the town, I met the Governor’s brother, who asked me where I was going, when e v e ry other European was shut up ? “ T o the garden,” I answered. “ And are you not aware that the garden and the adjacent country is fu ll o f (Genii) departed souls, who are busy in smiting with the "plague eve ry one they meet ? I could not help smiling, but told him, that I trusted to G od only, who would not allow any o f the Genii to smite me unless it were his sovereign will, and that i f it were, he could effect it without the aid o f G enii. On my return to town in the evening, the sandy beach, from the town-gate to the sanctuary o f Seedi Mogodole,* was covered with biers. My daily observations convinced me that the epiderny was not caught b y approach, unless that approach was accompanied by an inhaling o f the breath, or b y touching the infected person ; I therefore had a separation made across the gallery, inside o f my house, between the kitchen and dining parlour, o f the width o f three feet, which is sufficiently wide to prevent the inhaling the breath o f a person- From this partition or table o f separation I took the dishes, and after dinner returned them to the same place, suffering none of the servants to come near m e ; and in the office and counting-' house, I had a partition made to prevent the too near approach o f any person who might call on business; and this precaution I firmly believe to be all that is necessary, added to that o f receiving money through vinegar, and taking care not to touch or smell infectious'substances. Fear had an extraordinary effect in disposing the body to rece ive the infection; and those who were subject thereto, invariab ly caught the malady, which was for the most part fatal. * A sanctuary a mile south-east of the town of Mogodor, from whence the lown receives its name. A t the breaking out o f the plague at Mogodor, there were two medical men, an Italian and a Frenchman, the latter, a man o f science, a great botanist, and o f an acute discrimination; they, however, did not remain, but took the first opportunity o f leaving the place for Teneriffe, so that the few Europeans had no expectation o f any medical assistance except that o f th e natives. Plaisters of gum ammoniacuin, and the ju ice o f the leaves o f the opuntia, or kermuse ensarrah, i. e. p r ick ly pear, were universally applied to the carbuncles, as w e ll as the buboes, which qu ick ly brought them to m a tu r ity : many o f the people o f property took copious draughts o f coffee and Peruvian bark. T h e Vinaigre de qualre voleurs was used by many, also camphor, smoking tobacco, o r fumigations o f gum Sandrac ; straw was also burned b y some, who were o f opinion, that any thing which produced abundance o f smoke, was sufficient to p u r ify the air o f pestilential effluvia. During the existence o f the plague, I had been in the chambers o f men on their death-bed: I had had Europeans at my table, who were infected, as well as Moors, who a ctu ally had buboes on them ; I took no other precaution than that o f separation, carefully avoiding to touch the hand, or inhale the breath ; and, notwithstanding wrhat may ha ve been said, I am decidedly o f opinion that the plague, at least this peculiar species o f it, is not produced b y any infectious principle in the atmosphere, but caught solely b y touching infected substances, or inhaling the breath o f those who are diseased ; and that it must not be confounded with the common plague o f Egypt, or Constantinople, being a malady o f a much more desperate and destructive kind. It has been said, by persons who have discussed the nature and character o f the plague, that the cultivation
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