Loimologia: Or, an Historical Account of the Plague in London in 1665 Part 1

Loimologia: Or, an Historical Account of the Plague in London in 1665.

by Nathaniel Hodges and John Quincy.

PREFACE.

_IT may be needless to acquaint the +Reader+ why the following +Sheets+ are published at this Time, we being all but too justly apprised of the Danger there may be, of wanting those Helps, which are here intended to be supplied, as far as such Means as these can do it._

_THE +Treatise+ of Dr. +Hodges+ contains the best Account of the late Visitation by a +Plague+ here in +England+, of any hitherto extant; and though some Readers may indeed observe, that the Enthusiastick Strain of the preceeding Times very much hurts his Style and Perspicuity; such an Influence had the Spirit of Delusion even over Matters of Science: However, the most affected Peculiarities and Luxuriancies of that kind are here avoided._

_WHAT is hereunto added, hath been partly extracted from Papers wrote some Years ago, and partly put together since our present Apprehensions from Abroad. The Enumeration of so many Causes of a Pestilence, or like Changes, as have no Relation to the present Case, may to some perhaps seem superfluous; but my Design hereby, was only the better to inculcate a right Understanding of a +Contagion+, which is the last Consequence, and highest Degree of Aggravation they are capable of rising to; and gradually to lead Persons, not well accustomed to such Matters, from the more obvious, to the more secret Means of bringing such terrible Changes into our Const.i.tutions._

_WHAT relates to such precautionary Means for our Security against the present Infection now Abroad, as concern the Magistrate, I have presumed to say but very little to; because I understand such Instructions are now waited for from a very great and able Physician: But, with Submission to the wisest, I cannot but repeat it here again, that no humane Means seems more absolutely necessary, than to remove the Infected immediately upon their Seizure, out of all great Towns, and provide for their due Support in all Things, in open Country Places; for the Distemper becomes not infectious till some Time after Seizure._

_AS for what every Person may do for his private Safety, I have given several additional Hints, either fuller or plainer than Dr. +Hodges+ hath done. And because his Antidotes and precautionary Medicines are now obsolete, and not by much so elegant or easie to be procured, as the present Practice and Shops do supply, I have added some +Formulae+, to be complied with, or altered, as different Exigencies, and better Judges may think fit._

_IF the Reader should be curious enough to note any Incorrectnesses of Style, or Typographical Errors, he is desired to excuse them, from the great Hurry which these Sheets pa.s.sed through the Press in, although there hath been as much Care taken to prevent either, as so much Hast with which they were called for would admit of._

[Ill.u.s.tration]

SECTION I.

Of the Rise and Progress of the late_

PLAGUE.

THE Plague which we are now to give an Account of, discovered the Beginnings of its future Cruelties, about the Close of the Year 1664; for at that Season two or three Persons died suddenly in one Family at _Westminster_, attended with like Symptoms, that manifestly declared their Origin: Hereupon some timorous Neighbours, under Apprehensions of a Contagion, removed into the City of _London_, who unfortunately carried along with them the pestilential Taint; whereby that Disease, which was before in its Infancy, in a Family or two, suddenly got Strength, and spread Abroad its fatal Poisons; and meerly for Want of confining the Persons first seized with it, the whole City was in a little Time irrecoverably infected. Not unlike what happened the Year following, when a small Spark, from an unknown Cause, for Want of timely Care, increased to such a Flame, that neither the Tears of the People, nor the Profusion of their _Thames_, could extinguish; and which laid Wast the greatest Part of the City in three Days Time: And therefore as there happens to be no great Difference between these two grievous Calamities, this Mention of them together may not be improper; and the more especially, because by a like irresistable Fate from a Fever and a Conflagration, both the Inhabitants and their Houses were reduc'd to Ashes.

