a place of no danger and with very little losse of blood died presently with the very feare of being killed But I should be too tedious if I should reckon vp more examples Now if these Passions could be so deadly in pure Aires and holsome seasons how much more thinke we are they pernicious in pestilentiall times But in respect of Contagion there is no Passion so dangerous as Feare For by it the Spirits are enforced to retire inward to the heart to guard that Prince of life from the danger feared By this retiring they leaue the outward parts infirme as appeareth plainely by the palenesse trembling of one in great feare So that the walls being forsaken which are continually besieged by the contagious Aire in come the enemies without resistance the Spirits which are the Souldiers that should repell them having cowardly sounded a Retrait And hereby there is not onely way made for the evill Aire to enter but also the Spirits wherein is all our heat being all drawne inward doe draw in such vapours after them as are about the body even as the Sunne draweth towards it the vapours of the earth And here-hence it is that Feare brings Infection faster and sooner then any other occasion Now for Remedie against these Passions we must know that they are diseases of the Soule and the cure of them belongeth chiefly to Divines They are the Phisitians to deale inwardly with these diseases To purge out the Loue of this World and the distrust of Gods Providence and Mercies as also to minister the Cordialls of Faith Hope Patience Contentednesse c. and to ordaine the strict diet of holy Exercises a good Conversation and Walking with God Wee that are Phisitians to the Body are but Chirurgians to the Soule wee can but talke of Topicall remedies as to apply Mirth Musicke good Company and lawfull Recreations such as may take away all time and occasions for carefull thoughts and passionate affections Thus haue I brought you through that part of the Definition wherein are the Causes of the Plague discovered Now we are to lay open the Qualities of it described before in the Definition thus Which at the very first Striketh to the Heart is Venomous Deadly and Infectious At the very first it striketh to the Heart Therefore it is called Morbus Cordis A disease of the Heart And that this is first stricken is apparent by this that at the first infection the vitall facultie sinkes and languishes the whole strength of the Body is suddainly turned to weaknesse the vitall Spirits are greatly oppressed and discouraged Whereas the Animall facultie commonly remaineth for a while in good plight and perfect in the vse of sense vnderstanding iudgement memorie and motion The Naturall facultie also is not so presently hurt but there is concoction and all other actions performed by the liver stomach reyns guts bladder and other parts as Nature requireth Though indeed in a little time these and the brayne also are overcome as appeareth by the Symptoms that follow as Lethargies Frenzies Vomitings Fluxes c. That it is Venomous is graunted of all both Physitians and Philosophers And it is apparent by his secret and insensible insinuation of himselfe into the vitall Spirits to which as soone as he is gotten he shews himselfe a mortall enemie with suddain violence choking and extinguishing them Therefore his subtle entrance his sly crueltie his swift destroying the vnfaithfulnesse of his Crisis and other Prognosticke Signes and the vehemencie grievousnesse and ill behaviour of his Symptoms are manifest proofes of his venomous Qualitie For in this disease the Seidge Vrine and Sweat haue an abhominable savour the Breath is vile and noysome evill coloured Spots Pustles Blisters Swellings and Vlcers full of filthy matter arise in the outward parts of the body such as no superfluitie or sharpnesse of humors nor no putrefaction of matter without a venomous qualitie ioyned with it can possibly produce It is Deadly This needs no proofe the weekly Bills argue it and our owne eyes witnesse it while we see continuall Burialls and some die in the very streets and while we finde also that few of those that are stricken doe recover againe But that It is Infectious is among many of the common ignorant sort more disputable then among the learned Yet is it apparent enough by much experience For Garments and Houshold-stuffe haue beene infected and haue infected many as I haue shewed alreadie in the examples of a Gowne and a Feather-bed Now though this Infection be not apparent to sense as indeed the deadliest Poysons haue neither taste nor smell yet their lurking qualitie may be