friends, from all, whether rich or poor. In the mean time, the mortuary, recoverable only from persons of property, was fixed by the Act of Henry VIII. for a person dying of the value of 301. and less than 401. at 6s. 8d. ; for a person of the value of 401. at 10s. The very circumstance of the value of the mortuary being proportioned to the property of the deceased clearly shews, that burial-offerings or fees and mortuaries are of a very different description. Let me repeat, then, that offerings, cblations, and obventions, are not mortuaries. "But they are one and the same thing*, comprehending (together with what are commonly called Easter-offerings) the customary payments for marriages, christenings, churchings, and burials. And by the statute [2 & 3 Edw. VI. c. 13.] it is enacted, that all persons shall pay their offerings, &c. to the parson, vicar, &c. where they shall abide." It appears (according to a comment on these words of the Statute) that there were occasional oblations, of which some were free and voluntary, but others by custom certain and obligatory, as those for marriages, christenings, churchings of women, and burials. Those offerings which were voluntary are now vanished, and are not comprehended within the aforesaid statute; but those that were customary and certain, as for marriages, christenings, burials, &c. &c. are confirmed to the parish-priests, vicars, and curates of the parishes where the parties live, that ought to pay the "These oblations were due to the parson of the parish that officiated at the mother-church. But, if they were paid to the chaplain of an appending chapel, even in this case, the chaplain was accountable for the same to the parson of the motherchurcht." same." By 7 & 8 W. [c. 6.]" all offerings, &c. &c. are ordered to be paid to the several rectors, vicars, &c. within their several parishes, according to the rights, customs, and prescriptions commonly used within the said parishes respectively." It is observable, that neither in Burn's Eccles. Law, III. 19, 20.See also Burn's Just. IV. 362. 18th Edit. Burn's Eccles. Law, III. 20, 21. I T is not generally understood to what kind and degree of danger other parts of the British dominions are exposed from the Typhous Fever, which has spread so fatally in Ireland, and in some towns of England and Scotland. The typhous contagion remains in the body in a latent state from about the 10th to the 72d day, reckoning between the time of exposure to the poison and the commencement of the fever. This law of nature I discovered in 1781, from observations on 72 cases. It was fully confirmed by Dr. Bancroft in 1809, from observations on 99 cases. He observed that the latent period of Typhus varied from the 13th to the 68th day. Hence it is manifest that an infected person may travel in perfect health from and to the remotest part of Ireland and Britain. The increase of fever in Liverpool, Glasgow, London, &c. is thus clearly explained. At this time of alarm and serious danger, I desire the favour of you, Mr. Urban, to republish, in your widely-circulated pages, the following RULES of safety for visitors of infectious families, and REGULATIONS to exterminate the Typhous fever. "At the request of Sir Thomas BERNARD, the Society for Bettering the Condition of the Poor gratuitously circulated the following RULES * Extracted from the Bath Chronicle of June 24, 1818. and and REGULATIONS to prevent Infectious Fevers, extracted from a manuscript of Dr. HAYGARTH'S with bis permission. RULES of SAFETY from CONTAGION, Intended to enable Medical and Clerical Visitors of the Sick to perform their important duties with safety to themselves, are printed by the Society with a view to their being distributed, so that a copy may be put up in every house where there is an infectious fever." "It may be proper previously to observe that an infectious fever, in a small, close, and dirty room, is caught by a very great proportion of mankind; not less than 22 out of 23, or a still higher proportion; but in a large, airy, clean apartment, even putrid fevers are seldom or never infectious. When this poisonous vapour is much diluted with fresh air, it is not noxious. From a large collection, and an attentive consideration, of facts relative to this distemper, have been formed the following Rules. arising from all evacuations. When medical or other duties require a visitor to be placed in these situations of danger, infection may be frequently prevented by a temporary suspension of respiration. 6. Visitors should not go into an infectious chamber with an empty stomach; and, in doubtful circumstances, on coming out, they should blow from the nose, and spit from the mouth, any infectious poison, which may have been drawn in by the breath, and may adhere to those passages.