If I
had time I stayed by them to see them die. Then if people had
nobody to help them (for help was scarce at such time and place)
I helped to lay them forth out of the bed, and afterwards into
the coffin; and last of all, accompanied them to the ground."
Of the physicians remaining in the city, nine fell a sacrifice to
duty. Amongst those who survived was the learned Dr. Nathaniel
Hodges, who was spared to meet a philanthropist's fate in penury
and neglect. [Dr. Hodges subsequently wrote a work entitled
"Loimologia; or, an Historical Account of the Plague of London,"
first published in 1672; of which, together with a collection of
the bills of mortality for 1665, entitled "London's Dreadful
Visitation," and a pamphlet by the Rev. Thomas Vincent, "God's
Terrible Voice in the City," printed in 1667, De Foe largely
availed himself in writing his vivid but unreliable "Journal of
the Plague Year," which first saw the light in 1722.] The king
had, on outbreak of the distemper, shown solicitude for his
citizens by summoning a privy council, when a committee of peers
was formed for "Prevention and Spreading of the Infection."
Under their orders the College of Physicians drew up "Certain
necessary Directions for the Prevention and Cure of the Plague,
with Divers remedies for small Change," which were printed in
pamphlet form, and widely distributed amongst the people. [We
learn that at this time the College was stored with "men of
learning, virtue, and probity, nothing acquainted with the little
arts of getting a name by plotting against the honesty and
credulity of the people.
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