit by means of brands which had been taken from the public bonfire. It is not surprising to learn that this piece of witchcraft had no good effect; the pest raged as before; and the only result appears to have been that grave suspicion attached itself to Kohler who in December 1605 was burned having been found guilty of midnight conjurations and necromancy.[270] Some Anglo-Saxon magic was simple and mechanical: Against warts. Take the water of a dog and the blood of a mouse, mix together, smear the warts with this; they will soon disappear. Sometimes the curse mingled mechanical with religious elements: If a man is troubled by tumours near the heart, let a girl go to a spring that runs due east, and let her draw a cupful of water moving with the current, and let her sing on it the Creed and an Out Father. Or: A pleasant drink against insanity. Put in ale hassock, lupine, carrot, fennel, radish, betony, water-agrmony, marche, rue, wormwood, cat’s mint, elecampane, enchanter’s nightshade, wild teazle. Sing 12 Masses over the drink, and let the patient drink at it. He will soon be better.[271] 246  The belief that corpses and parts of corpses constitute a most powerful cure and a supreme ingredient in elixirs is universal and of the highest antiquity. The quality of directly curing diseases and of protection has long been attributed to a cadaver. Tumours, eruptions, gout, are dispelled if the afflicted member be stroked with a dead hand. Toothache is charmed away if the face be touched with the finger of a dead child. Birthmarks vanish under the same treatment. Burns, carbuncles, the herpes, and other skin complaints, fearfully prevalent in the Middle ages could be cured by contact with some part of a corpse. In Pomerania the “cold corpse hand” is a protection against fire, and Russian peasants believe that a dead hand protects from bullet wounds and steel. It was long though by the ignorant country folk that the doctors of the hospital of Graz enjoyed the privilege of being allowed every year to exploit tone human life for curative puposes. SSome young man who repaired thither for toothache or any such slight ailment is seized, hung up by the feet, and tickled to death! Skillled chemists boil the body to a paste and utilize this as well as the fat and the charred bones in their drug store. [272] The Prince of Orange, at the wiege of Breda, in 1625, cured all his soldiers, who were dying of the scurvy, by a philanthropic piece of quackery, which he played upon them with the knowledge of the physicians, when all other means had failed. Van der Mye’s account of the siege of Breda. The garrison, being afflicted with scurvy, the Prince of Orange sent the physicians two or three small phials, containing a decoction of camomile, wormwood, and camphor, telling them to pretend that it was a medicine of the greatest value and extremist rarity, which had been procured with very much danger and difficulty from the East; and so strong, that two or three drops would impart a healing virtue to a gallon of water. The soldiers had faith in their commander; they took the medicine with cheerful faces, and grew well rapidly. They afterwards thronged about the prince in groups of twenty and thirty at a time, praising his kill, and loading him with protestations of gratitude.[273] “If a person suffer from disease, either local or general, let the following remedy be tried. Take a magnet, impregnated with mummy,* and mixed with rich earth. In this earth sow some seeds that have a congruity or homogeneity with the disease; then let this earth, well sifted and mixed with mummy, be laid in an earthen vessel; and let the seeds committed to it be watered daily with a lotion in which the diseased limb or body has been washed. Thus will the disease be transplanted from the human body to the seeds which are in the earth. Having done this, transplant the seeds from the earthen vessel to the ground, and wait till they begin to sprout into herbs; as they increase, the disease will diminish; and when they have arrived at their full growth, it will disappear altogether.” *Mummies were of several kinds, and were all of great use in magnetic medicines. Paracelsus enumerates six kinds of mummies; the first four only differing in the composition used by different people for preserving their dead, are the Egyptian, Arabian, Pisasphaltos, and Libyan. The fifth mummy of peculiar power was made from criminals that had been hanged; “for from such there is a gentle siccation, that expungeth the watery humour, without destroying the oil and spirituall, which is cherished by the heavenly luminaries, and strengthened continually by the affluence and impulses of the celestial spirits; whence it may be properly called by the name of constellated or celestial mummie,” The sixth kind of mummy was made of corpuscles, or spiritual effluences, radiated from the living body; though we cannot get very clear ideas on this head, or respecting the manner in which they were caught.[274] The following was the recipe given by Paracelsus for the cure of any wounds inflicted by a sharp weapon, except such as had penetrated the heart, the brain, or the arteries. “Take of moss growing on the head of a thief who had been ganged and left in the air; of real mummy; of human blood; still warm of each, one ounce; of human suet, two ounces; of linseed oil, turpentine, and Armenian bole(notes: raw beef or marrow fat)-of each, two drachms. Mix all well in a mortar, and keep the salve in an oblong, narrow um.” With this salve the weapon, after being dipped in the blood from the wound, was to be carefully anointed, and then laid by in a cool place. In the 247 mean time, the wound was to be duly washed with fair clean water, covered with a clean, soft, linen rag, and opened once a day to cleanse of purulent or other matter. Of the success of this treatment, says the writer of the able article on Animal Magnetism, in the twelfth volume of the Foreign Quarterly Review(notes: 1846), there cannot be the least doubt; “For surgeons at this moment follow exactly the same method, except anointing the weapon!”