256 INFECTIVE DISEASES. 



dish in the middle of the room, where proper things were burnt and 

 exhaled all around." The use of sulphur and quicklime was mentioned. * 



Preventive measures were drawn up and published by the Lord Mayor 

 and Aldermen. Examiners in Health, watchmen, and searchers were 

 appointed. Surgeons were selected to assist the searchers in making their 

 reports, and a fee of twelve pence was allowed for every case. The disease 

 was immediately notified to the Examiner of Health. Rules for disinfec- 

 tion were made, and every infected house was shut up, and 110 one removed 

 except to a pest-house or tent. Orders were issued for cleaning and sweep- 

 ing the streets. Hackney coaches were not to be used after conveying 

 patients to the pest-house until they had been well aired. Regulations 

 were also made dealing with loose persons, assemblies, and drinking taverns. 



The plague was scarcely over before the whole city was in flames. A 

 new city speedily rose upon the ashes of Old London. A few sporadic 

 cases of plague are given in the London Bills of Mortality down to 1679, 

 when they finally ceased. London was sterilised by the great fire. " Great 

 as this calamity was," wrote Thomas Pennant, "yet it proved the provi- 

 dential cause of putting a stop to one of far more tremendous nature. 

 The plague, which, for a series of ages, had, with very short intervals, 

 visited our capital in its most dreadful forms, never appeared there again 

 after the rebuilding of the city in a more open and airy manner ; which 

 removed several nuisances, which if not the origin of a plague, was 

 assuredly one great pabulum, when it had seized our streets." 



In the years 1720-22 there was a terrible outburst of plague in France. 

 It was attributed at Marseilles to importation by a ship from Syria. This 

 caused a panic in England, and the Lords Justices considered it necessary 

 for the public safety that measures should be taken to defend the country 

 from a fresh invasion of this disease. Dr. Richard Mead was entrusted 

 with drawing up the required recommendations. Mead laid it down as 

 an essential doctrine that the plague was not native to this country, and 

 therefore the first thing was to prevent importation, and if such a misfor- 

 tune occurred, it was to be prevented from spreading. How was this to 

 be accomplished ? Briefly stated, his system was as follows : Lazarettoes 

 were to be provided for the reception of infected men and merchandise. 

 The healthy were to change their clothes and to be kept in quarantine, and 

 the sick were to be kept remote from the healthy and their clothes 

 destroyed. 



If, through a miscarriage in the public care, by the neglect of officers 

 or otherwise, the disease was imported, then " the civil magistrates were 

 to make it as much for the interest of the afflicted families to discover 



* During outbreaks of the plague amulets were extremely popular. Walnuts 

 filled with mercury, pieces of cloth coated with arsenic, and arsenical cakes, 

 were very generally worn. The College of Physicians recommended issues on 

 the arms and legs. Dr. Hodges wrote, that the more of the ulcers that were 

 made the better, although their largeness answered as well as more in number. 

 IE two issues were preferred, it was recommended to make one on the left arm 

 and the other on the opposite leg. A somewhat similar plan was adopted in 

 Circassia by small-pox inoculators. 



