entered none of the _Prisons_ at
_Rome_[27], though the Nastiness of those Places exposes them very much.
But, to avoid Prolixity, I shall give only one Instance more. I think it
cannot be explained in any other reasonable manner, how the last
_Plague_ in the City of _London_, which broke out in the parish of St.
_Giles's in the Fields_ towards the latter end of the Year 1664, should
lie a-sleep from _Christmas_ to the middle of _February_, and then break
out again in the same Parish; and after another long rest till _April_,
shew itself again in the same Place[28].

TO proceed: Whoever examines the Histories of _Plagues_ in all times,
which have been described with any Exactness, will find very few, that
do not agree in these essential Marks, whereby the _Plague_ may be
distinguished from other _Fevers_. I confess an Instance or two may be
found to the contrary; perhaps the History of our own Country furnishes
the most remarkable of any[29]. But Examples of this kind are so very
rare, that I think it must be concluded, that the _Plague_ is usually
one and the same Distemper.

IN the next place I shall endeavour to shew, that the _Plague_ has
always the same Original, and is brought from _Africa_, the Country
which has entail'd upon us two other infectious Distempers, the
_Small-Pox_ and _Measles_. In all Countries indeed _Epidemic Diseases_
extraordinarily mortal, are frequently bred in _Goals_, _Sieges_,
_Camps_, &c. which Authors have often in a large Sense called
_Pestilential_: But the true _Plague_, which is attended with the
distinguishing Symptoms before described, and which spreads from Country
to Country, I take to be an _African_ Fever bred in _AEthiopia_ or
_Egypt_, and the _Infection_ of it carried by Trade into the other Parts
of the World.

IT is the Observation of _Pliny_, that the _Pestilence_ always travels
from the _Southern_ Parts of the World to the _Western_, that is, in his
Phrase, into _Europe_[30]. And the most accurate Accounts in all Times
of this Disease, wherever it has raged, bring it from _Africa_.
_Thucydides_[31], in his admirable Description of the famous _Plague_
of _Athens_, says, that it began in Upper _AEthiopia_, then came into
_Egypt_, from whence it was spread first into _Persia_, and afterwards
into _Greece_.

THERE is in all ancient History no Account of any _Plague_ so dreadful
as that, which broke out at _Constantinople_ in the time of the Emperor
_Justinian A. D._ 543.