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American Review.

Art. I.

A Brief History of Epidemic and
Pestilential Diseases; with the
principal Phenomena of the Physi-
cal World, which precede and ac-
company them; and Observations
deduced from the Facts stated.
In two vols. 8vo. By Noah
Webster. Hartford. Hudson
and Goodwin. 1799. pp. 700.

THIS work, not more from the
nature of the subject than
from the mode in which the subject
is discussed, will excite extraordi-
nary curiosity, and lay claim to an
uncommon portion of attention.
The practical deductions which it
is designed to enforce, are of imme-
diate and universal importance;
and the indirect instruction which
it conveys as an oeconomical, mo-
ral, and historical performance, is
no less valuable.

The author is no physician, and
though every species of knowledge,
and especially the knowledge of
medicine and chemistry, could not
fail to be useful to him in the per-
formance of his task, yet it was,
by no means, necessary. Inas-
much, perhaps, as the work is

wanting in technical precision and
refinement, it is calculated to be
generally useful. Popular curi-
osity is more attracted, and its
cravings more fully and convenient-
ly gratified in proportion as the garb
is more familiar and intelligible.

The author begins his work with
stating the various opinions which
philosophers, physicians, and tra-
vellers have adopted in relation to
the theory of pestilence; and con-
cludes his catalogue with the follow-
ing remarks, in which his own
design is unfolded to the reader:

“From this lengthy statement of
opinions in regard to the origin and
causes of pestilence, opinions weak,
contradictory, absurd, or inaccu-
rate, what conclusion shall be
drawn? This, most evidently, that
the subject is not understood. Per-
haps it never will be understood:
but, surely, a subject so interesting
to the life and happiness of man,
deserves most critical and laborious
inquiry. A subject which concerns
the lives of millions of the human
race, ought not to be abandoned,
by the man of science, until every
effort to find the truth shall have
been exhausted. Yet, strange as it

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may appear, even a history of pes-
tilence, that all-devouring scourge,*
which has swept away a large por-
tion of the human race in every
age, is yet a desideratum in our li-
braries.

“To supply, in part, this defect,
and to stimulate further researches
into the origin of this frequent and
formidable calamity, I will recite
such historical accounts of the
plague, as an imperfect examination
of authors has enabled me to collect.
And, as the most accurate observers
of the operations of nature have
suggested the probability that pes-
tilential epidemics are caused by
some occult qualities in the air, or
by vapour from the internal parts
of the earth, or by planetary influ-
ence, it is absolutely necessary to
inquire how far such suggestions
are supported by facts. For this
purpose, I shall note, as I proceed,
any extraordinary occurrence or
phenomena in the physical world,
as earthquakes, eruptions of vulca-
noes, appearance of comets, violent
tempests, unusual seasons, and other
singular events and circumstances
which may appear to be connected
with pestilence, either as cause or
effect, or as the effect of a common
cause.

“The result of this process will
probably be a refutation of some
of the foregoing opinions, and the
establishment of such as are more
rational and philosophical.”

The ensuing remarks on the de-
fects of travellers and historians,
seem to be superfluous; and are
suggested too much by that spirit
which every student displays, of
depreciating every object of pursuit
but his own. War and political
intrigues, the ambition of princes
and demagogues, cannot be de-
scribed with a disgusting minuteness.
Measured by their influence on hu-
man happiness, their importance

very far surpasses that of any phy-
sical agent; and, considered with
regard to utility, it is far more pro-
per to exhibit the mischiefs of am-
bition and misgovernment, which
are susceptible of remedy, than the
influences of comets and vulcanoes,
which come and go, burst forth
and subside, without the leave, and
in defiance of the wisdom of mor-
tals.

