If, for Instance or Illustration, we were to suppose, that when two Armies were on the Point of engaging, one of them should be nearly deprived of all their Weapons, the Contest would not appear very violent, nor attended with great Noise or Tumult, though with a horrible Massacre. The Spectator, who, from being ignorant of one of the Armies being disarmed, would not be able to calculate the Carnage of the Battle, but in Proportion to its Noise and Tumult, must be extremely deceived in his Conception of it. The Number of the Slain would be astonishing, which might have been much less (though the Noise and Clangor of it had been greater) if each Army had been equally provided for the Combat. Sec. 244. The Causes of this Disease are a long Use of animal Food or Flesh alone, without Pulse, Fruits or Acids; the continued Use of other bad Provisions, such as Bread made of damaged Corn or Grain, or very stale Meat. Eight Persons, who dined together on corrupt Fish, were all seized with a malignant Fever, which killed five of them, notwithstanding the Endeavours of the most able Physicians. These Fevers are also frequently the Consequence of a great Dearth or Famine; of too hot and moist an Air, or an Air, which highly partakes of these two Qualities; so that they happen to spread most in hot Years, in Places abounding with Marshes and standing Waters. They are also the Effect of a very close and stagnant Air, especially if many Persons are crouded together in it, this being a Cause that particularly tends to corrupt the Air. Tedious Grief and Vexation also contribute to generate these Fevers. Sec. 245. The Symptoms of malignant Fevers are, as I have already observed, a total and sudden Loss of Strength, without any evident preceding Cause, sufficient to produce such a Privation of Strength: at the same Time there is also an utter Dejection of the Mind, which becomes almost insensible and inattentive to every Thing, and even to the Disease itself; a sudden Alteration in the Countenance, especially in the Eyes: some small Shiverings, which are varied throughout the Space of twenty-four Hours, with little Paroxysms or Vicissitudes of Heat; sometimes there is a great Head-ach and a Pain in the Loins; at other Times there is no perceivable Pain in any Part; a kind of Sinkings or Faintings, immediately from the Invasion of the Disease, which is always very unpromising; not the least refreshing Sleep; frequently a kind of half Sleep, or Drowsiness; a light and silent or inward Raving, which discovers itself in the unusual and astonished Look of the Patient, who seems profoundly employed in meditating on something, but really thinks of nothing, or not at all: Some Patients have, however, violent Ravings; most have a Sensation of Weight or Oppression, and at other Times of a Binding or Tightness about, or around, the Pit of the Stomach.