HKB
60 passages · search this phrase →
Often appears with: plague, famine, and mass death · agriculture and the land · education and the training of the young · labor, wages, and the division of work · weather, storms, and the seasons · the passions and the emotions · fate, destiny, and necessity · religious persecution and toleration · famine, scarcity, and plenty · justice as a virtue · crime and punishment · matter, motion, and cause
Usually: detachment (235) · argument (231) · curiosity (204) · narrative (179) · confronting death (143) · skepticism (117) · wonder (75) · the test or trial (58) · exhortation (58) · commentary or gloss (57)
“You have seen how a man was made a slave; you shall see how a slave was made a man.” Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an Amer · insight
“There is, said Michael, if thou well observe The rule of Not too much; by temperance taught, In what thou eatest and drinkest; seeking from thence Due nourishment, not gluttonous delight,” John Milton, Paradise Lost · precept
“We likewise perceive from this, that the true use of respiration is to bring sufficient fresh air into the lungs, to cause the blood which flows into them from the right ventricle of the heart, where it has been rarefied and, as it were, changed into vapors, to become thick, and to convert it anew into blood, before it flows into the left cavity, without which process it would be unfit for the nourishment of the fire that is there.” René Descartes, Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting One's · observation
“But as soon as I had acquired some general notions respecting physics, and beginning to make trial of them in various particular difficulties, had observed how far they can carry us, and how much they differ from the principles that have been employed up to the present time, I believed that I could not keep them concealed without sinning grievously against the law by which we are bound to promote, as far as in us lies, the general good of mankind.” René Descartes, Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting One's · observation
“So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable creature, since it enables one to find or make a reason for everything one has a mind to do.” Benjamin Franklin, The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin · insight
“See! as he smokes beneath the stubborn share, The bull drops, vomiting foam-dabbled gore, And heaves his latest groans. Sad goes the swain, Unhooks the steer that mourns his fellow's fate, And in mid labour leaves the plough-gear fast.” Virgil, The Georgics · observation
“St. Fe is a quiet little town, and is kept clean and in good order.” Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the Beagle · observation
“The governor, Lopez, was a common soldier at the time of the revolution; but has now been seventeen years in power.” Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the Beagle · observation
“Well may we affirm that every part of the world is habitable!” Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the Beagle · observation
“It is almost become a proverb, that rain never falls in the lower part of Peru. Yet this can hardly be considered correct; for during almost every day of our visit there was a thick drizzling mist, which was sufficient to make the streets muddy and one's clothes damp: this the people are pleased to call Peruvian dew.” Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the Beagle · observation
“He then asked for some vial to pour it into, and as there was not one in the inn, he decided on putting it into a tin oil-bottle or flask of which the host made him a free gift.” Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote · observation
“But scarcely had he done drinking when he began to vomit in such a way that nothing was left in his stomach, and with the pangs and spasms of vomiting he broke into a profuse sweat.” Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote · vivid
Pepys orders his velvet cloak production stopped as the Queen worsens, then records recovery and the physician Francis Prujeon’s celebrated treatment.
22nd. This morning, hearing that the Queene grows worse again, I sent to stop the making of my velvet cloak, till I see whether she lives or dies. 23rd. The Queene slept pretty well last night, but her fever continues upon her still. It seems she hath never a Portuguese doctor here. 24th. The Queene is in a good way of recovery; and Sir Francis Pridgeon, [Vertue (according to Walpole) had seen a portrait of Dr. …
Pepys records household and personal notes during the war’s pressures, including entries on his family ages, carnal remedies (charms) for stanching blood and cramps, and observations about frost and London entertainment.
a great arch, and is gone quite to a new place in the heavens than it was before: but I hope in a clearer night something more will be seen. 28th. To Sir W. Pen's to his Lady, [Margaret, daughter of John Jasper, a merchant at Rotterdam.] who is a well-looked, fat, short, old Dutch woman; but one that hath been heretofore pretty handsome, and is I believe very discreet, and hath more wit than her husband. 31st. P…
In early May 1665 Pepys travels by water to Greenwich and Deptford with scientists, observes experiments on coach springs, hears of the sudden death of Chief Justice Hide, visits Evelyn’s garden, and continues Navy preparations and trials of deserters and pressmen.
