Plague’s Progress • 135number for that time of year. Fever and spotted fever, commonly confused
with plague, were claimed for 21 and 25 deaths. Gradually, the gap between
plague deaths and all fatalities narrowed as the total of recorded burials ap-
proached eight hundred a week. In July the ratio of plague to total fatalities
rose from one-third to one-half—still highly suspect. During August the
figure approached the three-quarter mark. But these figures are also sus-
picious. It is possible that two or three other diseases may have been at epi-
demic levels, but a dozen shadowing the death curve of plague is beyond be-
lief (see figs. 7 and 8 and appendix C).^49Fig. 7 .Saint Giles Cripplegate Parish Records: Nonplague Burials in 1665 and the
Previous Ten-Year Average. For an explanation of the categories of death from the
Bills of Mortality, see note to table A. 1 .Saint Giles Cripplegate Register, GL, MS 6419 / 5 – 7
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