The historical view of epidemics
is introduced by an account of those
which occurred before the christian
æra. A very ingenious use is made
of the few particulars relative to this
subject to be found in the sacred
writings. A pious mind, however,
will not be highly pleased with the
light in which certain scriptural re-
lations are placed. The author's
motives were good, but he has al-
lowed himself to be drawn aside
from his proper subject into reflec-
tion, whose tendency is opposite to
that supposed by him. By tracing
the resemblances between the ordi-
nary phenomena of the present age,
and which are supposed to flow
from natural and established laws,
and those recorded by Moses and
the prophets, he imagines that he
has done much to convince those
modern superficial philosophers who
hold in contempt the most authen-
tic ancient history, because it has
claims to inspiration.

“Infidels,” he proceeds to say,
“if they were not too wise to read,
examine, and be informed, might be
convinced of the authenticity of the
scripture history, by comparing the
facts related with the present state
of the world. The present ende-
mical and other diseases which often
occur in Egypt, answer so exactly
to the description given of them in
the books of Moses, as to leave no
room to question the genuineness
of those books. It was the peculiar
climate of Egypt, and the usual

  * A scourge neither devours nor sweeps.

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prevalence of scorbutic and malig-
nant complaints, in that country,
which occasioned all the minute in-
junctions of Moses, in regard to
washing, cleansing, and purifica-
tions. The same or similar regu-
lations were enjoined by the laws of
Egypt.”

Does Mr. Webster forget that in-
fidels have laboured to prove, by
the means here used, that credit is
due to the Mosaic writings merely
as an ancient history, and to inter
the natural origin of that which the
scriptures ascribe to a supernatural
origin, from the resemblance of
these narrations to other ancient
histories, and of the facts it records
to facts observed by ourselves, and
for which we deem ourselves able
to account without resorting to mi-
raculous and extraordinary agency?
Does he forget that these people
deny not the likelihood of plagues
in Egypt, but that, with him, they
derive them from the influence of
seasons, air, and domestic habits,
and not, like the sacred writers,
from disobedience to divine com-
mands, announced by a prophet?
It is a strange assertion for the friend
of religion to make, that in the
passages which he quotes from the
prophets, we have proof that, in
their times, it was considered as a
well known fact, that pestilential
diseases are the effects of crowded popu-
lation; and that the season when
the robbers of the ark were afflicted
with plague, proves that the climate
of ancient and modern Syria is the
same. In truth, a believer in the
scriptures will regard the whole
scheme of Hebrew government as
theocratical, in which famine, pesti-
lence, and war, were distributed
by an unseen judge, as punish-
ments for sins, for violations of po-
sitive precepts, on the same princi-
ples as theft, homicide, &c. are
punished by human judges. Ad-
herence to the ten precepts would
secure to them exemption from

these evils, and infraction would
incur them, without regard to soil,
climate, or the state of neighbour-
ing nations. It is true, that piety
considers physical evils as judg-
ments of God upon crimes against
himself, and that philosophy endea-
vours to trace the hand of heaven
through the medium of second
causes; but philosophy is frivolous-
ly employed, since it is only of
moment to investigate the primary
cause. That being removed, the
secondary or instrumental will, of
course, be impotent and harmless.

The ceremonials of the Jewish
law are believed to be annulled at
present; but if religion teaches that
divine government still subsists,
and avenges disobedience in this
way, that eloquence is surely mis-
placed which exhausts its rage
against narrow streets, marshy
exhalations, scarcity of running
streams, and disuse of baths. These
are secondary instruments, motion-
less and harmless; but when set to
work by a superior cause, and this
cause is the divine will, exerted for
the punishment of irreligion. It
would be a strange imagination,
that by widening streets, dispersing
houses, emptying the pools, drying
up the bogs, and checquering the
surface of the whole earth with
rivulets and fountains, we should
rob our Maker of his weapons, and
might sin with impunity, because
our Judge is bereaved of his imple-
ments of punishment.

These ideas have, in truth, much
influence upon mankind. In our
own country, there are many per-
sons who believe pestilence to be
wholly a supernatural visitation;
who, therefore, are inattentive to
provide for their safety by visible
means; who refuse, as impious, to
contend with immediate or se-
condary causes.

