An Authentick Account of the Measures and Precautions Used at Venice / By the Magistrate of the Office of Health, for the Preservation of Publick Health

AN AUTHENTICK ACCOUNT OF THE Measures and Precautions USED AT VENICE , BY THE Magistrate of the Office of Health, FOR THE PRESERVATION of the Publick Health.
LONDON : Printed by Edward Owen in Warwick-Lane . 1752.


It is now the Third Century since the following Regulation took its Rise.
The Office of Health is furnished with such ample Power and Authority, as makes it at once useful and respectable; it is administered by the Subjects of the Republick most eminent for their Prudence, Dignity and Talents; it is furnished with Abundance of Officers, a few of whom are employed in the Distribution of Orders, and the rest in their Execution. In describing occasionally these different Branches, much Light will be let in upon the Subject.
Experience has shewn, that in the Ottoman Dominions the Plague is never utterly extinct: Hence it is an immutable Law with the Magistrate of the Office of Health, to consider the whole Extent of the Ottoman Dominions, and every State dependent on it, as always to be suspected to be in an infected Condition, to such a Degree, as not to receive, in any Part of the Dominions of the Republick, either confining to or commercing with them, any Persons, Merchandizes, Animals, or any other Thing coming from thence, without the necessary Inspection of the Office of Health, and the previous Purifications.
To explain myself, I will suppose that a suspected Ship, coming from some Scale of the Levant , presents itself at the Mouth of these Ports, and, by describing the Conduct that is observed towards it, I shall shew the Rules that are practised with regard to every Vessel, coming from any Part of the World, that is either infected, or suspected to be so.
No Vessel can enter these Ports, unless it touches at Istria , and takes a Pilot on Board, or unless, on approaching to the Ports, it wait for the Towers of the Admiral to tow it up. These Officers do not immediately depend upon the Magistrate, but are obliged, however, not to neglect any of his Rules, nor to mix with any Vessel, even free or cleared, unless by the Magistrate’s Leave; to make use of tarred Cables, or Cables of in the towing Vessels in, in order to avoid all Communication, and to direct the Captain of every suspected Vessel to hoist up on the Mizen Mast a particular Signal; so that, by Means of the Spies, who are continually on the High Tower of St. Mark to discover any Vessels that approach, such Vessel is immediately known to be a Vessel subject to perform Quarantine.