-Jan. 23d, 1804." Heads of a Plan for the Extermination of Infectious Fevers. Infectious fevers occasion much misery and mortality among mankind: they produce the greatest wretchedness in poor families; but persons in all ranks of life are in some degree exposed to the danger. This fatal pestilence is most destructive in large towns, but it often spreads in country villages for months and even years together. The intelligent and benevolent inhabitants of any place may, however, "1. As safety from danger entirely with ease and certainty, preserve their depends on cleanliness and fresh air, poor neighbours and themselves from inthe room-door of a patient ill of an infectious fevers, and all their calamitous fectious fever, especially in the habitations of the poor, should never be shut; a window in it during the day ought to be frequently opened. In bad cases, a current of air, between a window and door both wide open, may be proper: if the air be very cold or damp, the curtains of the patient's bed may be drawn close during this ventilation, should peculiar circumstances require such caution. These regulations would be highly useful, both to the patient and nurses; but are particularly important, previous to the arrival of any visitor. "2. The bed-curtains should never be close drawn round the patient; but only on the side next the light, so as to shade the face: except while there is a current of air between a window and door. "3. Dirty clothes, utensils, &c. should be frequently changed, immediately immersed in cold water, and washed clean. "4. All discharges from the patient should be instantly removed. The floor near the patient's bed should be rubbed clean every day with a wet mop, or cloth. "5. The air in a sick room has, at the same time, a more infectious quality in some parts than in others. Visitors and attendants should avoid the current of the patient's breath, the air which ascends from his body, especially if the bed curtains be closed, and the vapour GENT. MAG. July, 1818. consequences, by forming themselves into a Society, and by providing a commodious house, or wards for the reception of such patients, and by carrying into effect the following REGULATIONS: "I. Let a reward of one shilling be given to the person who brings the first information to the society, that an infectious fever has attacked any family: let this reward be increased to two shillings, if the intelligence be given within three days after the fever first began in the family. "II. Let the patient, who is ill of the fever, be removed to the hospital on the day when such information is given. He must be carried in a sedan chair of a peculiar colour, to be employed solely for this purpose, with a moveable linen lining, which is always to be taken out and shaken in the fresh air after it has been used, and to be frequently washed: let the sedan be constructed in such a manner, as to lean backward in various degrees, so that the patients may lie in a recumbent, or half recumbent posture, as may best suit their strength. A main purpose of the society will be to remove from the infectious house the first patient who is attacked; and as soon as possible. "III. The house, whence the patient is removed to the fever-ward, must be immediately cleansed; and all the dirty clothes, clothes, utensils, &c. be immersed in cold water. When the clothes are wrung out of it, they must be exchanged for a time with clean secondhand clothes, as a shirt for a shirt, a sheet for a sheet, &c. to be supplied by the charitable society. Every box, drawer, &c. in the infectious house must be emptied and cleansed:-the floor must be swept clean, and then rubbed with a wet cloth or mop; fresh air must be admitted so as to pass through the chamber between a door and a window*; the walls must be washed clean where bedaubed with contagious dirt. "IV. The clothes received from these poor people, wrung out of the cold water, must be again washed in soap and warm water; that, when patched and cleaned, they may be again employed. "V. A medical INSPECTOR should be appointed to see these regulations executed, at a competent salary; together with certain rewards according to the success of his measures:-he should be entitled to a reward of for each family which has been preserved from infection by his attention, when one in it had been attacked by the fever. "VI. Each poor family, whose house has been cleansed as here directed (according to a certificate from the inspector, which is to specify every circumstance above mentioned in the 3d regulation) shall be intitled to a reward of and, if the remainder of the family continue uninfected for six weeks after the first fever-patient has been removed to the hospital, the said family must be intitled to a farther reward of The inspector shall give the family a promissory note, or a certificate, for this purpose. "VII. The inspector must keep a register of infectious fevers, upon the same plan as was executed with success, for six years, by the inspector of the Small Pox Society at Chester:-in which is entered, in separate columns of a table, 1st, the patient's name; 2d, street; 3d, occupation; 4th, when the fever began; 5th, number ill of fever in each family; 6th, date of information; 7th, date of removal; 8th, whence infected; 9th, when washed and aired; 10th, family infected, or preserved; 11th, regulations observed or gressed. trans * Might not a leaden casement or other cheap contrivance be fixed in the top of a window of each room, at the expense of the landlord, or