Epidemics Examined and Explained Part 8

As a parallel to this, it may be stated, that, as regards either endemic or epidemic disease, those persons newly arrived, either in a district or country where these prevail, are even more liable to them than the residents.[63] Again, I have learned, that where the potato disease has been so bad as to render the crop almost valueless, the best plan to be adopted is, to allow the plants to remain in the earth, and thus leave such as retain their germinating powers to come up spontaneously the following year. I certainly saw one large field treated in this way, yield a crop almost without disease.

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The seasoning, in this instance, seems to bear a comparison with the seasoning of animals and man, under a variety of diseases, which for a time renders them insusceptible of another attack. It therefore does not appear so improbable, that these affections may be regarded, as Unger, the German botanist supposed, the Exanthemata, or Eruptive Fevers of vegetables.

Another feature seems to a.s.sociate the Epidemics of plants and animals, in a manner suggestive of a.n.a.logous causes operating in both instances.

The lungs of animals and the leaves of vegetables, are their respiratory organs, by means of which, the blood in the one case and the sap in the other, derive gas from the air, and impart gas to it, each taking what is thrown off by the other.

Now the epidemics among vegetables, have a remarkable tendency to exhibit their effects primarily on the leaves, and particularly on those parts which are appropriated to the function of respiration. It is from the stomates that many of the fungi commence to germinate, and their fructification may be seen sprouting from the opening composed of a c.h.i.n.k, surrounded by a peculiar arrangement of cells, which const.i.tute the breathing apparatus of their victim.

In the earlier epidemics, of which we read, one of the most remarkable circ.u.mstances, was the extraordinary influence the poisonous matter appeared to {161} exercise over the lungs,[64] and they again, were the means of propagating the disease, and spreading the contagious particles through the atmosphere, for we read: "Thus did the plague rage in Avignon for six or eight weeks, and the pestilential breath of the sick, who expectorated blood, caused a terrible contagion far and near, for even the vicinity of those who had fallen ill of plague was certain death; so that parents abandoned their infected children, and all the ties of kindred were dissolved."[65] "The like was seen in Egypt. Here also inflammation of the lungs was predominant." "Here too the _breath_ of the sick spread a deadly contagion."

It is more than probable that all infectious matter obtains an entrance to the system through the lungs. Inspiring the air containing the pestilential semina is, indeed, the only plausible explanation of infection; for though the skin is indubitably an absorbing {162} surface, and capable of taking up and conveying to the blood any noxious matter applied to it, yet it is far more probable that the lungs would effect this process with greater rapidity. Then the stomach, the only other absorbing surface to which extraneous matter can be applied, is not likely to be the part where the elements of disease would obtain an entrance to the system, for many facts prove, that infectious matter may be swallowed without any injurious consequences, unless in a very concentrated state. Instances are not easily found of diseased matter having been swallowed, except where diseased vegetables have formed under some combination of circ.u.mstances, a portion of diet.[66]

Many facts are on record which prove the powerful effect of diseased grain when made into bread, and taken for any length time as a princ.i.p.al article of food. The history of Ergot of Rye is too fresh in the memory of most people to require more than an allusion here. The stomach had no power over the secale, its poisonous properties were retained, after having been submitted to the digestive process, as was evidenced by the abortions and gangrenes it occasioned.

But diseased wheat is also capable of inducing {163} gangrene, and it is more than probable, that many diseases might be traced to the use of infected grain of various kinds. An interesting account of a family who lived at Wattisham, near Stowmarket, in Suffolk, and all of whom suffered more or less from living on bread made of s.m.u.tty wheat, may be found in the Philosophical Transactions. The mother of this family and five of the children, consisting of three girls and two boys, all suffered from gangrene of the extremities; the father lost the nails from his hands, and had ulceration of two of his fingers.[67] Dr. Woollaston wrote thus in a letter on this case: "The corn with which they made their bread was certainly very bad: it was wheat that had been cut in a rainy season, and had lain on the ground till many of the grains were black and totally decayed, but many other poor families in the same village made use of the same corn without receiving any injury from it. One man lost the use of his arm for some time, and still imagines himself that he was afflicted with the same disorder as Downing's family." It is not unlikely this was the case, for numbness and loss of power was one of the well marked characters of the disease.

