2^6 Utililj.' of employing CaJcarcijUS SuljUincct 



which comes from thefe fewcrs contains fo many infecting 

 matters, that its ftrong putrid fmcll can fcarcfly be endured, 



" After this fliort delcription of the police of Lifbon, in 

 regard to its cleauUnefs, every bodv would draw the inference, 

 that endemical difcafes muft reign, not on!y in the fammer, 

 but in the winter time, feeing that the accumulation of the 

 dirt in the f^reets is incomparably greater in the winter than 

 in fummer. The conneclion there is between malignant 

 diftempers and dirtinefs is very well known, and exprefsly 

 marked by Tiffbt {^Av'is an Fetiple fur la Sanf^, chap. ii. 

 § 7). Happily, Sir, the contrary is the fa6l : Lilbon is one 

 of the moft healthy fituations I know, and its inhabitants do 

 not fufler but the common difeafes to which tlie human body 

 is fubjetled. Many people go from England and other 

 countries to Lilbon, in certain difeafes, to enjoy the benefit 

 of a falubrious place, and very often to fpcnd the fummer 

 agreeably in a good and wholefomc climate. 



*' What then can be the caufe of this apparently phyfical 

 contradi6lion between the impurity and corruption -hi the 

 ilreets, and the falubrity of the air ? I confcfs. Sir, I can- 

 not find any explanation of this phenomenon if I reject the 

 the theory of the influence of calcareous earth upon feptic 

 fluids, and I can well comprehend the reafon if I admit it. 



" The buildings in Lifbon are all of ftone, and, in general, 

 of marble of feveral qualities, and chiefly the marmor rafilis 

 ofLimiseus; and this fione is procured in the neighbour- 

 hood of the city. All the houfes are white-wafhed infide 

 andoutfide; and the handfomeft new-fafliioned houfes are 

 plaftered v ith a plafter they call efcariola, a compound of 

 g^^pfum and other matters, and painted over that compofi- 

 tion in water-colours. As a number of new buildings are 

 continually creeling, there are, in all the ftreets, a great 

 many ftone-cutters hewing the Hones, and their fragments 

 are fcattcrcd through the ftreets. In the time of the earth- 

 quakes, as the houfes fall down, the attrition of the llonca, 

 one againd the other_, breaks them in pieces, reducing many 



