Materia Medica 'Dispensatory' published in the West."

( 4) Owing to its remarkable character we quote from his book:

"In South Carolina I was once in company with old Dr. Dilahoo, who
was noted for great skill and experience, having traveled into many
parts of the world. In the course of our conversation I asked him
what he conceived the _plague_ to be, which had been so much talked
of in the world. He readily told me that it was his opinion that
the plague is occasioned by an invisible _insect_. This insect
floating in the air, is taken with the breath into the lungs, and
there it either poisons or propagates its kind, so as to produce
that dreadful disease. This, he was confirmed, was likely to be
the truth from the experiments frequently made at Gibraltar. For
there, said he, they of the garrison, when they fear the plague,
have a way to elevate a piece of fresh meat pretty high in the air;
they put it up at night, and if it comes down sound and sweet in
the morning, they conclude there is no danger of the plague. But
if the plague is in the air, the meat will be tainted and spoiled,
and sometimes almost rotten. He was further confirmed in his
opinion of the _insect_, because in and about tobacco warehouses
the plague has never been known. I will remark: Now it is well
known that tobacco will prevent moth from eating our woolen clothes,
if we pack but little of it with them, that is the moth cannot
breed or exist, where there is a sufficient scent of the tobacco.
This scent may be death to the invisible _insects_ even after they
are drawn in with the breath and fastened upon the lungs. This
may account for tobacco being burned (as I have heard it), in many
old countries, on a chaffing dish in a room, that the people of
the house may take in the smoke plentifully with their breath, to
preserve their health and prevent pestilential disorders.

"Agreeable to this view, we may conclude that all tainted air may
bring disease and death to us. And the plague has never been
(properly speaking) in America as we know of. Yet other effluvia
taken in with the breath may have occasioned other fearful diseases,
such as the yellow fever and other bilious and contagious complaints."
--P. 14.

( 5) His grandson, James Johns, in the 30's, wandered, as a trapper,
to the Pacific coast, thence north to the mouth of the Willamette
River on the Columbia (Oregon), and there lived a bachelor and
alone until his death, a