What other afflictions may be due to diseased vegetation and adulterated articles of food, and what loss of life may accrue from cheap and adulterated {164} drugs and chemicals is hardly yet dreamt of.[68] The systematic practice of adulteration of almost every article of diet which comes to table has become a serious question for the legislature to consider. Take only the article of milk, upon which the young children of large towns and cities, make their chief meals, with the addition of bread.

How much milk comes into London from the country, how much is obtained from stall and grain-fed cows in the metropolis, and how much is said to be consumed, would be an interesting calculation. It is pretty well known that a mixture is sold by which a retailer of milk may increase his supply by one-third or one-half. It was discovered in Paris that the brains of animals, when prepared in a particular manner, formed, when mixed with a certain proportion of milk and water, a very fine and deceptive cream; in that city this system was carried on to a considerable extent. I could not help alluding to these facts while speaking of diseased grain, for who shall say to what extent a miller in a large way of business, may be able to "work in," as it is called, a considerable amount of s.m.u.tty corn in the manufacture of flour? Now, as diseased grain is known {165} to induce abortion, it is impossible to tell how small a portion may in some cases produce the effect; we may therefore say with Thomas of Malmesbury, "There is no action of man in this life which is not the beginning of so long a chain of consequences, as that no human providence is high enough to give us a prospect to the end."[69]

To return,--a.s.sociated with these observations are other facts of considerable weight. Before and during pestilences, abortions are more frequent than in ordinary times; infectious and contagious diseases induce abortion; besides this, and independently of disease, conditions of the atmosphere have been known to exist when abortion has been an epidemic affection; of this Dr. Copland says, "to certain states of the atmosphere only can be attributed those frequent abortions sometimes observed which have even a.s.sumed an epidemic form, and of which Hippocrates, Fischer, Tessier, Desormeaux, and others have made mention." With this reference I will close the subject of comparison between the affections of the breathing apparatus in animals and plants, merely alluding to the probability that under some conditions of atmosphere, independently of heat, &c. vegetables without any other a.s.signable cause will become abortive.

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SECTION II.

WHAT IS THE NATURE OF THOSE POISONS WHICH MOST RESEMBLE THE MORBID POISONS IN THEIR EFFECTS ON THE BODY?

In the early part of this book, I considered the nature of poisons generally, and had occasion to remark upon the characters which separated poisons into two distinct cla.s.ses. 1st, Those which have the power of self multiplication; and 2nd, Those dest.i.tute of this property.

Of the first we have seen that the poisons of epidemic diseases multiply both in and out of the body.

The poisons of infectious diseases, not usually epidemic, do the same.

Those of endemic affections, such as ague and some fevers, usually become multiplied out of the body only, but under some circ.u.mstances, and peculiar atmospheric conditions, they may be also multiplied within the body. The amount of these poisons necessary to produce their specific effects, may be inappreciable. Of the second cla.s.s, there are two kinds, those derived from the organic kingdom and those derived from the inorganic kingdom. Of these, the amount necessary to produce their specific effects is appreciable and pretty well known.

But among those poisons, consisting of organic {167} products, there is one which seems to hold an intermediate place. This is derived from one of the Fungals, and as it takes this remarkable position as a link of connexion between the two cla.s.ses of poisons, I may be excused quoting a pa.s.sage of some length upon this agent, from Dr. Lindley's Vegetable Kingdom. "One of the most poisonous of our fungi, is the Amanita muscaria, so called from its power of killing flies, when steeped in milk. Even this is eaten in Kamchatka, with no other than intoxicating effects, according to the following account by Langsdorf, as translated by Greville. This variety of Amanita muscaria, is used by the inhabitants of the north-eastern parts of Asia in the same manner as wine, brandy, arrack, opium, &c. is by other nations."--"The most singular effect of the amanita is the influence it possesses over the urine. It is said, that from time immemorial, the inhabitants have known that the fungus imparts an intoxicating quality to that secretion, which _continues for a considerable time after taking it_.

For instance, a man moderately intoxicated to-day, will by the next morning have slept himself sober, but (as is the custom) by taking a teacup of his urine, he will be _more powerfully intoxicated_ than he was the preceding day. It is, therefore, not uncommon for confirmed drunkards to preserve their urine, as a precious liquor against a scarcity of the fungus. The intoxicating property of the urine _is capable of_ {168} _being propagated_; for every one who partakes of it has his urine similarly affected. Thus with a very few amanitae, a party of drunkards may keep up their debauch for a week."

