_Of the Complication of a Pestilence with
other Distempers, and particularly with
the Scurvy._
AS the Pestilence is the most powerful of all other Distempers, so it also
claims a particular Privilege of joining with all others; so that it does
not more excel in its own Contrariety and Antipathy to Nature, than it
asserts a Prerogative over all those various Evils which the humane Frame
is subjected to, and draws them into its Assistance in exercising its
cruel Power over Mankind.
THIS Assertion might be supported by a Multitude of Instances, if it were
not for taking up too much of the Reader’s Time; for which Reason we shall
only take Notice, that amongst all those Distempers which are thus
inclined to join their Forces with this most powerful Enemy, some seem to
have a more particular Fitness for such a Union, from a common Affinity
in the Nature of their Infection, and the Energy of their Poison.
ONE of the First of this Class is the venereal Disease, with which the
pestilential Venom does in a very familiar Manner unite it self. At the
first breaking out indeed of the last Sickness it was given out by common
Fame, that those who were previously infected with any foul Distemper, as
the Pox in particular, would be secured thereby against the pestilential
Taint; but wicked and impious was the Consequence of such a Suggestion;
for many were hereby encouraged to seek the most lascivious and filthy
Prostitutions, on purpose to be secur’d by one previous Infection against
another: But besides the poisonous Quality peculiar to this nasty Disease,
besides that Expence of Spirit in the procuring it, and besides a lost
Force of the Constitution thereby, the greatest Aggravation to this
Misfortune was, that the very Taint which was to defend against another,
had it in its Nature to be more forcibly attracted by it; so that the rash
Adventurer was soon brought to a bitter Repentance for his Experiment, by
sinking immediately under the pestilential Contagion at its first Stroke;
and it was common to find, by a very easy Transition, the venereal Buboes
changed into pestilential Carbuncles, except in a few Instances where
Nature found out an uncommon Artifice against these united Powers, by
endeavouring an Ejectment of their joint Malignities by Salivation,
whereby sometimes the Patient was brought into some Chance for his Life,
both the Poisons being in a great Measure cast off together that way.
BUT here it may not be improper to admonish the young Physicians not to be
too forward Imitators of Nature in such a Circumstance; unless they will
run the same Hazard with a certain Empirick, who crouded his Powders upon
the Sick that raised an untimely spitting, and brought a great many into a
dangerous Condition, which by a regular Practice might have been, tho’
with Difficulty, saved.
Yet to set this whole Affair in a clear Light, there is great Reason to
suspect that in many Cases Mercury had for some time remained in the Body,
which, like a Snake in the Grass, being raised by the Pestilential
Infection, flew up into a Salivation; for the febrile Heat, assisted with
Medicines also of an hot Nature, throw up the Mercury, which had long lain
quiet, like a Sublimation; which should be a Caution, not only to young
Physicians, but those of more standing in Practice, not to be so buisy
with mercurial Medicines, to Children as well as grown Persons, as they
are too much apt to be; least besides the Inconveniencies already
mentioned they cause malignant Ulcers, and Rotenness upon the Bones, as it
is too commonly observed to be done in irregular Practice, to the
irreparable Detriment of the Patients.
I am not however ignorant that sometimes the Pestilential Venom may
tumifie the salival Glands without any other Assistance, and occasion
Ulcers in the Mouth as with Mercury; for it is a common Case in many
malignant Fevers.
BUT it is so clear a Matter that the Pestilential and venereal Poysons may
intimately join together by their Affinity with one another, to the great
Detriment of Mankind, as to want no further Proofs to confirm it; nor
does their Opinion at all obviate ours, who place the venereal Poyson in
Humidity, and that of a Pestilence in Dryness, as long as the Symptoms and
Affections of both discover one common Principle, that is, somewhat
saline; but yet if this should not be granted, they are naturally enough
joined together by their known Malignity and Destruction to human Nature.
BUT the Affinity between a Pestilence and a Scurvy is not a slight, and a
supposititious Conjecture, but strengthened and confirmed by a plain Union
between them, whereby they attack like confederate Troops; and both
confess the same Origin, _viz._ a saline Principle; as is most remarkably
obvious in their eager Coalition, whether we consider the forementioned
Transplantation of the like Plague from _Turky_ to _Holland_, where their
Alliance was first formed; Or whether we reflect upon them both as
Distempers equally epidemical, which when joined make such cruel Havock
among the human Species; as neighbouring Flames catch together from a like
Affinity of Parts, and burn with united Fury.
