318 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1753, 



ninus Pius we find, by several other inscriptions, that it was in Scotland, and 

 had a share in building the wall there. Not long after it might very probably 

 be stationed at York, where Ptolemy places it, who lived under the next em- 

 peror Marcus Aurelius, as we learn from Suidas. The legion therefore being 

 thus settled, Marcus Minucius might then think it a proper time to pay his 

 vows, formerly made to those deities, whom he addresses in the inscription cut 

 upon this altar. 



F^I. Of several Persons seized with the Jail-fever, working in Newgate ; and of 

 the Manner in which the Infection was communicated to one entire Family. By 

 John Pringle, M.D., F.R.S. p. 42. 



In the month of October 1750, a committee of the court of aldermen was ap- 

 pointed to inquire into the best means for procuring in Newgate such a purity of 

 air, as might prevent the rise of those infectious distempers, which not only had 

 been destructive to the prisoners themselves, but dangerous to others, who had 

 any communication with them ; and particularly to the courts of justice on the 

 trial of malefactors ; of which a fatal instance had occurred that year at the Old- 

 Bailey sessions, when the lord-mayor, 2 of. the judges, and an alderman on the 

 bench, with several other persons then present, were seized with a malignant 

 fever, and died. 



The Rev. Dr. Hales and Dr. P. being consulted by the committee on the 

 point referred to them, and having visited the jail in company with those gen- 

 tlemen, it was agreed, that, considering the smallness of the place, in proportion 

 to the number of the prisoners, it would be proper to make a further trial of 

 the ventilator, and to have it worked by a machine, in the manner of a windmill, 

 to be erected for that purpose on the leads of Newgate. 



This scheme was laid before the court of aldermen, and approved of, but not 

 put in execution till near 2 years after. For on the 11th of July 1752, Dr. 

 Hales acquainted Dr. Knight and Dr. P. that several of the tubes were finished, 

 and that the machine had been going about 6 weeks ; therefore, being desirous 

 to see the effects, he had appointed Mr. Stibbs the carpenter, employed in that 

 work, to meet him that day at Newgate, and desired him to go along with them. 

 They went accordingly, and having visited several of the wards, they were all 

 very sensible, that such as were provided with ventilating tubes were much less 

 offensive than the rest that wanted them ; and Dr. Hales and Dr. P. could per- 

 ceive a considerable improvement in the air of the whole jail, since the time they 

 had been first there with the committee. Some of the wards were so free from 

 any smell peculiar to such places, that Dr. P. was persuaded, were Dr. Hales's 

 design completed, and a person appointed to regulate the sliders of the tubes, 

 and to keep the machine in order, the usual bad consequences from foul and 



