The inflammatory boils and buboes in the
groins and axillae were recognised at once as prognosticating a
fatal issue, and those were past all hope of recovery in whom they
arose in numbers all over the body. It was not till towards the
close of the plague that they ventured to open, by incision, these
hard and dry boils, when matter flowed from them in small
quantity, and thus, by compelling nature to a critical
suppuration, many patients were saved. Every spot which the sick
had touched, their breath, their clothes, spread the contagion;
and, as in all other places, the attendants and friends who were
either blind to their danger, or heroically despised it, fell a
sacrifice to their sympathy. Even the eyes of the patient were
considered a sources of contagion, which had the power of acting
at a distance, whether on account of their unwonted lustre, or the
distortion which they always suffer in plague, or whether in
conformity with an ancient notion, according to which the sight
was considered as the bearer of a demoniacal enchantment. Flight
from infected cities seldom availed the fearful, for the germ of
the disease adhered to them, and they fell sick, remote from
assistance, in the solitude of their country houses.
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