Plague

(plāg.) [ From L. plaga, a blow.] (Med.) A very malignant and contagious fever, rapid in its progre , and accompanied by buboes, carbuncles, and pete chiæ. It spreads rapidly by contact, and is usually fatal to two-thirds of those whom it attacks. Its true and permanent home seems to be in the regions bordering upon the eastern extremity of the Mediterranean. At different periods of the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries, it visited Western Europe. It last attacked London and England almost generally in the years 1663-1665; while so late as 1720, it destroyed nearly half the population of Marseilles; and seventy years afterwards prevailed in Ru ia and Poland, since which time it has been almost unknown in Western Europe. It is now limited chiefly to Egypt, Syria, Anatolia, Greece, and Turkey, occasionally extending northward towards Ru ia, and westward as far as Malta. [s. 713]