There are some passages in ancient history in confirmation of the same opinion. Herodotus relates, that the ancient Egyptians were the most healthy of all the nations, except the Libyans, and he imputes this to the invariableness of their weather, and the serenity of their sky. But he mentions in another part of his works, that they were also the most cleanly of all people, not only in their household utensils, but in their persons, and that their clothing was chiefly of linen, which it was one of the principal studies of their life to wash and keep clean--ἑιματα δε λινεα φορεουσι ἀιει νεοπλυτα ὲπιτηδευοντες τουτο μαλισα. Herodot. Euterp. 37.--It is remarkable that he makes no mention of the plague, though he gives a very minute account of the country from his own observation, from whence it may be naturally inferred, that it did not then exist there, though Egypt is now so subject to it, that the plague is supposed by many to be an endemial disease in it. It would appear also from another passage in this historian, that he uses the word λοιμος, which we translate _plague_ in a loose sense to signify any violent acute distemper; for he relates that a great part of the army of Xerxes, in their retreat from Greece, perished by the _plague_ λοιμου and dysentery, in consequence of famine. Herod. Lib. viii. cap. 115. [58] It is proper also to observe here, that those ships which are built of winter-felled timber are much drier than those built of what is summer felled; and this circumstance should have been mentioned with regard to the Montague, for the cause of her healthiness, notwithstanding her being a new ship, was probably from being built of winter-felled timber. It should, therefore, be strictly enjoined to fell the wood in winter; for those who are employed to do it have an interest in doing it in summer, on account of the value of the bark. [59] A windsail is a long cylinder of canvass, open at both ends, kept extended with hoops, and long enough to reach from the lowermost parts of the ship through all the hatchways into the open air. [60] It is not necessary that seamen should have chests, for bags or wallets answer their purpose equally well, and are much more convenient in respect of stowage. [61] Since the first edition of this work, I have met with a fact in confirmation of this principle, with regard to the cutaneous complaint called the _ring-worm_. This had prevailed in a private school in the neighbourhood of London, which I visited, but it had to all appearance become extinct; yet it nevertheless affected those boys who were newly sent to the school. [62] It is mentioned by Thucydides, that while the plague raged at Athens, the people were affected with no other disease; from which it would appear that those persons who would otherwise have been attacked with some particular indisposition, were seized with the plague in place of it. Vide note p. 247. [63] Part I. Book II. Chap. VI.