[275] “Some there were who considered with themselves, that living soberly, with abstinence from all superfluity; it would be sufficient resistance against all hurtfull accidents. So combing themselves in a sociable manner, they lived as separatists from all other company , being shut up in such houses, where no sicke body should be neere them. And there, for their more security, they used delicate viands and another, not looking for at the windows, to heare no cries of dying people, or see any coarses carried to burial; but having musicall instruments, lived there in all possible pleasure. Others, were of a contrary opinion, who avouched, that there was no other physicke more certaine, for a disease so desparate, than to drinke hard, be merry among themselves, singing continually, waking everywhere, and satisfying their appetites with whatever they desired, laughing and mocking at every mournful accident, and so they vowed to spend day and night: for now they would go to one Taverne, then to another, living without any rule or measure; which they might very easily doe, because every one of them (as if he were to live no longer in this world) had even forsaken all things that hee had By means whereof, the most part of the houses were become common, and all strangers might do the like (if they pleased to adventure it) even as boldly as the Lord or owner, without and let or contradiction.[276] It was quite widely believed that the body had four ‘humours’ and if these became unbalanced, you became ill. A patient’s urine was used to determine whether there was indeed an unbalance. Bleeding (with or without leeches), sweating and induced vomiting were the remedies of choice to re-balance the humours.[277] One Anglo-Saxon cure “for head wark” (headache) was to crush together some beetroot and honey, smear the juice all over the patient’s head, and then have them lie on their back in the sun and let the juice run down their face. If the headache only affected one half of the head, however, it was best to smear a mixture of laurel oil and vinegar all over their cheeks. But what if your headache is the result of a head wound? No problem. Just smush up some betony leaves, smear them on the injury—and stuff some cress up your nose. Aside from smearing a raw hare’s gall (liver secretions) on your face, cataracts or “mistiness of the eyes” can apparently be cured by mixing the ash of burnt periwinkles with bumblebee honey and rubbing it directly into your eyes. Can’t find any fresh periwinkles to burn? Try “the fatty parts of all river fishes melted in the sun” as a substitute. For swollen eyes catch a live crab, cut off its eyes, and put them against the neck of the patient—but only after returning the blinded crab to the water, of course. For earache use Garlic, onion, and goose fat might sound like the start of some fine French recipe, but melted together and squeezed directly into the ear, they’re apparently the perfect cure for earache. If you think that sounds unpleasant, it’s probably still preferable to the other salves on offer—dripping crushed ant eggs or the mushed up gall of a bull, a buck, and a boar into the ear canal also did the trick. “If blood run from a man’s nose too much,” the leechbook advises, “poke into the ear a whole ear of barley, so he be unaware of it.” One remedy for sore throats, swellings, quinsy, tonsillitis, and other types of “neck sickness” is to take “a white thost,” dry it out, crush it up, mix it with honey if necessary, and rub it on the patient’s neck—a “white thost” being another word for album graecum, a white lump of dog excrement. The dog who provided the poop, however, “must gnaw a bone ere he droppeth the thost,” otherwise the remedy won’t be effective. All kinds of herbals remedies were recommended for “mickle hicket” (hiccups), each one depending on what started the hiccups in the first place; a number of different causes of hiccuping were identified, including “It 248 cometh from the very chilled maw or from too much heated maw” (a cold or hot stomach), “from too mickle fulness, or too mickle leerness” (eating too much, or being very hungry), and “evil wet or humour rending and scarifying the maw” (probably a reference to a stomach bug, or burning acid indigestion). If someone is hiccuping because they’ve eaten too much, then “a good spew” apparently works, whereas if they’re hiccuping because of an indigestion that feels “like it scarifieth … within the maw,” then get them to drink some lukewarm water, and then “put a feather in oil, poke him frequently in the throat [with it] that he may spew.” For shoulder pain “Mingle a turd of an old swine which be a fieldgoer with old lard” and smear it on the affected area. Apparently a salve made from cream, brass filings, and old soap can help fix a corn on your hands and feet. A mixture of dog urine and mouse blood smeared on warts should get rid of them. “In case that a man cannot retain his urine,” burning the claws of a boar or another swine and sprinkling the ashes into his drink would solve the problem; alternatively, he could try eating a fried goat’s bladder, or a boiled ram’s bladder. For women, however, the cure wasn’t quite so bad—an infusion of garden cress steeped in warm water would do the trick. One of a number of treatments recommended for swellings was to remove the canine tooth of a live fox, bind it in the skin of a fawn, and hold it against the affected part. For a snakebite Wash “a black snail” (i.e. a slug) in holy water and get the victim to drink it. For a spider bite, mix a hen’s egg and some sheep excrement into a bowlful of ale, and get the victim to drink it without knowing what it is. Good luck with that … A salve of burnt goat excrement, wheat stalks, and butter, heated over a fire and smeared onto the skin was apparently an effective way of treating a burn. As well as drinking an infusion of fennel and feverfew, typhus could be treated by having the patient write out a prayer while saying the names of the four gospels, and then hold the