Part 2

Being thus possessed of this useful Machine, he tells us what wonderful feats he could perform by it, with the Help of Bellini’s Doctrine of Fevers, if he had any time to bestow on so great a Digression: for he could shew us, how the Alterations made in the Blood will favour Pestilential Diseases, by rendering the Body obnoxious to them. Why, this is the Favour we have waited for in eleven tedious Pages; and if he writes in English, we may thus be taught how the Blood is affected in Pestilential Diseases, by laying us a-bed languishing with them. This would not only be one step towards Contagion, as he artfully begins the next Paragraph, but might fully inform us of every thing we want to know concerning it. Why should the Great and Celebrated Dr. Mead call this a Digression? I wish he would begin thus to digress: but it is now too late, since he has already digressed from all his Title-Page, and the half of his Preface. Contagion was dropt at first, and now we find that Pestilential Contagion has no better Fate. How preventing may thrive under his Hands, is not hard to guess, since he knows nothing of what he promises to prevent. These Methods are very different from those taken in former times among us, and from what they commonly do abroad. Insomuch, that had any body writ in this Method, besides the Celebrated Doctor, I should have thought him the most ignorant, impertinent, and self-sufficient Person that ever made a Sale of Physick.

What Account can he give to Physicians, for thus despising the received Opinions of Hippocrates, and of all their learned and experienc’d Predecessors, who unanimously declare, that the Plague differs in nothing from a Fever; or else that a Fever attends every Plague of Pestilence. And, therefore, in him is all Physick, or else he knows nothing of it.

Nay, how can he answer it to himself, who in his Manifesto, in the very next Paragraph, is under an unavoidable Want of a Fever he formerly neglected. Here he tells us a Tale, That, the next (Step towards Contagion, and it is not safe to go too near it) as it seems to me, proceeds after this Manner. This kind of introductory Humility has been very fashionable, of late, among dignify’d Authors; for in advancing a Proposition, whereof they can bring no Proof, it is not to be thought how humble, how self-deny’d they are in that Instant; but they rant, swagger, and bully, if they get their Reader but Three Lines further. So this celebrated Author, after this humble Cringe, tells us, The Blood in all malignant Fevers, especially pestilential ones (to be sure) at the latter End of the Disease, does, like fermenting Liquors, throw off a great Quantity of active Particles upon the several Glands of the Body, particularly upon those of the Mouth and Skin, from which the Secretions are naturally the most constant and large. These, in pestilential Cases, although the Air be in a right State, will generally infect those who are very near to the sick Person; otherwise are soon dispersed and lost.

The first Part of this Declaration, if my Memory fails me not, is taken from the Doctor’s elaborate Essay on Poisons; and is brought forth with all its primitive Elegance, for the present Purpose; but by no means answers his Want of it: For it does not appear, by any manner of Observation, that the Blood throws off any active Particles at the latter End of malignant Fevers, so there is no need to have Recourse to this Supposition. But why upon any Glands? This Expression does not favour of understanding Anatomy. Why upon the Glands of the Mouth? Surely this Supposition is not of any Use in this Place, however serviceable it might prove in the mentioned Book, when the Slabbering of a mad Dog was upon the Anvil. Moreover, Is Secretion most constantly performed at the Glands of the Mouth and of the Skin? Surely not, as Sanctorius evinces, and is evident from the Doctrine of Secretions, perfectly well explain’d many Years ago.

Next, let us suppose that this is Standard Physick, as it is quite the Reverse of it; what mighty matter is to be drawn from it? Why, these active Particles, tho’ the Air be pure, will infect those who are very near to the sick Person; otherwise are soon dispersed and lost. I hope there is no harm in the last, and there is no Proof alledg’d for the former. So that his next Step towards Contagion, does not proceed at all. I cannot tell how well he manages in the remaining Part of the Paragraph; and therefore I will only set it in View, that any Person of a more enlighten’d Understanding than my self may profit by the Doctor’s own Words. But when in an evil Disposition of this they meet with these subtle Parts its Corruption has generated, by uniting with them, they become much more active and powerful, and likewise more durable and lasting, so as to form an infectious Matter, capable of conveying the Mischief to a great Distance from the diseased Body, out of which it was produced.

