ABSTRACT
Among the earliest organised efforts against Plague were those taken by Venice, a great centre of maritime trade. The action taken against Plague in these earlier years was an amplification of action suggested by the existent precedent of leprosy. An Experimental Relation of the Plague, which was printed for the first time in the Transactions of the Epidemiological Society of London with a preface by Dr. J. F. Payne. A similar course of events was seen earlier in Paris in the epidemic of Plague in 1531-1533. The theory of contagion was fully accepted. As in London at a later period, a wooden cross was placed over each infected house; and everyone leaving this house was obliged to hold in his hand a rod or staff of white colour. In The Gold Headed Cane, referring to the freedom of London from plague for over half a century.