paper against their left breast—so long as they did so outdoors, and never brought the paper inside the house. If a man has a tendency to “overdrink himself,” get him to take a swig of an infusion of betony leaves before his next drink. But if all else fails, try eating five slices of roasted pig’s lung in the evening. An Anglo-Saxon hair restorer was made from a mixture of burned bees and willow leaves mixed with oil, which was smeared onto the head after a bath. This salve—which probably dates back to Roman times—was presumably based on the fact that willow catkins and bumblebees are themselves covered in soft fluffy hairs. This being the 9th century, what Bald’s Leechbook labels as “fiend sick”—or “when a devil possess the man and controls him from within”—were probably psychological problems with no apparent physical cause, like epilepsy, hysteria, or schizophrenia. In any case, the treatment was typically the same: an infusion of various plants and herbs including lupins, betony, fennel, and lichen was boiled together and given to the patient to drink out of a church bell. To cure a “lunatic,” try killing and skinning a “mereswine” (a porpoise—mereswine literally means “sea pig”) and making a whip out of its skin. Whip the patient with it, and “soon he will be well. Amen.” Transform yourself into a healer by picking up a dung beetle and its dung ball, and, holding it your hands, say aloud, “Remedium facio ad ventris dolorem” (“I remedy for a bad stomach”). Then throw the beetle over your shoulder without looking at it, and for the next year, whenever someone has a bad stomach, you’ll be able to cure it simply by laying your hands on their belly.[278] 249  Fig. 85.). A coffin collar was used to prevent grave robbers from stealing corpses. Gravediggers Gravediggers and carters to carry the corpses could only be recruited from the class with nothing to lose, criminals, vagabonds, and beggars, and they made the best use of their opportunities to rob not only the corpses, but any house into which the sickness had penetrated, knowing well that no neighbours or officials would dare to enter such a house to interfere. These ghouls soon became almost as much as object of fear as the plague itself. They were reputed in particular to rape any moderately attractive females in the stricken houses, whether alive, dying, or already dead, and terrifying stories of this are detailed by most of the authors on the plague, with a conscientiously shocked tone. In view of the disgusting state of the bodies of plague victims, the tales seem unlikely: what is probable is that the grave-carriers stripped the bodies of any reasonably well to do women, because of their expensive petticoats and other clothes. This would be seen as suffiecintly depraved and sacrilegious to start a flock of atrocity stories in the medieval towns. Ravens and kites flew over the streets, and half-wild dogs roamed the cities, getting their sustenance by gnawing the corpses that remained unburied. Those people who had so far escaped the plague shut their doors against possible carriers and the treats of the burial gangs, so that many poor wretches died in the streets of the disease, or even of starvation and exposure, practically under the windows of their neighbours. It was indeed a time to stay indoors and look after ones own. [279] One’s heart is rent at the sight of so many mothers with the corpses of their children beside them, whom they must see die off without being able to help them.” In Vienna also the streets and squares, gardens and vineyards teemed with the sick and dying. “It has been seen,” writes Abraham a Santa-Clara, “that small children were found clinging to the breast of the dead mothers where the innocent little angels could not know that with such drink they were drinking death. It has been seen that when the dead mother was placed on the cart her little daughter tried to accompany her by force, and with a lisping tongue continued to cry, ‘Mammy, mammy,’ bringing water to the eyes of the rough, hardned corpse- bearers. It has been seen that in the street near the Imperial Market of Himberg a forsaken little baby boy was found together with a goat, which shaggy nurse the little fellow seemed to be beseeching for a drink in baby manner, in the same way as Romulus and Remus were fostered by a wolf. There have been such a quantity of orphans that they were collected by cart-loads and in the hospital formed a small army of children, most of these were besieging the churchyards where they may easily gain admission, such as had recently lost their mothers and were well on the way of returning to the lap of our common mother, earth.” It was terrible to see, whole carts full 250 of nobles and citizens-rich and poor, young and old were led through the streets. When the disease had reached its climax it carried off those infected within 24 hours. No one remained to cook, to mind the houses. “Such a one is dead, another dying,” was all that was said. The 7 gates of the city seem insufficient to allow the dead and sick pass out. Every day there were intercession services; every day the bells tolled. To the loud beating of drums high payment was offered to all who would consent to serve as corpse bearers and sick attendants. The town-guard had to round up the unemployed of the servant class, lead several surgeons in chains to the hospitals, and ultimately the prisons had to be thrown open and condemned prisoners set to do the repulsive work.