For instance, at one time
it was thought that syphilis would prevent it, so maddened hordes
stormed the brothels. At another time, it was rumored that the
plague could be burned out of the air, and all one day bonfires
blazed outside every door and people sweltered in the heat. Other
localities posted sentries on the road to keep Londoners out of
their areas to prevent the plague from spreading there. Since
sneezing was thought to be the first sign of a person getting the
plague, it became common to ask God to bless a person who sneezed.
In London, statistics were collected on the number of plague
victims and their places of death to try to determine the cause of
the plague.
In 1666 a fire destroyed three-fourths of the City of London. The
blazing buildings were so hot that people with leather buckets of
water, hand squirts, and manually operated water-pumping machines
could not get near them. There was a lot of noise from falling
buildings. Panic and desperation were widespread. There was a lot
of crying out and running about distractedly. People saved some of
their possessions by burying them or removing them from the fire's
path as they moved to different lodgings. The streets were full of
carts piled high with furniture and merchandise. The Thames River
was thick with heavily laden barges. Melting lead from St. Paul's
church ran down the streets in a stream. The Tower of London,
upwind of the fire, was saved by blowing up surrounding buildings.
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