Now if Dr. Mead’s Narration is to the Purpose, it goes further than he design’d it should; for how are the active Particles, like fermented Liquors, thrown out of the Blood in the latter End of malignant Fevers, and that in so great Plenty, and of so great Energy, that they themselves had been able to have helped to his next Step of Contagion, if he had not luckily interposed with a saving Clause, especially pestilential ones, whereby the last would have been deprived of all the Honour of making Contagion: But what is still worse, Fevers, especially those that are malignant, are now the chief Article in this Account, and leave Dr. Mead inexcusable, for not applying Almighty Fermentation to the learned Bellini’s Theory of Fevers. And here let it be observ’d, That those pestilential Steams go no great Length, ’till they are enabled by the next, unintelligible Means, whereby is formed an infectious Matter capable of conveying the Mischief to a great Distance. I hope Doctor Mead understands his last Words; for my Part, I do not, and by the next Paragraph I find my self still more unqualify’d to receive his Story of Contagion.

The former Piece of Knowledge is open to those only who are the familiar Friends of Attractions and Combinations made by Volatile Spirits; and we who are Strangers to these powerful Words, cannot hope for any Instruction. But to shew Dr. Mead I have been at true Pains to come acquainted with them, I find there was Old Attraction, Son of Aristotle; and there is Young Attraction, the great Geometrician; and a Counterfeit of this in the Works of the celebrated Doctor Anodyne Necklace; which last is mighty like Attraction before us; but as he is spurious, I must own that I do not find how this Attraction brings me to a clearer Understanding of the foregoing Paragraph. As to Combination, whether that of Cooks, or Algebraists, it is of very little or no Use to me. I must confess, a good Use may be made of these Words; for they will exchange with Fermentation, at any Time that an Author finds himself disposed to write on a Subject without understanding it.

For Instance, I now intend to make a short Discourse about the Philosopher’s Stone, and a Method for finding it; a very agreeable Offer to the Publick, when Money is scarce, and Credit very low, through the great Industry of the ingenious Directors of the South Sea. When, I say, a Man forms to himself this useful Project, Attraction and Combination does it at once. The Receipt is easy; it is but taking of Attraction, Circulation, Cohobation, Concentration, a. q. s. Combination, q. s. M. If this Receipt is duly managed, it will not only make the Philosopher’s Stone, and the grand Elixir, but cures the Plague, and all Diseases, Curable or Incurable. But it is to be noted, that when you would explain how Attraction makes a Plague, you must be sure due Consideration be had to the Facility and Aptness of all kind of Effluvia to be diffused in a warm Air, such as we have described an infectious one to be. And, therefore, as the Whole of Infecting Air is an ill-made Story, supported by Cant and Gibberish, we will take Leave of it, and his mortify’d Limb together, tho’ it is brought to give further Light to this strange Stuff.

But, to proceed, the celebrated Doctor smells a Rat; that unless the Air is allowed a greater Share of shedding Destruction than he has hitherto allotted it, Matters may go very hard with the whole Doctrine of Contagion; and therefore, notwithstanding its being a Medium for propagating Contagion only, the Doctor is now willing to pronounce, with full Power, and for Fear of great Inconveniencies that follow close at the Heels of the former Doctrine, that a corrupted State of Air is WITHOUT DOUBT NECESSARY to give these contagious Atoms their full Force; for otherwise it is not easy to conceive how the Plague should ever cease, but with the Destruction of all the Inhabitants. Here is a Devil raised indeed, and he will not be in the least quieted, unless Dr. Mead will contradict himself, and renounce the half of his Defence, for the Pureness and Uncorruptedness of Air. And what will not a Man do for a quiet Life. And even the English Air, that could formerly kill the greatest Plague, is now without doubt under a State of Corruption: For if that is not admitted, God have Mercy on all English Men. This is very kind in the Doctor, to take shame to himself for the Good of his Country.