[280] In the cemetery of Eisleben on the 6th inst. at night the following incident was noticed: When during the night the gravediggers were hard at work digging trenches, for on many days between 80 and 90 have died, they suddenly observed that the cemetery church, more especially the pulpit, was lighted up by bright sunshine. But on their going up to it so deep a darkness and black, thick fog came over the graveyard that they could hardly see one another, and which they took to be an evil omen. Thus day and night gruesome evil spirits are seen frightening the people, goblins grinning at them and pelting them, but also many white ghosts and spectres, so that it is assumed that the plague might abate. The plague poison is so virulent that in comparison the former plague was but mere child’s play, as quite recently a citizen infected by the poison, on relapsing into an arm-chair, in the same moment swelled up and burst. The eyes of the dead as well as those of the still living infected persons are all burst asunder. Medicines are no longer of avail, nor does anyone desire to use any, as the infection poison has been found to be unconquerable. In short, nothing is heard in Eisleben but the weeping and wailing of those still alive, and the gibbering of the evil spirits, of the laughing goblins-so that every town and community should pray to merciful God for preservation. Wolferstedt, near Altstadt, has now been infected; in Mittelhausen, Enersdorf, Leuningen, Wallhausen, etc., the plague is raging. Also at Homborg, near Obervort, the inhabitants of the houses, with the exception of 8, have been exterminated; in Mertenriez all inhabitants with the exception of 7. In Manfeld and Leinbach, ,in the neighbourhood of Eisleben, the plague continues. At Hottstedt 2 whole streets have been exterminated. At Madgeburg things threaten to become as bad as at Eisleben. When Magister Hardte expired in his agony a blue smoke was seen to rise from his throat, and this in the presence of the dea; the same has been observed in the case of others expiring. In the same manner blue smoke has been observed to rise from the gables of houses at eisleben all the inhabitants of which have died. In the church of St. Peter blue smoke has been observed high up near the ceiling; on this account the church is shunned, particularly as the parish has been exterminated.” [281] Fig. 86.). Cemetery guns, as well, were designed to keep bodysnatchers at bay. These were set up at the foot of a grave, with three tripwires strung in an arc around its position. 251  Everywhere the gravediggers and nurses were taken from the dregs of the population-they were largely liberated galley slaves, as no one else would undertake so dangerous a service. “Only on the galleys are people to be found who are so weary of themselves and their lives that they are not terrified by any danger. Life is indifferent to them; when once relieved of their chains they delight in their new profession in which they are fed, clothed, and lodged as they have never been before in their lives. It is most important to preserve the life of a criminal if he is to sacrifice it in the service of those attacked by the plague” (Antrechau). The gravediggers were called “Becchini” or “Monatti.” The latter designation is said to be derived from the solitude in which they were obliged to live, as no one was allowed to speak to them. In Toulon they were called ravens; in Russia where they were more dreadful than plague and death, they were known as Mortus. The most impressive description of the atrocities committed by the Monatti is to be found in Manzoni’s “Betrothed.” An examination of the sources of this description, which makes our hair stand on end, proves that Manzoni remained far behind reality. Let us hear the celebrated French surgeon, Ambroise Pare, on the conditions in Paris: “The worst of all is that the rich, the higher town officials and all persons vested with official authority, flee among the first at the outbreak of the plague, so that administration of justice is rendered impossible and no one can obtain his rights. General anarchy and confusion then set in and that is the worst evil by which the commonwealth can be assailed; for that is the moment when the dissolute bring another and still worse plague into the town. They penetrate into the houses, rob and plunder to their hearts’ content, and frequently cut the throats of the sick. In the town of Paris people have been found who with the help of these worthy elements would inform their enemy that he is suffering from the plague, although there was nothing the matter with him. And on the day when he should have appeared in the law court they had him seized by these villains and carried to the hospital by force. How could he, an isolated individual, offer resistance against a crowd. If on the way he appealed for the assistance and pity of the people in the streets, the murderers prevented him and shouted louder than he, so that no one could understand him; or they maintained that the disease had rendered him delirious. By such means they succeeded in driving him to the hospital, where he was locked up with those suffering from the plague. A few days after he would die from despair or in consequence of the infection, his death having been previously paid for in hard cash.” But, without being bribed, the Monatti penetrated into the houses of the healthy, and dragged husbands, wives, and children to the plague hospital if they were refused money. The business was so lucrative that young men of the criminal calss took to it. They fastened bells to their feet and moved about the streets as if they were Monatti, vested with public authority, penetrated into the houses, robbed, violated, and blackmailed to their hearts’ content. At Milan it happened on several occasions that such pretended and real gravediggers met in the same house and engaged in bloody conflicts. All chroniclers relate of the callous and repugnant manner vivors to see the Monatti dragging the corpses of the dead along the ground, fearful to hear no other bells than those worn by these monsters on their legs. From all countries it is reported that the gravediggers threw infected matter from their carts so as to stimulate the epidemic which from them was a time of luxury. Their spite was particulatly directed against the rich, who suffered less from the epidemic. The people, who largely believed that the disease was artificially produced by the rich, assisted them in their criminal behavior and approved of their maxim that the rich should die as well as the poor. The violation of female corpses was the order of the day, and