第77章 Part 6(4)

But there is another way of solving all this difficulty,which I think my own remembrance of the thing will supply;and that is,the fact is not granted -namely,that there died none in those long intervals,viz.,from the 20th of December to the 9th of February,and from thence to the 22nd of April.The weekly bills are the only evidence on the other side,and those bills were not of credit enough,at least with me,to support an hypothesis or determine a question of such importance as this;for it was our received opinion at that time,and I believe upon very good grounds,that the fraud lay in the parish officers,searchers,and persons appointed to give account of the dead,and what diseases they died of;and as people were very loth at first to have the neighbours believe their houses were infected,so they gave money to procure,or otherwise procured,the dead persons to be returned as dying of other distempers;and this I know was practised afterwards in many places,I believe I might say in all places where the distemper came,as will be seen by the vast increase of the numbers placed in the weekly bills under other articles of diseases during the time of the infection.For example,in the months of July and August,when the plague was coming on to its highest pitch,it was very ordinary to have from a thousand to twelve hundred,nay,to almost fifteen hundred a week of other distempers.Not that the numbers of those distempers were really increased to such a degree,but the great number of families and houses where really the infection was,obtained the favour to have their dead be returned of other distempers,to prevent the shutting up their houses.For example:-Dead of other diseases beside the plague -From the 18th July to the 25th 942"25th July "1st August 1004"1st August "8th 1213"8th "15th 1439"15th "22nd 1331"22nd "29th 1394"29th "5th September 1264"5th September to the 12th 1056"12th "19th 1132"19th "26th 927Now it was not doubted but the greatest part of these,or a great part of them,were dead of the plague,but the officers were prevailed with to return them as above,and the numbers of some particular articles of distempers discovered is as follows:-Aug.Aug.Aug.Aug.Aug.Sept.Sept.Sept.

1815222951219to 8to 15to 22to 29to Sept.5to 12to 19to 26Fever 314353348383364332309268Spotted 1741901661651579710165Fever Surfeit 8587749968454936Teeth 90113111133138128121112-------------------------------663743699780727602580481There were several other articles which bore a proportion to these,and which,it is easy to perceive,were increased on the same account,as aged,consumptions,vomitings,imposthumes,gripes,and the like,many of which were not doubted to be infected people;but as it was of the utmost consequence to families not to be known to be infected,if it was possible to avoid it,so they took all the measures they could to have it not believed,and if any died in their houses,to get them returned to the examiners,and by the searchers,as having died of other distempers.

This,I say,will account for the long interval which,as I have said,was between the dying of the first persons that were returned in the bill to be dead of the plague and the time when the distemper spread openly and could not be concealed.

Besides,the weekly bills themselves at that time evidently discover the truth;for,while there was no mention of the plague,and no increase after it had been mentioned,yet it was apparent that there was an increase of those distempers which bordered nearest upon it;for example,there were eight,twelve,seventeen of the spotted fever in a week,when there were none,or but very few,of the plague;whereas before,one,three,or four were the ordinary weekly numbers of that distemper.Likewise,as I observed before,the burials increased weekly in that particular parish and the parishes adjacent more than in any other parish,although there were none set down of the plague;all which tells us,that the infection was handed on,and the succession of the distemper really preserved,though it seemed to us at that time to be ceased,and to come again in a manner surprising.

It might be,also,that the infection might remain in other parts of the same parcel of goods which at first it came in,and which might not be perhaps opened,or at least not fully,or in the clothes of the first infected person;for I cannot think that anybody could be seized with the contagion in a fatal and mortal degree for nine weeks together,and support his state of health so well as even not to discover it to themselves;yet if it were so,the argument is the stronger in favour of what I am saying:namely,that the infection is retained in bodies apparently well,and conveyed from them to those they converse with,while it is known to neither the one nor the other.

Great were the confusions at that time upon this very account,and when people began to be convinced that the infection was received in this surprising manner from persons apparently well,they began to be exceeding shy and jealous of every one that came near them.Once,on a public day,whether a Sabbath-day or not I do not remember,in Aldgate Church,in a pew full of people,on a sudden one fancied she smelt an ill smell.Immediately she fancies the plague was in the pew,whispers her notion or suspicion to the next,then rises and goes out of the pew.It immediately took with the next,and so to them all;and every one of them,and of the two or three adjoining pews,got up and went out of the church,nobody knowing what it was offended them,or from whom.