Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 22.djvu/766

 734 g E S W E ties from New-chwang, Chefoo, Shanghai, Amoy, and Hong- Kong (total import in 1874, 1,408,384 piculs; in 1884, 2,539,710). Among the leading exports are tea (since about 1872); grass-cloth, manufactured at Swatow from so-called Taiwan hemp (the fibre of the Bcehmeria nivea from Formosa) ; pine-apple cloth, manufactured in the villages about Kieh-Yang (a town 22 miles distant) ; oranges, for which the district is famous ; cheap fans ; and pewter, iron, and tin wares. Swatow is also a great emigration port. In 1870 about 22,000 Chinese embarked there for Singa- pore, Bangkok, and Saigon ; and the number of emigrants has since increased so that British vessels alone carry 50,000 to 53,000 per annum. Of the whole foreign trade of the port upwards of 83 per cent, is in British bottoms, the trade with Hong-Kong being of especial importance. The population of Swatow is upwards of 30,000. In 1874 the foreign residents numbered 147 (63 British), in- cluding Double Island. About 1865 the whole Swatow district was still divided into a number of " independent townships, each ruled by its own head- men," and the population was described in the official gazetteer as "generally rebellious and wicked in the highest degree." Mi- Forrest, British consular agent, relates that in that year he was witness to the preparations for a fight between the people living on the opposite sides of the estuary, which was only prevented by an English war-vessel. The Taipings swept over the country, and by their ravages and plundering did much to tame the independence of the clans. The punishment inflicted in 1869 by Commander Jones on the inhabitants of Otingpui (Ou-ting-pei), about 8 miles from Swatow, for the attack they had made on the boats of H. M.S. "Cockchafer," showed the Chinese authorities that such piratical villages were not so strong as had been supposed. General Fang (a native of Chow-chu-fu) was sent to reduce the district to order, and he carried out his instructions with remorseless rigour. SWEAT. See NUTRITION, vol. xvii. p. 685. SWEATING-SICKNESS. A remarkable form of dis- ease, not known in England before, attracted attention at the very beginning of the reign of Henry VII. It was known indeed a few days after the landing of Henry at Milford Haven on August 7, 1485, as there is clear evidence of its being spoken of before the battle of Bos- worth on August 22. Soon after the arrival of Henry in London on August 28 it broke out in the capital, and caused great mortality. Two lord mayors successively and six aldermen, beside numerous other persons, died in one week. At the end of October, however, the epidemic in London suddenly ceased. In Oxford it had already begun at the end of August, and lasted with great mortality for six weeks. In the course of the autumn it attacked various places, and by the end of December had spread over all England. Then the epidemic disappeared as suddenly as it came. This alarming malady soon became known as the sweating-sickness. It was regarded as being quite distinct from the plague, the pestilential fever, or other epidemics previously known, not only by the special symptom which gave it its name, but also by its extremely rapid and fatal course and by other characters to be noted presently. From 1485 nothing more was heard of it till 1507, when the second outbreak occurred, which was much less fatal than the first (it is said because the treatment was better understood) and attracted less notice. In 1517 was a third and much more severe epidemic. It began in London in July, and lasted till the middle of December. Many distinguished persons died, including Lord Clinton, Lord Grey of Wilton, Andrea Ammonio, the king's secre- tary, and others, with an immense number of the common people. In Oxford and Cambridge it was also very fatal, as well as in other towns, where in some cases half the population are said to have perished. There is evidence of the disease having spread to Calais and Antwerp, but with these exceptions it was confined to England. In 1528 the disease recurred for the fourth time, and with great severity. It first showed itself in London at the end of May, and speedily spread over the whole of Eng- land, though not into Scotland or Ireland. In London the mortality was very great ; the court was broken up, and Henry VIII. left London, frequently changing his residence. When the epidemic ceased cannot be accurately stated, nor have we any precise estimate of the mortality. The most remarkable fact about this epidemic is that for the first and last time it spread over the Continent. On the 25th July 1528 (English style) or 1529 (Roman style), when it was beginning to decline in London, it suddenly appeared at Hamburg. The story went that the infection was brought by a ship returning from England, the sailors of which were suffering from the disease. However this may have been, the disease spread rapidly, so that in a few weeks more than a thousand persons died. In less than a week it had spread to Liibeck, and thus was the terrible sweating-sickness started on a destructive course, during which it caused fearful mortality throughout eastern Europe. France, Italy, and the southern countries were spared. It spread much in the same way as cholera, pass- ing, in one direction, from north to south, arriving at Switzerland in December, in another northwards to Den- mark, Sweden, and Norway, also eastwards to Lithuania, Poland, and Russia, and westwards to Flanders and Holland, unless indeed the epidemic, which declared itself simultaneously at Antwerp and Amsterdam on the morning of September 27, came from England direct. In each place which it affected it prevailed for a short time only, generally not more than a fortnight. By the end of the year it had entirely disappeared, except in eastern Switzer- land, where it lingered into the next year j 1 and the terrible " English sweat " has never appeared again, at least in the same form, on the Continent. England was, however, destined to suffer from one more outbreak of the disease, which occurred in 1551, and with regard to this we have the great advantage of an account by an eye-witness, John Kaye or Caius, the eminent physician. It first appeared at Shrewsbury on April 13, and, after spreading to other towns in Wales and in the midland counties, broke out in London, causing in one week the death of seven hundred and sixty-one persons. At the end of July it ceased in London, but it went through the east of England to the north, until the end of August, when it began to diminish. At the end of. September it ceased altogether, without affecting Scotland or Ireland. Nor did it apparently widely affect the Con- tinent, though Caius mentions its occurrence at Calais, and Brasavolus (De Morbo Gallico) speaks of the English sweating-sickness as raging in Flanders in the year 1551, in which he wrote, causing the death of several thousand persons, and lasting at least till September. Symptoms. The symptoms as described by Caius and others were as follows. The disease began very suddenly with a sense of apprehension, followed by cold shivers (sometimes very violent), giddiness, headache, and severe pains in the neck, shoulders, and limbs, with great prostration, in short, the usual symptoms of an acute febrile attack. In some cases the stomach was affected, and there was vomiting, but according to Caius this happened only in those who were full of food. The breathing was deep and frequent, the voice like a moan. After the cold stage, which might last from half an hour to three hours, followed the stage of heat and sweating. The characteristic sweat broke out suddenly, and, as it seemed to those unaccustomed to the disease, without any obvious cause. In some cases it was much more copious than in others, these differences depending, according to Caius, mainly on age, clothing, food, and other external circumstances, and also on the season, sweating being more profuse in hot weather. With the sweat, or after that was poured out, came a sense of heat, and with this headache and delirium, rapid pulse, and intense thirst. Palpitation and pain in the heart were frequent symptoms. No 1 Guggenbuhl, Der englische Schweiss in der Schweiz, Licliteu- steig, 1838.