Part 10

It would be well if their Opposition ended here; but when it affects us more near, when their Difference becomes more wide in the very Means of our Preservation, and what by one is laid down as a soveraign and real Good, to be returned by another as the most fatal and destructive, is a Weight of no small Consequence, nor a less melancholly Reflection, if it should please God to inflict us with the same Calamities.

And as to those preservative Means which the Government have only a Power to direct, the making of large Fires in the Streets, as has been practised in the Times of Contagion, is a Point largely contested.

Dr. Hodges seems inveterate against this Custom, and tells us, 'That before three Days were expired after the Fires made in 1665, the most fatal Night ensued, wherein more than 4000 expired; the Heavens both mourn'd so many Funerals, and wept for the fatal Mistake, so as to extinguish even the Fires with their Showers. May Posterity, (says he) be warned by this Mistake, and not like Empericks, apply a Remedy where they are ignorant of the Cause.'

And Dr. Mead has an Eye to this Remark, when he tells us, 'The fatal Success of the Trials in the last Plague is more than sufficient to discourage any farther Attempts of this Nature.' Whereas on the contrary, the making of Fires in the Streets were practised from the greatest Antiquity, and supported by Mayerne, Butler, and Harvey in the two great Plagues before the Year 1665, and recommended by Dr. Quincey for the Dissipation of Pestilential Vapours, &c. And without all manner of Dispute, Dr. Bradley must be wholly on his Side, when he tells us, 'That the Year 1665, was the last that we can say raged in London, which might happen from the Destruction of the City by Fire the following Year 1666, and besides the destroying of the Eggs or Seeds of those poisonous Animals that were then in the stagnating Air, might likewise purifie the Air in such a Manner as to make it unfit for the Nourishment of others of the same kind, which were swimming or driving in the circumambient Air.'

What has been said of Fires is likewise to be understood of firing of Guns, which some have too rashly advised. Says Dr. Mead, 'The proper Correction of the Air would be to make it fresh and cool.' And here quotes from the Practice of the Arabians out of Rhazes de re Medica, &c. Dr. Quincey 'That as the Air being still and as it were stagnate at such Times, and as it favours the Collection of poisonous Effluvia, and aggravates Infection, thinks it more effectual to let off small Parcels of the common Pulvis Fulminans, which must afford a greater Shock to the Air by its Explosion than by the largest Pieces of Ordnance.' In favour of which last Assertion, the Experience both of Soldiers, will justifie the firing of great Guns and Ordnance, which is frequently used in Camps, for the Dissipation of the collected pestilential Atoms, which by Concussion as well as its constituent Parts of Nitre and Sulphur, tend greatly to the Purification of the grosser Atmosphere within the Compass of their Activity; and by the Seamen in their Voyages in the Southern Parts of the World, when sometimes the Air is so gross, and hangs so low upon them, as to be almost suffocated. And in the late Plague at Marseilles the constant firing of great Guns at Morning and Evening, by the Appointment of Monsieur le Marquis de Langeron their Governour, was esteemed of great Relief to the Inhabitants.

Nay, their Contest will not end in a Pipe of Tobacco, against which Dr. Hodges declares himself a profess'd Enemy: 'But whether (says he) we regard the narcotick Quality of this American Henbane; or the poisonous Oil which exhales from it in Smoaking, or that prodigious Discharge of Spittle which it occasions, and which Nature wants for many other important Occasions, besides the Aptitude of the pestilential Poison to be taken down along with it; he chose rather to supply its Place with Sack.'

Dr. Bradley redeems it from this low Character, and represents it as a great Antidote in the last Plague Anno 1665. 'The Distemper did not reach those who smoak'd Tobacco every Day, but particularly it was judged best to smoak in a Morning: He farther gives you an Account of a famous Physician, who in the pestilential Time took every Morning a Cordial to guard his Stomach, and after that a Pipe or two, before he went to visit his Patients; at the same time he had an Issue in his Arm, by which, when it begun to smart, he knew he had received some Infection (as he says) and then had recourse to his Cordial and his Pipe.' By this Means only he preserved himself, as several others did at that Time by the same Method.

