On Oil, as a Cure of the Plague. 253 
hating a true fight of their condition be- 
ftowed upon them. 
They believe, that all true miniftry is 
@erived from the fame fource, and that 
it fprings from the influence of the Holy 
Spirit, They reje& the ceremonies of 
baptifin and the Lord’s fupper ; the Arft, 
as belonging, according to St. John, to 
an inferior and decrealing difpenfation, it 
being. merely typical of true /piritual 
baptifm: the latter rite they do not con- 
- fider as maintaining the communion be- 
tween Chrift and his church, which is 
only done by a real participation of his 
divine nature through faith; one is the 
fubftance, the other the fhadow. 
They refule totake an oath, or to bear 
arms, as being repugnant to the princi- 
ples of the Gofpel. But their tenets m- 
culcate fubmiffion to the laws of govern- 
ment in all cafes wherein confcience is 
not violated. ; 
Your’s, &c. I. N. 
ene 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
N addition to the interefting account 
of the ule of oil, in curing the plague, 
given in your Magazine for November 
laft, permit me to offer you an original 
treatife, from the Reverend Father Lewrs 
of Pomia, adminiftrator of the hofpi- 
tal of St. Anthony, at Smyrna, given 
by him to’a friend of mine while at that 
place, fome years ago, and containing 
an account of his ufe of oil in curing 
the plague. I underftand that the idea 
of the ufe of oil, in this difeafe, was 
fuggefted to Mr. Batpwin, by ob- 
ferving that none of the porters conitant- 
ly employed in loading the veffels with 
oil, in the various ports of the Mediter- 
ranean, and whofe cloaths and bodies 
were conftantly fwathed with that fluid, 
were ever attacked by the contagion, 
even when moft prevalent. He commu- 
nicated this obfervation to FatherLiwis, 
and he could not have pitched upon a 
perfon better fitted to bring its truth to 
the teft of experiment. 
Father Le wis, lam informed, was ori- 
ginally a Frenchman, of noble birth and 
hiberal education. From fome circum- 
ftances, with which I'am not acquainted, 
“he-was induced to dedicate himfeif to a 
religious life. And he concluded, that 
there’was no way*in which he could at 
onze fo completely teftify his conitant re- 
Jiance on divine Providence, and, at the 
fame time, bendfit his fellow-creatures, 
as by becomine a religious affiftant to an 
hofpital eftablithed for the relief of per- 
fons afflicted with the plague, and admi- 
niftering of ‘comfort to thofe whom. all 
the world rejeéted. 
~Withthis view, he repaired to Smyrna, 
and attached himfelf to the hofpital ef 
tablifhed there exclufively for thofe af- 
fligéted with the plague... His. zeal and 
afliduity foon made-him {piritual rector 
of the eftablithment, a fituation which he 
fo well deferved to fill. He has had three 
or four attacks of the plague, one of 
which totally deprived him of the fenfe 
of fmeil. This he confiders as a great 
blefling, as it was the fenfe moft offended 
in the courfe of his minutry. Before he 
was deprived’ of {mell; he could generally 
judge pretty accurately by that means, 
whether a patient when brought into the 
hofpital would live or die. He does not 
hefitate to perform every office about a 
perfon in every ftage of the peftilence, 
with no other precaution than to avoid 
inhaling their breath. No doubt, being 
habituated to the notion of contagion, 
and having a firm and. unshaken reliance 
on the protection of Providence, tend to 
guard him againft infections He has been 
in his prefent fituation near twenty years, 
and every friend to humanity muft with 
that he may long continue to fulfil his 
arduous duties. . 
It is worthy of remark, that fome 
cafes have lately been publifhed in this 
country, where inun¢tion with oil, to- 
gether with forcing {mall quantities of 
it down the throat, feem to have cured the 
dreadful contagion of hydrophobia, even 
after the difcale had begun. 
The Italian is in Father LEwis’s own 
hand-writing, and in the tranflation more 
attention is paid to accuracy than ele- 
gance. Your’s, 
London, Fan. 1798. AvP By 
TRANSLATION from the Italicn of a, Paper of 
Father Lewis, of Sinyraa, on the Uje of Oil, 
as a Cure for the Plague. 
e¢ The wonderful effe&ts which have been 
produced by the inun@tion with common oil, 
in the prefent year 1792, in this our city of 
Smyrna, miferably affiitted with the pefi- 
lent contagion, muft necetlarily render ever 
renowned the celebrated Signior BAL DWiny 
ingenious imventor of it, and the firt who 
practifed it during the laft year, at Alexan- 
dria.  But'it will alfo oblige every one that 
loves, according to the divine. precept, to 
fuccour his neighbour in the moft lamenta- 
ble and. wretched condition, to which any 
Mman.can, be reduced on earth, not to negieé 
to-beftow on him .f{o. meritorious an aét of - 
Chriftian piety, and humane commiferation ; 
and to thank God, that after‘fo many ages, in 
which thofe who were unfortunatély afflicted 
with the plague have been abandoned, without 
hopes 
