Where and however the original poison is produced, that substance gives rise to a disease by which it is mul tiplied and propagated ; so that, from generation to ge neration, new cases are produced precisely similar to the former, and always reproducing the same disorder with the same symptoms ; a character peculiar to all contagious diseases. To such a progress as this, no less in ordinary contagious fevers than in the plague, there could be no end but the destruction of the human race ; were it not that the very seats .and foci of these diseases are destroy ed from time to time, and were it not that they exhaust themselves in some manner unknown to us, consisting probably in conditions of the atmosphere, respecting which we cannot form the slightest conception.
To those names which we formerly mentioned, we may add, Dr. Skoll of Vienna, who wrote against the contagion of the plague. Howard, the great philanthropist, has ably controverted his opinion, and has adduced the most un questionable proofs of its contagious nature, from living sources of great experience, who all coincide in repre senting it as communicated both by the contact of per sons and things. Among these authorities we may quote Fra Luigi di Pavia, of Smyrna, au observer of eighteen years' practice at that perpetual seat of the disorder. Drs. Raymond and Demollins, of Marseilles, were of the same opinion ; both observing that it proceeds only from con tact, and has always been imported. Such also was the opinion of Giovanelli of Leghorn, and of many others.
In Malta the plague has always been considered as con tagious. From the sixteenth century to its visit in 1813, the same system of precaution and interdiction has been used to check its progress ; and whenever this plan has been fairly acted on, it has always been successful. Clan taro, in his description of Malta, gives a distinct account of the introduction of this disorder at four different pe riods. The first was in 1592, by means of four gallies belonging to the Grand Duke of Tuscany, who had pro cured pilots in this island. They had taken two ships from Alexandria, laden with rice and flax for Constan tinople, and containing 150 Turks. Hearing of the i plague at Alexandria, they brought their prizes into Malta, introducing the disease along with them, followed by a great mortality.
The second event of this nature occurred in 1623, and it originated, as far as could he traced, in the house of the harbour-master. But almost as soon as it was disco vered, precautions were taken, and the diseased were sent to lazarettos, so that it made no progress. The third broke out, in the same manner, in 1633, in a house near the Porta Maggiore, where the ships from the Levant usually anchored. This was traced to the ships themselves.
The whole family was soon infected, but by transferring them immediately to a lazaretto, the disorder was imme diately extinguished.
The fourth attack, about the latter end of 1675, was far more destructive, lasting seven months. It was traced to the house of a shopkeeper ; but, having been at first unsuspected, many families became infected. The usual precautions were-adopted, but with less success than on former occasions. A census of the people was taken ; and the town was divided into twenty-four districts, each placed under the superintendence of a nobleman, with an adjunct from the inferior citizens, and a secretary. These commissioners visited their allotted houses daily, and had also charge of the arrangements of the lazarettos. But from some differences of opinion, sufficient precautions were not taken to separate the infected and the suspected persons, and hence the disease continued to spread. In the lazarettos, also, and floating hospitals, great neglect took place. In the town, the people broke out of their hounds, disseminating the evil which they finally could not escape ; so that all the efforts of the government proved ineffectual. It was found then necessary to send for phy sicians from France. In consequence of their regulations, all the people were confined rigidly to their houses, with the exception of the infected and suspected, who. were sent to the lazarettos. From this moment the disease diminished, and within three months entirely disappear ed, after destroying about 10,000, or a sixth of the whole population. No stronger evidence than this of its conta gious nature could well be imagined.
The history of the last visitations of this nature here, is not less interesting and satisfactory. At this period the population of Malta was greater than at any former time in its history, being then the great emporium of commerce in the Mediterranean. One of the great branches of that trade was with the Levant, and the usual long established precautions against the disease were adopted, except that the situation for performing quarantine was a thoroughfare for boats, so that it was not very difficult to evade the re gulations. In March, 1813, the brig St. Nicholas arrived from Alexandria ; and, from the evidence of the captain, it appeared that two of his crew had died from some pes tilential disease, while the plague was known to be in ex istence at the port whence she had sailed. Two more ships arrived at the same time front the same place, one with two sick and suspected persons, and the other having lost one man by the plague. As the cargo of the St. Nicholas also consisted of flax, considerable alarm was excited by the continuance of these vessels in the harbour.