126 NATURAL HISTORY. 



judges that sat upon the jail, and numbers of those 

 that attended the business or were present, sickened 

 upon it, and died. Therefore it were good wisdom, 

 that in such cases the jail were aired before they be 

 brought forth. 1 



915. Out of question, if such foul smells be made by 

 art and by the hand, they consist chiefly of man s flesh 

 or sweat putrefied ; for they are not those stinks which 

 the nostrils straight abhor and expel, that are most per 

 nicious ; but such airs as have some similitude with 

 man s body ; and so insinuate themselves, and betray 

 the spirits. There may be great danger in using such 

 compositions, in great meetings of people within houses ; 

 as in churches, at arraignments, at plays and solemni 

 ties, and the like : for poisoning of air is no less dan 

 gerous than poisoning of water, which hath been used 

 by the Turks in the wars, and was used by Emmanuel 

 Comnenus towards the Christians, when they passed 

 through his country to the Holy Land. 2 And these 

 ernpoisonments of air are the more dangerous in meet 

 ings of people, because the much breath of people doth 

 further the reception of the infection ; and therefore, 

 where any such thing is feared, it were good those 

 public places were perfumed, before the assemblies. 



916. The empoisonment of particular persons by 

 odours, hath been reported to be in perfumed gloves, 

 or the like : and it is like they mingle the poison that 



1 A memorable instance of what Bacon here mentions took place in 1750, 

 in consequence of a neglected state of Newgate. 



2 I have not been able to find any authority for this statement. All the 

 original historians of the second Crusade speak of the treachery of Com 

 nenus, but no one charges him with having poisoned the wells. Nicetas 

 affirms that in order to poison the Crusaders, lime was put into the flour 

 with which they were supplied. He does not, however, assert that this was 

 done by the emperor s direction. 



