At the same time, that this Care is taken of _Houses_, the proper Officers should be strictly charged to see that the _Streets_ be washed and kept clean from _Filth_, _Carrion_, and all Manner of _Nusances_; which should be carried away in the _Night Time_; nor should the _Laystalls_ be suffered to be too near the City. _Beggars_ and _Idle Persons_ should be taken up, and such miserable Objects, as are neither fit for the common _Hospitals_, nor _Work-houses_, should be provided for in an _Hospital of Incurables_. Orders indeed of this kind are necessary to be observed at all times, especially in populous Cities; and therefore I am sorry to take Notice, that in _these_ of _London_ and _Westminster_ there is no good _Police_ established in these Respects; for want of which the Citizens and Gentry are every Day annoyed more ways than one. If these early _Precautions_, we have mentioned, take Effect, there will be no need of any Methods for _Correcting the Air_, _Purifying Houses_, or of _Rules for preserving particular Persons from Infection_: To all which, if the _Plague_ get head, so that the _Sick_ are too many to be removed, Regard must be had. As to the _first_; _Fire_ has been almost universally recommended for this Purpose, both by the Ancients and Moderns; who have advised to make frequent and numerous _Fires_ in the Towns infected: By which Means, it is said, _Hippocrates_ preserved _Greece_ from a _Plague_, which was entring into it from _Æthiopia_[18]. And it is certain, that some evil Dispositions of the Air, particularly such as proceed from _Damps_, _Exhalations_, &c. may be corrected by _Fire_, and the Predisposition of it to receive _Infection_ from these Causes sometimes removed. But when the Distemper is actually _begun_, and rages, since it is known to be _spread_ and _increased_ by the _Heat_ of the _Summer_, and on the contrary checked by the _cold_ in _Winter_; undoubtedly, whatever increases that _Heat_ will so far add Force to the Disease. Whether the Service _Fires_ may do by correcting any other ill Qualities of the Air will counterbalance the Inconvenience upon this Account, Experience only can determine; and the Fatal success of the Tryals made here in the last _Plague_, is more than sufficient to discourage any further Attempts of this Nature; for _Fires_ being ordered in all the _Streets_ for three Days together, there dyed in one Night following no less than 4000; whereas in any single Week before or after, not much above three times that Number were carryed off[19]. What has been said of _Fires_, is likewise to be understood of _firing of Guns_, which some have too rashly advised. The proper Correction of the Air would be to make it _fresh_ and _cool_. Accordingly the _Arabians_[20], who were best acquainted with the Nature of _Pestilences_, advise People to keep themselves as _airy_ as possible, and to chuse Dwellings exposed to the Wind.