1 'pestilential fever peculiar to ludin, while others declare it to he
2 the same plague that was so common in the East, and especially
3 in Turkey and Egypt. He told me be would he very glad if
4 I would write to him »ny opinion about it, should 1 on mv
5 journey observe the disease, as he considered if. might be of great,
6 importance hot!.' to himself and to science, because I liac{ had
7 so much opportunity for studying the nature of the plague at
8 Constantinople, adding that he intended to publish my report.
9 About noon we arrived at. the infected Pal e, where we ordered
10 our tents to be pitched near to thc large marsh, opposite to which
11 the town lies. The first sight which presented itself to our
12 eyes* was the funeral trains pf several of the inhabitants. After
13 dinner, at two o’clock, I repaired to the governor, who was
14 a Hindoo, and told him f was a traveller and a physician, and
15 that f wished to sec a few infected persons, and administer to
16 them mv medicines gratis, if he would kindly send some c>nt to
17 accompany me. He received me very affably, and yielded to
18 my 'request. The man wlm accompanied me had not the trouble
19 to escort me far, as in the very next house there were several
20 patients, some of whom had only a short time to live. At
21 these visits I neglected no circumspection and precaution. I
22 never entered a house, but caused the patients to he brought
23 before the door, where I examined them, writing down their
24 names and their statements, and administering to them the reme¬
25 dies, and I departed without having touched any of them.
26 The aspect of the town itself offered a sad spectacle: only now
27 and then I met with a human being : the bazaars and shops were
28 closed; they told me *hat the greater part of the inhabitants
29 had either died, or left the town; and numbers of bouses
30 were quite deserted. The infected died in general on the third
31 or fourth day • and scarcely one among twenty' recovered. I
32 saw carbuncles, buboes, bleeding at the nose—in one word U
33 that 1 had seen in the hospital at Constantinople. I no longer,
34 therefore, doubted that the disease was a most virulent plague.
35 It is true, that it was not the plague of Turkey, Arabia or Egypt,
36 but one peculiar to India; Pulce being a province of that part