FROM the same Cause, that is, infected Garments, and Merchandize, _Mercurialis_ takes Notice of a Plague in his Time at _Venice_; and _Appianus Alexandrinus_[43] assures us, that the _Celtæ_, after a Conquest over the _Illyrici_, and in Possession of their Plunder, were infected with a grievous Plague, which the _Illyrici_ then laboured under. _Thycidides_ also, in his Relation of the Plague at _Athens_, intimates, That it was brought from some Part of _Ethiopia_ by the like Means. And _Prosper Alpinus_[44], before mentioned, seems to lay the greatest Stress for the Frequency of the Plague at _Grand Cairo_, to the Traffick with those Countries as are hardly ever free from _Pestilential Diseases_. A great many Physicians have charged the Plague in Sixteen hundred and sixty three at _Amsterdam_, to the Infection of some _Pestilential Miasms_ which were transported from _Smyrna_ and _Algiers_, then much infected with such Diseases, with some Merchandize; by which Means likewise it was conjectured soon afterwards to reach _London_, and several other Parts of _England_, as it appears from the preceding Account of Dr. _Hodges_. To this Purpose I remember to have read a strange Story, somewhere in _Baker_’s Chronicle, of a great Rot amongst Sheep, which was not quite rooted out until about Fourteen Years Time, that was brought into _England_ by a Sheep bought for its uncommon Largeness, in a Country then infected with the same Distemper: And upon this Account it is that the Prudence of those Nations and States are to be justified, who enjoin all Persons and Merchandize from infected Countries, to stay a certain Time upon their Coasts and Borders before they are suffered to intermix with a healthful People; having by such Instances as here mentioned been justly alarmed at the Incroachment of such dreadful Destroyers. THESE Historical Fragments are put together, in Order to apprize those Readers who have not been very conversant with Things of this Kind, with the various Ways by which the most dangerous Diseases, and even sudden Death, may be introduced into our Constitutions, by the Agency of very minute and unheeded Causes; and likewise the better to support the Distinction necessary to be made between _Epidemic_ Diseases, and a _Contagion_; as well as to illustrate the Manner whereby the latter subsists, spreads, and proves fatal, when the Causes producing the former are absent.