Conveniency is a pretty Argument, but not very cogent, as we now see; for this corrupted State of Air is only an Expedient to get rid of a Pestilence; because by SUPPOSING an Emendation of the Qualities of the Air, and restoring of it to a healthy State, capable of dissipating and suppressing the Malignity, we put an end to the Plague in an instant. Mighty fine, and Meadish; tho’ he might have put a stop to a Plague at an easier rate, than the Loss of his Hypothesis; for as the stress of the Expedient rests upon another fine Word, supposing; why, he needed only to suppose that the whole Magazine of Poison is stopped at once, it matters not whether that be by an Army, by making it serve a Quarantine, by an Amulet, or that the raw Damp is again attracted by the Sea. I hope due Consideration will be had to this Expedient, in a new Edition of the short Discourse; if so be it has one. This would do much better than to make another Drawback, which we find is done in the very next Paragraph; for there, Infection is not received from the Air it self, however predisposed, without the Concurrence of something emitted from infected Persons. Now if Infection is never receiv’d from the Air upon any Account whatsoever, it is manifest, that the Air is a Medium, that can neither do Good nor Hurt, and so to the right about, and the former Allowance is recalled; so that the former Difficulty still remains, and consequently a Plague once begun in a Country, never comes to an end, as long as there is a Man alive.

The Principle upon which this Resumption is made, is, because the Progress of a Pestilence may be stopt at any time, by strictly preventing all Intercourse of infected Places with the Neighbourhood. He brings as a Proof of this lusty Assertion, what has lately happened in the raging Plague at Marseilles; and alledges, that it has been effectually confined to that miserable Town, by keeping careful Guard. But alas! this Argument is out of doors. Happy were it for the People of France if they had greater Assurance of their Safety, than they can draw from such vain Promises of Insuring Physicians. And therefore his Objection remains in full Force, without any Satisfaction being given to it. I know from whence he took this Difficulty, but he ought to have been well satisfied that he had brought a full Solution to so powerful an Argument against all manner of Contagion. I will only repeat the Difficulty, and leave the clearing of it to the Patrons of a Pestilence being begot by Contagion; especially that it is a Step towards Dr. Mead’s next propagating Cause. It is asserted by those who oppose this Contagion, that a Plague is sometimes bred without it, otherwise it would be perpetual. This Assertion is made good, by considering a Country where a new Plague is broken out; and ask us, whether it be just then bred in that Country, or brought thither from elsewhere? If we grant the first, then indeed adieu to all Contagion: If the last, they bid us name the originary Place, where it was bred: Which would oblige us to the same Concession as the former. Therefore, say they, Contagion may propagate but not begin a Plague.

Leaving then Doctor Mead and his Contagion under the Restraint of a very good Argument, we will consider in the next Place, after what manner he conveys it to a sound Person, and he supposes the way to be commonly this: These contagious Particles—taint the salival Juices (or Spittle) which being swallowed down into the Stomach, presently fix their Malignity there; as appears from the Nausea and Vomiting, with which this Distemper often begins its first Attacks. But all this is acknowledged to be a Supposition, and not of sufficient Strength to bear so weighty a Building upon it. Secondly, If a Man does nor swallow his Spittle, or if he gargles his Throat very well before he does swallow it, there would be no danger from the Pestilence; but this slye Plague should be easily evaded. To what Purpose is this silly Supposition to bring it into the Stomach, and then to suppose it fixes its Malignity there, because People are often troubled with Vomiting when they are ill of the Plague. An admirable Way of Reasoning: and as Admiration begat Philosophy, so Dr. Mead’s Philosophy cannot fail of begetting Admiration: For if the Stomach must needs be the first Place affected by the Plague, and the Doctor is gone over to Van Helmont, cannot he convey it thither down by the Nose, or even through the Mouth, without infecting the Spittle.

Dr. Mead is grosly out in his Observation, for the Symptoms of the Heart, our Strength at least, being affected, are previous to his supposed Nausea and Vomiting; so that he not only ought to make no Question, but to be sure that the Blood is also more immediately affected; as the Multitude of Physicians besides Van Helmont and him have always believed: But I find his Fancy lies much in odd Conceits. I know a very honest Man, and a good Observer in Physick, who has fallen into this very Error in explaining this Symptom of Vomiting; but every Body will acknowledge that his Philosophy is no where the best: And when this Symptom is truly explained, we shall find that it is a Symptom of a Malignant Fever, as well as of the Plague, without any manner of Irritation, or of any other Hurt of that Nature, in the Stomach. And therefore as this Way of conveying the Plague, is a Supposition grounded upon no manner of Observation (as the Doctor argues in this Paragraph) so I think there is no need to have recourse to it.

