healthful than heretofore, to be the Enlargement of the City, whereby the Inhabitants, who are not proportionably increased, and not so close crowded together; and the Care of the Magistrates in keeping the Streets clear from Filth: For formerly (he says) they used to kill all Manner of Cattle within the Walls, and suffer their Dung and Offals to lie in the Streets. Moreover, about those Times the Isis and Cherwell, thro’ the Carelessness of the Townsmen, being filled with Mud, and the Common-Shores by such Means stopped, did cause the Ascent of Malignant Vapours whenever there happened to be a Flood. But since that, by the Care and at the Charge of Richard Fox, Bishop of Winchester, in the Year 1517, those Rivers were cleansed, and more Trenches cut for the Water’s free Passage, the Town has continued in a very healthful Condition; and in a particular Manner so free from Pestilential Diseases, that the Sickness in 1665, which raged in most Parts of the Kingdom, never visited any Person there, although the Terms were there kept, and the Court and both Houses of Parliament did there reside.
TO this Cause, ’tis very probable, is owing the Frequency of the Plague at Grand Cairo in Egypt, and in the Island of Sardinia, as Pæusanias and others relate: Although indeed Prosper Alpinus[10] charges a great deal of the Cause of that at Cairo, upon their continual Commerce with such Nations as are seldom without such infectious Diseases. And for this Reason it is, that we find all those Countries, which most abound with Swamps and Standing-Waters, to be most unhealthful, especially in the hottest Seasons; except, as in several Parts of Italy, such Lakes have any Communication with the Sea, or some large Rivers. To this purpose Piso[11] frequently observes those Places to be most subject to such Calamities, where there are constant Heat and settled Calms, as such a Temperament of Air most disposes Bodies to Putrefaction and Corruption, as in St. Thomas Island, and Guinea: And, on the contrary, that notwithstanding the Intenseness of Heat, if the Fluids are but agitated by Winds, Tides, and Currents, there is little Danger of such Diseases; and the less still, the more regular and constant the Seasons are
upon other Accounts: By which Means it is, that between the Tropicks, and even under the Equator, it is very healthful.
UNDER this Head it may not be improper to observe, that too scanty and mean a Diet, and Feeding upon unripened and unsound Fruits, are frequently charged with a Share in Mischiefs of this kind. Josephus[12] and Julius Cæsar[13], amongst Historians; Forestus,[14] and several other physical Writers, give Accounts of Plagues from the like Causes. Galen[15] is very positive in this Matter; and in one Place[16] accuses his great Master Hippocrates with Neglecting too much the Consequence of a bad Diet, and ascribing some Mischiefs arising from thence to a bad Air. And upon this is grounded the common Opinion of a Plague’s following a Famine; in which Circumstances, the poorer sort, who feed meanest, generally suffer most, as it frequently happens in long Sieges, and Armies ill supplied with Provisions. Thus
Travellers report, that Surrat in the East-Indies is seldom or never free from a Plague, which is ascribed to the mean Diet of the Natives, who are Banians, and feed on little else than Herbs, Water, Rice, and such like pitiful Fare; for it is observed, that the Europeans who trade there, are in no Danger of being infected, because they feed well on Flesh, and drink Wine, which secures them against those malignant Diseases.
A Third Cause is ascribed to Mineral Eruptions and subterraneous Exhalations. Pestilences from this Cause are more infrequent than from several others; because such Eruptions hardly ever happen but upon Earthquakes, or Breaking into the Bowels of the Earth by Mines, Pits, Wells, and the like; and then too, in Order to produce a Pestilence, it is necessary that whatsoever exhales and mixes with the ambient Air, must be of such a Nature, as to render it unrespirable; or to communicate by it such Particles to the Animal Juices as will pervert their natural Crasis, and disturb their due Secretions; which does not often happen, for there are frequent Shocks of the Earth from intestine Fermentations, which are not followed by any such Mischiefs, as
they happen only from the Struggle of such Principles, as when they have got Vent, neither of themselves, or by any Thing emitted with them, are of that disagreeable Nature, as to give any Disturbance to the Animal OEconomy.
CAROLUS de la Font,[17] indeed, as well as several others, lays great Stress upon Causes of this kind, and charges Pestilential Diseases chiefly to Mineral Exhalations of divers kinds; as Arsenical, Mercurial, Sulphurous, &c. which he imagines the ambient Air often to be overcharged with, either from the Heat of the Sun, Earthquakes, or subterraneous Fires. To all this, Persons of different Opinion object, the Infrequency of Plagues in Calabria, Naples, and several Parts of Sicily, where there are manifestly very great subterraneous Fires, such as occasion violent Earthquakes, and many furious and plentiful Eruptions of metallick and mineral Fumes. A very distinct Relation of which, from his own Knowledge, may be met with from Dr. Bernard Connor,[18] who has been very curious in his Enquiries hereinto.
BUT however Authors differ upon this Head, several very odd Relations are to be met with in History of malignant and deadly Sicknesses from these Causes. That Story is very strange which is related by Ammianus Marcellinus,[19] and taken Notice of by Cardan and Riolanus, that a most grievous Pestilence broke out in Seleucia, which, from thence to Parthia, Greece, and Italy, spread it self thro’ a great part of the World, from the Opening an ancient Vault in the Temple of Apollo, and that it raged with so much Fury, as to sweep away a third part of the Inhabitants of those Countries it visited.
IT is needless to trouble the Reader with many Relations of the sudden and strange Effects of some Steams arising from Mines and Pits, which are generally termed by our Colliers Damps, because almost every Body has already been acquainted with such Accounts.