20th. This night I am told the first play is played in White Hall noon-hall, which is now turned to a house of playing. 23rd. To White Hall chapel, and heard the famous young Stillingfleete, [Edward Stillingfleet, a most learned Divine, consecrated Bishop of Worcester, 1689, Ob. 1699.] whom I knew at Cambridge, and he is now newly admitted one of the King's chaplains. And was presented, they say, to my Lord Treas…
On the 11th Pepys visits a wounded surgeon, hears that hundreds of seamen are abandoning the fleet, and comments on women of the court dressing in riding clothes at Whitehall.
and the hazard of the spoiling of the ship in lying till next spring, besides the disgrace of it, news is brought that the Loyall London is launched at Deptford. 11th. I with my Lady Pen and her daughter to see Harman; whom we find lame in bed. His bones of his ancle are broke, but he hopes to do well soon; and a fine person by his discourse he seems to be: and he did plainly tell me that at the Council of War be…
Pepys reports plague deaths near his acquaintances, talks with scientists about sound and music theories with Robert Hooke, visits court and social gatherings, and notes confirmations that the plague is raging in nearby districts.
to be tried the seventh of August; and that the hangman was sent from Flushing to assist the Council of Warr. How much of this is true, time will show. August 1, 1666. Walked over the Park with Sir W. Coventry, who I clearly see is not thoroughly pleased with the late management of the fight, nor with any thing that the Generalls do; only is glad to hear that De Ruyter is out of favour, and that this fight hath cos…
Pepys attends parliamentary hearings about Lord Mordaunt, notes Prince Rupert’s trepanning and hopes for his success, reads Dryden’s poem on the war, and hears medical details of the operation.
am very well pleased this night with reading a poem I brought home with me last night from Westminster Hall, of Dryden's, upon the present war; a very good poem. 3rd. To White Hall, and there to Sir W. Coventry's chamber, and there staid till he was ready. Talking, and among other things of the Prince's being trepanned, which was in doing just as we passed through the Stone Gallery, we asking at the door of his lo…
After noting his ailing parents, Pepys observes a public hanging display on St. David’s Day, hears of a surgeon killed in a drunken quarrel, and attends “The Maiden Queene,” praising Nell’s performance.
mother, who are both very ill, and have been so for some weeks: whom God help! but I do fear my poor father will hardly be ever naturally well again. March 1, 1666-7. In Mark-lane I do observe (it being St. David's day) the picture of a man, dressed like a Welchman, hanging by the neck upon one of the poles that stand out at the top of one of the merchant's houses, in full proportion, and very handsomely done; whic…
Pepys learns his mother died and repeats her last words, then notes the planned sentence in his maritime prize case and later buys periwigs, inspects a repaired French gun, and remarks on planned street building.
of work, and truly wrought; but for certain not a thing to be used much with safety: and he do find that this very gun was never yet shot off. 30th. To see the silly play of my Lady Newcastle's, [Margaret, daughter of Thomas Lucas of Colchester, and sister to John Lord Lucas, married William Marquis of Newcastle, created a Duke 1664.] called "The Humourous Lovers;" the most silly thing that ever came upon a stage.…
He rides into Somersetshire to Philips-Norton, views a reputedly ancient tomb of the Fair Maids of Foscott, reaches Bath, and tours the baths without supper that evening.
Salisbury I wrote by the post my excuse for not coming home, which I hope will do, for I am resolved to see the Bath, and, it may be, Bristol. 12th. Friday. Up, finding our beds good, but lousy; which made us merry. We set out, the reckoning and servants coming to 9s. 6d.; my guide thither, 2s.; coachman advanced, 10s. So rode a very good way, led to my great content by our landlord to Philips-Norton, with great…
In Wells on Sunday, Pepys visits Bishop Montagu’s tomb and churches, then on Monday tours the King and Queen’s baths at Bath, leaving for Bristol via Avebury and Marlborough.
paid the reckoning, 2s. 6d. We back, and by moonshine to the Bath again about ten o'clock: bad way; and giving the coachman 1s. went all of us to bed. 14th. (Sunday). Up, and walked up and down the town, and saw a pretty good market-place, and many good streets, and very fair stone-houses. And so to the great church, and there saw Bishop Montagu's tomb; and, when placed, did there see many brave people come, and a…
Back in London, Pepys attends courts and naval committees, goes to playhouses, consults the doctor for his eyes, and notes political and social talk including fires and elections.
