To this question Verdoni answered in a manner seemingly inconsistent with his former answer; allowing not only that the plague was infectious, but that infected things might communicate the disease after an interval of many years. All agreed that the strength of the infection was greater or less according to circumstances; the distance at which it could act was likewise uncertain. Raymond said that the sick might be safely conversed with, across a barrier, at a few paces distance; the Jew said at _two ells_ distance, provided the chamber windows be not all shut. Giovanelli said it had been proved that the infection did not extend beyond five geometrical paces. The touch of infected clothes, or drawing in the breath of the sick, was looked upon by him and Fra. Luigi to be very dangerous. 4. What are the seasons in which the plague chiefly appears; and what is the interval between the infection and the disease? To this it was answered by Raymond, that the two solstices are the times in which it has least power. The others agreed that hot and moist weather was favourable to its ravages; the spring, summer and first month of autumn are dreaded. These circumstances, however, must be variable in different countries. As to the time in which the infection shows itself, the answer was various. According to _They_, it “sometimes acts slowly, sometimes like a _stroke of lightning_.” According to Verdoni, “the disease generally shows itself at the instant of touch, _like an electrical shock_.” Sometimes the infection will be communicated from a sick person to a sound one, who without any disease may communicate it to a second, and that second to a third, in whom alone it would become active. The other questions, relative to the symptoms, prevention and cure of the distemper, will be taken notice of in the course of the treatise. In the mean time having discussed, with a prolixity almost exceeding our bounds, such preliminaries as seemed most likely to throw some light on the nature of the distemper, we shall now proceed to the medical history of the plague, as we find it laid down in different authors.