In the time of plague, the proper precautions are, to shut one’s self closely up, and to receive no provisions or other things, except those on which the plague has no influence. The people of Syria, however, in 1760, admitted every kind of provisions without fear, but not without using certain precautions. They did not receive warm bread; flesh of every kind was thoroughly washed, and milk was strained through a linen cloth, in order to free it from the smallest particle of animal hair. All kinds of pulse were soaked in water, and they abstained from peaches, apricots, and other fruits which are covered with a downy rind. Fowls were cooked out of the house, for fear that some small feather might adhere to them. Flowers were altogether proscribed. Letters were opened by the person who brought them; and they were never read until they had been steeped long enough in vinegar to be purified without effacing the writing. Every thing was received into the house by means of a rope of herbage suspended from a window. The governor employed every precaution which he thought likely to guard him from the contagion; and, by shutting himself closely up, he set an example which the rest of the Mahometans did not neglect to follow. Besides this he caused the streets to be cleansed; and carried his vigilance so far as to forbid the caravans which arrived from Damascus, where the plague swept off four or five thousand people every day, to enter the city. He obliged them to submit to a proof of eight days without the walls, and established regulations of the same kind respecting vessels coming from Alexandria or Damietta. One precaution taken in the time of plague is, to prevent _cats_ from entering houses: an open war is therefore declared against these animals; and, wherever they are found, they are knocked on the head with large clubs. This is a cruelty absolutely necessary; for there is no vehicle that will convey the infection with more certainty or rapidity than the hair of cats. Rats and mice multiply in consequence of their destruction; but there is no instance of their ever having propagated the plague. This disease, when it attacks men, spares quadrupeds and birds. The furs of the one, and the feathers of the other, however, attract and communicate the infection. People ought particularly to keep from goats and sheep; from horses and oxen little is to be apprehended. All these precautions were sometimes ineffectual. The French at Acre, who there, as well as throughout Syria, are collected into one quarter, used every precaution that could be thought of, yet, on the 30th of March, 1760, five of them were infected. They belonged to the hospital of the Holy Land, and the monks were instantly ordered to shut themselves up. They did so; and eight of them died, one only escaping.