to deliver some few things that seem more favourable to my Conjectures than to his Opinion and were suggested to me partly by my own Thoughts and partly by the informations that to examine those Thoughts I procur'd by consulting some uncommon Authours and asking Questions of great Travellers and Navigatours By this means I came to learn that divers great Countries are usually free from the Plague that according to the vulgar Hypotheses ought to be as much subject to it if not more than England France Italy and those other parts of Europe and Asia where that fatal Disease rages from time to time in the parched Regions of Africk to which the Excessive Heats would make one expect that the Plagues should make far more frequent visits than to our temperate European Countries Leo Africanus informs us that some parts are so seldom afflicted with that dreadfull Disease that it usually spares the Inhabitants 29 or 30 years together And he expresly records that in Numidia it self if I much misremember not the Countrey 's name notwithstanding the raging heat of the Climate the Plague is wont to be produc'd but once in a hundred years Our Purchas informs us that in the Land of Negro's it is not known at all And to omit what some Travellers and Navigatours relate of Japan as if it were seldom or never invaded by the Pestilence I do not remember that in New England which contains a great extent of Land though I have had both Curiosity and opportunity to inquire after the Diseases of that Countrey I ever heard the English take any notice of the Plague since their setling there above threescore and ten years ago And as for the East Indies Sir Philibert Vernatti a Virtuoso of great fame and authority at Batavia where he resides in his ingenious Returns to the Queries sent him by the Royal Society of Naturalists answers thus to the fifteenth Pestis morbus est Indiarum Incolis incognitus The Plague is a Disease unknown amongst the Indians And of the Countries that lie yet more remote as the great Empire of China and the Kingdoms of Tunquin and of Cochinchina that great Traveller Alexander de Rhodes who spent 30 years in those parts affirms that the Plague is not so much as spoken of there And yet the same Jesuit does upon grounds probable enough estimate the number of the people of China alone to be two hundred and fifty millions a number I take to exceed by far that of all the Nations of Europe Now when I consider how vast Tracts of Land are compriz'd in those Countries some of which the Plague does not at all and others but exceeding unfrequently invade this Immunity seems to me very unfavourable to most if not all the opinions receiv'd among Physicians as also that of Diemerbroeck himself who derives the Plague from a Supernatural Cause the wrath of God against the sins of men For in Regions of such extent and divers of them very populous which are seated under very differing Climats and which are some of them inhabited by Nations that make war with numerous Armies fight bloudy battels leave heaps of unbury'd Bodies expos'd to the putrefying heat of the Sun are sometimes forc'd as well as others to live upon very unwonted and unwholsome foods that worship stocks and stones and beasts and some of them Devils whom they know to be such that are at least as guilty as Europeans of Assassinats Poisonings Rapes Oppression Sodomy and other crying Sins in these Regions I say 't is not imaginable but that great Intemperatures of the Air especially in point of Heat Stench of dead Bodies kill'd in fights unwholsomness of Aliments malevolent aspects of Celestial Bodies high provocations of the divine Justice and in short all the Causes to one or other of which the several parties of Physicians are wont to refer the Plague should be wanting any more than in our Europe and yet the Plague which is presum'd to be the Effect of one or other of those Causes is not here observed to be produc'd I know that it may be said that the Historical things I have been reciting do not onely oppugn the several receiv'd Opinions of Physicians about the cause of the Plague but disfavour my Conjectures too But if this be said I desire it may also be consider'd that my Judgment about the Plague consists of two Parts One that 't is exceeding difficult to assign the true and adequate Cause of the Origine of the Pestilence and the Other that whatever be the Cause of its First Eruption its Propagation and divers of its Symptomes may be probably enough refer'd to the depravation of the Air by Subterraneal Steams and their Effects If this be duly consider'd the Historical Observations will appear not to overthrow the First member of our Hypothesis but rather to confirm it and 't is upon this account that I have mention'd them in this place And as to the Second member it may be said that since in the East Indies and the other Countries I have nam'd as privileg'd from this raging Disease it is not observ'd to break out as it cannot be said that Subterraneal Effluvia do in those