c. One house I know more especially by Curfitors-Alley where the Man his Wife and Childe liv'd in a Room that look'd more like for bigness a great Chest then any thing else They had not space enough according to the vulgar saying to swing a Cat in so hot by reason of the closeness and so nastily kept besides that it even took away a mans breath to put his head but within the doors In this house all this little family died lately in two dayes The childe dying suddenly the neighbours were afraid to come near them The man having languished a long time for want of Air as well as money and he not able to stir out and none coming to his relief dyed quickly after The woman being as big with child as she could tumble seeing her child dead on the one side and her husband in his cloaths on the other and forsaken by all fell in labour and dyed too instantly A very true and sad accident which doubtless was occasioned by their loathsom living but perfected by the cruelty of those that lived near them Furthermore nearness of blood and kindred by sympathy of nature is another aptness But old folks whose bodies are cold and dry confident spirits whose very courage is an Antidote if they keep their bodies clean by a regular course of life and those that have the Gout in whom the nobler parts of the body do expel the noxious humours to the ignobler have the same benefit of non-infection as Milch-nurses have because their children suck the evil juices from them with their milk These are in the way likely to escape but if the Nurse be infected the childe cannot recover it Lastly they who keep themselves private or have Issues Ulcers Haemorrhoids or women that have their courses abundantly are least subject to infection because the hurtful humours are by those means drained away What things are to be observed by every man that is desirous to preserve himself from the infection of the Plague BY discovering to you the six strings of Apollo's Viol I shall shew wherein consisteth the whole harmony of Health which are Air Meat and Drink Repletion and Evacuation Exercise and Rest Sleep and Watching and lastly the passions of the Minde If these be in tune the body is sound but any of these too high wrested or too much slackned that is immoderately used makes a discord in Nature and puts the whole body a jarring Aer Esca Quies Repletio Gaudia Somnus Haec moderata juvant immoderata nocent Air Meat and Rest Repletion Joys and Sleep As they are us'd an healthful body keep Or thus Sleep Joys Repletion Resting Air and Food Immoderate are bad if moderate good Air we shall first begin with since it is that we draw in with our breath continually and we cannot live without it one minute for it is the food of our spirits and therefore we had need take heed that the Air we draw be pure and wholesom The whole stream of opinion runs upon a cold and dry air so commending the North and East windes as most wholesom and condemning the hot and moist air engendred by the South and West windes as the fittest matter for infection because most apt to putrefaction So Galen affirmeth saying That the hot and moist constitution of the Air doth most of all breed pestilential diseases From his mouth many modern Authors have learned to speak the same thing yet we know that the hot and dry weather also may cause a contagious air Titus Livius mentioneth in his Decades that Rome was so infected by an hot and dry distemper of the Air. It is not out of my remembrance that the Summer 1624. preceding the great Sickness was an extream dry and parching Summer I pray God this Summer prove not a Mother to a like Contagion Now to avoid the mischiefs of an unwholesome air take Hippocrates his counsel in his Treatise of humane Nature walk abroad as little as may be and as much as may be shun passing by any place infected but by no means would I advise any to flie though the Sickness should spread all over the City For in the last great Visitation many with Daedalus did put on wings that with Icarus dropt down by the way Only my counsel is this Should the Sickness increase let every one keep himself as private as he may shun throngs of people and all wet close and stinking places walk not abroad before not after Sun keep moderation between heat and cold in all things yet rather incline to heat a little because of drying up superfluous moistures Let not your houses be pestered with many Lodgers and it is best for those that are able to have change of Beds and Chambers to lie in that the air in them may be kept free and sweet Keep every Room daily very clean and let there be no sluts corners let not water stand so long in any vessel as to putrifie which in hot weather it will soon do Make fires every day in every room in quantity according to the largeness of the room and the temperature of the weather perfume them in cold and moist weather with Frankincense Storax Benjamin Pitch Rozin Lignum-Aloes Lignum Rhodium Juniper-wood or the Berries in hot and dry weather with Rose-water on a hot fire-shovel or some such like cool fume in a perfuming-pot strew the windows and ledges with Rue Worm-wood Lavender Marjoram Peniroyal Costmary and such like in cold weather but in hot with Primroses Violets Rose-leafs Borage Bugloss and such cooling scents For garments avoid as much as may be all leather