of peflilentkt Vifedfes. y fupernatural to inflift fuch Puniiliments. But there is a great deal of Reafon to fufpeft, that the [Number of this Sett was Very much increafed by fuch, as either but of Ignorance in other Caufes, or out of an affe&ed Devotion, thought it their Intereft to come into this Opinion, and pretend to do greater Cures by certain reli- gious Performances, and their Interceilion with Heaven, than was in the Power of Medicine, of which they knew but very little, O F thole that aiUgn fome natural Caule^ there are feveral Opinions : Some afcribe them to aftral Influences, to malign Con- junctions and Radiations of the Heavenly Bodies. We find, from the moil remote Antiquity, not only Peft Hernial DiJ cafes, but Hkewife a great many others, afcribed to the fame Caufes : But all the Reafonings about this Conje£ture have been Very obfeure and perplexed until the prelent Age, when Sir Ifaac Newton firfc. taught Men to think juftly, "and talk intelligibly about the Mo- tions and Influences of thofe remote Bodies upon our Atmofphere : And upon his Theory Dr. Mead has fince further proceeded to determine their EiKcacies upon humane A 3 Bodies,