On the other Hand, it might be demonstrated, from the Nature of the Plague, that it is never, or very rarely, communicated from one Person to another. At present we will content our selves, to evince this Truth by a Demonstration of another kind, which is from Observation, or à posteriori, and I will borrow it too from Mr. Graunt, in his Observations on the Bills of Mortality. In his Observations on the Plague of 1636: He says it lasted 12 Years, in eight whereof there died 2000 per Annum one with another, and never under 800. The which shews, That the Contagion of the Plague depends more upon the DISPOSITION of the Air, than upon the EFFLUVIA from the Bodies of Men. Which also we prove by the sudden jumps which the Plague hath made, leaping in one Week from 118 to 927; and back again, from 993 to 258; and from thence again, the very next Week, to 852. The which Effects must surely be rather attributed to Change of the Air, than of the Constitutions of Mens Bodies, otherwise than as this depends upon that.

And therefore as this very common Opinion, about the Plague of Pestilence passing from one Body into another, is not supported by any good Reason, far less by the Suppositions and Innuendo’s of Dr. Mead; and is now contrary to the best Observation, most duly and properly made, we may not doubt to declare, that it very rarely, and perhaps never, proceeds that Way.

The Third Way Contagion is spread, is, by Goods transported from infected Places. But the Reason of this Fact seems to surmount his Understanding, and no wonder, for it has already puzzled all other Philosophers and Physicians, insomuch, that it has driven them into absurd Notions of Maggots, against all Observation. But, before a Philosopher would spend his Time about this Difficulty, he should be sure his Fact is indisputably true, for thereby he may save himself much Trouble and Babling, about a Matter that is false in Fact. However, this Difficulty may have blunted the Edge of every other Genius, he makes no doubt to conquer it, and account for it to the World, as he now does in the following Words: If, as we have conjectured, the Matter of Contagion be an active Substance, perhaps in the nature of a Salt, generated chiefly from the Corruption of a Human Body, it is not hard to conceive how this may be lodged and preserv’d in soft porous Bodies, which are kept pressed close together.

Dr. Mead has the readiest Way of getting rid of a Difficulty, of any Author, tho’ I cannot say it is always the most informing and perswasive. No Man that understands these Terms, a Salt, what it is to be soft and porous, dares keep back his Assent to a Proof grounded upon such manifest Observations, as Conjectures, Perhaps’s, and May-bee’s; all which are far more ingenious than Kircher’s Maggots-Eggs. However bold this Argument may be, yet if any one will deny his Matter of Contagion to be an active Substance; or, that it is a Salt; or, that it rather affects a soft Bed than one that is hard, this Third, and last propagating Cause, may prove to be no manner of Cause; and all the World, Merchants especially, cry out against their Merchandize serving Quarantine.

Could Dr. Mead bring all his ordinary Vouchers, I cannot say how far he might have gone in commanding a Submission from a great Number of Men to this Article: And therefore if any Person, or Persons, wants fuller Conviction, let him repair to the Coffee-Houses, where they shall have the Affidavits of ten Physicians, fifteen Apothecaries, and five Surgeons; and I’ll answer for it, eight in ten shall go, from Batson’s especially, fully satisfied with the Truth of the Premises. But can it be imagined this cunning Doctor would have expos’d his Character, in this Kind of Argument, to Men of Learning and Virtue. But here his drooping Spirits revert, and his Humility and Modesty vanish, having at this Stage got rid of the Necessity of Reasoning, the rest of this inimitable Work being to be carry’d on by Banter and Assertion; whereby let us take Measure of the Faith and Credulity of the good People of England; for if this passes, Transubstantiation may be the next Article he will propose to you; if it does not, the Doctor and his Book are discovered at the same Time.

