[ 198 ] 
That the human body may be thrown into a co- 
pious perfpiration by friction with warm olive oil, is 
a circumftance unnoticed till lately. The effeéts of 
this procefs, as praétifed at the Smyrna Hofpital, in 
the prevention and even cure of the plague, in the 
firft {tage of infection, are related by Count Bercu- 
TOLD, in his late interefting traé& on that fubject;* 
and fince confirmed by the teftimony of Father Lewis, 
fuperintendant of the hofpital. 
If olive oil, then, be really a prefervative againft 
the poifon of the incenfed viper, and even the pefti- 
lential contagion itfelf, is there not reafon to fufpe& 
that oil and oleaginous fubftances may have had a 
greater fhare in counteracting the canine poifon than 
the votaries of mercury ever imagined? 
It is not pretended, indeed, to be a certain, only 
a probable remedy, after the hydrophobia has ac- 
tually commenced; analogy affording only a pre- 
fumption, not a proof; nor can its efficacy be fully 
afcertained, but by repeated trials and attentive © 
obfervation, As the prevention depends on due 
management of the wound, this medicine is judici- 
oufly ordered to be applied externally for feveral 
days. Onthis, probably, and this alone, ought 
the main ftrefs to be laid; yet, to calm the patient’s 
mind, and to ftrengthen his hopes of fecurity, it 
— EO -— = 
Se 
* Deicrizione del nuovo rimedio curativo e preferyativo contro 
la pefte 
may 
