To the Third belong, such as are occasioned by the Parts of Vegetables and Animals, especially those of Men, putrifying in the open Air. As was that mention'd by Livy, which over-ran a great Part of Italy, and owed its Rise to the dead Bodies of the Romans and Fidenates left unburied in the Field of Battle []. Analogous to this was that which from the same Cause appeared in Germany, Anno 1630; And likewise that mentioned by Ambrose Parree from the same Cause; as also that mentioned by Diodorus Siculus, occasioned by great Quantities of Locusts driven by Winds into the Sea, and thence cast up in Heaps on the Shore. To this likewise must be reduced those Malignant and Pestilential Fevers, which so frequently attend Camps and Seiges, especially in the hot Eastern Countries, whose numerous Armies frequently feel the dismal Effects of these stinking Fumes: As do likewise the vast Caravans of the Mahometans in their Annual Pilgrimages to Mecca.
[ ] Tit. Livii Hist. Roman.
To the last belong those Pestilential Fevers, which take their Rise from a preceeding Famine, as was that in Judea in the time of Herod [k], in which the Product of the Ground being consumed by the great Heat, and long Drought of the preceeding Summer, the poorest sort of People were obliged, thro' the Scarcity of Provisions, to make use of such Food as afforded unwholesome and putrifying Juices.
[ [k] Joseph. Antiq. Judæor. lib. 15. cap. 12.
CHAP. III.
The Changes wrought in the Animal Oeconomy from the above-mention'd Causes, may be reduced to such as depend either on the Increased Heat of the Air join'd with its Humidity; Or to such as are produced from the particular Qualities of the putrid and Contagious Particles floating in it; Or to the united and complicated Effects of all together.
Effects of a hot and moist Air.