it happened that women in a comatose state, recovering consciousness at the momet of violation, were actually killed by terror. In Vienna many of the plague workers who had been as serving nurses had to be arrested, as they had rendered more than 300 women pregnant. Daniel Defoe relates that watchmen who were appointed to guard the locked-up houses broke into them and hurled corpses still warm into the corpse cart. Even at the beginning of the 18th century it still occurred that 252 the attendants, “to help the patients to get over it more quickly, placed a piece of a deaths head (skull) under the pillow; squeezed the noses of those too weak to resist, under pretence of absorbing poison; placed moist bread in their mouths or simply turned the very weak upon their faces; all these abominable crimes were, according to Saxon laws, punishable by execution with the sword or on the wheel.” From the Mark Brandenburg it is reported that during long epidemics people, having grown tired of constant burying, did not only take the dead to the burying trenches, but also the living who had lost all strength, more from starvation than from the plague, and threw the living and the dead together into the graves so as to save the trouble of frequent journeys, leaving them to perish there or even burying them alive, although many might have recovered. In Thorn in 1580 a blind attendant at the hospital of St. George was tortured with burning tongs, and then drawn and quartered for having strangled 40 people and violated 2 maidens of tender age. At Vienna on the 1st December, 1679, the Master of the Lazaretto was hanged at the gate of his hospital because, in addition to other frauds, he had entered 246 patients too many in his books. The memorial tablet on his grave, which is written in Latin, terminates with the following verse in German: Here lies buried in the grave A Man who stole like any knave, And though the plague his life did spare, The hangman claimed him as his share, Of our plague house he was the head, And yet he stole the childrens bread. A case reported from Regensburg is particularly typical: “A street-sweeper of the name of Zacherl was appointed gravedigger at the pest-house; he was at constant loggerheads with the cook. When the latter died of the plague he laid her over his shoulder and carried her to the plague burying ground; he stripped her naked of her clothes and, as he only found one single small coin on her, he tore a strip from her chemise, rolled it up like a sausage and inserted it in her uterus, the coin he thrust into her nostril and, hurling her into the trench, he said: ‘Lie there, you beast; you never would cook me a good soup.’” “At Magdeburg during the plague epidemic of 1625 a maid, who had been sent by her master to fetch beer, encountered in the house where she was to fetch it a company of gravediggers and plague attendants, one of whom seized her and forced her to dance with him. At the end of the dance he threw his cloak over her head, breathed in her face and said in a rough voice: ‘Ha, wench, that will do for you; you’ll have to pay for it.’ The maid was so terrified that she fell ill as soon as she returned home and died the night after.”[282] This brings these 2 men to a farther Remembrance: The Name of one was John Hayward, who was at that Time under Sexton, of the Parish of St. Stephen coleman street; by under Sexton, was understood at that Time Grave digger and Bearer of the Dead. This Man carry’d or assisted to carry all the Dead to the Graves, which were bury’d in that large Parish, and who were carried in Form; and after that Form of Burying was stopt, went with the Dead Cart and the Bell, to fetch the dead Bodies from the Houses where they lay, and fetch’d many of them out of the Chambers and Houses; for the parish was, and is still remarkable, particularly above all the Parishes in London, for a great number of Alleys, and Thoroughfares very long, into which no Carts cou’d come, and where they were oblig’d to fo and fetch the Bodies a very long Way; which Alleys now remain to witness it; such as Whites Alley,. Cross key Court, Swan Alley, Bell Alley, White Hose Alley, and many more: here they went with a king of Hand barrow, and lay’d the Dead Bodies on it, and carry’d them out to the Carts; which work he performed, and never had the distemper at all, but lived about 20 year after it, and was Sexton of the Parish to the Time of his death. His Wife at the same time was a nurse to infected People, and tended many that died in the Parish, being for her honesty recommended by the Parish officers, yet she never was infected neither. [283] 253  Fig. 87.). A drawing of a 2 body snatchers leaving the cemetery with a body in a bag It was under this John Haywards Care, and within his Bounds, that the Story of the Piper, with which People have made themselves so merry, happen’d, and he assur’d me that it was true. It is said, that it was a blind Piper; but as John told me, the Fellow was not blind, but an ignorant weak poor Man, and usually walked his Rounds about 10 a Clock at Night, and went piping along from Door to Door, and the People usually took him in at Public Houses where the knew him, and would give him Drink and Victuals, and sometimes Farthings; and he in Return, would Pipe and Sing, and talk simply, which diverted the people, and thus he liv’d: It was but a very bad Time for this Diversion, while Things were as I have told; yet the poor Fellow went about as usual, but was almost starv’d; and when and Body ask’d how he did, he would answer, the Dead Cart had not taken him yet, but that they had promised to call for him next Week. It happen’d one Night, that this poor Fellow, whether somebody had given him too much Drink or no, John Hayward said, he had not Drink in his House; but that they had given him a little he had not Drink inhis House; but that they had given him a little more Victuals than ordinary ast a Public House in Coleman street; and the poor Fellow having not usually had a Belly full, or perhaps not a good while, was laid all along