Vinegar and Water put into the Milk instead of Beer or Ale Or else this which is most excellent without heating of the body or hurting of the purse Take Crabs eyes one ounce burnt Harts-horn half an ounce the black tops of Crabs claws an ounce and a half make them all into a powder and take of it one dram or two drams in a glass of posset-drink when you go to bed and drink another draught of posset-drink after to wash it down Or else you may drink a draught of Oxymel Posset-drink made as followeth Boil a quarter of a pint of English Honey with a quart of water and skum it then put to it one pint of vinegar and let it boil nine or ten walmes then let it cool and boil a quart of Milk and turn it with a sufficient quantity of the Oxymel and put away the curd and drink the posset-drink when you go to bed Or else take a dose or quantity of the Antipestilential Vinegar of which hereafter Of Observation of Diet. Although you defend your self never so safely from the evil air and retain your Blood as the treasure and maintain your Spirits as the guard of your life though you purge out vicious humors and sweat out bad vapours yet if you by any neglect disorder excess or defect do recruit those humors corrupt your blood or spend your spirits it will be to no more purpose than if you had washt your cloths never so clean and yet afterwards should tumble them in the dirt or trample them in the mire By Observation of Diet Physicians understand the well ordering of a mans self in those six things which they call Non-Natures the Air Sleep and Watching the Passions of the Mind Labour and Rest Repletion and Evacuation Meat and Drink which some have called the six strings of Apollo's Harp wherein consists the harmony of health If these be in tune the body is sound but if any of these be skrewed up too high by any excess or slackened too low by any defect or intemperately used then is the body put out of tune and made subject to diseases 1. For the Air let it not be too cold nor too hot and choose rather to wear by day and to be covered at night with too many cloths than too few and let your apparel be rather stuff then cloth which will soonest catch and longest hold Infection but take heed of too great heat Mercurialis tells of many Smiths and Glass-men that died in the Plague at Venice who by the heat of fire had made their bodies too open and apt to receive Infection 2. As for Sleep let it be moderate and take heed of too much watching 3. Let your Passions be calm'd and your mind serene and as much as possible refrain Anger and banish Fear 4. Let your Exercise be moderate and forbear over-heating your body whereby you will be necessitated to draw in more air and it hath been observed that many hard Labourers have not onely been infected but died of the Plague 5. For Repletion and Evacuation take heed of Excess and keep your body neither too loose nor costive Look upon Venus to be as great a friend to the Plague as Mars or Saturn and the Venereal Marks and Swellings no preservative against the Spots and Botches of the Pestilence It is no lesse unfortunate and wretched than devillish and wicked advice for any to get the Pox to avoid the Plague for Experience which is the Mistriss of Fools hath taught some that have no care of their souls that it is as dangerous for the body to go into some other Houses as into a Pest-House Lastly For Meat and Drink you are to have respect not onely to the Quality that it be good and wholesome and take heed of surfetting on any Summer fruit but also to the Quantity of what you take As the body is not to be weakened nor the Spirits spent with Fasting so is it not to be overcharged with Surfetting They that will eat till they can feel the meat with their fingers and drink till they can paddle with the liquor in their throats and be ready to shed it out of their mouths are in the way of cutting their throat with their tongue and digging their grave with their teeth Mercurialis saith of his own knowledge They are much deceiv'd who think to preserve themselves by eating and drinking and tells of many great drinkers both at Padua and at Venice that died of the Plague from which they thought to preserve themselves by drinking Wine It was the Saying of a Politician that Maxima pars frugalitatis est bene domatus venter so it may be the Aphorisme of a Physitian Maxima pars sanitatis est bene domatus venter As he that loveth pleasure will not be quickly rich so he that is given to excess will not be long well Temperance and Abstinence as they are not onely remedies against most diseases as Lessius treats at large in his Spare Diet and Cornaro made experiment by a little and very wholesom food so are they also a great corrector of any inconvenience that comes by evil nourishment When the impregnable City of Carlile under the government of the most invincible and resolute Governour Sir Thomas Glenham in the late Wars was besieged by an Army of Warlike English and hardy Scots there was great scarcity of Provision the besieged did eat all the Dogs and Cats never Roast-beef was sold so dear as Horse-flesh of which when Horses were kill'd and sold in the Market no Family for their money might have above their allowance the