VOL. XLVII.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 241 



mean time there arrived here in May last 4 ships laden with Cairo goods, which 

 goods and men being landed, they spread the infection over all the city at once, 

 after which, one conveyed it to another by contact. The only apparent cause of 

 the virulency in this case, is 4 ships arriving from Cairo, instead of 1 of 2, at 

 the same time; and if you please, you may add to this some little difference of 

 the seasons, mentioned in my letter to Dr. Mead, and a greater quantity of 

 cucumbers, melons, and fruit, than usual, on which the poorer sort of people 

 feed. 



However I do not believe the number of the dead anywise equal to common 

 report, for the reasons following: The Turks have no bills of mortality; but they 

 reckon, that in and about Constantinople there are consumed daily 20,000 killows 

 of flour. Every killow is reckoned to weigh 20 oques, and every oque is equal 

 to 400 drachms, and ] 6o drachms thought sufficient for a person for 24 hours, 

 or one complete day, taking men, women, and children together. Therefore 

 one killow makes bread enough for 50 persons per day; but the consumption of 

 bread in the months of July, August, and September, was 3000 killows short; 

 from which it is concluded, that 3000 x 30 = 150,000 must have died of the 

 plague, without making any allowance for the great number of people, that run 

 away to Prusa, Nicomedia, Adrianople, the islands, and such as must have died 

 of other diseases in 3 months in a populous city of a million of souls, by the 

 calculation of 20,000 killows per day. 



Next I must observe to you, that there are two vulgar errors with regard to 

 the plague established in this country. They say that a plague which begins 

 early, ends soon; which is false; for, in the year 1735, the plague began at 

 Smyrna the 15th of February pretty hot, so that all the houses in Frank-street 

 were shut up in February, and it continued till the latter end of November. 

 Another vulgar error is, that the heat kills the plague at Smyrna, and the cold at 

 Constantinople; which is very true with regard to Constantinople, but very false 

 with regard to Smyrna; for proof look back to the year 1735, when the vigour 

 of the malady showed itself most in the months of June and July, though so 

 very hot, that some people were said to die of the heat in going from the town 

 to the villages near it, so that it is very certain the heat does not kill the plague 

 at Smyrna, as is generally thought and said." 



Dr. Mackenzie to Dr. Mead, F.R.S. Dated Constantinople, Oct. 2Q, 1750. 

 " This is the only summer since I have been in Turkey that I can say we have 

 been without any plague. The air was very temperate, no heavy rains, but high 

 winds at N. e. from which point ouretesian winds blow, commonly called milhem 

 in the Turkish language. Fruits have not been so plenty, or of such a good 

 quality as usual; few fevers of the intermittent kind, but not so regular as usual 



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