The Greeks, Armenians, Jews, of Constantinople were far from regarding it with the stoical indifference of the Mohammedans. The disease was considered in the highest degree contagious, and its horrors were often aggravated by the terror and dread of each other, that seized upon these people whenever it made its appearance. If a person were attacked with the disease, neighbors and friends would remove to a distance, and not unfrequently he would be left to die unattended. When a death occurred, public porters, who were secluded from the rest of the community, came and took up the body, and cast it, unconfined and unattended, into a common pit.

As a consequence, during the greatest prevalence of the disease all missionary work among the people was suspended, the schools were closed to prevent its spread, and all ordinary intercourse was broken off. Even the missionaries established a rigid quarantine among themselves. None but the heads of the families were allowed to go into the street, lest in some unguarded way the infection should be brought into their homes. Each house had its closet or box in the yard for fumigating every one that entered. Not a parcel of any kind was handled until it had been thoroughly smoked.

Letters were received from the hands of the courier with a pair of tongs, and disinfected in the fumes of sulphur, or by some other process, before it was considered safe to open them. At such times, to the missionaries and their families, there seemed but a step between them and death. Mr. Goodell once said, " When the plague is very bad, we always read the ninety-first Psalm." In his annual letter to his friend, Judge Cooke, in January, 1837, he gave the following account of the pestilence: —

CONSTANTINOPLE, Jan. 6, 1837.

MY DEAR SIR, — It is now near, or quite, six months since the plague passed beyond its ordinary limits, and full three months since it became truly frightful; nor have its ravages yet entirely ceased, though I am thankful to say that it has received a check. Could you look in upon us at such times, you would see our schools suspended, our meetings broken up, our intercourse with the people cut off, our plans of usefulness interrupted, our domestics confined closely to the house, and every being and every thing admitted within doors either fumigated or made to pass through fire or water.

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