best provision that an Officers wife could procure whil'st she lay in Child-bed was a young Colt the Souldiers were allowed but two meals a week and that was a quantity of beans and the water they were boil'd in and yet so couragious as to say Give us but a Bean a Day and we will keep the Town Though the City was full of Inhabitants and Garrison Souldiers and many of the Loyal Gentry and divers Valiant Knights and delicate and tender Ladies came to live there to defend and be defended in the place yet during all that Siege of above forty weeks as I have been credibly inform'd there was not one person sick or died except one Woman who surfeited upon Bread made of Hemp-seed And if you would know what an excellent Antidote Temperance doth furnish you with against the Plague Histories will tell you that in the most grievous Plague at Athens described by Thucidydes Socrates the Phylosopher lived free and not infected To conclude sleep when you are drowsie rest when you are weary drink when you are dry and eat when you are hungry and mixe with your Diet something that is cordial as Vinegar and Nutmeg where it is agreeable and rise from the Table with an appetite Of Issues Seeing it may easily come to pass that in unhealthy times notwithstanding the most exact Observation of Diet some bad humours
a friend intreated him If he was innocent that he would free him for his own sake but if he was guilty that he would yet free him for his sake but however he must free him If Vinegar be simple and uncompounded take it for its own 〈◊〉 mixed with other Antidotes take it for 〈◊〉 but however take Vinegar Pliny finds fault with Physitians 〈◊〉 his time for not knowing its excellent vertue Vinegar being contrary to most other liquors in distillation may well have something more than ordinary in operation The Spirits of Wine and Beer and other liquors presently exhale and flie away and have nothing but flegme but when Vinegar is distill'd the flegme rises first and the Spirits stay behind Now as Galen saith of Poysons the hundredth part of a Cantharides doth not hurt nor one spark of fire burn to any purpose so it is in Cordials too little will do little good there must be a considerable quantity and sufficient dose you cannot in reason think one spoonful of Vinegar enough to quench such a heat as the Plague brings 'T is for the vertue of Vinegar that I wrote this Book I would be loath to present you a Glo-worm instead of a Diamond or put a Bulrush instead of a Spear into your hand when you are to fight with such an Enemy Imagine well and think highly of this Medicine I value my own life as much as another man doth his I had rather take Vinegar by it self than many other nay then any other single medicine without it Despise it not because 't is easie to be had neither let it be contemn'd because familiar It is the more excellent because common the more precious because cheap the vertues of it so many they will hardly be believed and therefore the greater because incredible But because the pestilent venome hath a power to corrupt putrifie and inflame the humours and oftentimes the Sicknesse is accompanied with a Fever which sometimes may be almost as dangerous as the Plague there must be care taken thereof so that as you may not by too cold things strike in the Plague so by too hot you may not exasperate the Fever but have respect to both for which purpose you may take cordial and cooling Juleps made of distill'd waters of Sorrel Endive Cichory Borage Bugloss Meadow sweet Angelica Dragons Dandelyon Betony Scabius Balme Fumitory to which you may put as much oyl of Brimstone or Vitriol as will make it very sharp to your taste and to every quart thereof about half a dram of Lapi◠Prunella or Sal Niter or Sal Peter and afterwards sweeten it with any Cordial Syrups as of Gilly-flowers Citrons Lemons Violets adding to it if you please Alchermes and when you are hot and dry you may drink as much as you please and as often as you will As thus Take of Meadowsweet and Cichory water of each one pint of Borage and Buglosse water half a pint of Dragon and Angelica water of each four ounces put to it as much Oyl of Vitriol as will make it very sharp then adde to it a dram of Lapis Prunella powdered Syrup of Gilly-flowers four ounces Alchermes two drams and drink as much and as often as you please Or else you may make the Tincture of Roses thus Boil four quarts of spring-Spring-water then let it cool till it be but about scalding hot then put it into a glased earthen pot and put to it two good handfuls or two ounces of dried Red-Rose leaves and stir them in the water that they may be all wet then put to them one Silver spoonful of Oil of Brimstone or Oil of Vitriol or as much as will make the liquor very sharp stir it all about and presently the Roses and the liquor will be of a delicate red colour then let it stand covered about four hours then strain it gently without squeezing into an earthen pan and sweeten it with a pound or two of Loaf-Sugar more or lesse as you please and with more Oil of Vitriol make it very sharp for your taste and keep it in Glass-bottles and when you are hot and dry drink as much as you please and if you list you may put any Cordial