ll in vain, nobody daring to lay a hand upon him, or to
come near him?

This was a most grievous and afflicting thing to me, who saw it all from
my own windows; for all this while the poor afflicted man was, as I
observed it, even then in the utmost agony of pain, having, as they
said, two swellings upon him, which could not be brought to break or to
suppurate; but by laying strong caustics on them the surgeons had, it
seems, hopes to break them, which caustics were then upon him, burning
his flesh as with a hot iron. I cannot say what became of this poor man,
but I think he continued roving about in that manner till he fell down
and died.

No wonder the aspect of the city itself was frightful. The usual
concourse of the people in the streets, and which used to be supplied
from our end of the town, was abated. The Exchange was not kept shut,
indeed, but it was no more frequented. The fires were lost: they had
been almost extinguished for some days by a very smart and hasty rain.
But that was not all. Some of the physicians insisted that they were not
only no benefit, but injurious to the health of the people. This they
made a loud clamor about, and complained to the lord mayor about it. On
the other hand, others of the same faculty, and eminent too, opposed
them, and gave their reasons why the fires were and must be useful to
assuage the violence of the distemper. I cannot give a full account of
their arguments on both sides; only this I remember, that they caviled
very much with one another. Some were for fires, but that they must be
made of wood and not coal, and of particular sorts of wood too, such as
fir, in particular, or cedar, because of the strong effluvia of
turpentine; others were for coal and not wood, because of the sulphur
and bitumen; and others were neither for one or other. Upon the whole,
the lord mayor ordered no more fires, and especially on this account,
namely, that the plague was so fierce that they saw evidently it defied
all means, and rather seemed to increase than decrease upon any
application to check and abate it; and yet this amazement of the
magistrates proceeded rather from want of being able to apply any means
successfully than from any unwillingness either to expose themselves or
undertake the care and weight of business; for, to do them justice, they
neither spared their pains nor their persons. But nothing answered. The
infection raged, and the people were now terrified to the last d