tinople, to Sir James Porter, his Majesty's envoy at Bruffels; and contains a number of particulars, contradictory to the generally-received notions of this dreadful diftemper. The ingenious Writer begins thus: So many great men have written upon the Plague already, as Profper Alpinus, Sydenham, Hodges, Diemerbroeck, Muratori, Mead, &c. that it might be justly thought prefumptuous in me to touch upon that subject after them. But as I find, that they differ in fome circumstances, and that fome of them have had an opportunity of feeing only one year's plague; I may be allowed to write to you fuch 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 abovementioned famous authors. Which task I would choofe rather, than to contradict them; for I am perfuaded, that each of them wrote according to the best of his knowledge (as I do myself) without any intention of impofing in the leait upon mankind. It is beyond difpute, that the plague appears in a different manner in different countries; and that it appears differently in the fame country in different years: for we find most other 'difeafes alter more or lefs, according to the conftitution and dispofition of the air in the fame climate: for, fome years, fevers are epidemic, and very mortal: other years, they are epidemic, but not mortal; the fmall pox the fame; &c. And fo the Plague is fome years more violent, and has fome symptoms different from what it has in other years; which, I take for granted, muft be the reafon of any difference that may appear in the remarks of the celebrated authors already mentioned. There is one extraordinary fymptom, which the most of thefe authors mention, though none of them prove it, or pretend to have feen it; which feems to me inconfiftent and incompatible with the animal œconomy; making ftill proper allowance for Omnipotence and Divine Vengeance, as in that of Sennacherib's numerous army, and many other fuch plagues, mentioned in fcripture. What I mean, is, that a perfon cannot die of the Plague (such as it appears among us) inftanteously, or in a few hours, or even the fame day, that he receives the infection. For, you know, Sir, by your long experience in this country, that all fuch as have the Plague, conceal it as long as they can, and walk about as long as poffible. And I prefume it must be the fame in all countries, for the fame reafon, which is the fear of being abandoned and left alone; and fo, when they struggle for many days against it, and at laft tumble down in the ftreet, and die fuddenly, people imagine, that they were then only infected, and that they died inftantly of the infection; though it may be fuppofed, according to the rules of the animal economy, that the noxious effluvia effluvia must have been for fome time mixed with the blood, before they could produce a fever, and afterwards that corruption and putrefaction in the blood and other fluids, as at laft stops their circulation, and the patients die. This was the cafe of the Greek, who fpoke with your master of horse, Knightkin, at the window, anno 1752, and went and died in an hour afterwards in the vineyards of Buiuk deré; and it was faid he died fuddenly, though it was very well known to many, that he had the Plague upon him for many days before this accident happened. Mrs. Chapouis found herself indifpofed for many days, anno 1758, and complained pretty much, before fhe was fufpected of having the Plague. Captain Hills' failor was infected in Candia 3736; was a fortnight in his paffage to Smyrna, as the captain fwore to me; yet he was five days in the hospital there before he died. Mr. Life's gardiner was indifpofed twelve days before he took to his bed, and he lay in bed eight days before he died, in July 1745. It is true, that Thucydides, in his account of the Plague at Athens, relates, that fome were faid to die fuddenly of it; which may have led others into the fame way of thinking: but Thucydides (with all due regard to him) inuft be allowed to have known very little of the animal economy, for he was no phyfician, though a very famous hiftorian; and he owns moreover, that, when the Plague first attacked the Piræum, they were fo much ftrangers to it at Athens, that they imagined the Lacedæmonians, who then beleged them, had poifoned their wells, and that fuch was the caufc of their death. Befides, he pretends to affirm, from the little experience he had of the Plague, that the fame perfon cannot have it twice, which is abfolutely falfe. The Greek Padré, who took care of the Greek-hospital at Smyrna for fifty years, affured me, that he had had the Plague twelve different times in that interval; and it is very certain, that he died of it in 1736. M. Broffard had it in the year 1745, when he returned from France; and it is very well known, that he and all his family died of it in April 1762. The Abbe, who takes care of the Frank-hofpital at Pera, fwore to me the other day, that he has had it already, here and at Smyrna, four different times. But, what is ftill more extraordinary, is, that a young woman, who had it in September laft, with its most pathognomonic fymptoms, as buboes and carbuncles, after a fever, had it again on the 11th of April, and died of it fome days ago, while there is not the leaft furmife of any accident in or about Conftantinople fince December, this only one excepted: but there died four perfons in the fame little houfe in September; d as the house was never well cleaned, and this young woman always always lived in it, she was at laft attacked a second time, and died." Having treated of the appearance and fymptoms of this horrid infection, Dr. Mackenzie proceeds to throw out fome philofophical reflections on its rife and progrefs in those countries which are fo unhappy as to be very liable to it. The Plague, fays he, is now more frequent in the Levant, than it was, when I came firft into this country, about 30 years ago; for then, they were almoft ftrangers 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 fummer and winter in Smyrna, though never fo 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 found body from an infected one, whofe poisonous effluvia, fubtile miafmata, and volatile fteams, enter the cutaneous pores of