The lessons of true religion are,
perhaps, different; and it is not
only true, but useful, to inculcate

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that the adequate punishment of
sin will be inflicted not in this, but
in another state; that physical evils
are sometimes the growth of gene-
ral laws; that, in pursuance of these
laws, which, on the whole, are best,
pain sometimes falls to the good, and
pleasure to the wicked; that any
seeming disproportion or injustice
arising hence will be rectified by a
more equitable distribution hereaf-
ter. It is likewise proper to teach
that there are other physical evils,
the immediate cause of which it is
within our power to discover and
to obviate. That, in these cases,
the existence of the remedy is as
much the growth of general laws,
and a part of the scheme of provi-
dence, as the existence of the evil;
that failing to exert our faculties to
discover and to apply the means of
safety, is a species of guilt; that to
allow a fever to destroy us, because
we will not receive the Peruvian
bark, or shut up or withdraw from
the scene of disease, is criminal dis-
obedience to him who gave us the
love of life, the capacity of happi-
ness ourselves, and the power of
promoting that of others.

The purpose of the work before
us is to shew how far pestilence is
one of these physical evils which
admits of remedy. For this end the
causes are investigated, by compar-
ing the events and situations with
which pestilential epidemics have
been attended in the different pe-
riods of history. However we de-
cide upon the evidence of histori-
ans, in relation to other regions and
times, we must object to any prac-
tical conclusion drawn from the
Jewish history. If the causes of
pestilence, in the present times, and
in all nations, were the same as then
existed in Egypt and Palestine, and
in relation to the Israelites, the dis-
quisitions of philosophy, and espe-
cially of this work, would, as to

any practical or useful tendency, be
idle and absurd. Neither can we
derive, from this source, any clue
to the question, “Whether Egypt
produces the plague?” The origin,
as assigned by scripture, of what are
called the ten plagues of Egypt (one
of which was palpable darkness,
and another the death of the first
born by an angel), will not surely
enable us to judge of the origin of
modern plagues in that country.
The allusions made by the prophets
to the diseases of Egypt, are, at most,
evidences of their opinion, on a phy-
siological subject. On such sub-
jects it was never believed that their
opinions were infallible. On the
contrary, on topics of this nature
their education made them more li-
able to mistake than to judge truly.
Mr. W. however, seems to think,
or rather positively avers, that
“These authorities, of high anti-
quity, leave no room for doubt or con-
troversy on the question whether
Egypt originates * the plague.”

Mr. W. proceeds to state what-
ever information, respecting epide-
mical diseases, he could collect from
Plutarch, Livy, Dyonisius, Hero-
dotus, and some modern compilers.
These are interspersed with judici-
ous remarks, and comparisons of
this event with other remarkable
phenomena of nature. The follow-
ing passage exhibits his peculiar opi-
nions, as to the connection which
subsists between convulsions of the
elements and pestilence.

“It will be found as we proceed
with this history, that most of such
extraordinary seasons and unusual
concurrence of great agitations in na-
ture, happen during volcanic erup-
tions, and the approach of comets
to the solar system, of which this
globe is a part. That comets were
visible during the calamitous pe-
riods mentioned in the Roman his-
tory is probable; but unfortunately

  * Originate is a neuter or intransitive, and not an active verb.

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few instances are recorded, until
after the christian æra. Not an
eruption of Vesuvius is mentioned,
and I cannot find more than four-
teen instances of eruptions from
Ætna, anterior to the same æra. This
defect of history is of no small con-
cern in a treatise of this kind.”