FOR although there is a great Difference in Salts of different Kinds, yet
there is a common Property amongst them all, that when joined together
they cannot hardly by any Means possibly be afterwards separated, for
which Reason when these two Enemies of Mankind were joined, the
complicated Evil was at first customarily distinguished by the _outlandish
Scurvy_, which by a confederate Power had increased its Malignity to so
great a Degree. But to give some apparent Facts, which irrefragably prove
the natural Union between these two Origins of Mischief, it may be proper
to recite some Symptoms common to them both, and first of all those Spots
which were their certain Characteristicks.
THE Spots of those in the Plague were sometimes so numerous, as to cover
all the Body, of which we shall say more hereafter; and if we consider the
Appearances and Conditions of the Spots in both, we shall find a very
great Agreement; the pestilential Spots sometimes break out broad, at
other Times more contracted, just in the same Manner as it happens in a
Scurvy; and as to their Duration, sometimes they are longer out than at
others in both; now also suddenly appear, and then again as suddenly turn
in, and sometimes remain out for two or three Days together; and their
Likeness in all Respects is frequently so great, that amongst the ignorant
Nurses and Empiricks, sometimes the fatal Tokens of a Pestilence have been
mistaken only for Scurvy Spots: As to their Colour in a Plague, as well as
in a Scurvy, they are sometimes florid, resembling fresh Flea-Bites, and
at others dusky and livid; and I met with them in a certain Youth
resembling Violet Flowers painted all over the Body; and in some I have
seen them almost quite black, which are with great Difficulty to be
distinguished from the true pestilential Tokens.
THERE are other Symptoms also that denote the Agreement herein, such as
large Stools, of a saline and fetid Nature, and which are with great
Difficulty restrained by the most powerful Medicines; but if such a Flux
continues, it threatens irretrievable Injuries, as Corrosion,
Inflammation, and sometimes even Sphacelation of the Bowels, with
intolerable Gripings, and sometimes Loss of Blood: Furthermore, the
Agreement that there is between the Ulcers and Tumours of both evidently
demonstrate the Affinity of both their Origins, as will hereafter more
fully appear in that Part about the Cure.
THE Pestilence likewise shews its Affinity with the Scurvy, by leaving
behind it a scorbutick Habit, even where a Person was not given to it in
the least before; and it is not indeed at all strange, that after such
Disorders, and Corruption of the animal Juices, and such an Exhalation or
Suffocation of subtile and spirituous Particles, an Habit should be
confirmed, that can be removed but by the most generous Remedies, and the
most powerful Antiscorbuticks.
IT remains now briefly to enquire, whether a Pestilence coming upon
another Disease, in any Instances proves of Service; and this I shall
dispatch in two Histories of Cases, one in a Consumption, and the other in
the _King’s-Evil_.
A Girl of fifteen Years of Age was so emaciated, that she had left little
besides Skin and Bones, and taking no Nourishment for 14 Days together,
she was given over as gone, but being called to the same House, to see her
Mother, and two others who had the Infection, and recovered, the same
Distemper seized that Creature almost half-dead before, whom also I then
attended; but she who just before lay as expiring, seemed animated by the
feverish Heat, began to move her Limbs, and with the Help of Alexipharmick
Medicines, although before speechless, began to complain of painful
Swellings about her; but those Buboes, which I suppose would otherwise
have broke out, for Want of Matter to raise them, were dissipated by
Transpiration; so that she recovered, and in about two Weeks also
manifestly lost her former Distemper, and gathered Flesh and Strength.
ANOTHER Maid of about 16 Years of Age had been so scrophulous from her
Childhood, as to have many indurated Glands remain after all possible
Means had been used to dissipate them. She at last was seized with the
Contagion, and pestilential Buboes rose upon the strumous Glands, which
suppurated, and let out a great Quantity of Filth; and upon her Recovery
from thence, her former Distemper was quite lost.
SOME gouty Persons likewise, and others accustomed to very obstinate
Complaints, were, by a lucky Conjunction with this Infection, quite
restored: and indeed most who were rightly managed in the Plague, and
perfectly recovered of it, were afterwards, in many Respects, better in
their Health than before; so that this terrible Enemy, as it was commonly
fatal, so it also sometimes proved a Remedy. And thus much for the
Complication of the Pestilence with other Distempers. We shall now proceed
to its Symptoms.