Now we are prepared for all Dr. Mead’s Absurdities, Wit and Banter, the first Thing he presents us with, how long a Time Perfumes hold their Scent, if wrapt up in proper Coverings; and we must remark, That the strongest of those, like the Matter we are treating of (are mostly animal Juices) as Musk, Civet, &c. (if there be any more.) And the Substances that keep them the best, are those which receive and communicate the Plague, as Furs, Feathers, Silk, Hair, Wool, Cotton, Flax, &c. the greatest part of which are likewise of the animal Kind. If the Pestilence is now a Scent, yet surely it is a Noisome one; and if it can be kept, like Musk, in its proper Covering, fourty Days will never deliver us from our fears of it. But all this is only to amuse us with another new Conceit the Doctor would entertain us with, that the Matter of the Plague is an animal Juice; but pray, good Doctor, of what Animal? This is not only ridiculous, but overthrows every Opinion of Physicians that ever was broached about it. But not to baulk his Wit, this Perfume of the Plague, like Musk, is best kept in animal Substances; (Attraction would have preceded very decently, for a more proper Introduction) but is Musk, commonly kept in Furs or Cotton; if in the last, what Animal is it that yields us Cotton? As for Civet it is no runaway Merchandize. It is therefore very obvious, that Men are now passing a Review of their Credulity before Dr. Mead and the World. But there is another quaint Observation that must not be neglected, which is, That of all the mentioned Plague-Keepers, Three of them are animal Substances, and but Two of them of the vegetable Kind. Mighty fine! and well order’d: But if we turn to another Page of his Book, we may find this useful Observation contradicted: But the greatest Danger from Goods, is from Cotton, Hemp, and Flax; Paper, or Books (Paper Books surely, or else their covering will keep them upon an Equality in ballancing Accompts) Silk, Linnen, Wool, Feathers, Hair, and Skins. In this Account, the vegetable and animal Plague-Keepers are equal in Number.

What Purposes does this Conceit serve? Why, only to support another Conceit, viz. That animal Substances most vigorously attract animal Effluvia, or that animal Effluvia run furiously into the Embraces of animal Substances; which we see by his fine Experiments, is a mere Fancy. As for Musk, Cotton secures it the fastest from running away; nor do we find that Feathers, Silk or Wool, are ever put upon that Service. But supposing every Thing true, and nothing whimsical, that has been now advanced by the Doctor, we might have expected a further Discovery; how these Perfumes come to desire their being beded, cherished, or fomented in soft animal Substances: Is it in Abhorrence of Annihilation, or by the Love they bear to one another? Or are they kept together, as the celebrated Jonathan Wild keeps a Felon? In short, is it by Sympathy or Antipathy? For if we are rightly instructed in these Matters, these Remarks alone may lead us into great and useful Practices; for if they are skilfully employ’d, they may, perhaps, as I conjecture, keep the Plague at bay, by being strung up, like Pirates, at High Water Mark.

For as dull as these Conceits may appear to be; such as never dropp’d before from any Man in his Senses; yet our Author, who has hitherto shewn himself Blind in every kind of Argument, is now become so Sharp-sighted of a sudden, when you are to take his Word for it, that he boldly asserts, That this Remark alone (of Sympathy and Antipathy) may serve to lead us a little into the true Nature of Contagion. What! this Nature of Contagion, that is still unknown, after all Dr. Mead’s Endeavours; nay, Sweats and Labours, to be drawn at length from Trifles that bear no Relation to Contagion.

There is no Accounting for this Attempt upon Mankind: The Doctor, I doubt not, has often made Trial, how far their good Nature could carry their Belief: but this obtruding on Scholars, and Physicians too, is no less exposing Physick than Physicians. Such Credulity is the very Reverse of the Incredulity our Saviour complains of, and no less Marvellous. It is indeed Marvellous, how People were Unbelievers after the greatest Evidence of Reason and Miracle: Yet we cannot forbear admiring, if People should swallow all this Trifle and Contradiction, against all Sense and Reason. We are, indeed, at a loss to explain this lazy Credulity; and therefore we must have Recourse to the general Infection, that has wrought so strong Delusion, of late Years, all over Europe; when we find Men have become wonderfully Credulous, even to Infatuation. Upon this Supposition a very tolerable good Account may be given of the mentioned Attempts, for fathoming the Credulity of Men, let that be found to be ever so deep. If we hove our Lead in the South Sea, we could sound to an hundred Fathom, and bring up yellow Sand upon the Lead. Some Doctors have often sounded fifty Fathom for yellow Sand; and Doctor Anodyne Necklace almost as deep for the same. The South Sea Pilots have now run us a-ground, notwithstanding the Depth of Water; and Men begin to recover their Senses by the Surprize, Terriculamenta being often found useful to Children: And, I hope, now they are awake, they will never hereafter subject either their Lives or Fortunes to Directors of any kind.

