That these may justly be esteem'd the Causes of the greater Frequency of these Diseases in this Place, than others in the same Climate, appears from their being so rarely known in those Places, which tho' equally hot, enjoy an Air free from Vapours. [e] Thus in Numidia and some other Parts of Africa, the Plague is scarce to be found once in a hundred Years, and hardly at all in the Land of Negroe. [f]
[ [e] Piso Hist. Ind. & Brasil.
[ [f] Purchas Pilgrim. lib. 6. cap. 13.
Several Causes of the Plague.
The other Observations of the Causes of these Fevers, may be reduced to such as arise from the Stinks of stagnating Waters in hot and close Weather, to some putrid Exhalations of the Earth, to the Parts of Animals and Vegetables putrifying in the open Air, or the taking of corrupt & unwholsome Nourishment.
Of the first kind was that at Selinis, occasioned by the stinking Exhalations of the stagnating Waters adjacent, which the discerning Empedocles removed by scouring its Ditches from their Filth, by a fresh Current of Water drawn from two Rivers in the neighbouring Country [g].
[ [g] Plutarchi Lib. περὶ πολυπραγμοσύνης.
To the second Class may be reduced that Pestilential Fever, which the same great Philosopher check'd at Agrigentum, by stopping the Mouths of some neighbouring Mountains, whose pernicious Fumes had infected the adjacent Country [h]; As also that mentioned by Ammianus Marcellinus, which broke out in Seleucia, and over-ran a great Part of Greece, Italy, and Parthia, and took its Rise from the opening of an old Vault in the Temple of Apollo.
[ [h] Diog. Laert. in Vit. Emped.