Syrup to it as Gilly-flowers juice of Citron Lemons Poppies or the like Or else you may take some Spring-water and put it fresh into a Glass and drop some Oil of Vitriol or Brimstone into it to make it sharp and sweeten it with Sugar and drink it both as a Preservative against a Fever or the Plague and as a Medicine and Julep in time of Sicknesse and let me tell you that plain Spring-water and Oil of Vitriol or Brimstone is a better Julep in the Plague Pestilent Malignant and other burning Fever than almost any other distill'd water without it Note that it is a vain and scrupulous error to take when you are dry and burning hot but two or three spoonfuls of Julep at a time I never denied my Patients drink in the heat of a Fever but let them drink Julep as much as they please for a little Julep doth but little good and rather encreaseth the heat as the powring of a little Water on a Smiths fire doth make it flame the more and burn the hotter whereas a great deal doth quite extinguish it and put it out And because this Oil of Vitriol is so excellent and useful a remedy mixt with water in this and all hot Diseases I should advise every ingenuous person that lives in the Country never to be without it These Oils you must understand cannot be taken by themselves but with spring or distilled waters and you must be careful of spilling any drop on your cloths for then it will fret and make a hole in them Now if you refuse to meddle with them for fear of receiving any hurt you may as well do so by fire which you must not sit by least a spark light on your apron neither must men take Tobacco for fear of burning their faces And yet I must tell you that 't is better to have a spot on your gown or a hole in your cloths which the negligent slabbering of it may occasion than a Purple in your Skin or a Botch or Carbuncle in your Flesh which the discreet taking of it will hinder I have heard of a Norwegian that coming out of his frozen Country into the South parts of the World saw some Damask Roses growing in a Garden and said Well may the weather be so hot when fire grows upon the Trees at which the hearers fell a-laughing and told him they were most sweet and fragrant flowers as pleasing to the smell as delightful to the eye and gather'd him one and bid him smell to it but he refus'd neither would he take it into his hands for fear of burning his fingers nor smell to it least he should fire his beard or singe his furr'd cap. To perswade you not to fear but use this Oil of Vitriol let me
noisom smell which spreads it self over all the room Now in this case you must be as careful as you can to avoid the parties breath and some Physitians advise to put a piece of hot bread before his mouth to receive the Infection and afterwards be sure to burn it Some counsel to put a pail or two of hot water in the Chamber Some also put in a handful of green Copperas in the water and afterwards throw in three or four hot burning bricks But in the mean time you must be sure to take Antidotes Vinegar either simple or compound as you were before directed against the infectious Air. Also for your preservation this Antidote is very excellent Take Diascordium two ounces Venice Treacle three drams Confection of Iacynth two drams Nutmeg Seeds of Rew Root of Angelica Zedoary and Elicampane of each two drams powdered Vinegar two ounces Oil of Sulphur twenty four drops Syrup of the Juice of Citron or Gilly-flowers enough to make it into a moist Electury and very often or six or eight times a day take of it as much as a pease and let it dissolve in your mouth and swallow it down Or else use the tincture of Roses hereafter mentioned Or if you are hot and drie and have a desire to drink you may take as much Conduit or Spring-water as you please and drop into it as many drops of Oyl of Sulphur or Oyl of Vitriol or Spirit of Vitriol as will make it as sharp as you desire to drink it and the sharper it is the better then sweeten it with Sugar and drink it up You will find the excellent vertues of Vitriol in the directions how to make Tincture of Roses If sometimes you cannot be without strong waters you may drink Aqua Petasitis Composita or Angelica or imperial-Imperial-water or Aqua Mirabilis or treacle-Treacle-water at the Apothecaries or some of that water that goes by the Name of the Lady Allens Water If you must needs have Wine you may put to a quart of Wine a dram of Angelica root or of Contrayerva root or Virginia Snakeweed and one Nutmeg bruised You may sometimes eat this breakfast sprinkle Vinegar on toasted bread then spread it with butter and put on it the powder of a Nutmeg and eat it fasting Or else this Toast a Nutmeg till it sweat then powder it and put to it as much salt as you would eat with one bit of meat and mixe it with two spoonfulls of Vinegar and eat it Or else this Take twenty leaves of Rew one grain of Salt two Figgs and two Walnuts eat these sometimes in a morning fasting Wallnuts have a strange vertue against the Plague and Worms and Droetus tells of one that was executed for spreading of the Plague that confest he took nothing to preserve himself but a Wallnut roasted and a little burnt Women with-child may eat Angelica stalks candied or Citron