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[Illustration: Part of the original title page.]
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Transcriber’s Note: The original publication has been replicated
faithfully except as shown in the TRANSCRIBER’S AMENDMENTS near the end of
the text. To preserve the alignment of tables and headers, this etext
presumes a mono-spaced font on the user’s device, such as Courier New, but
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But the publisher also wanted to emphasize words in sentences already
italicized, so he printed them in the regular font which is indicated here
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There are 20 grains to a scruple, 3 scruples to a dram (or “8-ball”), and
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Symbol Meaning
ʒ dram, or drachm
℥ ounce
℈ scruple
[ss.] semi (half measure)
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_LOIMOLOGIA_:
OR, AN
Historical Account
OF THE
Plague in _London_ in 1665:
With precautionary Directions against
the like _Contagion_.
By NATH. HODGES, M. D.
And Fellow of the College of Physicians, who
resided in the City all that Time.
To which is added, An
ESSAY
On the different Causes of PESTILENTIAL
DISEASES, and how they become
Contagious:
WITH
REMARKS
On the Infection now in FRANCE, and
the most probable Means to prevent its
Spreading here.
By JOHN QUINCY, M. D.
_LONDON_:
Printed for _E. Bell_, at the _Cross Keys_ and _Bible_ in
_Cornhill_; and _J. Osborn_, at the _Oxford-Arms_
in _Lombard-street_, 1720.
[Illustration]
THE
PREFACE.
_IT may be needless to acquaint the +Reader+ why the following +Sheets+
are published at this Time, we being all but too justly apprised of the
Danger there may be, of wanting those Helps, which are here intended to be
supplied, as far as such Means as these can do it._
_THE +Treatise+ of Dr. +Hodges+ contains the best Account of the late
Visitation by a +Plague+ here in +England+, of any hitherto extant; and
though some Readers may indeed observe, that the Enthusiastick Strain of
the preceeding Times very much hurts his Style and Perspicuity; such an
Influence had the Spirit of Delusion even over Matters of Science:
However, the most affected Peculiarities and Luxuriancies of that kind are
here avoided._
_WHAT is hereunto added, hath been partly extracted from Papers wrote some
Years ago, and partly put together since our present Apprehensions from
Abroad. The Enumeration of so many Causes of a Pestilence, or like
Changes, as have no Relation to the present Case, may to some perhaps seem
superfluous; but my Design hereby, was only the better to inculcate a
right Understanding of a +Contagion+, which is the last Consequence, and
highest Degree of Aggravation they are capable of rising to; and gradually
to lead Persons, not well accustomed to such Matters, from the more
obvious, to the more secret Means of bringing such terrible Changes into
our Constitutions._
_WHAT relates to such precautionary Means for our Security against the
present Infection now Abroad, as concern the Magistrate, I have presumed
to say but very little to; because I understand such Instructions are now
waited for from a very great and able Physician: But, with Submission to
the wisest, I cannot but repeat it here again, that no humane Means seems
more absolutely necessary, than to remove the Infected immediately upon
their Seizure, out of all great Towns, and provide for their due Support
in all Things, in open Country Places; for the Distemper becomes not
infectious till some Time after Seizure._
_AS for what every Person may do for his private Safety, I have given
several additional Hints, either fuller or plainer than Dr. +Hodges+ hath
done. And because his Antidotes and precautionary Medicines are now
obsolete, and not by much so elegant or easie to be procured, as the
present Practice and Shops do supply, I have added some +Formulæ+, to be
complied with, or altered, as different Exigencies, and better Judges may
think fit._
_IF the Reader should be curious enough to note any Incorrectnesses of
Style, or Typographical Errors, he is desired to excuse them, from the
great Hurry which these Sheets passed through the Press in, although there
hath been as much Care taken to prevent either, as so much Hast with which
they were called for would admit of._
[Illustration]
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
LOIMOLOGIA: OR, AN HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF THE PLAGUE IN LONDON IN 1665:
SECTION I. Of the Rise and Progress of the late Plague. 1
SECTION II. Of the Cause of a Pestilence, and a Contagion. 29
SECTION III. Of the primary Seat of a Pestilence; where, 66
by the Way, is considered the Nature of
the Spirits, and their Infection in an
humane Body from Poison.
