Of two Circumstances, whenever a Person is bit, one must certainly be. Either the Dog which gives the Bite, is about to be mad himself, in which Case this would be evident in a few Days; and then it must be said the Person was bitten by a mad Dog: Or else, that the Dog was absolutely sound, having neither conceived, or bred in himself, nor received from without the Cause, the Principle, of Madness: in which last Case I ask any Man in his Senses, if he could communicate it. No Person, no Thing imparts what it has not. This false and crude Notion excites those who are possessed with it to a dangerous Action: they exercise that Liberty the Laws unhappily allow them of killing the Dog; by which Means they are left uncertain of his State, and of their own Chance. This is a dreadful Uncertainty, and may be attended with embarrassing and troublesome Consequences, independant of the Poison itself. The reasonable Conduct would be to secure and observe the Dog very closely, in Order to know certainly whether he is, or is not, mad. Sec. 201. It is no longer necessary to represent the Horror, the Barbarity and Guilt of that cruel Practice, which prevailed, not very long since, of suffocating Persons in the Height of this Disease, with the Bed-cloaths, or between Matrasses. It is now prohibited in most Countries; and doubtless will be punished, or, at least ought to be, even in those where as yet it is not. Another Cruelty, of which we hope to see no repeated Instance, is that of abandoning those miserable Patients to themselves, without the least Resource or Assistance: a most detestable Custom even in those Times, when there was not the least Hope of saving them; and still more criminal in our Days, when they may be recovered effectually. I do again affirm, that it is not very often these afflicted Patients are disposed to bite; and that even when they are, they are afraid of doing it; and request the Bystanders to keep out of their Reach: So that no Danger is incurred; or where there is any, it may easily be avoided by a few Precautions. __Chapter XIII.__ _Of the Small-Pocks._ __Sect.__ 202. The Small-Pocks is the most frequent, the most extensive of all Diseases; since out of a hundred Persons there are not more than [49] four or five exempted from it. It is equally true however, that if it attacks almost every Person, it attacks them but once, so that having escaped through it, they are always secure from [50] it. It must be acknowleged, at the same Time, to be one of the most destructive Diseases; for if in some Years or Seasons, it proves to be of a very mild and gentle Sort, in others it is almost as fatal as the Plague: it being demonstrated, by calculating the Consequences of its most raging, and its gentlest Prevalence, that it kills one seventh of the Number it attacks.