Medicina Flagellata Part 6

That in the Year 1630, was brought to us by a Bale of Carpets from _Turkey_, of which died 1317 Persons.

That in the Year 1636, was brought over to us by a Dog from _Amsterdam_; of which died 10400 Persons.

That in the Year 1665, was brought from _Turkey_ in a Bale of Cotton to _Holland_, thence to _England_; in this great Plague died no less than 100,000 People.

And at _Ma.r.s.eilles_, in this present Year 1720, the Plague has swept away more than 70000 Persons, which was brought in Goods from _Sidon_, a fam'd and ancient City and Sea-port in _Phoenicia_, and the same which sometimes is mentioned in Holy Writ.

From the Neighbourhood of this last Contagion, the frightful Apprehensions of the People are rais'd to the greatest Height; and when every one is consulting his own Security, how to guard and preserve himself from that dreadful Enemy, nothing can come more seasonably to their Relief, than to lay before them a _Compendium_ of the best and approved Rules for their Conduct; to which End I have carefully collected, from the successful Practice of Dr. _Glisson_, Sir _Thomas Millington_, Dr. _Charlton_, and other Learned Physicians in the last Plague, with what only may be of Use from the abounding Prescripts of those who have lately published, and as this Evil is supported throughout the general Practice, it appears to be the Result of the Reasoning of some of the Learned Sons of _aesculapius_, to marshal into the Field as many Compositions as if only by their Number they might be able to pull down the Tyranny of this fatal Destroyer.

It would be a Work insuperable, and altogether foreign to the Method I have gone by, to extract all the Medicines which some Writers abound with for this End; it is our Business here chiefly to take Notice of that saving _Regimen_, that Rule of Self-governing, which proved more successful in the Preservation of the People in the late Plague, than all the abounding _Nostrums_ that have been crouded into the Practice, the which has become a due Reproach to the Faculty.

_Turpe est Doctori, quem culpa redarguit ipsum._

And it is here worthy of our first Remark, That the last Plague, in the Year 1665, as well from the late Accounts we have of that at _Ma.r.s.eilles_, the poorer Sort of People were those that mostly suffered, which can only be attributed to their mean and low Fare, whereas the most nutritive and generous Diet should be promoted, and such as generate a warm and rich Blood, Plenty of Spirits, and what easily perspires, which otherwise would be apt to ferment and generate Corruption.

Your greatest Care is, to have your Meat sweet and good, neither too moist nor flashy, having a certain Regard to such as may create an easy Digestion, and observing that roasted Meats on those Occasions should be preferred; as Beef, Mutton, Lamb, Venison, Turkey, Capon, Pullet, Chicken, Pheasant, and Partridge: But Pidgeon, and most Sort of Wild and Sea Fowl to be rejected: Salt Meats to be cautiously used; all hot, dry, and spicey Seasonings to be avoided; most Pickles and rich Sauces to be encouraged, with the often Use of Garlick, Onion, and Shallot; the cool, acid, and acrid Herbs and Roots, as Lettuce, Spinnage, Cresses, Sorrel, Endive, and Sellery; all windy Things, which are subject to Putrefaction, to be refrained, as all kind of Pulse, Cabbage, Colliflower, Sprouts, Melons, Cuc.u.mbers, _&c._ as also most Summer Fruits, excepting Mulberries, Quinces, Pomegranates, Raspers, Cherries, Currants, and Strawberries, which are of Service when moderately eat of.

