A tragedy of the great plague of Milan in 1630 / Robert Fletcher.

  • Fletcher, R. (Robert), 1925-2019.
Date:
1898
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A tragedy of the great plague of Milan in 1630 / Robert Fletcher. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    1/14
    ' r-’ ‘' • \ *>, ; . V - ( COITTBI^TS. PAGE, A Tragedy of the Great Plague of Milan in 1630. By Robert Fletcher, M. D.,.' - - - - - - - - - - r 175 Sir John Charles Bucknill, M, B., F. It. C. P., F. R. S. By A., R. IJrquhart, M. D.,.--------- I 180 Medical Fees in Ancient Greece and Rome. By Charles Carroll Bombaugii, A. M., MrD., -183 Endothelioma of the Cervix Uteri. By Elizabeth Hurdon, M.D., - - - - - - - - - - - - - -186 On the Specific Gravity of the Urine during Anaesthesia and after Salt-Solution Enemata. By Thomas R. Brown, M. D., 190 Correspondence : Hydraulic Pressure in Bladder Contracture. . By Ferd. C. Valentine, M. D., - - - - • - - - - - - -191 Proceedings of Societies: The Hospital Medical Society, -. -.- - - 192 Cocaine Amesthesia in the- Treatment of Certain Cases of Hernia and in Operations for Thyroid Tumors [Dr. CusniNG]A Word of Warning as to the Indiscriminate ' Use of Cocaine in-the Treatment of Diseases of the Eye • [Dr. Theobald];—On the. Pathology of Fragmentatio - Myocardii and Myocarditis Fibrosa [Mr. MacCali/om]. Notes on New Books, -• - - - - - - - - - - - - - 195 is* V A TRAGEDY OF THE GREAT PRAGUE OF MILAN IN 1G30. By Robert Fletcher, M. I). In early Bible history there are records of the utter de-5 struction of temples or even cities, the removal of every .stone which marked their existence, and the sowing of the ground with salt, so that it might ever after be sterile. Of the effi¬ cacy of the latter part of the proceeding, some doubts might he entertained. In more modern times the residence of some notorious criminal has, in like manner, been destroyed and removed with the solemn declaration by the State that the ground upon which it had stood should be held as accursed* and that no building should ever ' be erected upon it. There are two noteworthy instances in which, in addition, a stone- column with an inscription describing the crime and its punishment was erected upon the site of the dwelling, of the criminal. The first iu order of date is still in existence in Genoa. A certain Julius Cassar' Vacchero, known as the “richest merchant of Genoa,” entered into a Conspiracy in 1628 to destroy the republican government of Genoa and to* deliver the State to the Duke of Savoy. He was beheaded with many of his fellow conspirators, his wife and children were banished, and by a decree of the Senate his palace was razed to the ground, every stone removed, and a pillar with an inscription devoting-him to “eternal infamy” was erected on its site? A naval officer * who visited the spot a few-years ago described to me the’desolate appearance of this vast space of ground overgrown with brambles and Weeds, with the weather-beaten stone pillar in its centre. In reply to his enqui- ' ries, no one could tell him anything of the story connected ;with the place, only that the ground was “accursed,” and the pillar was “ colonna d’mfctmia”. , The other column was erected in Milan, in 1630, and the tragedy it commemorated is the subject of the present sketch. Traditions of the terrible, pestilence known as the.Black^ Death, which ravaged Europe in 1348,• and. which, according to estimates made from such sources as were accessible, swept away one-third of the inhabitants, of the known world, were still rife in Milan whep the great plague of 1630 broke out in that city. A writer lias left a vivid description of the condi¬ tions brought about by the former visitation. He says: * Captain Greer, now Rear Admiral Greer, U.S., N. (Retired). He copied the inscription, which corresponds exactly with that given in the account of Vacchero’s conspiracy in the Archivio storied d’Italia, an important collection of public documents pub¬ lished by the Italian Government, and amounting to nearly a hundred volumes.