Page:A Journal of the Plague Year (1722).djvu/269

 of Death was very great, even to the laſt; alſo the unſufferable Torment of the Swellings, which tho’ it might not make People raving and diſtracted, as they were before, and as I have given ſeveral Inſtances of already, yet they put the Patient to inexpreſſible Torture; and thoſe that fell into it, tho' they did eſcape with Life, yet they made bitter Complaints of thoſe, that had told them there was no Danger, and ſadly repented their Raſhneſs and Folly in venturing to run into the reach of it.

Nor did this unwary Conduct of the People end here, for a great many that thus caſt off their Cautions ſuffered more deeply ſtill; and tho’ many eſcap’d, yet many died; and at leaſt it had this publick Miſchief attending it, that it made the Decreaſe of Burials ſlower than it would otherwiſe have been; for as this Notion run like Lightning thro’ the City, and People Heads were poſſeſs’d with it, even as ſoon as the firſt great Decreaſe in the Bills appear’d, we found, that the two next Bills did not decreaſe in Proportion; the Reaſon I take to be the Peoples running ſo raſhly into Danger, giving up all their former Cautions, and Care, and all the Shyneſs which they uſed to practiſe; depending that the Sickneſs would not reach them, or that if it did, they ſhould not die. The Phyſicians oppos’d this thoughtleſs Humour of the People with all their Might, and gave out printed Directions, ſpreading them all over the City and Suburbs, adviſing the People to continue reſerv’d,and to uſe ſtill the utmoſt Caution in their ordinary Conduct, notwithſtanding the Decreaſe of the Diſtemper, terrifying them with the Danger of bringing a Relapſe upon the whole City, and telling them how ſuch a Relapſe might be more fatal and dangerous than the whole Viſitation that had been already; with many Arguments and Reaſons to explain and prove that part to them, and which are too long to repeat here.