plainely demonstrated by such as are sensible For we know that garments will a long time retaine any strong or sweete sent wherewith they haue beene fumed or with which they haue beene layd vp now the Sent is meerely a qualitie and his substance is the Aire which is the vehiculum or seat of the Sent wherein it is carried by which it is made permanent Other experiences we haue also as liue Pageons being laid to the soares are taken away dead having not beene wounded crushed nor hurt by any hand at all And lastly many that are infected can directly tell where and of whom they tooke it But say some againe then why is not one infected as well as another I haue eaten and drunke and lyen with them that haue had it and the soares running on them And yet I was not infected I say they haue the more cause to magnifie the Mercy of God to their particular and not to obscure it by saying it is not infectious This argument is not vnlike that of the Mountebanks who tell you that such and such haue beene cured by his Medicines but conceales how many haue died by the misapplication If one should aske this man I pray you how many haue so conversed with the infected and haue so escaped I am sure they cannot name one of twentie Yea but sayth Another I hold the Plague to be nothing els but the very Influence of the Striking Angell sent of God to destroy here one and there another as Hee hath particularly fore-poynted them out Such kindes of Plagues indeed we reade of in sacred Scripture as Exod. 12. Numb 11. v. 33. Numb 16. Numb 25. and 2 Sam. 24. But there is great difference betwixt those Plagues and these of ours For in those Great multitudes suddainly and all at once as one would say in a very short space of time were both smitten and slaine The longest time of Striking being but three dayes namely that for Davids numbering the people In those plagues therefore the cause was onely supernaturall for there was no time allowed for corruption and putrefaction of the Aire But in these of ours and in very many moe in all Countreys and Kingdomes and in all Ages of the World there hath beene sufficient time
delight in drinking and drinking in a Tunnell For the liues of many are so monstrous that a man might say of some among vs as Valerius Aurelianus the Emperour was wont to say of Bonosus a Spaniard That he was borne not to liue but to drinke These riotous abuses of Gods good gifts are a maine cause why the Lord at this time striketh this Land with Sicknesse and threatneth it with the Famine And if any of that Luxurious Sect be at this time sober let them but listen to the testimonies of learned experience who will tell them into what bodily dangers they plunge themselues by this detestable disorder Hippocrates hath an Aphorisme to this purpose that Meat or drinke immoderately taken causeth sicknesse Paulus Aegineta goes yet further saying That the veynes being filled too full are afflicted distended or els broken obstructed filled with winde and over-charged And of all diseases he affirmeth that the over-charging of the veines is the worst Galen affirmeth that Drunkennesse and Crudities which arise from intemperance doe breed new diseases And in another place he sayth Whereas wine moderately taken increaseth naturall heat as being his proper aliment by Drunkennesse commeth astonishment of the brayne the Falling sicknesse or some mayme either to Sense or Motion And so the best Meats which afford most nourishment being immoderately eaten ingender cold Diseases But Avicen more particularly layes downe the dangers that follow this over Repletion in these words Eating much nourisheth not but fills the body with crudities and raw humors stops the pores weakens the powers of nature causes putrefaction mixed feavors short breath Sciatica and ioynt-Aches Againe in another place he speakes of drinking thus Much drinking of Wine in sanguine and chollericke complexions overheats the bloud and causeth choller to superabound and by too much Repletion of the veynes and vessells there may follow a hot Apoplexie and suddain Death In cold Complexions it breeds Diseases of the sinews and that for two causes The first is the over moystening of the sinews the other the turning of the drinke into Vineager before it can passe through the body So the Nerves are by the former relaxed and by the latter corroded Whereupon follows the cold Apoplexie Astonishment Senslesnesse Lethargie Palsey Trembling of the limbs and convulsions of the mouth These are the fearefull mischiefs that befall their bodies besides the miserable wants that grow like eating Cankers into