登陆注册
5301800000090

第90章 Part 6(17)

This,however,is certain,not a man of them appeared for a great while in or about London.There were,indeed,several doctors who published bills recommending their several physical preparations for cleansing the body,as they call it,after the plague,and needful,as they said,for such people to take who had been visited and had been cured;whereas I must own I believe that it was the opinion of the most eminent physicians at that time that the plague was itself a sufficient purge,and that those who escaped the infection needed no physic to cleanse their bodies of any other things;the running sores,the tumours,&c.,which were broke and kept open by the directions of the physicians,having sufficiently cleansed them;and that all other distempers,and causes of distempers,were effectually carried off that way;and as the physicians gave this as their opinions wherever they came,the quacks got little business.

There were,indeed,several little hurries which happened after the decrease of the plague,and which,whether they were contrived to fright and disorder the people,as some imagined,I cannot say,but sometimes we were told the plague would return by such a time;and the famous Solomon Eagle,the naked Quaker I have mentioned,prophesied evil tidings every day;and several others telling us that London had not been sufficiently scourged,and that sorer and severer strokes were yet behind.Had they stopped there,or had they descended to particulars,and told us that the city should the next year be destroyed by fire,then,indeed,when we had seen it come to pass,we should not have been to blame to have paid more than a common respect to their prophetic spirits;at least we should have wondered at them,and have been more serious in our inquiries after the meaning of it,and whence they had the foreknowledge.But as they generally told us of a relapse into the plague,we have had no concern since that about them;yet by those frequent clamours,we were all kept with some kind of apprehensions constantly upon us;and if any died suddenly,or if the spotted fevers at any time increased,we were presently alarmed;much more if the number of the plague increased,for to the end of the year there were always between 200and 300of the plague.On any of these occasions,I say,we were alarmed anew.

Those who remember the city of London before the fire must remember that there was then no such place as we now call Newgate Market,but that in the middle of the street which is now called Blow-bladder Street,and which had its name from the butchers,who used to kill and dress their sheep there (and who,it seems,had a custom to blow up their meat with pipes to make it look thicker and fatter than it was,and were punished there for it by the Lord Mayor);I say,from the end of the street towards Newgate there stood two long rows of shambles for the selling meat.

It was in those shambles that two persons falling down dead,as they were buying meat,gave rise to a rumour that the meat was all infected;which,though it might affright the people,and spoiled the market for two or three days,yet it appeared plainly afterwards that there was nothing of truth in the suggestion.But nobody can account for the possession of fear when it takes hold of the mind.

However,it Pleased God,by the continuing of the winter weather,so to restore the health of the city that by February following we reckoned the distemper quite ceased,and then we were not so easily frighted again.

There was still a question among the learned,and at first perplexed the people a little:and that was in what manner to purge the house and goods where the plague had been,and how to render them habitable again,which had been left empty during the time of the plague.

Abundance-of perfumes and preparations were prescribed by physicians,some of one kind and some of another,in which the people who listened to them put themselves to a great,and indeed,in my opinion,to an unnecessary expense;and the poorer people,who only set open their windows night and day,burned brimstone,pitch,and gunpowder,and such things in their rooms,did as well as the best;nay,the eager people who,as I said above,came home in haste and at all hazards,found little or no inconvenience in their houses,nor in the goods,and did little or nothing to them.

However,in general,prudent,cautious people did enter into some measures for airing and sweetening their houses,and burned perfumes,incense,benjamin,rozin,and sulphur in their rooms close shut up,and then let the air carry it all out with a blast of gunpowder;others caused large fires to be made all day and all night for several days and nights;by the same token that two or three were pleased to set their houses on fire,and so effectually sweetened them by burning them down to the ground;as particularly one at Ratcliff,one in Holbourn,and one at Westminster;besides two or three that were set on fire,but the fire was happily got out again before it went far enough to bum down the houses;and one citizen's servant,I think it was in Thames Street,carried so much gunpowder into his master's house,for clearing it of the infection,and managed it so foolishly,that he blew up part of the roof of the house.But the time was not fully come that the city was to he purged by fire,nor was it far off;for within nine months more I saw it all lying in ashes;when,as some of our quacking philosophers pretend,the seeds of the plague were entirely destroyed,and not before;a notion too ridiculous to speak of here:since,had the seeds of the plague remained in the houses,not to be destroyed but by fire,how has it been that they have not since broken out,seeing all those buildings in the suburbs and liberties,all in the great parishes of Stepney,Whitechappel,Aldgate,Bishopsgate,Shoreditch,Cripplegate,and St Giles,where the fire never came,and where the plague raged with the greatest violence,remain still in the same condition they were in before?

