'For better assistance of the searchers,forasmuch as there hath been heretofore great abuse in misreporting the disease,to the further spreading of the infection,it is therefore ordered that there be chosen and appointed able and discreet chirurgeons,besides those that do already belong to the pest-house,amongst whom the city and Liberties to be quartered as the places lie most apt and convenient;and every of these to have one quarter for his limit;and the said chirurgeons in every of their limits to join with the searchers for the view of the body,to the end there may be a true report made of the disease.
'And further,that the said chirurgeons shall visit and search such-like persons as shall either send for them or be named and directed unto them by the examiners of every parish,and inform themselves of the disease of the said parties.
'And forasmuch as the said chirurgeons are to be sequestered from all other cures,and kept only to this disease of the infection,it is ordered that every of the said chirurgeons shall have twelve-pence a body searched by them,to be paid out of the goods of the party searched,if he be able,or otherwise by the parish.
Nurse-keepers.
'If any nurse-keeper shall remove herself out of any infected house before twenty-eight days after the decease of any person dying of the infection,the house to which the said nurse-keeper doth so remove herself shall be shut up until the said twenty-eight days be expired.'
ORDERS CONCERNING INFECTED HOUSES AND PERSONS SICK OF THE PLAGUE.
Notice to be given of the Sickness.
'The master of every house,as soon as any one in his house complaineth,either of blotch or purple,or swelling in any part of his body,or falleth otherwise dangerously sick,without apparent cause of some other disease,shall give knowledge thereof to the examiner of health within two hours after the said sign shall appear.
Sequestration of the Sick.
'As soon as any man shall be found by this examiner,chirurgeon,or searcher to be sick of the plague,he shall the same night be sequestered in the same house;and in case he be so sequestered,then though he afterwards die not,the house wherein he sickened should be shut up for a month,after the use of the due preservatives taken by the rest.
Airing the Stuff.
'For sequestration of the goods and stuff of the infection,their bedding and apparel and hangings of chambers must be well aired with fire and such perfumes as are requisite within the infected house before they be taken again to use.This to be done by the appointment of an examiner.
Shutting up of the House.
'If any person shall have visited any man known to be infected of the plague,or entered willingly into any known infected house,being not allowed,the house wherein he inhabiteth shall be shut up for certain days by the examiner's direction.
None to be removed out of infected Houses,but,&C.
'Item,that none be removed out of the house where he falleth sick of the infection into any other house in the city (except it be to the pest-house or a tent,or unto some such house which the owner of the said visited house holdeth in his own hands and occupieth by his own servants);and so as security be given to the parish whither such remove is made,that the attendance and charge about the said visited persons shall be observed and charged in all the particularities before expressed,without any cost of that parish to which any such remove shall happen to be made,and this remove to be done by night.And it shall be lawful to any person that hath two houses to remove either his sound or his infected people to his spare house at his choice,so as,if he send away first his sound,he not after send thither his sick,nor again unto the sick the sound;and that the same which he sendeth be for one week at the least shut up and secluded from company,for fear of some infection at the first not appearing.
Burial of the Dead.
'That the burial of the dead by this visitation be at most convenient hours,always either before sun-rising or after sun-setting,with the privity of the churchwardens or constable,and not otherwise;and that no neighbours nor friends be suffered to accompany the corpse to church,or to enter the house visited,upon pain of having his house shut up or be imprisoned.
'And that no corpse dying of infection shall be buried,or remain in any church in time of common prayer,sermon,or lecture.And that no children be suffered at time of burial of any corpse in any church,churchyard,or burying-place to come near the corpse,coffin,or grave.
And that all the graves shall be at least six feet deep.
'And further,all public assemblies at other burials are to be foreborne during the continuance of this visitation.
No infected Stuff to be uttered.
'That no clothes,stuff,bedding,or garments be suffered to be carried or conveyed out of any infected houses,and that the criers and carriers abroad of bedding or old apparel to be sold or pawned be utterly prohibited and restrained,and no brokers of bedding or old apparel be permitted to make any outward show,or hang forth on their stalls,shop-boards,or windows,towards any street,lane,common way,or passage,any old bedding or apparel to be sold,upon pain of imprisonment.And if any broker or other person shall buy any bedding,apparel,or other stuff out of any infected house within two months after the infection hath been there,his house shall be shut up as infected,and so shall continue shut up twenty days at the least.
No Person to be conveyed out of any infected House.