woollen and furr also velvets plush and shag but chuse such as may be watered as chamlets grograms c. for their gumminess excludeth infectious air best shift your shirt often and cloaths also and before you put them on again perfume them well be sure you take care that you buy not old cloaths bedding or such like stuff for the garments of infectious persons deceased are usually put to sale which oftentimes prove very dangerous to the buyer Carry in your mouth a piece of the Pill of Citron or Lemmon a Clove is of excellent use to that purpose forget not to carry in your hand a Lemmon stuck with Cloves sweet Marjoram Lavender Balm Rue or Worm-wood and thereunto smell frequently I should commend for your use Camphire because it is accounted an excellent cool fume for ill airs but I would have those that have cold and weak stomacks to beware thereof since such are very much weakned by the use of it Though Dioscorides and Cardan commend Galbanum burning of leather and smelling to horse-dung yet my advice is to eschew unsavoury smells and stinking odours judging what are sweet and pleasant more proper because they dilate restore and comfort the spirits whereas the contrary do contract and by repugning them weaken the faculties What manner of Diet is to be observed for self-preservation THe next thing which we
promise amendment that wee give evidence of the intire purpose of our heart in promising by answerable performance but above all for the present that wee crave mercy of God thorow Jesus Christ that hee may offer up his sweet incense to pacifie his Father and cause his destroying Angel to stay his hand Quest What good Orders God hath been pleased to blesse either for the preventing or allaying of the Plague in the fatal years 1603 1609 1625 1636. and are fit to bee observed by all good people at this time 1 FOur Doctors at least two Apothecaries and three Chirurgions were Pentioned for their own lives and their Wives to attend on persons troubled with this disease 2 Neither men nor goods came from other places without a Certificate of health otherwise they were either sent suddenly away or put in the Pest-house or some such place for forty daies till the certainty of their soundness might bee discovered 3 All the Statutes and good Orders against Beggars Players Bowling-Alleys Inmates Tippling-houses Leastals whereby the Infection might spread and disperse by reason of the Sin as well as the Commerce and throng of Idle sort of Persons and against the uttering of stinking Flesh or Fish and musty Corn or Beer 4 The Scavengers in general and every House-holder in particular tooke care for the due and orderly cleansing of the Streets and Private houses every morning and night 5 Doggs Cats Conies tame-Pidgeons and Swine were destroyed about the Town or kept so carefully that no offence might come thereby 6 The Funnels in Church Vaults Slaughter-houses and the depth of Graves were considered of 7 The sweeping and filth of houses were daily carried away by the Rakers and the Raker gave notice of his comming by the blowing of a horne and the Laystalls were removed as farre as might bee out of the City and common passages and no Night-man or other suffered to empty a vault into any Garden near about the City 8 Two or more of the best in the Parish were sworn Examiners in their turnes for two months at least to enquire and learn from time to time what houses in every parish were visited what persons sick and of what diseases as near as they could inform themselves and upon suspition to command restraint of accesse until it appeared what the disease proved and if any person were found sick of the Infection to give order to the Constable that the House should bee shut up and if the Constable were remisse or negligent to give present notice thereof to the Alderman or to the next Justice of Peace respectively 9 To every infected house there were two watchmen one for the day till 10. of the Clock at night and another for the night till six in the morning having a special care that no person went in and out of such Infected houses whereof they have the charge upon pain of severe punishment 10 Six Chirurgions were joyned to the Searchers who were women of the best reputation and skill that could bee procured and allowed twelve pence a body for all they searched out of the sick mans estate being enjoyned to attend the Examiners orders 11 The Infected person was sequestred and though hee dyed not the house where hee sickned was shut up for a month after the use of due preservatives taken by the rest yea the house of any person that visited any that were Infected was shut up for certain daies 12 All goods in Infected houses were either to be burned or if too good to burn aired and perfumed and not either removed or sold for six months after the Infection ceased in the House All Brokers and Cryers of Apparrel being restrained in that behalf upon pain of having their Houses shut up for forty daies 13 None were to go out of an Infected house except into the Pest-house or a Tent or to a house which the man occupieth either himself or by Servants without security given that they shall not wander about till they bee sound and that the attendance and charge about the sick person should bee observed in all the particularities thereof and if one man kept