I KNOW they imagine this their Sentiment to be abundantly confirmed from some Experiments made by Dr. =Deidier=[5] upon the =Bile= taken from Persons dead of the =Plague=: which having been either poured into a Wound made on purpose in different =Dogs=, or injected into their Veins, never failed, in many Trials, to produce in them all the Symptoms of the Pestilence, even the external ones of =Bubo's= and =Carbuncles=. One Dog, upon which the Experiment succeeded, had been known, for three Months before, to devour greedily the corrupted =Flesh= of infected Persons, and =Pledgets= taken off from =Pestilential Ulcers=, without receiving any Injury. From hence they conclude[6] that this Disease is not communicated by =Contagion=, but originally bred in the Body by the Corruption of the =Bile=. This Corruption, they say, is the Effect of unwholsome Food; and the =Bile= thus corrupted produces a Thickness and a Degree of Coagulation in the Blood, which is the Cause of the =Plague=: Tho' this they allow to be inforced by a bad Season of the Year, and the =Terrors= of Mind and Despair of the Inhabitants. THESE Experiments are indeed curious, but fall very short of what they are brought to prove. The most that can be gathered from them is this: That =Dogs= do not, at least not so readily, receive =Pestilential Infection= from Men, as Men do from one another: And also, that the =Bile= is so highly corrupted in a Body infected with the =Plague=, that by putting it into the Blood of a =Dog= it will immediately breed the same Disease. BUT it does not follow from hence, that the =Bile= is the Seat of the Disease, or that other Humors of the Body are not corrupted as well as =this=. I make no question but the whole Mass of Blood is, in this Case, in a State of Putrefaction; and consequently that all the Liquors derived from it partake of the Taint. ACCORDINGLY it appeared afterwards from some Experiments made by Dr. =Couzier=[7], that not only the =Blood=, but even the =Urine= from an infected person, infused into the crural Vein of a Dog communicated the =Plague=. I will venture to affirm, that if, instead of =Bile=, =Blood=, or =Urine=, the =Matter= of the =Ulcers= had been put into a Wound made in the Dog; it would have had at least an equally pernicious Effect: As may well be concluded from the Inoculation of the Small Pox. AS to the Dog's eating the =corrupted Flesh= and =purulent Matter= of the Patients; it ought to have been considered that there are some Poisons very powerful when mixed immediately with the Blood, which will not operate in the Stomach at all: As in particular the =Saliva= of the mad Dog and the =Venom= of the Viper[8]. And therefore Dr. =Deidier= himself, some Months after his former Experiments, found that =pestiferous Bile= itself was swallowed by Dogs without any Harm[9].