SECTION IV. Of the Complication of a Pestilence with 76
other Distempers, and particularly with
the Scurvy.
SECTION V. Of the manifest Signs of the late Pestilence. 85
SECTION VI. The Prognostick Signs of the late Pestilence. 140
SECTION VII. Concerning the Cure of the late Pestilence. 152
SECTION VIII. Of Preservation from a Pestilence. 205
OF THE DIFFERENT CAUSES OF PESTILENTIAL DISEASES,
AND HOW THEY BECOME CONTAGIOUS: 231
A TABLE OF THE FUNERALS IN THE SEVERAL PARISHES WITHIN
THE BILLS OF MORTALITY OF THE CITY OF LONDON,
FOR THE YEAR 1665: 289
[Illustration]
_LOIMOLOGIA_:
OR, AN
ACCOUNT, _&c._
SECTION I.
_Of the Rise and Progress of the late_
PLAGUE.
THE Plague which we are now to give an Account of, discovered the
Beginnings of its future Cruelties, about the Close of the Year 1664; for
at that Season two or three Persons died suddenly in one Family at
_Westminster_, attended with like Symptoms, that manifestly declared
their Origin: Hereupon some timorous Neighbours, under Apprehensions of a
Contagion, removed into the City of _London_, who unfortunately carried
along with them the pestilential Taint; whereby that Disease, which was
before in its Infancy, in a Family or two, suddenly got Strength, and
spread Abroad its fatal Poisons; and meerly for Want of confining the
Persons first seized with it, the whole City was in a little Time
irrecoverably infected. Not unlike what happened the Year following, when
a small Spark, from an unknown Cause, for Want of timely Care, increased
to such a Flame, that neither the Tears of the People, nor the Profusion
of their _Thames_, could extinguish; and which laid Wast the greatest Part
of the City in three Days Time: And therefore as there happens to be no
great Difference between these two grievous Calamities, this Mention of
them together may not be improper; and the more especially, because by a
like irresistable Fate from a Fever and a Conflagration, both the
Inhabitants and their Houses were reduc’d to Ashes.
BUT as soon as it was rumoured amongst the common People, who are always
enough astonished at any Thing new, that the Plague was in the City, it is
impossible to relate what Accounts were spread of its Fatality, and well
were it, had not the Presages been so ominous; every one predicted its
future Devastations, and they terrified each other with Remembrances of a
former Pestilence; for it was a received Notion amongst the common People,
that the Plague visited _England_ once in Twenty Years; as if after a
certain Interval, by some inevitable Necessity, it must return again. But
although this Conceit, how well soever justify’d by past Experiences, did
not so much obtain with Persons of more Judgment, yet this may be
affirmed, that it greatly contributed, amongst the Populace, both to
propagate and inflame the Contagion, by the strong Impressions it made
upon their Minds.
AND these frightful Apprehensions were not a little increased by the
Predictions of Astrologers, from the Conjunctions of Stars, and the
Appearances of Comets; for although but little Regard was given to such
Things by Persons of Thought, yet Experience daily shewed, what Influence
they had with the meaner Sort, whose Spirits being manifestly sunk by such
Fears, rendered their Constitutions less able to resist the Contagion.
Whosoever duly considers it, can never imagine that this Pestilence had
its Origin from any Conjunction of _Saturn_ and _Jupiter_, in _Sagitarius_
on the Tenth of _October_, or from a Conjunction of _Saturn_ and _Mars_ in
the same Sign on the Twelfth of _November_, which was the common Opinion;
for all the Good that happens during the like Conjunctions is assignable
to the same Causes.