But as we are, at present, got into the Metaphors of Trade and Navigation, it has been no small Omission, in every kind of Director, that they have lately forgot the Genius of England; of its being a Country of Merchants. Had Dr. Mead remember’d the Place of his Education, he might likewise have saved himself much Labour in explaining a groundless Phænomenon, and spoke more Truth. Was not Dr. Mead bred, if not born, within the Smoak of Black Wall and Wapping, where both Church and Conventicle have long been a safe Retreat to foreign Goods, that were not to stand the awful View of a Custom House Officer? Yet, in all that Time, and ever since, there have not appeared any Degrees of a Plague. Have not Merchandize been brought from many Parts of Turkey, all which have very deservedly an ill Name for the Pestilence, that very commonly rages among them. And how comes it to pass, That during this constant, and uninterrupted Commerce, when soft and porous Goods, the proper Fomes, have been brought from Smyrna, Scanderoon, Aleppo, Constantinople, and other Parts, the Pestilence has never taken a Journey hither, in all Appearance, those Fifty five Years? In all that Time Turkey Goods have not served a Quarantine, nor visited any other Lazaretto’s, besides the Companies Cellars; a certain Proof that Goods very seldom, or ever, bring a Plague into a Country; and oftner find it there than propagate it.

It is very remarkable, That our Commerce with Swedeland, Poland, and other Parts of those Eastern Countries, has been very considerable, when Plagues have been raging among the mentioned People; and yet we have not found any Attempts from this silent Enemy on this our happy Island. Nay, we must more especially observe, that in the Year 1708 and 1709, a most destructive Pestilence made great Waste in Dantzig; and, that there were some Hundreds of British Ships bound up in Ice, the whole Winter through; yet we had no other Visit from it, than the supposed fag End of it, by the Dunkirk Fever; which happen’d four Years after the former had expir’d. And therefore this Opinion, of a Pestilence being preserved, and convey’d to distant Places in Goods, as a Fomes, is not sufficiently supported; a particular Care ought to be taken to suppress such ill-grounded Notions, so prejudicial and hurtful to the People, and Trade of an Island Country.

The Account Dr. Hodges gives us of the Behaviour of the People of London, after they returned to Town in Winter 1665, is an undeniable Experiment against a Pestilence being propagated from a Fomes, and almost from one Body to another. He tells us, The Houses which before were full of the Dead, were now again inhabited by the Living; and the Shops, which had been most part of the Year shut up, were again opened, and the People again chearfully went about their wonted Affairs of Trade and Employ; and even what is almost beyond belief, those Citizens, who were before afraid, even of their Friends and Relations, would, without fear, venture into the Houses and Rooms where infected Persons had a little before breathed their Last: Nay, such Comforts did inspire the languishing People, and such Confidence, that many went into the BEDS, where Persons had died, EVEN BEFORE THEY WERE COLD, or cleansed from the STENCH of the DISEASE. I would gladly know of Dr. Mead, if this, and the mentioned Histories, are Experiments that come home to the Purpose. In this Account of Dr. Hodges, there is no want of a Nest or Fomes, for here is Wool, Linnen, Silk, and, perhaps, even treacherous Cotton it self, the most secure Plague-Keeper of all the rest; yet no further Contagion appeared, but Men eagerly pursued their Business, and thought only how to repair the past Mortality, and that with more than ordinary Success, as Dr. Hodges tells us in this Place, and his Relation is fully confirm’d by the Bills of Mortality.