In describing the loss, by pesti-
lence, of Romans and Carthageni-
ans, in Sicily, A. U. C. 548, he
remarks,

That “this period of pestilence
was distinguished by the appearance
of immense swarms of locusts,
which overspread the whole coun-
try about Capua. Their appear-
ance was subsequent to the plague
mentioned in the armies. We shall
have frequent occasion to mention
the same phenomenon in the natural
world, as cotemporary with pesti-
lence. But clouds of these animals
rarely or never appear at any other
time than during or near the time
of the prevalence of plagues; and
by comparing the dates of their ap-
pearance, it will be found that they
are not, unless by accident, the
cause of plague, nor the effect; but,
like other animals which are gene-
rated in myriads, during pestilence,
the produce of some general cause,
and probably of that state of the
elements which occasions the dis-
eases of the human race.

“It will be remarked by any man
who reads history with attention,
that during pestilential periods all
the ordinary operations of nature
acquire unusual strength and mag-
nitude. Earthquakes and tempests
are vastly more violent than at other
times. The ancient historians, evi-
dently without design, have left
proofs of this fact. Thus Livy
mentions, that during the period
under consideration, the operations
of the war in Spain were retarded
by continual rains, which swelled
the rivers; and Flaccus, the Prætor,
was compelled, tempestatibus fœ-
dis, terrible storms, to order his

whole army into a city in the neigh-
bourhood.”

In commenting on a pestilence
that desolated Africa, A. U. C. 628,
in consequence of dead locusts, he
observes:

“We must accede to the opinion
of the ancients, that the stench of
the locusts was one cause of the
pestilence; it is possible that no
epidemic disease would have been
excited without that cause; but it
is equally true, that in a healthy
state of the atmosphere, no putre-
faction of dead bodies has ever been
known to produce an epidemic
pestilence. It may be powerful
enough to excite disease within a
small extent of its own atmosphere;
but if no other cause of disease ex-
ists, it will not extend beyond that
infected atmosphere.”

In another place, his opinions
are more clearly expressed:

“It will be found invariably true,
in every period of the world, that
the violence and extent of the plague
has been nearly proportioned to the
number and violence of the follow-
ing phenomena: earthquakes, erup-
tions of volcanoes, meteors, tem-
pests, inundations.”

The reader will, perhaps, think
that the confidence with which this
proposition is stated, is scarcely
warranted by the number, clearness,
and authenticity of the events pre-
viously related. The influence of
comets is particularly liable to dif-
ficulties, and a wary philosopher
will pronounce with hesitation on
questions of such magnitude, and
necessarily involved in doubt.

In detailing the calamities of the
first and second centuries, Mr. W.
takes occasion to pass a severe sen-
tence on Mr. Gibbon. This di-
gression, though somewhat foreign
to the chief tenor of the book, would
not be liable to objection upon that
account. It displeases because it is
unjust to the reputation of a writer
whose general integrity, and stu-


―35―

pendous diligence and persever-
ance ought to be acknowledged by
all. Mr. W. in his preface, kind-
ly informs us that in the course of
his inquiries respecting pestilence,
he has discovered “that many of
the historical works consulted and
trusted by American readers, are
very incomplete; and that no man
who relies on them only, and neg-
lects original writers, can acquire
an accurate and comprehensive
knowledge of history.”

The meaning of this passage is
not clear and satisfactory. Com-
prehensive knowledge is only to
be gained from compilations and
abridgements since the longest life
will be exhausted before an hun-
dredth part of original historians can
be read. Abridgements, to be of
use, must, indeed, be faithful:
and perhaps it is here insinuated
that the popular historians are un-
faithful to the truth. We are af-
terwards presented with the follow-
ing singular remarks on Gibbon,
who ventured to describe what is
called the golden age of the Anto-
nines, as the most happy period of
mankind.

“How can that be a ‘happy,
and prosperous condition of men,'
in which they were subject to con-
tinual wars, to massacres, to the
ravages of insects, and to a series
of plagues, which destroyed proba-
bly one fourth of the inhabitants of
the globe; and when the Roman
empire was upon the brink of ruin?
And how can a writer be esteemed
as a historian, who substitutes the
flowers of rhetoric for sober truth,
and sacrifices fact to embellish-
ment?”

