Page:A Journal of the Plague Year (1722).djvu/96

 Infection generally came into the Houſes of the Citizens, by the Means of their Servants, who, they were obliged to ſend up and down the Streets for Neceſſaries, that is to fſay, for Food,or Phyſick, to Bake-houſes, Brew-houſes, Shops, &c. and who going neceſſarily thro’ the Streets into Shops, Markets, and the like, it was impoſſible, but that they ſhould one way or other, meet with diſtempered people; who conveyed the fatal Breath in to them, and they brought it Home to the Families, to which they belonged. (2.) It was a great Miſtake, that ſuch a great City as this had but one Peſt-Houſe; for had there been, inſtead of one Peſt-Houſe viz. beyond Bunhil-Fields, where, at moſt, they could receive, perhaps, 200 or 300 People; I ſay, had there inſtead of that one been ſeveral Peſt-houſes, every one able to contain a thouſand People without lying two in a Bed, or two Beds in a Room; and had every Maſter of a Family, as ſoon as any Servant eſpecially, had been taken ſick in his Houſe, been obliged to ſend them to the next Peſt-Houſe, if they were willing, as many were, and had the Examiners done the like among the poor People, when any had been ſtricken with the Infection; I ſay, had this been done where the People were willing, (not otherwiſe) and the Houſes not been ſhut, I am perſwaded, and was all the While of that Opinion, that not ſo many, by ſeveral Thouſands, had died, for it was obſerved, and I could give ſeveral Inſtances within the Compaſs of my own Knowledge, where a Servant had been taken ſick, and the Family had either Time to ſend them out, or retire from the Houſe, and leave the ſick Perſon, as I have ſaid above, they had all been preſerved; whereas, when upon one, or more, ſickning in a Family, the Houſe has been ſhut up, the whole Family have periſhed, and the Bearers been oblig’d to go in to fetch out the Dead Bodies, none being able to bring them to the Door; and at laſt none left to do it. (2.) This put it out of Queſtion to me, that the