THE PLAGUE. 255 



otherwise have escaped, and very naturally the order was frequently 

 infringed. 



In 1568 the Lord Mayor of London drew up instructions for the 

 Aldermen for dealing with the plague. It was enacted that constables 

 and officers should search out infected houses and report to the authorities. 

 In other words, that there should be notification by the police. All infected 

 houses were to be shut up, and no person to be allowed to come out for 

 twenty days. All bedding and clothes used by the victims were to be 

 destroyed. 



At Westminster these instructions were to be enforced under a penalty 

 of seven days in the stocks, with imprisonment to follow, making in all 

 a punishment of forty days. 



In 1581 the Lord Mayor transferred notification from the constables 

 to searchers. Two honest and discreet matrons in every parish were to 

 search the body of every such person that happened to die in the parish. 

 They were ordered to make a true report to the clerk of the parish, and 

 the said clerk had to report to the wardens of the parish. For failing 

 to notify, the penalty was an exemplary term of imprisonment. The 

 searchers were of course likely to be offered heavy bribes by the people 

 to suppress reports, owing to their anxiety to avoid the shutting up of 

 infected houses. 



The continued prevalence of the plague led to the publication, in 

 1593, of a book by Simon Kellwaye. One chapter " teacheth what 

 orders magistrates and rulers of citties and towns should cause to be 

 observed," which included among other regulations that no dunghills 

 were to be allowed near the city, and the streets were to be watered 

 and cleansed. 



Xo surgeons or barbers who let blood were to cast the same into the 

 streets. All those visiting and attending the sick to carry something in 

 their hand to be known from other people ; and if the infection were in 

 few places, all the people were to be kept in their houses during the time 

 of their visitation, and when this was over, all clothes, bedding, and 

 other such things used upon the sick, were to be burnt. 



In 1603 Thomas Lodge recommended that discreet and skilful men 

 should be appointed in every parish to notify sickness to the authorities, 

 and so cause them to be visited by expert physicians, and that such as 

 were sick should be separated from the whole, and that isolation hospitals 

 should be built outside the City in separate and unfrequented places. 



In 1665 the Great Plague of London occurred, and was attributed by 

 some to the importation of an infected bale of silks from the Levant. 



According to Hodges the disease stayed among the common people, and 

 hence was called The Poor's Plague. He criticised the system of shutting 

 up infected houses, and strongly recommended that those who were 

 untouched in infected houses should receive " accommodation outside the 

 city.'' The sick were to be removed to convenient apartments provided 

 on purpose for them. To quote his own words, " Timely separation of 

 the infected from the well is absolutely necessary to be done." 



For the purification of houses his directions were to place " a chafing 



