650 
thousand. proofs demonstrate that. the 
infected may visit and die ina foreign 
land, without communicating ‘the + dis- 
ease to) their, attendants.. Dr.Russell 
states, “that persons with the, plague 
atriving at Aleppo from Turkey in’ the 
winter, die; but the disease, under such 
circumstances, never spreads,” Mr.Green 
deposed.before the/House of Commons, 
that.at, Smyrna, “ out of the plague 
season the. disease could not be com- 
municated, however frequently infected 
ships might arrive, and hold unrestrain- 
ed intercourse with the town.” Thus 
it appears that the plague has not in 
itself the means of its propagation,— 
it requires its peculiar aliment. The 
shifting. of the wind, a hurricane, an 
increase or a diminution of the tem- 
perature, a change of the season, ren- 
ders it harmless; no new victim falls, 
if the element.in which it had its being 
alters, 
And can a disease, which at home, 
in its own birth-place, is neutralized by 
a shower of rain, affect. a people who 
breathe another atmosphere, and wlfose 
habits are an antidote to the disease ? 
The laws of nature forbid the belief. 
Thus, to engender and to propagate the 
disease, may be \used.as. synonimous 
terms. Without, the element, there’ is 
not the disease; with the element, 
there does not need the infected to 
give it existence. Every year it com- 
mences spontaneously in Egypt, and, 
with a similar atmosphere, would com- 
mence elsewhere. But, in Egypt, it 
cannot propagate after the wind has 
shifted a few points of the, compass, 
and the temperature is a little varied. 
How then can such a disease be ex- 
ported? How can we be made to 
breathe a poison, which, like the dew 
of the morning, vanishes before the rays 
of the sun? 
Besides, the violence of the disease 
is a proof of its locality; contagion 
excites caution, which retards the pro- 
gress of the evil; but the plague moves 
onward like a deluge, which nothing 
stays, and with a rapidity which nothing 
retards, up to the boundary of its atmo- 
sphere, and at that point it stops; it 
does not pass into Persia, it does not 
pass into Egypt, it does not visit any 
country if its atmosphere be not there. 
Another question is asked. How 
long .can contagious matter retain its 
power, in. countries suited to its exist- 
ence? On the virus of all the diseases 
of this country, the action of the atmo- 
sphere is specific:and rapid, . Dr. Hay- 
Non-Contagion of Plague. 
garth ascertained that malignant fevers 
send forth their contagion only three _ 
feet from their source: beyond that it 
issso diluted, or ‘combined with the 
atmosphere, -as to: ‘lose. its influence. 
‘The dwelling, in which the: small-pox 
has raged with its: greatest virulence, is 
soon visited with impunity ; no drapery 
is removed, no (dormancy: of infection 
suspected; the disease has: ceased, and 
experience proves: that!the infection 
ceases shortly afters: The) matter of 
the small-pox can only be preserved in 
a bottle, hermetically: sealed. »Our pest- 
houses and: fever-wards'jare ‘the com- 
mon receptacles. of every: infectious 
disease ; but the» patients,: on: recover- 
ing from the scarlet, are not seized with 
the typhus fever; \ithe» convalescents 
retain their. platted hair, imbued with 
the virus of the disease» under which 
they had suffered;.and) return’ to their 
families in safety... Our merchandize is 
sent abroad, and is received, without its 
being inquired whether in our weavers’ 
cellars, or our hospitals, a destructive 
fever was raging ; -indeed)we should not 
highly respect the understandings of 
those men who affected:to. believe, that 
goods which did not infect our mer- 
chants would infect them. The plague, 
from the testimony of contagionists, is 
not more infectious than our fevers; 
why then do we dread the pertinacity 
of its influence ? 
Dr. Russell prescribed, for, patients, 
in every stage of the plague, at a very 
short distance from them, with impu- 
nity. Dr. Hodges reports, that many 
individuals who had. fled from London 
in. 1665, returned to those beds in 
safety in which some of their friends 
had recently died of the plague. Yet, 
with this fact before him, he informs 
us, “ that the plague itself was import- 
ed from Holland in a bag of cotton.” 
The Egyptians, who have ample means 
of judging of the pertinacity with which 
infection is retained, say, that it does 
not emanate from the body, and can 
only be taken through the. medium of 
the skin; the infected must be touched, 
and that under no circumstance can 
the virus be long retained, 
Such are the principal facts and ar- 
guments urged in. this controversy. 
When the evidence, which favours con- 
tagion, is collected, and the portion of 
truth it contains fully appreciated, sur- 
prise’ is excited, that a conclusion, the 
reyerse of that intended, has’ not been 
drawn,),., Stories..that ignorance has 
created, and credulity acted upon, bear 
; evidence 
