Streets till they fell down Dead, not that they were ſuddenly ſtruck with the Diſtemper, as with a Bullet that kill’d with the Stroke, but that they really had the Infection in their Blood long before, only, that, as it prey’d ſecretly on the Vitals, it appear’d not till it ſeiz’d the Heart with a mortal Power, and the Patient died in a Moment, as with a ſudden Fainting, or an Apoplectick Fit.
I know that ſome, even of our Phyſicians, thought, for a time, that thoſe People that ſo died in the Streets, were ſeiz’d but that Moment they fell, as if they had been touch’d by a Stroke from Heaven, as Men are kill’d by a flaſh of Lightning; but they found Reaſon to alter their Opinion afterward; for upon examining the Bodies of ſuch after they were Dead, they always either had Tokens upon them, or other evident Proofs of the Diſtemper having been longer upon them, than they had otherwiſe expected.
This often was the Reaſon that, as I have ſaid, we, that were Examiners, were not able to come at the Knowledge of the Infection being enter’d into a Houſe, till it was too late to ſhut it up; and ſometimes not till the People that were left, were all Dead. In Petticoat-Lane two Houſes together were infected, and ſeveral People ſick; but the Diftemper was ſo well conceal’d, the Examiner, who was my Neighbour, got no Knowledge of it, till Notice was ſent him that the People were all Dead, and that the Carts ſhould call there to fetch them away. The two Heads of the Families concerted their Meaſures, and ſo order’d their Matters, as that when the Examiner was in the Neighbourhood, they appeared generally one at a time, and anſwered, that is, lied for one another, or got ſome of the Neighbourhood to ſay they were all in Health, and perhaps knew no better, till Death making it impoſſible to keep it any longer as a Secret, the dead-Carts were call’d in the Night, the Houſes to both, and ſo it became