society, to supply fresh air, which is most essential for the prevention of infection? "VIII. Let a copy of these REGULATIONS be printed upon one page, and be placed in every house infected by a fever, and in every house in the neighbourhood, which is in danger of receiving the infection. By such instructions, poor people will be enabled to give timely notice to the society, so as to avert the dreadful calamities which they would otherwise suffer. "The benefit of these regulations to preserve poor families from all the variety of wretchedness occasioned by infec tious fevers, will be exactly in proportion to the spirit and punctuality with which they are executed. "The zealous, judicious, and successful exertions of the Board of Health at Manchester, in 1796, afforded the fullest confirmation of the principles_and_the practical conclusions, which Dr. Haygarth has detailed in his letter, lately published and addressed to Dr. Percival, on the prevention of infectious fevers, p. 108, 109, 110. The facts there stated prove, beyond all controversy, that the regulations above recommended, if faithfully executed, will suppress infectious fevers in a most wonderful manner. But it is manifest that fever-wards, for the reception of poor people, unaided by measures to purify their habitations, will an swer this purpose in a very imperfect manner.—7th May, 1802." In Chester, as in most large towns, the Typhous fever had long prevailed, but was generally confined to the dwellings of the poor. In 1783, it was communicated, and was fatal to some persons of higher rank, which occasioned a general alarm of danger, as all were then manifestly exposed to it. On that occasion I proposed to receive patients ill of Typhus into separate wards of the Chester Infirmary, and to cleanse their houses from all contagious dirt. This measure has been accomplished with complete success. In this manner, Typhus has been exterminated from Chester for 35 years, though frequently, as above explained, brought thither by persons infected in other places. In October 1817, Dr. Edward Percival visited the fever wards of the Chester Infirmary, where he found only two patients, and one of them was ill of an inflammation of the lungs. He asked whether there were not usually more patients in these wards, and was answered in the negative. Many towns have followed the example of Chester, in establishing fever hospitals; but, so far as I know, know, few or none of them bave completely executed the incomparably more important regulations of cleansing the dwellings of poor patients from contagious dirt. In towns where even fever hospitals themselves are not kept clean, nor supplied with fresh air, no hope whatever can be entertained that the infectious habitations of the lower orders of people will receive the benefit of the proposed salutary purification. A most intelligent medical friend of mine viewed the fever hospital at Liver pool in October 1817, and found it so close, and smelled so offensively, as to express to me, repeatedly, his apprehensions, that he had, by that visit, exposed himself to much danger of infection. The newspapers have since announced that a physician of this hospital, Dr. Barrow, had caught and died of a typhous fever. Dr. Carson, the other physician of this hospital, has, since that time, had a fever from which he recovered. In the same town Dr. Goldsmith and Mr. Carter, surgeon apothecary to the dispensary, have lately died of the typhous fever. These events prove how truly and how accurately an estimate of danger from infection, had been formed by my medical friend. In a Dublin hospital, containing many more patients ill of Typhus, he had for five years attended his daily duty, as a physician, without any injury or apprehension of danger, merely by requiring strict attention to cleanliBess and ventilation. The Rules and Regulations, above given, do not depend upon conjecture, but on much more convincing evidence than most other kinds of medical and philosophical knowledge. They are founded upon facts, observed by myself, and confirmed by the testimony of many impartial and intelligent medical witnesses; and upon the uniformity of the laws by which contagion spreads among mankind. Upon these data calculations are instituted to prove the truth of these practical principles to the high probability of hundreds, indeed many hundreds to one. These facts, and conclusions deduced from them, were published in my "Letter to Thomas Percival, M. D. F.R.S. &c. of Manchester, on the prevention of infectious fever, in 1801." Subsequent facts have occurred to me, which confirm the same doctrine, even to demonstration, as, if health remain, I purpose to explain. Being fully convinced that these RULES and REGULATIONS might save inany lives, and preserve the lower orders of people from great wretchedness, I anxiously request that they may be copied by Editors of Newspapers, and other periodical publications, which, by the general diffusion of knowledge, are become so highly useful and honourable to this age and nation. On the probable ILLUSTRATION of To illustrate the SCRIPTURES by the accounts given of PALESTINE, The