Elector of Saxony in that Order; who, I did hear the Duke of York say, was a good drinker: I know not upon what score this compliment is done him. 22nd. With Balty to St. James's, and there presented him to Mr. Wren about his being Muster-master this year; which will be done. So up to wait on the Duke of York, and thence with Sir W. Coventry walked to White Hall: good discourse about the Navy, where want of money …
Pepys records Parliament adjourning, experiments with paper-tube spectacles, hears about changes to the Duke of York’s naval authority, attends dinners, drafts a report for the Duke of York, and observes ambassadors and art.
his work, and the chrystal and case and gold case comes to 8l. 3s. 4d.; and which I sent him this night, that I might be out of his debt. 11th. The Parliament met enough to adjourne to the 10th of November next. At the office all the afternoon till night, being mightily pleased with a trial I have made of the use of a tube- spectacall of paper, tried with my right eye. This day I hear that, to the great joy of th…
Pepys praises books sent to him, then on 30th describes commissioning and shopping for his coach and clothing, visiting craftsmen, and celebrating the loud, popular word “Punch” for a fat short child.
too late. This morning Mr. Sheres sent me in two volumes, Marian his History of Spaine in Spanish, an excellent book; and I am much obliged to him for it. 30th. Up, and by coach to the coachmaker's; and there I do find a great many ladies sitting in the body of a coach that must be ended by to-morrow, (they were my Lady Marquess of Winchester, [Isabella, daughter of William Viscount Stafford, third wife to James fi…
It continues Elizabeth St. Michel’s story: her father Alexander St. Michel’s business failures, his patents and petitions, the episode of her being placed briefly in the Ursuline nunnery, and Pepys’s own stone operation and its later commemoration.
over-served with drink ye night before. This was done in the presence of all the Fellows then resident, in Mr. Hill's chamber.--JOHN WOOD, Registrar." (From the Registrar's-book of Magdalene College.)] His time, however, was not wasted, and there is evidence that he carried into his busy life a fair stock of classical learning and a true love of letters. Throughout his life he looked back with pleasure to the time …
Thucydides gives a clinical description of the plague’s symptoms, course, and effects, noting memory loss, bodily damage, and that predators avoid or die after consuming victims.
the student, if it should ever break out again. This I can the better do, as I had the disease myself, and watched its operation in the case of others. That year then is admitted to have been otherwise unprecedentedly free from sickness; and such few cases as occurred all determined in this. As a rule, however, there was no ostensible cause; but people in good health were all of a sudden attacked by violent heats in…
Helen drugges the wine to dull tears and anger, explains the medicinal origin in Egypt, and then tells how Odysseus entered Troy in disguise, warned her, and returned having slain many Trojans.
So spake he, and Asphalion poured water over their hands, the ready squire of renowned Menelaus. And they put forth their hands upon the good cheer spread before them. Then Helen, daughter of Zeus, turned to new thoughts. Presently she cast a drug into the wine whereof they drank, a drug to lull all pain and anger, and bring forgetfulness of every sorrow. Whoso should drink a draught thereof, when it is mingled in t…
He discusses when variability arises, suggesting it often comes from changes to reproductive elements before conception, explaining sterility and differing breeding success under confinement.
ceasing to be variable under cultivation. Our oldest cultivated plants, such as wheat, still often yield new varieties: our oldest domesticated animals are still capable of rapid improvement or modification. It has been disputed at what period of life the causes of variability, whatever they may be, generally act; whether during the early or late period of development of the embryo, or at the instant of conception. …
Darwin catalogs potential checks—severe destruction of eggs, seedlings, prey availability, food limits, vermin control, and climate—arguing climate mainly matters by altering competition and predators.
compared to a yielding surface, with ten thousand sharp wedges packed close together and driven inwards by incessant blows, sometimes one wedge being struck, and then another with greater force. What checks the natural tendency of each species to increase in number is most obscure. Look at the most vigorous species; by as much as it swarms in numbers, by so much will its tendency to increase be still further increas…
Darwin states that natural selection continually scrutinizes variations across the world, and that even tiny differences—like bird and insect coloration or plant fruit down—can strongly affect survival under predation and disease.
