428 NATURAL HISTORY. 



without rain, and worms in the oak-apple, have been 

 spoken of before. Also the plenty of frogs, grass 

 hoppers, flies, and the like creatures bred of putre 

 faction, doth portend pestilential years. 



802. Great and early heats in the spring, and 

 namely in May, without winds, portend the same ; 

 and generally so do years with little wind or 

 thunder. 



803. Great droughts in summer lasting till to 

 wards the end of August, and some gentle showers 

 upon them, and then some dry weather again, do 

 portend a pestilent summer the year following : for 

 about the end of August all the sweetness of the 

 earth, which goeth into plants and trees, is exhaled, 

 and much more if the August be dry, so that nothing 

 then can breathe forth of the earth but a gross va 

 pour, which is apt to corrupt the air : and that 

 vapour, by the first showers, if they be gentle, is 

 released, and cometh forth abundantly. Therefore 

 they that come abroad soon after those showers, are 

 commonly taken with sickness : and in Africa, 

 nobody will stir out of doors after the first showers 

 But if the showers come vehemently, then they 

 rather wash and fill the earth, than give it leave to 

 breathe forth presently. But if dry weather come 

 again, then it fixeth and continueth the corruption 

 of the air, upon the first showers begun ; and 

 maketh it of ill influence, even to the next summer ; 

 except a very frosty winter discharge it, which sel 

 dom succeedeth such droughts. 



804-. The lesser infections, of the small-pox, pur- 



