On the late Plague at Malta. 243 



Valletta, bv visiting- the houses where a suspicion of infection wag 

 entertained ; at tlie same time that the most prudent measures 

 were adopted to prevent the conceahiient of disease. For this 

 purpose constant visits were paid in the respective districts into 

 whicli the citv was divided. These districts were separated by 

 barriers, to the end that each of them might be the more closely 

 watched, and all unnecessary intercourse between the inhabitants 

 prevented. The latter were, indeed, with the exception of such 

 as could render themselves useful abroad, confined to their homes, 

 the supplies of provisions being carried round by persons ap- 

 pointed for that purpose. Proclamations were issued, pointing 

 out the precautions thevhad to observe in receiving these supplies, 

 &c. In short, every salutary and restraining measure which the 

 public safety required was promptly taken by the Government. 



Having adverted to the Maltese practitioners, whose exertions 

 for the relief of their fellow citizens were thus called forth, and 

 liberally recompensed, some account of their practice — of the cu- 

 rative means they emploved — may be expected. To come, how- 

 ever, at any precise knowledge of the treatment they pursued, 

 baffled ail the ingenuity of inquiry. It is not but that they were 

 sufficiently accomplished, in point of study, for the task they 

 undertook. Se\'eral of them may, on the other hand, be cited 

 as highly accomplished in their profession * ; but it was not an 

 easy task for them to subdue the constitutional timidity imder 

 which they laboured, on the sudden appearance of a contagious 

 distemper with which they were only theoretically acquainted. 

 To follow up any thing like a regular method of cure, required a 

 free and unrestrained communication with the patients ujider 

 their care, which thev coidd not maintain unless exempted from 

 the panic that was spread around them. History records that 

 on the breaking out of the great plague of London in 1G65, 

 among other instances of an heroic contempt of danger — of an 

 ardent zeal in the cause of humanity, which could not be abated 

 by any consideration of personal safety — a Doctor Sayer declared 

 that, braving every risk, he would attend indiscriminately the rich 

 and the poor. He persevered until the last, and escaped the 

 contagion f. Nothing of this sort was to be heard of at Malta: 

 it would in truth appear, that every idea of systematic treatment 

 yielded to the powerful impressions of fear, as well at the onset 

 as when the disease raged with the greatest violence. Even 



* The Maltese public have to regret the loss of Doctor Gravagna, a sen- 

 sible anil judicious practitioner, of" very amiable manners. He died in the 

 time of the plague, but it is uncertain whether lie fell a victim to the dis- 

 ease. 



t Among the precautions with which he armed himself, it was liis cus- 

 tom to take a copious drau<;ht of Matlciia wine on leaving his house, and 

 aiiutticr on coninicncing hia loumK. 



Q 2 when, 