“truer” in character than man’s productions; that they should be infinitely better adapted to the most complex conditions of life, and should plainly bear the stamp of far higher workmanship? It may be said that natural selection is daily and hourly scrutinising, throughout the world, every variation, even the slightest; rejecting that which is bad, preserving and adding up all that is good; silently and insensibly …
Darwin argues that grafting and crossing show parallel patterns because reproductive and vegetative compatibility depends on complex, partly affinity-related biological differences, and he lists possible physical causes of sterility in first crosses and hybrids.
latter fact of the extraordinary case of Hippeastrum, Lobelia, etc., which seeded much more freely when fertilised with the pollen of distinct species, than when self-fertilised with their own pollen. We thus see, that although there is a clear and fundamental difference between the mere adhesion of grafted stocks, and the union of the male and female elements in the act of reproduction, yet that there is a rude deg…
Laws cover diagnosing leprosy-like plague in a house in Canaan: the owner reports it, priests inspect for spreading wall marks, quarantine the house, then scrape, replace stones, or demolish if it persists.
when ye be come unto the land of Canaan which I give you to possess: if I put the plague of leprosy in any house of the land of your possession, let him that owneth the house go and tell the priest saying: me think that there is as it were a leprosy in the house. And the priest shall command them to rid all things out of the house, before the priest go in to see the plague: that he make not all that is in the house u…
If the house plague does not spread after new plastering, the priest makes it clean by sprinkling a ritual involving two birds, cedar/cypress wood, hyssop, and purple cloth, with the living bird released outside the town.
and take the cypress {cedar} wood, the hyssop, the purple and the living bird, and dip them in the blood of the slain bird and in the running water, and sprinkle upon the house seven times, and cleanse the house with the blood of the bird, and with the running water, and with the living bird, and with the cypress wood, and the hyssop, and the purple cloth. And he shall let the living bird flee out of the town into th…
Regulations define uncleanness from a running issue of the flesh, requiring washing, evening isolation, contagion through couches and objects, broken or rinsed vessels, and cleansing through a seven-day count and sacrifices.
And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron saying: Speak unto the children of Israel and say unto them: every man that hath a running issue in his flesh, is unclean by the reason of his issue. And hereby shall it be known when he is unclean. If his flesh run, or if his flesh congeal by the reason of his issue, then he is unclean. Every couch whereon he lieth and every thing whereon he sitteth shall be unclean. He that t…
The LORD commands a ritual of the red cow: slaughter, sevenfold blood sprinkling toward the tabernacle, burning with specified materials, and using the ashes to purify anyone defiled by death.
And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron saying: this is the ordinance of the law which the LORD commandeth saying: speak unto the children of Israel and let them take thee a red cow without spot wherein is no blemish, and which never bare yoke upon her. And ye shall give her unto Eleazer the priest, and he shall bring her without the host and cause her to be slain before him. And Eleazar the priest shall take of her …
Jesus heals a man blind from birth by making clay, instructing him to wash in the pool of Siloe, and the excommunicated healed man defends Jesus before Pharisees and is driven out for his testimony.
said unto me: Go to the pool Siloe, and wash. I went and washed and received my sight. They said unto him: where is he? He said: I cannot tell. Then brought they to the pharisees, him that a little before was blind. (It was the saboth day when Iesus made the clay, and opened his eyes.) Then again the pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. He said unto them: He put clay upon mine eyes, And I washed, …
Shipwrecked on the island of Malta, Paul is bitten by a viper without harm, heals Publius’s father, and then travels onward to Rome with prisoners.
the sea on both the sides, and thrust in the ship. And the fore part stuck fast, and moved not, but the hinderpart brake with the violence of the waves. The soldiers' counsel was to kill the prisoners lest any of them, when he had swum out should flee away: but the undercaptain willing to save Paul kept them from their purpose, and commanded that they that could swim should cast themselves first in to the sea, and s…
Douglass sets an “epoch” in August 1833 when illness and collapse during fanning wheat lead Covey to kick and strike him, prompting him to seek Master Thomas’s protection.
