92 BRITISH PHYSICIANS. remained in the'meti-opolis till about the middle of Jmie, 1665, about which time the plague raged so cruelly, that in the space of seven days it destroyed as many thousands in London. Then, being en- dangered by the near approach of the pestilence to his own house, at length, by the persuasion of friends, he accompanied the vast numbers of those that left the city, and removed liis family some miles from thence. The scene he left beliind was of this appalling description : — In the months of August and Sep- tember, three, four, or five thousand died in a week : once eight thousand. In some houses carcases lay waiting for burial ; and in others, persons in their last agonies. In one room were heard dying groans, in another the ravings of delirium, and not far off relations and friends bewailing their loss, and the dismal prospect of their own departure. Some of the infected ran about staggering like drunken men, and fell and expired in the sti'eets ; others lay comatose, never to be awakened but by the last trump ; others fell dead in the market while bming necessaries for the support of life ; the divine was taken in the exercise of his priestly office, and physicians found no safety in their own antidotes, but died administering them to others. It was not uncommon to see an inheritance pass successively to three or four heirs in as many days. The number of sextons was not sufficient to bury the dead. The bells seemed hoarse with continued tolhng, and at last ceased. The burial places could not hold the dead : they were thrown into large pits dug in waste gi'ounds, in heaps of thirty or forty together. It often happened that those
