Page:A Journal of the Plague Year (1722).djvu/242

 Glaſs, where the Breath condenſing, there might living Creatures be ſeen by a Microſcope of ſtrange monſtrous and frightful Shapes, ſuch as Dragons, Snakes, Serpents, and Devils, horrible to behold: But this I very much queſtion the Truth of, and we had no Microſcopes at that Time, as I remember, to make the Experiment with.

It was the opinion alſo of another learned Man, that the Breath of ſuch a Perſon would poifon, and inſtantly kill a Bird; not only a ſmall Bird, but even a Cock or Hen, and that if it did not immediately kill the latter, it would cauſe them to be roupy as they call it, particularly that if they had laid any Egos at that Time, they would be all rotten: But thoſe are Opinions which I never found ſupported by any Experiments, or heard of others that had ſeen it; ſo I leave them as I find them, only with this Remark; namely, that I think the Probabilities are very ſtrong for them.

Some have propoſed that ſuch Perſons ſhould breath hard upon warm Water, and that they would leave an unuſual Scum upon it, or upon ſeveral other things, eſpecially ſuch as are of a glutinous Subſtance and are apt to receive a Scum and ſupport it.

But from the whole I found, that the Nature of this Contagion was ſuch, that it was impoſſible to diſcover it at all, or to prevent its ſpreading from one to another by any human Skill. Here was indeed one Difficulty, which I could never throughly get over to this time, and which there is but one way of anſwering that I know of, and it is this, viz. The firſt Perſon that died of the Plague was in Decemb. 20$th$, or thereabouts 1664, and in, or about Long-acre, whence the firſt Perſon had the Infection, was generally ſaid to be, from a Parcel of Silks imported from Holland, and firſt opened in that Houſe. But after this we heard no more of any Perſon dying of the Plague, or of the Diſtemper being in that