at all: on the contrary the experiments formerly mentioned, especially those made by Count Rumford, show that they are furnished with an almost unlimited quantity. The cause of the most violent kind of plague then we must suppose to be something received into the body, which in a certain time, probably sooner or later according to the strength of the contagion, disposes to an irregular emission of its heat, which coming by a kind of explosions, or, as Dr. Hodges calls them, _blasts_, produce those eschars which have been called _tokens_, and seem to be no other than partial combustions, by which the parts affected are reduced to a state of charcoal, or nearly so. In assigning this cause for the most deadly kind of plague, we must naturally ask the question, how can all this take place without any pain? for of those who died in this manner, many felt neither pain nor uneasiness till within a few moments of death. This can only be accounted for by the sudden and perfect destruction of the parts, which did not allow time for any sensation of pain to take place; and indeed in the application of caustic for an issue, the patient often feels but little pain. It is impossible to avoid perceiving a very strong connexion between this kind of plague and the dreadful cases of spontaneous combustion related p. 182–186. In the case of the priest indeed the fire seems to have come from without, though even this cannot be ascertained beyond a doubt; but in those who were absolutely consumed to ashes, it seems equally probable that it may have arisen from within; and as none of the unfortunate persons seem to have made any noise or struggle, the priest alone excepted, it seems probable that the first attack had deprived them of all sensation, and that, notwithstanding the terrible ideas with which such extraordinary occurrences must have inspired those who saw them, the sufferers may have died without feeling any pain. The priest seems to have felt nothing after the first stroke.