This property of the amanita, at once places it in a separate category from all other organic poisons, it has yet to be shewn upon what this intoxicating fungus depends for its activity. Whether some secretion is formed in the tissue of the plant, or whether some new arrangement of the particles of matter or modification of the sporules, is brought about by entering the system, it is impossible to say. Langsdorf states that the small deep-coloured specimens of amanita, and thickly covered with warts, are said to be more powerful than those of a larger size and paler colour.

As the effect is not produced until from one to two hours after swallowing the bolus, and as a pleasant intoxication may be obtained by this agent for a whole day, and from one dose only, there is a defined line between this and the ordinary narcotics and stimulants in common use. That the digestive powers of the stomach have no influence over the intoxicating properties of the plant, is manifested in the fact, that the active principle pa.s.ses into the urine, not only not deteriorated but apparently increased, for, as we have seen, a teacup of the urine from a man, intoxicated by taking the amanita into his stomach, will cause him to be more powerfully intoxicated than by the {169} original dose. We have, therefore, but two conjectures left for consideration, either the original intoxicating principle is excreted from the system in a condensed form, in which case its indestructibility by digestion, makes it approach the ordinary organic poisons, or there must be an increase of the toxic agent, in which case we must suppose a reproductive process having taken place in the system.

"There is," says Dr. Mitch.e.l.l, "in the wild regions of our western country, a disease called the _milk sickness_, the _trembles_, the _tires_, the _slows_, the _stiff-joints_, the _puking fever_, _&c._" The animals affected with this disease, "stray irregularly, apparently without motive;"

they lose their power of attention, and finally tremble, stagger, and die.

"When other animals--men, dogs, cats, poultry, crows, buzzards, and hogs, drink the milk or eat the flesh of a diseased cow, they suffer in a somewhat similar manner." This disease is attributed by Dr. Mitch.e.l.l to the animals having grazed on pasture contaminated with mildew, and the resemblance to the effects of the amanita, together with the persistence of the specific principle within the fluids and tissues of the body, render it more than probable that to some fungoid growth, is due the peculiar toxic effects here noticed. Further: "The animals made sick by the beef of the first one, have been in their turn the cause of a like affection in others; so that three or four have thus fallen victims successively." De Graaf states, that b.u.t.ter {170} made from the milk of diseased cows, though heated until it caught fire, did not lose its deleterious properties. The urine of diseased animals, collected and reduced by evaporation, produced the characteristic symptoms. All these facts point to some peculiarity in the properties of matter not yet investigated or at least not explained. If we may a.s.sume that reproduction is here an element of the persistence and apparent multiplication of active matter, I know only of one instance to compare with it. A gentleman about to deliver a lecture on the properties of a.r.s.enic, and its history generally, made two solutions of a given quant.i.ty of a.r.s.enious acid, in the following manner. He took a certain amount of distilled water, and the same of filtered Thames water, and made his solutions of a.r.s.enic by separate boilings, he then as soon as possible placed the liquids in identical bottles, carefully prepared for their reception. In the one which contained the a.r.s.enic boiled in river water, the hygrocrocis is now growing, while that boiled in distilled water remains perfectly limpid and free from any vegetable production. There can scarcely be a doubt, that the filtration of river water was not sufficiently purifying to remove the minute spores of some lower forms of vegetation, which not only live in a.r.s.enic but have resisted the temperature employed in boiling an a.r.s.enical solution to saturation.

As to the first cla.s.s, or truly reproductive and {171} morbid poisons, the most heterogenous ideas have from all time existed. I have introduced the notice of the above poisons, viz. the Amanita, and that which engenders the milk sickness, to compare the results of the morbid poisons on the human body with them, and also to a.s.sociate them with the effects of diseased grain. From the Amanita and that other fungoid matter which is said to produce the milk sickness, there appears to be a purely toxic action on the system, but in the instance of diseased grain, a blood disease, ending in gangrene, or a specific and peculiar action of the generative organs is the consequence, and where the latter occurs, the poison usually expends itself on these parts, either by inducing abortion, or augmenting the catamenial secretion.

Now, the morbid poisons, if studied only in their results, shew that there is a combination of these two actions. There is usually, in the first place, a toxic or poisonous action, and secondly, a deteriorating or decomposing action on the blood, by which there is a tendency to low or asthenic inflammation and gangrene. It matters not what form of fever we take as an ill.u.s.tration, whether intermittent, pestilential, or exanthematous, either will serve the purpose of shewing how completely the effects of vegetable organic poisons resemble those which for the sake of distinction (I suppose) have been denominated Morbid Poisons.

