he dry and clear
Weather they always have at that time: the unwholsome Damps being then
dissipated that annoy the Country in the _Spring_. However, the Heat of
the Air is of so much Consequence, that if any Ship brings it in the
Winter Months of _November_, _December_, _January_, or _February_, it
never spreads: but if later in the Year, as in _April_ or afterwards,
it continues till the time before mentioned.

BUT moreover, what was said before of some latent Disorders in the _Air_
having a share in spreading the _Plague_, will likewise have place in
these Countries; as the last _Plague_ in the City of _London_ remarkably
proves, the Seeds of which, upon its first Entrance, and while it was
confined to a House or two, preserved themselves through a hard frosty
_Winter_, and again put forth their malignant Quality as soon as the
Warmth of the _Spring_ gave them force: but, at the latter end of the
next Winter they were suppressed so as to appear no more, though in the
Month of _December_ more than half the _Parishes_ of the City were
infected.

A _corrupted State_ of Air is, without doubt, necessary to give these
contagious Atoms their full force; for otherwise it were not easy to
conceive how the _Plague_, when once it had seized any Place, should
ever cease but with the Destruction of all the Inhabitants: Which is
readily accounted for by supposing an Emendation of the Qualities of the
_Air_, and the restoring of it to a healthful State capable of
dissipating and suppressing the Malignity.

ON the other hand, it does not appear, that the _Air_, however
corrupted, is usually capable of carrying Infection to a very great
distance; but that commonly the _Plague_ is spread from Town to Town by
infected Persons and Goods: for there are numberless Instances, where
the _Plague_ has caused a great Mortality in Towns, while other Towns
and Villages, very near them, have been entirely free. And hence it is,
that the _Plague_ sometimes spreads from Place to Place very
irregularly. _Thuanus_[59] speaks of a _Plague_ in _Italy_, which one
Year was at _Trent_ and _Verona_, the next got into _Venice_ and
_Padua_, leaving _Vicenza_, an intermediate Place, untouched, though the
next Year that also felt the same Stroke: a certain Proof that the
_Plague_ was not carried by the _Air_ from _Verona_ to _Padua_ and
_Venice_; for the infected _Air_ must have tainted all in its Passage.
We have had lately in _France_ one Instance of the sa