THE like Judgment is to be made of Comets, how terrible soever they may be
in their Aspects, and whether they are produced in the higher Regions from
a Conglomeration of many Stars, and returning at certain Periods; or
whether they are lower, and the Production of sulphureous Exhalations,
kindled in our own Atmosphere; For there is nothing strange in the
Accension of heterogeneous Particles into a Flame, upon their rapid
Occursions and Collisions against each other, howsoever terrible the
Tracks of such Light may be circumstanced. The People therefore were
frightned without Reason at such Things, and the Mischief was much more in
the Predictions of the Star-Gazers, than in the Stars themselves: Nothing
could however conquer these sad Impressions, so powerful were they amongst
the Populace, who anticipated their unhappy Fate with their Fears, and
precipitated their own Destruction.
BUT to pass by Things of less Moment, it is to be taken Notice, that a
very hard Frost set in on _December_, which continued three Months, and
seemed greatly to deaden the Contagion, and very few died during that
Season; although even then it was not extinguished, for in the Middle of
_Christmas_ Holy-days, I was called to a Young-Man in a Fever, who after
two Days Course of alexiterial Medicines, had two Risings about the
Bigness of a Nutmeg broke out, one on each Thigh; upon Examination of
which, I soon discovered the Malignity, both from their black Hue, and the
Circle round them, and pronounced it to be the Plague; in which Opinion I
was afterwards confirmed by subsequent Symptoms, although by God’s
Blessing the Patient recovered.
THIS Case I insert, both to shew that this Season did not wholly destroy
the Distemper, although it greatly restrained it; but upon the Frost
breaking, the Contagion got Ground, and gradually got out of its
Confinements; like a Flame that for some Time seems smother’d, and
suddenly breaks out with aggravated Fury.
AS soon as the Magistracy, to whom belonged the publick Care, saw how the
Contagion daily increased, and had now extended it self to several
Parishes, an Order was immediately issued out to shut up all the infected
Houses, that neither Relations nor Acquaintance might unwarily receive it
from them, and to keep the infected from carrying it about with them.
BUT whether this Method proved of Service or not, is to this Day doubtful,
and much disputed; but it is my Business here however to adhere to Facts,
and relate the Arguments on both Sides with all possible Impartiality.
IN Order whereunto, it is to be observ’d, that a Law was made for marking
the Houses of infected Persons with a Red Cross, having with it this
Subscription, LORD HAVE MERCY UPON US: And that a Guard should there
continually attend, both to hand to the Sick the Necessaries of Food and
Medicine, and to restrain them from coming Abroad until Forty Days after
their Recovery. But although the _Lord Mayor_ and all inferior Officers
readily and effectually put these Orders in Execution, yet it was to no
Purpose, for the Plague more and more increased; and the Consternation of
those who were thus separated from all Society, unless with the infected,
was inexpressible; and the dismal Apprehensions it laid them under, made
them but an easier Prey to the devouring Enemy. And this Seclusion was on
this Account much the more intolerable, that if a fresh Person was seized
in the same House but a Day before another had finished the Quarentine, it
was to be performed over again; which occasion’d such tedious Confinements
of sick and well together, that sometimes caused the Loss of the whole.
BUT what greatly contributed to the Loss of People thus shut up, was the
wicked Practices of Nurses (for they are not to be mention’d but in the
most bitter Terms): These Wretches, out of Greediness to plunder the Dead,
would strangle their Patients, and charge it to the Distemper in their
Throats; others would secretly convey the pestilential Taint from Sores of
the infected to those who were well; and nothing indeed deterred these
abandoned Miscreants from prosecuting their avaritious Purposes by all the
Methods their Wickedness could invent; who, although they were without
Witnesses to accuse them, yet it is not doubted but divine Vengeance will
overtake such wicked Barbarities with due Punishment: Nay, some were
remarkably struck from Heaven in the Perpetration of their Crimes, and one
particularly amongst many, as she was leaving the House of a Family, all
dead, loaded with her Robberies, fell down dead under her Burden in the
Streets: And the Case of a worthy Citizen was very remarkable, who being
suspected dying by his Nurse, was before-hand stripped by her; but
recovering again, he came a second Time into the World naked. And so many
were the Artifices of these barbarous Wretches, that it is to be hoped,
Posterity will take Warning how they trust them again in like Cases; and
that their past Impunities will not be a Means of bringing on us again the
like Judgment.
MOREOVER, this shutting up infected Houses, made the Neighbours fly from
theirs, who otherwise might have been a Help to them on many Accounts; and
I verily believe that many who were lost might have now been alive, had
not the tragical Mark upon their Door drove proper Assistances from them.
AND this is confirmed by the Examples of other pestilential Contagions,
which have been observed not to cease, until the Doors of the Sick were
let open, and they had the Privilege of going Abroad; of the same
Authority is the Custom of other Nations, who have due Regard to that
Liberty that is necessary for the Comforts both of Body and Mind.
IT now remains that we take Notice of all that is of any Weight on the
other Side; as therefore it is not at all deemed cruel to take off a
mortify’d Limb to save the whole, by a Parity of Reason is the Conduct of
a Community justifyable, who, out of a Regard to the Publick Good, put
Hardships upon particular Persons; in a pestilential Contagion therefore,
what can be of more immediate Service than securing those that are well
from the Infection? And the more especially in a Disease that reaches not
only the Body, but taints the very Breath; for in this Case the infected
Breath poisons upon the healthful, and even at the Point of Death
endeavours to diffuse that Venom to others that conquer’d them. From this
delirious Pleasure arises those Tricks of transplanting the Corruption of
a pestilential Tumour to another; not to say any Thing of that Woman, who
with her Importunities drew her unhappy Husband into her Embraces, which
ended his Life with hers.
AGAIN, to take away all Doubtings in this Case, I am not ignorant of what
Moment it is, to shut up the Houses of all those who are infected,
according to Custom; for by this means a Contagion may at first be
stifled, which otherwise would go beyond any Remedy; and with equal
Advantage might Gun-Powder be fired, if too much Time is not wasted in
Deliberation, before these Things are put into Practice.
BUT if hereafter again a Plague should break out, (which God forbid) with
Submission to Superiors, I should think it not improper to appoint proper
Accommodations out of the City, for such as are yet untouched in infected
Families; and who should continue there for a certain Time; the Sick in
the mean time to be removed to convenient Apartments provided on Purpose
for them: For by this Means, that Practice so abhorrent to Religion and
Humanity, even in the Opinion of a _Mahometan_, of shutting up the sick
and well together, would be avoided.
BUT to return: The Infection had long doubtfully reign’d, and continued
through _May_ and _June_, with more or less Severity; sometimes raging in
one Part, and then in another, as in a running sort of Fight; as often as
the Number of Funerals decreased, great Hopes were conceived of its
Disappearance; then on a sudden again their Increase threw all into
Dejection, as if the whole City was soon to be unpeopled; which
Uncertainty gave Advantage to the Distemper; because Persons were more
remiss in their Provisions against it, during such Fluctuation.
IT must not however be omitted, with what Precipitation the trembling
Inhabitants left the City, and how they flocked in such Crowds out of
Town, as if _London_ had quite gone out of it self, like the Hurry of a
sudden Conflagration, all Doors and Passages are thronged for Escape: Yet
after the chief of the People were fled, and thereby the Nourishment of
this cruel Enemy had been in a great Measure taken away, yet it raged
still; and although it seemed once to slay as _Parthians_ in their Flight,
it soon returned with redoubled Fury, and kill’d not by slow Paces, but
almost immediately upon Seizure; not unlike what is often seen in Battle,
when after some Skirmishes of Wings, and separate Parties, the main Bodies
come to engage; so did this Contagion at first only scatter about its
Arrows, but at last covered the whole City with Death.
THUS therefore in the Space of one Week were eighty Persons cut off, and
when Things came to Extremity, all Helps were called in; so it began now
to be solely the Magistrates Business, how to put a Stop to this cruel
Devastation, and save some Part of the City at last from the Grave; first
then therefore were appointed a Monthly Fast for Publick Prayers, to
deprecate the Anger of Heaven; nor proved it in vain, or were their
Supplications altogether fruitless; for if we have any Regard to the
Temperature of the Season, the whole Summer was refreshed with moderate
Breezes, sufficient to prevent the Air’s Stagnation and Corruption, and to
carry off the pestilential Steams; the Heat was likewise too mild to
encourage such Corruption and Fermentation, as helps to taint the animal
Fluids, and pervert them from their natural State.
THE Government however, to the Duty of Publick Prayers, neglected not to
add what Assistances might be had from Medicine; to which Purpose his
Majesty, with the divine Helps, called in also all that was humane; and by
his Royal Authority commanded the College of Physicians of _London_,
jointly to write somewhat in _English_ that might be a general Directory
in this calamitous Exigence: Nor was it satisfactory to that honoured
Society to discharge their Regards for the Publick with that only, but
some were chose out of their Number, and appointed particularly to attend
the infected on all Occasions; two also out of the Court of Aldermen were
required to see this hazardous Task executed; so that encouraged with all
proper Means, this Province was chearfully undertaken, and all possible
Caution was used fully to answer the Intention; but this Task was too much
for four Persons, and wanted rather the Concurrence of the whole Faculty;
we were however ashamed to give it up, and used our utmost Application
therein; but all our Care and Pains were eluded, for the Disease, like the
_Hydra_’s Heads, was no sooner extinguished in one Family, but it broke
out in many more with Aggravations; so that in a little Time we found our
Task too great, and despaired of putting an entire Stop to the Infection.
NOR was there at this Time wanting the Help of very great and worthy
Persons, who voluntarily contributed their Assistances in this dangerous
Work; amongst the Number of which, the learned Dr. _Glisson, Regius
+Professor at+ Cambridge_, Dr. _Nath. Paget_, Dr. _Wharton_, Dr.
_Berwick_, Dr. _Brookes_, and many others who are yet alive, deserve very
honourable Mention; but eight or nine fell in this Work, who were too much
loaded with the Spoils of the Enemy; and amongst whom was Dr. _Conyers_,
whose Goodness and Humanity claim an honourable Remembrance with all who
survive him.
AFTER then all Endeavours to restrain the Contagion proved of no Effect,
we applied our selves altogether to the Care of the diseased; and in the
Prosecution of which, it may be affirmed without Boasting, no Hazards to
our selves were avoided: But it is incredible to think how the Plague
raged amongst the common People, insomuch that it came by some to be
called the _Poors Plague_; yet although the more opulent had left the
Town, and that it was almost left uninhabited, the Commonalty that were
left felt little of Want; for their Necessities were relieved with a
Profusion of good Things from the Wealthy, and their Poverty was supported
with Plenty; a more manifest Cause therefore for such a Devastation
amongst them I shall assign in another Place.
IN the Months of _August_ and _September_, the Contagion chang’d its
former slow and languid Pace, and 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 such
Times? The whole _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 Ravings 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 for 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 their 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 drunk 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 seemed to be in a fatal Engagement to destroy the great Ornament of
Commerce; and the Burning of all the Commodities of the World together,
seemed 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 rivalled 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 inrolled 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 vanquish’d 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 seemed 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 à Lachrymis?_ ————————
Even the Relation of this Calamity melts me into Tears, and yet the worst
was not certain, although the City was near drained by her Funerals; for
the Disease as yet had no Relaxation.