Take an attack from the paludal poison. It is {172} usually ushered in with head-ache, weariness, pains in the limbs, and thirst, with other symptoms; all these are indicative of a poisonous agent in the blood: then come the full phenomena of the disease at a longer or shorter interval, and tending ultimately to destroy some organ of the body. The mind suffers during the course of the attack, and delirium occasionally happens. In severe cases of this disease, which were more frequent formerly than now, coma, delirium, and frenzy were observed at the commencement of the attack, and a tendency to rapid disorganization of one or several of the viscera.

If we take the effects of poison of Erysipelas, of Scarlet Fever, or Plague, in each we find at the onset more or less general derangement of the system, usually with cerebral disturbance and disordered action of all the dynamic forces of the body, which clearly indicate the action of a poison; then, unless some favourable symptoms arise, the blood exhibits a steady advance towards disorganization, and sphacelation of one or more tissues or parts of the body ensues. In Erysipelas the force of the diseased action is expended on the skin, and subcutaneous cellular tissue; in Scarlet Fever the fauces ulcerate, and slough and the parotids suppurate; in the Plague there is a general tendency to putrefaction, and the formation of glandular abscesses with sphacelas. Without going any further into this matter, for my present intention is merely to draw {173} notice to certain facts, let me now ask, whether or not, do the poisons of the Ergot, the Uredo, and the Amanita, exhibit more a.n.a.logy in their action on the nervous system, the blood and the tissues, than any other poisonous agents with which we are acquainted? If the whole range of the lower fungi could be examined in reference to their operation on the blood, as decomposers of organic compounds,--if experiments could be made, by which the properties of fungoid matter could be detected, I would venture to say the whole of the phenomena of these diseases could be readily comprehended and their intricacies unravelled.

We know that the fungi are poisonous, that at times and seasons, and under variations of climate, they vary in their effects, and perhaps lose altogether these properties. We know that the fungi produce gangrene of the tissues, and disorganization of the blood; we know that their spores pervade the atmosphere, and are ready, under favouring conditions, to increase and multiply; we know that they are ubiquitous, and that those conditions most favourable to their development, are exactly such as are proved to foster and engender disease, and above all, they have been proved to be the elements of some diseases in man, in animals, and in plants. Can as much be said of any other known agents, animate or inanimate, comprised in our category?

It has been said, we do not see after death,--the {174} interlacing mycilium, or the sprouting pileus; therefore the fungi are not the agents of disease--it has been said that carbonic acid and alcohol are not found as products of diseased action--consequently disease is not a fermentative process. "In all cases," says Liebig, "where the strictest investigation has failed to demonstrate the presence of organic beings in the contagion of a miasm, or contagious disease, the hypothesis that such beings have cooperated, or do cooperate in the morbid process, must be rejected as totally void of foundation and support." Much as I admire the genius of this great man, it is difficult to refrain from remarking, that I doubt if any of his great discoveries would have been made, if, in the first instance, hypotheses had not formed the basis of all his researches. It has been said, "that casual conjunctions in chemistry, gave us most of our valuable discoveries:" and it is from casual conjunctions that hypotheses are usually formed, the working out proves either their fallacy or their truth, but to say that an hypothesis has no foundation, until demonstrated to be true, is rather knocking down argument. And who, let me ask, has been more prolific of hypotheses than our continental neighbour? Yet he, according to his mode of reasoning, would sweep away all such words from the vocabularies of philosophers. What foundation has the chemical hypothesis of disease, when it fails to explain the most important element {175} of contagious and infectious diseases: viz. the reproductive property of their germs?

It is perhaps necessary to say something in explanation of the sudden deaths arising from morbid poisons. They may occur from two causes. One being the result of a concentrated amount of poison germs being inhaled into the lungs, and acting as an ordinary toxic agent; and the other, which I put only hypothetically, the consequence of the rapid evolution of gas in the vessels arising from a sudden decomposition of blood, as it pa.s.ses through the lungs. The only authority I have for this supposition, is the fact that the blood after death, from pestilential affections, is found to be far advanced towards decomposition; that in Paris last year, two patients were bled while suffering from Cholera, and with the small quant.i.ty of blood which flowed, bubbles of air also escaped:[70] and besides this, it was demonstrated by Mr. Herapath, that ammonia was given off from Cholera patients, both by the lungs and skin. These facts, though they are not conclusive, nevertheless render it probable that such an explanation is not entirely out of reason--especially too, when we know how fatal are the effects of uncombined air, when it enters the vessels near to the heart.