I could heartily wish those worthy Gentlemen had struck in with greater Harmony to the Satisfaction and Security of the People, whose Expectations were greatly raised by the Hopes of their Assistance, by gaining a greater Light into the Nature, Quality, Symptoms, and Affections of this definitive Ill, to have promoted their Safety, by giving the necessary Indications relating to the Cure, as well as the necessary Precautions in order to guard us from that secret Attack which may approach us by very minute and unheeded Causes; the which, from their different Notions and positive Contradictions, lay too deep from the narrow Re-searches of those Philosophizing and Learned Gentlemen, and for the Manner whereby it kills, its Approaches are generally so secret, that Persons seiz'd with it seem to be fallen into an Ambuscade or a Snare, of which there was no Manner of Suspicion. And there are very few Discourses relating to the Pestilence but what abound in many Instances of this kind: And the Learned Boccace, in his Admirable Description of the Plague at Florence (quoted by Dr. Mead Anno 1348) relates what himself saw, 'That two Hogs finding in the Streets some Rags which had been thrown off from a poor Man dead of the Disease, after snuffling upon them, and tearing them with their Teeth, fell into Convulsions, and died in less than an Hour.'

The Misfortune which happened in the Island of Bermudas about 25 Years since, which Account is from Dr. Halley; A Sack of Cotton put ashore by Stealth, lay above a Month without any Prejudice to the People of the House where it was hid; but when it came to be distributed among the Inhabitants, it carried such a Contagion along with it, that the Living scarce sufficed to bury the Dead.

And Dr. Quincey has somewhere read a strange Story in Baker's Chronicle, 'of a great Rot amongst Sheep, which was not quite rooted out until about Fourteen Years time, that was brought into England by a Sheep bought for its uncommon Largeness, in a Country then infected with the same Distemper.'

Fracastorius, an eminent Italian Physician, tells us, 'That in the Year 1511, when the Germans were in Possession of Verona, there arose a deadly Disease amongst the Soldiers, from the wearing only of a Coat purchased for a small Value; for it was observed, that every Owner of it soon sickned and died; until at last the Cause of it was so manifestly known from some Infection in the Coat, that it was ordered to be burned.' Ten thousand Persons, he says, were computed to fall by this Plague before it ceased.

And Kephale, in his Medela Pestilentiae, printed Anno 1665, acquaints us, That the following Plagues were produced from the following Causes.

That in the Year 1603, the contagious Seeds were brought to England amongst Seamens Clothes in White-Chappel; and in that Year there died of the Plague 30561.

That in the Year 1625, was bred and produced by rotten Mutton at Stepney; of which died 35403 Persons.

That in the Year 1630, was brought to us by a Bale of Carpets from Turkey, of which died 1317 Persons.

That in the Year 1636, was brought over to us by a Dog from Amsterdam; of which died 10400 Persons.

That in the Year 1665, was brought from Turkey in a Bale of Cotton to Holland, thence to England; in this great Plague died no less than 100,000 People.

And at Marseilles, in this present Year 1720, the Plague has swept away more than 70000 Persons, which was brought in Goods from Sidon, a fam'd and ancient City and Sea-port in Phoenicia, and the same which sometimes is mentioned in Holy Writ.

From the Neighbourhood of this last Contagion, the frightful Apprehensions of the People are rais'd to the greatest Height; and when every one is consulting his own Security, how to guard and preserve himself from that dreadful Enemy, nothing can come more seasonably to their Relief, than to lay before them a Compendium of the best and approved Rules for their Conduct; to which End I have carefully collected, from the successful Practice of Dr. Glisson, Sir Thomas Millington, Dr. Charlton, and other Learned Physicians in the last Plague, with what only may be of Use from the abounding Prescripts of those who have lately published, and as this Evil is supported throughout the general Practice, it appears to be the Result of the Reasoning of some of the Learned Sons of AEsculapius, to marshal into the Field as many Compositions as if only by their Number they might be able to pull down the Tyranny of this fatal Destroyer.

