externall parts causing a chilnesse and shaking over all the Body and falling upon the gullet makes one to swallow when they should speake It abuses the Fancie and Sences brings a Lethargie upon the Organs of motion and condemnes the heart to deadly suffrings Examples As CASSANDER the sonne of Antipater upon the sight of ALEXANDER the Great 's statue was stricken with such a terrour that he could hardly make his legs leave trembling so farre as to carrie him out of the place Nay to come nearer to our purpose In the last great Plague-time here in London in Anno Domini 1625. One George Bicker-staffe a Taylor dwelling in Silver-Street having charge of the house of the Right Honourable the Lord WINDSOR in Mugwell-streete where I then Lived and comming thither one Evening in the twilight as he was standing all alone in the Parlour sudainly a great noyse came ratling downe the Stayres from the upper roomes At which although my selfe have beene eye witnesse of manly valour in him at other times hee was so beyond reason affrighted that hee ran out of the house into the Street halfe breathlesse and almost speechlesse looking very ghastly which made many inquire the cause which as soone as hee could make them understand some boldly ventur'd in and found nothing but a Fawne that had been tyed up in the Garden and was now got loose and the Hall doore being left open had got up into the great Chamber The neighbours made themselves merry with the Taylors manhood But hee went home it being the Fifteenth day of October fell into a Feavor which turned within a few dayes into the Plague whereof hee dyed on the Six and twentieth day of the same moneth having continued in perfect health from the beginning of the Contagion to this fore-mentioned houre of his mis-informed feare Now this Feare did not arise from danger of Infection and yet it drew it on How much more then does the feare of the same cause worke it I need bring no Examples for proofe for in every place I heare living witnesses of such as dyed of the Plague stricken onely with the feare of it And therefore I cannot thinke any mans ignorance can plead against it Yet I will give a reason for it How Feare brings Infection because of all Passions Feare is the most pestilently pernicious And this it is Feare enforces the vitall Spirits to retire inward to the heart By which retyring they leave the outward parts infirme as appeares plainly by the palenesse and trembling of one in great feare So that the walls being forsaken which are continually besiâ—ged by the outward ayre in comes the enemy boldly the best spirits that should expelled them having cowardly sounded retreat In which with-drawing they draw in with them such evill vapours as hang about the outward pores even as the Sunne drawes toward it the vapours of the Earth And hence is it that Feare brings Infection sooner then any other occasion This therefore The way of curing Passions and all other Passions must by a wise watching over our selves be beaten off whensoever they but offer to set upon us But these are diseases of the Soule whose Physicians are Divines They must Purge out the Love of this World and the distrust of GODS Providence minister the Cordials of Faith Hope Patience and Contentednesse and Ordaine the strict Dyet of Holy Exercises Wee that are Physitians to the Body are but Chyrurgians to the Soule wee can but talke of Topicall remedies as to apply Mirth Musicke delightfull businesse good Company and lawfull Recreations such as may take up all time from carefull thoughts and passionate affections Then have wee done And so have I now with the sixe Points of Dyet and likewise with the first part of my Method which is the way of Preservation The Manner of taking Sicke The second Part which now succeeds discovers the Manner and Signes of being Infected It strikes first at the Heart The Manner is that It strikes chiefly at the Heart as I sayd in the Definition which is apparent by this that at the first Infection or instant of being taken the vitall Faculty 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 remaines for a while in good plight and perfect in the use of Sense Vnderstanding Iudgement Memory and Motion The Naturall Facultie also is not so presently hurt but there is Concoction and all other functions performed by the Liver Stomacke Guts Reynes Bladder and other parts as Nature requireth Though indeed in a little time the Venome being very strong these and the Braine also are overcome As appeares by the Symptomes that follow as Lethargies Frenzies Vomitings Fluxes c. which I shall reckon up in the Conclusion Take notice therefore That as soone as the venemous matter strikes to the Heart that the Contagion has now found out the Prince of the Vitall parts who if hee want armour of proofe to resist eyther of Naturall strength or forged out by Arts Cyclops the Physitian is presently taken prisoner by his venemous enemy Signes and Symptomes who soone after takes possession of the Arteries and Veynes In this conflict the Pulse The Pulse which useth to be the truest intelligencer