It has, no doubt, struck the reader that each of the five eruptions in England lasted much longer than the single one which occurred in Germany and the north of Europe. This, too, might well depend upon peculiarities in the English soil. But let us now endeavour to render manifest, by means of phenomena actually observed, that unknown something in the atmosphere of 1551, the θεῖον of the great Hippocrates, which announces its presence by the sickening of the people; for beyond this it is not granted that human researches should penetrate. The winter of 1550–51 was dry and warm in England; the spring dry and cold; the summer and autumn hot and moist[748]. The weather of the whole year was uncommon in many particulars, without, however, influencing the lives of plants and animals so much or through so great a range as at the time of the fourth epidemic of Sweating Sickness. It was even in some places praised as fruitful[749]. On the 10th of January a violent tempest occurred, which in Germany left no small traces[750] of its effects on houses and towers. The same day brought considerable floods in the river district of the Lahn, which must be noticed on account of the very unusual season of the year[751]. On the 13th of January, again at an unusual season, there followed a great storm with heavy rains[752], which spread over the north of Germany; and on the 28th of January there occurred a considerable earthquake in Lisbon, whereby about two hundred houses were overthrown, and nearly a thousand people were destroyed; whilst a fiery meteor appeared, which, according to the unsatisfactory descriptions of the time, resembled most a northern light, and therefore was, in all probability, of electrical origin[753]. This was succeeded in Germany by a great frost in February[754]. On the 21st of March, at seven o’clock in the morning, two mock suns, with three rainbows, were seen at Magdeburg and in its vicinity, and in the evening two mock moons[755]. The same mock suns were also observed at Wittenberg, but without the rainbows. A similar phenomenon with two rainbows was again seen on the 27th of March[756]; and mock suns had been observed at Antwerp as early as the 28th of February[757]. About the same time (21st of March) the Oder overflowed its banks[758], and floods followed after continued rains during the month of May in Thuringia and Franconia[759]. Great tempests were not wanting[760], and, after considerable heat, there occurred, on the 26th of June, a thick summer fog in the districts of the Elbe which deprived the besiegers of Magdeburg of the sight of that city. It may, therefore, be supposed that this phenomenon took place throughout a greater extent of country[761]. On the 22nd of September a meteor, like a northern light, was again seen, and on the 29th of that month, after some clear weather, a heavy fall of snow was followed by continued cold[762].