peel candied or preserved or drink a little Zedoary and Nutmeg with Sugar in a Glasse of Wine Beer or Ale If there be any infants that can take nothing wash their bodies all over with Vinegar at Night when they go to Bed once or twice a week you may do so to elder children and use it your self If you have neglected to make an Issue you must lay one or two blistering plaisters broader than a five shilling piece to the in-side of one of your arms between the Elbow and Shoulder and when it hath raised a great Blister which will be in about twelve hours you may take it off and lay on the place some Melilot plaister or else a Plantain or Colewort Leaf and change it twice a day and when that Blister is heal'd begin to make another in the other arm or thigh and keep one sore all the while you fear the Infection You may have plaisters at the Apothecaries or else make one your self thus Take six Spanish Flies shread them very small and mixe them with a little Mustard and Wheat Flowre or Dough or Leaven moistened with a little Vinegar spread it on leather and apply it Let care be taken how Bread is brought home from the Bakers because it will draw to it any infection and therefore you may do well to cover it with a cloth and put on that cloth another wet in Vinegar Be careful that your victuals stand not neer the infected and if you want room cover it with a cloth wet in Vinegar Again remember what I told you of Socrates to be very spare and moderate in your Diet discreet Abstinence is as good a Medicine as can be bought at the Apothecaries Of Preservation from the Plague when it may be caused by Fear and Imagination The learned Galenists in the method of their Cure teach that Diseases are to be help'd by contraries Drowth is cured by Moisture Heat with Coolers Consumptions with Restoratives Poysons with Antidotes so Fear must be cured by its contrary Hope The Industrious Chymists in their undertakings observe some resemblance and agreement between the Agent and Patient the Disease and the Remedy Aqua Fortis will melt Silver but not Brimstone Myrrhe and Frankincense will not dissolve in water so will Gum Dragon and Arabick because they are of a watery Nature Sulphureous Diseases must be removed with Sulphur Medicines Salt Diseases dissolv'd with Salts Mercurial Maladies with Mercurial Remedies Tartareous pains eas'd with Tartar and the Stone is best cured with Stones such as are Lapis Lincis Spongiae Iudaicus c. so Imagination must be cured with Imagination one Fancy by another and Conceit is the best Receit for an Opinion Thus Trallianus tells of one that imagined he had a Snake in his Belly who was cured by conveying a Snake into the Bason when his vomit wrought Another thought he had Sparrows in his Head and was cur'd by one that brought some in his sleeve who fumbling about his Ears made him believe he took them out from thence One fancied that he had so big a Nose that he could not go abroad for fear of peoples treading on it in the Streets and was cured by a Physitian who coming to the Chamber Door seem'd to be stopt for making further entrance and being askt why he came not in desired the Patient to put aside his Nose that he might get by it without treading on it the Patient did so with his hand the Doctor gravely enters by the wall and seem'd very careful of his staffe and steps the Patient is well pleased at the Doctors plain dealing with him in acknowledging he had that Disease which his Friends and Family did deny and said He was sure he was the man that of all others must do the Cure and desires his help The Doctor scarifies his Nose and let 's run upon and from it a great quantity of bloud that he had brought with him enclosed in an empty gut and clapt a plaister to it and in a few dayes he grew well Imagination directs and moves the spirits and
in the Streets unburied that the Carrion smell might expel the venom of the putrid air and perhaps for this reason that poysons have not onely an Antipathy to their Antidotes but also sometimes to one another it being no more unusual for one poyson than for one heat to drive out the other Moreover seeing that everything doth work upon its like and there ought to be something agreeable and suitable between the Agent and the Patient as we see that oylwill presently mixe incorporate with grease or wax but not with vinegar and many gums will dissolve in vinegar that will not melt nor mix with oil it might be probable that in an extraordinary Infection those odious scents being somewhat of the same nature with those poysonous vapours that caus'd the Pestilence might incorporate with them and carry them away whereas delightful and better odors and perfumes by reason of the contrariety of their Nature might have no effect upon them Rodericus a Castro would have Kine and Oxen driven up and down the Streets that the impurity of the air might be cleansed by the sweet smell of their breath and I have heard the smell of Sheep very much commended and some have also suspected it least their flesh afterwards when they come to be kill'd should poyson the eaters But as the same Plague and Murrain that kills Sheep and Beasts will not hurt men so will not the Plague that kills men hurt Sheep