Page:A Journal of the Plague Year (1722).djvu/145

 Means out of the Place; becauſe their Miſery if infected, will ſo much exceed all other Peoples.

I could tell here diſmal Stories of living Infants being found ſucking the Breaſts of their Mothers, or Nurſes, after they have been dead of the Plague. Of a Mother, in the Pariſh where I liv’d, who having a Child that was not well, ſent for an Apothecary to View the Child, and when he came, as the Relation goes, was giving the Child ſuck at her Breaſt, and to all Appearance, was her ſelf very well: But when the Apothecary came cloſe to her, he ſaw the Tokens upon that Breaſt, with which ſhe was ſuckling the Child. He was ſurpriz’d enough to be ſure; but not willing to fright the poor Woman too much, he deſired ſhe would give the Child into his Hand; ſo he takes the Child, and going to a Cradle in the Room lays it in, and opening its Cloths, found the Tokens upon the Child too, and both dy’d before he cou’d get Home, to fend a preventative Medicine to the Father of the Child, to whom he had told their Condition; whether the Child infected the Nurſe-Mother, or the Mother the Child was not certain, but the laſt the moſt likely.

Likewiſe of a Child brought Home to the Parents from a Nurſe that had dy’d of the Plague; yet, the tender Mother would not refuſe to take in her Child, and lay’d it in her Boſom, by which ſhe was infected, and dy’d with the Child in her Arms dead alſo. It would make the hardeſt Heart move at the Inſtances that were frequently found of tender Mothers, tending and watching with their dear Children, and even dying before them, and ſometimes taking the Diſtemper from them, and dying when the Child, for whom the affectionate Heart had been ſacrified, has got over it and eſcap’d.

The like of a Tradeſman in Eaſt-Smith-field, whoſe Wife was big with Child of her firſt Child, and fell in Labour, having the Plague upon her: He cou'd neither get Midwife to aſſiſt her, or Nurſe to tend