a little Cassia for stronger purgatives will endanger abortion But these ought to be directed by a good Physitian Young children For young Children also with a Violet comfit for a Suppository dipped in sweet sallet oyle or else a little Cassia newly drawne dissolved in a small draught of Chicken-broth or a little Manna in the like broth or in posset-drinke Beware of Bathings Bathings especially in open standing waters within the Region of the Aire infected If Vrine or Menstrua stop Courses stopped repaire speedily to the Physitian for counsaile Fly Venus Venus as farre as you may for in these times she has but an ill name Sweat Sweat comming easily of it selfe and within dores the house being well aired is good so it exceed not But abroad it is dangerous Lastly it is good to keepe open all Issues Issues and running sores because Nature will labour to expell any venom to such a Common-sewer The fourth Point is Exercise and Rest Lazinesse encreaseth superfluous humours and over-violent labour wasteth away the nourishing ones But moderate exercise Exercise how ad ruborem non ad sudorem stirreth up and nourisheth Naturall heate helping Concoction and Evacuation if also it be used in seasonable times and convenient places What. The best Exercise is walking with a little stirring of the armes Where The Time in the morning and the place eyther in a pure ayre abroad or in a purified ayre at home in some large roome where is little or no company by the heate of their bodies and breaths to distemper the Aire But at all times beware of taking cold for great colds and rheumes doe easily putrid Feavors and they as easily prove Pestilent Sleepe and Watching is the fifth point Sleepe eyther immoderate or unseasonable hindereth digestion and causes crudities quels the vitall and dulls the Animall Spirits Watching also over-much dries up and inflames the good Bloud and weakens all the powers of Nature Let your sleepe therefore be seasonable and not superfluous Not upon your dinner unlesse custome commands it and then take it but vapping for halfe an houre or so sitting in a Chaire upright Three houres at least after a light Supper goe to Bed where let five or sixe houres suffice for sleepe Lye conveniently warme the Chamber dores and windowes being shut to exclude the night ayre But beware of sleeping or lying on the ground or grasse for the nearer the earth the more deadly is the Aire And the immediate stroake of the cold vapors rising from the ground is dangerous at all times The Sixt Point of Diet is Passions of the Mind All kindes of Passion Passions if they be vehement doe offer violence to the Spirits yea though they be of the better and more naturall sort As Laughter Laughter if unbridled doth runne even life out of breath and greatly perplexeth the Body in so much as the brest and sides are pained the breath is straitned and sometimes the Soule it selfe is as I may say laughed out of her skin For so it is recorded of CHRYSIPPVS Examples That onely upon the sight of an Asse eating Figges he brake into such an unmeasurable laughter that he fell downe and dyed And XEâ—XIS that excellent Painter who made a most curious beautifull Picture of the Spartan HELEN upon the sight of a very ill-favoured old woman burst out into such a profuse laughter that he laugh'd himselfe to death Now this is a disease of the Spleene called Risus Sardonius with which I have knowne some of my acquaintance not long agoe grieved But sometimes immoderate Ioy Ioy. lives not to the age of Laughter when it bindes the vitall Spirits so close together that it choakes the heart instantly For so SOPHOCLES the Tragedian receiving a wonderfull applause of the people for the last Tragedy he wrote was so over-joyed at it Examples that he became a Tragedy himselfe and dyed upon it The like is recorded of one RHODIAS DIAGORAS who when he saw his three Sonnes all at one time crowned with victory at the Olympian games ranne to meet them And while hee embraced them in his armes and they planted theyr Garlands on his head hee was so overcome with joy that he turned theyr Ensignes of victory into the penons of his Funerall Sorrow Sorrow on the other side afflicts the Heart disturbes the Faculties melts the Braine vitiates the humours and so weakens all the principall parts yea sometimes sinkes the Body into the grave Examples As ADRASTVS King of the Argives beeing told of the death of his Sonne was taken with so violent a Sorrow that he fell downe and dyed immediatly And so IULIA the Daughter of Iulius Caesar and wife to POMPEY when shee heard the tydings of her Husbands death made that houre the last witnesse that she had liv'd only to heare it Anger Anger is also so furious a Passion that it violently disturbes the Spirits and Faculties as appeares by the shaking and tossing of the Body too and fro the fierie sparkling of the Eyes the colour comming and going now red now pale so that all the humours appeare to be enflamed especially Choller and the Spirits hurried this way and that way sometimes thrust outward and presently halled in againe By which violent motions an unnaturall heat in the Spirits and corruption in the humours are ingendered Hereupon many times follow Burning Feavors Palsies violent Bleedings losse of Speech and sometimes Death it selfe Examples NERVA the Emperour being highly displeased