their Estates and the hideous Hell-torments which attend their Soules And note this also that what these haue said of Wine the same is true likewise of all other strong Drinkes Now to Cure this bruitish Disease there is no better way then Prevention and Gluttonie is prevented by Sobrietie Therefore againe hearken to Avicen who adviseth alwayes to rise from meate with some remainder of Appetite for within halfe an houre or as soone as the meate first eaten beginneth to digest our hunger ceaseth li. 1. Fen. 3. Doct. 2. cap. 7. And hence it is that some greedily following the sense of their appetite overcharge their stomachs even to vomiting before they feele themselues satisfied because though the vessell be over-full yet the Appetite is not appeased till Concoction haue begun her worke vpon some part of that which is already received These things are especially to be regarded in a contagious time For Repletion is the originall of all mischiefs that Crudities can produce and they can cause speedy putrefaction that speeds them with the Pestilence But as for a strict Quantitie of eating and drinking I cannot stint every mans stomach but must conclude with Hippocrates Aph. 17. li. 1. Concedendum est aliquid Tempori Regioni Aetatt et Consuetudini The Time Place Age and Custome must beare some sway in these things Onely in these times I would wish all men women and children to be so moderate as Avicen counselleth that they still keepe in the fire of their appetite and how sparing so â—ver they are wont naturally or customarily to be let them be now somthing more sparing Make sewer and shorter meales I would wish those that haue not very weake and windie stomachs to eat but twice a day that is Breakfast and Dinner to goe to bed without a Supper is very holsome thereby we giue Sleepe leaue to supply the evenings nourishment which it will better performe when neither the stomach troubles it with vapours nor it hinders the stomach from digestion Let your drinke also be lesse then your meat And drinke not betweene meales if you can forbeare Laertius li. 2. saith that Socrates liued in Athens in divers Plague times and was never sicke of it and the reason was his great temperance in diet In Winter and cold Weather eate your meat hot from the fire In Summer eat it for the most part cold Let the times of eating be for your breakfast two houres after you are vp and haue taken some Antidote And your dinner fiue houres after that againe Your Supper also if the weaknesse of your stomach craue it fiue houres after your dinner Frame not to your selfe an Antidote without skill but take advice of the Physition who will consider what will best agree with the particular temper of your body for Mithridate and Triacle are generally good for all but not particularly for every one But because every one will not be brought to breake their old customary times of meales as dinner at twelue and supper at seaven I am content to yeeld to custome in these cases Onely let them never goe forth without their breakfast that they may be armed against Winde and Emptinesse And their Antidote taken two houres before that they may be armed against evill Aires Now for those that must therfore make three meales a day let their breakfast if they be of a cold constitution be some bread and butter with Nutmeg grated and a little Citron pill powdered and strewed vpon it Or els bread and sallet Oyle for such as loue it spiced with the powder of Enula campane roote Or els especially in cold and moyst weather eate a few figs with a little Penniroyall and salt But for hot stomachs and chollericke complexions let such dip some bread in Beere and Vineager and eat it Or take good Wine Vineager steepe in it for three dayes together the powder of Brimston and a few Fennell-seeds soppe your bread in it and make it your break-fast And for those that must make three meales a day let their breakfast be little in quantitie At other meales eat the lightest meats first and then those that are more hard of digestion Eat no butter last and drinke not last after your meate Neither is Cheese so commonly to be eaten at these times for if it be full of Butter it is fuming if not it is binding and both these are faults except the inclination of the body require it at sometimes After dinner also if you haue a cold