Countries promote the Propagation of it so it cannot be prov'd that they could not doe it incase the Plague were begun by other Causes But in regard I think it not improbable that sometimes the Plague is not onely fomented but begun by noxious Expirations of the Terrestrial Globe I shall add that this supposition though I confess it be somewhat disfavour'd by some of the lately mention'd Observations yet is not absolutely inconsistent with them For First it may be said that some of the Countries I speak of may be destitute of those noxious minerals to which we impute some Plagues it holding true in Minerals as well as in Plants Non omnis fert omnia tellus and to omit what I have not without some wonders observ'd of the Limits of differing sorts of Mines and Mineral Veins in very bordering parts of the same tract of Land I cannot but here take notice that though Sulphur be in many Countries usually found and that in plenty where there are other Metalline Veins insomuch that Chymists make it one of the three Principles of all Metals yet in the Mines of England more strictly so call'd I do not remember I ever met with so much as an Ounce of Native Sulphur and I could not find by divers Mineralists of whom I purposely ask'd the question that they had met with any among the various Mines they had frequented It may also happen that there may be hurtfull Minerals in a Countrey and yet not capable of often producing or promoting Pestilences there even upon moderate Earthquakes For 't is possible that these Orpimental or other Noxious Minerals may have their Beds or Veins lying so deep in the Earth that they are not ordinarily able to send up Effluvia strong and copious enough to make
of mentioning this last Disease that he but borrowed his Encomium of Mercury from Begninus But however what has been related has invited me to consider whether there may not be some virtue as well as some danger in Amulets of Quicksilver that are by many extoll'd against the Plague But this onley upon the bye PROPOSITION III. It is Likely that divers Epidemical Diseases are in great part produc'd by Subterraneal Effluvia I Am very well aware that divers Diseases that extraordinarily invade great numbers of people at the same time and were therefore by the Greeks called Epidemical may be rationally refer'd to manifest Intemperatenesses of the Air in point of Heat Cold Moisture or some other Obvious Quality And therefore the Proposition speaks but of some Epidemical Diseases and imputes those it speaks of to Subterraneal Effluvia not as total but as partial and sometimes as principal Agents in the production of them In favour of the propos'd Conjecture thus explain'd I shall offer two things to Consideration I. And first it seems not very improbable that divers of those Morbifick Excesses especially if they be sudden that are observ'd in the Air may proceed from the unusually copious ascent of hurtfull Exhalations that mingle with the Air and diffuse themselves through it We are greater Strangers than we commonly take notice of to the Subterraneat part of the Globe we inhabit and if I had leasure and thought it necessary I could shew that there are a great many odd and surprizing things to be met with in the Structure and disposition even of those parts of the Earth that lie but a little way beneath the surface of it and partly have been and partly may easily enough be actually penetrated by the industrious Labours of men And as for the deeper Subterraneal Regions we are so much more unacquainted with them that we are scarce fit so much as to conjecture how far they extend or what kind of Materials they contain and what is the gross and if I may so speak the Mechanical Fabrick of the greater Masses whether solid or fluid they consist of And least of all can we determine what Motions whether periodical or others these Masses or other Portions of deeply lodg'd Matter may have On such grounds as these I conceive it possible that among the many and various Effluviating Bodies that the terrestrial Globe may conceal in its Bowels there may be some whose reeks ascending plentifully into the Air may occasion in it an excess of Heat Cold Moisture thickness or some other manifest Quality So that sometimes not to say many times even those manifest Intemperatenesses of the Air to which an Epidemical Disease is wont to be wholly imputed though perhaps not very justly may in part proceed from Subterraneal Bodies for I elsewhere shew that these by their Conflicts or Mutual Actions on one another may excite great and sudden Heats and on that account send up such copious Steams into the Atmosphere as may produce there sudden and excessive Heats Lightnings Thunders c. And I shall now add what perhaps will appear somewhat strange that I think sudden and unseasonable Refrigerations of the Air may proceed from the action of Subterraneal Bodies upon one another for Tryal purposely made has inform'd me that there are certain Minerals whereof some may be employed in their crude