all boys are bound to some one. It may be that my misery in slavery will only increase my happiness when I get free. There is a better day coming.” Thus I used to think, and thus I used to speak to myself; goaded almost to madness at one moment, and at the next reconciling myself to my wretched lot. I have already intimated that my condition was much worse, during the first six months of my stay at Mr. Covey’s, tha…
The poem continues listing Turnus’ men, including Oebalus of Capri with brazen weapons, Ufens and the Nursians, the Marrubians led by Umbro with magical healing, and Virbius, whose father Hippolytus was restored by Diana/Jove and is now a rider.
Light demi-lances from afar they throw, Fasten’d with leathern thongs, to gall the foe. Short crooked swords in closer fight they wear; And on their warding arm light bucklers bear. Nor Oebalus, shalt thou be left unsung, From nymph Semethis and old Telon sprung, Who then in Teleboan Capri reign’d; But that short isle th’ ambitious youth disdain’d, And o’er Campania stretch’d his ample sway, …
A Trojan leader is wounded and carried back as a physician Iapis works, but heals incompletely until Venus’s divine remedy allows him to stand again and rejoin the fighting.
So, where resistless Turnus takes his course, The scatter’d squadrons bend before his force; His crest of horses’ hair is blown behind By adverse air, and rustles in the wind. This haughty Phegeus saw with high disdain, And, as the chariot roll’d along the plain, Light from the ground he leapt, and seiz’d the rein. Thus hung in air, he still retain’d his hold, The coursers frighted, and their…
Venus brings healing dittany, cures the wound miraculously, and the recovered Aeneas arms and recites moral instruction to his son Ascanius before rushing back into the battle.
fill’d with terror and affright: The hissing shafts within the trench alight; An undistinguish’d noise ascends the sky, The shouts of those who kill, and groans of those who die. But now the goddess mother, mov’d with grief, And pierc’d with pity, hastens her relief. A branch of healing dittany she brought, Which in the Cretan fields with care she sought: Rough is the stem, which woolly leafs…
He continues with practices of cleanliness, purification after touching the dead, restrictions on women during certain times, and the roles of priests/magicians who foretell events and treat illness.
copiously into the languages of more civilized people. The only expressions of that kind I remember were 'May you rot, or may you swell, or may a beast take you.' I have before remarked that the natives of this part of Africa are extremely cleanly. This necessary habit of decency was with us a part of religion, and therefore we had many purifications and washings; indeed almost as many, and used on the same occasion…
Equiano recounts cruising off France, taking seventeen prizes, an encounter with a French frigate that raises English colors, involvement around Portsmouth, travel to Deal and London, and severe illness in St. George’s Hospital.
All this time we had never come to an engagement, though we were frequently cruising off the coast of France: during which we chased many vessels, and took in all seventeen prizes. I had been learning many of the manoeuvres of the ship during our cruise; and I was several times made to fire the guns. One evening, off Havre de Grace, just as it was growing dark, we were standing off shore, and met with a fine large Fr…
In Savannah, Doctor Perkins and a white ruffian beat Equiano nearly to death; his captain appeals to lawyers, but doctors like Doctor Brady treat him until he can work again.
as I could, but still continued in fear of them until we sailed, which I thanked God we did not long after; and I have never been amongst them since. We soon came to Georgia, where we were to complete our lading; and here worse fate than ever attended me: for one Sunday night, as I was with some negroes in their master's yard in the town of Savannah, it happened that their master, one Doctor Perkins, who was a very …
Sailing toward Montserrat, gales and rough seas force Equiano to manage pumps and navigation alone while the captain and mate fall ill; he buries the captain at sea, and his turkeys survive, yielding a large return.
and, though we were but nine in the whole, including five sailors and myself, yet we were obliged to attend to the pumps every half or three quarters of an hour. The captain and mate came on deck as often as they were able, which was now but seldom; for they declined so fast, that they were not well enough to make observations above four or five times the whole voyage. The whole care of the vessel rested, therefore, …
During the Arctic voyage Equiano’s journal-writing nearly burns him to death in a combustible cabin, then he distills fresh water, reaches Greenland latitudes, and records ice, whales, sea-horses, and bears.
but at last, not being able to write my journal in any other part of the ship, I was tempted again to venture by stealth with a light in the same cabin, though not without considerable fear and dread on my mind. On the 20th of June we began to use Dr. Irving's apparatus for making salt water fresh; I used to attend the distillery: I frequently purified from twenty-six to forty gallons a day. The water thus distilled …
Arriving near Malden by salt-furnaces, Washington describes poor sanitation and childhood work in the furnaces, learning only a limited number skill while developing a burning desire to read.