Longè recede Choice of habitation How to let in fresh Aire Tardè redi Who must not flee How those that tarrie are to order themselues For then is the braine more full of excrementitious humors the whole bodie aboundeth more with moysture therfore more apt to entertaine putrefaction Purging of the impure Aire Purging of the Generall Aire Fire purgeth the Aire best Strang counsels of Some learned Physitions The Authors opinion lib. 2. cap. 10. Diet in six Poynts The Disorders in the Point of Aire The Cure of the Speciall Aire in Houses Observation If you must needs be in the â—ome let the fire be in the chimney Airing in Cold weather In Hot weather In temperate weather Cure of Speciall Aire about the Body Things held in the mouth Odours Simple Compound Odours To wash the face Apparell Perfumes for Apparell Amulets Dr. Herring A good Quilt to be vsed in stead of an Amulet Meate and Drinke Disorder in their qualitie Qualities of meates generally to be refused Particular meats to be forborne Bread Flesh of beasts Fowles Inwards Fish Egges Milke Fruits Roots Hearbs Sauces Spices Broths Mushroms What manner of dressing meates are worst What drinkes are vnfit Compounded drinkes Pery and Cyder Wines Good Caveats Tobacco The Cure of this Cause Qualities of meates and drinkes generally to be chosen Bread Flesh of beasts Fowles Inwards Numb 11 33. Fish Egges Butter Fruits Roots Hearbs Spices Sauceâ— Broths Gellyes What manner of Dressing Meates is best Vineager his vertues Not so good for Women Beere and Ale Cyder Wine Who are fit to vse Wine Quantitie Gluttonie The dangers of Surfeiting Li. 2. Aph. 17. De Re Medicae li. 1. cap. 32. In Com. 2. Hipp. de Natu. Humana Li. de Causis morboruÌ„ cap. 3. De Removendis Nocumentis in Regimine Sanitatis Tract 4. cap. 1. Ibidem cap. 19. The Cure Be sparing in eating Be more sparing in drinking Antidotes must be first taken in the morning Breakfasts Varietie of meats are naught aâ—â— one meale The Cause The way of Cure What is to be done when one riseth in the morning Keepe the bodie soluble Be Cleanly Vrine and Menstrua Venus Prevention of ill Humors Sweating Issues The Cause What Exercises are not good What Exercise is best The best time for Exercise The Place for Exercise Beware of taking Cold. Inconveniences of much sleepe Inconveniences of much watching Times for sleepe The place to sleepe in The dangers of violent Passions Immoderate Ioy. Examples of vnbridled laughter Examples of immoderate ioy without laughter Sorrow Examples Anger Examples Feare Examples Feare how it is most apt to bring Infection The Cure The qualities of the Plague How the Sicknesse striketh first The Plague is Venomous Deadly Infectious Obiection Answer A new Opinion Answer What bodies are most apt to be infected Who are apt to receiue infection from Without Who from Within Who are the most likely to escape The Signes Symptoms of the Plague Feavor What kinde of fight is discouered by the Tokens Blayne Botch What part is most affected Carbuncle Signes of being Infected The Tokens described The Blayne The Botch The Carbuncle How to know if one be dead of the Plague when neither Spots Blayne Botch nor Carbuncle appeare Mr. Iohn Banister Heurnius his signes of a body dead of the Plague Preservatiue Medicines For Men and Women generally to be vsed Pillulae Bradwelli For Women with Childe For young Children Observation What course is to be taken with him that is Infected
to be expected Or if those two the most maleuolent be in opposition to the gentle Planet Iupiter the effect of that opposition is the Plague As the Poet singeth Coelitus imbuitur tabo difflatilis aura Mars quando obijâ—itur Falcitenensque Iovi I know there be many learned men that thinke the starres because they are good and pure creatures can bring forth no evill nor impure effects And amongst these Valeriola in Append. ad loc com cap. 2. thinks he hath so absolutely satisfied the point that no obiection may ever be made more yet I am of Mercurialis his opinion that though of themselues primarily they doe no evill yet accidentally they may and doe For the Sunne of it selfe being the purest of them all by drawing the vapours out of dunghills and other corrupt things causeth a noysome stench by accident But I intend not this Treatise for disputation If the Starres be pestilently bent against vs neither Arts nor Armes perfumes nor prayers can prevaile with them who haue neither pittie nor sense nor power to alter their appointed motion But He that commandeth their course and altereth them at his pleasure He that made the Sunne and Moone stand still for Iosuah yea drew the Sunne backe ten degrees for Hezekiah and caused the Starres to fight in their courses against Sisera He is able both to hinder and heale all Infections can arise from their Influences The cure of this cause therefore is the same with the former