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They tell you, if these causes may

Produce the plague in Africa,

It would, to common sense, appear

They might effect the fever here.

That true philosophy expects

From all like causes like effects;

For Nature never play’d a prank

To cheat us, like a mountebank.

But these dull dolts don’t understand

That in “Columbia’s happy land,”

Nature, for sake of “Freedom’s cause,”

Will set aside her general laws.

Said yellow fever can endure

Nothing offensive or impure,

Bad water or mephitic air

Or dead cats in a thoroughfare.

Therefore, good cits, in sultry weather

Collect your dirtiness together,

And then contrive to lodge it pretty

Nigh to the centre of the city.

The fever, meeting such a mound,

Will turn about and quit the ground,

And leave the fortunate dirt-protected

Inhabitants, quite uninfected.

Filth, on earth’s surface, it is clear,

Its like attracts from th’ atmosphere,

And always leaves a pure vicinity,

By laws of chemical affinity.[37]

Our citizens, their next resource

Should cause a “social intercourse,”