of the Hearts well of ill-fare becomes now languishing little frequent and unequall Languishing by reason that Native heate lessens and a heate contrary to Nature increases Little because oppressed Frequent from Natures strife Vnequall partly from the Feavor and partly from the Malignant vapour that besiedgeth the Heart Concerning the Pulse also Rodericus à Castro de Peste Hamburgensi has this Signe in these very words Manus dum Medico porrigunt Pulsum quodam modo retrahuntur cum tremore quod à veneno fit cor ipsum pungente Signum mihi diutina experientia indubitatum est ut eo solo saepissimè Pestilentem affectum cognoverim This have I also tryed and found true And from this ground did I find another that never fayled me If in reaching out the hand the former signe appeared not then if I suspected it to be the Plagueâ—â— I would touch the Pulse something hard and if it were the Plague it would not fayle Cum tremore manum retrahere The reason is the stopping of the course of the Pulse drives the venome something back to the heart by which is caused a kind of suddaine Passion The Eyes The next Signe is the enemies Ensigne hung out at the windowes The Eyes are various in turning and sometimes fiery shining the lookes sad and the Face changing colour which shew that the radicall humour begins to waste and the Spirits to waxe dry and enflamed Then followeth Lightnesse or Giddinesse of the Head Giddinesse Drouth and Bitter tast in the mouth which proceed from the superfluitie of Choller aggravated by the mixture of the venemous
vapours Vomiting Vomiting likewise of vitious matter being according to redundancie of any of the humours sometimes waterish of Flegme sometime yellow or greenish of Choller sometimes leaden or blackish of Melancholy But this is from the virulencie of the Venome vexing the veynes and fibres in the coate of the Stomacke not from any strength of Nature to expell the poyson as appeareth in that no ease but increase of accidents succeedeth the exoneration After which followes a painfull Hicket or Yexing Hicket or ConvulsioÌ„ in the Stomack by the progresse of the venome working convulsively on the fibres of the Stomacke Shortnesse of breath also Short breath and sighing and often sighing shew the heart is enflamed and would faine exchange the over-heated ayre within the body for that which is coole without Then begin the Spirits to sink Sinking of the Spirits and Feaver through the fierce gripe of the venemous vapour that now insults over the yeilding heart The externall parts become cold and shake-ripe while the internall are over-hot with the inflammation of the Bowels By this time the venom is gotten up into the watrish humors of the Braine and infecting them Paines in the Head causeth Head ache while the hot vapours getting betwixt the two mother membranes cause painefull prickings there whereupon follow restlessenesse of the Body and Lacke of Sleepe Lacke of Sleepe and upon these Frenzie except the Braine be full of moysture and then the head is over-heavie and Lethargick Extreame Drowsinesse Sometimes also the Venom workes it self from the substance of the Braine into the Sinewes causing Cramps and Convulsions Cramps and Convulsions The Vrine is altogether untrue therefore unworthy the fellowship of faithfull signes Vrine utterly false And the most faithfull are the Soares and Spots if they be right called Gods Tokens But before we describe them The Authors observation let me expresse my sorrow for what I had dayly observation of in the last great Visitation Many undertooke the cure of the Plague then who knew no more then to sweat the Patient and apply outward drawing medicines to the Soares nay the Chyrurgerie worke was well performed by some and yet I dare say many dyed for the lacke of skill to encounter these symptomes now specified And yet there are many moe such all which I will reckon up to see if I can shake the consciences of such impudent Quack-salvers as dare without learning venture to enrich themselves by filling Graves There is commonly 1 Trembling of the heart fainting or sowning 2 A Feavor though not easily discerned at first 3 Cardialgia commonly called Heart-ache 4 Vomiting and Loathing in the stomacke 5 Extreame Thirst and vile taste in the Mouth 6 Head-ache and pricking paines there 7 Swimming or Vertigo 8 Losse of Memorie and Foolish behaviour 9 Want of sleepe 10 Delirium or Frenzy 11 Convulsions or Cramps 12 Lethargie or extreame Drowsinesse 13 Sharp paines in the Eares 14 Opthalmia or inflamation of the Eyes 15 Bleeding at the Nose 16 The tongue and mouth enflam'd and furr'd 17 Spitting of Bloud 18 Squinansie 19 Pleuresie 20 Very short Breath and continuall sighing 21 Drye Cough 22 Iaundise 23 Swelling of the Belly with externall paine 24 Colick and Iliak Passions 25 Extreame Costinesse 26 Wormes 27 Flux of the Belly eyther Lieuteria or Diarrhaea 28 Bloudy Flux 29 Swelling of the Testicles very painefully 30 Suppression of Vrine 31 Extreame heate and paine in the Backe 32 Swelling of the Feet and Legges with intollerable paine 33 And sometimes Such