The third cause of the Pestilence is The corruption of the Aire Which corruption ariseth as well from sublinarie accidents as from the Influences of the Starres For noysome vapours arising from filthy sincks stincking sewers channells gutters privies sluttish corners dunghils and vncast ditches as also the mists and fogs that commonly arise out of fens moores mines and standing lakes doe greatly corrupt the Aire and in like manner the lying of dead rotting carrions in channels ditches and dunghills cause a contagious Aire As the Poet affirmeth Corpora foeda iacent vitiantur odoribus aurae And even without these vapours the Aire sometimes is corrupted by the vnseasonablenesse of the weather Quum tempestiva intempestivè redduntur as sayth Hippocrates when the weather is vnseasonable for the season of the yeare being hot when it should be cold moyst when it should be drie and contrarily These preposterous orders or rather disorders in the constitution of the Aire render it vnholesome and infectious And this is caused chiefly by the Aspects of the Planets and many times also by vnholesome Windes as especially the South winde who being of temperature moyst and warme fills the Aire with such a corrupt qualitie as is soone turned into putrefaction and many times doth easily transport a contagion from one coast to another Now for the Temperature of the Aire the whole streame of opinions runneth vpon hot and moyst as the fittest matter for infection because most apt to putrefaction So Hippocrates in the second of his Epidem saith that in Cranon a Cittie of Thessalie there arose putrid Vlcers Pustuls and Carbuncles through the hot and moyst constitution of the Aire And the same he vrgeth againe in the third Booke of the same Treatise And Galen in 1 de Temperam cap. 4. affirmeth that the hot and moyst constitution of the aire doth most of all breed pestilent Diseases And from these a multitude of later Writers haue learned to speak the same thing But for all this we know that the hot and dry weather also may cause a pestilent Aire And so saith Avenzoar in his third booke third tract and 1. chap. And Titus Livius in li. primo decad 4. recordeth that Rome was once infected with the Plague by a hot and drie distemper of the Aire And wee cannot forget what a hot dry parching Summer we had this last yeare most fit to be the vnfortunate forerunner of this yeares pestilence which now being seconded with such abundance of moyst weather all this Spring and Summer hitherto we may well doubt that a deluge of destruction is comming vpon vs. Hence we may see the misery of man that be the Aire never so corrupt he must draw it in with his breath continually for without it we cannot liue a moment for as meate and drinke are the nourishments of our bodies so is the Aire the nourishment of our Spirits As therefore by corrupt meats our bodies are corrupted and diseased so by corrupt Aire our Spirits are easily infected and soone extinguished Therefore we haue great cause to take heed that the Aire we draw be pure and wholesome And this may be effected two wayes either by flying into a good or by purifying the euill Aire The surest way to safetie is to flie from the impure into a pure Aire Those therefore that haue meanes and no speciall Calling to hinder them doe well to take hold of this counsell Which 1. Nature teacheth in giving Man two legs as well as two armes that if his enemy be too fierce for resistance he may escape by running Now Nature hath no worse enemy then Death nor Death a better 〈◊〉 then the Plague Secondly the holy Scripture teacheth it 〈…〉 verse Come my people enter into thy secret place shut thy dores about thee hide thy selfe as it were for a season vntill the indignation be over past So Pro. 22.3 The prudent man foreseeth the plague and hideth himselfe And David was this Prudent man for 1 Chron. 2â— last he durst not goe to the Tabernacle to offer at Gibeon because he feared the sword of the Angell And thirdly Physicke adviseth it For Hippocrates the Prince of Physitions in his Booke de Natura humana counselleth it in these words Providendum est vt quà m paucissimus Aeris influxus corpus ingrediatur et vt ille ipse quà m peregrinissimus existat Regionum etiam locos in quibus morbus consistit quantùm eius fieri potest permutare oportet By which he intendeth that a man must be carefull to let into his body as little Aire as can be possibly and that that Aire which he doth entertaine be a stranger to the Infected And this be interpreteth in the clause following where he saith He must as farre as he may change the place of the Region in which the Sicknesse raigneth for some other that is free from it And this is that which is meant by Citò Longè and Tardè Which Iordanus calleth an Antidote made of three Adverbs and thus versifieth vpon them Haec tria tabificam pellunt Adverbia Pestem Mòx longè Tardè cede recede redi I will be bold a little to Comment vpon these words in this wise Fly with speed from the infected place lest by a little lingering that infection which you would leaue behinde you goe along with you And nothing can be more dangerous then for one to travaile with his humors already corrupted by an infected Aire For with
