A.D. 1579, the summer was moist and rainy, and was succeeded by a cold dry north wind; the winter was open and chilly. An epidemic catarrh pervaded all Europe: it began in Sicily, and showed itself in Italy, Venice, and Constantinople: it infected Hungary, Bohemia, and Saxony, and it afterwards prevailed in Norway, and raged in Sweden, Poland, and Russia. The symptoms were, violent fever for some days,--four or five generally,--with pains in the head and chest, and severe cough, terminating in profuse perspiration. 4000 persons died of it in Rome, 8000 in Lubeck, and 3000 in Hamburgh; and great numbers were carried off in other places by epidemic pestilence. Whilst this fatal catarrh ravaged Europe, one of the most destructive plagues ever known began at Grand Cairo. Prosper Alpinus reports the deaths from November, 1580, to July in the following year,--a period of eight months,--to have amounted to 500,000. It has frequently been observed that epidemic anginas, catarrhs, measles, &c., generally precede great and destructive plagues or pestilences,--a fact that has been frequently noticed in our day. The terrible pestilence cholera, of 1817 and subsequent years, was preceded by influenza, &c. For the constitution of the seasons, by which these diseases are caused, becomes increased in its malignancy and powers by the repeated accumulation of the peculiar poison, and it consequently induces the highest gradation of disease, pestilence, or plague,--all these distempers being essentially similar, differing in appearance only, as modified by climate, season, &c., and also by the duration and energy of various efficient causes. This year the plague raged at Marseilles. A.D. 1580, a comet was seen. In the month of August, epidemic catarrh broke out in Spain, and raged with such violence at Madrid, that it almost depopulated the city. Variola prevailed principally amongst children, to whom it was fatal in the city of Seville. The year following, this city suffered from plague. A.D. 1582, epidemic pestilence prevailed in various parts of Spain; Cadiz suffered greatly. Dr. Juan de Carmona, a celebrated physician and philosopher, wrote a work on the disease, entitled ‘Tractatus de Peste ac Febribus cum puncticulis, _vulgò_ tabardillo.’ In this work, which was dedicated to the Inquisitorial Tribunal of Llerena, the author endeavoured to show that the puncticular fever was unknown to the ancients, and that bleeding from the arm was of great service in pestilential fevers: he states that by this method he treated more than 10,000 persons, and always with fortunate results, provided the practice was not contra-indicated by the presence of buboes, carbuncles, and menstrual or hemorrhoidal fluxes; he did not find the celebrated bezoar stone so efficacious as it was represented to be, although it was in great repute amongst the practitioners of Seville and other parts.