Epidemics Resulting from Wars. Friedrich Prinzing
of various diseases, the nature of which even the most expert critic could not afterwards determine with certainty.
At the end of the fifteenth century typhus fever was prevalent in many parts of Europe; the first scientific account of it comes from the pen of Fracastorius, who had an opportunity to observe the disease during the epidemics in Italy in 1505–8, and who described it as a disease indigenous to Cyprus and the neighbouring islands and appearing for the first time in Italy.
The names given to the disease were numerous and cannot all be mentioned here; the name ‘Hauptweh’ (headache) or ‘Hauptkrankheit’ (head-disease) was current in Germany, while the additional words ‘ohne Sterbedrüsen’ (without death glands) expressly distinguish the disease from bubonic plague. T. von Györy[20] mentions a large number of synonyms—Hungarian disease, lazaret fever, spotted fever, petechial disease, &c.
In 1490 the disease was borne by Spanish soldiers, who had fought in the Venetian army against Turkey, from Cyprus to Spain, and during the war of Ferdinand the Catholic against the Moors it spread to Granada and did more damage to the Spanish army than the swords of the Moors.[21]
In the year 1490 a serious epidemic broke out in Lorraine, which Maréchal and Didion[22] think was typhus fever; it appeared in that bitter and indescribably cruel conflict between René, Duke of Lorraine, and the people of Metz. Despite the armistice proclaimed on June 18, the pestilence spread far and wide and in August entered Metz, compelling the inhabitants to take to flight; the nobles retired to their castles, and the citizens went out into the country. And although the city was strictly quarantined, the disease spread throughout Lorraine and northern Alsace.
In the year 1528 an epidemic of typhus fever occurred in connexion with warlike events. This pestilence broke out in Upper Italy and spread to Lower Italy, where a war was going on between French troops on the one side and German and Spanish troops on the other. The loss of human life was uncommonly large, 30,000 French soldiers and twice as many non-belligerent inhabitants are said to have died. And the pestilence was also borne from Italy to Germany.
Well known in history is the great pestilence which in 1552 forced Emperor Charles V to raise the siege of Metz, which had been going on for two months (November and December). Maréchal gives us detailed information about this;[23] the Emperor’s army, he says, which consisted of 80,000 German, Spanish, and Italian troops, in addition to the enormous camp-following that always accompanied armies at that time, was reduced one-third by the end of December through desertion, disease, and disablement. According to the report of the Venetian physician, Andreas Gratiolo, the widespread diseases were typhus fever and dysentery. The appearance of these diseases was favoured by the congregating of such enormous numbers of people in tents and inadequate places of shelter, and also by the great dampness and the lack of the necessaries of life. The extreme cold, which prevented the dispersion and isolation of the patients, also favoured the dissemination of the disease. More than 200 men died in the barracks every day, while 10,000 men, all told, are said to have succumbed. It was also observed that the Spaniards and Italians suffered more than the Landsknechte and other German troops, since they could not stand the severity of the climate so well. During the siege, hospital-fever and scurvy raged in the city itself, and after the siege was raised, in the night of January 1, 1553, typhus fever broke out there, having been borne into the hospitals by wounded soldiers from the enemy’s camp, or else brought back by citizens who had been out to inspect the position of the besiegers. During the siege the surrounding country had been most terribly ravaged by the enemy’s soldiers, so that the inhabitants were in the greatest misery, without food and without any source of help. For the spread of typhus fever this afforded a very favourable soil, and it raged furiously in the months of June and July in the villages surrounding Metz.
The battles with the Turks in the east did a great deal toward spreading typhus fever throughout Europe; for that reason the name ‘Hungarian disease’ came into existence. Toward the end of the fifteenth century, hitherto prosperous Hungary, by endless wars with Turkey and by international strife, was brought to the very verge of ruin. Agriculture ceased almost entirely, the development of the country came to a standstill, large tracts of land, such as the Banat region, assumed the appearance of a vast swamp, while at the same time the alternate cold nights and hot days, together with the great dampness, were very unhealthy for the foreign soldiers, who were not accustomed to such a climate. Partly this, and partly the utter lack of sanitation, increased the baneful effects of camp-life. Dirt and refuse accumulated in heaps, vermin multiplied so rapidly that it was impossible to get rid of them, corpses were inadequately buried, while enormous numbers of flies and gnats molested the soldiers and did a great deal toward spreading infectious diseases. The hospitals were in a pitiable condition, and since the soldiers, after their previous experiences, had little hope of leaving the country alive, they gave themselves over to a most dissolute life, in consequence of which the country suffered terribly. Several contemporaries bear witness to the fact that a large part of the German troops never once faced the enemy, for the reason that they succumbed beforehand to ‘Hungarian disease’, which killed more of them than the swords of the Turks. Hence Hungary was called at that time the ‘Cemetery of the Germans’.
‘Hungarian disease’ was typhus fever, which manifested certain unusual characteristics for the reason that the German troops, being unaccustomed to the local foods, inclined considerably toward intestinal catarrh and scurvy, while many of them also suffered from malaria, which weakened their power of resistance. The sudden beginning with a chill, the appearance of lenticular spots on the fourth, fifth, or sixth day, the duration of about fourteen days, the sudden fall of temperature—all these symptoms, mentioned by witnesses, definitely stamp the disease as typhus fever. If the disease has been identified by many historians with bubonic plague, the reason is that in serious cases of typhus fever suppuration of the salivary glands, gangrene of the lower extremities, of the nose and ears, &c., are not infrequent occurrences.
According to Györy,[24] the pestilence which raged so furiously in the army of Joachim, Margrave of Brandenburg, when the latter was in Hungary in 1542, was typhus fever. He assumes that the disease was borne thither by the Italian troops which the Pope had sent to help fight against the Turks, although he cannot base his assumption on any argument save that typhus fever was no rare disease in Italy. It is much more probable, however, that the disease was already endemic in Hungary at that time, whether from of yore, or whether the Turks had brought it there. So much, however, is certain, that the Germans suffered a great deal more from it than did the Hungarians and Turks, who had probably already survived attacks of the disease and had thus become immune.
‘Hungarian disease’ acquired greater importance in the year 1566, when it spread from Hungary over a large part of Europe. It was then that this name first came into fashion. According to Thomas Jordanus, who took part in the expedition, the disease broke out on the island of Komorn during the war of Maximilian II against the Turks; from there it spread further west and forced the Emperor to conclude a treaty of peace which favoured the Turks. After the dispersion of the army the discharged soldiers carried the disease in all directions.[25] Vienna was hit very hard; not only separate houses, but also entire streets, were filled with victims of the disease. The returning Italians brought the disease first to Carinthia, where it broke out severely in Villach, and then to Italy. In the year 1567 the pestilence carried away 400 people in the little town of Villach, and from there it spread to Styria. In the same way it was carried to Bohemia, Germany, Burgundy, Belgium, and Spain.
At the end of the sixteenth century typhus fever appeared in Hungary with renewed virulence; during the siege of Papa it raged with particular severity among the Italian troops, and according to Coberus all the patients in the field-hospital died.
CHAPTER III
THE THIRTY YEARS’ WAR
At the beginning of the seventeenth century, epidemics of bubonic plague and typhus fever were frequent occurrences in various parts of Central Europe, but they were usually kept localized by the strict measures that were adopted, in accordance with the best