496 NATURAL HISTORY. 



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

 old people, and such as are of a dry and cold com 

 plexion. On the other side, the plague taketh soon 

 est hold of those that come out of a fresh air, and of 

 those that are fasting, 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 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. 



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 putrified ; for they are not those 

 stinks which the nostrils straight abhor and expel, 

 that are most pernicious ; but such airs as have some 

 similitude with man s body : and so insinuate them 

 selves, and betray the spirits. There may be great 

 danger in using such compositions, in great meet 

 ings of people within houses ; as in churches, at ar 

 raignments, at plays and solemnities, and the like : 

 for poisoning of air is no less dangerous than poison 

 ing 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. And these impoison- 

 ments of air are the more dangerous in meetings of 



