Our measures for this end had been cautiously taken and carefully adhered to.

They did not consist in avoiding the receptacles of infection, for my office required me to go daily into the midst of them; nor in filling the house with the exhalations of gunpowder, vinegar, or tar.

They consisted in cleanliness, reasonable exercise, and wholesome diet.

Custom had likewise blunted the edge of our apprehensions.

To take this person into my house, and bestow upon him the requisite attendance, was the scheme that first occurred to me.