同类推荐
  • 妙法莲华经

    妙法莲华经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 异辞录

    异辞录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 决定藏论

    决定藏论

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 蓝涧集

    蓝涧集

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 狐狸缘全传

    狐狸缘全传

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 嫡仇

    嫡仇

    流景云说:“你只是我的一颗棋子,娶你只是为了灭你满门。”艳青青说:“景云他从未爱过你,是你自己没用,抓不住男人的心,景王妃的头衔你早就该让出来。”当一场阴谋终结,她亲眼所见楼家一百三十口,命丧断头台,血染红了她的眼,她才知道所谓的真情不过是算计她的假象!夫君和闺密原来早就苟且,心很痛,可是却无泪。她发誓所有欠她的统统都得加倍偿还。家恨血仇让她坚守信念,决不能白白死去,老天有眼,她绝处逢生!孤身一人远走他国,终于进入江湖第一大庄园,她只想苦练功夫好早日报仇。却不曾想,要提升内里,需将自己献给丑怪庄主……
  • 紫柏尊者别集

    紫柏尊者别集

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 爱成伤念成魔

    爱成伤念成魔

    叶兮有个僵尸弟弟,谁碰她,弟弟折磨谁;叶兮有个宠妻狂魔,“老公,上飞机还有那么多程序,好麻烦呀”老公:“去给夫人买飞机!”;叶兮有个亲亲小姨,在她生病时:“谁也别碰她!我自己的侄女我自己疼!”可幸福的背后有个巨大的阴谋在等她,她能否携手这这些人打破它呢?敬请期待!
  • 嫡女重生之弄权

    嫡女重生之弄权

    为替兄长报仇,身为靖宁侯府嫡女的展宁,铤而走险冒兄长之名存活于世。奈何一步错满盘输,大仇未报,她却遭庶妹和姨娘陷害,最终屈辱而死。一朝重生回五年之前,她暗暗起誓,这一次,她不会再让人随意拿捏在手。纵是女儿身李代桃僵入朝堂,她也要将权势紧握在手,将过往恩怨是非,一一清算!
  • 盘龙之路

    盘龙之路

    盘龙同人,一直很喜欢盘龙,喜欢它的世界观喜欢它的纯粹。但是重复看又没有了新鲜感,尝试自己写本同人小说吧,希望能写出自己满意的东西。
  • 故乡

    故乡

    回故乡之路就是看望母亲之路,寻找母亲之路。用当地方言说就是鸡上架,娃娃寻(醒)他娘。这个娘在我们当地人叫nia(尼阿压),这么发声就对啦,你就成了个娃,碎碎一个娃,不管你在外边弄多大个事做多大个官,哪怕做了皇帝回到故乡你就是毬把高个娃,卵蛋大个娃,老远地你会听见你压(娘)在黄土高原的深沟大壑里长一声短一声地喊叫:狗娃回来!狗娃回来!回来喝豆豆米汤。你的眼泪就大颗大颗地滚下来,就像你压(娘)在锅里煮的米汤里的大颗白豆。
  • 辞旧迎新:除夕(文化之美)

    辞旧迎新:除夕(文化之美)

    春节对于中国人来讲可谓最为重要的节日,似乎每一个中国人对它都十分了解,但是我们真的了解春节,了解除夕吗?你熟知除夕的历史来源吗?除夕之夜压岁钱放鞭炮又是出于何时何种典故?南方北方及个少数民族在除夕之夜所备食物又有何差异?本书就对关于中国传统节日——除夕进行全面而细致的解析。
  • 用故事优化孩子的性格

    用故事优化孩子的性格

    在孩子幼年的时候,播种下什么思想,就会收获什么命运,这样就是性格的优化的目的,这就是性格可以名词活用为动词的神秘。性格是可以因为思想,因为行为、因为习惯,而成为动词的。特别是在孩子性格尚未成形的时候,给孩子播种下一种思想,或许你会问思想源自于哪里,什么样的思想才是一种好的思想呢?它可以让你实现——故事!本书在为家长们列举了10多种需要优化的性格外,还聚集了凝聚中西方文化精髓的近200个故事,结合编者自身故事的运用,让家长们从故事里给孩子播种思想,优化性格,收获命运。
  • 三万佛同根本神秘之印并法龙种上尊王佛法

    三万佛同根本神秘之印并法龙种上尊王佛法

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 火焰升腾

    火焰升腾

    一个魔法学徒,在一次和人冲突中,被打破了魔法核心,幸遇天才光明神官,开始了他通往武士的巅峰之路……