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SECTION III.

WHAT RESULTS DO WE OBTAIN FROM THE EFFECTS OF REMEDIAL AGENTS, IN PROOF OF THE HYPOTHESIS?

I have here used the word hypothesis, because, having so far advanced in the enquiry, I trust sufficient has been said to render the term applicable.

Under the term remedial agents, I shall include all those causes, whether natural or artificial, which tend to neutralize or destroy the germs of infection, or miasmatic poison, whether this be effected out of or within the body.

First, then, let us consider the results of drainage and cultivation in removing the causes of endemic disease. One well authenticated case is as good as a thousand. I will take one, which, from its source, will be received as unexceptionable; and from its a.s.sociation with a very learned and amusing book, will be accepted as an agreeable reminder of the many pleasant hours spent in the perusal of the poet Southey's "Doctor."

"Doncaster is built upon a peninsula, or ridge of land, about a mile across, having a gentle slope from east to west, and bounded on the west by the river; this ridge is composed of three strata; to wit, of the alluvial soil deposited by the river in former {177} ages, and of limestone on the north and west; and of sandstone to the south and east. To the south of this neck of land, lies a tract called Potteric Carr, which is much below the level of the river, and was a mora.s.s, or range of fens when our Doctor first took up his abode in Doncaster. This tract extends about four miles in length, and nearly three in breadth, and the security which it afforded against an attack on that side, while the river protected the peninsula by its semicircular bend on the other, was evidently one reason why the Romans fixed upon the site of Doncaster for a station. In Brockett's Glossary of North Country words, Carr is interpreted to mean 'flat marshy land,' 'a pool or lake;' but the etymology of the word is yet to be discovered.

"These fens were drained and enclosed pursuant to an Act of Parliament, which was obtained for that purpose in the year 1766. Three princ.i.p.al drains were then cut, fourteen feet wide, and about four miles long, into which the water was conducted from every part of the Carr southward, to the little river Torne, at Rossington Bridge, whence it flows into the Trent.

Before these drainings, the ground was liable to frequent inundations; and about the centre there was a decoy for wild ducks; there is still a deep water there of considerable extent, in which very large pike and eels are found. The soil, which was so boggy at first that horses were lost in attempting to drink at the drains, has been brought {178} into good cultivation, (as all such ground may be) to the great improvement of the district; for till this improvement was effected, _intermittent fevers and sore throats were prevalent there, and they have ceased from the time the land was drained_. The most unhealthy season now, is the spring, when cold winds, from the north and north-east, usually prevail during some six weeks; at other times Doncaster is considered to be a healthy place. It has been observed that when endemic(?) diseases arrive there, they uniformly come from the south; and that the state of the weather may be foretold from a knowledge of what it has been at a given time in London, making an allowance of about three days, for the chance of winds. Here, as in all places which lie upon a great and frequented road, the transmission of disease has been greatly facilitated by the increase of travelling."

I feel certain of being excused for transcribing this long pa.s.sage from Southey. It would have been impossible to convey its whole meaning without giving it entire. The continuation of the chapter is no less instructive and applicable to our subject, though more particularly so to an extension of the enquiry. The sore throats and intermittents, from which Doncaster has been freed, by the drainage of Potteric Carr, informs us at once that decomposing matter is the material by which the poison of fever is vivified and sustained, the wet and boggy state of the soil is just the condition, when no drainage exists, to bring into activity the germs of {179} disease, which otherwise would lie latent. So satisfied and acquainted are we with the elements necessary for the production of fever, that we might as certainly bring about an endemic intermittent by forming an artificial bog, as we could be sure of growing mushrooms by making a bed in the manner laid down by gardeners for this purpose. Dr. Lindley also says, "the _Polyporus fomentarius_ has been artificially produced in Germany, but merely by placing wood in a favourable situation, and keeping it well moistened. Five or six crops were obtained in the year."

