It was thought remarkable, even at that time, that the Sweating Sickness did not extend beyond the limits of England, and that, remaining the unenviable property of that nation, it did not even spread to Scotland, Ireland, or Calais which belonged to Britain. Much, doubtless, was owing to the peculiarity of the climate, more still to atmospherical changes, and something also to the habits of the people and the circumstances of the times. It plainly appeared in the sequel that the English Sweating Sickness was a spirit of the mist, which hovered amid the dark clouds. Even in ordinary years, the atmosphere of England is loaded with these clouds during considerable periods, and in damp seasons they would prove the more injurious to health, as the English of those times were not accustomed to cleanliness, moderation in their diet, or even comfortable refinements. Gluttony was common among the nobility as well as among the lower classes; all were immoderately addicted to drinking[376], and the manners of the age sanctioned this excess at their banquets and their festivities. If we consider that the disease mostly attacked strong and robust men—that portion of the people who abandoned themselves without restraint to all the pleasures of the table—while women, old men, and children, almost entirely escaped, it is obvious that a gross indulgence of the appetite must have had a considerable share in the production of this unparalleled plague. To this may be added, the humidity of the year 1485, which is represented by most chronicles as very remarkable[377]. Throughout the whole of Europe the rain fell in torrents, and inundations were frequent. Damp weather is not prejudicial to health if it be merely temporary, but if the rain be excessive for a series of years, so that the ground is completely saturated, and the mists attract baneful exhalations out of the earth, man must necessarily suffer from the noxious state of the soil and atmosphere. Under these circumstances epidemics must inevitably follow. The five preceding years had been unusually wet[378], 1485 proved equally so; the last hot and droughty summer was that of 1479[379]. Extensive inundations of the Tiber, the Po, the Danube, the Rhine, and most of the other great rivers, took place in 1480, and were attended with the usual consequences, the deterioration of the air, misery and disease[380]. The greatest inundation ever remembered in England was that of the Severn, in October, 1483. It was long afterwards called the Duke of Buckingham’s Great Water[381], because it frustrated the rebellion of this powerful subject against Richard III., whom he had been instrumental in placing upon the throne; and consequently defeated also the first enterprise of Henry VII. It lasted full ten days, and the tremendous ravages occasioned by the overwhelming torrent dwelt long in the memory of the people. SECT. 4.—OTHER EPIDEMICS.