Contagion of Plague. 
Immediately preceding his return home, 
he went to a friend’s house at Arta, 
where the plague then prevailed, and 
whose family was’ sick of that disease. 
From thence hé brought away a’ capot, 
which is a kind of upper garment, made 
of loosely-spun'’ ‘wool,’ and’ coarsely 
woven. This‘hé folded up; and return- 
ing to’ Cephalonia, he’ carried it with 
him into°the lazaretto’of St. Huphemia, 
that being’ nearest’ to” his native place. 
He was there détained for a certain 
time, and’ havin? ‘no symptom of disease, 
he was liberatéd, at the same time with 
two other persons from the'same place. 
On his way home, having to pass the 
summit “of “an'’exeeeding high ridge 
of mountain, and, in that situation, feel- 
ing himsélf cold, he opened ‘the ca- 
pot, and’ ‘threw it’ over him. Almost 
immediately ‘after; he ‘was taken ill; 
and with ‘some difficulty, and the assist- 
ance of his comrades, he reached’ his 
home. In a day or two after, he died: 
and, from this source, the’ plague was 
communicated to the inhabitants of’ the 
town. | ° 
To the foregoing I shall add another 
similar casé, which is given’ by Dr.. 
Mordo;* physician ‘to the Board of 
Health at Corfu.—On Christmas evening 
1629, it was found that the plague had 
broken out in ‘seven places in the city 
of Corfu; and, by investigation, it was 
ascertained that 'a servant of Odigitriano 
Sarandari, another Member of the Board 
of Health, had; by clandestine means, got, 
froma foreign ship in quarantine—the 
lague ‘then raging in Italy—two linen 
handkerchiefs of Turkish manufacture. 
These handkerchiefs were folded up— 
in this state he presented them to his 
mistress, who’ directly gave them to one 
of her daughters to put away; where- 
upon the girl was soon after taken ill 
and died. A number of ladies of the 
place, as is ‘the’ custom, met at the 
funeral,'and embraced the mother. 
Several were, thereupon, taken with the 
plague,’ which broke’ out in the manner 
above stated. Sarandari and his family 
were sent to the lazaretto.—Sarandari 
himself was afterwards shot for this 
crime. ; 
Some years ago, an English transport 
was”employed to take in live stock at 
Alexandria. ‘In that way the crew got 
the plague, which almost immediately 
broke’ out, on leaving port.—Having 
mislaid the paper’on which this particu- 
lar case was written, I am? unable to 
give the ship’s name, or to say, for cer- 
tain, that Lampedosa was the’ place 
655 
assigned for her. expurgation. I saw 
the’ master of this transport at Palermo 
in’ 1814;"who gave ‘mea very explicit 
accotint: of ‘all’ the circumstances, the 
symptonis of the diséase, and the mode 
of treatment he’ had recourse to—from 
which I am satisfied he could not, have 
been’ so minute unless he had actually 
laboured under the disease, or had 
been in’ close contact with those affected 
with it. 
I do not quote the origin of the plague 
at Corfu, as in favour of either opinion 
of the nature of that disease. From 
facts I have published,* Iam persuaded 
that, in that. instance, the, plague origi- 
nated from local-causes, and was after- 
wards propagated over: the district by 
the effect of contagion, similar to; what 
happens in typhus: and°so far do'T 
consider that the contagion of ‘plague 
differs from that of 'small-pox or other 
eruptive diseases, which is either in an 
active or dormant state at all times; 
whereas that of the plague can only be 
generated by a previous combination of 
circumstances, exciting a certain degree 
of disease, prior to the evolution. of the 
contagion. ? 
By the Anti-contagionists the’ plague 
is considered as an epidemie, depending 
on local causes; but what those caitses 
are, has never yet been pointed out, as 
in the case of yellow fever, or any other 
epidemic disease. But were the plague 
really propagated independently of con- 
tagion, it certainly, in its periods ‘of 
appearance, differs extremely from every 
other febrile epidemic, typhus excepted. 
It broke out in winter at Corfu, and 
_raged most severely at Moscow, at that 
season, during extreme cold’ weather. 
On the other hand, it broke out’ in 
Malta and in Cephalonia in the heat of 
summer, and was most virulent in the 
dog-days. Now, surely, the cold of 
winter, or the’ great’ heat of summer, 
would rather tend to repress the preva- 
lence of the disease, did’ it depend on 
local circumstances, or spread from any 
other cause but contagion. 
But, to pursue this’ a little farther. 
It has been said, that the cause of 
plague is something in the condition of 
the atmosphere, whether in its physical 
or chemical properties, has not yet been 
pit oY In reply to this, we adduce 
the well-known experiment of the 
members of the Institute at Cairo, which 
shews that the air of Egypt does not 
“-° differ, 
* See’ The Medical Repository, No. 48. 