Gibbon, then, does not deserve
to be esteemed as an historian, be-
cause, in his general and introduc-
tory account of the Roman empire,
he estimates the comparative felicity
of mankind differently from Aure-
lius Victor, and does not make the
representation of that writer, in re-

gard to the reign of one prince, (M.
Aurelius) a standard by which to
estimate the state of things during
the reign of the four preceding ones.
And this error being proved, it fol-
lows, that the writer of six copious
volumes is one “who substitutes
the flowers of rhetoric for sober
truth, and sacrifices fact to embel-
lishment.”

Gibbon, who was not indebted
for his knowledge to compilers and
abridgers, to the centuries of Magde-
burg or the annals of Baronius, con-
curred with the rest of mankind in
supposing a period of eighty-four
years, during which the most vir-
tuous and enlightened of mankind
exercised absolute power over a
larger number of men than has
since lived under one government,
was the happiest period of the world.
He compared the scarcely inter-
rupted tranquillity of this period
with that confusion and degeneracy,
that fatal servitude and superstition
which seized upon the Romans af-
ter it expired, with the devastation,
anarchy, and barbarism which ac-
companied the progress of the
Arabs, Tartars, Germans, and
Goths, with the turbulence, havock,
and intestine wars, and pernicious
tyranny that preceded it, and de-
duced from this comparison, the
conclusion that is so much censured.

The Roman nations, at that pe-
riod, were not exempted from ad-
verse seasons, earthquakes, and pes-
tilence; but Mr. Webster's book
will shew that these evils, in subse-
quent periods, were more frequent,
extensive, and destructive; and
history in general will inform us
that moral evils, far more terrible
than physical, and exceeding, by far,
the commotions of the Jews under
Adrian, have continued to afflict
the posterity of the subjects of Tra-
jan and Aurelius to the present
hour. The description of Victor
relates to the conclusion of the An-
toninian age; and it is somewhat

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whimsical that this description of a
rhetorician by trade, should be quoted
and believed by one who professes
so much aversion to the flowers of
rhetoric; that this writer's assertion,
unsupported by the facts produced
by himself, should be admitted to
prove that the Roman empire,
when most powerful, populous, and
extensive, was upon the brink of
ruin; and that men from the reign
of Nerva to that of Commodus,
were subject to continual wars and
massacres. We are likewise some-
what curious to know how one,
who prefers fact to embellishment,
has discovered that this period “was
afflicted by a series of plagues which
destroyed probably one fourth of the
inhabitants of the globe.” In the
authorities quoted, there is nothing
which carries our observation be-
yond the bounds of the Roman
empire, and nothing which enables
us to guess at the number which the
plague destroyed. We may remark,
in general, that the pictures of au-
thors respecting pestilence, as of
all great calamities, are unavoida-
bly tinged with exaggeration. The
human mind more delights in hasty
convictions and strong assertions,
than in doubts, hesitations, and
alleviating distinctions.

Gibbon, himself, affords an in-
stance of this. When discussing
the state of the Romans under Gal-
lienus, he conjectures the decrease
of population in Alexandria, from
the plague, civil war, and tyranny,
to be one half. The havock made
by pestilence and civil war, in a
city peopled by Egyptians, situated
on the verge of the sea, and of the
burning desert, and filled with arti-
zans and traders, supplied him with
grounds for computing that a moiety
of the human species had perished in
a few years “by war, pestilence,
and famine!”

A still stronger instance of this
precipitate spirit is given by Mr.
W. himself; who, speaking of the
pestilence of that time, tells us,
and seems to believe, that “Gibbon
has calculated that a moiety of the
human species was destroyed by
this frightful epidemic:” whereas,
this destruction is imputed, by Gib-
bon, not to pestilence alone, but
to war, pestilence, and famine.

(To be continued.)