atoms fall from withont into the air; being either fent from above out of the sky, or raifed up from beneath out of the earth, whenever it has contract. ed any filthy and unwholefome ftench, by being drenched with exceffive and unfeasonable rains, and pierced by the corching beams of the fun. Hippocrates too held the air that furrounds us, to be the most general and common caufe of all dif. eafes for the air fays he, varying from its proper nature, whilft it is altered, corrupted, or defiled infects almost all the animals that breathe within the circuit of it: but whether there be any other common caufes of difeafes, or the air alone be to blame, we will examine by and by. Ver. 1061. In thele leven verfes, the poet being about to advance a position, that may seem incredible to fuch as have had no experience of it, concerning the diseased and noxious power, that by fome means or other is imparted to the air, and perceptible to none of the fentes, alleges by way of example, the inconveniencies and harms, that happen to us in an air, to which we have not been accuftomed, even though that air be not in the leaft tainted or corrupted: and he confirms, that the air of one climate is different from that of another: for, no doubt, the air, that furrounds Great Britain, fays he, is quite different from the air of Egypt: nor is the air in Pontus lefs different from that of Gades and Æricpia: the truth of which is daily experienced by fuch as travel into foreign contries, and from this difference of air proceed the different colours and com plexions of men. Ariftotle too argues to the fame purpose in his treatile," de aëre, aquis, & locis.' Britain and Egypt, which is the diftance of latið tude and two from the east to the weft, Pontur and Gades, which is the distance of longitude. Ver. 1065. Nile.] Of this river we have spoke at large in the note on ver. 722. of this book. Ver. 1066. Pontus is a country of Afia the Lefs, lying between Bithynia, Paphlagonia, and the Euxine fea. Ver. 1067. Lucretius means the air of Mauri tania, or Æthiopia, in which countries the natives are black. Ver. 1068. In thefe nine verfes the poet pro duces inftances of certain countries, that are ob noxious to certain difeafes, by reafon of the very nature of the air: thus, fays he, the leprofy is fre quent in Egypt only; the Athenians are subjec to the gout, &c. Ver. 1070. Galen feems to fubfcribe to this opinion of Lucretius, who believes, that the le profy is a difeafe that infefts the country of Egypt only; for, in his fecond book to Glauco, chap. xiii. he fays, That in Alexandria, a city of Egypt, many are afflicted with the leprofy, by reafon of the food they eat, and of the heat of the coun try But in Germany and Myfia this disease in very feldom known; nor has it scarce ever ap peared among the Scythians, who are drinkers of milk: Yet it is very frequent at Alexandria, for the reason above mentioned; for they feed upta boiled meal, and lentiles, and periwinkles, and eat many things that are dried with falt: may, fome of them eat affes flesh, and fome other things, that breed a thick and melancholic he mour. And the air of the country being hot, the motion of the humours is driven towards the skia. Thus Galen. But Celfus, lib. iii. cap. 24, is mere in the right as to this disease; for, though he fa Ver. 1063. This reafon is not to be controverted; for the difference of air, and change of water, are often prejudicial to traveliers into foreign countries: the banished Ovid had therefore juftindeed, that it is almost unknown in Italy, yetb reafon to complain, that "Nec cœlum ferimus, nec aquis affuefcimus iftis." Nam quid Britannis cœlum differre putamus, que Ufque ad nigra virûm percoctaque fæcla calore? In which verfes the poet confirms by examples, his laft affertion, concerning the difference of air in different climates: and inftances in the air of Egypt as oppofed to that of Great Britain; from whence Egypt is diftant the whole extent of the Mediterranean sea: befides, by Egypt, which is a country of Africa, he means the fouth part of the world, and by Britain the north: by Pontus which is a country of Greece, he means the cast part of the world, and by the Gades, which are iflands in the occidental ocean, where Europe is divided from Africa, he means the weft part of it: for he chose to mention those four places, becaufe they were the most noted, that in his days were be lieved to be the fartheft diftant from one another that is to fay, two from the north to the fouth, owns it to be very frequent in feveral other club tries. In the last age, the leprofy was not common in Germany; and A. Pareus relate that in Spain, and all over Africa, there are more lepers than in the rest of the world; and more in Guienne, and the south parts of France, than in all the other parts of that kingdom. If we may believe Pliny, lib. xix. cap. 