immoderate Sweat horribly stinking that it affrights the Physitian from his course of sweating the Patient and yet for all this sweat the deadly danger increaseth And not one of these Symptomes can bee cured by the common Method of such cases Because of the venemous quality that is mixed with them When I had well informed my selfe of these things and saw how little they were regarded of others I was stricken with wonder to see with what peaceable consciences some men went a killing And I began to doubt whether it were not better for a man to be at peace with Ignorance then to carry his trembling heart in his hand as I did al that time Yet then it pleased God to blesse my labours and counsailes and to let a very small number faile under my advice But to goe forward The faithful Signes I must enlarge my selfe a little in the discovery of the most faithfull and apparent Signes which are the Botch the Blayne the Carbuncle and the Spots called Gods Tokens because the Searchers doe sometimes mistake The Botch The Bubo or Botch is a hard Tumor rising in the glandulous parts called the Emunctories which are in three places on each side of the Body viz. under each eare or sometimes under the Lawes or Chin in the Arme-pits and in the Groynes This Tumor lyes sometimes very deepe in the flesh onely to bee found by feeling nay sometimes also scarcely to be felt but if you touch the place there is paine But for the most part it swelleth out to the bignesse of a Nutmeg or a Wall-nut yea even to the size of a mans fist or a penny loafe Also sometimes it is round sometimes ovall sometimes long and slender as ones finger I saw a Boy of ten yeares old in Seething-lane that had one risen in his left arme-pit which ranne from thence backeward upon the shoulder blade making a Semicircle thereon and so turning downward toward the backbone as if under the skin had been layd a good big cord in the forme almost of a Sickle The Boy was not heart-sicke but at the first taking and by Gods blessing and good meanes this tumor sunke againe and vanished without any suppuration But some againe are flat broad and spreading even over halfe the Thorax as I have seene one They are of colour various according to the humour praedominant At the first it is commonly somthing moveable but grows afterward more indurate and fixed It rises for the most part with a pricking paine and as it growes greater is more dully painefull and seemes to the Patient as a weight or burthen It commeth of a venemous matter putrifying and poysoning the bloud which is thicke grosse and excrementitious of it selfe and something flegmaticke Nature therefore labours to drive forth this venom into the eâ—unctories which are the sinkes and receptacles of excrementitious humours When they rise under the Iawes they shew the strength of the Braine in the Arme-pits of the Heart and in the Groines of the Liver According to the quantitie of the humors infected so the Botches are bigger or lesse and moe or fewer in number and according to the malignancie of the humour are their colours whiter redder more blewish or blackish whereof the latter is still the worse The Blayne The Blayne is a kinde of Blister somewhat like one of the Swine-pocks of a Straw-colour for the most part
infect the lungs of others But the Plague infects by all these wayeâ— and such sicke bodies infect the outward Aire and that Aire again infects other Bodies For there is a Seminarie Tincture full of a venemous quality that being very thin and spirituous mixeth it selfe with the Aire and piercing the pores of the Body entreth with the same Aire and mixeth it selfe with the Humors and spirits of the same Body also For proofe of this we see by daily experience that Garments Coffers nay walls of Chambers will a long time retaine any strong sent wherwith they have beene fumed Now the Sent is meerly a Qualitie and his substance is the Aire which is also the Vehiculum wherein it is seated and conveighed So does the Pestilent Infection take hold though not sensibly for the strongest Poysons have little taste or smell yet certainly as experience testifies for Garments and Houshold-stuffe have beene infected and have infected others As Fracastorius tels of a Furred-Gowne that was the death of 25. Men in Verona Anno 1511. who one after another wore it thinking still they had ayred it sufficiently And if Alexander Benedictus may be beleeved Feather-beds will keepe the Contagion seaven yeares Other experiences we have also of live Poultry which being applyed to the soares are taken away dead having not been wounded crushed nor hurt any whit at all And many that have beene Infected have plainly perceived where and of whom they tooke it Object But say some then why is not one infected as well as another I have eaten of the same dish druâ— in the same cup and lyen in the same bed with such sicke ones and that while their Soares were running yet never had so much as my finger aking after it Answ To this I answer there may be Two speciall Causes for this The first and Principall Cause is the Protection of the