16. I say, the Bills of Mortality would take off these Bars, which keep some men within bounds, as to these extravagancies: for in |33| the aforementioned 229250, we find not above 392 to have died of the Pox. Now, forasmuch as it is not good to let the World be lulled into a security and belief of Impunity by our Bills, which we intend shall not be only as Deaths heads to put men in mind of their Mortality, but also as Mercurial Statues to point out the most dangerous waies that lead us into it and misery; We shall therefore shew, that the Pox is not as the Toads and Snakes aforementioned, but of a quite contrary nature, together with the reason why it appears otherwise.
17. Forasmuch as by the ordinary discourse of the World it seems a great part of men have, at one time or other, had some species of this Disease, I wondering why so few died of it, especially because I could not take that to be so harmless, whereof so many complained very fiercely; upon enquiry, I found that those who died of it out of the Hospitals (especially that of Kingsland, and the Lock in Southwark) were returned of Ulcers and Sores. And in brief, I found, that all mentioned to dye of the French Pox were returned by the Clerks of Saint Giles's and Saint Martin's in the Fields only, in which place I understood that most of the vilest and most miserable Houses of Un-|34|cleanness were: from whence I concluded, that only hated persons, and such, whose very Noses were eaten off, were reported by the Searchers to have died of this too frequent Malady.
18. In the next place, it shall be examined, under what Name or Casualty such as die of these Diseases are brought in: I say, under the Consumption; forasmuch as all dying thereof dye so emaciated and lean (their Ulcers disappearing upon Death) that the Old-women Searchers, after the mist of a Cup of Ale, and the bribe of a Two-groat fee, in stead of one given them[1], cannot tell whether this emaciation or leanness
- ↑ Cromwell's act of 24 August, 1653, provided for the election by each parish of a parish registrar, who might take "for every Birth of Childe, Four pence and no more; and for every Death, Four pence and no more: And for Publications, Marriages, Births or Burials of poor people who live upon Alms, nothing shall