16. it was altogether unknown in Italy, till the time of Pompey the Great; when it was first brought thither, but food cured and extinguished. Yet history informs us, that it broke out again in that country, in the days of Conftantine the Great, who was himself afflicted with it; till, having refused to make use of the impious bath of human blood, that was prefcribed to him as a remedy for that difeafe, he was, in the Lateran church, bathed in the fourt of holy baptifm, by the Roman pontiff Sylvester, and cured at once of either leproly. Nor is it unlikely, but that the emperor might have been advifed to that cruel immersion in the blood of in fants, by fome Egyptian or other; efpecially if what Pliny fays be true: That when this disease, which was peculiar to Egypt, happened to feise any of the kings of that country, it was fatal to their fubje&s, for to cure it, they were wont to bathe their thrones in human blood: "Egypti =feculiare hoc malum, et cum in reges incidiffet, populis funebre: quippe in balneis folia temperabuntur humano fanguine ad medicinam eam." Plin. Nat Hift. lib. xix. cap. 16. Mofes in Exod. chap. ix. ver. 10. calls it "ulcus inflationum germinans in homine ;" which Jun. and Tremel. explain," erumpens multis puilulis" fprouting out with many blains, &c. This difcafe is one of the curfes with which the difobedience to God is threatened. Deut. chap. xviii. ver. 27 "The Lord fhall fmite thee with the blotch of Egypt," &c. which likewife confirms what Lucretius here fays; and perhaps gave occafion to the calumny which Trogus Pompeius, Diodorus Siculus, Tacitus, and other heathens caft upon the Hebrews, that they were expelled out of Egypt for being fcabby and leprous; which miftake was easy: intead of being difmiffed for having brought those lifeafes upon the Egyptians. The Latins call it elephantiafis," because it makes the furface of he body rough with black wannish spots, and ry parched scales and scurf, like the skin of an lephant. It is a contagious disease, and incurble, if not taken in time; for it spreads over the whole skin, almost like a cancer. Ibid. Egypt.] This country was fo called from Egyptus, the brother of Danaus, whom the same Egyptus flew, and reigned there fixty-eight ars. It was called before, Melas, Aëria, Aëra, gygia, Hephaeftia, Melamboles, and by feveral her names The Hebrews called it Mifraim d Chus. It is divided by Mela into two parts, elta and Thebais: In the time of Amafis it d 2000 cities, and in the time of Pliny 3000. is bounded on the east with the Red Sea; on e weft with Cyrene, on the north with the Meterranean, and on the fouth with Habaflia Ver. 1071. Nilus.] Of this river see above, in e note on ver. 922. Ver. 1072. Athens.] Of this city we have spokin the note on the first verfe of this book." Ver. 1073. Offends the feet.] In like manner as Egyptians, fays Lucretius by reafon of the Tof their country, were fubject to the leprofy, too were the Athenians, for the very fame afe, fubject to the gout. Ibid. Achaia burts the fight.] A part of Peloponfus was called by this name; as was likewife whole country of Greece; from one Achaus, e fon of Jupiter, or Zuthus, who reigned there. That Lucretius fays of the countries being hurtto the eyes, we must take his word for. I now nothing to the contrary. Ver. 1074. What our poet fays in these three erfes, may be confirmed by many examples: The ir of Florence is prejudicial to the brain, but vey beneficial to the legs; and the air of Pifa is iametrically oppofite to that of Florence, notvithstanding that those two cities are not at most bove forty miles diftant from each other, fays Nardius. Thus too the air of Paris, fays Fayus, s very dangerous to wounds in the head, &c. Ver. 1077. In these four verses, he concludes, hat all peftilential diftempers proceed from the clemency of the air; which, being unhealthful to us, creeps unheeded by us into our limbs and bodies, in like manner as a mift, or smoke; and wherever it enters, it diflurbs and changes all things, and caufes us all to fall fick. Or, that when that infected air comes into our country, it corrupts the whole air of it; from whence arifes a regional distemper, which spreads itself through many places. Ver. 1081. In these twelve verses the poet, left thofe feeds of peftilence fhould be thought to be grown weary with the length of their journey, and to remain pendulous in the lazy air, affigna them fixed and certain ftations, where they fall and fettle: For, fays he, fome of them fall into the waters, others on the fruits of the earth, and the feveral forts of the foods of animals: And this is the reason, why a plague fometimes equally feizes both men and cattle. Thus he acknowledges the air to be the fole cause of plagues. WHETHER PLAGUES ARE PROMISCU OUS AND COMMON TO ALL SORTS OF ANIMALS. OUR authors of beft credit testify, that murrains, which are