with one REOVLVS fell into such a fury against him that he was stricken therewith into a Feavor whereof he dyed within a few dayes after WENCESLAVS King of Bohemia in a rage conceived against his Cup-bearer would needs kill him presently with his owne hand but his endeavour was his owne deaths man striking him with a Paâ—sey that shooke him shortly after into ashes VALENTINIANVS the Emperour in a fierce fury would needs destroy the whole Country of Sarmatia but his unruly rage brake a veyne within him and his owne life-bloud ended his bloudy designe In the yeare of our Lord 1523. A poore old man in the North part of Devonshire dwelling in a part of a little Village called Little Podderidge came to a Worthy Knights house Sir THOMAS MONKE by name dwelling in the same Parish which was called St. Merton in whose house I at that time was And the old man standing at the Buttery hatch to receive some Beere because the Buttery mayd did not presently fill his Tankerd at his call he fell into such a fury against her that with the very passion hee presently fell downe was taken up for dead was with much a doe by me recovered to life and sence but never spake againe and dyed within two dayes after Feare Feare likewise gathers the heat and Spirits to the heart and dissolves the Brayne making the moysture thereof shed and slide downe into the
or side Sometime so violently that they have been eyther almost or altogether over-turned and after these and such like stroakes some have dyed and those that recovered escaped without humane helpe For this kind of Plague as it is rare so it is also by all Art of Man incurable The Remedy Therefore no Method but Repentance no Medicine but Prayer can avert or heale this stroake Of all Antidotes for the Body that Triacle which is made oâ— the Flesh of earthly Serpents is the best esteemed But for the Soule that only which is made of the Bloud of that Brazen Serpent that was lifted vp on the Crosse for our sinnes Hee that by a lively Faith applyeth the benefit of our Blessed SAVIOURS Sufferings to the sicknesse of his Soule shall undoubtedly recover if not health here heaven hereafter The Putrid Plague The Putrid Plague is a Popular Feavor venemous and Infectious striking chiefly at the Heart and for the most part is accompanied with some Swelling which is eyther called a Blayne a Botch or a Carbuncle or else with Spots called GODS Tokens This comes of Putrifaction of the Bloud and Humors in the Body which it pleaseth God sometimes to make the Instrument of his punishing Iustice mixing it with the Simple Plague before mentioned This Putrifaction may be caused by the Influence of the Starres The Causes who doe undoubtedly worke upon all sublunarie bodies For Astrologers are of opinion that if Saturne and Mars have dominion especially under Artes Sagitarius The Starres and Capricorn a Pestilence is shortly to be expected Or if these two the most Malevolent be in Opposition to the gentle Planet Iupiter as the Poet singeth Caelitús imbuitur tabe â—ifflatilis aura Mars quando obijcitur Falcitenensque Iovi The Windes The Windes likewise are led into theyr motions by the motions of the Starres The Planets especially the Sunne by extracting the earths exhalations which are the substance of the Winds doe set them so on worke And the Windes are some by nature wholsome and some unwholsome The South-wind blowing from the Meridian is of nature hot and moyst and full of showers Now when by the influence of the Planets this Wind bloweth long and bringeth continuall raine it causeth much moysture in all Airie and Earthy bodies and so much the more by how much the milder it is This moysture being in such abundance cannot be digested nor attenuated by the Sunnes heat and therefore setling together it must needs putrifie and that so much the sooner because the heate of the Sunne not being able to extract all does inflame the remnant by which inflamation the putrifaction becomes the greater In this manner are the windes in cause and moreover they doe sometimes transferre the Contagion from one region to another as Hippocrates affirmes the Plague to be brought over the Sea from Aethiopia into Greece by the South-wind The Cure of these Causes is the same with the former Now if the Starres be pestilently bent against us neyther Arts nor Armes Perfumes nor Prayers can prevaile with them who have neyther pitie nor sense nor power to alter their appointed motions But Hee that commandeth their course and altereth them at his pleasure Hee that made the Sunne and Moone to stand still for Iosuah yea drew the Sunne tenne degrees backe for Hezekiah and caused the Starres to fight in their courses against Sisera He and He onely is able to heale all infections that can arise from their influences The Cure of this Cause therefore is the same with the former Common Causes Other Causes there be also of this Putrid Plague Namely corrupt and unwholsome Feeding stenches of unsavorie and rotten Dung-hils Vaults Sinckes Ditches and dead Carions as the Poet affirmes Corpora faeda iacent vitiantur adoribus aurae These are the Maintaining Causes of the Contagion after it is begun So is likewise the unseasonablenesse of the Weather Quum tempestiva intempestivè redduntur as sayth Hippocrates When the weather is unseasonable for the season of the yeare being hot when it