Part 6

Orræus states, that of the whole number, which consisted of thirty, twenty-two died, five recovered, and three escaped infection. Descriptio Pestis, p. 26. Translator.

We have omitted a sentence or two in this paragraph which threw no light on the subject, and might have appeared exceptionable to some readers. Tr.

The author relates in a note, which it did not appear necessary to translate entire, that he found himself in a very disagreeable situation, in consequence of having been one of the first to assert the existence of the plague. The language used by some rival practitioners on this occasion, tended (as he believes) to stir up the populace to attack his house in the manner hereafter mentioned.

See Gustavi Orræi Descriptio Pestis. 4to. Petropoli, 1784, p. 29.

The state physician, Dr. Rinder, was attacked at the end of February with a gangrenous ulcer in the leg, which prevented his attendance at this meeting:--He died soon after.

Orræus, as before quoted, p. 29.

Three versts are equal to two English miles. Tr.

In what manner the contagion got among these people could not be ascertained. Perhaps, through the negligence of the centinels, they had some communication with the persons under quarantine; or had become infected by bringing into use clothes and other effects, which the last-mentioned persons might have concealed under ground before their removal to the quarantine-hospital.

Besides praying by them in the ordinary manner, it is customary, in Russia, to carry in great pomp to the sick the images of their saints, which every person present kisses in rotation.

In their paroxysm of phrensy, the populace attempted to wreak their vengeance upon those who had laboured for their preservation. After they had sacrificed one victim to their blind rage, they sought for the physicians and surgeons. Some of the lowest rabble broke into my house, and destroyed every thing they could lay hold of; they also went in search of the other physicians and surgeons, and pursued such as they met with. Providence rescued us all from their hands. Little suspecting what was to happen, I had gone four days before, by order of council, to the Foundling-Hospital, to superintend more closely the health of the children there.

There is some little variation between this author's spelling of these Russian names and Mr. Coxe's. The last-mentioned traveller writes the 1st. Kremlin; the 2nd. Khitaigorod; the 3rd. Bielgorod; and the 4th. Semlainogorod. This last takes its name from the rampart of earth with which it is surrounded. Tr.

Mr. Coxe describes the wooden houses of the common people in Moscow, as mean hovels, in no degree superior to peasants cottages. It is easy to conceive how favourable these low and crouded habitations must have been to the harbouring and spreading of contagion. Tr.

Now Prince Orlow.

See Addenda, Note B.

In Russia it is no uncommon thing to have a large edifice built of wood in a few days. See Coxe's Travels. To persons unacquainted with this fact, the erecting of new hospitals might seem a very tardy measure for checking the progress of the plague. Tr.

Reaumur's thermometer was constantly in the morning between 16 and 22 degrees below the freezing point.

See Addenda, note C.

Dr. Pogaretzky, who had the care of the pest-hospital, Laforte, told me that some of the bearers of the dead had put on sheep-skins that had been worn by the impested, after having exposed them to the open air for forty-eight hours, in the month of December, when the frost was very intense; and that none of them became infected.

The author remarks in a note, that the number of deaths in the month of September, probably amounted to as many as twenty-seven thousand. At this time, which was during the riots, the number of deaths could not be accurately registered.

The number of these was by no means inconsiderable; for during the height of the plague, there was scarcely a sufficient number of men, horses, and carts to carry off the dead; many remained uninterred for two or three days, and were at length taken away by their relations, friends, or poor people hired for that purpose. Many of these could not be registered, besides numbers of others who were buried in secret, and whose illness was never reported to the Senate.

According to the returns made to the Council of Health, and published by Orræus (Descriptio Pestis, p. 48,) the number of persons carried off by the plague at Moscow in the year 1771, did not amount to more than fifty-six thousand seven hundred and seventy-two. It is to be remarked, however, that this list of deaths is dated only from the month of April, whereas the plague broke out in the cloth-manufactory in the beginning of March. Indeed, Orræus himself acknowledges, (p. 49,) that a much greater number than what appears from the reports laid before the Council must have died of the plague, as, on pulling down the houses in different parts of the city, so many dead bodies were found that had been secretly interred, and as, moreover, in the beginning of the disorder, the returns were very inaccurately made. Tr.

These towns did not suffer greatly from the plague, as the inhabitants took warning from the unhappy fate of Moscow, and attended to the necessary precautions from the beginning. It was more destructive in the villages, and particularly in those that were at the greatest distance from Moscow.

I mean those physicians who, with myself, remained in the town; but not such as had the care of the pest-hospitals.

Although the atmosphere may not be capable of communicating the pestilential contagion beyond a very limited distance from its source, yet to approach so near as within a foot of the infected, appears to us (notwithstanding the present instance to the contrary) to be a practice not generally safe. Dr. Russell proceeded with more caution in his examinations of the infected at Aleppo. He prescribed to most of his patients out of a window, about fifteen feet above them. A stair passed near one of the windows, by which he had such of the infected, whose eruptions he wanted to examine, brought within a smaller distance, viz. within four or five feet. Russell, on the Plague, book I. ch. vi. Tr.

Almost all the youngest children were out at nurse in the country.

(Mr. Coxe relates, that, at the time he was at Moscow, this noble institution contained three thousand foundlings. Tr.)

See Addenda, D.

It is remarkable, that it is towards the summer-solstice, according to Russell (Natural History of Aleppo) and Prosper Alpinus (Medicina Ægyptiorum) that the plague generally ceases in Asia and Africa; whilst in Europe it rages with the greatest fury at that season, and is only subdued by the winter-cold.