PESTILENCE IN ORIENTAL CITIES. 169 



These are remarkable facts, and they speak volumes 

 for the robust tenacity and vitality of the British 

 race. 



How then can we account for the disappearance of 

 whole races of mankind, and the total abandonment 

 of the great cities of antiquity, which we find con- 

 stantly recorded in oriental history ? Might not these 

 things have been due to Pestilence, rather than to 

 misrule or the incursions of hordes of barbaric con- 

 querors ? 



We know that whenever a numerous population is 

 gathered together under insanitary conditions, beneath 

 the influence of a powerful sun, epidemics of malignant 

 character are certain to follow, and that so long as 

 these conditions continue disease is likely to prove 

 endemic. We can scarcely therefore be surprised if, 

 in these cases of the great cities of antiquity, it should 

 eventually have necessitated their complete evacuation ; 

 especially in an age of superstition, when pestilence 

 was always regarded as of supernatural origin, sent 

 in fact, " as a punishment from Heaven, because of 

 the sins of the people." There can be no doubt, if 

 we may venture so to express it, that there is a sin 

 which is certain to bring pestilence upon a city, and 

 that is neglect of the sanitary laws of Nature. If 

 there is one precept of the natural law more clearly 

 laid down for our guidance than any other, so that he 

 who runs may read, it is that, " Where there is dirt, 

 there will be disease." It is desirable, therefore, not to 

 lose sight of these facts when seeking for the probable 

 cause of the abandonment of ancient cities and great 

 works of national utility, with which India, Ceylon, 

 Mexico, Egypt, and other countries are replete. 



