Page:A litil boke the whiche traytied and reherced many gode thinges necessaries for the infirmite a grete sekeness called Pestilence.djvu/13



influence of epidemic disease in the development society is a matter replete with interest, whether the subject be viewed from the standpoint of history, or of medicine. The mysterious visitation that swept away the Assyrian host beneath the walls of Jerusalem, the disastrous plague that sapped the vitality of Athens in the maturity of her great- ness, are but conspicuous examples of forces always operative in history.

Great and widespread calamities, by their utter dis- regard of social conditions, must ever effect profound modifications in the form, and structure, of society. The Black Death may be considered at least as important a factor in producing the economic changes that marked the close of the fourteenth century in England as the long and exhausting war with France. Yet the Black Death was merely one of many epidemics similar in character, if lesser in degree.

If such epidemics were liable on their first approach to be regarded as special manifestations of the divine dis- pleasure, against which it were hopeless to contend, it can awaken no surprise. That on their recurrence from time to time men should endeavour to cope with their enemy with such means as lay at their disposal resulted naturally