"Sligo is a plague spot; disease in every street, and of the
worst kind." "Fever is committing fearful ravages in Ballindine,
Ballinrobe, Claremorris, Westport, Ballina, and Belmullet, all in the
county of Mayo." From Roscommon the news came, that the increase of
fever was truly awful; the hospitals were full, and applicants were
daily refused admission; "no one can tell," says the writer, "what
becomes of these unfortunate beings; they are brought away by their
pauper friends, and no more is heard of them." "Seven bodies were found
inside a hedge," in the parish of Kilglass; the dogs had the flesh
almost eaten off. Under date of the 18th of May, I find this entry;
"Small pox, added to fever and dysentery, is prevalent at Middleton,
County Cork; and, near Bantry Abbey, 900 bodies were interred in a plot
of ground forty feet square." From the autumn of 1846 to May, 1847, ten
thousand persons were interred in Father Mathew's cemetery at Cork--he
was obliged to close it. On the 12th of June, the number of fever
patients in the hospitals of Belfast was 1,840. "Awful fever," "Fearful
increase of fever," were the ordinary phrases, in which the spread of
the disease was announced from every part of Ireland.
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