All light and viscid Substances to be avoided, as Pork, most Sorts of Fish, of the latter that may be eat, are Soles, Plaise, Flounder, Trout, Gudgeon, Lobster, Cray-fish, and Shrimps, no Sort of Pond-Fish being good; and for your Sauce, fresh melted b.u.t.ter, or Oil mixed with Vinegar or Verjuice, the Juice of Sorrel, Pomegranates, Barberries, of Lemon or _Seville_ Orange, which two last are to be preferred, from their Power of resisting all Manner of Putrefaction, as well to cool the violent Heat of the Stomach, Liver, _&c._

For your Bread, to be light, and rather stale than new, not to drink much of Malt Liquors, avoiding that which is greatly Hopped, or too much on the ferment, Mead and Metheglin are of excellent Use, and good Wines taken moderately are a strong Preservative, Sack especially being accounted the most Soveraign and the greatest Alexipharmick: Excess is dangerous to the most healthy Const.i.tution, which may beget Inflammations of fatal Consequence in pestilential Cases.

Let none go Home fasting, every one, as they can procure, to take something as may resist Putrefaction; some may take Garlick with Bread and b.u.t.ter, a Clove two or three, or with Rue, Sage, Sorrel, dipt in Vinegar, the Spirit of Oil of Turpentine frequently drank in small Doses is of great Use; as also to lay in steep over-Night, of Sage well bruis'd two Handfuls, of Wormwood one Handful, of Rue half a Handful, put to them in an Earthen Vessel four Quarts of Mild Beer; which in the Morning to be drank fasting.

The Custom that prevails now of drinking Coffee, Bohea-Tea, or Chocolate, with Bread and b.u.t.ter, is very good; at their going abroad 'tis proper to carry Rue, Angelica, Masterwort, Myrtle, _Scordianum_ or Water-Germander, Wormwood, Valerian or Setwal-Root, _Virginian_ Snake-Root, or Zedoary in their Hands to smell to, or of Rue one Handful stampt in a Mortar, put thereto Vinegar enough to moisten it, mix them well, then strain out the Juice, wet a Piece of Sponge or a Toast of brown Bread therein, tie it in a Bit of thin Cloth to smell to.

But there is nothing more grateful and efficacious than the volatile _Sal Armoniac_, well impregnated with the essential Oils of aromatick Ingredients, which may be procured dry, and kept in small Bottles, from a careful Distillation of the common _Sal Volatile Oleosum_.

Sometimes more foetid Substances agree better with some Persons than the more grateful Scents, of which the most useful Compositions may be made of Rue, Featherfew, _Galbanum_, _a.s.safoetida_, and the like, with the Oil of Wormwood, the Spirit or Oil drawn and dropt upon Cotton, so kept in a close Ivory Box, though with Caution to be used, the often smelling to, dilating the Pores of the Olfactory Organs, which may give greater Liberty for the pestilential Air to go along with it. A Piece of Orris Root kept in the Mouth in pa.s.sing along the Streets, or of Garlick, Orange or Lemon Peel, or Clove, are of very great Service. As also Lozenges of the following Composition, which are always profitable to be used fasting; of Citron Peel two Drams, Zedoary, Angelica, of each, prepar'd in Rose Vinegar, half a Dram, Citron Seeds, Wood of Aloes, Orris, of each two Scruples, Saffron, Cloves, Nutmeg, one Scruple, Myrrh, Ambergrease, of each six Grains, Sugarcandy one Ounce; make into Lozenges with Gum Traganth and Rose-water.

I know not indeed a greater Neglect than not keeping the Body clean, and the keeping at a distance any thing superfluous and offensive, to keep the House airy and fresh, and moderately cool, and to strew it with Herbs, Rushes, and Boughs, which yield refreshing Scents, and contribute much to the purifying of the Air, and resisting the Infection; of this kind all Sorts of Rushes and Water Flags, Mint, Balm, Camomil Gra.s.s, Hyssop, Thyme, Pennyroyal, Rue, Wormwood, Southernwood, Tansy, Costmary, Lime-tree, Oak, Beech, Walnut, Poplar, Ash, Willow, _&c._ A frequent Change of Clothes, and a careful drying or airing them abroad, with whisking and cleaning of them from all Manner of Filth and Dust, which may harbour Infection, as it is likewise to keep the Windows open at Sun-Rise till the Setting, especially to the North and East, for the cold Blasts from those Quarters temper the Malignity of pestilential Airs.

