thoroughly cleansed, and then
plastered up. And after this, all possible Care ought still to be taken
to remove whatever Causes are found to breed and promote _Contagion_. In
order to this, the _Overseers_ of the Poor (who might be assisted herein
by other Officers) should visit the Dwellings of all the meaner Sort of
the Inhabitants; and where they find them _stifled up too close_ and
_nasty_, should lessen their Number by sending some into better
Lodgings, and should take Care, by all Manner of Provision and
Encouragement, to make them more _cleanly_ and _sweet_.

NO good Work carries its own Reward with it so much as this kind of
_Charity_: and therefore, be the Expence what it will, it must never be
thought unreasonable. For nothing approaches so near to the first
Original of the _Plague_, as Air pent up, loaded with Damps, and
corrupted with the Filthiness, that proceeds from _Animal Bodies_.

OUR _common Prisons_ afford us an Instance of something like this, where
very few escape what they call the _Goal Fever_, which is always
attended with a Degree of _Malignity_ in Proportion to the _Closeness_
and _Stench_ of the Place: and it would certainly very well become the
Wisdom of the Government, as well with regard to the Health of the
_Town_, as in Compassion to the _Prisoners_, to take Care, that all
_Houses of Confinement_ should be kept as airy and clean, as is
consistent with the Use, to which they are designed.

THE _Black Assise_ at _Oxford_, held in the Castle there in the Year
1577, will never be forgot[84]; at which the _Judges_, _Gentry_, and
almost all that were present, to the Number of three hundred, were
killed by a _poisonous Steam_, thought by some to have broken forth from
the _Earth_; but by a _noble_ and _great_ Philosopher[85] more justly
supposed to have been brought by the _Prisoners_ out of the _Goal_ into
_Court_; it being observed, that they alone were not injured by it.

AT the same Time, that this Care is taken of _Houses_, the proper
Officers should be strictly charged to see that the _Streets_ be washed
and kept clean from _Filth_, _Carrion_, and all manner of _Nusances_;
which should be carried away in the _Night Time_: nor should the
_Laystalls_ be suffered to be too near the City. _Beggers_ and _idle
Persons_ should be taken up, and such miserable Objects, as are neither
fit for the common _Hospitals_, nor _Work-Houses_, should be provided
for in an _Hospital of Incurables_.

OR