ſo that every Body might ſee it; and Copies were given gratis to all that deſired it: But as it is publick, and to be ſeen on all Occaſions, I need not give the Reader of this, the Trouble of it.
I ſhall not be ſuppoſed to leſſen the Authority or Capacity of the Phyſicians, when, I ſay, that the Violence of the Diſtemper, when it came to its Extremity, was like the Fire the next Year, The Fire which conſumed what the Plague could not touch, defy'd all the Application of Remedies; the Fire Engines were broken, the Buckets thrown away; and the Power of Man was baffled, and brought to an End; ſo the Plague defied all Medicince; the very Phyſicians were ſeized with it, with their Preſervatives in their Mouths; and Men went about preſcribing to others and telling them what to do, till the Tokens were upon them, and they dropt down dead, deſtroyed by that very Enemy, they directed others to oppoſe. This was the Caſe of ſeveral Phyſicians, even ſome of them the moſt eminent; and of ſeveral of the moſt skilful Surgeons; Abundance of Quacks too died, who had the Folly to truſt to their own Medicines, which they muſt needs be conſcious to themſelves, were good for nothing; and who rather ought, like other Sorts of Thieves, to have run away, ſenſible of their Guilt, from the Juſtice that they could not but expect ſhould puniſh them, as they knew they had deſerved.
Not that it is any Derogation from the Labour, or Application of the Phyſicans, to ſay, they fell in the common Calamity; nor is it ſo intended by me; it rather is to their Praiſe, that they ventured their Lives ſo far as even to loſe them in the Service of Mankind; They endeavoured, to do good, and to ſave the Lives of others, Butwe