It would be a Work insuperable, and altogether foreign to the Method I have gone by, to extract all the Medicines which some Writers abound with for this End; it is our Business here chiefly to take Notice of that saving Regimen, that Rule of Self-governing, which proved more successful in the Preservation of the People in the late Plague, than all the abounding Nostrums that have been crouded into the Practice, the which has become a due Reproach to the Faculty.

Turpe est Doctori, quem culpa redarguit ipsum.

And it is here worthy of our first Remark, That the last Plague, in the Year 1665, as well from the late Accounts we have of that at Marseilles, the poorer Sort of People were those that mostly suffered, which can only be attributed to their mean and low Fare, whereas the most nutritive and generous Diet should be promoted, and such as generate a warm and rich Blood, Plenty of Spirits, and what easily perspires, which otherwise would be apt to ferment and generate Corruption.

Your greatest Care is, to have your Meat sweet and good, neither too moist nor flashy, having a certain Regard to such as may create an easy Digestion, and observing that roasted Meats on those Occasions should be preferred; as Beef, Mutton, Lamb, Venison, Turkey, Capon, Pullet, Chicken, Pheasant, and Partridge: But Pidgeon, and most Sort of Wild and Sea Fowl to be rejected: Salt Meats to be cautiously used; all hot, dry, and spicey Seasonings to be avoided; most Pickles and rich Sauces to be encouraged, with the often Use of Garlick, Onion, and Shallot; the cool, acid, and acrid Herbs and Roots, as Lettuce, Spinnage, Cresses, Sorrel, Endive, and Sellery; all windy Things, which are subject to Putrefaction, to be refrained, as all kind of Pulse, Cabbage, Colliflower, Sprouts, Melons, Cucumbers, &c. as also most Summer Fruits, excepting Mulberries, Quinces, Pomegranates, Raspers, Cherries, Currants, and Strawberries, which are of Service when moderately eat of.

All light and viscid Substances to be avoided, as Pork, most Sorts of Fish, of the latter that may be eat, are Soles, Plaise, Flounder, Trout, Gudgeon, Lobster, Cray-fish, and Shrimps, no Sort of Pond-Fish being good; and for your Sauce, fresh melted Butter, or Oil mixed with Vinegar or Verjuice, the Juice of Sorrel, Pomegranates, Barberries, of Lemon or Seville Orange, which two last are to be preferred, from their Power of resisting all Manner of Putrefaction, as well to cool the violent Heat of the Stomach, Liver, &c.

For your Bread, to be light, and rather stale than new, not to drink much of Malt Liquors, avoiding that which is greatly Hopped, or too much on the ferment, Mead and Metheglin are of excellent Use, and good Wines taken moderately are a strong Preservative, Sack especially being accounted the most Soveraign and the greatest Alexipharmick: Excess is dangerous to the most healthy Constitution, which may beget Inflammations of fatal Consequence in pestilential Cases.

Let none go Home fasting, every one, as they can procure, to take something as may resist Putrefaction; some may take Garlick with Bread and Butter, a Clove two or three, or with Rue, Sage, Sorrel, dipt in Vinegar, the Spirit of Oil of Turpentine frequently drank in small Doses is of great Use; as also to lay in steep over-Night, of Sage well bruis'd two Handfuls, of Wormwood one Handful, of Rue half a Handful, put to them in an Earthen Vessel four Quarts of Mild Beer; which in the Morning to be drank fasting.

The Custom that prevails now of drinking Coffee, Bohea-Tea, or Chocolate, with Bread and Butter, is very good; at their going abroad 'tis proper to carry Rue, Angelica, Masterwort, Myrtle, Scordianum or Water-Germander, Wormwood, Valerian or Setwal-Root, Virginian Snake-Root, or Zedoary in their Hands to smell to, or of Rue one Handful stampt in a Mortar, put thereto Vinegar enough to moisten it, mix them well, then strain out the Juice, wet a Piece of Sponge or a Toast of brown Bread therein, tie it in a Bit of thin Cloth to smell to.

But there is nothing more grateful and efficacious than the volatile Sal Armoniac, well impregnated with the essential Oils of aromatick Ingredients, which may be procured dry, and kept in small Bottles, from a careful Distillation of the common Sal Volatile Oleosum.