or Cattel The particular air is that in our own private houses and which we breath into us and this is purified by Smells or Fumes of both which as well simple as compound there are a very great number prescribed by Physitians I shall commend this Take White-Wine Vinegar and smell to it and wash your mouth and nostrils with it or mixe it with water that you wash your face and hands with or wet your face and hands with it after you have washt them with water and let the vinegar dry in without wiping of it off Or else use it thus Take Sage and Rew of each a handful steep it in a quart of White-wine Vinegar and use it as aforesaid Or else use this Take Nutmegs the roots of Contrayerva Virginia Shakeweed Pestilence Wort Angelica Elicampane Zedoary Master-wort Lovage of each an ounce bruised infuse them in three quarts of White-wine Vinegar close stopped in a bottel and use it as aforesaid and smell to some of the Root and Nutmeg and carry some about you in an ivory or other box with holes in it or wet a piece of a sponge in the liquor and carry it about you and put a piece of any of the ingredients in your mouth Rhasis a costly Physitian would have linnen cloths dipt in Vinegar and hang'd about the room instead of hangings Some do commend Pomanders and sweet perfumes and others dispraise them that they onely recreate the Spirits but being no Antidotes-resist not poyson but Vinegar is a thing without exception and any or all of those ingredients do exalt the vertue of it and make it admirable And if you cannot get all the aforesaid roots get as many as you can and abate a proportionable quantity of Vinegar Also The Vrine of a Goat is much commended by the Arabian Physitians Avenzoar and Averroes as having in its smell a specifick and appropriate quality to help the infection of the ayre And Mercurialis tells that he went to Vienna to medicine Maximilian the Emperour of Germany one day when he dined with the Chancellor of Hungary he espied a great Goat and asking the reason why it was there kept they told him for an Antidote against the Plague And there is as good reason for it as the smell of a Fox should be a defensative against the Palsie and it is not for nothing that Physitians prescribe the burning of Goats Horn as a good Fume against pestilential and infected Air. For as the air is corrected by Smells so is it also by Fumes of which there are multitudes prescribed and I shall commend this Take either some plain White-wine Vinegar or compounded as aforesaid and put it into a perfuming pot either by it self or with Rose water or any other sweet water or with any perfume or put it on a hot Fire-shovel and let it smoke about the House Also The American Silver-weed or Tobacco is very excellent for this purpose and an excellent defence against bad air being smoked in a pipe either by it self or with Nutmeg shred and Rew Seeds mixed with it especially if it be nosed for it cleanseth the air and choaketh suppresseth and disperseth any venemous vapour it hath singular and contrary effects it is good to warm one being cold and will cool one being hot All Ages all Sexes all Constitutions Young and Old Men and Women the Sanguine the Cholerick the Melancholy the Phlegmatick take it without any manifest inconvenience it quencheth thirst and yet will make one more able and fit to drink it abates hunger and yet will get one a good stomach it is agreeable with mirth or sadness with feasting and with fasting it will make one rest that wants sleep and will keep one waking that is drowsie it hath an offensive smell to some and is more desirable than any perfume to others that it is a most excellent preservative both experience and reason do teach it corrects the air by Fumigation and it avoids corrupt humours by Salivation for when one takes it either by chewing it in the leaf or smoaking it in the Pipe the humors are drawn and brought from all parts of the body to the stomach and from thence rising up to the mouth of the Tobacconist as to the helme of a Sublimatory are voided and spitten out There is also a fume made of Brimstone and Saltpetor but of this in the latter end of the Book Lastly To guard your self from the corrupted air you may do well not to walk abroad till the Sun hath drawn up and disperst all foggy vapours and to be within doors at Noon and the heat of the day when the pores being more open are apter to receive Infection and not to be abroad in the Moon-shine whose beams are hurtful nor at Night when noisom things may be thrown out of doors or windows into the Streets or when the diseased persons with sores about them either by their own craft or contrivency of their Keepers obtain liberty to go abroad The Second Cause of the Pestilence is the Corruption of the Humors which you must be as careful to defend your self from as against the Putrefaction of the Air And how that may be done by Bleeding Purging Vomiting Sweating and Observation of Diet comes next to be considered Of Bleeding Concerning Bleeding though I beleeve that it is an effectuâ—l means not onely to prevent but also to cure most Diseases and though none be more free and ready to comply with the inclination of any Patients desirous thereof nor more earnest to