drink wherein hath been infused the fore-named herbs Or One day you may take a little Worm-wood and Valerian with a grain of Salt Another you may take seven or eight berries of Juniper dryed and powdered with common drink or with drink wherein Worm-wood and Rue hath been steeped all night Or Take the Treacle called Diatessarum of light price easie to be had Or The Root of Ennula Campana taken in powder with drink Or A piece of Arras root kept in the mouth as men passe the streets Or Take six leaves of Sorrel wash them with water and Vinegar letting them lye in the said water and Vinegar a while then eat them fasting and keep in your mouth and chew now and then either Set-wall or the root of Angelica or a little Cinnamon or four grains of Myrrhe or so much of Rattle-snake root Of Medicines purgative It is good for prevention to keep the body open especially with such things as are easie of operation and good to resist putrefaction as Pestilential Pills c. Take Alloes two ounces Myrrhe and Saffron of each an ounce Ammoniacum half a ounce make them up into a mash with the juyce of Lemmons or White-wine Vinegar to keep the body open a small pill or two will be enough taken before Supper or before Dinner But to purge the body take the weight of a dram made into five or six or more Pills in the morning fasting and that day keep your Chamber If you bee costive and bound in body you may take a Glister made with a little boyled hony and a little fine powder of salt and so taken in at the fundament and kept till it move a stoole Or If you are poor take Aloes the weight of six pence put in the pap of an Apple and if able to buy them pills of Ruffus to bee had in every shop Such as are tyed to necessary attendance on the Infected as also such as live in visited houses shall do well to cause Issues to bee made in their left Arms or right Legs or both Blood Letting If the Patient bee full of blood and strong let him bee let blood upon the Liver Vein in the right arme or in the Median Veine of the said arm but bleeding and purging must bee used the first day the Patient is sick both to be forborn in case any sores or spots appear Vomits To provoke a Vomit take two ounces of zant oyle or Wal-nut-oyle a spoonful of the juyce of Celandine and half a spoonful of the juyce of Radish-roots or two spoonfuls of Oxymel of Squills with posset drink and oyle Expulsive Medicines The Plague is best expelled by sweating caused by posset-Ale made with Fennel and Marigolds in Winter and with Sorrel Bugloss and Borrage in Summer with which at both times London Treacle to the weight of two drams must bee mixed and so lay themselves with all quietness to sweat one half hour or an hour if they be strong For the cure of the Infected upon the first apprehension Bur-seeds Cucheneely powder of Harts-horn Citron-seeds one or more of them with a few grains of Camphire are good to bee given in Cardus or Dragon Water or with some Treacle Water Or Take Bur-seeds and Cucheneely of each half a dram or to a weak body of each one scruple Camphire five grains mixe these with two ounces of Cardus or Dragon water half an ounce of Treacle water sirrop of wood-sorrel a spoonful mixe these give it to the Patient warme cover him to sweat you may give him a second draught after twelve houres let him drink no cold drink this posset drink or the like will bee good to give the Visited liberally Or Take wood-sorrel half a handful Marigold flowers half so much shavings of Harts-horn three drams a Fig or two sliced boil them well in clear posset drink let them drink thereof freely you may put thereto a little Sugar Or Take Citron-seeds six or eight shavings of Harts-hornes halfe a dram London Treacle a dram mixe them with two ounces of Cardus water or with three ounces of the prescribed posset-drinke drinke it warme and so lie to sweat Or Take Sorrel-water five or sixe spoonfuls Treacle water a spoonful London Treacle a dram and a half mixe them well give it warme and so lay the patient to sweat Or Take Tormentil and Celandine-roots of each four ounces Scabious and Rue of each a handful and a half London Treacle a dram and a half Bole-Armoniack half a scruple put thereto a little Sugar mix them well let the party drink it warm and cover him to sweat In Summer Take the juyce of Wood-sorrel two ounces the juyce of Lemmons an ounce Diascordium a dram Cinnamon six grains Vinegar half an ounce give it warme and lay the Patient to sweat in case of fluxes of the belly or want of rest Or Take an Egge and make an hole in the top of it take out the white and yolk fill the shell with the weight of two French Crowns of Saffron roast the said Egge thus filled with Saffron under the embers until the shell waxe yellow then take it from the fire and beat the shell and Saffron in a Morter with half a spoonful of Mustard-seed Take of this powder a French Crown weight and as soon as you suspect your self Infected dissolve it into ten spoonfuls of posset Ale and drink it Luke-warm then go to bed and provoke your self to sweating Or Take one dram of the Electuarium de Ovo Or Take five or six handful of Sorrel that groweth in the field or a greater quantity according as you will distill more or lesse of the water thereof and let it lye steeped in good Vinegar four and twenty hours then take it off and dry it with a Linnen cloath and put it into a Limbeck and distill the water thereof and as soon as you finde your self touched with the sickness drink four spoonfuls of the said water with a little Sugar and if you bee able walk upon it till you sweat if not keep your bed and being well covered provoke your self to sweating Or Take of the Root Butter-burre otherwise called Pestilent-wort one ounce of the Root of great Valerian a quarter of an ounce of Sorrel an handful boil all these in a quart of water to a pinte then strain it and put thereto two spoonfuls of Vinegar two ounces of good Sugar boyl all these together till they be well mingled Let the Infected drink of this so hot as hee may suffer it a good draught and if hee chance to cast it up again let him take the same quantity streight way upon it and provoke himself to sweat Or Take Sugar of Roses four ounces Ginger two ounces Camphire an ounce make these into fine powder kept in Butts with Wine taking a dram at a time Or Take of the powder of good Bayberries the husk taken away from them before they be dryed a spoonful Let the Patient drink this well mingled in
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
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