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
A VVATCH-MAN FOR THE PEST TEACHING The true Rules of Preservation from the Pestilent Contagion at this time fearefully over-flowing this famous Cittie of LONDON COLLECTED Out of the best Authors mixed with auncient experience and moulded into a New and most plaine Method BY STEVEN BRADVVELL of London Physition 1625. LONDON Printed by Iohn Dawson for George Vincent and are to be sold at Pauls-gate at the signe of the Crosse-keyes 1625. ¶ To the Reader HIPPOCRATES saith That good Physitians doe applie themselues to the present Time and to take hold of the Occasion The present Time good Reader is Woefull the Occasion Dangerous I know it was not his meaning that we should onely grieue for the first and flee from the latter but to lend our assistance to the necessitie of the Times calamitie I haue but little water to draw yet would I gladly bring my bucket-full to the quenching of this contagious flame and if it be but kindly regarded I am friendly rewarded for I professe not affectation but true affection not a hope of prayse but a heart of pittie draws me or rather driues me to offer my counsell in this case LONDON is my Mother in her wombe had I both Birth and Breeding What Sonne can see his Mother woefully afflicted dangerously sicke and desperately forsaken but he must needs weepe for her teares labour her recovery and lend a hand at least to hold her vp I may not take vpon me to cure the Sicke because I meddle not with the Sicknesse for to practise on the Plague now would proue a plague to my Practise hereafter but I must labour to preserue the sound because by profession I am a Physition Therefore I call this Booke A Watch-man for the Pest because it doth onely as if it were a Warder stand at the dore without and deliver things necessary for preservation to those within but neither enters the infected house nor meddles with the Cure of the Contagious I expect from diverse conceits diverse Censures of this Booke It is too long too short too solid too idle too full too slender and I know not what Yet I hope the judicious will vouchsafe it the reading and the wise the observing as for the rest I will neither favour the Frivolous feare the Envious nor flatter the Curious I know though Hercules labour his heart out he shall not be able to appease a Iuno nor please an Eurystheus Therefore if I be not relished I shall thinke the mouth is out of taste since there is scarce a word but I can proue his worth from good Authoritie If I be gratefull to thy palate good Reader I will not be vngratefull to thy person But if ever thou wilt vse me thou shalt finde me From my Study in Mugwell-street Iuly 18. 1625. Ready to my power to do thee any pleasure STEPHEN BRADVVELL A VVATCH-MAN FOR THE PEST TVLLY whose Method was as pleasing as his Matter sets this downe as a savoury Maxime in Method Omnis quae à ratione suscipitur de aliqua re institutio debet à Definitione proficisci vt intelligatur quid sit id de quo disputatur l. 1. de Officijs To follow him therefore though but as Ascanius followed his Father Aeneas non passibus aequis Him I say whom hardly any hath happened to goe along with foote by foote in fluent sweetnesse I will begin this Discourse with the Definition of the Pest And while I lay open the severall points of the Definition I will discover the Causes the Kinde and Qualities and the Signes and Symptomes of it And withall in their severall places I will lay downe the Rules of Preservation with good Medicines whereby the further spreading of the pestilent Infection may by Gods blessing be prevented ¶ The Definition The Plague is a popular Disease sent immediatly from God wrought by the Constellations of the Heavens the Corruption of the Aire and the Disorder of Mans Diet At the first striking to the Heart is Venemous Deadly and Infectious And for the most part accompanied with a Feavor As also with Spots called Gods-Tokens or with a Blayne or Botch or Carbuncle This word Plague in Latine Pestis in Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth a deadly fretting 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 à 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quod efficiat defectum hominum or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pernicies seu exitium Hippocrates giues it a stile of distinction calling it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Morbus communis a common or Popular Disease That it is a Disease needeth no proofe at all since it manifestly affecteth the body contrary to nature and hurteth the actions thereof That it is Popular is also apparent in this that when it once entreth into a Countrey Cittie or Towne it over-runneth the same like a torrent and few escape at least a scratching with it if they be not deeply bitten by it yea more are stricken and slaine by it many times especially in the place where it hath gotten full strength then of all kindes of diseases else what-soever And so much for his Title Now That It is immediately sent from God it is evident by many proofes of holy Scripture As Deut. 28.21 and in the same Chapter at the 22. verse he saith The Lord shall smite thee with a Feavor and with a Consumption with an Inflamation and with an extreame burning In which words are expressed the painfull Symptoms of the Plague viz. a Feavor which I shall proue hereafter a Consumption which being vnderstood of Calor naturalis the heat and life of nature is apparent an Inflamation by which the swelling called the Botch is signified and by an extreame Burning the deadly Carbuncle is liuely described If we desire examples the Botch is plainly specified in the plague of Pharaoh and his servants Exod. 9. Chap. 10. and 11. verses and in the Sicknesse of Hezekiah Isaiah 38.21 Seeing then the All-mightie God of Heaven and Earth in wrath justice sendeth this Plague vpon vs let vs know that as the Triacle for our bodies is consected of the flesh of earthly Serpents so the Triale for our soules must be made of the blood of that brasen Serpent which was lifted vpon the Crosse for our sinnes Let every man be to his owne soule and familie an Aaron to take with speed his Censor of Repentance fill it with fire from the Altar of the exceeding great and precious promises of God in Christ 2 Pet. 1.4 and put the Incense of faithfull Prayer thereon and runne quickly and make an atonement for there is wrath gone out from the Lord the Plague is begun Somtimes the Constellations of the Heavens are the second cause by which God worketh and bringeth these Iudgements on men For Astrologers are of opinion that if Saturn and Mars haue dominion especially vnder Aries Sagittarius and Capricornus the Pestilence is shortly
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