Of course we at once abandoned that cabin. Finally we reached our destination—a little town called Malden, which is about five miles from Charleston, the present capital of the state. At that time salt-mining was the great industry in that part of West Virginia, and the little town of Malden was right in the midst of the salt-furnaces. My stepfather had already secured a job at a salt-furnace, and he had also secure…
After salt-furnace work, he describes his dread of coal-mine labor—darkness, danger, being lost—and how mine life physically and mentally stunts boys, contrasting this with imagining better opportunities for white youth.
into our family, notwithstanding our poverty, an orphan boy, to whom afterward we gave the name of James B. Washington. He has ever since remained a member of the family. After I had worked in the salt-furnace for some time, work was secured for me in a coal-mine which was operated mainly for the purpose of securing fuel for the salt-furnace. Work in the coal-mine I always dreaded. One reason for this was that any o…
He describes early Tuskegee self-made furniture and mattress solutions using pine straw, then emphasizes strict cleanliness, tooth-brush use, regular bathing, and clothing discipline like keeping buttons.
some kind of a bedstead to be constructed, or at their sleeping without any kind of a mattress while waiting for something that looked like a mattress to be made. In the early days we had very few students who had been used to handling carpenters’ tools, and the bedsteads made by the students then were very rough and very weak. Not unfrequently when I went into the students’ rooms in the morning I would find at leas…
He details rising and falling burial figures in London parishes—especially St Giles-in-the-Fields and St Andrew’s, Holborn—tracking suspect street avoidance, escalating weekly totals, and later a warmer period that brought renewed plague and “spotted-fever.”
the heads of the people very much, and few cared to go through Drury Lane, or the other streets suspected, unless they had extraordinary business that obliged them to it This increase of the bills stood thus: the usual number of burials in a week, in the parishes of St Giles-in-the-Fields and St Andrew’s, Holborn, were from twelve to seventeen or nineteen each, few more or less; but from the time t…
From May into early June 1665, Defoe describes how hopes of decline failed as plague spread into more parishes (including St Andrew’s, Holborn; St Clement Danes; and Bearbinder Lane near Stocks Market), and he explains misreporting of plague deaths.
which was looked upon as the same thing; likewise the number that died of the spotted-fever in the whole increased, being eight the week before, and twelve the week above-named. This alarmed us all again, and terrible apprehensions were among the people, especially the weather being now changed and growing warm, and the summer being at hand. However, the next week there seemed to be some hopes agai…
After reading Psalm 91 and praying for direction, Defoe resolves to stay; his illness further prevents departure, he goes about his work, and his brother leaves to Dorking and then farther for family safety.
which I believe to be Divine, it was a kind of flying from God, and that He could cause His justice to overtake me when and where He thought fit. These thoughts quite turned my resolutions again, and when I came to discourse with my brother again I told him that I inclined to stay and take my lot in that station in which God had placed me, and that it seemed to be made more especially my duty, on t…
Defoe recounts how “quack” doctors and mountebanks in London exploited the poor during the plague, selling costly or misleading “plague-preventing” medicines while claiming to give advice for free.
forty years’ practice, arrived to such skill as may, with God’s blessing, direct persons how to prevent their being touched by any contagious distemper whatsoever. He directs the poor gratis.’ I take notice of these by way of specimen. I could give you two or three dozen of the like and yet have abundance left behind. ’Tis sufficient from these to apprise any one of the humour of those times, and h…
Defoe shifts to official medical efforts: the Lord Mayor orders physicians and the College of Physicians to publish cheap plague remedies, then explains how extreme severity overwhelms even doctors.
gratis to all that desired it. But as it is public, and to be seen on all occasions, I need not give the reader of this the trouble of it. I shall not be supposed to lessen the authority or capacity of the physicians when I say that the violence of the distemper, when it came to its extremity, was like the fire the next year. The fire, which consumed what the plague could not touch, defied al…
The civic rules extend to cleanliness and public life: daily street sweeping, removal of refuse outside the city, control of unwholesome food, killing stray animals, and prohibiting gatherings.
