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many great men have written upon the Plague already, as Prosper Alpinus, Sydenham, Hodges, Diemerbroeck, Muratori, Mead, &c. that it might be justly thought presumptuous in me to touch upon that subject after them. But as I find, that they differ in some circumstances, and that some of them have had an opportunity of seeing only one year's plague; I may be allowed to write to you such remarks, as I have made for almost thirty years, that I have lived in this plaguy country, without any quotations or confirmations from other authors; which I hope will help to reconcile the different opinions of the above-mentioned famous authors. Which task I would choose rather, than to contradict them; for I am persuaded, that each of them wrote according to the best of his knowledge (as I do myself) without any intention of imposing in the least upon mankind.

It is beyond dispute, that the plague appears in a different manner in different countries; and that it appears differently in the same country in different years: for we find most other diseases alter more or