[44] Acel´dama, the field of blood (see Matt. xxvii. 8).
[45] Phlegmatic hypochondriac is a contradiction in terms; for "phlegmatic" means "impassive, self-restrained," while "hypochondriac" means "morbidly anxious" (about one's health). Defoe's lack of scholarship was a common jest among his more learned adversaries, such as Swift, and Pope.
[46] It was in this very plague year that Newton formulated his theory of gravitation. Incredible as it may seem, at this same date even such men as Dryden held to a belief in astrology.
[47] William Lilly was the most famous astrologer and almanac maker of the time. In Butler's Hudibras he is satirized under the name of Sidrophel.
[48] Poor Robin's Almanack was first published in 1661 or 1662, and was ascribed to Robert Herrick, the poet.
[49] See Rev. xviii. 4.
[50] Jonah iii. 4.
[51] Flavius Josephus, the author of the History of the Jewish Wars. He is supposed to have died in the last decade of the first century A.D.
[52] So called because many Frenchmen lived there. In Westminster there was another district with this same name.
[53] "Gave them vapors," i.e., put them into a state of nervous excitement.