e_ arises, and by what Means the Infection
of it is spread.

IN the most ancient Times _Plagues_, like many other Diseases, were
looked upon as _divine Judgments_ sent to punish the Wickedness of
Mankind: and therefore the only Defence sought after was by Sacrifices
and Lustrations to appease the Anger of incensed Heaven.[15]

HOW much soever may be said to justify Reflexions of this Kind, since we
are assured from sacred History, that divine Vengeance has been
sometimes executed by _Plagues_; yet it is certain, that such
Speculations pushed too far, were then attended with ill Consequences,
by obstructing Inquiries into natural Causes, and encouraging a supine
Submission to those Evils: against which the infinitely good and wise
Author of Nature has in most Cases provided proper Remedies.

UPON this Account, in After-Ages, when the Profession of Physick came to
be founded upon the Knowledge of Nature, _Hippocrates_ strenuously
opposed this Opinion, that _some particular Sicknesses were Divine, or
sent immediately from the Gods_; and affirmed, that _no Diseases came
more from the Gods than others, all coming from them, and yet all owning
their proper natural Causes: that the Sun, Cold, and Winds were_ divine;
_the Changes of which, and their Influences on human Bodies, were
diligently to be considered by a Physician_.[16]

WHICH general Position this great Author of Physick intended to be
understood with respect to _Plagues_ as well as other Distempers: How
far he had reason herein, will in some measure appear, when we come to
search into the Causes of this Disease.

BUT in order to this Inquiry, it will be convenient, in the first place,
to remove an erroneous Opinion some have entertained, that the _Plague_
differs not from a _common Fever_ in any thing besides its greater
Violence. Whereas it is very evident, that since the _Small-Pox_ and
_Measles_ are allowed to be Distempers distinct in _Specie_ from all
others, on account of certain Symptoms peculiar to them; so, for the
same reason, it ought to be granted, that the _Plague_ no less differs
in Kind from ordinary Fevers: For there are a Set of distinguishing
Symptoms as essential to the _Pestilence_, as the respective Eruptions
are to the _Small-Pox_ or _Measles_; which are indeed (as I have
mentioned in the Preface) each of them _Plagues_ of a particular kind.

AS the _Small-Pox_ discharges itself by _Pustules_ raised in the Skin;
so in the _Plague_ the nox