Simplicity and the other requires but a slight Preparation such as it may have in the Bowels of the Earth which Minerals being put together will produce by their Reaction an intense degree of Cold not onely as to sense but when examined by a seal'd Weather-glass The Changes of the Air that produce Epidemical Diseases are sometimes so great and sudden that they cannot in my Opinion with probability be imputed to the action of the Sun or the Moon which are causes that act in too general and too uniform a way to have those particular and anomalous Effects attributed to Them as probably as they may be to Subterraneal Bodies that often act with more suddenness and impetuosity and without any regularity at least that is known to us The difference we find in Seasons that bear the same name and should be alike in temperatureâ— is oftentimes very great and sometimes also very lasting It is proverbially said in England that a Peck of March Dust is worth a King's Ransom So unfrequent is dry Weather during that Month in our Climate And yet in some years and particularly the last 't was a rare thing to have a shower either in March April or May sometimes in the Month last named there are Heats greater than in the Dog-days of that same Year though usually here in England divers Mornings of that Month are cold and some of them frosty And now and then I have observ'd in the same Months and Days at no great distance from one another that the Weather has been sultry hot and has also produc'd a great Snow We have seen Summers like that which is remember'd for the Siege of Colchester that for almost the whole Season where more dark and rainy than several Winters have been observ'd to be To which purpose I remember that when I was about to write the History of Cold I was fain to watch almost a whole Winter to find two or three frosty days to make an Experiment or two I had need of that requir'd not a Cold that was either lasting or very intense But Instances of this kind are so obvious to those that are at all heedfull Observers that I may safely pass them by and inculcate that the Sun being in the same Signs at the same Times of the Year it does not appear how He should produce so great a disparity of the temperature of the Air in Seasons of the same denomination as the Winters or the Summers of differing and yet perhaps immediately consecutive Years And therefore I do not so much wonder that many Learned Writers fly to Astrology for an account of these irregular Phaenomena and ascribe them to the influences of certain Stars notwithstanding what divers eminent Philosophers and some great Astronomers too have said to prove the vanity of Judiciary Astrology I shall not now stay to discuss the Question whether the Stars have any influence distinct from their Light and Heat because my Opinion about it being somewhat peculiar I have discoursed of it in a Paper by it self But this I shall now say that the fixt Stars being but general and if I may so speak indefinite Agents almost unimaginably remote from us 't is nothing near so likely that such Effects as besides that they happen very suddenly and irregularly are oftentimes confin'd to a Town or some other narrow Compass should be produc'd by certain Stars as that they should be so by Subterraneal Bodies which are near at hand of very various natures and subject to many irregular and differing Motions commixtures reactions and other alterations I have known a great Cold in a
by that memorable Circumstance of an odd Case about a Gangrene mentioned by the experienced Simon Pauli in his ingenious Tract de Febribus malignis pag. 71. Atqui aeger ille Gallus brachio truncatus octiduum quidem superfuit sed horrendis totius corporis convulsionibus correptus qui quoque ut illa addam observatione dignissima dum in Domini sui aedibus ad plateam Kiodmoggerianam Romanè Laniorum appellares decumberet ac me ac aliis aliquandiu ad Lectum illius considentibus quidem sed nobis non attendentibus exploderentur tormenta bellica ex Regiis ac Praetoriis navibus sinistrâ truncum dextri brachii fovens ac complectens toties quoties exploderentur singula exclamabat Au au me miserum Jesu Maria contundor penitús adeò permolesta intolerabilis illi erat Tormentorum explosio quidem ex loco satis longinquo terrâ non firmâ aut contiguâ verùm super salo aut mari Balthico instituta By this it appears that the Guns whose discharge produced these painfull motions in the Patient rested upon a floating body And I remember that an illustrious Commander of a very great Man of war being asked by me whether of the many wounded men he had in his ship in a very long Sea-fight none of them were affected by that noise of the Enemy's Cannon discharged in ships at a distance He answered me that some whose bones were broken would sadly complain of the Torment they were put into by the shake they felt at the going off of the Enemy's Cannon though they were too much accustomed to the report of great Guns to be as 't was a bare noise offended by