stomach close it with a bit of bread and a few Coriander seeds prepared And this likewise will doe well for breastfast if you be troubled with winde and gripings Eate not of aboue two or three dishes at Dinner and at Supper let one suffice you Quercitavus in Diaetet Polyhist Sect. 2. cap. 8. proues that the eating of varietie of meates and drinking of divers kindes of drinkes at one meale makes such a confused heape in the stomach as turneth to infinite tumults in Concoction while some are sower and some speedier in softening digesting and distributing into the parts of the body To conclude Let Custome somthing prevaile in all points of diet with those that haue vsed temperance in former times and onely pare it somthing thinner in respect of the present pestilent time As for those that never knew the rules of order yet let them learne shortly if they desire to liue long And so much for the second part of Diet Meate and Drinke The third Poynt of Diet is Repletion and Evacuation Galen li. 1. de Differ feb cap. 4. sayth that the body ought especially to be kept free from superfluities And Hippocrates in the third Aph. of his first Booke proveth that Plethoricke bodies are subiect to great dangers wherefore he counselleth Evacuation and yet withall to goe no further therein then Nature will safely beare For as too much Repletion is hurtfull so too long fasting makes the stomach languish therefore suffer not too much emptinesse Hunger sharpens the humors and weakens the Spirits And Thirst makes the heart hot and enflames the Spirits who therefore desiring to be cooled doe draw in more quantitie of the evill Aire by breathing then they should and that I haue alreadie proved to be dangerous Therefore it is better to eate the oftener so it be the lesse at once When you rise in the morning rub your sides armes and legges a little your cloths being on comb your head and rub it hauke and spit and blow your nose to evacuate those excrements Then wash your hands and face with faire water first in regard of cleansing but afterward in respect of preservation wash your face nose mouth and eye-lids closing your eyes with Rose-water and Vineager and white Wine Or with faire water and a little Vineager wherein Rue hath shred and steeped all night Assay also to make water and goe to stoole Be carefull to bring your body to a custome of evacuation at that time And after that eat your Antidote If you be costiue vse some Suppositorie or Clyster if such slighter meanes whereof every man can prescribe one or other will not prevaile consult with the Physition and suffer not two whole dayes to passe without such evacuations Be carefull likewise to keepe your selfe neate and cleanly at all times Wash your feete once a fortnight in warme water wherein are boyled Rose-leaues either fresh or dried Vine-leaues Bay leaues Rosmarie Fennell Camomill and some Bay Salt Flee all other Bathings and especially washing and swimming in Rivers Ponds and such open places as the Thames and such like within the region of the Aire infected for it is most dangerous If Vrine stop or Menstrua flow not as they should seeke remedie of the Physition speedily Fly Venus as much as you may for shee hath an ill report in times of Pestilence In a Pestilent Aire every disease becommeth somthing Pestilent and more deadly then ever before And any kinde of Feavor easily turneth to the Plague it selfe Therefore if any perceiue blood or any other humor to abound or to be corrupted what time of the yeare or what weather soever it be let him begin to abate it by moderate Abstinence or els take the advise of a Physition for opening a veine or some other course such as the Artist shall thinke fit And let them not put it off till they be worse in hope of growing better by their owne strength For Nature for the most part struggles in vaine without helpe and contagious cases are not to be trusted to Naturall Sweating that commeth easily and of it selfe is good hinder it