26 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1713. 



the officers escapeu pretty well ; but the handicraft and common tradesmen, as 

 well masters as journeymen, apprentices, porters and labourers, were very much 

 diminished, and died in the year 1709, to the number of 24533; in which are 

 likewise included all such as were buried without the town, and some of another 

 jurisdiction, of which we have not been able to get a true and exact account. 



There were two things remarkable, which I must not omit to notice. The 

 first is, (as observed by Dr. Shelwig) that the plague decreased in the same pro- 

 portion as it had increased. For in June the number of the dead was 31Q ; in 

 July it rose to 1313; in August to 6]3Q; and in Sept. to 8303; which was the 

 highest degree of mortality. After this the numbers again decreased ; so that 

 in Oct. they were 4932; in Nov. igSi ; in Dec. 584; and so on gradually 

 lessening. The other thing remarkable is, that but few of the people of con- 

 dition and quality died of the contagion, in comparison with those of the com- 

 mon sort ; which may be attributed to the different number of poor and rich, 

 and to the great care and precaution the latter made use of to avoid it. 



The disease surrounded the whole town, and infected every quarter of it ; 

 and we heard that our neighbours on the frontiers had likewise received the in- 

 fection. But it is to be admired, that in no district of the town the number 

 that died was less observed, than in that part which we properly call the city. 

 Though in the course of the infection it spread itself, and run as it were in a 

 circuit, yet its motion was not so transient in shifting from place to place, but 

 that it continued fast to its first hold, only with this difference, that it did not 

 so severely infest the places it had at first possessed as those that it entered 

 later. 



That the plague is a poison, or rather carries a poison along with it, is ac- 

 knowledged by all physidians: but of what kind and nature, and whence it pro- 

 ceeds, few can agree. It is well known, that it has a twofold operation, so 

 that the blood of the infected is sometimes coagulated, and sometimes dissolved, 

 according as the humours of human bodies are disposed ; and yet they are both 

 alike pernicious. If it coagulates, the juices stagnate, and the progressive mo- 

 tion ceases : if it dissolves, then the natural connection and cohesion of the 

 particles become colliquative and incoherent, and the spirits gain a free exit 

 and leave the body motionless. 



That the air was infected, during the contagion here, is certain : not that I 

 mean a general infection, as if the air was by a supernatural power so tainted 

 and corrupted, as to infect all things breathing; but, as it is a subtile, move- 

 able, and every where expanded body, it attracts and receives all effluvia and 

 exhalations, as a sponge does water, and imparts them likewise, by means of its 

 motion, to other bodies ; so that, as a communicative medium, by its entrance 



