[13] See Gustavi Orræi Descriptio Pestis. 4to. Petropoli, 1784, p. 29.
[14] The state physician, Dr. Rinder, was attacked at the end of February with a gangrenous ulcer in the leg, which prevented his attendance at this meeting:—He died soon after.
[15] Orræus, as before quoted, p. 29.
[16] Three versts are equal to two English miles. Tr.
[17] In what manner the contagion got among these people could not be ascertained. Perhaps, through the negligence of the centinels, they had some communication with the persons under quarantine; or had become infected by bringing into use clothes and other effects, which the last-mentioned persons might have concealed under ground before their removal to the quarantine-hospital.
[18] Besides praying by them in the ordinary manner, it is customary, in Russia, to carry in great pomp to the sick the images of their saints, which every person present kisses in rotation.
[19] In their paroxysm of phrensy, the populace attempted to wreak their vengeance upon those who had laboured for their preservation. After they had sacrificed one victim to their blind rage, they sought for the physicians and surgeons. Some of the lowest rabble broke into my house, and destroyed every thing they could lay hold of; they also went in search of the other physicians and surgeons, and pursued such as they met with. Providence rescued us all from their hands. Little suspecting what was to happen, I had gone four days before, by order of council, to the Foundling-Hospital, to superintend more closely the health of the children there.
[20] There is some little variation between this author’s spelling of these Russian names and Mr. Coxe’s. The last-mentioned traveller writes the 1st. Kremlin; the 2nd. Khitaigorod; the 3rd. Bielgorod; and the 4th. Semlainogorod. This last takes its name from the rampart of earth with which it is surrounded. Tr.
[21] Mr. Coxe describes the wooden houses of the common people in Moscow, as mean hovels, in no degree superior to peasants cottages. It is easy to conceive how favourable these low and crouded habitations must have been to the harbouring and spreading of contagion. Tr.
[22] Now Prince Orlow.