It is now very manifest, that Dr. Mead has not given any tolerable, or probable Account of his propagating Causes; and that every Thing he has offer’d, in his own Way, is a Corruption of what has been said by many Physicians. Moreover, he does not yet seem to understand Matters of Propagation, for he makes his Causes propagate by themselves, contrary to the common and known Methods of Nature. In this he is not only unnatural, but I am afraid, that this his Method must be very defective, tho’ it carries his peculiar mark of Excellency, in differing from the Methods taken in former Times among us, and from what they commonly do Abroad. For formerly here in England, and the People abroad, thought it necessary that the Seeds of the Plague should, like other Seeds, have a proper Matrice to receive them, to cherish them, and to rear them up for their proper and peculiar Uses, consonant to their Nature. They could not see how a Plague could more thrive out of its proper Ground, than a Grain of Wheat, or the Seed of an Apple. So that it was incumbent on Dr. Mead, to have shewn the Disposition that may be in every Man to receive, and entertain the Plague, and with all the Variety in which it palpably affects them. For a Plague has often laid its devouring Hands on Children and Young Men, when it has spared the Old; and, on the contrary, it has proved fatal to Age, when Youth has been excused: Nor has a Pestilence that afflicted Men hurt Women. At other Times Men and Women of all Ages have felt its Strokes promiscuously, and some have conversed boldly among the Sick of the Plague with Safety, while others are quickly punished for their Rashness.

It was very remarkable, that there was not a British Subject, that wintered in Dantzig in that hard Frost, and Time of Pestilence, received any Hurt, while Thousands of the Natives fell on their Right Hand, and Ten Thousands on their Left: This happen’d in the Year 1713. But it is recorded by Utenhovius, that in a cruel Plague that raged in Copenhagen, all Strangers, English, Dutch, Germans, were not affected with it, when at the same Time it made Havock among the Inhabitants; yet those Foreigners went freely every where among the infected People, and into the infected Houses.

What could Dr. Mead mean by so gross an Oversight, in an Article, too, so material for preventing pestilential Contagion? This Disposition, to be affected peculiarly by the Plague, is not neglected by Hippocrates, Galen, or any good Author of succeeding Ages; tho’ they had the same Reason to profess their Ignorance, as Dr. Mead has to conceal his at this Time; for he is sure to make no Confession of this kind, howsoever it may otherwise appear. I hope he will not call this a great Digression, as we find he did formerly, on a like Occasion. Fernelius declares, that it is very hard and difficult to know, what it is that renders every Body obnoxious to the Plague. And Platerus makes this ingenuous Confession, That as I would gladly learn what this Disposition of an Object may be; so I very readily confess, that I know nothing of it, though I am not ignorant, that this Poison acts very differently, according to the various Dispositions of the Body. And, what Hurt had it done Dr. Mead’s Character to have owned, That no Agent can do any Thing without a fit Disposition in the Patient? But, how dares he undertake to give Rules for preventing a Pestilence, and proceed in corrupting the Means of Knowledge that are common among other Physicians, and absolutely neglect this Disposition? It is for this Reason, that we hear them speaking another Language than Doctor Mead does, even while they talk of what he calls his propagating Causes. Hear the excellent, and learned Fracastorius. Contagion, says he, takes its Rise, often from the Air; it often passes from one Person to another; it is often receiv’d by a Fomes; and it sometimes has its first Origine and Beginning in our selves. Hence it is we find Dr. Hodges, in the common Language of Physicians, asserting, that four Things are necessary to a Contagion. First, That there is an Efflux of the contagious Seminium, or Seed. Secondly, That there is a convenient Medium for the contagious Particles to move through, and be conveyed by. Thirdly, A Fitness in the Subject to receive and cherish the contagious Effluvia. And, Fourthly, A due Stay of this Seminium. So that it is much to be feared, that Dr. Mead will suffer grievously in explaining his darling Phenomena, to which we are next to return; and no less in teaching us, in the following Part of his Discourse, how to prevent the silent Approaches of the Pestilence, and to suppress its Poison, if it should appear among us: All which he graciously promises to perform, and that in a newer and perfecter Method than was ever done before.