should be cold moyst when it should be dry and on the contrary This kind of Plague is by Art curable in as many as it pleaseth GOD to send and sanctifie the right meanes unto The former is most properly called The Plague The Putrid Plague is rightly called the Sicknesse being the immediate Stroke of Gods hand This The Sicknesse because infectious and many times Curable For this therefore doe I intend to prescribe a course of Physicke such as both my much reading and also my manifest Experience in the last great Visitation have preferred to my best approbation Wherein I will first open the way of Preservation The Method of this Treatise after that shew the Signes of being Infected and then the Course of Cure In the way of Preservation Preservation it is first necessary to be considered whether it be Infectious or no And then who are most or least subject according to naturall reason to receive this Infection This Putrid Plague The Plague is Venemous is as I have sayd iâ—â—he Definition venemous which is granted of all both Physitians and Philosophers Now by Venom or Poyson we commonly understand some thing that has in it some dangerous subtle quality that is able to corrupt the substance of a living body to the destruction or hazard of the life thereof This working is apparent in this Sicknesse by his secret and insensible insinuation of himself into the Vitall spirits to which as soone as hee is gotten he shewes himselfe a mortall enemy offering with suddaine violence to extinguish them His subtle entrance his slye crueltie his swift destroying the unfaithfulnesse of his Crisis and the other Prognostick signes and the vehemencie grievousnesse and ill behaviour of his Symptomes all being manifest proofes of his venemous quality For in this Disease the Seidge Vrine and sweat have an abhominable savour the breath is vile and noysome Ill 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 any putrifaction of matter without a venemous qualitie joyned with it can possibly produce But though it may thus by the Learned be acknowledged to be Venemous yet is it by many of the Ignorant sort conceited not to be Infectious It is Infectious To satisfie such I define Infection or Contagion to be That which infecteth another with his owne qualitie by touching it whether the medium of the touch be Corporeall or Spirituall or an Airie Breath Of this kind there are divers Diseases that are infectious though not so deadly as the Plague As for Example Itch and Scabbinesse Warts Measels small Pox the Veneriall Pox these by rubbing and corporeall touches doe infect Also soare Eyes doe by their Spirituous beames infect other eyes And the Pthisick or putrified Lungs doe by their corrupt breath
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
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
2. sayes that Socrates by tempâ—rate and discreet 〈◊〉 lived in Athens divers Plague-times yet was never touched with it 〈…〉 Now what this Dyet Preservative is I will b iâ—fly shew you Dyet consists of Sixe Points viz. Ayre Meate and Drinke Repletion and Evacuation Exercise and Rest Sleepe and Waâ—ching Passions of the Minde They are composed also in these two Verses Aër Esca Quies Repletio Gaudia Somnus Haec moderata juvant immoderata nocent These indeed are the sixe Strings of Apollo's Viall wherein consisteth the whole harmonie of health If these be in tune the body is sound But any of thâ—se too high wrested or too much slackned that is immoderately used makes a discord in nature and puts the whole body out of tune For Ayre first 〈◊〉 Ayre 〈…〉 Ayre is that which we draw in with our breath continually and wee cannot live without it one minute for it is the food of our Spirits and therefore we had need take heed that the ayre we draw be pure and wholsome The wholâ— streame of Opinion runnes upon a cold and dry Aire so commending the North and East windes as most wholsome What most unwholsom and condemning the Hot and Moist Aire engendred by the South and West windes as the fittest matter for infection because most apt to putrefaction So Hippocrates in the 2d. of his Epidem saith that in Cranon a Citie of Thessalie there arose putrid Vlcers Pustuls and Carbuncles through the hot and moyst constitution of the ayre And Galen in 1. de Temperam c. 4. affirmeth that the hot and moyst constitution of the ayre doth most of all breed pestilent diseases And from these mouthes a multitude of late Writers have learnt to speake the same thing Yet we know that the hot and dry weather also may cause a contagious ayre So saith Avenzoar in his 3. Booke 3. Tract and 1. chap. And Titus Livius in lib. 1. decad 4. recordeth that Rome was infected with the Plague by a Hot and Dry distemper of the Aire Wee also may remember that the Summer 1624 was an extreame dry and parching Summer and we cannot forget that this last Summer was not much unlike like it The Contagion indeed this yeare was begotten beyond Sea and was rock'd hither in sicke bodyes but our Ayre I feare will prove a Nurse though not a Mother to it This Spring answering to the sore-past Summer in heate and drouth Now to avoyde the mischiefes of unwholsome ayre Hippocrates the Prince of Physitians H w we may guard us froÌ„ unwholsome Aires in his Booke de Natura humana gives this counsell Providendum est ut quà m paucissimus aëris influxus