Date: March, 1722

"[T]he many dismal Objects, which happened everywhere as I went about the Streets, had fill'd my Mind with a great deal of Horror, for fear of the Distemper it self, which was indeed, very horrible in it self, and in some more than in others, the swellings which were generally in the Neck, or Gro...

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

Date: March, 1722

"I would be far from lessening the Awe of the Judgments of God, and the Reverence to his Providence, which ought always to be on our Minds on such Occasions as these."

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

Date: April 30, 1730

"The spirit of the brain, distilled by the heat of the imagination, like some chemical preparations, when exposed to the air, is apt to smoke, to take fire, to crack, and bounce, to the no small disturbance of the neighbourhood."

— Richard Russel and John Martyn

Date: April 30, 1730

"Nay, the very insipid phlegm, and even the caput mortuum of the brain, after this chemical operation, being mixed with ink, and spred upon paper, have the same combustible, noisy qualities, with the spirits themselves."

— Richard Russel and John Martyn

Date: April 30, 1730

"I have often been concerned at the ill success of my worthy friend the CANTABRIGIAN PHILOSOPHER; who happening to jar the string in the harmony of human understanding, among those, who were below his own height; they, instead of subscribing to his doctrine, were for tying him fast, and sending h...

— Richard Russel and John Martyn