THE BLACK DEATH IN MELBOURNE

Evening Post, Volume XIII, Issue 36, 12 February 1876, Page 5 (Supplement)

THE BLACK DEATH IN MELBOURNE

. For the last two or three month the attention of meteorologists ii Autralia, as in England, has beei forcib.y directed to the striking re semblance offered between the atraoa pheric phenomena and te'luric dis turbances which have been observe* since the commencement of the pre sent year, and those which precedec the outbreak of the great epidemic o 1348. There have been the sarrn terrific downfalls of rain, the sam< inundations, the same sudden aur violent fluctuations in the tempera ture, the same swarms of locusts, am the same earthquakes which are re corded by the old chroniclers, such as yillani, Mezerai, Vitoduran, Williarr of Nrfngis, and others, as having hap p-'ned then. This coincidence ha? been commented upon in the press, and also by one or two members o1 tho- medical faculty ; and there wert not wanting persons who prognosticated that we were about to pass through a period of deadly epidemic, WARNINGS SCOFF KB AT ! But, generally speaking, these vaticinations were scouted as emanating from the disordered minds of visionaries and alarmists. It was. contended, and not without some show of reason, that there was no parity between the condition of a newly-popnlated country like Australia and that of a continent which had been peopled for thousands of years, like Europe ; that the excessive mortality of the middle age was attributable to the dirty habits and the general ignorance of hygienic laws of our forefathers, and that if a pestilence should break out at the other end of the world, we could exclnde it from our shores by the adoption of proper quarantine regulations. DREADFUL SANITARY CONDITIONS ! But on the other hand it was argued that the sanitary condition of Melbourne and its suburbs was so disgraceful and deplorable that we could not calculate on any such immunity, that the germ theory of zymoti j disease had been demonstrated to be the true one, that these deadly germs are wafted in the atmosphere for immense distances, that they settle, germinate, and multiply by fission, with awful rapidity, wherever they find diseased or automio twsus : aud that there are tens of thousandsjof persons in this city and its environs, who are predisposed by habitually breathing contaminated air, and by drinking wat«r tainted with f'cecal matter, to receive and co offer all the conditions which are favorable to the growth and propagation of these poison-germs. It was pointed out that, in spite of the repeated warnings given by the Press aud by the medical profession, the sub-soil of Melbourne and itS suburbs was saturated with selvage matter ; that the drainage of the higher districts found an outlet on the flats around the city, where it lay reekiusj and ffSterjug in the sun ; that the river throughout its sluggish and' serpentine course from Dight's Mills to its outlet in the Bay, was one mass of pollution — a distillery of pestilental vapors on the largest possible scale ; and that the atmosphere was loaded with those microscopic organ isms the inhalation of which is more to be dreaded than a draught of aqua to/ana. It was further asserted that if the summer should prove to be exceptionally hot and exoepi tioualiy humid, the people would die off like rotten sheep. ' • FEARS REALISED ! Unhappily these predictions have been already verified to the letter, and men's minds are distracted by apprehensions that the worst is not over, Up to the prtaent time, although th«

