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AN AUTHENTICK
ACCOUNT
OF THE
Measures and Precautions
USED AT
VENICE,
BY THE
Magistrate of the Office of Health,
FOR THE
PRESERVATION of the Publick Health.

LONDON:
Printed by Edward Owen in Warwick-Lane. 1752.

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[3]

AN AUTHENTICK
ACCOUNT
OF
The Measures and Precautions usedat VENICE, by the Magistrate of theOffice of Health, for the Preservation of thePublick Health.

It is now the Third Century since the followingRegulation took its Rise.

The Office of Health is furnished withsuch ample Power and Authority, as makes itat once useful and respectable; it is administeredby the Subjects of the Republick most eminent for theirPrudence, Dignity and Talents; it is furnished with Abundanceof Officers, a few of whom are employed in the Distributionof Orders, and the rest in their Execution. In describing[4]occasionally these different Branches, much Lightwill be let in upon the Subject.

Experience has shewn, that in the Ottoman Dominions thePlague is never utterly extinct: Hence it is an immutableLaw with the Magistrate of the Office of Health, to considerthe whole Extent of the Ottoman Dominions, and every Statedependent on it, as always to be suspected to be in an infectedCondition, to such a Degree, as not to receive, in any Partof the Dominions of the Republick, either confining to orcommercing with them, any Persons, Merchandizes, Animals,or any other Thing coming from thence, without the necessaryInspection of the Office of Health, and the previous Purifications.

To explain myself, I will suppose that a suspected Ship,coming from some Scale of the Levant, presents itself at theMouth of these Ports, and, by describing the Conduct that isobserved towards it, I shall shew the Rules that are practisedwith regard to every Vessel, coming from any Part of theWorld, that is either infected, or suspected to be so.

No Vessel can enter these Ports, unless it touches at Istria,and takes a Pilot on Board, or unless, on approaching to thePorts, it wait for the Towers of the Admiral to tow it up.These Officers do not immediately depend upon the Magistrate,but are obliged, however, not to neglect any of his Rules,nor to mix with any Vessel, even free or cleared, unless by theMagistrate’s Leave; to make use of tarred Cables, or Cablesof ...