ſhutting up of Houſes been omitted, and the Sick hurried out of their Dwellings to Peſt-houſes, as ſome propoſed it ſeems, at that time as well as ſince, it would certainly have been much worſe than it was; the very removing the Sick, would have been a ſpreading of the Infection, and the rather becauſe that removing could not effectually clear the Houſe, where the ſick Perſon was, of the Diſtemper, and the reſt of the Family being then left at Liberty would certainly ſpread it among others.
The Methods alſo in private Families, which would have been univerſally uſed to have concealed the Diſtemper, and to have conceal’d the Perſons being ſick, would have been ſuch, that the Diſtemper would ſometimes have ſeiz’d a whole Family before any Viſitors or Examiners could have known of it: On the other hand, the prodigious Numbers which would have been ſick at a time, would have exceeded all the Capacity of publick Peſt-houſes to receive them, or of publick Officers to diſcover and remove them.
This was well conſidered in thoſe Days, and I have heard them talk of it often: The Magiſtrates had enough to do to bring People to ſubmit to having their Houſes ſhut up, and many Ways they deceived the Watchmen, and got out, as I have obſerved: But that Difficulty made it apparent, that they would have found it impracticable to have gone the other way to Work; for they could never have forced the ſick People out of their Beds and out of their Dwellings; it muſt not have been my Lord Mayor’s Officers, but an Army of Officers that muſt have attempted it; and the People, on the other hand, would have been enrag’d and deſperate, and would have kill’d thoſe that ſhould have offered to have meddled with them or with their Children and Relations, whatever had befallen them for it; ſo that they would have made the People, who, as it was, were in the moſt terrible Diſtraction imaginable; I
