shortens and the other prolongs our Days, and makes us enjoy a perfect
Health, and with _Juvenal_, _Mens sana in Corpore sano_. I cannot
understand how it comes to pass, that so many People, otherwise prudent
and rational, cannot resolve upon laying a Restraint upon their insatiable
Appetites at fifty or sixty Years of Age, or at least when they begin to
feel the Infirmities of old Age coming upon them they might rid themselves
of them by a strict Diet and a due Regimen.
I do not wonder so much that young People are so hardly brought to such a
Resolution; they are not capable enough of reflecting; and their Judgment
is not solid enough to resist the Charms of Sense: But at Fifty a Man
ought to be govern'd by his Reason, which would convince us if we would
hearken to it, that to gratify all our Appetites without any Rule or
Measure, is the Way to become infirm and die young. Nor does the Pleasure
of Taste last long, it hardly begins but 'tis gone and past; the more one
eats, the more one may, and the Distempers which it brings along with it,
last us to our Graves.
Now should not a sober Man be very well satisfied when he is at Table,
upon the Assurance, that as often as he rises from it, what he eats will
do him no harm: Who then would not perfectly enjoy the Pleasures of this
mortal Life so perfectly? Who will not court and win Sobriety, which is so
grateful to God, as being the Guardian to Virtue, and irreconcileable
Enemy to Vice.
Surely the Example of this wise and good Man deserves our Imitation, that
since old Age may be made so useful and pleasant to Men, I should have
fail'd in Point of Charity to inform Mankind by what Methods they might
prolong their Days.
A great Assistant to that of Sobriety, and which is highly conducive to
the Preservation of the whole Man, is to renew with us that habitual and
beneficial Custom of the Antients in promoting _Exercise_, as one great
Instrument to the Conservation of Health, and which no one can deny who
has given himself the Experience of a Trial.
That it promotes the Digestion, raises the Spirits, refreshes the Mind,
and that it strengthens and relieves the whole Man, is scarce disputed by
any; but that it should prove curative in some particular Distempers, and
that too when scarce any thing else will prevail, seems to obtain little
Credit with most People, who though they will give the Physician the
hearing when he recommends the Use of Rideing, or any other Sort of
Exercise, yet at the Bottom, look upon it as a forlorn Method, and rather
the Effects of his Inability to relieve them, than a Belief that there is
any great Matter in what he advises: Thus by a negligent Diffidence they
deceive themselves and let slip the golden Opportunities of recovering by
a diligent Struggle what could not be cur'd by the Use of Medicine alone.
But to give you a just and rational Idea of its Power of moving and
actuating upon the Body, let us consider the whole human System as a
Compound of Tubes and Glands, or to use a more rustick Phrase, a Bundle of
Pipes and Strainers, fitted to one another after so wonderful a Manner as
to make a proper Engine for the Soul to work with. This Description does
not only comprehend the Bowels, Bones, Tendons, Veins, Nerves, and
Arteries, but every Muscle and every Ligature, which is a Composition of
Fibres, that are so many imperceptable Tubes or Pipes interwoven on all
Sides with invisible Glands and Strainers.
This general Idea of a human Body, without considering it in the Niceties
of Anatomy; let us see how absolutely necessary Labour is for the right
Preservation of it. There must be frequent Motions and Agitations to mix,
digest, and separate the Juices contained in it, as well as to clear and
cleanse that Infinitude of Pipes and Strainers of which it is composed,
and to give their solid Parts a more firm and lasting Tone; Exercise
ferments the Humours, casts them into their proper Channels, throws off
Redundancies, and helps Nature in those secret Distributions, without
which the Body cannot subsist in Vigour, nor act with Chearfulness. I
might here mention the Effects which this has upon the Soul, upon all the
Faculties of the Mind, by keeping the Understanding clear, the Imagination
untroubled, and refining those Spirits that are necessary for the proper
Execution of our intellectual Faculties, during the present Laws of Union
between Soul and Body.
It is a Neglect in this Particular, that we must ascribe the Spleen, which
is so frequent in Men of studious and sedentary Tempers; as well as the
Vapours, to which those of the other Sex are so often subject.
Had not Exercise been absolutely necessary for our Well-being, Nature
would not have made the Body so proper for it, by giving such an Activity
to the Limbs, and such a Pliancy to every Part, as necessarily produce
those Compressions, Extensions, Contortions, Dilatations, and all other
Kind of Motions that are necessary for the Preservation of such a System
of Tubes and Glands as has been before mentioned.