not therefore and yet embrace it not too earnestly To conclude If a man or woman haue an Issue or Fontanell in arme or legge or haue any running soare heale it not vp for it is a good meanes to keepe safe from infection because Nature will lightly be strong enough to expell any venom by such a common sewer But yet make not this thy sheild of confidence for though few such haue beene stricken yet I can name some that haue died of the Plague for all that they had issues and those at that time well and plentifully running The fourth Poynt of Diet is Exercise and Rest Some are so lazie as they will not stirre their bodies at all these suffer superfluous humors to increase because they doe not breath them out by exercise Ovid. de Ponto resembles such to standing Pooles which corrupt for lacke of purging themselues by motion Cernis vt ignavum corrumpunt otia corpus Vt capiunt vitium ni moveantur Aquae Others againe are so violent in their labour and exercise that they prodigally waste the treasure of those good humors that should nourish them Of these againe the Poet singeth Otia corpus alunt Animus quoque pascitur illis Immodicus contra carpit vtrumque Labor Such exercises as Running wrestling much leaping violent dancing hard riding foot-ball-playing tennise and the like which cause a man to swear in open aire are very dangerous For thereby the pores are opened to let in that aire which bringeth poyson with it Also the lungs fetching short and deepe breathing as I haue else where sayd already draw it as fast into the vitall parts Moderate exercise stirreth vp and nourisheth naturall heat fills the members thereby with activitie and aptnesse to motion also it helps concoction and evacuation of excrements Therefore let your exercise be Walking and gentle stirring ad Ruborem non ad Sudorem till you be warme not till you sweat Let the time of Exercise be the morning fasting two houres after the Sunne is vp for by that time his beames will haue dispelled and dispersed the night vapours The fittest Place is some large roome enclosed from the common Aire and where is little or no company that their breaths distemper not the Aire wherein you are by motion to breath somthing more largely And it is good to perfume the roome also before hand that the Aire may be the purer At all times beware you take no cold For great Colds and Rheums doe easily breed Putrid Feavors and they as easily turne to the Plague The fifth Poynt of Diet is Sleepe and Watching If Sleepe be immoderate or vnseasonable it hindereth concoction it heapeth vp many crude and superfluous humors it extinguisheth the vitall Spirits and taketh away the liuelinesse of the
a man would wonder how it could so suddainly be done being as if one did burne a hole with a hot iron And it is strange to see that so small a tumor should be so devilish and dangerous to life for if it be not with great care and exceeding good meanes attended it bringeth speedy death But moreover obserue this Somtimes as I said before a man dies of the Plague when neither before nor after he is dead there appeareth any Tokens or Blayne Botch or Carbuncle And yet there will be a signe which few haue observed My Grand father who was a famous man and of great experience hath taught it me and my Father a Physitian of aboue fortie yeares practise and experience hath confirmed it vnto me That is that after such a body is dead in one place or other the flesh will grow softer then the rest and the whole body will also grow softer softer and the longer the body lies the softer will be the flesh Which shews the vilenesse of the putrefaction within Heurnius mentions this also among his signes in his booke De Peste and addeth also these That in a Body dead of the Plague The nose lookes very blew or blackish blow as if it had beene beaten or bruised The like colour is in the eares and nayles and ever worse coloured then other dead bodies vse to be Thus haue I displayed those Signes which are least fayling that the Searchers may rightly informed themselues and not mistake as many haue done calling the purple spots of the Pestilent Feavor Gods Tokens And somtimes letting Bodies passe as not dead of the Plague because they had neither Tokens Botch nor Carbuncle I haue done it also to teach people how they may know when they are stricken with this infection that they may presently haue recourse to some skilfull man and good meanes to recover them before it be too late An houre is a precious space of time and cannot be let slip but with hazard And having thus shewed you what this dreadfull Sicknesse is what are