Orders were given that any dogs found in the streets were to be killed. An order, bearing on this matter, made in May, 1583, at Winchester, may be reproduced: "That if any house wtn this cytie shall happen to be infected with the Plague, that thene evye persone to keepe within his or her house every his or her dogg, and not to suffer them to goo at large: And if any dogg be then founde abroad at large, it shall be lawful for the Beadle or any other person to kill the same dogg: and that any Owner of such Dogg going at large shall lose 6s." It was believed that dogs conveyed contagion from infected houses. A passage in Homer's "Iliad" has a reference to man obtaining infection from an animal. It relates to the great pestilence that prevailed in the Grecian army: "On mules and beasts the infection first began, At last, its vengeful arrows fix'd in man; Apollo's wrath the dire disorder spread, And heap'd the camp with mountains of the dead. For nine long nights throughout the dusky air, The funeral torches shed a dismal glare." Many remedies were tried to stay the progress of plagues. The ringing of church bells was among the number. "Great ringing of bells in populous cities," says Bacon, in his "Natural History," "disperseth pestilent air, which may be from the concussion of the air, and not from the sound." Music, in the Middle Ages, was believed to have a healing power. Large fires were lighted in houses and streets as preventatives. It is not unlikely that the practice may be derived from the fact that, in 1347, during the time of the plague raging at Avignon, Pope Clement VI. caused great fires to be kept in his palace, day and night, and by this means believed he had kept the pestilence from his household. In 1563, we learn from Stow that a commandment came from Queen Elizabeth that "every man in every street and lane should make a bonefire three times a week, in order to the ceasing of the plague, if it so pleased God, and so to continue these fires everywhere, Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays."