ANN TORRY, _the person cured_.
ROBᵗ. BRYDONE, _Minister of Coldinghame_.
XCV. _An Account of the Black Assize at_ Oxford, _from the Register of_
Merton College _in that University. Communicated by_ John Ward, _LL. D.
With some additional Remarks._
_Anno nono_ D. Bickley _Custodis_, 1577.
[Read May 25, 1758.]
VIcessimo[134] primo Julii in vestiario Dñus custos et octo Seniores
dispensarunt cum _Decreto de concione et appictantia habendis, die
Dominico post festum Sᵗⁱ Petri ad vincula_; ne vocata et conveniente
turba, morbus ille, qui ante quinque dies quamplurimos infestarat,
dissipatior et periculosior fiat. Etenim 15, 16, et 17, hujus Julii
aegrotant plus minus trecenti homines; et infra duodecim dierum spatium
mortui sunt (ne quid errem) centum scholares, praeter cives non paucos.
Tempus sine dubio calamitosissimum et luctu plenum. Nam quidam
lectos differentes[135], agitati nescio quo morbi et doloris furore,
suos custodes baculis caedunt et abigunt; alii per areas et plateas
insanientium more circumcursant; alii in profundam aquarum praecipites
insiliunt; nemo tamen, summo Deo gratia, desperanter perit. Franguntur
omnium animi. Fugiunt medici, non propter necessitatem fratrum, sed
propter se et cistas creati. Relinquuntur miseri. Domini, doctores,
et collegiorum praefecti, ad unum pene omnes abeunt. Custos noster,
longe omnium vigilantissimus, domi apud nos manet; in aegrotis omnem
curam, laborem, diligentiam impensus[136] collocat; die toto, et nocte
etiam intempesta, eos sedulo invisit. Moriuntur e nostris quinque.
Omnis aula, omne collegium, aut domi, aut in via ad patriam, suos habet
mortuos. Mirari quis posset multitudinem ad medicastrorum domos cum
matulis citato cursu properantium. Pharmacopolarum etiam conservata
syrupos, olea, aquas dulces, pixides, cujusque generis confectiones,
brevissimo tempore exhausta. Laborant aegroti vehementissimo tum
capitis tum stomachi dolore; vexantur phrenesi; privantur intellectu,
memoria, visu, auditu, et caeteris etiam sensibus. Crescente morbo,
non capiunt cibos, non dormiunt, ministros aut custodes non patiuntur.
Semper, vel in ipsa morte, mirae orum strenuitas et corporis robur;
et eo declinante, omnia modis impense contrariis eveniunt. Nulli
complexioni aut constitutioni parcitur; cholericos tamen praecipue
hic morbus molestos habet; cujus ut causas, sic et curas ignorant
medici. Natum suspicantur multi, vel ex foetido et pestilenti furum e
carceribus prodeuntium aëre (quorum duo vel tres sunt ante paucos dies
in vinculis mortui) vel ex artificiosis diabolicis et plane papisticis
flatibus e Lovaniensi barathro excitatis, et ad nos scelestissime et
clam emissis. Nam illi solum et hic et alibi decumbunt aegroti, qui in
castro, et _guilda_, quam appellant, aula, quinto et sexto hujus mensis
adsunt[137]. Assisiorum judices, dominus Robertus Bell, capitatis baro
scaccarii etc. qualem hactenus non peperit Anglia; dominus Johannes
Barrham, dominae reginae serviens ad legem; papisticae pravitatis
uterque apertissimi hostes et acerrimi vindices: vicecomes Oxoniensis
comitatis[138], equites aurati duo, armigeri et pacis justiciarii
octo, generosi plures, horum non pauci famuli, omnes (uno aut attero
exceptis) _de grandi_, ut loquuntur, _jure_, statim post fere relictam
Oxoniam mortui sunt. Et ut quisque fortissimus, ita citissime moritur.
Foeminae non petuntur, nec certe pauperes; neque etiam inficitur
quisquam, qui aegrotorum necessitatibus subministrarit, aut eos
inviserit. Sed ut fuit morbus hic insigniter violentus, ita neque diu
duravit. Nam infra unius mensis curriculum ad pristinam pene sanitatem
restituuntur omnes; ut jam denuo mirari possis tot scholares, tot
etiam cives, urbem et plateas linteis capitibus obambulantes, et nomen
clementissimi Dei nostri in omne aevum suspicere[139].
Vicessimo quarto Julii Joannes May, socius et artium magister, in
collegio vitam finit. Sepelitur in ecclesia.
Vicessimo septimo ejusdem Browne clericus moritur in collegio.
Vicessimo octavo ejusdem Gaunte portionista moritur in collegio.
Vicessimo nono Dnus Lea, electus probationarius 20 Julii, moritur in
collegio.
_Additional Remarks, by_ Tho. Birch, _D. D. Secret. R. S._
CAmden, in his Annals of Queen Elizabeth[140], observes, that almost
all, except women and children, who were present at the assizes at
Oxford, at the tryal of Rowland Jenkes, a Bookseller there, for
seditious words, died, to the number of about three hundred. Mr.
John Stow, in his _Chronicle of England_[141], enlarges this number,
and affirms, that there died in Oxford three hundred persons, and in
other places two hundred and odd, from the 6th of July to the 12th of
August; _after which died not any of that sickness; for one of them
infected not another_: And this historian agrees with Camden, that not
any one woman or child died thereof. Dr. George Ethryg, a physician,
who practised at that time at Oxford[142], in the 2d book of his
_Hypomnemata quædam in aliquot Libros Pauli Æginetæ, seu Observationis
Medicamentorum, quæ hâc ætate in usu sunt_, printed at London in 1588,
in 8vo, mentions, that on the first night of the appearance of the
dissease about six hundred fell sick of it; and that the next night
an hundred more were seized in the villages near Oxford. Lord Bacon,
in his _Natural History_, evidently refers to this, and one or two
more instances of the same kind, in the following passage, _Century_
X. _Nº._ 914. “The most pernicious infection next the plague is the
smell of the goal, where prisoners have been long and close and nastily
kept; whereof we have had in our time experience twice or thrice, when
both the judges, that sat upon the goal, and numbers of those, that
attended the business, or were present, sickened upon it, and died.
Therefore it were good wisdom, that in such cases the goal were aired
before they be brought forth.” We have likewise an account in Mr.
Anthony Wood[143], that at the quarter-session at Cambridge, in Lent in
the year 1522, and the 13th of the reign of Henry VIII. the justices,
gentlemen, and bailiffs, with most of the persons present, were seized
with a disease, which proved mortal to a considerable number of them;
those, who escaped, having been very dangerously sick. With regard to
the unhappy instance of the same kind of contagion, which happened at
the session in the Old Baily in May 1750, see Dr. Pringle’s excellent
work, intitled, _Observations on the Diseases of the Army in Camp and
in Garison_[144].
XCVI. _A Description of the Plan of_ Peking, _the Capital of_ China;
_sent to the Royal Society by Father_ Gaubil, è Societate Jesu.
_Translated from the_ French.