It is not till the year 1360 that we
find buboes mentioned as occurring in the neck, in the axillae,
and in the groins, which are stated to have broken out when the
spitting of blood had continued some time. According to the
experience of Western Europe, however, it cannot be assumed that
these symptoms did not appear at an earlier period.
Thus much, from authentic sources, on the nature of the Black
Death. The descriptions which have been communicated contain,
with a few unimportant exceptions, all the symptoms of the
oriental plague which have been observed in more modern times. No
doubt can obtain on this point. The facts are placed clearly
before our eyes. We must, however, bear in mind that this violent
disease does not always appear in the same form, and that while
the essence of the poison which it produces, and which is
separated so abundantly from the body of the patient, remains
unchanged, it is proteiform in its varieties, from the almost
imperceptible vesicle, unaccompanied by fever, which exists for
some time before it extends its poison inwardly, and then excites
fever and buboes, to the fatal form in which carbuncular
inflammations fall upon the most important viscera.
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