of the common Air at Sea. 373 
now again upon its decline, It carried off a great num- 
ber of inhabitants. It appeared chiefly under the habit 
of an irregular intermittent, a bilious remitting, and a 
putrid fever. There was fcarce a fingle houfe to be 
found in which there were not fome perfons fick, The 
villages at a quarter of a league dift ance from the former 
lake were free from it. This diftemper was afcribed to 
the putrid exhalations of this newly uncovered land; 
which exhalations were very offenfive to the fmell. This 
was fo much the more probable, as the difeafe abated 
W'hen the ftench, checked by the cold, abated. I tried 
the air of this former lake upon the fpot, in company 
with my learned friend Dr. dk mon.chy, profellbr of 
phyllc, and found it as good as that of Rotterdam ; but 
there was a great deal of wind that day, and no percepti- 
ble ftench. However, Dr. bicker, an eminent pftyflcian 
of that city, got me a phial filled with air of this lake, 
which he took from a fpot where he ftill perceived fome 
of the former bad fmell. This air proved to be in reality 
of an inferior quality to that of the city* 
December 12. Being in the middle of the water be- 
tween Dort and the Moordyke, I found the air upon 
what is called Holland’s Diep of an inferior quality, the 
weather being remarkably dark, rainy, and windy; it 
was at 109, 
Ddda 
December 
