Note 136 — PART FIRST. (continued 8)

Dr. Dover, who wrote, in 1732, the Ancient Physician’s Legacy, had lodged his soldiers in a church in which those who died of a plague had been buried. An hundred and eighty of the soldiers were seized either with petechiæ or buboes. He ordered them all to be bled in such quick succession, that the arm of the first was not bound up till the blood flowed from the last. Thus every one lost about an hundred ounces (upwards of three quarts.) He then ordered them water acidulated with spirit of vitriol for their drink; and by this treatment all recovered excepting eight, who would not refrain from spiritous liquors. This was transacted in Peru: but in Europe the plague will scarce bear bleeding to a few ounces. (Sauvages.)