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upon their spirits insensibly; and they seeing little of it till they fell

into swooning; and faintings; and death without pain。

I am not physician enough to enter into the particular reasons and

manner of these differing effects of one and the same distemper; and

of its differing operation in several bodies; nor is it my business here

to record the observations which I really made; because the doctors

themselves have done that part much more effectually than I can do;

and because my opinion may in some things differ from theirs。  I am

only relating what I know; or have heard; or believe of the particular

cases; and what fell within the compass of my view; and the different

nature of the infection as it appeared in the particular cases which I

have related; but this may be added too: that though the former sort of

those cases; namely; those openly visited; were the worst for

themselves as to pain … I mean those that had such fevers; vomitings;

headaches; pains; and swellings; because they died in such a dreadful

manner … yet the latter had the worst state of the disease; for in the

former they frequently recovered; especially if the swellings broke;

but the latter was inevitable death; no cure; no hell); could be

possible; nothing could follow but death。  And it was worse also to

others; because; as above; it secretly and unperceived by others or by

themselves; communicated death to those they conversed with; the

penetrating poison insinuating itself into their blood in a manner

which it is impossible to describe; or indeed conceive。



This infecting and being infected without so much as its being

known to either person is evident from two sorts of cases which

frequently happened at that time; and there is hardly anybody living

who was in London during the infection but must have known several

of the cases of both sorts。



(1) Fathers and mothers have gone about as if they had been well;

and have believed themselves to be so; till they have insensibly

infected and been the destruction of their whole families; which they

would have been far from doing if they had the least apprehensions of

their being unsound and dangerous themselves。  A family; whose story

I have heard; was thus infected by the father; and the distemper began

to appear upon some of them even before he found it upon himself。

But searching more narrowly; it appeared he had been affected some

time; and as soon as he found that his family had been poisoned by

himself he went distracted; and would have laid violent hands upon

himself; but was kept from that by those who looked to him; and in a

few days died。



(2) The other particular is; that many people having been well to the

best of their own judgement; or by the best observation which they

could make of themselves for several days; and only finding a decay

of appetite; or a light sickness upon their stomachs; nay; some whose

appetite has been strong; and even craving; and only a light pain in

their heads; have sent for physicians to know what ailed them; and

have been found; to their great surprise; at the brink of death: the

tokens upon them; or the plague grown up to an incurable height。



It was very sad to reflect how such a person as this last mentioned

above had been a walking destroyer perhaps for a week or a fortnight

before that; how he had ruined those that he would have hazarded his

life to save; and had been breathing death upon them; even perhaps in

his tender kissing and embracings of his own children。  Yet thus

certainly it was; and often has been; and I could give many particular

cases where it has been so。  If then the blow is thus insensibly striking

… if the arrow flies thus unseen; and cannot be discovered … to what

purpose are all the schemes for shutting up or removing the sick

people?  Those schemes cannot take place but upon those that appear

to be sick; or to be infected; whereas there are among them at the

same time thousands of people who seem to be well; but are all that

while carrying death with them into all companies which they come into。



This frequently puzzled our physicians; and especially the

apothecaries and surgeons; who knew not how to discover the sick

from the sound; they all allowed that it was really so; that many

people had the plague in their very blood; and preying upon their

spirits; and were in themselves but walking putrefied carcases whose

breath was infectious and their sweat poison; and yet were as well to

look on as other people; and even knew it not themselves; I say; they

all allowed that it was really true in fact; but they knew not how to

propose a discovery。



My friend Dr Heath was of opinion that it might be known by the

smell of their breath; but then; as he said; who durst smell to that

breath for his information? since; to know it; he must draw the stench

of the plague up into his own brain; in order to distinguish the smell!

I have heard it was the opinion of others that it might be distinguished

by the party's breathing upon a piece of glass; where; the breath

condensing; there might living creatures be seen by a microscope; of

strange; monstrous; and frightful shapes; such as dragons; snakes;

serpents; and devils; horrible to behold。  But this I very much question

the truth of; and we had no microscopes at that time; as I remember;

to make the experiment with。



It was the opinion also of another learned man; that the breath of

such a person would poison and instantly kill a bird; not only a small

bird; but even a cock or hen; and that; if it did not immediately kill the

latter; it would cause them to be roupy; as they call it; particularly that

if they had laid any eggs at any time; they would be all rotten。  But

those are opinions which I never found supported by any experiments;

or heard of others that had seen it; so I leave them as I find them;

only with this remark; namely; that I think the probabilities are

very strong for them。



Some have proposed that such persons should breathe hard upon

warm water; and that they would leave an unusual scum upon it; or

upon several other things; especially such as are of a glutinous

substance and are apt to receive a scum and support it。



But from the whole I found that the nature of this contagion was

such that it was impossible to discover it at all; or to prevent its

spreading from one to another by any human skill。



Here was indeed one difficulty which I could never thoroughly get

over to this time; and which there is but one way of answering that I

know of; and it is this; viz。; the first person that died of the plague was

on December 20; or thereabouts; 1664; and in or about long Acre;

whence the first person had the infection was generally said to be from

a parcel of silks imported from Holland; and first opened in that house。



But after this we heard no more of any person dying of the plague;

or of the distemper being in that place; till the 9th of February; which

was about seven weeks after; and then one more was buried out of the

same house。  Then it was hushed; and we were perfectly easy as to the

public for a great while; for there were no more entered in the weekly

bill to be dead of the plague till the 22nd of April; when there was two

more buried; not out of the same house; but out of the same street;

and; as near as I can remember; it was out of the next house to the

first。  This was nine weeks asunder; and after this we had no more till

a fortnight; and then it broke out in several streets and spread every

way。  Now the question seems to lie thus: Where lay the seeds of the

infection all this while?  How came it to stop so long; and not stop any

longer?  Either the distemper did not come immediately by contagion

from body to body; or; if it did; then a body may be capable to

continue infected without the disease discovering itself many days;

nay; weeks together; even not a quarantine of days only; but

soixantine; n

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