it If after all this ti be surmized that these motions were not conveyed by the air but propagated by the water and in some cases some part of the shoar from the ships where the Guns were fired to the Houses where the windows were shaken or the places where the wounded men lay I answer that if this could be made probable it would accommodate me with very eminent Instances for the Chapter of the Propagable nature of Motion And though it be very difficult to find such examples of shakes excited by sounds as are not liable to the mentioned objection because the sonorous bodies here below do all either strike or lean upon such gross and visible bodies as the Earth and Water yet there is one kind of Sound that must be confessed to be propagated by the Air as being made in it and that is Thunder whose noise does sometimes so vehemently affect the Air though without producing any sensible wind that both others and I have observed it very sensibly to shake great and strong Houses notwithstanding the distance of the clouds where the noises were first produced And I remember that having inquired of some Sea-Captains that in stout vessels sailed to the Indies whether they had nor in those hot Regions observed their ships though very much less tall then houses to be shaken by vehement Thunders I perceived that some of them had not much heeded any such thing but a couple of others told me they had observed it in their ships and one of them told me that once when the claps of thunder were extraordinary great some of them shook his ship so rudely as to make the unwonted motions disorder his great Guns All which I the less wonder at when calling to mind what I have mention'd in the foregoing Chapter and elsewhere of the power of the Celerity of motion I consider that there is no Celerity that we know of here below that is near so great as that wherewith a Sound is propagated through the air For whereas the diligent Mersennus observes that a bullet shot out of a Cannon or a Musket does not overpass two hundred and forty yards in a Second or sixtieth part of a minute I have more than once diligently observed that the motion of Sound passes above four hundred yards in the same time of a Second here in England which I therefore add because Mersennus relates that in France he observed a Sound to move in that time many yards more which may possibly proceed from the differing consistence of the English air and the French The great Loudness of these sounds and the vehement percussion that the Air receives in their formation will probably make it be easily granted that 't was onely the Impetuosity of the motion of the Medium that gave the shake to the windows and other solid bodies that I have been mentioning to have been made to tremble by the report of Cannon or Thunder But yet I will not on this occasion conceal that perhaps it may without absurdity be suspected that Some of those tremulous motions of solid bodies might either depend upon or at least be promoted by some peculiar disposition that Glasse which is endued with springiness and some other bodies that perhaps are not quite devoid of that Quality may have to be moved by certain congruous Sounds if I may so call them more than they would by others though perchance more loud But though this surmize should be admitted yet it would not render the lately-recited Instances improper for the design of this Discourse but onely would make some of them fit to be referred to another Chapter to which I shall advance as soon as I shall have annexed an odd Observation of the experienced Platerus which argues that where there is a peculiar Disposition even in a firm body it may receive considerable impressions from so languid a motion though in likelihood not peculiarly modified of the air as is not sensible to other bodies of the same kind Foemina quaedam says he in subitaneum incidit morbum viribus subitò prostratis se suffocari indesinenter clamitans etsi neo stertoris nec tussis aliqua essent indicia maximè verò de aura quadam adveniente si vel leviter aliquis adstantium se moveret quae illam opprimeret conquerebatur séque suffocari si quis propiùs accederet clamitabat vixdum biduum in ea anxietate perseverans expiravit To which he adds Vidi alios aegros de simili aura quae eos si quis illis appropinquaret in suffocationis periculum induceret conquerentes quod semper pessimum esse signum deprehendi CHAP. IV. Observat III. Men undervalue the motions of bodies too small to be visible or sensible notwithstanding their Numerousness which inables them to act in Swarms MOst men when they think at all of the effluvia of bodies and their motions are wont to think of them as if they were but much finer sorts of Dust whose grains by reason of their smalness are invisible which by the various agitation of the Air are as 't were by some faint wind blown against the surfaces of the bodies they chance to meet in their way and that they are stopped in their progress without penetrating into the interior parts of