CENTURY X. 497 



people, because the much breath of people doth fur 

 ther 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 impoisonment 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 is deadly, with some smells that are sweet, 

 which also maketh it the sooner received. Plagues 

 also have been raised by anointings of the chinks of 

 doors, and the like ; not so much by the touch, as 

 for that it is common for men, when they find any 

 thing wet upon their fingers, to put them to their 

 nose ; which men therefore should take heed how 

 they do. The best is, that these compositions of 

 infectious airs cannot be made without danger of 

 death to them that make them. But then again, 

 they may have some antidotes to save themselves ; 

 so that men ought not to be secure of it. 



917. There have been in divers countries great 

 plagues, by the putrefaction of great swarms of 

 grasshoppers and locusts, when they have been dead 

 and cast upon heaps. 



918. It happeneth often in mines, that there are 

 damps which kill, either by suffocation, or by the 

 poisonous nature of the mineral : and those that deal 

 much in refining, or other works about metals and 

 minerals, have their brains hurt and stupified by the 

 metalline vapours. Amongst which it is noted, that 

 the spirits of quicksilver either fly to the skull, teeth, 

 or bones; insomuch as gilders use to have a piece of 