decrees made in the EAST, are first written by the party himself: the Magistrate only authenticates or annuls them. "When an ARAB," says D'ARVIEUX, "wants a favour from the Emir, the way is to apply to the Secretary, who draws it up in the words of the petitioner. If the Emir granted his request, he printed his seal upon it; if not, he returned it torn." Sir JOHN CHARDIN, speaking of Persia, adds; "the first Minister, or he whose office it is, writes on the side of it, according to the King's will." (This, by the bye, is our le roi le veut.)" And thereupon it is transmitted to the Secretary, who draws up the order in form." Thus the person who draws up the order at first, expresses the will of the party in an offi cial way. The superior only passes or rejects it *. Generally the Orientals, in sealing letters, use ink instead of wax. Their seals have no figure engraved upon them; but a simple inscription, or a curiously involved cypher; and they stamp this upon paper. Hence our Monographs. They have a way of thickening the ink into a sort of paste, or with sticks of Indian ink, which is the best paste. This explains the passage in the REVELATIONS; wherein St. JOHN describes " an Angel with the seal of the living God, and therewith multitudes were sealed in their foreheads." In their private conveyances, there were always duplicates. One writing was sealed with solemnity, and was not to be made use of on common occasions. The other, called the open one, might be perused, or made use of at pleasure. This was either a copy of the sealed deed, or else a certificate of the witnesses in whose presence the deed of purchase was signed, that is, sealed. Sir JOHN CHARDIN says: "after a contract is made, the original remaining with the party, a copy of it is made, counter-signed by the Notary only. This is shewn whenever it is required: but they never exhibit the other." In the EAST, they roll their papers, and do not fold them; because their paper is apt to fret. The Egyptian papyrus was much made use of; the brittle nature of which made it proper to roll up their books, &c. This practice was continued (as is always the case) long after they came to use other materials, which might safely be treated in a different manner. Many of the fine MSS. discovered in the ruins of HERCULANEUM, are in rolls; so are also those which have been taken out of the ancient Egyp tian Mummies. Numbers of the finest Persian and Arabian manuscripts are written upon a kind of thin pasteboard; and being jointed at the back and front, fold up like pattern-cards. As the ancient Jews wrote like the Egyptians on linen, they must have used ink (or paint) laid on with hairpencils, fixed in canes or reeds; their paper not bearing such pens as ours, But the style or graver was made use of to cut letters on wood, metal, and slate, or stone. The Eastern manuscripts are very highly ornamented; they are exquisitely penned, and magnificently bound. Those of history are illustrated with many representations in miniature. The expression which has since passed into a proverb with us of " golden verses"-or 66 verses worthy to be represented in letters of gold," this is taken from the Eastern practice of writing in such letters every thing of superior excellence. The greater part of the books, says MAILLET, of the royal Mohammedan library in Egypt (afterwards destroyed by SALADINE) were written in letters of gold, such as the Turks and Arabs, even of our time, make use of in the titles of their books. And a little after, speaking of the ignorance of the modern Egyptians as to the burnishing of gold, so that their gilding has nothing of the ancient splendour, he adds, that to make up for this defect they have preserved the art of making gold liquid and fit for ink. The Editor of HARMER here takes notice of a copy of the Koran then lying before him; which besides the most splendid illuminations, has the beginning and end, (as well as on each leaf the first, middle and last line of every page) written in these letters of gold. Many other copies have their title-page, and the titles of the chapters, written in golden letters; and some in blue and red letters, intermixed with the golden * Clergymen, who were anciently our only clerks, and who were acquainted with the Eastern forms through the medium of the Papal ones, following the constitutions of the German and Greek Empire, have preserved, with some transposition, the above form in the original draughts of FIANTS, and ACTS of PARLIAMENT. ,, Perhaps the true principle of the BENEFIT of CLERGY has been derived to us through the same channel. The kings of Persia, despotic as they were, could not pardon. In Persia the law must take its course. And this, BARRINGTON observes, may be what is meant by Scripture in the passage which speaks of "the laws of the Medes and Persians altering not.' Nor is it any exception to the rule, that no man was ever punished for the FIRST offence. But this is not the only particular in which that observation may be made of the Orientals. It is generally true of them in all ages, that in their institutions, customs, and character, they are fixed and unalterable. ones, |