weather has been absolutely tropical, we have not had a single hot -wind day. Such of us who still remain in the city move about as if they were in a vapor-bath, mentally depressed by the appalling spectacle which.meets one's eyes, and physically debilitated by the relaxing heat and moisture. And it was iii the second of tiiese terrible days, just three weeks ago, that the Black Death first manifested its presence among us. On the previous evening the city had been enveloped in a thick arid stinking mist, which the epidemiologists immediately recognised as closely resembling that described in Schunrer's 'Chronik dei Souchen' as having preceded the Blacls Death in Italy. THE OUTBREAK! Next morning three cases of whal appeared to be a uqw malady wen reported in Little Bourke-street. Th< first symptoms were a violent bleed ing from the nose ; then the forma tion of large tumors in the groii and in the armpits • then a profusioi of black and blue spots appeared 01 the arms and legs ; and these wen the immediate precursors of death Medicine proved unavailing either t< •relieve the sufferers or to arrest th spread of the disease. It communi cated itself to the very dogs, cats, am fowls in the neighborhood of the pel sons smitten with the plague, -whici spread like wild-fire in all directions Everything the patient had touche* was a source of contagion. His ver; breath was deadly ; and the mor superstitious declared that the eyes .c the dying men were capable of im parting the disease. From othe parts of the city and from the oul lying suburbs came pouring in re p .its of additional cases, the symj toms being everywhere the same although, in some instances, th haemorrhage from the noxo was supei seded by vomiting of blood; but, i all cases, it had a fatal issue. Ever person smitten by the epidemi perished. UNIVERSAL TERROR! Very reluctantly and sorrowful 1; the. medical faculty were compelled t come to the conclusion that the Blacl Death was upon vs — that malad; \vhich, between the years 1347 an< 1350, carried off 25,000,000 of the pec pie of -Europe. By the end of the weel the public mind had become so frenzie< by the excessive mortality, and by tin knowledge that we had deliberately invited the pestilence, and bad pre pared the way for its establishment chrit an angry crowd, to the nunibe of 5000, surrounded the Town Hall and demanded that the Mayor am Corporation should be handed over t( them for condign, pnuishrnent foi ' having^negllcted to provide for th< proper drainage of the city, but upor being assured that the Civic Parlia ment had iled to Gipps Land by rail way, the malcontents separated. Ar extraordinary session of the Legisli ture was convoked by the Governor, and it was found that three members of the Ministry had succumbed to tht epidemic, and that it was impossible to get together a quorum of eithei House, owing to the numerous deaths which had taken place among the members of each, and to the absence of many of the survivors from Melbourne. FLYING TO TASMANIA! In the meantime a complete panic had taken possession .of the public miud. The number of deaths was daily on the increase, many of the medical men had fallen victims to the malady, and all .were overworked in their heroic but ineffectual efforts to stay the plague. Business was entirely suspended, and every train into the interior swarmed with fugitives from the doomed city. But tod often they carried the seeds of the deadly epidemic with them, and thus it was rapidly disseminated through the country districts. Every steamer in, the port was laid on the berth for Tasmania, and rapidly filled up with passengers, but the Government of that colony was on the alert, and absolutely forbade the landing of any person from the plague-smitten mainland. Hence the fugitives were obliged to return disappointed and dismayed to the affected city. FRIENDS DESERTING. It would be 8 difficult, indeed, impossible, to describe the total disinlegration of society which has taken place since the outbreak of this terrible epidemic. Terror and the instinct of self-preservation have risen superior to all other considerations. The ties of family and friendship have suapped like rotten thread. Sauve gui pent has been the universal cry. All the inachiuery of daily life has been deranged. We are .indebted for our supplies of food to people at a distance, the intermediary agents being a corporation of nightmen and scavengers, whose previous occupation seems to have rendered them, like Mithridates Epator, poison-proof ; the money paid for our commissariat is dropped into basins of vinegar, and of course the prices demauded are simply exorbitant. SILENCE IN THE STREETS. The principal thoroughfares of the city are silent and deserted; the* banks', auction marts, met chants' warehouses, and leading shops are closed ; property is unsaleable at any price ; and there is no British or foreign shipping in the harbor. None of the churches are op«n on a ,

Sunday, for the few people who re-,, main in the city from a sense of duty, or because they ai-e destitute of the means of quiting it, are afraid to meet each other, much more to congregate in any number. PRAYER ABANDONED. At "first it was proposed to set apart a day of solemn fast and humiliation, and to supplicate heaven that the plague might be arrested, but the solemn mockery of such a proceeding, in view of the fact* that we had brought the calamity upon ourselves, by our scandalous, violation of natural and therefore Divine laws, became so apparent, that the proposition was abandoned. Indeed the proposer was one of the first to removrs his family t«> the breezy heights of Mount Macerlon. The ordinary rites of sepulture have been suspended; and an immense fosse has been opened in Richmond Park, where the dead are laid in rows, unooffiued, and are covered with quick-lime. Large fires are kept burning at the intersections of the principal thoroughfares — for all traffic is entirely at an end — in which die wearing apparel, bedding, and chamber furniture of those who perish by the black-death are promptly consumed. PUBLIC OFFICES CLOSED. The public offices are closed. Maili are no longer made up for the interior and a few adventurous operators ai the telegraph office furnish us witl the only means of communicatiot with the adjoining 1 colouies and witl Europe. Fortunately, the epidemic although transmissable, it is said bj letter, cannot be conveyed by wire and we learn through this channe the profound interest and sympathj which our disasters have awakenec in the minds of our fellow-countrymet at home. It only remains to give th< figures of the mortality since the out break of the epidemic. At the sam< time.it must be borne in mind tha these are only approximate estimates The actual deaths, we have ever] reason to fear, are much more nurae /rous than the .following imperfect re turns would lead us to believe i-^— Deaths between Dec. 2 and Dec. 8 ... S')! Deaths between Dec. 9 and Dec. 15 ... 94 Deaths between Dec. 10 aad Dec. 22 ... 152! Total 287 THE AWAKENING. For the foregoing tale of horror w< are not responsible. We clip it fron a recent issue of the Melbourne Argus and surely that is an authority. It if therein given aa being extractec " from the Summary for Europe <>: the Argus, 23rd December, 1878. 1 We have not yet received a copy oi the issue of that date. When we do we shall tell our readers all about ie, Meantime, let them clean up their back yards, cleanse their sewers, anc generally guard against the coming oi THE BLACK DEATH !