ſeveral times took Venice Treacle and a ſound Sweat upon it, and thought my ſelf as well fortified againſt the Infection as any one could be fortifyed by the Power of Phyſic.
As for Quackery and Mountebank, of which the Town was ſo full, I liſtened to none of them, and have obſerv’d often ſince with ſome Wonder, that for two Years after the Plague, I ſcarcely ſaw or heard of one of them about Town. Some fancied they were all ſwept away in the Infection to a Man, and were for calling it a particular Mark of God’s Vengeance upon them, for leading the poor People into the Pit of Deſtruction, merely for the Lucre of a little Money they got by them; but I cannot go that Length neither; that Abundance of them died is certain, many of them came within the Reach of my own Knowledge; but that all of them were ſwept off I much queſtion; I believe rather, they fled into the Country, and tryed their Practices upon the People there, who were in Apprehenſion of the Infection, before it came among them.
This however is certain, not a Man of them appear’d for a great while in or about London; there were indeed ſeveral Doctors, who publiſhed Bills, recommending their ſeveral phyſical Preparations for cleanſing the Body, as they call it, after the Plague, and need, as they ſaid, for ſuch People to take, who had been viſited and had been cur’d; whereas I muſt own, I believe that it was the Opinion of the moſt eminent Phyſicians at that time, that the Plague was itſelf a ſufficient Purge; and that thoſe who eſcaped the Infection needed no Phyſic to cleanſe their Bodies of any other things; the running Sores, the Tumors, &c. which were broke and kept open by the Directions of the Phyſicians, having ſufficiently cleanſed them; and that all other Diſtempers and Cauſes of Diſtempers were effectually carried that Way; and as the Phy-
