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at Smyrna and Constantinople; allowing always, that the different constitution of the air contributes very much to propagate the plague: for the hot air dilates and renders more volatile and active the venemous steams, whereas cold air contracts and mortifies them. The person having the plague may be said to have a contagious and poisonous air in his room and about him, while at the same time the open air is free from any dangerous exhalations; so that I never was afraid to go into any large house, wherein a plaguy person lived, provided that he was confined to one room.
The pestilential fever shews itself first, by a chilliness and shiverings even in the months of July and August, so very like the first approaches of an ague, that it is impossible to distinguish the one from the other at first sight. This cold fit is soon accompanied with a loathing nausea and desire of vomiting, which obliges the patient at last to discharge a vast quantity of bilious matter, with great uneasiness and oppression in the thorax and mouth of the stomach, attended sometimes with a dry cough, as in an intermitting fever; and even in this stage it is very difficult to distinguish the one from the other. Next, the patient has a violent head-ach and giddiness, with some slight convulsive motions: he breathes hard; his breath and sweat stink; his eyes are ruddy, he looks frighted, sad, and pale; he has an insatiable thirst; his tongue is yellowish, with a red border; he has a total loss of appetite, restlessness, great inward heat, and more than could be expected from the fever, which is sometimes pretty moderate, but grows stronger frequently towards night; the patient very often bleeds
