Page:Philosophical Transactions - Volume 054.pdf/109

 Spathari, Skwackhim's cook, Charlacci Rimbeault, Jackino's son, &c. died of it.

The plague is now more frequent in the Levant, than it was, when I came first into this country, about 30 years ago; for then, they were almost strangers to it in Aleppo and in Tripoli of Syria, and they had it but seldom at Smyrna; whereas now they have it frequently at Aleppo, and summer and winter in Smyrna, tho' never so violently in the winter; which must be owing to the great communication by commerce over all the Levant, and more extended into the country villages than it used to be. I take the plague to be an infection communicated by contact from one body to another; that is, to a sound body from an infected one, whose poisonous effluvia, subtile miasmata, and volatile steams, enter the cutaneous sores of sound persons within their reach, or mix with the air, which they draw in respiration, and so advancing by the vasa inhalantia, mix with the blood and animal fluids, in which, by their noxious and active qualities, they increase their motion and velocity, and in some days produce a fever; so that the nearer and the more frequent the contact is, the greater is the danger, as the noxious particles, exhaling from the infected person, must be more numerous, and consequently have greater force and activity in proportion to their distance.

Some persons are of opinion, that the air must be infected, and that it is the principal cause of these plagues; whereas I presume, that the ambient air is not otherwise concerned, than as the vehicle, which conveys the venomous particles from one body into another, at least in such plagues, as I have seen hitherto Rh