THE EARTH 13S 



lage, or even a house, escaped being infected by it. Before it had 

 readied Europe, it had been for two years travelling from the great 

 kingdom of Cathay, where it began by a vapour most horridly foetid ; 

 this broke out of the earth like a subterranean fire, and upon the first 

 instant of its eruption, consumed and desolated above two hundred 

 leagues of that country, even to the trees and stones. 



In that great plague which desolated the city of London, in the year 

 1 G(K>, a pious and learned schoolmaster of Mr. Boyle's acquaintance, who 

 ventured to stay in the city, and took upon him the humane office of 

 visiting the sick and the dying, who had been deserted by better phy- 

 sicians, averred, that being once called to a poor woman who had 

 buried her children of the plague, he found the room where she lay 

 so little that it scarce could hold any more than the bed whereon she 

 was stretched. However, in this wretched abode, beside her, in an 

 open coffin, her husband lay, who had some time before died of the 

 same disease ; and whom she, poor creature, soon followed. But what 

 shewed the peculiar malignity of the air, thus suffering from animal 

 putrefaction, was, that the contagious steams had produced spo'ts on 

 the very wall of their wretched apartment : and Mr. Boyle's own 

 study, which was contiguous to a pesthouse, was also spotted in the 

 same frightful manner. Happily for mankind, this disorder, for more 

 than a century has not been known in our island ; and, for this last 

 age, has abated much of its violence, even in those countries where it 

 is most common. Diseases, like empires, have their revolutions ; and 

 those which for a while were the scourge of mankind, sink unheard 

 of, to give place to new ones, more dreadful, as being less understood. 



For this revolution in disorders, which has employed the specula- 

 tion of many, Mr. Boyle accounts in the following manner : " Since," 

 says he, " there want not causes in the bowels of the earth, to make 

 considerable changes amongst the materials that Nature has plentiful- 

 ly treasured up in those magazines, and as those noxious steams are 

 abundantly supplied to the surface, it may not seem improbable, that 

 in this great variety, some may be found capable of affecting the hu- 

 man frame in a particular manner, and thus of producing new diseas- 

 es. The duration of these may be greater or less, according to the 

 lastingness of those subterraneous causes that produced them. On 

 which account, it need be no wonder that some diseases have but a 

 short duration, and vanish not long after they appear ; whilst others 

 may continue longer, as having under ground more settled and dura- 

 ble causes to maintain them." 



From the recital of this train of mischiefs produced by the air, ujv 

 on minerals, plants, animals, and man himself, a gloomy mind may be 

 apt to dread this indulgent nurse of nature as a cruel and an inexora- 

 ble step-mother : but it is far otherwise ; and, although we are some- 

 rimes injured, yet almost all the comforts and blessings of life spring 

 from its propitious influence. It would be needless to observe that it 

 is absolutely necessary for the support of our lives ; for of this every 

 moment's experience assures us. But how it contributes to this sup- 

 port, is not so readily comprehended. All allow it to be a friend, to 

 whose benefits we are constantly obliged ; and yet, to this hour, phi- 

 losophers are divided as to the nature of the obligati .m The dispute 



