The grounds of the received distinction between susceptible and non.ausceptible articles must, we conceive, be altogether fanciful, since we cannot discover any evidence that the plague has ever been commu nicated by uterehandise. Whenever the plague Ina been introduced into the lazarettoes of the 31editernimean it has always been introduced by passengers or their clothes. (Schur Dupeyron, pp. 45-48.) It may be added, that the persons employed in the proems of depurating sae• ceptiblo goods have never been known to catch the plague, which could scarcely have failed to be sometimes the case If the poison of the plague could be transmitted through goods. (See answer 28 of the Maltese protooaedits), in 31aslean, vol. ii. p. 31.) It seems to be like wise supposed that some substances are not only non-susceptible, but can even nullify the poison of the plague in susceptible artick*. "At Trieste (says M. de Sgur Dupeyron) the juice of dried grapes is con sidered as a purifier; and consequently currants in susceptible wrappers are allowed to pass without the wrappers being subjected to any quaran. tine" (p. 72).
There appears, however, to be conclusive evidence that the clothes and bedding of plague patients have transmitted the plague. (Dupeyron, pp. 32.71.) We believe the danger of its transmission in this manner to be equal to the danger of its transmission by passengers.
We are not aware of any well-authenticated example of the trans mission of plague by means of letters. Nevertheless as paper is con sidered susceptible, letters coming from and passing through the plague countries are opened and fumigated at the lazarettoes, a process which is often productive of mistakes, delays, and other inconveniences.
Every ship is furnished by the consul or other sanitary authority at the last port where it touched with an instrument, styled a bill of health, declaring the state of health in that country. If the ship brings a clean bill of health, the passengers and goods are not subject to any quarantine. If she brings a foul bill, they are subject to quarantines of different durations, according as the plague is known or only suspected to have existed in the country at the ship's departure. On account of the prevalence of plague in the countries upon the Levant, they are considered as permanently in a state of suspicion, and no ship sailing from any of them is considered to bring a clean bill The periods of quarantine vary from two or three to forty days; the usual periods are from ten to twenty days.
For a description of the buildings in which passengers usually per form.their quarantine, and in which goods are depurated, see LAZA aErro. The most spacious and best appointed lazarettoes in the Mediterranean are those at Malta and 'Marseille. To the statements
contained in the article just referred to, we add the following curious description of a quarantine station on a land frontier, quoted from a manuscript journal in 31urray's Handbook for Southern Germany,' p. 457 :—" Outside Orsova, by the waterside, and near the ferry over the Danube, stands the l'arlatorium, a wooden shed in which the market (skela) is held three times a week. On account of the quaran tine regulations, the inhabitants of Servia and Wallachia are prevented coining in contact with the subjects of Austria, and dare not cross the frontier without an escort. The Austrian quarantine is five days for those who come out of Wallachia, and ten for those from Senia, increased to forty days in time of plague. The Wallachians, again, have a quarantine of five days against the Servians; so that none of the three parties can intermix for the purpose of buying or selling, nor can they touch each other's goods. On this account, the building where the market is held is divided by three partitions, breast high, behind which the dealers of the three nations are congregated. In an operi apace in the centre is a table, by the aide of which the Austrian quarantine officers take their stand, aided mud supported by a guard of soldiers with firearms and fixed bayonets to enforce order and obe dience. Whenever a bargain is made, the money to be paid is handed to one of the attendants, who receives it in a long ladle, transfers it to a txmain of vinegar, and, after washing it, passes it on to the opposite aide. The goods to be purchased are placed within sight, and are immersed in a tub of water, or fumigated, when they happen to change owners. It is an amusing night to see the process of bargaining thus carried on by three parties at the distance of several yards from each other, attended by the vociferation and gesticulation inseparable from such business. When the bartering is transacted, the Waliachians are escorted back to their own territory, as they had previously been in coining to the spot, by a guard of soldiers, and the Seniana re cross the river in their boats." The institution of quarantine originated at Venice, in which city the expediency of some precautions against the introduction of the plague was suggested by its extensive commercial relations with the Levant. A separate hospital for persona attacked by the plague was esta blished in an Wand near 'Venice, in 1403 ; and the system of isolating passengers and depurating goods appears to have been introduced there about 14S5. The system thus established in Venice gradually spread to the other Christian countries in the Mediterranean, and has been adopted, to a greater or leas extent, over all the civilised world.