two houses his sick people shall not go into the house where the sound are nor the sound into the house where the sick are the persons removed were to go by night and keep in at least a week from all company for fear of some Infection at the first not appearing 14 The dead of the Plague were buryed at convenient houres alwaies either before Sun-rising or after Sun-setting with the privity of the Church-wardens or Constables and not otherwise and no Neighbours or Friends were suffered to accompany the Coarse to Church or to enter the visited house upon pain of having their houses shut up and being close imprisoned only the Minister might attend at a competent distance 15 The Chirurgions Searchers Keepers and Buryers were not to passe the streets without holding a red Rod or wand of three foot in length in their hands open and evident to bee seen being not to go into any house but their own or into that whereunto they were sent or directed forbearing all company especially when they have been lately used in any such business or attendance Quest What course every Man and Woman should take particularly to prevent being infected and what good orders God hath been pleased to blesse for the preservation of every particular Man and Woman from the Plague when it raged in the places they lived in In the years 1603 1609 1625 1630 1636. when there were great Plagues in the City of London these Directions given by the Colledge of Physitians did a great deal of good 1 For Correction of the Ayre FOr the Correcting of the Infectious Aire it were good that often Bone-fires were made in the streets and that sometime the Tower Ordnance might bee shot off as also that there bee good fires kept in and about the visited houses and their neighbours Take Rosemary dryed or Juniper Bay-leaves or Frankincense cast the same upon a Chafing-dish and receive the fume or smoak thereof And to make fires rather in Pans to remove about the Chamber than in Chimneys shall better correct the ayre of the houses adding a piece of old Iron to the fire Take a quantity of Vinegar very strong and put to it some small quantity of rose-Rose-water ten branches of Rosemary put them all into a Bason and take five or six Flint stones heated in the fire till they bee burning hot cast them into the same Vinegar and so let the fumes be received from place to place of your house That the House be often perfumed with Rue Angelica Gentian Zedoary Set-wel Juniper wood or berries burnt upon embers either simply or they may bee steeped in Wine Vinegar and so burnt Perfume the house and all therein with this Slake Lime in Vinegar and aire the house therewith burn much Tar Rosen Frankincense Turpentine both in the private houses and in the Churches
MEDELA PESTILENTIAE Wherein is contained several Theological Queries CONCERNING THE PLAGUE WITH Approved Antidotes Signes and Symptoms ALSO An exact Method for curing that EPIDEMICAL DISTEMPER Humbly presented to the Right Honourable and Right Worshipful the LORD MAYOR and SHERIFFS of the City of London LONDON Printed by J. C. for Samuel Speed and are to be sold at his Shop at the Rain-bow near the Temple in Fleet-street MDCLXV TO â—HE RIGHT HONOURABLE Sir John Lawrence Knight LORD MAYOR of this Honourable City of LONDON AND THE Right Worshipful Sir GEORGE WATERMAN and Sir CHARLES DOE Knights and Sheriffs thereof Right Honourable And Right Worshipful FAME proclaiming every-where your deserved worth it reach'd my ear and hearing how careful your Honour and Worships have been in the preservation of every individual person but such more especially committed to your Tutelage wherein you have shewn your selves indulgent Fathers as well as prudent Governors I could do no less then step in amongst the crowd of your Honours and Worships admirers to make my grateful acknowledgement I have but this Mite to offer but as much water as the palm of my Hand will hold to east into this new-kindled fire and yet it may quench it ere it rise to a flame if the heavenly Physician see it good The peaceful Dove hath now got some few fick feathers let her not therefore be deserted Some of late have forsaken her because fallen sick a little which argues both their ingratitude and folly in flying that Mother which gave some breath others benefit and profit thinking thereby they can shun the hand of Gods just judgement In this Honourable City I first drew my breath and received the major part of my education as your Honours and Worships therefore are our Fathers in general so I hope you will not deny me your particular Patronage Let your noble favours then strengthen this weak hand which a Sons duty reacheth forth to a Mothers support grateful pity commands me thus to do and my knowledge in reading with the experience of others justifieth the act Accept therefore of these my well-wishing indeavours and whilst some are using the means let others joyn with them in Prayers to Almighty God to be merciful to this City and if it be his blessed will to sheath his sword and unbend his bow that the dreadful Judgement of the Plague may be averted from us Pardon I beseech you this grand presumption and I shall glory in subscribing my self Right Honourable And Right Worshipful Your most devoted and obedient Servant Richard Kephale POSTSCRIPT TWo most soveraign Antidotes