I could heartily wish those worthy Gentlemen had struck in with greater Harmony to the Satisfaction and Security of the People, whose Expectations were greatly raised by the Hopes of their Assistance, by gaining a greater Light into the Nature, Quality, Symptoms, and Affections of this definitive Ill, to have promoted their Safety, by giving the necessary Indications relating to the Cure, as well as the necessary Precautions in order to guard us from that secret Attack which may approach us by very minute and unheeded Causes; the which, from their different Notions and positive Contradictions, lay too deep from the narrow Re-searches of those Philosophizing and Learned Gentlemen, and for the Manner whereby it kills, its Approaches are generally so secret, that Persons seiz'd with it seem to be fallen into an Ambuscade or a Snare, of which there was no Manner of Suspicion. And there are very few Discourses relating to the Pestilence but what abound in many Instances of this kind: And the Learned _Boccace_, in his Admirable Description of the Plague at _Florence_ (quoted by Dr. _Mead_[26] _Anno_ 1348) relates what himself saw, 'That two Hogs finding in the Streets some Rags which had been thrown off from a poor Man dead of the Disease, after snuffling upon them, and tearing them with their Teeth, fell into Convulsions, and died in less than an Hour.' The Misfortune which happened in the Island of _Bermudas_ about 25 Years since, which Account is from Dr. _Halley_; A Sack of Cotton put ashore by Stealth, lay above a Month without any Prejudice to the People of the House where it was hid; but when it came to be distributed among the Inhabitants, it carried such a Contagion along with it, that the Living scarce sufficed to bury the Dead. And Dr. _Quincey_[27] has somewhere read a strange Story 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.' _Fracastorius_[28], an eminent _Italian_ Physician, tells us, 'That in the Year 1511, when the _Germans_ were in Possession of _Verona_, there arose a deadly Disease amongst the Soldiers, from the wearing only of a Coat purchased for a small Value; for it was observed, that every Owner of it soon sickned and died; until at last the Cause of it was so manifestly known from some Infection in the Coat, that it was ordered to be burned.' Ten thousand Persons, he says, were computed to fall by this Plague before it ceased. And _Kephale_, in his _Medela Pestilentiae_, printed _Anno_ 1665, acquaints us, That the following Plagues were produced from the following Causes. That in the Year 1603, the contagious Seeds were brought to _England_ amongst Seamens Clothes in _White-Chappel_; and in that Year there died of the Plague 30561.