All the symptoms were
not found in every case, and in many cases one symptom alone
preceded death. Although afflicted with all the manifestations of
the plague, some patients recovered. According to Hecker the
symptoms of cephalic affliction were seen; many patients were
stupefied and fell into a deep sleep, or became speechless from
palsy of the tongue, while others remained sleepless and without
rest. The fauces and tongue were black and as if suffused with
blood; no beverage could assuage the burning thirst, so that
suffering continued without alleviation until death, which many
in their despair accelerated with their own hands. Contagion was
evident, for attendants caught the disease from their parents and
friends, and many houses were emptied of their inhabitants. In
the fourteenth century this affection caused still deeper
sufferings, such as had not been hitherto experienced. The organs
of respiration became the seats of a putrid inflammation, blood
was expectorated, and the breath possessed a pestiferous odor. In
the West an ardent fever, accompanied by an evacuation of blood,
proved fatal in the first three days. It appears that buboes and
inflammatory boils did not at first appear, but the disease in
the form of carbuncular affection of the lungs (anthrax artigen)
caused the fatal issue before the other symptoms developed.
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