[37] From the author's expressions in this place, the reader might be led to believe that he meant to restrict the communication of infection to contact of the sick and infected goods; but in other parts of his book, he admits the possibility of the contagion being communicated by the breath and other effluvia from the sick. Indeed there can be no doubt that the pestilential particles are (especially in the worst forms of the disease) contained in the moisture perspired through the skin, and in the vapour emitted from the lungs. If not, where was the use of the precaution, which the author adopted in his own person, of holding a handkerchief moistened with vinegar before the mouth and nose on approaching the sick? The conclusion, from all this is, that the sphere of contagion in cases of the plague, extends to a greater distance (several feet at least) than Dr. _Mertens_ imagines. Tr. [38] For a more particular account of the symptoms, see Addenda, A. [39] The author did not venture to feel the pulse of those impested patients who were under his own care, lest he should take infection. As the observations communicated to him by others on this head, which he has inserted in his book, coincide with those of _Orræus_ and _Samoïlowitz_, which we shall afterwards notice, we have omitted them, to avoid repetition. Tr. [40] It will be sufficient for readers in this country to refer to _Sydenham_'s works, Sect. II. Cap. II. without transcribing the quotation which the author has introduced in this place. _Sydenham_ observes of the London plague (1665), that it was most suddenly mortal in the beginning; whereas the Russian plague was the most rapid in its action when it was at its height. Dr. _Mertens_ reconciles this contrariety of observation, by remarking that the London plague began in the summer, a season the most favourable for its activity. Tr. [41] The description and treatment of the buboes, carbuncles, and other eruptions, which are to be found in every treatise on the Plague, the translator has purposely omitted, that the pamphlet might not be swelled out to an unnecessary bulk. [42] Frequently in the progress of the disease there is no heat on the surface of the body; but the burning heat under the axillæ shows that the internal heat is very intense. [43] A febrile, but not very quick pulse; sometimes almost natural. [44] The faburra brought up by vomiting, is commonly of a dirty yellow colour, viscid, and sometimes frothy. The quantity thrown up is astonishingly great, much greater than is observed in any other fever.