Part 8

As the author's observations relative to the treatment of the buboes and carbuncles, coincide with those of other writers on this subject, they have been purposely omitted. See Russell on the Plague, Book II. Chap. V. Tr.

Why no animal food? Orræus found broths and soups seasoned with salt and vinegar, and having the fat taken off them, and even boiled meat of a light texture, to be very restorative to the convalescent. Tr.

If there should be any doubts respecting the nature of the disorder on its first appearance, and because, as yet, only a single family happens to be attacked with it; Dr. Mertens proposes that criminals condemned to death should be shut up with the sick, and be made to wear their clothes. Thus in two or three weeks, according as they became infected or not, it would be decided whether the disorder was the plague. But in a free country, like England, neither the removing of a family in the night-time, under the circumstances just mentioned, nor the exposing of criminals to the contagion, are measures which would be deemed justifiable. Indeed, it seems almost impossible to stifle the plague, in any country, in the very beginning, before it has become publicly known and excited a general alarm. Tr.

Those who are employed to burn the goods, should not stand too near the fire, so as to be exposed to the thick smoke which arises from it; and the more effectually to destroy the pestilential particles, it may be useful to throw some gun-powder or nitre into the fire. It is infinitely better to burn the infected goods than to bury them, as some authors recommend; since people may be tempted by avarice to dig them up again.

See Chenot de Peste, p. 208.

Antrechaux, Relation de la Peste, p. 65. Chenot, de Peste, p. 166.

Erndtel Warsavia physice illustrata, p. 171.

By being distributed in this manner into several houses the sick will be less hurtful to each other; they will breathe a purer air, and recover much sooner. Mead advises the impested to be removed to tents pitched out of the town. (This is not quite accurate. Mead's words are,--"as the advice I have been giving is founded upon this principle, that the best method for stopping infection, is to separate the healthy from the diseased; so in small towns and villages, where it is practicable, if the sound remove themselves into barracks or the like airy habitations, it may probably be even more useful, than to remove the sick. This method has been found beneficial in France after all others have failed.") Tr. I do not think a better method for stopping the contagion can be suggested; but the season of the year, climate, and other circumstances must often render this measure impracticable; in that case, the doors and windows of the sick-rooms should remain open, and a free circulation of air be constantly kept up. The exposure to the air and wind seems to me to be the principal reason why the plague makes less havoc in armies that are encamped; for although the air or wind has very little power over the poison after it has entered the circulation, nevertheless it carries off the effluvia and dissipates them more quickly; so that the sound are not so readily infected by the sick.

The physicians and surgeons, and all those who are about the sick, should put over their clothes a cloak made of oil-cloth; they should wear gloves and boots made of the same material, which should be frequently washed with vinegar; and they should hold before the mouth and nose, a sponge moistened with vinegar. On other preservatives, see D.

The following is the composition of these fumigating powders, as published by the Council of Health. (See Orræus p. 136, 137.)

The strong antipestilential powder consisted of juniper tops (cut small,) guaiacum shavings, juniper berries, bran, of each 6 lb, nitre 8 lb, sulphur 6 lb, myrrh 2 lb.

The weaker antipestilential powder consisted of the herb abrotanum 6 lb, juniper tops 4 lb, juniper berries 3 lb, nitre 4 lb, sulphur 2-1/2 lb, myrrh 1-1/2 lb.

The odoriferous antipestilential powder consisted of calamus aromaticus 3 lb, frankincense 2 lb, amber 1 lb, storax and dried roses, of each 1/2 lb, myrrh 1 lb, nitre 1 lb 8 oz., sulphur 4 oz.

Of these powders, the first was employed to fumigate the houses and goods of the infected, such as woollens, furs, &c.; the second, for fumigating houses only suspected, and more delicate articles, which would have been spoiled by the first; the last was employed (by way of prevention) in inhabited houses.

(We are now acquainted with a mode of destroying contagion, much more simple and efficacious than that of fumigating with such compound and costly powders as those mentioned in the preceding note; we mean the vapour extricated from nitre by means of the vitriolic acid. See an Account of the experiments made on board the Union Hospital-ship, to determine the effect of the nitrous acid in destroying contagion. By James Carmichael Smith, M.D. &c. London, 1796. Tr.)

The author adds, that the smoke from the vegetable substances burnt with them helps to keep the acid vapours longer suspended. We do not see how. Tr.

This asylum of innocence and misfortune holds the first place among all institutions of the same kind in Europe. It was founded by the Empress Catherine the Second. Under the auspices of this Sovereign, and by the great attention of Mr. de Betzky, to whom his country owes infinite obligations for the devotion of his time and fortune to the encouragement of the arts and the promotion of undertakings for the public good, this institution had nearly attained to perfection, at the time when this account of it was written.

I caused to be fixed up at the gate near the porter's lodge, two sets of railing, at the distance of twelve feet from each other. The people belonging to the hospital stood at the inner railing, and those who came to see them, at the outer.

There was always a guard of twenty-two men and an inferior officer. After July, I obtained an order not to have them changed.

It was not without great difficulty that we got a house for quarantine, as well on account of obstacles occasioned by the public calamity, as from the scarcity of houses sufficiently roomy. Hence this business was not settled until October. In the mean time, many children continued to be exposed at the hospital-gate. Some of these I put into a wooden house in the vicinity; and Mr. de Durnowo took others of them under his roof. As soon as the above-mentioned quarantine-house was ready to receive them, which was not the case till November, I sent them thither.

In this quarantine-house I also established a small hospital for the reception of pregnant women, and the care of them after their delivery, as long as the plague might continue. Mr. de Durnowo undertook the management of this establishment.

As it was possible for the plague, though it declined in the town, to have been kept up in this quarantine-house by the children that were daily brought there and by the lying-in women; in order to provide against such an event and in compliance with the orders of the Empress, Mr. de Durnowo and myself presented a memoir, containing a detail of the regulations and precautions above-mentioned, to the Committee of Health, who were pleased to signify their approbation thereof.

(Here follows in the original, the letter of approbation from the Committee of Health, which though it is highly flattering to the author, is unimportant to the reader, and is therefore omitted by the Translator.)

In the beginning of the year 1772, I had the remainder of the children who had been received into the quarantine-house, admitted, a few at a time, into the Great Hospital. Their number, including orphans, whose parents had been carried off by the plague, and new-born infants, amounted to one hundred and fifty.

Transcriber's Notes

page viii & ix: the four items listed have been expanded from the original compact paragraph.

page 29: Pogaretsky ==> Pogaretzky

page 44: accompained ==> accompanied