true',
says the first man, for he was not a man presumptuously secure, but had
escaped a long while--and men, as I said above, especially in the city
began to be over-easy upon that score. 'That is true,' says he; 'I do
not think myself secure, but I hope I have not been in company with any
person that there has been any danger in.' 'No?' says his neighbour.
'Was not you at the Bull Head Tavern in Gracechurch Street with Mr--the
night before last?' 'Yes,' says the first, 'I was; but there was
nobody there that we had any reason to think dangerous.' Upon which his
neighbour said no more, being unwilling to surprise him; but this made
him more inquisitive, and as his neighbour appeared backward, he was the
more impatient, and in a kind of warmth says he aloud, 'Why, he is not
dead, is he?' Upon which his neighbour still was silent, but cast up his
eyes and said something to himself; at which the first citizen turned
pale, and said no more but this, 'Then I am a dead man too', and went
home immediately and sent for a neighbouring apothecary to give him
something preventive, for he had not yet found himself ill; but the
apothecary, opening his breast, fetched a sigh, and said no more but
this, 'Look up to God'; and the man died in a few hours.

Now let any man judge from a case like this if it is possible for the
regulations of magistrates, either by shutting up the sick or removing
them, to stop an infection which spreads itself from man to man even
while they are perfectly well and insensible of its approach, and may be
so for many days.

It may be proper to ask here how long it may be supposed men might have
the seeds of the contagion in them before it discovered itself in this
fatal manner, and how long they might go about seemingly whole, and
yet be contagious to all those that came near them. I believe the most
experienced physicians cannot answer this question directly any more
than I can; and something an ordinary observer may take notice of, which
may pass their observations. The opinion of physicians abroad seems to
be that it may lie dormant in the spirits or in the blood-vessels a very
considerable time. Why else do they exact a quarantine of those who came
into their harbours and ports from suspected places? Forty days is, one
would think, too long for nature to struggle with such an enemy as this,
and not conquer it or yield to it. But I could not think, by my own
observation, that they can be infected so as