Let warmth, moisture, darkness, and decaying matter be given, and inanimate disintegrated particles will soon be converted into definite forms and combinations instinct with life. It is by the unseen forms of living beings, that the atmosphere is preserved from becoming charged with deadly gases; they take the first rank in the great scheme of animated beings, the plant first, and then the animal. "Let the earth bring forth gra.s.s." "Let there be lights in the firmament." "Let the waters bring forth the moving creature, and fowl that may fly," and "Let the earth bring forth the cattle, the creeping thing, and the beast." This is the order of creation, of living things, and the earth was prepared by vegetation for the animal world. The work of conversion is accomplished by vegetation; and this is consumed for the construction of higher organizations.

The laws which govern and control the universe, {180} are as definite and as wonderful among invisible atoms, as those which regulate the enormous ma.s.ses floating in s.p.a.ce; and the time will come when the advancing intellect of man will measure and weigh the morbid poisons, as he measures and weighs the stars. Why should the laws of Epidemics be less understood, than the laws which govern the course of comets? The aspirations of man have led him to penetrate the heavens, which charm and inspire him; he studies rather the more violent disturbing elements of nature, the thunder-cloud and the fire of heaven, than the silent pestilence which steals over the earth. I cannot conceive it possible that the Intellects, which are occupied in procuring means for the Majesty of this empire to issue her mandates with the velocity of a spirit to the nethermost parts of the earth, should be incapable of solving so deeply interesting a mystery as the causes and nature of pestilential diseases. It would seem that man prefers to issue a mandate of destruction many thousand miles distant, than to disarm the pestilence at his door. It is barely a century since Galvani observed the twitchings in the muscles of a frog's leg, and the battery, still named after him, has already become an agent of instantaneous communication between places many miles distant. But how many centuries have pa.s.sed away, each one succeeding the other, with its millions of victims to epidemics? And where are the remedies for the evils? Drainage and cleanliness, with all their advantages, were better understood and more fully carried out by the ancient {181} Romans than by ourselves; there are monuments, though crumbling to decay, to tell us of the vast enterprise of these people and of the value they set upon a healthy and vigorous const.i.tution, and how well they understood the means of warding of disease.

Cultivation and drainage are now fully understood to be the basis by which a healthy condition of air is to be obtained, next to that, cleanliness and ventilation; if either be neglected a sickly, mouldy, and unwholesome contamination of atmosphere ensues; the odour of a bog is proverbially mouldy, and so is that of an ill-ventilated house or cellar; dryness, or the fresh pleasant scent of clean water, are the antagonists of these; the aromatic odours of vegetation are opponents of putrefaction, and consequently of the development of the lower forms of life. All empyreumatic matters prevent mouldiness and decomposition; and odours arrest and prevent the growth of mouldiness. The oil of birch, with which the Russia leather is impregnated, and which gives it so pleasant an odour, effectually prevents mouldiness, and consequently decay.

Lindley says, "It is a most remarkable circ.u.mstance, and one which _deserves particular enquiry_, that the growth of the _minute fungi_, which const.i.tute what is called mouldiness, is _effectually prevented_ by any kind of perfume."[71] Cedar has {182} been used, from time immemorial, for a like purpose; and I doubt not the recommendation of Virgil, before quoted, in reference to the burning of cedar, was founded on some practical utility of this kind, though its _modus operandi_ was unknown to him.

Allied to these is a curious circ.u.mstance, and worthy attention. I copy the following from an old work on Pestilences. "It is remarkable that when the Plague raged in London, Bucklersbury, which stood in the very heart of the city, was free from that distemper; the reason given for it is, that it was chiefly inhabited by druggists and apothecaries, the scent of whose drugs kept away the infection, which were so unnatural to the pestilential insects, that they were killed or driven away by the strong smell of some sorts of them." "The smell of _rue_, and the smoke of tobacco, were prescribed as remedies against the infection; but especially tar and pitch barrels, which it was imagined preserved Limehouse, and some of the dock-yards from infection."[72]

Pitch and tar dealers are everywhere spoken of as being remarkably exempt from infectious diseases.

Cold infusion of tar was used in our colonies as a prophylactic against the Small Pox. Bishop {183} Berkeley was induced to try it when this disease raged in his neighbourhood. The trial fully answered expectation--for all those who took tar-water, either escaped the disease, or had it very slightly.

Tan yards and places in the immediate vicinity, are said to be free from pestilences. The tanners of Bermondsey are said to have escaped the Plague of London, and one person only died in Gutter Lane, where was a tan yard.

The tanners of Rome are also stated to have been free from Plague. Dr.