against the Plague found out first and experimented by the Author of the ensuing Treatise to be the most infallible Preservatives against pestilential Contagion The one is in form of a Conserve to be taken first in the morning the quantity of an Hazel-nut on the point of a knife fasting one hour after and then you may both eat and drink what you please Take the same quantity also two hours before dinner and about three or four in the afternoon and at night when you go to bed The other is a most admirable and pleasant Spirit which you are to take as the fore-mentioned four or five times a day These two are to be sold sealed by Mr. Samuel Speed at the Rain-bow in Fleet-street near the Temple where also you may have the Spirit of Salt which is excellent good to prevent infection causing a good appetite and curing most diseases most truly prepared according to the Method of Rhodocanasi Take thereof when you desire to drink two drops in a middle-siz'd cup of Ale or Beer provided it be not stale Medela Pestilentiae OR Rules for the Prevention and Cure OF THE PLAGUE How the Plagues began 1603 1609 1625 1630 1636. For what sins the Divines of those times judged they were inflicted and with what Godly meanes they were allayed 1 OUt of Gods tender Goodness towards this Nation after many warnings before hand by his Ministers who observing what sins were impudently and impenitently committed foresaw and fore-told what God would bring upon this People and particularly a Plague throughout that year before it came He began this sore Judgement by degrees in those times Jan. 24. onely one died Feb. 3. three died Feb. 10. five Feb. 17. three Feb. 24. one March 17. two March 24. eight March 31. six April 7. eight April 14. eighteen April 21. eighteen and after that the Bill increased every week more and more till August 18. when there died in one week 4463. of the Plague which began the first time by a surfeit in White Chappel the second time by Sea-men about the same place the third by reason of rotten Mutton at Stepney the fourth with a pack of Carpets from Turkey the fifth with a Dogge that came over from Amsterdam 2 Bishop Sandersons words in a Sermon at an Assizes at Lincolne Aug. 4. 1625. upon Psalm 106.30 are these As God brought upon that people for their sins a fearful destruction So hee hath in his just wrath sent his destroying Angel against us for ours the sins that brought the Plague upon them were Whoredome and Idolatry I cannot say the same sins have caused ours for although the execution of good Laws against both Incontinent and Idolatrous persons hath been of late years and yet is wee all know to say no more slack enough yet Gods Holy Name be blessed for it neither Idolatry nor Whoredome are at that heighth of shameless impudence and impunity among us that they dare out-brave our Moseses and out-face whole Congregations as it was in Israel But still this is sure no Plague but for sin nor National Plagues but for National sins So that albeit none of us may dare to take upon us to bee so farre of Gods Counsel as to say for what very sins most this Plague is sent among us yet none of us can bee ignorant but that besides those secret personal Corruptions which are in every one of us and whereunto every ones heart is privy there are many Publick and National sins whereof the people of this Land are generally guilty and is abundantly sufficient to justifie God in his dealings towards us when he judgeth us 1. Our wretched unthankfulness unto God for the long continuance of his Gospel and our Peace our carnal confidence and security in the strength of our wooden and watry walls our riot and excesse the noted and proper sins of this Nation and much intemperate abuse of the good Creatures of God in our meats drinks and disports and other provisions and comforts of this life Our incompassion towards our Brethren miserably wasted with war and famine in other parts of the World our heavy oppression of our Brethren at home in racking the Rents cracking the backs and grinding the face of the poor Our cheap and irreverent regard to Gods Holy Ordinances of his Word Sacraments Sabbaths and Ministers our wantonnesse and toyishness of
a draught of good stale Ale or Beer or with a draught of white Wine and go to bed and cast himself into a sweat forbearing sleep Or Take of the inward Bark of the Ash-tree one pound of Wal-nuts with the green outward shells to the number of fifty cut these small of scabious and Vervain each a handful Saffron two drams pour on the strongest Vinegar you can get four pints let them a little boyl together upon a very soft fire and then stand in a close pot well stopt all night upon the embers after distill them with a soft fire and receive the water close kept give to the Patient laid in Bed and well covered with cloathes two ounces of this water to drink and let him bee provoked to sweat and every eight hours during the space of twenty four give him the same quantity to drink Care must bee taken in the use of these sweating Cordials that the party Infected sweat two or three hours if hee have strength and sleep not till the sweat bee over and that hee hath been well wiped with warm Linnen and when hee hath been dried let him wash his mouth with Water and Vinegar warme and let his face and hands bee washed with the