And that we might not want Inducements to engage us in such an Exercise of
the Body as is proper for its Welfare, it is so ordered, that nothing
valuable can be procur'd without it. Not to mention Riches and Honour,
even Food and Raiment are not to be come at without the Toil of the Hands,
and Sweat of the Brows.
Providence furnishes us with Materials, but expects we should work them up
ourselves. The Earth must be labour'd before it gives Encrease; and when
it is forced into its several Products, how many Hands must they pass
thro' before they are fit for Use? Manufactures, Trade, and Agriculture
naturally employ more than nineteen Parts of the Species in twenty; and as
for those who are not obliged to labour, by the Condition in which they
are born, they are more miserable than the rest of Mankind, unless they
indulge themselves in that voluntary Labour call'd Exercise, of which
there is no Kind I would so recommend to both Sexes, as that of Rideing;
as there is none that conduces so much to Health, and is every Way
accommodated to the Body. Dr. _Sydenham_ is very lavish in its Praises,
and if you would learn the mechanical Effects of it described at length,
you may find it learnedly treated of by Dr. _Fuller_, in a late Treatise,
intituled, _Medicina Gymnastica_, or, _The Power of Exercise_. And here
Mr. _Dryden_:
_The first Physicians by Debauch were made;
Excess began, and Sloth sustain'd the Trade.
By Chase our long-liv'd Fathers earn'd their Food,
Toil strung the Nerves, and purified the Blood;
But we their Sons, a pamper'd Race of Men,
Are dwindled down to threescore Years and ten.
Better to hunt in Fields for Health unbought,
Than fee the Doctor for a nauseous Draught.
The Wise for Cure on Exercise depend;
God never made his Work for Man to mend._
General MAXIMS FOR HEALTH:
OR, _RULES to preserve the Body to a good old Age_.
I.
It is not good to eat too much, or fast too long, or do any thing else
that is preternatural.
II.
Whoever eats or drinks too much, will be sick.
III.
If thou art dull and heavy after Meat, it's a Sign thou hast exceeded the
due Measure, for Meat and Drink ought to refresh the Body, and make it
chearful, not to dull and oppress it.
IV.
If thou findest those ill Symptoms, consider whether too much Meat or
Drink occasions it, or both, and abate by little and little, 'till thou
findest the Inconveniency remov'd.
V.
Pass not immediately from a disorder'd Life, to a strict and precise Life,
but by degrees abate the Excess, for ill Customs arrive by degrees, and so
must be wore off.
VI.
As to the Quality of the Food, if the Body be of a healthful Constitution,
and the Meat does thee no Harm, it matters little what it is; but all
Sorts must be avoided that does Prejudice, though it please the Taste
never so much.
VII.
After Diet is obtain'd, the Appetite will require no more than Nature hath
need of, it will desire as Nature desires.
VIII.
Old Men can fast easily; Men of ripe Age can fast almost as much, but
young People and Children can hardly fast at all.
IX.
Let ancient People eat Panada, made of Bread, and Flesh Broth, which is of
light Digestion; an Egg now and then will do well.
X.
Growing Persons have a great deal of Natural Heat, which requires a great
deal of Nourishment, else the Body will pine.
XI.
It must be examin'd what Sort of Persons ought to feed once or twice a
Day, more or less; Allowance being always made to the Person, to the
Season of the Year, to the Place where one lives, and to Custom.
XII.
The more you feed foul Bodies, the more you hurt your selves.
XIII.
He that studies much, ought not to eat so much as those that work hard,
his Digestion being not so good.
XIV.
The near Quantity and Quality being found out, it is safest to be kept to.
XV.
Excess in all other things whatever, as well as in Meat and drink, are to
be avoided; excessive Heats and Colds, violent Exercises, late Hours, and
Women, unwholsome Air, violent Winds, the Passions, _&c._
XVI.
Youth, Age, and Sick require a different Quantity.
XVII.
And so do those of different Complexions, for that which is too much for a
Phlegmatick Man, is not sufficient for the Cholerick.
XVIII.
The Measure of the Food ought to be proportionable to the Quality and
Condition of the Stomach, because the Stomach is to digest it.
XIX.
The Quantity that is sufficient, the Stomach can perfectly concoct, and
answers to the due Nourishment of the Body.
XX.
Hence it appears we may eat a greater Quantity of some Viands than of
others of a more hard Digestion.
XXI.
The Difficulty lies in finding out an exact Measure; but eat for Necessity
not Pleasure; for Lust knows not where Necessity ends.