the Causes Qualities and Signes of it Before I leaue you I will leaue with you a short generall direction to keepe your body safe from infection and also if you feele suspicious signes of being taken how to begin to driue the venome from the heart till such time as you may haue some more speciall meanes particularly fitting your present constitution and state of body by the counsell of some skilfull Physitian While Health continueth It is necessary that twise in the weeke the body be evacuated with some gentle purging Pill to keepe the humors from superfluous increase And in this case the Pills of Ruffus which are to be had in every Apothecaries shop are very apt and good Or take of these Pills of mine twice or thrice in a weeke Rs. Aloës Rosatae vnc j. Rhabarbari Croci ana drach iij. Myrrhae drach vj. santali citrini drach j. ambrae grifiae scrup j. Cum syr de succo Citri q. s fiat Massa Pillularum Make Pills of 8. or 10. grains a peece Take ij or more of them in the morning fasting foure or fiue houres before meate They may be taken best in Syrup of Roses solutiue or in Conserue of Violets And presently after them drinke a little white Wine mixed with a little Balme-water in cold weather with Rose water and a little Rose-Vineager in hot weather and with Carduus or Scabious water in temperate weather On the other dayes wherein you take no Pills Take every morning fasting a dram or two or the quantitie of a Nutmeg of London Triacle with as much conserue of red Roses this is for a temperate Constitution A cold constitution may take the Triacle alone onely sweetening it with a little sugar And a hot complexion may mixe both the Triacle and Conserue in a few spoonefulls of Rose-water and Vineager These Powders following are good to cast into the Broths of such as are sicke or haue weake stomachs Take of Red Saunders halfe an ounce Cynamom iij. drams and halfe Saffron halfe a dram powder them fine and mixe them together Another Take of Cynamom halfe an ounce Cloues halfe a dram Red Corall ij scruples Saffron halfe a dram And the weight of all in Sugar Make these into Powder and mixe them together Some giue this Take of Pearle prepared ij drams Corall red and white of each halfe a dram Red Rose leaues dried Saffron Spodium of each a scruple Cynamon a dram Make them into fine Powder and mixe them This is my counsell for those of ripe age and for Women that are not with Childe But for those Women that breed Childe and also for Infants or young Children there ought to be another way of preservation in whom Diet must be most intended and no purging vsed For Women therefore Let them keepe their bodie soluble by some gentle and familiar Suppositories or gentle Clysters made of Posset-ale with Camomill flowers and a little new-drawne Cassia Take these in the afternoone now and then Let them also every morning take the quantitie of a Nutmeg of this Medicine following Take Harts-horne Cynamon Nutmegs all the Saunders of each a dram Roots of Angelica Zedoarie Enula-Campane of each halfe a dram Powder all these Then take Conserue of Bugloss and Borage of each iij. drams With an equall quantitie of Syrup of Citrons and of dried Roses Mixe all together and make a Conserue Take it as is sayd fasting and fast two houres at least after Or els Take Harts horne red and yellow Saunders of each two drams Cloues and Cynamon of each one dram Beat them into fine Powder and mixe them together With some of this spice your Meate Broth or Cawdell or whatsoever you haue to breakfast and squeez into them a little iuice of a Lemon You may adde also some Sugar as you please Let this be your Break-fast For young Children There is nothing better then Bole armoniake with a little Tormentill roote and Citron Pills made into fine Powder which you may mix with their meats or cast into their Broths for their breakfast If they be costiue put vp a violet comfit or two for a Suppositorie Or mix a little Cassia newly drawne in some broth of a Chicken and giue it them now and then in a morning fasting Let them fast two houres after And that day vse not the powder before prescribed And note this When you suspect a Childe to be sicke of the Wormes in a Contagious time vse not Wormeseed and those common trifling things but order him as if you suspected he had the Plague for that disease comming of so much Putrefaction as it doth is as apt to receiue the infection of the Plague as is Tinder to take fire It must not therefore be dallied with But at such a time you may giue twentie or thirtie graines of this Powder following for two or three mornings together Take