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: But at
length, that nothing might go untried to divert the Contagion, it was
ordered by the Governours who were left to superintend those calamitous
Affairs, (for the Court was then removed to _Oxford_) to burn Fires in the
Streets for three Days together; yet while this was in Debate, the
Physicians concerned were diffident of the Success, as the Air in it self
was un-infected; and therefore rendred such a showy and expensive a
Project superfluous, and of no Effect; and these Conjectures we supported
by the Authority of Antiquity, and _Hippocrates_ himself; notwithstanding
which, the Fires were kindled in all the Streets. But alas! the
Controversie was soon decided; for before the three Days were quite
expired, the Heavens both mourned so many Funerals, and wept for the fatal
Mistake, so as to extinguish even the Fires with their Showers. I shall
not determine any other Person’s Conjecture in this Case, whether these
Fires may more properly be deemed the ominous Forerunners of the ensuing
Conflagration, or the ensuing Funerals; but whether it was from the
suffocating Qualities of the Fuel, or the wet Constitution of Air that
immediately followed, the most fatal Night ensued, wherein more than four
Thousand expired. May Posterity by this Mistake be warned, and not, like
Empyricks, apply a Remedy where they are ignorant of the Cause.
THE Reader is by the Way to be advertised, that this Year was luxuriant in
most Fruits, especially Cherries and Grapes, which were at so low a Price,
that the common People surfeited with them; for this might very much
contribute to that Disposition of Body as made the pestilential Taint more
easily take Place.
NOR ought we here to pass by the benificent Assistances of the Rich, and
the Care of the Magistrates; for the Markets being open as usual, and a
greater Plenty of all Provisions, was a great Help to support the Sick; so
that there was the Reverse of a Famine, which hath been observed to be so
fatal to pestilential Contagions; and in this the Goodness of Heaven is
always to be remembred, in alleviating a common Misery by such a Profusion
of good Things from the Stores of Nature.
BUT as it were to balance this immediate Help of Providence, nothing was
otherwise wanting to aggravate the common Destruction; and to which
nothing more contributed than the Practice of Chymists and Quacks, and of
whose Audacity and Ignorance it is impossible to be altogether silent;
they were indefatigable in spreading their Antidotes; and although equal
Strangers to all Learning as well as Physick, they thrust into every Hand
some Trash or other under the Disguise of a pompous Title. No Country sure
ever abounded with such wicked Impostors; for all Events contradicted
their Pretensions, and hardly a Person escaped that trusted to their
Delusions: Their Medicines were more fatal than the Plague, and added to
the Numbers of the Dead: But these Blowers of the pestilential Flames were
caught in the common Ruin, and by their Death in some Measure excused the
Neglect of the Magistracy, in suffering their Practice:
—————— _Nec Lex est justior ulla
Quàm necis Artifices Arte perire suâ._
ABOUT this Time a Person of Distinction and great Humanity, going to
_France_ upon some Affairs of State, heard that some _Frenchmen_ were
Masters of an Antipestilential Remedy, and took Care to send some Doses of
it over here: By Command of the Government we were ordered to try it with
due Caution, which we did with Expectations of uncommon Success, but _the
Mountain brought forth Death_; for the Medicine, which was a Mineral
Preparation, threw the Patients into their last Sleep. May it never
hereafter be injoined to try Experiments with unknown and foreign
Medicines, upon the Lives even of the meanest Persons! For certainly
nothing is more abhorrent to Reason, than to impose a universal Remedy, in
Cases whose curative Intentions are different, and sometimes opposite; and
the various Indications of a Pestilence require very different Methods of
Remedy, as shall hereafter be further demonstrated.
TO this may be added, that many common Medicines were publickly Sold,
which by their extraordinary Heat and Disposition to inflame the Blood,
could never be fit for every Age, Sex, and Constitution indifferently, and
therefore in many Cases must undoubtedly do Harm. On this Account not only
the _Sacred Art_, but the _Publick Health_ also suffered; yet we who were
particularly employed in this Affair as Physicians, used all
Sollicitations with the Magistracy to restrain such Practices, in Order to
stop the Ruin they aggravated. Hence notwithstanding it was made a
Question, whether in a Plague, where so many Physicians retire, (not so
much for their own Preservation, as the Service of those whom they attend)
it is not expedient for every one, according to his Abilities, to do his
utmost in averting the common Ruin? In the same Manner as in a Fire all
Hands are required, even of the Croud as well as Workmen, to extinguish
it.
