the penetrating Poiſon inſinuating it ſelf into their Blood in a Manner, which it is impoſſible to deſcribe, or indeed conceive.
This infecting and being infected, without ſo much as its being known to either Perſon, is evident from two Sorts of Caſes, which frequently happened at that Time; and there is hardly any Body living who was in London during the Infection, but muſt have known ſeveral of the Caſes of both Sorts.
1. Fathers and Mothers have gone about as if they had been well, and have believ’d themſelves to be ſo, till they have inſenſibly infected, and been the Deſtruction of their whole Families: Which they would have been far from doing, if they had the leaſt Apprehenſions of their being unſound and dangerous themſelves. A Family, whoſe Story I have heard, was thus infected by the Father, and the Diſtemper began to appear upon ſome of them, even before he found it upon himſelf; but ſearching more narrowly, it appear’d he had been infected ſome Time, and as ſoon as he found that his Family had been poiſon’d by himſelf, he went diſtracted, and would have laid violent Hands upon himſelf, but was kept from that by thoſe who look’d to him, and in a few Days died.
2. The other Particular is, that many People having been well to the beſt of their own Judgment, or by the beſt Obſervation which they could make of themſelves for ſeveral Days, and only finding a Decay of Appetite, or a light Sickneſs upon their Stomachs; nay, ſome whoſe Appetite has been ſtrong, and even craving, and only a light Pain in their Heads; have ſent for Phyſicians to know what ail’d them, and have been found to their great Surprize, at the brink of Death, the Tokens upon them, or the Plague grown up to an incurable Height.
