I have before remarked that the miasmata sometimes excited a fever as soon as they were taken into the body, but that they often lay there from one to sixteen days before they produced the disease. How long they existed in the body after a recovery from the fever I could not tell, for persons who recovered were, in most cases, exposed to their action from external sources. The preternatural dilatation of the pupils was a certain mark of the continuance of some portion of them in the system. In one person who was attacked with the fever on the night of the 9th of October, the pupils did not contract to their natural dimensions until the 7th of November. Having described the effects of the miasmata upon the body, I proceed now to mention the changes induced upon it by death. Let us first take a view of it as it appeared soon after death. Some new light may perhaps be thrown upon the proximate cause of the disease by this mode of examining the body. My information upon this subject was derived from the attendants upon the sick, and from the two African citizens who were employed in burying the dead, viz. Richard Allen and Absalom Jones. The coincidence of the information received from different persons satisfied me that all that I shall here relate is both accurate and just. A deep yellow colour appeared in many cases within a few minutes after death. In some the skin became purple, and in others black. I heard of one case in which the body was yellow above, and black below its middle. In some the skin was as pale as it is in persons who die of common fevers. A placid countenance was observed in many, resembling that which occurs in an easy and healthful sleep. Some were stiff within one hour after death. Others were not so for six hours afterwards. This sudden stiffness after death, Dr. Valli informs us, occurred in persons who died of the plague in Smyrna, in the year 1784[53]. [53] Experiments on Animal Electricity, p. 90. Some grew cold soon after death, while others retained a considerable degree of heat for six hours, more especially on their backs. A stream of tears appeared on the cheeks of a young woman, which seemed to have flowed after her death. Some putrified in a short time after their dissolution, but others had no smell for twelve, eighteen, and twenty hours afterwards. This absence of smell occurred in those cases in which evacuations had been used without success in the treatment of the disease. Many discharged large quantities of black matter from the bowels, and others blood from the nose, mouth, and bowels after death. The frequency of these discharges gave rise to the practice of pitching the joints of the coffins which were used to bury the dead.