256 On the Peflilential Difeafes which 
ferences : : why fhould they not modify the event? It may be 
doubted whether any ‘moral caufe would be fufficient to pro 
tect, for a long period, an unaccuftomed refident in a marfhy 
fituation from the ufual confequences. Fatigue and defpon- 
dency are certainly favourable to the accefs of difeafe; and 
maction, particularly i in camps, is generally admitted to be 
fearcely lefs fo. The uncommon heat of the year of Imil- 
con’s irruption into Sicily, may be a fatisfactory explanation 
why his fuccefsful troops were fo readily diccied by the un- 
wholefomenefs of his camp. 
4.' Progrefs of the difeafe——The fick, in the army of 
Nicias, were not numerous at firft, but the number gradually 
imeregfed, This ts attributed, by Plutarch, to contagion ; 
but Thucydides, a cotemporary and. more fagacious hifto- 
rian, exprefies no fuch opinion, nor does it feem probable. 
The growing defperation of the Athenian, affairs, and the 
tendleney) of ‘the feafon to augment the extent and heighten 
the virulence of marth echulationes fufficiently account for 
the increafing_predifpofition to ficknefs, and for its more ge- 
neral prevalence in their army. 
The fame reafoning will apply, generally, to the cafe of 
Imilcon’s army ; butt: there were, in this inftance, additional 
caufes for the produdtion of fuch immenfe mortality. The 
commencement of this peftilence was among his African 
auxiliaries.” The circumftances of their impreffinent into the 
fervice, and of the contempt in which they were held by the 
Carthaginians, render it probable that lefs care was taken to” 
accommodate them than the others, Some peculiar habits 
of body, modes of life, or varieties of native climate, might 
influence this event; or they might have been previoufly 
fubjected to greater fatigue. Be this as it may, the ficknefs 
foon became univerfal, and fo mortal that the dead lay un- 
buried. Ina fituation lke this, there is no reafon to believe 
that much attention was at any time paid to the neceflary 
duties of cleanlinefs. When the fick could find ne attend- 
ants, and the dead none to inter them, it requires but little 
faracity to infer that no means were. uled for the removal of 
excrementitious matters, And as a large proportion of this 
army were afllicled with dylentery, and thy number cf pu- 
8 tre! ying 
ee 
