Page:A Journal of the Plague Year (1722).djvu/267

 will ſee many more People recover than uſed to do; for tho’ a vaſt Multitude are now every where infected, and as many every Day fall ſick; yet there will not ſo many die as there did, for the Malignity of the Diſtemper is abated, adding, that he began now to hope, nay more than hope, that the Infection had paſs‘d its Criſis,and was going off; and accordingly ſo it was, for the next Week being, as I ſaid, the laſt in September, the Bill decreaſed almoſt two Thouſand. It is true, the Plague was ſtill at a frightful Height, and the next Bill was no leſs than 6460, and the next to that 5720; but ſtill my Friend’s Obſervation was juſt, and it did appear the People did recover faſter, and more in Number, than they uſed to do; and indeed if it had not been ſo, what had been the Condition of the City of London? for according to my Friend there were not fewer than ſixty Thouſand People at that Time infected, whereof, as above, 20477 died,and near 40000 recovered; whereas had it been as it was before, Fifty thouſand of that Number would very probably have died, if not more, and 50000 more would have ſickned; for in a Word, the whole Maſs of People began to ſicken, and it look’d as if none would eſcape.

But this Remark of my Friend’s appear’d more evident in a few Weeks more; for the Decreaſe went on, and another Week in October it decreas’d 1849. So that the Number dead of the Plague was but 2665, and the next Week it decreaſed 1413 more, and yet it was ſeen plainly, that there was abundance of People ſick, nay abundance more than ordinary, and abundance fell ſick every Day, but (as above ) the Malignity of the Diſeaſe abated.

Such is the precipitant Diſpoſition of our People, whether it is ſo or not all over the World, that’s none of my particular Buſineſs to enquire; but I ſaw it apparently here, that as upon the firſt