corpus ingrediatur ut ille ipse quam peregrinus existat Regionum etiam locos in quibus morbus consistat quantum ejus fieri potest permutare oportet Others advise in threee words Citò Longè Tardè which Iordanus calls an Antidote made of 3. adverbs thus versifying upon them Haec tria tabificam pellunt adverbia Pestem Mox Longè Tardè Cede recede redi But I will not teach to flee for too many with Dedalus put on wings the last great visitation that with Icarus dropt downe by the way Onely my counsell is this The Authors counsaile for without doores Let every one keepe himselfe as priuate as he may Shun throngs of people and all wet close and stinking places Walke not abroad before nor after Sunne Keep moderation between heat and cold in all things yet rather encline to heate a little because of drying up superfluous moystures Let the streets bee kept cleane washing the channels every morning and evening and sweeping away all durt leaves stalkes and rootes of hearbes and offals leaving no dunghils nor other noysome matter in the streets But the water is most to be vsed in hot and dry the fire in hot and moyst weather chiefly Also in the evenings it is good to purifie the ayre with Bonefires but especially with Fire-workes or rather with discharging of peeces for Gunpowder is exceeding drying by reason of the Salt peeter and Sulphur with which it is made and by the crackes that it gives the Ayre is forcibly shaken and attenuated and so opened to let in that purification which is immediately made by the fire that goes along with it This way is commended by Levinus Lemnius de Ocultis Naturae Mirac lib. 2. cap. 10. Also by Crato in consilio 275 By Raymundus Mindererus lib. de Pestilentia cap. 20. and all the late Writers Within doores observe For within doores that little houses must not be pestered with many Lodgers for it is best for those that are able to have shift of Beds and Chambers to lie in that the ayre in them may be kept free and sweet Keepe every roome daily very cleane leaving no fluts corners Let not Water stand so long in any vessell as to putrifie which in hot weather it will soone doe Make Fires every day in everie roome in quantitie according to the largenesse of the roome and the temperature of the weather Perfume them and all the houshold-stuffe in cold and moist weather with Frankinsense Storax Benjamin Pitch Rosin Lignum alöes Lignum Rhodium Iuniper-wood or the Berries In hot and drie weather with Rose-water on a hot Fire-shovell or some such like coole fume in a perfuming-pot Strew the Windowes and ledges with Rew Wormwood Lavender Marjoram Penyriall Costmary and such like in cold weather but in hot with Primroses Violets Rose-leaves Borrage and such cooling scents For Garments Garments best guarding the vitall parts avoide as much as may bee all leather woollen and furres also velvets plush and shagge Choose such as may be watered as chamlets grograms paropas philip and chenyes and such like for their gumminesse excludeth the infectious aire best Have shift and shift often and still as cloathes are left off perfume them well Beware of buying old clothes Bedding or such like stuffe for if they have beene used by the infected they are verie dangerous as I told you before in the authoritie of a furr'd Gowne and Feather-beds What to hold in the mouth Carrie in your mouth a peece of Citron-pill or for want of that of Lemon pill a Clove or a peece of Tormentill Root Or if any will resort to me in Golding lane I will soone provide for them Lozenges to hold in their mouth sit for their constitution and such as I have had good experience of the last great Plague time What to 〈…〉 Carry in your hand a Lemon stucke with cloves sweet Marjoram Lavender Balme Rew or Wormwood as the constitution of your braine shall require For beleeve by my experience that many did enflame their braines and so fell into the Sicknesse they shunned in the last great Contragion by smelling to and carrying things in their mouthes too hot for their complexion Camphor Camphor also though it be accounted an excellent coole fume
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
but sometimes of a blewish or leaden colour but then it is apt to turne to a Carbuncle and when it runneth affords filthy matter of the like complexion Round about the Blister there is a red fierie circle yet nothing so fiery as that of the Carbuncle the whole taking up the breadth of a groat sixe pence or nine-pence I have seen the breadth of a large shilling but very rarely These will rise in any part of the Body or limbes sometimes one alone sometimes two or three but never many When the matter is runne out the hoven skin falls and dryes up to a crusty scab and so falls off These shew that Nature is strong to expell the venom speedily and that the humors infected are not superaboundant For many that have these are not sicke at all and the most recover with good looking to The Carbuncle The Carbuncle is a little venemous pustle with a broad compasse of a deepe rednesse about it wonderfull angry and burning like a fire-coale thence comes his name Carbunculus It rises like a little Blyster producing an ash-coloured or else a blackish crust Sometimes it rises in many pustles like burnt blysters on the outer skin which being broken and the matter runne out the like crusty escar growes over it till