by Authority:
And this to continue at least a Month after all the Family was _dead_ or
_recovered_.

IT is not easy to conceive a more dismal Scene of Misery, than this:
Families lock'd up from all their Acquaintance, though seized with a
Distemper which the most of any in the World requires Comfort and
Assistance; abandoned it may be to the Treatment of an inhumane Nurse
(for such are often found at these times about the Sick;) and Strangers
to every thing but the melancholy Sight of the Progress, Death makes
among themselves: with small Hopes of Life left to the Survivers, and
those mixed with Anxiety and Doubt, whether it be not better to die,
than to prolong a miserable Being, after the Loss of their best Friends
and nearest Relations.

IF _Fear_, _Despair_, and all _Dejection of Spirits_, dispose the Body
to receive _Contagion_, and give it a great Power, where it is received,
as all Physicians agree they do; I don't see how a Disease can be more
inforced than by such a Treatment.

NOTHING can justify such _Cruelty_, but the Plea, that it is for the
Good of the whole _Community_, and prevents the spreading of
_Infection_. But this upon due Consideration will be found quite
otherwise: For while _Contagion_ is kept nursed up in a House, and
continually encreased by the daily Conquests it makes, it is impossible
but the _Air_ should become tainted in so eminent a degree, as to spread
the _Infection_ into the Neighbourhood upon the first Outlet. The
shutting up Houses in this Manner is only keeping so many _Seminaries_
of _Contagion_, sooner or later to be dispersed abroad: For the waiting
a Month, or longer, from the Death of the last Patient, will avail no
more, than keeping a _Bale_ of infected _Goods_ unpack'd; the Poyson
will fly out, whenever the _Pandora's Box_ is opened.

AS these Measures were owing to the Ignorance of the true Nature of
_Contagion_, so they did, I firmly believe, contribute very much to the
long Continuance of the _Plague_, every time they have been practised in
this City: And no doubt, they have had as ill Effects in other
Countries.

IT is therefore no wonder, that grievous Complaints were often made
against this unreasonable Usage; and that the Citizens were all along
under the greatest apprehensions of being thus _Shut up_. This
occasioned their concealing the Disease as long as they could, which
contributed very much to the inforcing and spreading of it: and when
they were confin