PROCEEDINGS OF THE SECTIONS. 281 
proclaimed ports, the custom has been to have them immediately | 
examined, and, unless the passengers are found to be suffering 
from infectious disease, to give them pratique ; but I am b 
ess. 
hat was by early Scriptural metaphor so aptly called “the 
pestilence that walketh in darkness” has from time to time through- 
out all ages spasmodically engaged the attention of mankind 3 but 
some awful epidemic and at its close nations have lapsed into the 
apathetic state until aroused by another similar calamity. As 
Hirsch sa is human nature to soon forget past sufferings. 
We bury our dead ; a little time will dry our tears; in another 
3 
n unable in any way to trace its origin; and the same may be 
Said of the pestilence called the sweating sickness of 1485, the 
e of London in 1499, and again the sweating sickness in 
ed 
locality. At first this procedure arbitrarily entailed a detention for 
forty days, but of late years this has been much modified ; the laws 
of those countries are, however, still very arbitrary in their pro- 
Visions as regards quarantine, and there is good reason to suspect 
_, “commercial jealousies have occasionally st t i 
_ to prostitute the law by proclaiming as infected their more prosper- 
Sus neighbours, simply in order to injure their commerce and to 
_‘Ntitate and annoy their rulers. However, the earnestness and 
Vigour with which those countries still advocate a modification of 
- the old system would seem to show that it must have rendered 
_ 800d service in the past. 
