thought himself in any danger; and he had such a rule to know, or have
warning of the danger by, as indeed I never met with before or since:
how far it may be depended on, I know not. He had a wound in his leg;
and whenever he came among any people that were not sound, and the
infection began to affect him, he said he could know it by that signal,
viz., that the wound in his leg would smart, and look pale and white: so
as soon as ever he felt it smart it was time for him to withdraw, or to
take care of himself, taking his drink, which he always carried about
him for that purpose. Now, it seems he found his wound would smart many
times when he was in company with such who thought themselves to be
sound, and who appeared so to one another; but he would presently rise
up, and say publicly, "Friends, here is somebody in the room that has
the plague," and so would immediately break up the company. This was,
indeed, a faithful monitor to all people, that the plague is not to be
avoided by those that converse promiscuously in a town infected, and
people have it when they know it not, and that they likewise give it to
others when they know not that they have it themselves; and in this
case, shutting up the well or removing the sick will not do it, unless
they can go back and shut up all those that the sick had conversed with,
even before they knew themselves to be sick; and none knows how far to
carry that back, or where to stop, for none knows when, or where, or
how, they may have received the infection, or from whom.

This I take to be the reason which makes so many people talk of the air
being corrupted and infected, and that they need not be cautious of whom
they converse with, for that the contagion was in the air. I have seen
them in strange agitations and surprises on this account. "I have never
come near any infected body," says the disturbed person; "I have
conversed with none but sound healthy people, and yet I have gotten the
distemper." "I am sure I am struck from Heaven," says another, and he
falls to the serious part.[262] Again the first goes on exclaiming, "I
have come near no infection, or any infected person; I am sure it is in
the air; we draw in death when we breathe, and therefore it is the hand
of God: there is no withstanding it." And this at last made many people,
being hardened to the danger, grow less concerned at it, and less
cautious towards the latter end of the time, and when it was come to its
hei