106 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO I764. 



those who are sleepy and stupid ; but if they live long enough to have the cu- 

 taneous eruptions push plentifully, and their phrenzy begin to abate afterwards, 

 they may recover more probably than such as are sleepy and have a moderate 

 fever. 



Dr. M. is of opinion that nothing at Constantinople, either in the air or diet, 

 produces the plague, though both contribute very much to its progress and 

 violence, after it is brought there, or to any part of Turkey from any other infected 

 place ; for it is known by long experience, that it rages most in the hot months 

 of July, August, and Sept. when the diet of most of the poor inhabitants, who 

 are the greatest sufferers by the plague, consists of unripe fruits, cucumbers, 

 melons, gourds, grapes, &c. The plague breaks out at Constantinople and at 

 Smyrna some years, when it is not possible to trace whence it is conveyed ; 

 for some houses, which were infected, and not well cleaned after the infected 

 person is removed, lodge some of the venomous moleculae in wool, cotton, hair, 

 leather, or skins, &c. all winter long ; which, put in motion by the heat in 

 April or May, breathe out of their nidus, where they resided, and recover so 

 much life and action, as to enter into the cutaneous pores of any person who 

 comes within their reach, and so infect him ; as it happened at the French 

 palace, at Mr. Hubsch's and at Caraja's house, for 2 or 3 years running. But 

 plagues of this kind seldom spread, and are never so fatal as those that come 

 from abroad. 



Many are of opinion, that the heat kills the plague, as they term it ; which 

 is owing to a foolish superstition among the Greeks, who pretend that it must 

 cease the 24th of June, being St. John's day, though they may observe the 

 contrary happen every year ; and the strongest plague that was at Smyrna in Dr. 

 M.'s time, anno 1736, was hottest about that time, and continued with great vio- 

 lence till the latter end of Sept. when it began to abate ; but was not entirely 

 over till the 12th of Nov. when Te Deum was sung in the Capuchins convent. 

 This mistaken notion may be in some measure owing to a wrong sense put 

 upon Prosper Alpinus, who allows that the plague at Cairo begins to cease in 

 the months of June and July, when the strong northerly winds (called Embats 

 or Etesian winds) begin to blow, which make the country much cooler 

 than in the months of May, April, and March, when the plague rages most ; 

 which he very justly imputes to the great suffocating heats and southerly winds, 

 which reign during those months in that country : and it is then that the ships 

 which load rice, flax, and other goods and merchandise for Constantinople 

 receive the infection, and bring it with them thither ; and on these goods being 

 delivered to persons in different parts of the city, the plague breaks out at once 

 with great violence among the trading people of the Greeks, Armenians, and 

 Jews ; for, both here and at Smyrna, the Turks are commonly the last of the 