BUT in this Case my own Opinion is determined: In the Restauration of
Health, a Person must proceed with more Caution and Deliberation than in
the supposed Case of a Fire; for there are Difficulties occur in the
Practice of Medicine which are insuperable but by the unlearned; and the
fine Texture of a humane Body is not to be managed by as clumsie Hands as
the Materials of a House; in the former, if a Person makes a Mistake, it
is with great Difficulty repaired; and therefore upon a serious
Consideration of the whole Affair, I cannot make any Doubt, but that it is
much better even to want Physicians in such Calamities, than to have the
Sick under the Care and Management of the unlearned; for such Persons,
like those who fight blindfold, know not in what Parts to attack the
Enemy, nor with what Weapons to do it; besides which, they also are in
Hazard of obstructing these Efforts of Nature, which would many Times,
without Help, if not thus hindred, get the better of the Distemper.
NOR in this Account are we to neglect, that the Contagion spread its
Cruelties into the neighbouring Countries; for the Citizens, which crowded
in Multitudes into the adjacent Towns, carried the Infection along with
them, where it raged with equal Fury; so that the Plague, which at first
crept from one Street to another, now reigned over whole Counties, leaving
hardly any Place free from its Insults; and the Towns upon the _Thames_
were more severely handled, not perhaps from a great Moisture in the Air
from thence, but from the tainted Goods rather that were carried upon it:
Moreover, some Cities and Towns, of the most advantageous Situation for a
wholsome Air, did notwithstanding feel the common Ruine. Such was the
Rise, and such the Progress, of this cruel Destroyer, which first began at
_London_.
BUT the worst Part of the Year being now over, and the Height of the
Disease, the Plague by leisurely Degrees declined, as it had gradually
made its first Advances; and before the Number infected decreased, its
Malignity began to relax, insomuch that few died, and those chiefly such
as were ill managed; hereupon that Dread which had been upon the Minds of
the People wore off; and the Sick chearfully used all the Means directed
for their Recovery; and even the Nurses grew either more cautious, or more
faithful; insomuch that after some Time a Dawn of Health appeared, as
sudden, and as unexpected, as the Cessation of the following
Conflagration; wherein after blowing up of Houses, and using all Means for
its Extinction to little Purpose, the Flames stopped as it were of
themselves, for Want of Fuel, or out of Shame for having devoured so much.
THE Pestilence did not however stop for Want of Subjects to act upon, (as
then commonly rumoured) but from the Nature of the Distemper, its Decrease
was like its Beginning, moderate; nor is it less to be wondred at, that as
at the Rise of the Contagion all other Distempers went into that, so now
at its Declension that degenerated into others, as _Inflammations_,
_Head-achs_, _Quinseys_, _Dysenteries_, _Small-Pox_, _Measles_, _Fevers_,
and _Hecticks_; wherein that also yet predominated, as hereafter will be
further shewn.
ABOUT the Close of the Year, that is, on 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 Hast 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: 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 before were afraid even of their
Friends and Relations, would without Fear venture into the Houses and
Rooms where infected Persons had but 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 before
they were even cold, or cleansed from the Stench of the Diseased; they had
the Courage now to marry again, and betake to the Means of repairing the
past Mortality; and even Women before deemed barren, were said to prove
proliffick; so that although the Contagion had carried off, as some
computed, about one hundred thousand, after a few Months their Loss was
hardly discernable, and thus ended this fatal Year.
BUT the next Spring indeed appeared some Remains of the Contagion, which
was easily conquered by the Physicians, and like the Termination of a
common _Intermittent_, ended in a healthful Recovery: Whereupon the whole
Malignity ceasing, the City returned to a perfect Health; not unlike what
happened also after the last Conflagration, when a new City suddenly arose
out of the Ashes of the old, much better able to stand the like Flames
another Time.
[Illustration]