While praising the “prudence” and “moderation” of the magistrates who oversaw the shutting up of houses, the author nevertheless continues his condemnation of the practice as ineffective and unfair. Yes, he says, if all and only infected persons could be quarantined, the method would have been effective, but he allows as how the disease appeared to have been spread “insensibly” between persons who appeared completely healthy, which was quite true, inasmuch as it was the bite of a flea, not person-to-person contact, that was the principal vector of transmission. But in any case, the quarantine didn’t work that way, and the sick were indiscriminately sequestered with their entire household, with ill effects for them all.  If ever there were an unfortunate example, it’s a family in a house in Whitechappel, who just can’t catch a break.  This family had a maid who was erroneously diagnosed with the plague. So the household was quarantined for forty days.  Examiners arrived near the end of that period, found that one family member had a fever, and quarantined them for another forty days.  One by one the family fell ill from various ailments, most associated with being shut up in their home, and the quarantines were extended again, until on a subsequent visit, the author says, it was the examiner himself who introduced the plague into the household, and they all died. This episode also gives some small details of the relationship between families shut up and the watchers posted to keep them there.  As you might imagine, these relationships were not in the main cordial, and the life of a watchman was not of a sort to inspire pity.  Included here are some observations on the process of reassigning watchmen accused of neglecting their duties and harassing the family. [For notes on the main themes of the novel, visit https://londonplague.com/postscript/. To see some ways in which our reactions to the COVID-19 pandemic are anticipated in the Journal, see https://londonplague.com/concordance/.] Credits:  Podcast produced by Sam Brelsfoard. Music from Funeral Sentences of Henry Purcell (1659-1695), performed by the Choir of Clare College at the University of Cambridge, Timothy Brown conducting.  Used by permission.  Visit our website: www.londonplague.com © 2020 Mark Cummings