62 



DR. E. ANGUS SMITH ON ANCLENT AND 



Aramianus Marcellinus agrees with this ; others think that the 

 exhalation of the earth makes the air thicker, and so kills. 



" Mathematicians think that pestilence and other evils come 

 from the power of the stars, and chiefly the dog-star: with 

 this the poets also agree. 



"But most writers are agreed that pestilence comes from 

 corrupt air, which spreads its evils all around — which kills 

 the living who inhale it ; for there is a constant interchange 

 of air in us, and when without it, we are instantly killed ; so 

 when the air which we constantly breathe is foul and pesti- 

 lent! ous, it must enter, by our breathing, into our vitals, and 

 produce disease and death. Hence Virgil says, — 

 ' Corrupto cceli tractu miserandaque venit 

 Arboribusque satisque lues et pestifer annus.' 



And in like manner Lucretius says, — 



' Et cum spirantes mixtas hinc ducimus auras 

 Ilia quoque in corpus pariter sorbere necesse est 

 Consimili ratione venit bubus quoque seepe 

 Pestilitas.' 



And Ovid, explaining the poetic pestilence, thus speaks : — 



' Ora patent aurseque, graves captantur hiatu.' 



Wherefore Avicenna, the most celebrated by far of physi- 

 cians, thinks, that in pestilence, respiration and inhalation are 

 diminished, and that odours should be used to mitigate the 

 corruption of the air. 



" Winds also, which are called flowing air, are the causes of 

 pestilence ; but chiefly the south wind, of which Celsus thus 

 speaks : — ' Pestilences occur in all winds, but chiefly in the 

 south wind.' And Ovid also shows that pestilence comes by 

 a south wind : — 



'Laetiferis calidi spirarunt aestubus Austri.' 



"Aristotle, in his Problems, says that the south wind makes 

 bodies warm and moist, and therefore liable to corruption ; 

 which wind also is the cause of bad breath. According to 



