United States or Togo ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
The first two cases of this terrible visitation occurred in Westminster, and during the sorrowful months that followed, in place of feasting and pageantry, the fields were the theatre for scenes of horror and death. The pesthouses were still standing in 1832. There was formerly a "maze" in Tothill Fields, which is shown in a print from an engraving by Hollar taken about 1650.
AVOID EVIL COMPANIONS. Avoid evil companions, lewd conversation, bad pictures, corrupt and vicious novels, books, and papers. Abstain from all intoxicating drinks. These inflame the blood, excite the passions, and stimulate sensuality; weakening the power of the brain, they always impair the power of self-restraint. Smoking is very undesirable. Keep away from the moral pesthouses.
As relates to infectious diseases, for example, this kingdom is now in a less civilised state than it was in my days, three centuries ago, when the leper was separated from general society; and when, although the science of medicine was at once barbarous and fantastical, the existence of pesthouses showed at least some approaches towards a medical police. Montesinos.
Perhaps you may know, dear reader, who is responsible for it. Formerly the city was much injured and rendered unhealthy, by the practice of killing animals for market in the crowded sections. In the summer these slaughtering establishments were perfect pesthouses. Now the slaughtering is done almost entirely at the abattoirs, or slaughter houses, at Communipaw, New Jersey.
It was fifteen years later, in the time of the Great Plague, that the pesthouses came into full use, for we read in the parish records July 14, 1665, "that the Churchwardens doe forthwith proceed to the making of an additional Provision for the reception of the Poore visited of the Plague, at the Pesthouse in Tuttle ffieldes."
Word Of The Day