VOL. XLVII.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 239 



LXIII. Extracts of several Letters of Mordacb Mackenzie, M. D. concerning 

 the Plague at Coiistantinople. By Dr. Clephane, F. R. S. p. 384. 



Before he transcribes his friend Dr. Mackenzie's letters relating to the late 

 plague at Constantinople, Dr. C. premises a few particulars concerning the plague 

 in general, as he finds them scattered here and there in Dr. Mackenzie's former 

 letters to him on that subject. 



In a letter dated March 24, 1749, Dr. M. observes that, in his time the plague, 

 whether at Constantinople, Smyrna, or any other part of the Levant, had been 

 mostly sporadic, seldom epidemical. That therefore the articles in our news- 

 papers, which so often mention the plague raging violently, are almost always 

 false. At Constantinople, and all over the east, people shun the plague, and 

 the infected, as much as we do; and every body, physicians as well as others, 

 who have been with the sick, or in places infected, are all obliged to perform 40 

 days quarantine. The Armenians and priests are the only people who attend 

 them; and they only to give them necessaries at a distance, or to perform the 

 last functions of the church : and this the priest is obliged to do by his religion. 

 The European plagues are much more violent than the eastern : those being really 

 the Thucydidian, which sweep all away ; while these are only gentle corrections 

 to put us in mind of mortality. 



The Doctor, in another letter, finds fault with the method used in England 

 to prevent infection by shipping; " for, to what purpose (says he) keep ships in 

 Sandgate creek for weeks, and even months, without landing and serening the 

 goods? I hope you will allow, there is little to be feared from the bodies of men, 

 who get in gooti health from Smyrna to England, which voyage is seldom per-, 

 formed in less than 7 or 8 weeks ; which I presume will be thought too long for 

 infection to remain in the blood without producing some effect. Therefore as 

 all the danger is from the goods or cargo, greater care ought to be taken of this 

 and less of the men. Your nation differs much from Italy or Marseilles, where 

 a ship may, and often does, arrive in 8 days; for which reason, though it be 

 necessary to look after the men, as well as the goods, still however they make a 

 great distinction. You make none." 



It is observable, that from the beginning to the status or acme of the disease, 

 they almost all die, afterwards its violence begins to abate, and about the end of 

 the season most people recover. The symptoms of the distemper are chiefly, 

 irregular fits of heat and cold; shiverings; violent head-ach, and retchings, for 

 the first 3 or 4 days; great anxiety about the praecordia, &c. both before and 

 after the eiiiptions, a wild staring countenance; sweats for the most part about 

 the head and breast only, at the same time the extremities cold; a dry parched 

 yellow furred tongue. The more violent those symptoms are, the greater the 