‘That the brewers and tippling-houses be looked into for musty and unwholesome casks. ‘That no hogs, dogs, or cats, or tame pigeons, or ponies, be suffered to be kept within any part of the city, or any swine to be or stray in the streets or lanes, but that such swine be impounded by the beadle or any other officer, and the owner punished according to Act of Common Council, and that the dogs …
The narrator describes the tortures of surgical attempts on plague swellings, people dying maddened by pain, various modes of death, and fears of violent treatment by nurses and watchmen, which he treats cautiously.
as a passion, some of mere fright and surprise without any infection at all, others frighted into idiotism and foolish distractions, some into despair and lunacy, others into melancholy madness. The pain of the swelling was in particular very violent, and to some intolerable; the physicians and surgeons may be said to have tortured many poor creatures even to death. The swellings in some grew hard,…
He notes that rumor still made people more cautious in choosing caregivers, while the truly poor died without food, physic, or nursing; officials like the Lord Mayor relieved cases brought to them.
heard of it in the city, why, then it happened in Southwark; and if you heard of it in Southwark, then it was done in the city, and the like. In the next place, of what part soever you heard the story, the particulars were always the same, especially that of laying a wet double cloth on a dying man’s face, and that of smothering a young gentlewoman; so that it was apparent, at least to my jud…
The narrator adds that Hayward and his wife’s vinegar-and-garlic measures seemed protective, then portrays the poor’s reckless courage in plague work and retells the story of the piper mistaken for dead.
she waited on was more than ordinary offensive, she snuffed vinegar up her nose and sprinkled vinegar upon her head-clothes, and held a handkerchief wetted with vinegar to her mouth. It must be confessed that though the plague was chiefly among the poor, yet were the poor the most venturous and fearless of it, and went about their employment with a sort of brutal courage; I must call it so, for it …
After two weeks indoors, Defoe goes to post-house and observes a purse left untouched, then “disinfected” with gunpowder and tongs; he also notes silence in the streets and walks toward Bow.
agonies and distress, and that I could make him that reads this hear, as I imagine I now hear them, for the sound seems still to ring in my ears. If I could but tell this part in such moving accents as should alarm the very soul of the reader, I should rejoice that I recorded those things, however short and imperfect. It pleased God that I was still spared, and very hearty and sound in health, but…
The narrative compares mortality before vs during plague and argues that nursing under infection caused starvation, poisoning via infected milk, and dead infants, concluding with an admonition for pregnant/nursing women to flee if possible.
1664. 1665. Child-bed 189 Child-bed 625 Abortive and still-born 458 Abortive and still-born 617 - —— —— - 647 1242 This inequality, I say, is exceedingly augmented when the numbers of people are considered. I pretend not to make any exact calculation of the numbers of people which were at this time in the city, but I shall make a probable conjecture at that part by-and-by. What I have said no…
Defoe questions whether house-shutting stops infection, claiming spread occurs via the not-visibly infected; he recounts a quarantined Whitechapel house where repeated inspections lead to deaths.
as the end chiefly aimed at, and all the private injuries that were done by the putting it in execution must be put to the account of the public benefit. It is doubtful to this day whether, in the whole, it contributed anything to the stop of the infection; and indeed I cannot say it did, for nothing could run with greater fury and rage than the infection did when it was in its chief violence, thou…
Defoe explains that shutting houses prevents delirious patients from roaming and recounts cases of plague-sick people attacking or terrifying neighbors; he then describes his own appointment as a house visitor/examiner.
was, in short, but a very small favour, it being very difficult to get any man to accept of such an employment, that was fit to be entrusted with it. It is true that shutting up of houses had one effect, which I am sensible was of moment, namely, it confined the distempered people, who would otherwise have been both very troublesome and very dangerous in their running about streets with the distemp…
He continues the anecdote of plague-like delirium and fear, describing infected visitors entering homes, families panicking, then surviving after perfumes and fumigation, while Defoe says he cannot recall the outcome for the sick man.
