Doors and windows were then locked, and great chafing-dishes were brought, and a dreadful odour of brimstone, herbs, burnt feathers, and other ingredients filled the air.

After we had been compelled to endure this stifling atmosphere for four or five minutes, the windows and doors were once more opened.

A person of a consumptive habit could scarcely have survived this inhuman ordeal.
On the ninth day the men were drawn up in a row, to undergo an examination by the doctor.

The old gentleman entered the room, with a spy-glass in one hand and a stick in the other, to review the troop.

Every man had to strike himself a blow on the chest and another in the side; if he could do this without feeling pain, it was considered a sign of health, because the plague-spots appear first on these parts of the body.