upon the Top of a Bulk or Stall, and fast a sleep at a Door, in the Street near London wall, towards Cripplegate, and that upon the same Bulk or Stall, the People of some House, in the Allet of which the House was a Corner, hearing a bell, which they always rung before the Cart came, had laid a Body really dead of the Plague just by him, thinking too, that this poor Fellow had been a dead Body as the other was, and laid there by some of the Neighbours. Accordingly when John Hayward with his Bell and the Cart came along, finding 2 dead Bodies lie upon the Stall, they took them up with the Instrument they used, and threw them into the Cart; and all this while the Piper slept soundly. From hence they passed along, and took in other dead Bodies till, as honest John Hayward told me, they almost buried him alive, in the Cart, yet all this While he slept soundly; at length the Cart came to the Place where the Bodies were to be thrown into the Ground, which, as I do remember, was at Mountmill; and as the Cart usually stopt some Time before they were ready to shoot out the melancholy Load they had in it, as soon as the Cart stop’d, the Fellow awaked, and struggled a little to get his head out from tamong the Dead Bodies, when raising himself up in the Cart, he called out, Hey! Where am I! This frighted the Fellow that attended about the Work, but 254 after some Pause John Hayward recovering himself said, Lord bless us. There’s some Body in the Cart not quite dead! So another call’d to him and said, Who are you? The Fellow answered, I am the poor Piper. Where am I? Where are you! Says Hayward; why, you are in the dead Cart, and we are a going to bury you. But I an’t dead tho’, am I? says the Piper; which made them laugh a little, tho’ as John said, they were heartily frighted at first; so they help’d the poor Fellow down, and he went about his Business.[284] Before the Anatomy Act of 1832, the only legal supply of corpses for anatomical purposes in the UK were those condemned to death and dissection by the courts. Those who were sentenced to dissection by the courts were often guilty of comparatively harsher crimes. Such sentences did not provide enough subjects for the medical schools and private anatomical schools (which did not require a licence before 1832). During the 18th century hundreds had been executed for trivial crimes, but by the 19th century only about 55 people were being sentenced to capital punishment each year. With the expansion of the medical schools, however, as many as 500 cadavers were needed annually.[2] Interfering with a grave was a misdemeanour at common law, not a felony, and therefore only punishable with a fine and imprisonment rather than transportation or execution. The trade was a sufficiently lucrative business to run the risk of detection, particularly as the authorities tended to ignore what they considered a necessary evil. Body snatching became so prevalent that it was not unusual for relatives and friends of someone who had just died to watch over the body until burial, and then to keep watch over the grave after burial, to stop it being violated. Iron coffins, too, were used frequently, or the graves were protected by a framework of iron bars called mortsafes, well-preserved examples of which may still be seen in Greyfriars churchyard, Edinburgh. Visitors to the older Edinburgh graveyards must have noted their strange resemblance to zoological gardens, the rows of iron cages suggesting rather the dens of wild animals than the quiet resting-places of the dead. Mort houses, such as the circular Mort House in Aberdeenshire built in 1832, were also used to store bodies until decomposition, rendering the cadavers useless for medical dissection. One method the body snatchers used was to dig at the head end of a recent burial, digging with a wooden spade (quieter than metal). When they reached the coffin (in London the graves were quite shallow), they broke open the coffin, put a rope around the corpse and dragged it out. They were often careful not to steal anything such as jewellery or clothes as this would cause them to be liable to a felony charge. The Lancet[3] reported another method. A manhole-sized square of turf was removed 15 to 20 feet (5 to 6 m) away from the head of the grave, and a tunnel dug to intercept the coffin, which would be about 4 feet (1.2 m) down. The end of the coffin would be pulled off, and the corpse pulled up through the tunnel. The turf was then replaced, and any relatives watching the graves would not notice the small, remote disturbance. The article suggests that the number of empty coffins that have been discovered "proves beyond a doubt that at this time body snatching was frequent". In the 1530s while studying in Paris, Vesalius was accustomed to robbing the Paris graveyards with fellow anatomy pupils. Body snatchers in France were called "Les Corbeaux" (the crows). Violation of graves could result in a year's imprisonment plus a stiff fine. In Dublin, Ireland, the medical schools of the 18th and 19th centuries were on a constant hunt for bodies. The Bullys' Acre or Hospital Fields at Kilmainham was a rich source of anatomical material as it was a communal burial ground and easily accessed. Soldiers attached to the nearby Royal Hospital were always on the alert for grave robbers mainly because many of their comrades were buried there. In November 1825 a sentry captured Thomas Tuite, a known resurrectionist, in possession of five bodies. When searched his pockets were found to be full of teeth–in those days a set of teeth fetched £1 (about £50 in 2011). Many other 255 graveyards were targets of the medical students or those who made robbing graves their profession. The largest cemetery in Ireland, Glasnevin Cemetery, laid out in the 18th century, had a high wall with strategically placed watch-towers as well as blood-hounds to deter body snatchers.