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Ludovico Settala, a physician distinguished so long ago as during

the former plague, announced to the Tribunal of Health, by the

20th of October, that the contagion had indisputably appeared at

Lecco; but no measures were taken upon this report. Further

notices of a like import induced them to despatch a commissioner,

with a physician of Como, who, most unaccountably, upon the

report of an old barber of Bellano, announced that the prevailing

disease arose merely from the autumnal exhalation from the

marshes, aggravated by the sufferings caused by the passage of

the German troops.

Meanwhile, further intelligence of the new disease, and of the

number of deaths, arriving from all parts, two commissioners were

sent to examine the places where it had appeared, and, if

necessary, to use precautions to prevent its increase. The

scourge had already spread to such an extent, as to leave no

doubt of its character.