plagues in cattle, precede, accompany, or follow any peftilential mortality in men. They precede, when noxious and fickly vapours exhale from the earth; which vapours, the cattle, as they feed, receive firft into their bodies, and are feized with a deadly disease. A mortality of this nature was obferved to happen in the kingdom of Naples, in the year 1617; when, after exceffive rains, that had continued for many days together, without almoft any intermiffion, and had laid under water all the plains of the country, the cattle eat the grafs, as it sprung out of the ground, while it was yet flimy, and full of mud: This caufed a putrilaginous difeafe in their jaws and throats, which foon fuffocated and killed them; and neceflity compelling the Neapolitans to flaughter fome of thefe infected cattle for the butchery, whoever eat of the flesh of them, were feized with the fame difeafe, which by this means fpread itself in a fhort time over the whole kingdom, and swept away a vast number of the inhabitants. Pliny too mentions a like pefilence, which fell on beafts one year, and on men the next; qua priore anno in boves ingruerat, eo verterat in homines," fays he, Nat. Hift. lib. xli. cap. 9. And Silius Italicus, fpeaking of a plague, fays, Vim primam fenfere canes; mox nubibus atris -The raw damps With flaggy wings fly heavily about, Grew more domeftic; and the faithful dog First on inferior creatures try'd their force, at piccola hora appreffo, dopo alcune auvolgimen -Hominum generi, pecudumque catervi WHETHER THE AIR BE THE SOLE Befides, as the murrain in brute beasts often precedes the plague in man; fo too, as moft authors have rightly obferved, it no lefs frequently accompanies it; and the rational and irrational animals mutually impart the infection to one another. Thus Thucydides, fpeaking of the plague of Athens, which our poet is going to defcribe, fays, That the birds and beafts, that ufe to feed on human flesh, though many bodies lay above ground unburied, either avoided to come them, or, if they tafted, perished: Tà yàg üven, καὶ τετράποδα, ὅσα ἀνθρώπων ἅπ]ε]αι, πολλῶν ἀτάφων gegroμivar, i węconer, й, vivoáμsva displéipero. Thucyd. To which he adds, That by the dogs this effect was feen much clearer, because they are familiar with men: de xuvis, fays he, μáλλov ùíoθησιν παρεχον τῇ ἀποβαίνον]ος, διὰ τὸ ξυνδιαιτᾶσθαι. Boccace, in the Promium to his Decameron, Speaking of the violent plague that raged in Italy, in the year 1348, fays exprefsly, and of his own knowledge, that the nature of the peftilence was fuch, that it imparted its contagion not only from man to man; but that if the clothes of a perfon infected with that disease, or dead of it, were touched by any animal of another species, it not only infected that animal with the fame diftemper, but killed him in a very short time. Then he adds, what he had been an eye-witness of: That the tattered clothes of a poor man, who died of that peftilence, being thrown into the highway, two hogs came up to them, and after they had, as their custom is, tumbled them about with their fnouts, taking them in their teeth, and fhaken them about their cheeks, they in a very little time, after feveral times turning round, both dropped down dead upon them, as if they had caten poifon." Dico," fays he, " che di tanta efficacia fù la qualità della peftilentia narrata, nello appiccarsi da uno all' altro, che non folamente 'huomo à l'huomo, ma questo, che è multo più, affai volte vifibilmente fece, cioè, che la cofa dell' huomo infermo ftato, ò morto di tale infermità, tocca da un' altro animale fuori della fpetie dell' huomo, non folamente della infermit il contaminaffe, ma quello infra breviffimo fpatio uccideffe, di che gli occhi miei, fi come poco davanti è det-kinds of fevers, the air is the fole author to, prefero tra l' altre volte un' di cofi fatta efpe- | rienza, che effendo gli ftracci d' un povero huomo, da tale infermità morto, gittati nella via publica, et abbatendofi ad effi due porci, è quegli fecondo il lor coftume prima molto col grifo, et por coi denti prefigli, et fcoffigli alle guancie, in LUCRETIUS, as we have already feen, is d caufe: For the common fever, or plague, the 2 from a moderate diftance. This is demonftrated by the example of strong odours, which ftrike the fenfe, if they come from a near place, but not when they come from one that is far diftant; for those vapours, being agitated for any length of to command our affent to this primacy of the air in all manner of peftilential diseases; for, let us grant, that a peftilent fever may be caufed by the air, will it follow from thence, that every peftilent fever is fo? and that they all proceed from the air only? In the first place, the logicians al-time, will be loft and defroyed; and their most low, that an indefinite propofition, when the confequent is not of neceffity, is not of the fame