found perfons within their reach, or mix with the air, which they draw in refpiration, and fo advancing by the vafa inhalantia, mix with the blood and animal fluids, in which, by their noxious and active qualities, they increafe their motion and velocity, and in fome days produce a fever; fo that the nearer and the more frequent the contact is, the greater is the danger, as the noxious particles, exhaling from the infected perfon, muft be more numerous, and confequently have greater force and activity in proportion to their distance. "Some perfons are of opinion, that the air must be infected, and that it is the principal caufe of these plagues; whereas I prefume, that the ambient air is not otherwife concerned, than as the vehicle, which conveys the venemous particles from one body into another, at least in fuch plagues as I have seen hitherto at Smyrna and Conftantinople; allowing always, that the different conftitution of the air contributes very much to propagate the Plague: for the hot air dilates and renders more volatile and active the venomous fteams, whereas cold air contracts and mortifies them. The perfon having the plague may be faid to have a contagious and poisonous air in his room and about him, while at the fame time the open air is free from any dangerous exhalations; fo that I never was afraid to go into any large house, wherein a plaguy perfon lived, provided that he was confined to one room.' Dr. Mackenzie goes on to defcribe the fymptoms of the peftilential fever, and to give directions with refpect to the method of cure; but as the prefent inhabitants of this part of the world are providentially fo happy as to be never vifited with it; we fhall confine our extracts to the Doctor's philofophical and hiftorical obfervations on the subject. The other f effluvia must have been for fome time mixed wit Mrs. Chapouis found he 1758, and complained pre took to his bed, ar July 1745. It is true, Athens, relate may have le appearance and fymptoms of th Jable to it. we proceeds to throw out some po and progrefs in thofe countries which The was at laff attacked a feroni zze, and they Among the 24th of June, obferve the contrary Plague, that was at Smyrna ottest about that time, and con till the latter end of September, when was not entirely over till the 12th of No Deum was fung in the Capuchins convent. .en notion may be in fome meafure owing to a cydides (wi put upon Profper Alpinus, who allows that the known ve airo begins to cease in the months of June and July, fician, te ftrong northerly winds (called Embats or Etefian that, v begin to blow, which make the country much cooler fo my, in the months of May, April, and March, when the dænue rages moft; which he very juftly imputes to the great an focating heats and foutherly winds, which reign during thofe tmonths in that country: and it is then that the fhips, which load rice, flax, and other goods and merchandise for Conftantinople receive the infection, and carry it with them hither; and, upon thefe goods being delivered to perfons in different parts of the city, the plague breaks out at once with great violence among the trading people of the Greeks, Armenians, and Jews; for I have obferved, both here and at Smyrna, that the Turks are commonly the laft of the four nations, who are infected; but when the Plague gets once among them, they fuffer moft by it, because they take the least care and precaution, their families are much more numerous. and The plague, as well as all other epidemical difeafes, has its rife, progrefs, ftate, and declenfion, when it begins to lofe its virulence, and many of the fick recover. Some years it is felt fporadically all the winter; and we hear fome accidents in the Phanar, among the Greeks, among the Jews, Turks, and Armenians; and even among the Franks; for you may remember, that Pera was not clean all the winter 1762. Some years it lodges Philofophical Tranfactions, for the Year 1754: 453 he villages upon the Bofphorus; but during the winof any great confequence.' count of a remarkable Tide at Bristol. By Dr. Tucker. Philofophical Transactions, for the Year 1764. it, fhe was at laft attacked a fecond time, a-3 appearance and symptoms of this horrid proceeds to throw out fone photoprogrefs in thofe countries which to it. frequent in the Levant, -2 * ular after which, it began to flow till it rofe to the height it was nftances attending this extraor fe of it (moft probably fome very diftant. periments in Electricity. By pfal, in Sweden. y and great advantages, which the reaped from the extenfive communica merce; we fometimes find one nation al tury behind-hand with refpect to the fcientifie of another. This does not appear, indeed, to be aler the cafe with the learned in Sweden; Mr. Bergman, wever, after recapitulating the circumftances of fome experiments, well known in France and England, clofes his letter with the following queftions and remark: Ullufne, in Anglia, falminis ictus, virgis ferreis erectis, avertere conatus eft? et quo fucceffu? In Penfylvania tentari mihi narratum eft. Certe fi pru denter inftituatur, nulla hinc mala metuenda video.'-If our experimentalists cannot make a fatisfactory anfwer to the above queftions, they must admit that they are as far behind thofe of New England and Penfylvania, as the philofophers of Sweden are to thofe of Great Britain. Art. 14. An Account of a Fish from Batavia, called Faculator. By Our good friend, Dr. Schloffer of Amfterdam, hath, it feems, prefented the Royal Society with a very uncommon fish; of which this article contains the drawing and defcription. The moft extraordinary circumstance relating to it, is the manner of its obtaining food; which is pretty fingular; indeed so fingular, that, if a perfonal acquaintance with this ingenious gentleman did not give us fufficient reafon to think, that he could not mean to impofe on others, nor is liable to be easily imposed on himself, we should hardly have been foon induced to give it credit. The Doctor having received from Mr. Hommel, governor of the hofpital at Batavia, many uncommon fishes, well preferved, amongst them was this, called the faculator, or Shooting-fish; of which the governor gave him the following account: |