It is now very manifest, that Dr. _Mead_ has not given any tolerable, or probable Account of his _propagating_ Causes; and that every Thing he has offer’d, in his own Way, is a _Corruption_ of what has been said by many Physicians. Moreover, he does not yet seem to understand Matters of Propagation, for he makes his Causes propagate by themselves, contrary to the common and known Methods of Nature. In this he is not only unnatural, but I am afraid, that this his Method must be very _defective_, tho’ it carries his peculiar mark of Excellency, _in differing from the Methods taken in former Times among us, and from what they commonly do Abroad_. For formerly here in _England_, and the People abroad, thought it necessary that the _Seeds_ of the Plague should, like other Seeds, have a proper _Matrice_ to receive them, to cherish them, and to rear them up for their proper and peculiar Uses, consonant to their Nature. They could not see how a Plague could more thrive out of its proper Ground, than a Grain of _Wheat_, or the Seed of an _Apple_. So that it was incumbent on Dr. _Mead_, to have shewn the _Disposition_ that may be in every Man to receive, and entertain the Plague, and with all the Variety in which it palpably affects them. For a Plague has often laid its devouring Hands on _Children_ and _Young Men_, when it has spared the _Old_; and, on the contrary, it has proved fatal to _Age_, when Youth has been excused: Nor has a Pestilence that afflicted Men hurt _Women_. At other Times Men and Women of all Ages have felt its Strokes promiscuously, and some have conversed boldly among the Sick of the Plague with Safety, while others are quickly punished for their Rashness. It was very remarkable, that there was not a _British_ Subject, that wintered in _Dantzig_ in that hard Frost, and Time of Pestilence, received any Hurt, while Thousands of the Natives fell on their Right Hand, and Ten Thousands on their Left: This happen’d in the Year 1713. But it is recorded by [7]_Utenhovius_, that in a cruel Plague that raged in _Copenhagen_, all Strangers, _English_, _Dutch_, _Germans_, were not affected with it, when at the same Time it made Havock among the Inhabitants; yet those Foreigners went freely every where among the infected People, and into the infected Houses. [Footnote 7: Peregrinat. _Eccles. Anglicanæ_, cap. IV.]