The Epidemics of the Middle Ages

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Trübner & Company, 1859 - Black Death - 360 pages
 

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Page 79 - They formed circles hand in hand, and, appearing to have lost all control over their senses, continued dancing, regardless of the bystanders, 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 clothes bound tightly round their waists, upon which they again recovered, and remained free from complaint until the next attack.
Page 311 - A Chronicle of the Kings of England From the time of the Romans Government unto the Death of King James.
Page 30 - ... fixed on the ground, accompanied by every token of the deepest contrition and mourning. They were robed in sombre garments, with red crosses on the breast, back, and cap, and bore triple scourges, tied in three or four knots, in which points of iron were fixed. Tapers, and magnificent banners of velvet and cloth of gold, were carried before them ; wherever they made their appearance, they were welcomed by the ringing of the bells ; and the people flocked from all quarters to listen to their hymns,...
Page 43 - 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.
Page 43 - ... 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 carried off, most of them alone and deserted...
Page 116 - In the fifteenth century, a nun in a German convent fell to biting her companions. In the course of a short time all the nuns of this convent began biting each other. The news of this infatuation among the nuns soon spread, and excited the same elsewhere ; the biting mania passing from convent to convent through a great part of Germany.
Page 38 - ... 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 two 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.
Page 80 - Tongres, and many other towns of Belgium, the dancers appeared with garlands in their hair, and their waists girt with cloths, that they might, as soon as the paroxysm was over, receive immediate relief on the attack of the tympany. This bandage was, by the insertion of a stick, easily twisted tight: many, however, obtained more relief from kicks and blows, which they found numbers of persons ready to administer; for, wherever the dancers appeared, the people assembled in crowds to gratify their...
Page 105 - ... pining away in a desponding state of lassitude. Many became weak-sighted or hard of hearing, some lost the power of speech, and all were insensible to ordinary causes of excitement. Nothing but the flute or the cithern afforded them relief.* At the sound of these instruments they awoke as...
Page 79 - While dancing they neither saw nor heard, being insensible to external impressions through the senses, but were haunted by visions...

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