Preservative Fumigations are largely talked of by all on those Occasions, and they with good Reason deserve to be practised. And of the great Number of Aromatick Roots and Woods, I should chiefly prefer Storax, Benjamin, Frankinsense, Myrrh, and Amber, the Wood of Juniper, Cypress and Cedar, the Leaves of Bays and Rosemary, and the Smell of Tarr and Pitch is no ways inferior to any of the rest, where its Scent is not particularly offensive, observing the burning of any or more of those Ingredients at such proper Distances of Time from each other, that the Air may always be sensibly impregnated therewith.

Amongst the Simples of the Vegitable Kind, _Virginian_ Snake-Root cannot be too much admired, and is deservedly accounted the most Diaph.o.r.etick and Alexipharmick for expelling the pestilential Poison; its Dose, finely powder'd, is from four or six Grains to two Scruples, in a proper Vehicle; due Regard being had to the Strength and Age of the Patient.

The next is generally given to the Contrayerva Root, (from which also a Compound Medicine is admirably contrived, and made famous by its Success in the last Plague;) the Dose of this in fine Powder is from one Scruple to a Dram, in Angelica or Scordium Water, or in Wine, _&c._

There are other Roots likewise of which many valuable Compounds are form'd in order to effect that with an united Force which they could not do singly; in this Cla.s.s are the Roots of Angelica, Scorzonera, b.u.t.terbur, Masterwort, Tormentil, Zedoary, Garlick, Elicampane, Valerian, Birthwort, Gentian, Bitany, and many others, which may be found in other Writings.

Ginger, whether in the Root, powder'd, and candy'd deserve our Regard; for it is very powerful both to raise a breathing Sweat and defend the Spirits against the pestilential Impression.

From these Roots may be made Extracts, either with Spirit of Wine or Vinegar, for it is agreed by all, that the most subtil Particles collected together, and divested of their grosser and unprofitable Parts, become more efficacious in Medicinal Cases.

The Leaves of Vegetables most us'd in Practice are Scordiam, Rue, Sage, Veronica, the lesser Cataury, Scabious, Pimpinel, Marygolds, and Baum, from which, on Occasion, several _Formulae_ are contrived.

Good Vehicles to wash down and to facilitate the taking of many other Medicines, should be made of the Waters distilled from those Herbs while they are fresh and fragrant (having not yet lost their volatile Salt) for those which are commonly kept in the Shop, are insipid and of little Use.

_FINIS._

Footnotes:

[1] _An_ aegyptian, _and the first Inventor of Physick_;

[2] _The Son of_ Apollo, _begotten upon_ Coronis, _the Daughter of_ Phlegia.

[3] _The two eldest Daughters of_ aesculapius.

[4] _See_ _Hodges of the Plague_, _reprinted_ per Qincey, p. 19.

[5] _Vid._ Gockelius de peste, p. 25.

[6] _Vid._ Gockelius de peste, p. 25.

[7] Lib. 1. de differ. Feb. Cap. 3. & de cibis mali & boni succi.

[8] Lib. 6. Obser. 9. 26.

[9] _Liomologia_, p. 32, 33, 34, 35, 37, 42, 44, 52, 53, 54, 75.

[10] _Short Discourse_, p. 11, 17.

[11] _Different Causes_, p. 266.

[12] _Plague_, Ma.r.s.eilles, p. 17, 30, 31, 36, 41.

[13] Hodges'_s Limologia_, p. 64.

[14] Hodges'_s Limilogia_, p. 32.

[15] _Short Discourse_, p. 16.

[16] _Short Discourse_, p. 10.

[17] _Plague_, Ma.r.s.eilles, p. 31, 32, 33.

[18] _Loimologia_, p. 20.

[19] _Short Discourse_, p. 46.

[20] _Liomologia Causes and Cures_, p. 281.

[21] _Plague_, Ma.r.s.eilles, p. 9.

[22] _Short Discourse_, p, 46.