Page:A Journal of the Plague Year (1722).djvu/268

 Fright of the Infection, they ſhun’d one another, and fled from one another’s Houſes, and from the City with an unaccountable, and, as I thought, unneceſſary Fright; ſo now upon this Notion ſpreading, (viz.) that the Diſtemper was not ſo catching as formerly, and that if it was catch’d, it was not ſo mortal, and ſeeing abundance of People who really fell ſick, recover again daily, they took to ſuch a precipitant Courage, and grew ſo entirely regardleſs of themſelves, and of the Infection, that they made no more of the Plague than of an ordinary Fever, nor indeed ſo much; they not only went boldly into Company, with thoſe who had Tumours and Carbuncles upon them, that were running, and conſequently contagious, but eat and drank with them, nay into their Houſes to viſit them, and even, as I was told, into their very Chambers where they lay ſick.

This I cou’d not ſee rational; my Friend Doctor Heath allow’d, and it was plain to Experience, that the Diſtemper was as catching as ever, and as many fell ſick, but only he alledg’d, that ſo many of thoſe that fell ſick did not die; but I think that while many did die, and that, at beſt, the Diſtemper it ſelf was very terrible, the Sores and Swellings very tormenting, and the Danger of Death not left out of the Circumſtance of Sickneſs, tho’ not ſo frequent as before; all thoſe things, together with the exceeding Tediouſneſs of the Cure, the Loathſomneſs of the Diſeaſe, and many other Articles, were enough to deter any Man living from a dangerous Mixture with the ſick People,and make them as anxious almoſt to avoid the Infection as before.

Nay there was another Thing which made the meer catching of the Diſtemper frightful, and that was the terrible burning of the Cauſticks, which the Surgeons laid on the Swellings to bring them to break, and to run; without which the Danger