same When these things are done give him a good draught of broth made with a Chicken or Mutton with Rose-mary Thime Sorrel succory and Marigolds Or else Water-gruel with Rosemary and Winter-savory or Thyme Pomado seasoned with Verjuyce or juyce of Wood-sorrel For their drink let it bee small beer warmed with a toast or water boyled with Carraway-seed Cardus-seed and a Crust of bread or such Posset-drink as is mentioned before in the second medicine after some nutriment let them sleep or rest often washing their mouth with water and vinegar These Cordials must bee repeated once in eight ten or twelve hours at the furthest If the party Infected vomit up his Medicine then repeat it presently or else give him two or three spoonfuls of Vinegar of Squills or Oxymel of Squils with posset-drink and then after proceed External Medicines Veficatores applyed to the Arms the in-side of the thighs or about the bottom of the Calf of the Legg will draw forth the venome For the swelling under the ears arm-pits or in the groines they must bee alwaies drawn forth and ripened and broke with all speed Pull off the feathers from the tails of living Cocks Hens Pidgeons or Chickens and holding their bills hold them hard to the Botch or swelling and so keep them at that part until they dye and by this means draw out the poyson It is good to apply a Cupping-glass or embers in a dish with a handful of Sorrel upon the Embers To break the Humours Take a great Onion hollow it put into it a Fig Rue cut small and a dram of Venice Treacle put it close stopped in a wet paper and rost it in the Embers Apply it hot unto the humour lay three or four one after another let one lye three hours Or Scabious and Sorrel roste in the Embers mixed with a little strong leaven and some Barrows grease and a little salt will draw it and break it Or Take two or three rosted Onions a Lilly root or two rosted a handful of scabious rosted four or five figs a piece of leaven and a little Rue stamp all these together if it bee too drie put to it two ounces of oyle of Lillies or so much salt-butter make a poultess apply it hot after it hath been three or four hours take it off and burne it and apply a fresh poultesse of the same if it prove hard to break add a little burnt Coperass to the Poultess Or Take the Flowers of Elders two handfuls Rochet seed bruised one ounce Pidgeons dung three drams stamp these together put to them a little Oyle of Lillys make thereof a poultess apply it and change it as you did the former To Draw When it is broken to draw it and heal it take the yolk of an Egge one ounce of hony of Roses Turpentine half an ounce Wheat flower a little London Treacle a dram and a half mixe these well spread it upon Leather change it twice a day or take Diachylon cum Gummis For the Carbuncle Apply an actual or potential Cautery laying a defensative of Bole-Armoniack or Terra Sigillata mixed with Vinegar and the white of an Egge round about the tumor but not upon it Take three or four Cloves of Garlick Rue half a handful four figs strong leaven and the soot of a Chimney in which Wood hath been burnt of each half an ounce Mustard-seed two drams Salt a dram and a half stamp these well together and apply it hot to the sore you may put thereto a little Salt-butter if it be to dry Or this Take Leaven half an ounce Radish roots the bigger the better an ounce and an half Mustard-seed two drams Onions and Garlick roasted of each two drams and a half Venice Treacle Mithridatum three drams mixe these in a Morter apply it hot thrice a day to the sore But these sores cannot bee well ordered and cured without the personal care of a discreet Chirurgion Take of Scabious two handfuls stamp it in a stone Morter with a Pestel of stone if you can get any such then put into it of old swines greace salted two ounces and the yolk of an Egg stamp them well together and lay part of this warm to the sore Take of the leaves of Mallows of Cammomel-flowers or either of them a handfull of Lin-seed beaten into a powder two ounces boyl the Mallow-leaves first cut and the flowers of Cammomel in fair water standing about a fingers breadth boyl all them together till the water bee almost spent Then put thereunto the Lin-seed of Wheat flower half a handful of Swines-greace the skins taken away three ounces of Oyle of Lillies two ounces Stir them still with a stick and let them all boyl together on a soft fire without smoak until the water bee utterly spent beat them all together in a Morter until they bee well incorporated and in feeling smooth and not rough then take part thereof hot in a dish set upon a Chafingdish of coals and lay it thick upon a linnen cloath applying it to the sore Take a white Onion cut in pieces of fresh butter three ounces of Leaven the weight of twelve pence of Mallows one handful of Scabious if it may bee had one handful of cloves of Garlick the weight of twentipence boil them on the fire in sufficient water and make a poultesse of it and lay it warme to the sore Another Take two handfuls of Valerian three roots of Dane-wort an handful of Smallage or Lovage seeth them all in butter and water and a few crums of bread and make a poultess thereof and lay it warm to the sore till it break Another If you cannot have these Hearbs it is good to lay a loaf of bread to it hot as it