ek before or after, never
twice that Number were carried off[88]. And we find that upon making
the same Experiment in the last _Plague_ at _Marseilles_, the Contagion
was every Day spread more and more thro' the City with increas'd Rage
and Violence[89].

WHAT has been said of _Fires_, is likewise to be understood of _Firing
of Guns_, which some have too rashly advised. The proper Correction of
the Air would be to make it _fresh_ and _cool_: Accordingly the
_Arabians_[90], who were best acquainted with the Nature of
_Pestilences_, advise People to keep themselves as _airy_ as possible,
and to chuse Dwellings exposed to the Wind, situate high, and refreshed
with running Waters.

AS for _Houses_, the first Care ought to be to keep them _clean_: for as
_Nastiness_ is a great Source of _Infection_, so _Cleanliness_ is the
greatest Preservative; which shews us the true Reason, why the _Poor_
are most obnoxious to _Contagious Diseases_. It is remarked of the
_Persians_, that though their Country is surrounded every Year with the
_Plague_, they seldom or never suffer any Thing by it themselves: and it
is likewise known, that they are the most _cleanly_ People of any in the
World, and that many among them make it a great Part of their Religion
to remove _Filthiness_ and _Nusances_ of every Kind from all Places
about their Cities and Dwellings[91].

BESIDES this, the _Arabians_ advise the keeping Houses _cool_, as
another Method of their _Purification_, and therefore, to answer this
End more fully, they directed to strew them with _cooling_ Herbs, as
_Roses_, _Violets_, _Water-Lilies_, &c. and to be washed with _Water_
and _Vinegar_: than all which, especially the last, nothing more proper
can be proposed. I think it not improper likewise to _fume_ Houses with
_Vinegar_, either alone or together with _Nitre_, by throwing it upon a
_hot Iron_ or _Tile_; though this be directly contrary to what modern
Authors mostly advise, which is to make Fumes with hot things, as
_Benzoin_, _Frankincense_, _Storax_, &c. from which I see no reason to
expect any Virtue to destroy the Matter of _Infection_, or to keep
particular Places from a Disposition to receive it; which are the only
things here to be aimed at. The _Smoak_ of _Sulphur_, perhaps, as it
abounds with an _acid Spirit_, which is found by Experience to be very
_penetrating_, and to have a great Power to repress _Fermentations_, may
promise some Service this way.

AS hot Fumes a