STUDY VII. 37 



times (battered by fhocks of this kind, and that it 

 is imprudent to build in ftone. To perfons who 

 can fubmit to live in a houfe of wood, they have 

 nodiing formidable. Naples and Portici are per- 

 fedly acquainted with the fate of Herculaneum. 

 After all, earthquakes are not univerfal ; they are 

 local and periodical. Pliny has obferved that the 

 Gauls were not fubjedt to vifitations of this kind ; 

 but there are many other countries which know of 

 them only by report. They are fcarcely ever felt 

 esLcept in the vicinity of volcanos, on the fhores of 

 the Sea, or of great Lakes, and only at certain par- 

 ticular portions of the fliore. 



As to the epidemical maladies of the Human 

 Race, and the difeafes of animals, they are, in ge- 

 neral, to be imputed to corrupted waters. Phyfi- 

 cians, who have inveftigated their caufes, afcribe 

 them fometimes to the corruption of die air, fome- 

 times to the mildew of plants, fometimes-te fogs : 

 but all thefe caufes are fimply effeds of the corrup- 

 tion of the waters, from which arife putrid exhala^ 

 tions that infed the air, and vegetables, and ani- 

 mals. This may be charged, in almoft every in- 

 flance, on the injudicious labours of Man. The 

 mod unwholefome regions of the Earth, as far as I 

 am at prefent able to recoUeâ-, are in Afia, on the 

 banks of the Ganges, from which proceed, every 

 year, putrid fevers, that, in 1771, cofl Bengal the 



p ^ life 