XXII.
Wouldst thou enjoy a long Life, a healthy Body, and a vigorous Mind, and
be acquainted also with the wonderful Works of God, labour in the first
Place to bring thy Appetite to Reason.
XXIII.
Beware of Variety of Meats, and such as are curiously and daintily drest,
which destroy a multitude of People; they prolong Appetite four times
beyond what Nature requires, and different Meats are of different Natures,
some are sooner digested than others, whence Crudities proceed, and the
whole Digestion depraved.
XXIV.
Keep out of the Sight of Feasts and Banquets as much as may be, for it is
more difficult to retain good Cheer, when in Presence, than from the
Desire of it when it is away; the like you may observe in all the other
Senses.
XXV.
Fancy that Gluttony is not good and pleasant, but filthy, evil, and
detestable; as it really is.
XXVI.
The richest Food, when concocted, yields the most noisom Smells; and he
that works and fares hard, hath a sweeter and pleasanter Body than the
other.
XXVII.
Winter requires somewhat a larger Quantity than Summer; hot and dry Meats
agree best with Winter, cold and moist with Summer; in Summer abate a
little of your Meat and add to your Drink, and in Winter substract from
your Drink and add to your Meat.
XXVIII.
If a Man casually exceeds, let him fast the next Meal and all may be well
again, provided it be not often done; or if he exceed at Dinner, let him
rest from, or make a slight Supper.
XXIX.
Use now and then a little Exercise a Quarter of an Hour before Meals, or
swing your Arms about with a small Weight in each Hand, to leap, and the
like, for that stirs the Muscles of the Breast.
XXX.
Shooting in the long Bow, for the Breast and Arms.
XXXI.
Bowling, for the Reins, Stone and Gravel, _&c._
XXXII.
Walking, for the Stomach: And the great _Drusus_ having weak and small
Thighs and Legs, strengthened them by Riding, and especially after Dinner.
XXXIII.
Squinting and a dull Sight are amended by Shooting.
XXXIV.
Crookedness, by Swinging and hanging upon the Arms.
XXXV.
A temperate Diet frees from Diseases; such are seldom ill, but if they are
surprized with Sickness, they bear it better, and recover it sooner, for
all Distempers have their Original from Repletion.
XXXVI.
A temperate Diet arms the Body against all external Accidents, so that
they are not so easily hurt by Heat, Cold, or Labour; if they at any Time
should be prejudiced, they are more easily cured, either of Wounds,
Dislocations, or Bruises; it also resists Epidemical Diseases.
XXXVII.
It makes Mens Bodies fitter for any Employments; it makes Men to live
long; _Galen_, with many others, lived by it a Hundred Years.
XXXVIII.
_Galen_ saith, That those that are weak-complexioned from their Mothers
Womb, may (by the Help of this Art, which prescribes the coarse Diet)
attain to extreme old Age, and that without Diminution of Senses or
Sickness of Body; and he saith, that though he never had a healthful
Constitution of Body from his Birth, yet by using a good Diet after the
Twenty-seventh Year of his Age, he never fell into Sickness, unless now
and then into a One Days Fever, taken by One Days Weariness.
XXXIX.
A sober Diet makes a Man die without Pain; it maintains the Senses in
Vigour; it mitigates the Violence of Passions and Affections.
XL.
It preserves the Memory; it helps the Understanding; it allays the Heat of
Lust; it brings a Man to that weighty Consideration of his latter End.
A DISCOVERY Of some Remarkable ERRORS
In the late WRITINGS of Dr. _Mead_,
_Quincey_, _Bradley_, &c. on the Plague.
The great Apprehensions that all _Europe_ has received from the dreadful
and raging Plague which has lately destroyed the greatest Part of the
Inhabitants of _Marseilles_, has given that just Alarm to our Ministry,
who under the Direction of His Majesty, by their wise and prudent
Management, to the Duty of Publick Prayers, with that of a General and
Solemn Fast throughout the Kingdom, have not been wanting, as much as
possible, to prevent that direful Contagion which now threatens, and might
be brought amongst us by the Sailors, or by Merchandize comeing from
Places that are infected; and have ordered a strict Quarentine to be
observed by all Ships in all the Maritime Ports liable to that Invasion.
