262 New Method to cure and prevent the Plague. 
In the courfe of five years, during which friction with oil! 
was employed in the hofpital at Smyrna, of 250 perfons at- 
tacked by the plague the grearer part were cured; and this 
would have been the cafe with the reft had they not negleét- 
ed the operation, or had it not been employed too late after 
their nervous fyftem had been weakened by the difeafe fo as 
to render them incurable. Inimenfe numbers of: people 
have been preferved from the effects of this malady by the 
above means; and of all thofe who have anointed them- 
felyes with oil and rubbed it well into their bodies, not one 
has been attacked by the plague, even though they ap- 
proached perfons already infected, provided they abftained 
from heavy and indigeftible food. 
The aboye account of P. Luigi is accompanied with feve- 
ral attefations of the efficacy of oil, both as a cure and a 
preventive, figned by, B. Giraud the Imperial conful, and 
F. Merry the Englith conful, at Smyrna. 
We are informed by Count von Berchtold, that this me- 
thod of cure is at prefent employed with the beft effeéts in 
Egypt, Conftantinople, and Wallachia; and that great care 
has been taken to make it cenerally known both in the Eaft 
and in thofe countries that carry on trade in the Levant. 
This important difcovery, which does fo much credit to 
eur countryman Mr. Baldwin, deferves the ferious confide- 
ration of all medical men; for, if olive oi! has been found 
efficacious in curing or preferving againft one {pecies of in- 
fection, it is not abfurd to fuppofe that the fame, or other 
kinds of oil, might be produgtive of much benefit in other 
malignant infectious difeafes. We hope foon to hear of 
fome trial being made with it in this country. Would it 
be of any fervice in the yellow fever, fo prevalent in the 
weftern world ? 
VII. Exc- 
