184 Miscellaneous Intelligence. 



Whence proceeds this difference ? is it a different species of 

 plague, and not so deadly a contagion ? or is it because the re- 

 medy of olive oil, applied and recommended generally by me 

 and by some other Europeans during the plague of 1799, is 

 now made public and generally administered? This is an in- 

 quiry well deserving the attention of scientific men. And his 

 Majesty's ministers might procure the information from the 

 British Consul at Tangier, or from the governor of Gibraltar : 

 perhaps the truth is, that the contagion is of a more mild 

 character. 



With regard to the remedy of olive oil applied * internally, I 

 should, myself, be disposed to doubt its efficacy unless M.Colaco, 

 the Portuguese consul at L'Araich, is competent to declare,yro7K 

 his own knowledge and experience, that this remedy has been ad- 

 ministered effectually by him to persons havingthe plague, who did 

 not also use the friction with oil. I say, till this can be ascertained I 

 think the remedy of oil applied exferwaWy, should not be forsaken; 

 as it has been proved during the plague in Africa, in 1799, to be 



reviewed in article 20th of the British Review, and London Critical 

 Journal, published in May last, that I have asserted that the deaths 

 during the prevalence of that disorder in West Barbary in 17.99, amounted 

 to 1 'ii, 500 ; but on a reference to my account of Morocco, Timbuctoo, &c., 

 2d or 3d edition, note, page 174, it will appear, that this mortality, was 

 that of two cities, and two sea-ports only,viz-, the cities of Fas andMorocco, 

 and the ports of Safty and Mogodor ; the mortality, however, was equally 

 great in tiie imperial cities of Mequinas, and Ferodant, and in the sea-port 

 towns of Tetuan, Tangier, Arzilla, Laraiche, Salee, Rabat, Dar el Vieda, 

 Azaniore, and Mazagan, and Santa Cruz, or Agadeer ; and considerably 

 greater among the populous and numerous encampments of the Arabs, 

 throughout the various provinces of the empire ; not to mention the incre- 

 dible mortality in the castles, towns, and other walled habitations of the 

 Shellah province of Haha, the first province, travelling from the shores of 

 the Mcditerrannean, where the people lived in walled habitations, the sea- 

 ports excepted. 



* Mr. Colaco, having lately observed that oil was used externally to 

 anoint the body, as a preservative against the plague ; conceived the 

 idea of ad/ninistering this simple remedy internally to persons already 

 ^nfccted ; numerous experiments were made by this gentleman, and out of 

 ;{eo individuals already infecte;d, who resorted to this remedy, only 12 died. 



