like, be left exposed in the Night-time to the Northerly Winds, they are frequently found next Morning perfectly stiff and dead, in the same Posture as they are wont to be in at their Stalls and Cribs: And there are divers Accounts of Persons in those Countries, who have been so suddenly transfixed, stiffened, and killed by those Blasts, as to have continued on Horseback in the same Posture as when Living, till the Horse, acquainted with the Road, has brought them to their Journey’s End: And the above-mentioned Physician[40] tells us, that when he was at Brussels, he was informed by a Spanish Captain, that of a Party of Horse that was sent out for Booty in a very cold Season, one by Accident lost the rest of the Body; and Riding about some time, before he could find his Way, or any Refreshment, he was so transfixed with the Cold as to be quite killed, but continued on Horseback in the Posture of a Live Person, until his Horse at last happened to find the Way back to his Quarters, whither his Company had before got, and missing him, feared he had fallen into the Enemies Hands; but when they
came to congratulate him upon his safe Return, they went so near as to speak to him, and take hold of him, before they perceived him to be dead.
TO Blasts of this kind it undoubtedly is, that Fruit Trees and Plants do so frequently suffer, especially after a warm early Spring, after the vegetable Juices have began to rise and shoot into Buds and Leaves. Instances of this Nature we frequently find in our own Countrey; and I have had Opportunity to observe, more than once, that upon such Blasts, the Trees have, on that side towards the Wind, been in one Night’s Time quite changed in the Colour of the Leaves; and some, of the most tender sort, almost stripped bare, their Leaves falling off dry, as in Autumn.
BUT there is something yet further, besides particular Constitutions of Air, that is taken Notice of by Physicians, as a general Cause of Maladies of this kind; and that is what is commonly called Contagion or Infection; by this Term Contagion, is understood a Disease arising from the Contact of such Bodies or Particles as have in them a Power of Altering the due Crasis of a healthful
Person, and inducing still one common Disease; these Particles are generally called by Physical Writers μιασματα, Contagiosa, or Contagij Seminia; and the Difference of Pestilences arising from these Causes seems much to differ from what have been hitherto taken Notice of, as the former cannot be shunned but by quite leaving the diseased Climate, or by such a Strength, or Turn of Constitution, as resists, or yeilds not to the general Disorder; whereas in this last Case, a Person seems to be equally safe in any Air that is not impregnated with these contagious Effluvia, and the greatest Danger arises from the Nearness to diseased Persons, or whatsoever else is capable of harbouring those mischievous and secret Messengers, as the Poet[41] takes Notice.
Quo proprior quisq; est, servitq; fidelius agro
In partem Lethi citius venit.——
THE Histories of Physick abound with Relations of Pestilences from no other Cause than what arises from the Importation of the Disease, if it may be so termed, from
distant Countries; and sometimes not by Persons themselves distempered, but by the Conveyance of these Pestilential Miasmas in their Cloaths or Wares imported in the Way of Trade. Fracastorius,[42] an eminent Italian Physician, tells us, That in the Year Fifteen Hundred and Eleven, when the Germans were in Possession of Verona, there arose a deadly Disease amongst the Soldiers from the Wearing only a Coat purchased for a small Value; for it was observed, that every Owner of it soon sickened and died; until, at last, the Cause was so manifestly from some Infection in the Coat, that it was ordered to be burned. Ten Thousand Persons, he says, were computed to fall by this Plague before it ceased.
FROM the same Cause, that is, infected Garments, and Merchandize, Mercurialis takes Notice of a Plague in his Time at Venice; and Appianus Alexandrinus[43] assures us, that the Celtæ, after a Conquest over the Illyrici, and in Possession of their Plunder, were infected with a grievous Plague, which the Illyrici then laboured under. Thycidides
also, in his Relation of the Plague at Athens, intimates, That it was brought from some Part of Ethiopia by the like Means. And Prosper Alpinus[44], before mentioned, seems to lay the greatest Stress for the Frequency of the Plague at Grand Cairo, to the Traffick with those Countries as are hardly ever free from Pestilential Diseases. A great many Physicians have charged the Plague in Sixteen hundred and sixty three at Amsterdam, to the Infection of some Pestilential Miasms which were transported from Smyrna and Algiers, then much infected with such Diseases, with some Merchandize; by which Means likewise it was conjectured soon afterwards to reach London, and several other Parts of England, as it appears from the preceding Account of Dr. Hodges. To this Purpose I remember to have read a strange Story, somewhere in Baker’s Chronicle, of a great Rot amongst Sheep, which was not quite rooted out until about Fourteen Years Time, that was brought into England by a Sheep bought for its uncommon Largeness, in a Country then infected with the same Distemper: And upon this Account it is that the Prudence