And here we must observe, that this Art of _Quarantines_, and _Lazarettoes_, is so infallible, that we may blame the Civil Magistrate, and his Officers, if ever the Plague is suffered to come among us. For my part, I cannot think any Government so foolishly malicious to suffer a Plague to come into their Country, if they knew how to avoid it. But that we may not slightly bring an ill Report against Governors; the Physicians are to be blamed, when the Orders of the Civil Magistrate are hurtful; for he always takes Counsel with Physicians in all Matters, relating to _Nature_ and _Health_: This has been the Practice in all Nations, and in all Times, since Mankind has been govern’d by Law; and if these wrong Measures are owing _to the Ignorance of the true Nature of Contagion_, surely it’s none of the Magistrate’s Business to discover it. The Magistrate may contradict his former Orders, for any Thing that is better, at least not so pernicious, as those whereunto he was led by Physicians. But the Physicians in _London_ might not have advised the shutting up of Houses, if they had remember’d the fatal Experiments of it in other Countries, recorded in Books of Physick. _Mercurialis_ tells us, how the Houses were shut up in _Milan_ on this Occasion, but that the Magistrates found their Mistake in a Week, and set them open again, very much to the Comfort of the Healthy, and Relief of the Sick. The same learned Author informs us, that burning _infected Goods_ was found to do great Mischief in a Plague in _Padua_, and what then shall we think of our celebrated Physician, who [15]recommends this Method of Burning? [16]_Quapropter_, says the famous _Mercurialis_, _non possum commendare eos, qui hisce temporibus infectas supellectiles in urbibus cremant, propterea quod_, &c. We may surely say, that this Error is not only _owing to his Ignorance of the true Nature of Contagion_, but even of his Ignorance of what Physicians do Abroad. [Footnote 15: Page 40.] [Footnote 16: _Cap._ 21.] I think the Doctor has made a little too free with the Civil Magistrate, and his Brethren of the Faculty; especially, that he has no where told us any Thing of the Nature of Contagion; not so much as what we may read in many Books of Physick. And therefore his further inveighing against _Physick_ and _Physicians_, is the most surprizing, unaccountable Indiscretion that Man ever was guilty of: A Man that has done nothing, but to corrupt it: For thus he puts an End to a great deal of rambling Stuff, about shutting up Houses. [17]_The Management in former Times neither answers the Purpose of discovering the beginning of the Infection, nor of putting a stop to it when discovered; other Measures are certainly to be taken, which I think should be of this Nature._ [Footnote 17: Page 37.]