Almighty which preserves some as miraculously as his Iustice strikes others Thus through his Mercy he often preserves those that with faithfull and conscionable care doe Christian offices about the Sicke being warrantably called thereto and not thrusting themselves eyther presumptuously or rashly into the businesse without a just and reason-rendring Cause For GOD has given his Angels charge over vs to keepe vs in all our wayes as the Psalmist sings And secondly every pestilent Contagion is not of the same nature nor hath equall conformity with every Constitution Age or manner of Living For some Contagion is apt to infect onely the Sanguin complexion some the Cholericke some the Phlegmaticke onely Some Children some Youths some those of Ripe age some Antient people some the Rich and other the poore onely And where the Seminarie Tincture hath no Analogie there is none or verie flight Infection And first those are most apt to be Infected Who are most apt to be Infected that have thin Bodyes and open pores and whose hearts are so hot that they need much attraction of Aire to coole them Also they whose Veynes and Vessels are full of grosse humors and corrupt juyces the venemous matter being thicke and therefore unapt to breath through the pores their putrefaction is increased by the inward heat and so driven to malignitie and thence onward to a Pestilent qualitie Hence those bodies that are moist and full of Phlegmaticke humors whose veines are straight and therefore apter to intercept then entertaine those well well concocted juyces that would make the purest Bloud and the thicknesse of whose skin denies the transpiration of excrements these are easily poluted and infected And such are Women especially women with childe for their bodies are full of excrementitious humors and much heat withall which is as oile and flame put together Also Virgins that are ripe for marriage are apt to receive infection and being once stricken seldome or never escape without great meanes Quia spiritâ—osum semen in motu cùm sit facilò succenditur vel quia intus detentum facilè corrumpitur in veneni perniciem abit Mindererus de Pestilen c. 10. Also young Children in regard of their soft tender and moist bodies and likewise because they feed on moister meats and feed with more appetite then judgment Likewise the more Pure and delicace Complexions whose bloud is finer and thinner then others is so much the more apt to receive mutation and the Contagion insinuates it selfe into all the humors But first and most easily into Bloud Choler next more slowly into Phlegme and most rarely into Melancholy Those that are fearefull likewise as I shall prove anon when I treat of Passions of the Minde Those that are very Costive or have their water-stop'd the noysome vapours that are by these excrements engendred make the body apt to infection And such as in former times have had customary evacuations by sweat Haemerrhoids Vomitings Menstrua Fontanels or other like vents for noxious humours and have them now stopped Those that Fast too long their bodyes being emptie receive more ayre in then they let out and their spirits being weakned for want of due nourishment they have lesse strength to resist the contagion On the other side Gluttons and Drunkards let them argue what they will for the filling of the veynes as they use to say to keepe out the evill ayre can never be free from crudities and distemper'd bloud which easily takes infection As Hippocrates testifies when he sayes Corpora impura quo magis aluntur eò magis laeduntur Impure bodyes the more they are nourished the more they are endangered Poore people by reason of their great want living sluttishly and feeding nastily and unwholsomly on any food they can with least cost purchase have corrupted bodyes and of all others are therefore more subject to this Sicknesse And yet the Rich are also as subject in too much pampering dyet bringing themselves thereby to an Athleticke habit which Hippocrates in the third Aphorisme of his first hooke proves to be very dangerous at all times Furthermore nearenesse of Bloud or Kinred by Sympathy of nature is another aptnesse And lastly those that are continually conversant with the sicke are in greatest danger though many escape through Gods mercifull protection But Old folkes whose bodyes are cold and dry Who are least subject to bee Infected Confident Spirits whose very courage is an Antidote if they keepe their bodyes cleane by a regular course of life And those that have the Gout in whom the nobler parts of the body doe expell the noxious humors to the ignobler Milch-Nurses because their Children sucke the evill juyces from them with their milke These are in the way likely to escape but if the Nurse be infected the childe cannot recover it Also those that have Fontanels or any other kinde of Issue as Vlcers Haemerrhoids or plenty of other evacuations whereby the hurtfull humors are dreyned away And lastly those that keepe themselves private using good Antidotes and meanes praeservative such are least subject to Infection Diogenes Laertius lib