inftead thereof will promote and fpread the contagion, and befides will expofe the fick to the greatest hardships. It is no fmall part of the mifery that attends this terrible enemy of mankind, that whereas moderate calamities open the hearts of men to compaffion and tenderness, this greatest of evils is found to have the contrary effect. Whether men of wicked minds, through hopes of impunity, at these times of diforder and confufion, give their evil difpofition full fcope, which ordinarily is reftrained by the fear of punishment; or whether it it be, that a conftant view of calamities and diftrefs does fo pervert the minds of men, as to blot out all fentiments of humanity; or whatever elfe be the caufe: certain it is, that at fuch times, when it fhould be expected to fee all men unite in one common endeavour, to moderate the public mifery; quite otherwife, they grow regardless of each other, and barbarities are often practifed, unknown at other times. Accordingly Diemerbroeck informs us, that he himself had often feen these hofpitals committed to the charge of villains, whofe inhumanity has fuffered great numbers to perifh by neglect, and that fometimes they have even fmothered fuch as have been very weak, or have had nauseous ulcers difficult to cure. Infomuch that in many places the fick have chofe to lay themfelves in fields, in the open air, under the flighteft coverings, rather than to fall into the barbarous hands of thofe who have had the management of these hofpitals *.

The rigorous restraints obferved at their lines, are attended alfo with the like inconveniencies. For, by abfolutely denying a paffage to people from infected * Diemerbroeck de pefte, p. 120.

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places,

places, they fubject to the fame common ruin, both from the disease, and from the diforders committed in fuch places, thofe whom their fortunes would otherwife furnish with means of efcaping and this, no doubt, in every free country, must be looked upen as an unjuft infringement of liberty, and a diminution of mens natural rights, not to be allowed.

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Now, under all thefe difficulties, I cannot but with the greatest fatisfaction obferve, that my precepts are well nigh, nay altogether free from them; and yet a proper regard is had to the difenfe. As foon as e ver the fick are grown numerous, I advise, that they be left in their houfes, without any of thofe unmer, ciful restraints heretofore put upon them and the families they belonged to. I might, perhaps, have justly directed, that whenever those who frequent or dwell in an infected house, go abroad, they should be obliged to carry about them a long ftick of fome remarkable colour, or other visible token, by which people may be warned from holding too free converfe with them this being the practice on thefe occafions, as I have heard, in fome places. The removal of the fick from their houfes, I advife only at the beginning, when it will be attended with none of the forementioned inconveniencies; but is what, for the most part, thofe fick fhould themfelves defire. It has hardly ever been known, when the difeafe did not first begin among the poor. Such therefore only will be fubject to this regulation, whofe habitations by the clofenefs of them are in all refpects very incommodious for dileafed perfons. So that my advice chiefly amounts to the giving relief to the poor, who shall fi:f be infected, by removing them into more convenient lodgings

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lodgings than their own, where they fhall be better provided for than at home. And the removal of them will not be attended with that danger it is natural for the unfkilful to apprehend in fo dreadful a dif eafe; because it is every day practifed in the fmailpox, with great fafety. And whereas I have before obferved, that people have often fuffered in the public hospitals by the inhumanity of their attendants; in this cafe, little or nothing of that kind is to be feared for I have propofed this removal of the fick only, at a time, when a long feries of calamities has not yet bred disorders and hardnefs of heart. Nay, it may be reafonably expected that they fhould rather be ufed with the tendereft care, when every one fhall believe the stopping of the diftemper, and confequently their own fafety, to depend upon it. And as this treatment will be both fafe and beneficial to the fick, fo it will be much more evidently for the advantage of the found part of the family, and of those who live near them. For as the poorer fort of people fubfift by their daily labour, no fooner fhall the plague have broke out among them, but the fick families, and all their neighbours likewife, if not relieved by the public, fhall be abandoned to perifh by want, unless the progrefs of the distemper put a shorter period to their lives.

This obfervation, that the plague ufually begins among the poor, was the reafon why I did not make any difference in my directions for removing the fick, in regard to their different fortunes, when I firft gave my thoughts upon this fubject: which, however, to prevent cavils, I have at prefent done; and have fhewn what method ought to be taken, if, by fome unufual

chance,

chance, the plague fhould at the beginning enter a wealthy family. And, in this cafe, I have advised nothing which I would not most readily fubmit to myfelf: for I fhould much rather chufe to be thus removed from my dwelling, with the diftemper upon me to fave my family, than they, by being fhut up with me, fhould be all expofed to perish. And as this way of treating difeafed families is the most compaffionate that can be devifed with any regard to the reftraining the progrefs of the diftemper; fo it is ftill much preferable to what was formerly practifed amongst us on other accounts. For, according to what 1 have advifed, it is only required, to remove fome few families at the beginning of the difeafe: whereas the method of fhutting up houfes was continued through the whole courfe of the fickness. Perhaps the plague, under this management, may not reach half a fccre families: I have given inftances where it has thus been ftopt in one.

What relates to the inclofing infected places with lines, I have fo regulated, that no body can be subjected to any degree of hardship thereby : for I have provided, that free liberty be given to every one that pleafes, to depart from the infected place, without being put to any other difficulty, than the performance of a fhort quarantine of about three weeks, in fome place of fafety. So that no one fhall be compelled to continue in the infected town, whom his cwn circumftances will not confine.

This part of my directions is not fo general as the reft, because fome places are too great to admit of it: which occafioned my propofing it with a restriction *. * In thef: words, Where it can be done.

But

But as this is a great inconvenience to the reft of the country, fo it is far from being any advantage to the place thus left unguarded. For when all who leave an infected place, carry with them certificates of their having fubmitted to fuch quarantine, as may remove all cause of fufpicion, travelling will be much more fafe and commodious, than otherwife it can be. For want of this, when the plague was laft at London, it was difficult to withdraw from it, while the country was every where afraid of ftrangers, and the inns on the roads were unfafe to lodge in for those who travelled from the city; when it could not be known, but infection might be received in them by others come from the fame place.

And from hence it happened, that the plague, when laft in England, though much more moderate, and though it continued not above one year in the city of London, did yet spread itself over a great part of England, getting into Kent, even as far as Dover; into Suffex, Hampshire, Dorsetshire, Effex, Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire, Warwickfhire, Derbyshire, and, to mention no more, as far as Newcastle *.

Thus, as I have examined through the courfe of the following treatise, with all poffible care, into the agreement of my precepts with the nature of the plague; fo I have now confidered how far they can conveniently be put in practice.

But it is time to have done with a fubject by no means agreeable.

I shall therefore conclude all I have to fay upon this matter, with a paper well deferving perufal, which

* Vid. the gazettes of the years 1665 and 1666.

is