A Discourse on the Plague

PART II.. _of the Methods to Be Taken Against The_ Plague.

Of the Methods to be taken against the PLAGUE.

CHAP I. Of preventing Infection from other Countries, 80

CHAP II. Of stopping the Progress of the PLAGUE, if it should enter our Country, 100

CHAP III. Of the Cure of the PLAGUE, 151

THE PREFACE.

THIS Book having at first been written only as a Plan of Directions for preserving our Country from the =Plague= was then very short and concise. An Act of Parliament being immediately after made for performing =Quarantaines= &c. according to the Rules here laid down, it passed through seven Editions in one year without any Alterations. I then thought proper to make some =Additions= to it, in order to shew the Reasonableness of the Methods prescribed, by giving a more full Description of this Disease, and collecting some Examples of the good Success which had attended such Measures, when they had been put in Practice. At the same time I annex'd a short Chapter relating to the Cure of the Plague; being induced thereto by considering how widely most Authors have erred in prescribing a Heap of useless and very often hurtful Medicines, which they recommend under the specious Titles of =Antidotes=, =Specifics= and =Alexipharmacs=: hoping that the great Resemblance, which I had observed between this Disease and the =Small Pox=, would justify my writing upon a Distemper which I have never seen.

INDEED the =Small Pox= is a true =Plague=, tho' of a particular kind, bred, as I have shewn all Pestilences are, in the same hot =Egyptian= Climate, and brought into =Asia= and =Europe= by the way of Commerce; but most remarkably by the War with the =Saracens=, called the =Holy War=, at the latter end of the eleventh and the beginning of the twelfth Century. Ever since which time the morbific Seeds of it have been preserved in the infected Cloaths and the Furniture of Houses: and have broken out more or less in all Countries, according as the hot and moist Temperature of the Air has favoured their Spreading and the Exertion of their Force. The =Measles= is likewise a =Plague sui generis=, and owes its Origin to the same Country.

I have now revised my little Work once more: and though I cannot find any reason to change my Mind as to any material Points which regard either the =Preventing= or the =Stopping= the Progress of =Infection=; yet I have here and there added some new =Strokes= of Reasoning, and, as the Painters say, retouch'd the =Ornaments=, and hightened the =Colouring= of the =Piece=.

THE Substance of the long Preface to the last Edition is as follows.

I have insisted more at large upon the =Infection= of this Disease, than I could ever have thought needful at this time, after =Europe= has had Experience of the Distemper for so many Ages; had I not been surprized by the late Attempts of some Physicians in =France= to prove the contrary, even while they have the most undeniable Arguments against them before their Eyes. In particular, I cannot but very much admire to see Dr. =Chicoyneau=, and the other Physicians, who first gave us =Observations= on the =Plague=, when at =Marseilles=, relate in the =Reflections=, they afterwards published upon those Observations, the Case of a Man, who was seized with the =Plague=, upon his burying a young Woman dead of it, when no one else dared to approach the Body; and yet to see them ascribe his Disease, not to his being =infected= by the Woman, but solely to his Grief for the Loss of her, to whom he had made Love, and to a =Diarrhoea=, which had been some time upon him. No question but these concurred to make his Disease the more violent; and perhaps even exposed him to contract the =Infection=: but why it should be supposed, that he was not =infected=, I cannot imagine, when there was so plain an Appearance of it. I am as much at a Loss to find any Colour of Reason for their denying =Infection= in another Case, they relate, of a =young Lady= seized with the =Plague=, upon the sudden Sight of a =PESTILENTIAL TUMOR=, just broke out upon her Maid; not allowing any thing but the Lady's Surprize to be the Cause of her Illness.

THE Truth is, these Physicians had engaged themselves in an =Hypothesis=, that the =Plague= was bred at =Marseilles= by a long Use of bad Aliment, and grew so fond of their Opinion, as not to be moved by the most convincing Evidence. And thus it mostly happens, when we indulge Conjectures instead of pursuing the true Course for making Discoveries in Nature.

