CHAP, iv S Y L V A 277 



lying under water in the Numidian Lake, crusted 

 over with a certain ferruginous mixture of earth and 

 scales, as if it had been of iron ; but (as we have 

 elsewhere noted) it was pronounced to be larix, and 

 not cypress, employ'd by Tiberius : Finally (not to 

 forget even the very chips of this precious wood, 

 which give that flavour to muscadines, and other rich 

 wines) I commend it for the improvement of the air, 

 and a specific for the lungs, as sending forth most 

 sweet, and aromatick emissions, whenever it is either 

 clipp'd, or handled, and the chips or cones, being 

 burnt, extinguish moths, and expels the gnats and 

 flies, &c. not omitting the gum which it yields, not 

 much inferior to the terebinthine or lentise. 



We have often mention'd the virtue of these odori- 

 ferous woods, for the improvement of the air ; upon 

 which I take occasion here to add, what I have (some 

 years since) already ] publish'd, concerning the meli- 

 oration of it, in, and about this great and populous 

 city, accidentally obnoxious to the effects of those 

 nauseous vapours, exhaling from those many unclean 

 places, and tainting that dismal cloud of sulphurous 

 (if not arsenical) smoke, which we uncessantly breathe 

 in. I know the late terrible conflagration, by the 

 care and industry of the magistrate, in causing so 

 many kennels, sinks, gutters, lay-stalls and other 

 nuisances (receptacles of a stagnant filth) to be re- 

 moved, must needs have exceedingly contributed to the 

 purifying of the air ; as I am persuaded would appear 

 upon a political observation in the bills of mortality : 

 But what I yet cannot but deplore, is, that, (when 

 that spacious area, was so long a rasa tabula] the 

 church-yards had not been banish'd to the North- 



1 Fumifugiuni. 