it fall off It appeares in any â—â—rt of the Body or Limbs many times on the Breast sometimes in the face I have seene one on the very tip of the nose With it goes alway these evill companions Itching Inflamation and Irrosion for it is so full of burning poyson that it consumes the flesh and will in a short time if it be not well looked to eate so deepe and large a hole as if the flesh were hollowed with a hot iron It ariseth from the same cause with the Botch but the Bloud is more hot blacke thicke and faeculent proceeding for burnt Choler or adust Melancholly The Spots otherwise called Gods Tokens The Tokens are commonly of the bignesse of a flea-bitten spot sometimes much bigger Their colour is according to the praedominancie of the humor in the body namely Red or reddish if Choler Pale-blew or Darke-blew if Flegme and Leaden or Blackish if Melancholy abound But they have ever a circle about them The Red ones a purplish-circle and the others a redish circle They appeare most commonly on the the breast and backe and sometimes on the neck armes and thighes On the Breast and Back because the vitall Spirits strive to breath out the venom the nearest way In some bodyes there will be very many in some but one or two or very few according to the quantity of the venom and the strength of the Spirits to drive them out They usually shew themselves on the 3. 4. 5. or 7. day Sometimes not till death the venom yet tyrannizing over the dead carkas Somtimes they appeare together with the sores but for the most part without The cause is the venemous matter condensed and hardened in the act of penetrating the the pores of the skin if they be skilfull dissected in the dead body you may finde some halfe way deep into the flesh some in muskles of the Brest have bin followed with the incision knife even to the rib bones The reason why they are thus congealed is the thicknes of the venemous matter and the coldnesse of it for it is the most Phlegmaticke part of the bloud yet mixed also with the other humors according to the colors They appeare in dead bodies most because Nature fainting in her labor to thrust out the venom through the skin lifes heat going out the privation therof and the nearnesse of the outward aire do congeale theÌ„ presently because many times at the last gasp nature gives the stoutest struggle it comes to passe they are not so far thrust forth as to appeare til death All these Symptomes must be looked to very diligently and skilfully As for the Sores there are many good and known medicines and hands skilful enough in Chyrurgical way And I understaÌ„d the Colledge of Physitians have a Booke now comming forth full of good Medicines Whether the TokeÌ„s bring alwayes certain Death as is believ'd Therefore I will here desist But me thinkes one puls mee by the sleeve and askes me what I meane to say that all these Symptoms must be looked to Doe I meane the Tokens for they were the last of them Yes even the Tokens Mr. IOHN BANISTER my Grandfather in a Manuscript of his of the Plague affirmeth that he recovered some that had the best colored of them and those but few also And I have often heard my Father who was an honest true tongu'd man and a skilfull full Physitian say that in the yeare 1593. my Mother being then visited with this sicknesse had besides a Carbuncle under the tip of her left left eare two Spots on her breast And shee was recovered and lived till the yeare 1629. yet the spots appeared together with the Carbuncle which is accounted a prognosticke to have no hope of curing the soare or caring for the life of the Patient To this let mee joyne an experience of mine owne in the last dreadfull Visitation Anno 1625. My selfe did in Golding-lane recover a woman that was sicke of the Plague in Childe-bed and that very case alone is rarely cured who besides other Symptomes as her suddaine taking faintings and Pestilent Feavor had two Spots on her breast of a reddish colour with purple circles I discouraged not those about her because I meant to try what might by Gods assistance be done the Childe dyed but she recovered and is alive at this day Now if any man shall say these last were spots of a Malignant Feaver onely I answer they were not Purple but Red ones and circled with purple Circles so are not the faint Spots But if my skill in these Spots shall yet bee doubted Know that this was when there dyed betwixt Foure and five Thousand of the Plague that weeke And I will beleeve no man that shall tell mee that any Malignant Feavor must not needs turne to the Plague it selfe within the ayre of London at that time Thus much for the Signes of the Pestilence in them that Live There remaine also some few other Signes besides these Other signes of the dead of the Plagueâ— by which you may know a Body to be dead of the Plague though neyther Soare nor Token appeare HEURNIUS sayes Heurnius de Peste they are knowne from others that dye of the Plague by these Markes The Nose lookes blew sometimes blackish blew as if it had beene beaten or bruised The like Colour is in the Eares and Nailes And their Bodies are ever worse coloured then other dead bodyes bee But adde to this one Signe more approved by Experience and standing with good reason viz. That whereas other dead Bodies must bee layed out straight while they are warme or else when they are cold they will