1 86 Account o f the Plague. his knee, and artn-pits, and inside the elbow ; he died in three hours after the attack. C a s e VIII.— L. R. was suddenly smitten with this dreadful calamity, whilst looking o v e r some Marocco leather; he fell instantaneously; afterwards, when he had recovered his senses;, he described the sensation as that o f the pricking o f needles, at eve ry part wherein the carbuncles afterwards appeared : he d ied the same day in defiance o f medicine. C a s e I X .— Mr. Pacifico, a merchant, was attacked, and felt a pricking pain down the inside o f the thick part oi the thigh, near the sinews ; he was obliged to go to bed. I visited him the next day, and was going to approach him, but he exclaimed, Do not come near me, for although I know I have not the prevailing distemper, yet your friends, if you touch me, may persuade y o u otherwise, and that might alarm you ; I shall, I hope, be well in a few days.” I took the hint o f Don Pedro de Victoria, a Spanish gentleman, who was in the room, who offering me a sagar, I smoked it, and then departed; the next day the patient died. He was attended during his illness b y the philanthropic Monsieur Soubremont, who did not stir from his bed-side till he expired ; but after exposing himself in this manner, escaped the infection, which proceeded undoubtedly from his constantly having a pipe in his mouth. ("Use X .— Tw o o f the principal Jews o f the town giv ing themselves up, and having no hope, were w illin g to employ the remainder o f their lives in affording assistance to the dying and the dead, b y washing the bodies and interring them ; this business the y performed during thirty or forty days, during all which time they were not attacked ; when the plague had nearly subsided, and th e y began again to cherish hopes o f survivin g the Account o f the Plague. t87 calamity, they were both smitten, but after a few days illness recovered, and are now living. From this last case, as well as from many others similar, but too numerous, here to recapitulate, it appears that the human constitution requires a certain miasma, to prepare it to re ce ive the pestilential infection. General Observation.— When the carbuncles or buboes appeared to have a blackish rim round their base, the case o f that patient was desperate, and in variably fatal. Sometimes the whole body was covered with bla ck spots like partridge-shot; such patients always fell victims to the disorder, and those who felt the blow internally, shewing no external disfiguration, did not survive more than a few hours. T h e plague, which appears necessary to carry off the o v e r plus o f encreasing population, visits this country about once in eve ry twenty years: the last visitation was in 1799 and 1800, being more fatal than any e ve r before known. The Mohammedans never postpone burying their dead more than twenty-four hours ; in summer it would be offensive to keep them longer, for which reason they often inter the bod y a few hours after d e a th ; they first wash it, then la y it on a wooden tray, without any coffin, but covered with a shroud o f cotton cloth ; it is thus borne to the grave b y four men, followed b y the relations and friends o f the deceased, chaunting, (L a A lla h ilia A lla h wa Mohammed rassul A llah.) The re is no God but the true God, and Mohammed is his prophet. T he body.is deposited in the grave with the head towards Mecca, each o f the two extremities o f the sepulchre being marked by an upright stone. It is unlawful to take fees at an interment, the bier belongs to the (Jama) mosque, and is used, free ®f
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