renewed again; by which tedious Confinement of the Sick and Well together, it often proved the Cause of the Loss of the Whole. These, besides many other great Inconveniencies, were sufficient to affright the People from making the Discovery, and we may be certain, that many died of the Plague which were returned to the Magistracy under another Denomination, which might easily be obtained from the Nurses and Searchers, whether from their Ignorance, Respect, Love of Money, _&c._ And if they vary so much in their Computation of those that died; we shall find them as widely different in the Time when 'tis said the Plague first began. The great Dr. _Mead_ on this important Subject, may establish by his Name whatever he lays down, with the same Force and Authority as the Ancients held of that _ipse dixit_ of Aristotle; but as that great Master of Nature was not exempt from slipping into some Errors, _& humanum est errare_, it can be no Shock to the Reputation of this Gentleman, if we shall find him no less fallible than of some others of the Faculty who has treated on this Subject; and to this part of the time when 'tis said the Plague first began. Doctor _Mead_, by what Information he has not thought fit to tell us, does affirm, That its Beginning was in _Autumn_ before the Year 1664/5; whereas Dr. _Hodges_ says, in the very first Page of his _Liomologia_, that it was not till the Close of the Year 1664; at that Season two or three Persons died suddenly in one Family at _Westminster_, of which he gives a further Light from his visiting the first Patient in the _Christmas_ Holidays, and fully confirmed by the Weekly Bills of Mortality, whose first Account of those who died of the Plague were from _December_ the 27th, 1664/5.