[285] There were various methods used by determined body snatchers; one method used was to dig at the head end of a recent burial, using a wooden spade – quieter than those made of metal. When they reached the coffin (in London the graves were quite shallow), they broke open the coffin, put a rope around the corpse and dragged it out. They were often careful not to steal anything such as jewelry or clothes as this would cause them to be liable to a felony charge. These events led to the more wide-spread introduction of vaults being used as resting places for the dead. The introduction of the Anatomy Act in 1832 was ultimately the answer to the practice of stealing corpses for profit, the ‘industry’ now being controlled by the Human Tissue Authority. However, this was not the end of people digging up rotting bodies for other reasons, as we will see later. Resurrectionists have also been known to hire women to act the part of grieving relatives and to claim the bodies of dead at poorhouses. Women were also hired to attend funerals as grieving mourners; their purpose was to ascertain any hardships the body snatchers may later encounter during the disinterment. Bribed servants would sometimes offer body snatchers access to their dead master or mistress lying in state; the removed body would be replaced with weights. After the public hanging of 39 Dakota warriors in the aftermath of the Dakota War of 1862, a group of doctors removed the bodies under cover of darkness from their riverside grave and divided the corpses among themselves. Doctor William Worrall Mayo received the body of a warrior called “Cut Nose” and dissected it in the presence of other doctors. He then cleaned and articulated the skeleton and kept the bones in an iron kettle in his office. His sons received their first lessons in osteology from this skeleton.[286] Fig. 87b.). Flintlock Grave Robber's Trap Gun 256  Plague Pits Fig. 88.). A Map showing all the locations of Plague Pits discovered only in London. St Paul's Church, Confirmed use as one of the five plague pits located in Stepney, used between 1664 - 1666. Shadwell Christchurch Established in 1640 to provide additional burial space for nearby St Margaret's, part of the site Gardens, was designated as a plague pit in 1665 and is now a public garden. Also buried here is the Westminster Crown jewels thief, Colonel Thomas Blood, although he died somewhat later in 1680. Although the specific location of the Stepney Mount pest fields are unsure, it is thought that Stepney Mount they were in the area surrounding St Philip's church. If true, this would have been one of the largest plague pits in London and would have covered acres of grounds. Owned by Westminster School, at least some of these playing fields are located above a Vincent Square, former plague pit called Tothill Fields. The rest of the pits are situated underneath nearby Westminster government buildings. As its name suggests, this area was once home to a pest-house where infected or sick people Pesthouse Close / would have been taken to be quarantined and studied. Although first built in 1593, the pest- Marshall Street house played a vital role in attempting to quarantine the outbreak in 1665. Bodies were then Leisure Centre, Soho buried at an adjoining common cemetery between Poland Street and Marshall Street. Holywell Mount, 38 A burial ground for centuries, Holywell Mount was used heavily during the 1664 - 1666 Scrutton Street, outbreak of the Great Plague. There is still an open area which can be seen from 38 Scrutton Shoreditch Street, although the rest of the site has now been built over. 257  Fig. 89.). This picture is of Holywell Mount in 1665 and comes with the enscription 'View of the manner of burying the dead bodies at Holy-well mount during the dreadful Plague in 1665'. During the Great Plague, the church of St Dunstan's donated a large amount of its lands for St Dunstan's, interring those who succumbed to the outbreak. These plague pits are now beneath the dog Stepney walking area around the church. Once the site of St. Bartholomew's Hospital Ground, the area was used as a large plague pit between 1664 - 1666. Reputedly a rather shallow grave, residential buildings on top of the Seward Street / site have only recently been constructed. From Daniel Defoe's A Journal of the Plague Year: Mount Mills, between Shoreditch 'A piece of ground beyond Goswell Street, near Mount Mill... abundance were buried and Finsbury promiscuously from the parishes of Aldersgate, Clerkenwell and even out of the city.' Thousands of bodies are thought to lie here.' St John's Church, Although the majority of St John's church was destroyed by WW2 bombs, the site of the Scandrett Street original 1665 plague pit can still be seen directly opposite from the church's remains. Knightsbridge A small plague pit dating from around 1664, thought to have been used as a burial ground for Green, those who died at the nearby Knightsbridge lazarhouse (leper colony), (once part of the Knightsbridge Westminster Abbey estate). Gower's Walk Pest The burial site for thousands of plague victims, now occupied by warehouse apartment Field, near Aldgate conversions. East As described by Daniel Defoe in his book, A Journal of the Plague Year. 'A terrible pit it was, and I could not resist my curiosity to go and see it. As near as I may judge, it was about forty feet in length, and about fifteen or sixteen feet broad, and at the time I first Aldgate looked at it, about nine feet deep; but it was said they dug it near twenty feet deep afterwards Underground Station in one part of it, till they could go no deeper for the water; for they had, it seems, dug several large pits before this. For though the plague was long a-coming to our parish, yet, when it did come, there was no parish in or about London where it raged with such violence as in the two parishes of Aldgate and Whitechappel.' Sainsbury's, The purported location of a 17th century plague pit containing human burials. Whitechapel 258  The church's own website states that over a thousand people were buried in pits in St Giles St-Giles-in-the-Fields graveyard. This delightful little square is situated in the centre of Soho and has a secret history as a 17th century plague