force with an univerfal: therefore, though we will admit, that a common fever is fometimes caufed by the air, there is not any neceflity, from the teftinony alleged, but that we may fubftitute other caufes of a peftilent fever, and even of the plague tfelf. Galen, in his Treatife de diff. Febr. obferves, that peftilential fevers proceed fometimes from a great abundance of humours, whenever thofe humours have acquired, from the ambient air, the leaft tendency to corruption. And the fame uthor, fpeaking of the above-cited opinion of Hippocrates, fays: He was miftaken in afcribing he cause of epidemical difeafes to the air only; or, when a famine raged in Ænus in Thrace, all hat fed upon roots, loft the ufe of their legs; and fuch as cat vetches, were feized with violent pains in their knees. I have known too, contiines he, that when, in a famine, people have een forced to eat corn that was half-rotten, they ave fallen into a common difeafe, from that ommon cause; and fometimes too, when a whole my had been compelled to drink corrupted war, all the foldiers have been alike afflicted with like difeafe. Thus Galen, who lived himself Rome, when, in the reign of Marcus Antoinus, a raging plague, that was occafioned by a mine, defolated that city, and fwept away multudes of the Roman citizens. This, therefore, ay fuffice to invalidate the prerogative, which ippocrates acknowledges to be due to the air, its being the only promoter of plagues, fince it evident, that unwholesome food, and vitiated aters, have no fmall fhare in caufing epidemical ifeafes. Let us now inquire, what, how much, nd how, the air contributes to the communicatg, or promoting of a plague. tenuious fubftance will, according to the cuftom and nature of mixtures, convert and refolve it into its proper element, And therefore the air fucceeds, but not precedes, a contagion, and may propagate a plague peculiarly, and by degrees; but not bring it univerfally, and all at once, into a healthful and uninfected country: In a word, the fum of all is, that the air does not begin, but propagates the contagion, that is already begun; efpecially when it is tainted with the pollutions, that proceed from the corruption of infected bodies. Though the air be not the fole cause of a lague, yet it cannot be denied, but that it is veinftrumental, as well in continuing its duraion, as in bringing it into a country: But an niverfal plague, generally speaking, can owe its rigin to nothing but contagion, for it must of eceffity be first introduced, either by contact, or vhat foments and cherishes the infection. Nor sit in the leaft repugnant to this, that a partiular plague is caufed by the ambient air, providd it be granted, that fuch an infectious air comes rom a near, not from a far diftant, country; the want of reflecting on which distinction has, perhaps, been the cause of the mistake, and variance of opinions: For that tainted air, being agitated by the winds, blended with the immense mass of pure air, and coming from a great distance, cannot retain its ancient pravity; but the inquinations it had contracted, must be entirely broken, difperfed, and diffolved; which nevertheless, it nnot wholly lofe in a short time, and coming Ver. 1089. In this and the three following verfes, the poet fays, that we incur a like danger, when we travel into a country, whofe air is unhealthy, or difagrees with our conftitution, as we do, when nature introduces into our bodies a tainted and corrupted air, or any other new thing, to which we have not been accustomed, and that is hurtful to us. Ver. 1093. Hitherto he has been treating of the corruption of the air, or the cause of a plague, which is a disease that gains ground in fuch a manner, that, arising for the most part from fmall beginnings, it increafes by degrees, and spreads itself far and wide. Now, from this verfe to the end of the book, the poet gives us a defcription of that memorable plague, which broke out in Attica, in the first year of the Peloponnefian war; and laid waste that whole country, as well as the city of Athens, the metropolis of it. Thucydi des, who was himself both a spectator and sharer of it, has defcribed it no lefs accurately than elegantly, in the fecond book of his hiftory: Hippocrates too, who was likewise an eye-witness of it, not only, as a private man, lent his affistance, and, for the public good, extinguished and put to flight that raging peftilence, for which reafon he ob tained divine honours of the Athenians; but has alfo left a lively relation of it in his third Book de Morb. Popul. Our Lucretius embraced the fame argument, and, in the following defcription of that plague, has copied after thofe two authors, but more particularly after Thucydides, whom he has imitated fo happily, that Macrobius Saturnal. lib. vi. cap. 2. fays that Virgil has borrowed from him in his fecond Georgic, as