The Plague at Marseilles Consider'd

Reports from physicians in southern France give Richard Bradley's short treatise its urgency. Writing as infection spreads around Marseilles, he considers how Britain might protect its people and trading ports. The opening brings together accounts of the city's crisis, the restoration of supplies and hospitals, and precautions for ships, passengers and imported goods. It also draws comparisons with the London plague of 1665, using observations preserved in a physician's manuscript.

The Plague at Marseilles Consider'd combines reports of events with arguments about the causes of contagion. Bradley discusses the possible influence of insects, merchandise, weather and seasonal warmth. A later passage turns to disease among cattle, recording another physician's explanations, proposed remedies and advice on keeping stalls and fodder clean. Readers interested in the history of medicine can see public protection, trade and theories of nature brought together in an early eighteenth-century response to a spreading illness.