pit. As Lord Macaulay wrote in 1685: '[it was] a field not to be passed without a shudder by any Londoner of that age. There, as in a Golden Square, Soho place far from the haunts of men, had been dug, twenty years before, when the great plague was raging, a pit into which the dead carts had nightly shot corpses by scores. It was popularly believed that the earth was deeply tainted with infection, and could not be disturbed without imminent risk to human life.' The largest mass grave in London during the Black Death. It is thought that around 50,000 Charterhouse bodies are buried here. The pit was unearthed during Crossrail building work in March 2013 Square, Farringdon when the Museum of London were brought in to excavate and study the remains. All Saints Churchyard, It is reported that 149 victims of the Great Plague were buried here in 1665. Isleworth 37-39 Artillery Lane, The site of a 14th and 15th century plague pit, although excavations in the 1970's also Bishopsgate, City of uncovered a large Roman cemetery which was backfilled in the mid 2nd century. London Vinegar Alley, Named after the huge amounts of vinegar that were used around the plague pit in an attempt Walthamstow to contain the spread of the disease in 1665. Cross Bones Better known as an unconsecrated memorial to the thousands of prostitutes who lived, Graveyard, worked and died in Southwark, there is also evidence to suggest that Cross Bones was used as Southwark (pictured a plague pit. Specifically, the lease for Cross Bones passed to the churchwardens of St below) Saviour's parish in 1665 during the height of the Great Plague. Fig. 90.). The Cross Bones Graveyard Memorial reads: In medieval times this was an unconsecrated graveyeard for prostitutes or “Winchester Geese”. By the 18th century it had become a paupers’ burial ground, which closed in 1853. Here, local people have created a memorial shrine. 259  A small triangular piece of land (now known as Islington Green) used as a plague pit Upper Street, Angel in the 17th century. Contrary to popular legend, the name 'Blackheath' is in no way related to the Black Death! However, it is thought that this area was used to the disposal of plague Blackheath victims during both the Black Death in the 14th century and the Great Plague in the 17th century. Submitted by @JaneWriting1 on Twitter. Clay Ponds, Brentford A massive and ancient burial site which was partially excavated in the 1830's. It is likely that at least some of this site was used as a plague pit certainly in the 17th century and possibly in the 14th century. Submitted by @halomanuk on Twitter. Green Park Discovered in the 1960s during the construction of the Victoria Line. Excavated bones dated back to the 17th century, suggesting that this was a plague pit. Bakerloo Line, London At the south end of the depot lie two tunnels; one leads to Elephant and Castle whilst Depot, near Elephant the other is a dead end and acts as a runaway lane for trains that are unable to stop. & Castle Behind the walls of the this tunnel lies a plague pit. National Maritime Frommer's 2012 guide to London reports that a giant pit lies below Greenwich's Museum, Greenwich National Maritime Museum, although this is unconfirmed. (unconfirmed) As confirmed by Defoe's History of Plague, where he wrote: Hand Alley (now New 'The upper end of Hand Alley in Bishopsgate Street was then a green field, and was Street), Bishopsgate taken in particulary for Bishopgate parish, though many of the carts out of the City also brought their dead thither also...' As its name suggests, Pitfield Street in Hoxton was once the home to a large plague pit dating from 1665 - 1666. This has been confirmed by Hackney Council, and today Pitfield Street, Hoxton local residents are warned to 'keep off the grass'! Many thanks to Cory Doctorow for helping us identify the exact location of the pit, as well as an unidentified submitter who tipped us off to the site. According to many sources, including Wikipedia, many of the office blocks towards Houndsditch the north western corner of Houndsditch do not occupy full plots due to a littering of (unconfirmed), City of plague pits in the area. What is certain is that Houndsditch was once used to dispose London of dead dogs during Roman times, hence its name. 260  Fig. 91.). A bereaved father answering the grim cry, "Bring out your dead! Bring out your dead!" in 1348. One of three plague pits arranged by Edward III, Pardon burial ground (also used for criminals Pardon Plague Pits, and the poor) was to the North of Old Street between St John's Street and Goswell Road. This The City one was huge - and used for burials for many centuries. Another one of the Black Death plague pits arranged by Edward III. This one at East Smithfield The Royal Mint, East was probably the largest and has been excavated by Museum of London Archeology service. Smithfield The report shows that burials were very systematic, and not at all like the plague pits associated with the Great Plague. Queen's Wood, It is reputed that a mass of bones from a plague pit were found here during the 19th century, Highgate although this has never been confirmed. On an unrelated note, Queen's Wood is one of the (unconfirmed) last remnants of the once massive 'Great Forest of Middlesex'. Armour House Pit, "In the 1980s I worked in Armour House which was at the junction of St Martins LeGrand and The City Gresham St. We explored the sub basement and found a soil area that appeared to be bridged (unconfirmed) by the building. We were puzzled by this. Some time later we found a floor plan of the sub basement and this showed the soil area as a Plague Pit!" 261 Shepherd's Bush Green It is said that planning applications for new build properties on Shepherd's Bush Common are (unconfirmed) repeatedly turned down for risk of disturbing the plague pit beneath. Located just south of the roundabout connecting Dulwich Wood Park and South Croxted Road Gypsy Hill Plague Pit lies a reputed plague pit. We struggled to find any hard evidence to support this claim, (unconfirmed)