Ovid moft vifibly has in his feventh Metamorphofes. Now, in thefe twelve verses, Lucretius teaches, that the plague of Athens, which he is now beginning to defcribe, proceeded from the fame caufes, he has mentioned already; but plagues generally come from foreign countries, and therefore he fays this came from Egypt to Athens; yet, according to Thucydides, it came from a remoter diftance; for he brings it from Æthiopia, which is beyond Egypt. Lucretius fays, Finibu' Cecropiis funeftos reddit agros, For Athens was firft called Cecropia, from Cecrops, who built it, and was the first king, and legiflator of the people of Attica, whom, fays Suidas, he affembled together, and divided them into twelve tribes; but before his days they lived fcattered up and down in villages. Ver. 1095. Poisonous wind. This Lucretius calls" morbifer æftus," but what he means by it is uncertain, though he feems to intend that deadly heat and ftrength of the difeafe, which, like a raging fire, confumed and destroyed all it feized on. Therefore, by the word " æftus" may be understood, either the heat of the plague; fince a plague is either a fever, or never'without a fever: or elfe we may understand the great abundance of the infectious air; fince the poet has above imputed the caufe of the plague to the very corruption of the air; and this feems to have been the opinion of our tranflator: or, lastly, and rather than any of the two other explications, we may interpret it to mean the vehement heat of the air; fince A thiopia and Egypt, from whence the plague came to Athens, are countries exceffively hot. Ver. 1097. Thus too Thucydides: "Haro di πὸ μὲν πρῶτον ὣς λέγεται ἐξ ̓Αιθιοπίας τῆς ὑπὲρ Αι γύπα ἔπειτα δὲ καὶ ἐς ̓Αιγύπρον καὶ Λιβύην καλέβη καὶ ἐς τὴν Βασιλέως γῆν τὴν πολλήν· ἐς δὲ τῶν ̓Αθηνα των πόλιν ἔξαπιναίως ἐνέπεσε· It began, by report, first in that part of Ethiopia, that borders upon Egypt, and then fell down into Egypt and Libya; and into the greatest part of the territories of the king: It invaded Athens on a fudden. Ver. 1099. Lucretius has given no occafion for this and the following verfe; which are borrowed from the bishop of Rochefter's plague of Athens, where, in Stanza iv. we read, The loaded wind went flowly on, And, as it pafs'd, was heard to figh and groan. Ver. 1101. Hitherto the poet has been treating of the caufes of plagues in general; and particularly of that of Athens, which he is about to defcribe Now the learned in phyfic tell us, that an infectious disease may be caught three feveral ways the first they call," per diftantiam," by which they mean, when the tainted or corrupted air is breathed and fwallowed by fuch as are at fome distance from the perfons infected: the fecond, " per contactum," that is, when we are near, and touch thofe that are vifited with the plague. Hence, as Ovid says, -Inque ipfos fæva medentes Quò proprior quifque eft, fervitque fidelius æ Ver. 1103. To the fame purpofe Dryden, d feribing the defolation and havoc of a plague,ir finely: And then a thousand deaths at once advanc'd, more For single stakes, but famílies and tribes: Like Cadmus' brood, they justled for their p fage, Now look for those erected heads, and fee then, Like pebbles, paving all our public ways. Tragedy of Oris For it is the nature and property of a grown adult, and in the height of its raging: many perfons fhould be vifited by it at once, many die of it: But it has been difputed by p ficians, whether it can be called a plague s firft breaking out, and while only one or tw fick of it; which fome pofitively affirm, but as ftrenuously deny. It cannot indeed be c verted, but there are definitions of things to perfection: Thus mankind, while yet infancy, can fcarcely be faid to be end reafon. In like manner a plague, juft indig out, is not indeed common, but will be lefs it be timely prevented: However, it is a plague, though but ten perfons are fick f nay, if but one. Ver. 1105. Here the poet, in eighteen varia enumerates the several and chief symptoms and tokens that were obferved in those that wert fited with this plague of Athens. 1. An extrent heat in their head. II. An inflammation of da eyes. III. Ulcers in the throat, and an emai tion of blood from thence. IV. A roughnes the tongue, and fuch a heavinefs, that they cond fcarce move it; together with ulcers; and pur blood flowing from thence likewife. V. An fome stinking breath. VI. Fainting fits, or fwoo ings. VII Dejection of the mind. VIII. Great and complainings. IX. Frequent, convulfive yexings, or hickets. Thus too Thucydides: Πρῶτον μὲν τῆς κεφαλή θερμαὶ ἴσχυρας, καὶ τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν ἐρυθήματα, καὶ φλε gasis ináμßun. They were firft taken with a extreme heat in their heads, and with a redres and inflammation of the eyes. Thus, fays the hiftorian, upon whom the bishop of Rochester bat paraphrafed as follows; |