swoon, or in a fit, which, though she recovered a little, yet killed her in a very few days; and I never heard whether she had the plague or no. Another infected person came and knocked at the door of a citizen’s house where they knew him very well; the servant let him in, and being told the master of the house was above, he ran up and came into the room to them as the whole family was at sup…
Defoe recounts a man who escapes confinement, swims the Thames, returns, and claims he was ‘cured’—possibly by shock and cold—then concludes such stories show the desperate, delirious effects of the time.
distemper was upon them, they, I mean the person so wounded, would as certainly have been incurably infected as one that was sick before, and had the tokens upon him. I heard of one infected creature who, running out of his bed in his shirt in the anguish and agony of his swellings, of which he had three upon him, got his shoes on and went to put on his coat; but the nurse resisting, and snatching …
Defoe argues shutting up houses usually fails unless families cooperate, recounts how he resigned his examiner post after about three weeks in August, and proposes separating the sound from the sick in purpose-built demi-quarantine.
were not shut up at all. These things made it very hard, if not impossible, as I have said, to prevent the spreading of an infection by the shutting up of houses—unless the people would think the shutting of their houses no grievance, and be so willing to have it done as that they would give notice duly and faithfully to the magistrates of their being infected as soon as it was known by…
He argues against forcing everyone into more pest-houses or clearing houses by rushing the sick out, warning that removing patients would spread infection and overwhelm capacity, while explaining selective use of pest-houses for poor or infected servants.
so well looked after there in all the time of the visitation that there was but 156 buried in all at the London pest-house, and 159 at that of Westminster. By having more pest-houses I am far from meaning a forcing all people into such places. Had the shutting up of houses been omitted and the sick hurried out of their dwellings to pest-houses, as some proposed, it seems, at that time as well as …
As the infection shifted onto the city and eastern/south parishes, Defoe reports rising mortality totals and physician claims of extreme weekly deaths, then explains how people could spread contagion even when not visibly sick through clothes, sweat, and touch.
to look abroad again there; and the next week or two altered it still more; that is, more to the encouragement of the other part of the town. For example:— From the 19th of September to the 26th— - St Giles, Cripplegate 277 - St Giles-in-the-Fields 119 - Clarkenwell 76 - St Sepulchers …
The narrator explains that infected but unrecognized people—sometimes sweating, fainting, and dying in streets—cannot be distinguished from the healthy, making plague control by vigilance nearly impossible.
nay, their very clothes retained the infection, their hands would infect the things they touched, especially if they were warm and sweaty, and they were generally apt to sweat too. Now it was impossible to know these people, nor did they sometimes, as I have said, know themselves to be infected. These were the people that so often dropped down and fainted in the streets; for oftentimes they would g…
He describes plague’s hidden timeline: many show no signs until gangrene “tokens” appear and then die within hours, meaning their clothes and breath remained contagious for days beforehand.
in proportion, and neither the person giving the infection or the persons receiving it know anything of it, and perhaps not feel the effects of it for several days after. For example, many persons in the time of this visitation never perceived that they were infected till they found to their unspeakable surprise, the tokens come out upon them; after which they seldom lived six hours; for those spot…
The narrator argues that infected people may be ignorant, even while acting carefully, and he contrasts different plague symptoms (violent fever vs swellings vs silent death) while stressing the stealthy infection of others.
to them at a distance, and all this for fear of giving them the distemper; and without which he knew, as they were kept up, they could not have it. And here I must observe also that the plague, as I suppose all distempers do, operated in a different manner on differing constitutions; some were immediately overwhelmed with it, and it came to violent fevers, vomitings, insufferable headaches, pains …
He recounts cases where family members unknowingly infect whole households and others reach the “brink of death” before noticing symptoms, making shutting up the sick ineffective against hidden spread.
know what ailed them, and have been found, to their great surprise, at the brink of death: the tokens upon them, or the plague grown up to an incurable height. It was very sad to reflect how such a person as this last mentioned above had been a walking destroyer perhaps for a week or a fortnight before that; how he had ruined those that he would have hazarded his life to save, and had been breathin…