have been preſent Death, to have gone into ſome Houſes: The very buryers of the Dead, who were the hardnedeſt Creatures in Town, were ſometimes beaten back, and ſo terrify'd, that they durſt not go into Houſes, where the whole Families were ſwept away together, and where the Circumſtances were more particularly horrible as ſome were; but this was indeed, at the firſt Heat of the Diſtemper.
Time enur'd them to it all; and they ventured every where afterwards, without Heſitation, as I Occaſion to mention at large hereafter.
I am ſuppoſing now, the Plague to be begun, as I have ſaid, and that the Magiſtrates begun to take the Condition of the People, into their ſerious Conſideration; what they did as to the Regulation of the Inhabitants, and of infected Families. I ſhall ſpeak to by it ſelf; but as to the Affair of Health, it is proper to mention it here, that having ſeen the fooliſh Humour of the People, in running after Quacks, and Mountebanks, Wizards, and Fortunes-tellers, which they did as above, even to Madneſs. The Lord Mayor, a very ſober and religious Gentleman appointed Phyſicians and Surgeons for Relief of the poor; I mean, the diſeaſed poor; and in particular, order'd the College of Phyſicians to publiſh Directions for cheap Remedies, for the Poor, in all the Circumſtances of the Diſtemper. This indeed was one of the moſt charitable and judicious Things that could be done at that Time; for this drove the People from haunting the Doors of every Diſperſer of Bills and from taking down blindly, and without Conſideration, Poiſon for Phyſick, and Death inſtead of Life.
This Direction of the Phyſicians was done by a Conſultation of the whole College, and as it was particularly calculated for the uſe of the Poor; and for cheap Medicines it was made publick,ſo
