really receiv’d the Infection, and knows it not, but goes Abroad, and about as a ſound Perſon, may give the Plague to a thouſand People, and they to greater Numbers in Proportion, and neither the Perſon giving the Infection, or the Perſons receiving it, know any thing 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 perceiv’d that they were infected, till they found to their unſpeakable Surprize, the Tokens come out upon them, after which they ſeldom liv’d ſix Hours; for thoſe Spots they call’d the Tokens were really gangreen Spots, or mortified Fleſh in ſmall Knobs as broad as a little ſilver Peny, and hard as a piece of Callous or Horn; ſo that when the Diſeaſe was come up to that length, there was nothing could follow but certain Death, and yet as I ſaid they knew nothing of their being Infected, nor found themſelves ſo much as out of Order, till thoſe mortal Marks were upon them: But every Body muſt allow, that they were infected in a high Degree before, and muſt have been ſo ſome times and conſequently their Breath, their Sweat, their a Cloaths were contagious for many Days before.
This occaſion’d a vaſt Variety of Caſes, which Phyſicians would have much more opportunity to remember than I; but ſome came within the Compaſs of my Obſervation, or hearing, of which I ſhall name a few.
A certain Citizen who had liv’d ſafe, and untouch’d, till the Month of September, when the Weight of the Diſtemper lay more in the City than it had done before, was mighty chearful, and ſomething too bold, as I think it was, in his Talk of how ſecure he was, how cautious he had been, and how he had never come near any ſick Body: Says another Citizen, a Neighbour of his to him,
