580 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1735. 



XXL Queries sent to a Friend in Constantinople. By Dr. Maty, F. R. S. and 

 answered by James Porter, Esq. F.R.S. Embassador there, p. 96. 



1 . Whether we may know with any certainty, how many people are generally 

 carried off by the plague at Constantinople ? 2. Whether the number of in- 

 habitants in that capital maybe ascertained? 3. Whether what has been ad- 

 vanced by some travellers, and from them assumed by writers on politics, be 

 true, that there are more women than men born in the east? 4. Whether 

 plurality of wives is, in fact, as it was confidently afHrmed to be, in the order of 

 nature, favourable to the increase of mankind? 5. What is the actual state of 

 inoculation in the East? 6. What is become of the printing-house at Con- 

 stantinople ? and are there any original maps of the Turkish dominions, drawn 

 from actual surveys ? 7 • What sort of learning is cultivated among the Greeks, 

 and among the Turks ? 



To these 7 queries Mr. Porter made the following answer : 



1 . The only plague, which he observed at Constantinople, in the course of 7 

 years, was that of the year 1751 : there are almost annually dispersed accidents, 

 some perhaps real, some suggested by trick and design, to serve sinister purposes. 



'2. The Turks have no register, no bills of mortality : they are prohibited, by 

 their law, from enumerating the people. He applied to the Reis Effendi, and 

 other ministers of the Porte, to know what probable calculation they could make 

 concerning the number of dead; but they all concurred in one general answer, 

 that they had no other but what was founded on the decrease of the consumption 

 of the quantity of corn, or bread ; and in general talked of about 1 50000. Corn 

 is delivered out by an officer of consideration, and an exact register kept. Be- 

 fore the commencement of the plague, in March and April 1751, the consump- 

 tion of corn was IQOOO measures, called khilos. On its continuance and decrease 

 it diminished to 170OO, and on its total cessation, it was found not to amount 

 to above 14000. A khilo weighs 22 okes. It is ground to 18 okes of flour. 

 The bakers have generally the secret to make out of this last quantity 27 okes of 

 bread. They add to an oke of flour one of water, besides some salt ; and as 

 their bread is almost dough, few of the watery particles are exhaled ; and it is 

 esteemed good if it is not doubled in quantity, when taken out of the oven. 



The people live principally on bread ; the poorer with onion, garlick, fruits, 

 or pulse, according to the seasons ; the others with very small portions of flesh, 

 or fish. The more laborious professions, as labouring men, stone-cutters, car- 

 penters, &c. eat from 2 to 2^ okes a day ; the other, according to the common 

 run of families, composed of men, women, and children, half an oke each ; so 

 that the lowest calculation, on a medium, may be about an oke and a quarter 

 daily, eaten by each person at Constantinople. But should it be thought too 



