GEM TORY X. 125 



there should remain a transmission of virtue from 

 the one to the other : as between the weapon and the 

 wound. Whereupon is blazed abroad the operation of 

 unguentum teli : and so of a piece of lard, or stick of 

 elder, &c., that if part of it be consumed or putrefied, it 

 will work upon the other part severed. Now we will 

 pursue the instances themselves. 



.Experiments in consort touching emission of spirits in 

 vapour or exhalation, odour-like. 



912. The plague is many times taken without mani 

 fest sense, as hath been said. And they report that, 

 where it is found, it hath a scent of the smell of a mel 

 low apple ; and (as some say) of May-flowers : and it 

 is also received that smells of flowers that are mellow 

 and luscious, are ill for the plague ; as white lilies, 

 cowslips, and hyacinths. 



913. The plague is not easily received by such as 

 continually are about them that have the plague ; as 

 keepers of the sick, and physicians : nor again by 

 such as take antidotes, either inward, (as mithridate ; 

 juniper-berries ; rue, leaf and seed, &c.,) or outward, 

 (as angelica, zedoary, and the like, in the mouth ; tar, 

 galbanum, and the like, in perfume) ; nor again by old 

 people, and such as are of a dry and cold complexion. 

 On the other side, the plague taketh soonest hold of 

 those that come out of a fresh air, and of those that are 

 tasting, and of children ; and it is likewise noted to go 

 in a blood, more than to a stranger. 



914. The most pernicious infection, next the plague, 

 is the smell of the jail, when prisoners have been long 

 and close and nastily kept ; whereof we have had in 

 our time experience twice or thrice ; when both the 



