86–91). Dr Richard Brookes, who thought quicksilver hung about the neck in a walnut shell efficacious, also refers to toads: ‘Those that use Toads either bore a hole through their Heads, and so hang them about their Necks, or make Troches of them, as Helmont’ (see his History of the Most remarkable Pestilential Distempers (1721), 38). The use of amulets, also called plague cakes, was canvassed early in the century by Dr Peter Turner (The Opinion of P. Turner concerning Amulets or Plague Cakes, 1603). Defoe could have found support for H.F.’s scepticism in Blackmore’s Discourse (p. 70), or in Dr John Quincy’s Lexicon Physico-Medicum, under ‘Amulet’: ‘anything that is hung about the Neck, or any Part of the Body; supposed to be a Charm against Witchcraft, or Disease. These were often in esteem amongst some Enthusiastick Philosophers, and have been last supported by the Credulity of Mr. Boyle; but now have none to appear in their behalf but Empiricks and Mountebanks.’ Kemp’s A Brief Treatise … of the Pestilence, which Defoe possessed, devotes several pages (pp. 61–6) to amulets.

Abracadabra: a cabalistic word dating from about the second century, written in various ways and used as a charm to cure agues or ward off calamity.

IHS: an abbreviation or partial transliteration of the Greek word for Jesus, used as a symbol or monogram of the sacred name and read in Latin as Iesus Hominum Salvator.

this Mark thus: this is a printer’s device known as a ‘flower’. It may have had some cabalistic or mysterious significance; but significantly it is used as an ornament in 1721 by James Graves, a bookseller, in a plague tract, A Discourse on Pestilence and Contagion. Graves was one of three booksellers who issued Defoe’s Journal in 1722, and later his Tour thro’ the Whole Island of Great Britain (1724–6).

Dead-Carts: the bearers who collected bodies of the dead in carts or barrows, obviously not the most squeamish of men, were the objects of constant criticism in times of plague for their callousness; Dekker, Wither, and Defoe being three of the better-known writers among the critics. A more serious objection to this method of treating the dead may be seen in An Hypothetical Notion of the Plague … by Mr Place (1721), 39: ‘Were Men to study to help the Plague to do its business, and spread itself, they could not contrive a more effectual Way than Death-Carts; to carry Loads of Pestilence through the Streets from End to End of the Town.… Were Plague Seed cried in the Streets, and every Man that went by obliged to buy, it could not be much worse.’ Place advocated the contagionist theory.

appointed Physicians and Surgeons for … the poor: the Lord Mayor, Sir John Lawrence, and the Court of Aldermen appointed Dr Nathaniel Hodges and Dr Thomas Witherley to serve the poor in the City and its Liberties. To these were added others, some of whom proffered their services without payment. Among these were Edward Learmen, Thomas Grey, Dr John Glover, Dr Humphrey Brooke, Dr Parker, and Dr Barbon. They were assigned to various wards and parishes (see London, Guildhall Repertory, 70 (1664–5), 144–53).

Directions for cheap Remedies: at the request of the Privy Council, not the Lord Mayor (as Defoe states), the College of Physicians published Necessary Directions … by the College of Physicians (1665), a revised version of similar Directions issued in earlier plagues. Defoe found it reprinted in 1721 in A Collection of Very Valuable and Scarce Pieces. A copy is also listed in the sale catalogue of his library, no. 184, 51. It contained ‘diverse remedies of small charge’, but also other medicines ‘for the richer sort’. The College of Physicians was founded in the reign of Henry VIII. Its charter gave the College power to license all physicians for practice in the City and in a circuit of seven miles. Originally only those with degrees from Oxford or Cambridge could qualify as Fellows. Restrictions were eased in the seventeenth century: physicians with degrees from foreign universities became eligible and the number of Fellows was increased from thirty to eighty.

several Physicians … and … Surgeons: the exact number of medical men who remained in London and met death during the plague is difficult to establish. See S. D. Clippingdale, ‘A Medical Role of Honour’, reprinted from the British Medical Journal, 6 Feb. 1909. The doctors mentioned by Defoe on p. 29 lived through the epidemic.

An Act … Plague: I Jac. I, c.