ss[4].

THE Truth is, these Physicians had engaged themselves in an
=Hypothesis=, that the =Plague= was bred at =Marseilles= by a long Use of
bad Aliment, and grew so fond of their Opinion, as not to be moved by
the most convincing Evidence. And thus it mostly happens, when we
indulge Conjectures instead of pursuing the true Course for making
Discoveries in Nature.

I KNOW they imagine this their Sentiment to be abundantly confirmed
from some Experiments made by Dr. =Deidier=[5] upon the =Bile= taken
from Persons dead of the =Plague=: which having been either poured into
a Wound made on purpose in different =Dogs=, or injected into their
Veins, never failed, in many Trials, to produce in them all the Symptoms
of the Pestilence, even the external ones of =Bubo's= and =Carbuncles=.
One Dog, upon which the Experiment succeeded, had been known, for three
Months before, to devour greedily the corrupted =Flesh= of infected
Persons, and =Pledgets= taken off from =Pestilential Ulcers=, without
receiving any Injury. From hence they conclude[6] that this Disease is
not communicated by =Contagion=, but originally bred in the Body by the
Corruption of the =Bile=. This Corruption, they say, is the Effect of
unwholsome Food; and the =Bile= thus corrupted produces a Thickness and
a Degree of Coagulation in the Blood, which is the Cause of the =Plague=:
Tho' this they allow to be inforced by a bad Season of the Year, and
the =Terrors= of Mind and Despair of the Inhabitants.

THESE Experiments are indeed curious, but fall very short of what they
are brought to prove. The most that can be gathered from them is this:
That =Dogs= do not, at least not so readily, receive =Pestilential
Infection= from Men, as Men do from one another: And also, that the
=Bile= is so highly corrupted in a Body infected with the =Plague=, that
by putting it into the Blood of a =Dog= it will immediately breed the
same Disease.

BUT it does not follow from hence, that the =Bile= is the Seat of the
Disease, or that other Humors of the Body are not corrupted as well as
=this=. I make no question but the whole Mass of Blood is, in this Case,
in a State of Putrefaction; and consequently that all the Liquors
derived from it partake of the Taint.

ACCORDINGLY it appeared afterwards from some Experiments made by Dr.
=Couzier=[7], that not only the =Blood=, but even the =Urine= from an
infected person, infused into the crural Vein of a Dog communicated the
=Plague=