by Daniel Defoe
all the infectedpersons were effectually shut in, no sound person could have beeninfected by them, because they could not have come near them.[237] Butthe case was this (and I shall only touch it here); namely, that theinfection was propagated insensibly, and by such persons as were notvisibly infected, who neither knew whom they infected, nor whom theywere infected by.
A house in Whitechapel was shut up for the sake of one infected maid,who had only spots, not the tokens, come out upon her, and recovered;yet these people obtained no liberty to stir, neither for air orexercise, forty days. Want of breath, fear, anger, vexation, and all theother griefs attending such an injurious treatment, cast the mistress ofthe family into a fever; and visitors came into the house and said itwas the plague, though the physicians declared it was not. However, thefamily were obliged to begin their quarantine anew, on the report of thevisitor or examiner, though their former quarantine wanted but a fewdays of being finished. This oppressed them so with anger and grief,and, as before, straitened them also so much as to room, and for want ofbreathing and free air, that most of the family fell sick, one of onedistemper, one of another, chiefly scorbutic[238] ailments, only one aviolent cholic; until, after several prolongings of their confinement,some or other of those that came in with the visitors to inspect thepersons that were ill, in hopes of releasing them, brought the distemperwith them, and infected the whole house; and all or most of them died,not of the plague as really upon them before, but of the plague thatthose people brought them, who should have been careful to haveprotected them from it. And this was a thing which frequently happened,and was indeed one of the worst consequences of shutting houses up.
I had about this time a little hardship put upon me, which I was atfirst greatly afflicted at, and very much disturbed about, though, as itproved, it did not expose me to any disaster; and this was, beingappointed, by the alderman of Portsoken Ward, one of the examiners ofthe houses in the precinct where I lived. We had a large parish, and hadno less than eighteen examiners, as the order called us: the peoplecalled us visitors. I endeavored with all my might to be excused fromsuch an employment, and used many arguments with the alderman's deputyto be excused; particularly, I alleged that I was against shutting uphouses at all, and that it would be very hard to oblige me to be aninstrument in that which was against my judgment, and which I did verilybelieve would not answer the end it was intended for. But all theabatement I could get was only, that whereas the officer was appointedby my lord mayor to continue two months, I should be obliged to hold itbut three weeks, on condition, nevertheless, that I could then get someother sufficient housekeeper to serve the rest of the time for me;which was, in short, but a very small favor, it being very difficult toget any man to accept of such an employment that was fit to be intrustedwith it.
It is true that shutting up of houses had one effect which I am sensiblewas of moment; namely, it confined the distempered people, who wouldotherwise have been both very troublesome and very dangerous in theirrunning about streets with the distemper upon them, which, when theywere delirious, they would have done in a most frightful manner, as,indeed, they began to do at first very much until they were restrained;nay, so very open they were, that the poor would go about and beg atpeople's doors, and say they had the plague upon them, and beg rags fortheir sores, or both, or anything that delirious nature happened tothink of.
A poor unhappy gentlewoman, a substantial citizen's wife, was, if thestory be true, murdered by one of these creatures in Aldersgate Street,or that way. He was going along the street, raving mad, to be sure, andsinging. The people only said he was drunk; but he himself said he hadthe plague upon him, which, it seems, was true; and, meeting thisgentlewoman, he would kiss her. She was terribly frightened, as he was arude fellow, and she run from him; but, the street being very thin ofpeople, there was nobody near enough to help her. When she saw he wouldovertake her, she turned and gave him a thrust so forcibly, he being butweak, as pushed him down backward; but very unhappily, she being sonear, he caught hold of her and pulled her down also, and, getting upfirst, mastered her and kissed her, and, which was worst of all, when hehad done, told her he had the plague, and why should not she have it aswell as he. She was frightened enough before; but when she heard him sayhe had the plague, she screamed out, and fell down into a swoon, or in afit, which, though she recovered a little, yet killed her in a very fewdays; and I never heard whether she had the plague or no.
