A.D. 1815, the harvest was unfavourable all over Europe, and several provinces of Naples were threatened with famine. On the 27th of December, a suspicious epidemic broke out at Noya: it consisted of a hot nervous fever, rapidly running its course, with gangrenous and malignant boils and carbuncles; women were the first and most frequent victims; children also suffered in a similar proportion; old persons were more exempt. The disease soon afterwards appeared at Cagliari, and it is stated not to have presented any of the characteristics of the plague, although it was very fatal. This pestilence was preceded by a famine, which commenced among the poor: other diseases prevailed at the same time: the prevalence of a south wind seemed to increase its propagative powers; it continued about six months, when it ceased suddenly in the following year, 1816. About this period, A.D. 1815, pestilential disease was developed in the island of Corfu; it first made its appearance at a little village called Marathea, in the district of Lefchimo. Tully states that nothing could equal the wretched appearance of the village,--poverty, with all its miserable train of attendants, presenting itself to view at every step. Near this village stagnant pools and marshes everywhere presented themselves: rains set in earlier than usual, and were followed by a long drought and heat, unnatural for the advanced season of the year, with a constant sirocco or south-east wind: so rapidly fatal was this pestilence, that more than a fourth part of the inhabitants were carried off in a few days. It is recorded that out of 700 seized in this small village, only 78 recovered!