I KNOW they imagine this their Sentiment to be abundantly confirmed from some Experiments made by Dr. =Deidier= upon the =Bile= taken from Persons dead of the =Plague=: which having been either poured into a Wound made on purpose in different =Dogs=, or injected into their Veins, never failed, in many Trials, to produce in them all the Symptoms of the Pestilence, even the external ones of =Bubo's= and =Carbuncles=. One Dog, upon which the Experiment succeeded, had been known, for three Months before, to devour greedily the corrupted =Flesh= of infected Persons, and =Pledgets= taken off from =Pestilential Ulcers=, without receiving any Injury. From hence they conclude that this Disease is not communicated by =Contagion=, but originally bred in the Body by the Corruption of the =Bile=. This Corruption, they say, is the Effect of unwholsome Food; and the =Bile= thus corrupted produces a Thickness and a Degree of Coagulation in the Blood, which is the Cause of the =Plague=: Tho' this they allow to be inforced by a bad Season of the Year, and the =Terrors= of Mind and Despair of the Inhabitants.

THESE Experiments are indeed curious, but fall very short of what they are brought to prove. The most that can be gathered from them is this: That =Dogs= do not, at least not so readily, receive =Pestilential Infection= from Men, as Men do from one another: And also, that the =Bile= is so highly corrupted in a Body infected with the =Plague=, that by putting it into the Blood of a =Dog= it will immediately breed the same Disease.

BUT it does not follow from hence, that the =Bile= is the Seat of the Disease, or that other Humors of the Body are not corrupted as well as =this=. I make no question but the whole Mass of Blood is, in this Case, in a State of Putrefaction; and consequently that all the Liquors derived from it partake of the Taint.

ACCORDINGLY it appeared afterwards from some Experiments made by Dr. =Couzier=, that not only the =Blood=, but even the =Urine= from an infected person, infused into the crural Vein of a Dog communicated the =Plague=. I will venture to affirm, that if, instead of =Bile=, =Blood=, or =Urine=, the =Matter= of the =Ulcers= had been put into a Wound made in the Dog; it would have had at least an equally pernicious Effect: As may well be concluded from the Inoculation of the Small Pox.

AS to the Dog's eating the =corrupted Flesh= and =purulent Matter= of the Patients; it ought to have been considered that there are some Poisons very powerful when mixed immediately with the Blood, which will not operate in the Stomach at all: As in particular the =Saliva= of the mad Dog and the =Venom= of the Viper. And therefore Dr. =Deidier= himself, some Months after his former Experiments, found that =pestiferous Bile= itself was swallowed by Dogs without any Harm.

THE right Inference to be made from these Experiments, I think, would have been this: That since the Blood and all the Humors are so greatly corrupted in the Plague, as that Dogs (tho' not so liable to catch the Distemper in the ordinary way of Infection, as Men are) may receive it by a small Quantity of any of these from a diseased Subject being mixed with their Blood; it may well be supposed, that the =Effluvia= from an infected Person, drawn into the Body of one who is sound, may be pestiferous and productive of the like Disorder.

MY Assertion, that these =French= Physicians have before them the fullest Proofs of this =Infection=, not only appears from these Instances of it, I have observed to be recorded by themselves; but likewise from what Dr. =le Moine= and Dr. =Bailly= have written, of the Manner in which the =Plague= was brought to =Canourgue= in the =Gevaudan=: as also from an amazing Instance they give us of the great Subtilty of this =Poison=, experienced at =Marvejols=: where no less than =sixty= Persons were at once infected in a =Church=, by one that came thither out of an infected House. The =Plague= was carried from =Marseilles= to =Canourgue=, as follows. A =Gally-Slave=, employed in burying the Dead at =Marseilles=, escaped from thence to the Village of =St. Laurent de Rivedolt=, a League distant from =Correjac=: where finding a Kinsman, who belonged to the latter Place, he presented him with a =Waistcoat= and a =pair of Stockings= he had brought along with him. The =Kinsman= returns to his Village, and dies in two or three Days; being followed soon after by =three Children= and their =Mother=. His =Son=, who lived at =Canourgue=, went from thence, in order to bury the Family; and, at his Return, gave to his =Brother-in-law= a =Cloak= he had brought with him: the =Brother-in-law= laying it upon his Bed, lost a little =Child= which lay with him, in one Day's Time; and two Days after, his Wife; =himself= following in seven or eight. The =Parents= of this unhappy Family, taking Possession of the =Goods= of the Deceased, underwent the same Fate.

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