And to be Assistant to so great a Work, the Neglect of which the Lives of
the Nation being at stake, we have some the most eminent of the Physicians
now in Vogue, who from that Duty to their Profession, and their Zeal to
the Publick Good, have publish'd some Essays, not only of the Nature,
Cause, Symptoms, Prognosticks, and Affections of this fatal Distemper; but
likewise of the proper Means to be used in preventing, and fortifying
against, with the proper Applications of recovering those that are seiz'd
by this fatal Enemy to Mankind. Books of this kind lately published are, a
short Discourse concerning Pestilential Contagion, by Dr. _Mead_. The
Plague of _Marseilles_ consider'd by Dr. _Bradley_. Dr. _Hodges_'s
Loimologia of the Plague in _London_, _Anno_ 1665; reprinted by Dr.
_Quincy_: To which is added, an Essay of his own, with Remarks of the
Infection now in _France_. To those worthy Gentlemen are we indebted for
their ready Help, to their philosophical Enquiries, their learned and
analytical Explanations in all the Stages of this raging Ill; and
farther, by what physical Power it corrupts the Blood, destroys the
Spirits, and is follow'd by Death at the last.
The Apologies that are made in their Preface, _viz._ of a short Warning,
of their little Leisure, the Uncorrectness of Style, and the Typographical
Errors should be favourably construed from so great an Aim of doing the
Publick so great a Good; and it would be esteemed a base Ingratitude,
meerly for the sake of Contradiction, to quarrel with the Hand that
directs, and may support us in the greatest Extremity.
But where there may be a sufficient Reason to undeceive, or amend such
Errors, as might otherwise be prejudicial to their intended Purpose of
preserving the Common Weal, or advancing some other necessary
Instructions which they have omitted; I can't but perswade myself that I
shall have their Approbation, if not their Thanks in prosecuting the
Advancement of that good End they so greatly have desired in their
Publications.
It is very certain, that Essay of Doctor _Hodges de Peste_, is the best of
any hitherto publish'd of that Kind; and if the Gentleman who has annex'd
his Treatise to that of his own, has taken Care to remove the most
affected Peculiarities, and Luxuriances of his Enthusiastick Strain, he
should have avoided that Contagion himself, which are discover'd in his
crabbed and dogmatical Terms of _Formulae_, _Miasms_, _Miasmata_, _Nexus_,
_Moleculae_, _Spicula_, _Pabulum_, &c. Such Terms being too abstruse and
difficult to be understood by the People in general, for whose
Instruction and Benefit we have the Charity to believe he undertook his
Publication. Nay, it cannot be doubted, and will need no Confirmation by
those that carefully peruse Dr. _Hodges_, but will find that there is
scarcely any advanced Method in what they have writ, or but what may be
found in his Treatise, unless in this one Hint of _Quincy_, from the Use
of _Pulvis Fluminans_ in dispersing the stagnate Air instead of the fucing
of great Guns, _&c._ And he is no ways out in his Policy by tacking his
own Remarks with those of the good old Doctors, which are the best
Recommendations of their passing to his own Advantage.
_Hodges_ in his Introduction tells you, "That the first Discoveries of the
late Plague began in _Westminster_, about the Close of the Year 1664, for
at that Season two or three Persons died there, attended with like
Symptoms as manifestly declar'd their Origin; that in the Months of
_August_ and _September_, the Contagion chang'd its former slow and
languid Pace, having, as it were, got Master of all, made a most terrible
Slaughter, so that three, four or five thousand died in a Week, and once
eight thousand: Who can express the Calamities of those Times! None surely
in more pathetick and bewailing Accents than himself, who gives us so
melancholly a Description of their dismal Misery, as affects the Mind with
the same Passions and despairing Sorrow they were then overloaded with;
and as _Virgil_ has it,
_Horror ubique Animos, simul ipsa silentia terrent.
Haerent in fixi pectore Vultus._
The _British_ Nation wept for the Miseries of her Metropolis. In some
Houses Carcases lay waiting for Burial; and in others, Persons in their
last Agonies; in one Room might be heard dying Groans, in another the
Raveings of a Delirium, and not far off Relations and Friends bewailing
both their Loss and the dismal Prospect of their own sudden Departure;
Death was the sure Midwife to all Children, and Infants passed immediately
from the Womb to the Grave; Who would not burst with Grief to see the
Stock of a future Generation hang upon the Breasts of a dead Mother? or
the Marriage-Bed changed the first Night into a Sepulchre, and the unhappy
Pair meet with Death in the first Embraces? Some of the Infected run about
staggering like drunken Men, and fall and expire in the Streets; while
others lie half dead and comatous, but never to be waked but by the last
Trumpet; some lie vomiting, as if they had drank Poison; and others fall
dead in the Market while they are buying Necessaries for the Support of
Life.
