Aug. 1-8.  Aug. 8-15.  Aug. 15-22.  Aug. 22-29.

Fever             314         353          348          383
Spotted fever     174         190          166          165
Surfeit            85          87           74           99
Teeth              90         113          111          133
—–­         —–­          —–­          —–­
663         743          699          780

Aug. 29-Sept. 5.  Sept. 5-12.  Sept. 12-19.  Sept. 19-26.

Fever             364         332          309          268
Spotted Fever     157          97          101           65
Surfeit            68          45           49           36
Teeth             138         128          121          112
—–­         —–­          —–­          —–­
727         602          580          481

There were several other articles which bore a proportion to these, and which it is easy to perceive were increased on the same account; as aged,[279] consumptions, vomitings, imposthumes,[280] gripes, and the like, many of which were not doubted to be infected people; but as it was of the utmost consequence to families not to be known to be infected, if it was possible to avoid it, so they took all the measures they could to have it not believed, and if any died in their houses, to get them returned to the examiners, and by the searchers, as having died of other distempers.

This, I say, will account for the long interval which, as I have said, was between the dying of the first persons that were returned in the bills to be dead of the plague, and the time when the distemper spread openly, and could not be concealed.

Besides, the weekly bills themselves at that time evidently discover this truth; for while there was no mention of the plague, and no increase after it had been mentioned, yet it was apparent that there was an increase of those distempers which bordered nearest upon it.  For example, there were eight, twelve, seventeen, of the spotted fever in a week when there were none or but very few of the plague; whereas before, one, three, or four were the ordinary weekly numbers of that distemper.  Likewise, as I observed before, the burials increased weekly in that particular parish and the parishes adjacent, more than in any other parish, although there were none set down of the plague; all which tell us that the infection was handed on, and the succession of the distemper really preserved, though it seemed to us at that time to be ceased, and to come again in a manner surprising.

It might be, also, that the infection might remain in other parts of the same parcel of goods which at first it came in, and which might not be, perhaps, opened, or at least not fully, or in the clothes of the first infected person; for I cannot think that anybody could be seized with the contagion in a fatal and mortal degree for nine weeks together, and support his state of health so well as even not to discover it to themselves:[281] yet, if it were so, the argument is the stronger in favor of what I am saying, namely, that the infection is retained in bodies apparently well, and conveyed from them to those they converse with, while it is known to neither the one nor the other.