Another infected person came and knocked at the door of a citizen'shouse where they knew him very well. The servant let him in, and, beingtold the master of the house was above, he ran up, and came into theroom to them as the whole family were at supper. They began to rise up alittle surprised, not knowing what the matter was; but he bid them sitstill, he only come to take his leave of them. They asked him, "Why, Mr.----, where are you going?"--"Going?" says he; "I have got the sickness,and shall die to-morrow night." It is easy to believe, though not todescribe, the consternation they were all in. The women and the man'sdaughters, which[239] were but little girls, were frightened almost todeath, and got up, one running out at one door and one at another, somedownstairs and some upstairs, and, getting together as well as theycould, locked themselves into their chambers, and screamed out at thewindows for help, as if they had been frightened out of their wits. Themaster, more composed than they, though both frightened and provoked,was going to lay hands on him and throw him downstairs, being in apassion; but then, considering a little the condition of the man and thedanger of touching him, horror seized his mind, and he stood still likeone astonished. The poor distempered man, all this while, being as welldiseased in his brain as in his body, stood still like one amazed. Atlength he turns round. "Ay!" says he with all the seeming calmnessimaginable, "is it so with you all? Are you all disturbed at me? Why,then, I'll e'en go home and die there." And so he goes immediatelydownstairs. The servant that had let him in goes down after him with acandle, but was afraid to go past him and open the door; so he stood onthe stairs to see what he would do. The man went and opened the door,and went out and flung[240] the door after him. It was some while beforethe family recovered the fright; but, as no ill consequence attended,they have had occasion since to speak of it, you may be sure, with greatsatisfaction. Though the man was gone, it was some time, nay, as Iheard, some days, before they recovered themselves of the hurry theywere in; nor did they go up and down the house with any assurance tillthey had burned a great variety of fumes and perfumes in all the rooms,and made a great many smokes of pitch, of gunpowder, and of sulphur. Allseparately shifted,[241] and washed their clothes, and the like. As tothe poor man, whether he lived or died, I do not remember.
It is most certain, that if, by the shutting up of houses, the sick hadnot been confined, multitudes, who in the height of their fever weredelirious and distracted, would have been continually running up anddown the streets; and even as it was, a very great number did so, andoffered all sorts of violence to those they met, even just as a mad dogruns on and bites at every one he meets. Nor can I doubt but that,should one of those infected diseased creatures have bitten any man orwoman while the frenzy of the distemper was upon them, they (I mean theperson so wounded) would as certainly have been incurably infected asone that was sick before and had the tokens upon him.
I heard of one infected creature, who, running out of his bed in hisshirt, in the anguish and agony of his swellings (of which he had threeupon him), got his shoes on, and went to put on his coat; but the nurseresisting, and snatching the coat from him, he threw her down, run overher, ran downstairs and into the street directly to the Thames, in hisshirt, the nurse running after him, and calling to the watch to stophim. But the watchman, frightened at the man, and afraid to touch him,let him go on; upon which he ran down to the Still-Yard Stairs, threwaway his shirt, and plunged into the Thames, and, being a good swimmer,swam quite over the river; and the tide being "coming in," as they callit (that is, running westward), he reached the land not till he cameabout the Falcon Stairs, where,
landing and finding no people there, itbeing in the night, he ran about the streets there, naked as he was, fora good while, when, it being by that time high water, he takes theriver again, and swam back to the Still Yard, landed, ran up the streetsto his own house, knocking at the door, went up the stairs, and into hisbed again; and[242] that this terrible experiment cured him of theplague, that is to say, that the violent motion of his arms and legsstretched the parts where the swellings he had upon him were (that is tosay, under his arms and in his groin), and caused them to ripen andbreak; and that the cold of the water abated the fever in his blood.
I have only to add, that I do not relate this, any more than some of theother, as a fact within my own knowledge, so as that I can vouch thetruth of them; and especially that of the man being cured by theextravagant adventure, which I confess I do not think very