Not much unlike was it in the following Conflagration; where the Altars
themselves became so many Victims, and the finest Churches in the whole
World carried up to Heaven Supplications in Flames, while their marble
Pillars, wet with Tears, melted like Wax; nor were Monuments secure from
the inexorable Flames, where many of their venerable Remains passed a
second Martyrdom; the most august Palaces were soon laid waste, and the
Flames seem'd to be in a fatal Engagement to destroy the great Ornament
of Commerce; and the burning of all the Commodities of the World together,
seem'd a proper Epitome of this Conflagration: Neither confederate Crowns,
nor the drawn Swords of Kings could restrain its phanatick and rebellious
Rage; large Halls, stately Houses, and the Sheds of the Poor, were
together reduced to Ashes; the Sun blush'd to see himself set, and envied
those Flames the Government of the Night which had rivall'd him so many
Days: As the City, I say, was afterwards burnt without any Distinction, in
like Manner did this Plague spare no Order, Age, or Sex; the Divine was
taken in the very Exercise of his priestly Office, to be inroll'd amongst
the Saints above; and some Physicians, as before intimated, could not find
Assistance in their own Antidotes, but died in the Administration of them
to others; and although the Soldiery retreated from the Field of Death,
and encamped out of the City, the Contagion followed and vanquished them;
many in their old Age, others in their Prime, sunk under its Cruelties; of
the female Sex, most died; and hardly any Children escaped; and it was not
uncommon to see an Inheritance pass successively to three or four Heirs in
as many Days; the Number of Sextons were not sufficient to bury the Dead;
the Bells seem'd hoarse with continual tolling, until at last they quite
ceased; the Burying-places would not hold the Dead, but they were thrown
into large Pits dug in waste Grounds in Heaps, thirty or forty together;
and it often happened, that those who attended the Funerals of their
Friends one Evening, were carried the next to their own long Home."
------_Quis talia fundo
temperet a lacrymis?_----
About the Beginning of _September_ the Disease was at the Height, in the
Course of which Month more than Twelve thousand died in a Week[4] but from
this Time its Force began to relax; and about the Close of the Year, that
is, at the Beginning of _November_, People grew more healthful, and such a
different Face was put upon the Publick, that although the Funerals were
yet frequent, yet many who had made most haste in retiring, made the most
to return, and came into the City without Fear; insomuch that in
_December_ they crowded back as thick as they fled; and although the
Contagion had carried off, as some computed, about One hundred thousand
People; after a few Months this Loss was hardly discernable.
The Doctor himself comes to no determinate Number of those that died of
this Distemper, but in the Table that he has writ of the Funerals in the
several Parishes within the Bills of Mortality of the Cities of _London_
and _Westminster_ for the Year 1665, he tells you, 68596 died of the
Plague. Dr. _Mead_ in the same Year 1665, that it continued in this City
about ten Months, and swept away 97306 Persons. Dr. _Bradley_, in his
Table from the 27th of _December_, 1664/5, takes no notice of any buried
of that Distemper, but of one on the 14th of _February_ following, and two
on _April_ the 25th, and in all, to the 7th of _June_, 89. The next
following Months, to _October_ the 3d, there were buried 49932, in all
50021. Why he should here break up from giving any further Account may be
from the Weakness of his Intelligence, which so widely differs from all
other Accounts; and in this one, with Dr. _Hodges_, who tells you, that
about the Beginning of _September_, at which Time the Disease was at the
Height, in the Course of which Month, more than 12000 Persons died in a
Week: Whereas in _Bradley_, the most that were buried in one Week, _i. e._
from the 12th of _September_ to the 19th, amounted to no more than 7165.
But computing after the Manner of Dr. _Hodges_, we find (taking one Week
with another, from _August_ the 29th to the 27th of _September_, the Time
of its greatest Fury) the exact Number of 6555; which falls short very
near to one half of the Number accounted to be buried of that Distemper by
Dr. _Hodges_; and we have abundant Reason to believe, that the greatest
Account hitherto mentioned, may be short of the Number dying of that
Distemper. If we do but observe the strict Order then published to shut up
all infected Houses, to keep a Guard upon them Day and Night, to withhold
from them all Manner of Correspondence from without; and that after their
Recovery, to perform a Quarentine of 40 Days, in which Space if anyone
else of the Family should be taken with that Distemper, the Work to be
renewed again; by which tedious Confinement of the Sick and Well together,
it often proved the Cause of the Loss of the Whole.