Gentle rulers were contemned as weak; wild passions, severity and cruelty, everywhere predominated.

Human life was little regarded.

Governments concerned not themselves about the numbers of their subjects, for whose welfare it was incumbent on them to provide.

Thus, the first requisite for estimating the loss of human life, namely, a knowledge of the amount of the population, is altogether wanting; and, moreover, the traditional statements of the amount of this loss are so vague, that from this source likewise there is only room for probable conjecture.
Cairo lost daily, when the plague was raging with its greatest violence, from 10,000 to 15,000; being as many as, in modern times, great plagues have carried off during their whole course.

In China, more than thirteen millions are said to have died; and this is in correspondence with the certainly exaggerated accounts from the rest of Asia.