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But in the house from which the soldier had been taken there were

several attacked by the disease; upon which all the inhabitants

of it were conducted to the lazaretto, by order of the Tribunal

of Health.

The contagion made but little progress during the rest of this

year and the beginning of the following. From time to time there

were a few persons attacked, but the rarity of the occurrence

diminished the suspicion of the plague, and confirmed the

multitude in their disbelief of its existence. Added to this,

most of the physicians joined with the people in laughing at the

unhappy presages and threatening opinions of the smaller number

of their brethren: the cases that did occur they pretended to

explain upon other grounds; and the account of these cases was

seldom presented to the Tribunal of Health. Fear of the lazaretto

kept all on the alert; the sick were concealed, and false

certificates were obtained from some subaltern officers of

health, who were deputed to inspect the dead bodies. Those

physicians, who, convinced of the reality of the contagion,

proposed precautions against it, were the objects of general

animadversion.