is
true," says the first man (for he was not a man presumptuously secure,
but had escaped a long while; and men, as I have said above, especially
in the city, began to be overeasy on 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
neighbor. "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 neighbor said no more, being unwilling to surprise him.
But this made him more inquisitive, and, as his neighbor 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 neighbor 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 neighboring
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[265] 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 observation. 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
come into their harbors 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 c