[115] It seems, however, of late, that at least the city of Madrid is kept clean. Swinburne says, speaking of the palace at Madrid, “To the west it has the town, the three principal streets of which terminate in the Pravo. These are three noble openings, excellently paved, and clean even to a nicety; indeed so are most of the streets of Madrid since the edict for paving and cleaning them.[116] The foreigners that resided here before that time, shudder at the very recollection of its former filth. Some of the natives regret the old stinks and nastiness; as they pretend that the air of Madrid is so subtil as to require a proper mixture of grosser effluvia, to prevent its pernicious effects upon the constitution. The extremes of cold and heat are astonishing in this place, and the winds so searching, that all the Spaniards wear leathern under waistcoats, to preserve their chests; for they pervade every other kind of clothing.”
The former filthiness of Madrid, together with its being situated in a climate exposed to the vicissitudes of extreme heat and cold, and its exemption from the plague under those circumstances, certainly presents a most solid objection to the theory of the domestic origin of plague. To the same purpose see below the remarks on the climate of China.
[116] Dillon has a like remark in his “Travels through Spain.”
[117] See [p.p. 171, 172].
[118] Authentic Account of an Embassy, &c. vol. ii, p. 54.
[119] Ib. p. 39.
[120] Authentic Account, &c. vol. i, p. 290.
[121] In the time of the great fire at London, in 1666, ashes are said to have been carried to sixteen miles distance.
[122] Duncan’s Med. Comment. vol. viii p. 350.
[123] Med. Repos. vol. ii, p. 433.