THIS I take to be a more effectual Method to keep the _Infection_ from spreading, than the absolute refusing a Passage to People upon any Terms. For when Men are in such imminent Danger of their Lives where they are, many, no doubt, if not otherwise allowed to escape, will use Endeavours to do it secretly, let the Hazard be ever so great. And it can hardly be, but some will succeed in their Attempts; as we see it has often happen'd in _France_, notwithstanding all their Care. But one that gets off thus clandestinely, will be more likely to carry the Distemper with him, than twenty, nay a hundred, that go away under the preceding Restrictions: especially because the _Infection_ of the Place, he flies from, will by this Management be rendered much more intense. For confining People, and shutting them up together in great Numbers, will make the Distemper rage with augmented Force, even to the increasing it beyond what can be easily imagined: as appears from the Account which the learned _Gassendus_[93] has given us of a memorable _Plague_, which happened at _Digne_ in _Provence_, where he lived, in the Year 1629. This was so terrible, that in one _Summer_, out of _ten thousand_ Inhabitants, it left but _fifteen hundred_, and of them all but _five_ or _six_ had gone through the _Disease_. And he assigns _this_, as the principal Cause of the great Destruction, that the Citizens were too closely confined, and not suffered so much as to go to their Country-Houses. Whereas in another _Pestilence_, which broke out in the same Place a Year and an half after, more Liberty being allowed, there did not die above _one hundred_ Persons.
FOR these Reasons, I think, to allow People with proper _Cautions_ to remove from an infected Place, is the best Means to suppress the _Contagion_, as well as the most humane Treatment of the present Sufferers: and, under these Limitations, the Method of _investing_ Towns infected, which is certainly the most proper, that can be advised, to keep the Disease from spreading, will be no Inconvenience to the Places _surrounded_. On the contrary, it will rather be useful to them; since the Guard may establish such _Regulations_ for the Safety of those, who shall bring Provisions, as shall remove the Fears, which might otherwise discourage them.