[52] [Greek: He kata Phoiniken, ki kata ta alla anatolika
mere pleonazousa.]

[53] _Pag. 15._

[54] _De simpl. medicam. facult. Lib. xi._

[55] _De medicina, Lib. v. Cap. xxviii. Sec.. 19._

[56] _Lib. iii. Cap. xxv._

[57] _Canon, Lib. iv. Fen. 3. Tract. 3. Cap. i._

Now with regard to the infection of the cloaths, it has been found by
most certain experiments, not only in the plague, and some other
malignant eruptive fevers, as the small pox and measles, but even in
the common itch; that the infection, once received into all sorts of
furs or skins, woollen, linnen, and silk, remains a long time in them,
and thence passes into human bodies. Wherefore it is easy to conceive,
that the leprous miasmata might pass from such materials into the
bodies of those, who either wore or handled them, and, like seeds
sown, produce the disease peculiar to them. For it is well known,
that the surface of the body, let it appear ever so soft and smooth,
is not only full of pores, but also of little furrows, and therefore
is a proper nest for receiving and cherishing the minute, but very
active, particles exhaling from infected bodies. But I have treated
this subject in a more extensive manner in my _Discourse on the
Plague_.[58] And these seeds of contagion are soon mixed with an acrid
and salt humor, derived from the blood; which as it naturally ought,
partly to have turned into nutriment, and partly to have perspired
through the skin, it now lodges, and corrodes the little scales of the
cuticle; and these becoming dry and white, sometimes even as white as
snow, are separated from the skin, and fall off like bran. Now, altho'
this disease is very uncommon in our colder climate; yet I have seen
one remarkable case of it, in a countryman, whose whole body was so
miserably seized by it, that his skin was shining as if covered with
snow: and as the furfuraceous scales were daily rubbed off, the flesh
appeared quick or raw underneath. This wretch had constantly lived in
a swampy place, and was obliged to support himself with bad diet and
foul water.

[58] _Chap. i._

But it is much more difficult to account for the infection of the
houses. For it seems hardly possible in nature, that the leprous spots
should grow and spread on dry walls, made of solid materials. But upon
a serious consideration of the different substances employed in
building the walls of houses, such as stones, lime, bituminous ear