BUT as soon as it was rumoured amongst the common People, who are always enough astonished at any Thing new, that the Plague was in the City, it is impossible to relate what Accounts were spread of its Fatality, and well were it, had not the Presages been so ominous; every one predicted its future Devastations, and they terrified each other with Remembrances of a former Pestilence; for it was a received Notion amongst the common People, that the Plague visited _England_ once in Twenty Years; as if after a certain Interval, by some inevitable Necessity, it must return again. But although this Conceit, how well soever justify'd by past Experiences, did not so much obtain with Persons of more Judgment, yet this may be affirmed, that it greatly contributed, amongst the Populace, both to propagate and inflame the Contagion, by the strong Impressions it made upon their Minds.

AND these frightful Apprehensions were not a little increased by the Predictions of Astrologers, from the Conjunctions of Stars, and the Appearances of Comets; for although but little Regard was given to such Things by Persons of Thought, yet Experience daily shewed, what Influence they had with the meaner Sort, whose Spirits being manifestly sunk by such Fears, rendered their Const.i.tutions less able to resist the Contagion.

Whosoever duly considers it, can never imagine that this Pestilence had its Origin from any Conjunction of _Saturn_ and _Jupiter_, in _Sagitarius_ on the Tenth of _October_, or from a Conjunction of _Saturn_ and _Mars_ in the same Sign on the Twelfth of _November_, which was the common Opinion; for all the Good that happens during the like Conjunctions is a.s.signable to the same Causes.

THE like Judgment is to be made of Comets, how terrible soever they may be in their Aspects, and whether they are produced in the higher Regions from a Conglomeration of many Stars, and returning at certain Periods; or whether they are lower, and the Production of sulphureous Exhalations, kindled in our own Atmosphere; For there is nothing strange in the Accension of heterogeneous Particles into a Flame, upon their rapid Occursions and Collisions against each other, howsoever terrible the Tracks of such Light may be circ.u.mstanced. The People therefore were frightned without Reason at such Things, and the Mischief was much more in the Predictions of the Star-Gazers, than in the Stars themselves: Nothing could however conquer these sad Impressions, so powerful were they amongst the Populace, who antic.i.p.ated their unhappy Fate with their Fears, and precipitated their own Destruction.

BUT to pa.s.s by Things of less Moment, it is to be taken Notice, that a very hard Frost set in on _December_, which continued three Months, and seemed greatly to deaden the Contagion, and very few died during that Season; although even then it was not extinguished, for in the Middle of _Christmas_ Holy-days, I was called to a Young-Man in a Fever, who after two Days Course of alexiterial Medicines, had two Risings about the Bigness of a Nutmeg broke out, one on each Thigh; upon Examination of which, I soon discovered the Malignity, both from their black Hue, and the Circle round them, and p.r.o.nounced it to be the Plague; in which Opinion I was afterwards confirmed by subsequent Symptoms, although by G.o.d's Blessing the Patient recovered.

THIS Case I insert, both to shew that this Season did not wholly destroy the Distemper, although it greatly restrained it; but upon the Frost breaking, the Contagion got Ground, and gradually got out of its Confinements; like a Flame that for some Time seems smother'd, and suddenly breaks out with aggravated Fury.

AS soon as the Magistracy, to whom belonged the publick Care, saw how the Contagion daily increased, and had now extended it self to several Parishes, an Order was immediately issued out to shut up all the infected Houses, that neither Relations nor Acquaintance might unwarily receive it from them, and to keep the infected from carrying it about with them.

BUT whether this Method proved of Service or not, is to this Day doubtful, and much disputed; but it is my Business here however to adhere to Facts, and relate the Arguments on both Sides with all possible Impartiality.

IN Order whereunto, it is to be observ'd, that a Law was made for marking the Houses of infected Persons with a Red Cross, having with it this Subscription, LORD HAVE MERCY UPON US: And that a Guard should there continually attend, both to hand to the Sick the Necessaries of Food and Medicine, and to restrain them from coming Abroad until Forty Days after their Recovery. But although the _Lord Mayor_ and all inferior Officers readily and effectually put these Orders in Execution, yet it was to no Purpose, for the Plague more and more increased; and the Consternation of those who were thus separated from all Society, unless with the infected, was inexpressible; and the dismal Apprehensions it laid them under, made them but an easier Prey to the devouring Enemy. And this Seclusion was on this Account much the more intolerable, that if a fresh Person was seized in the same House but a Day before another had finished the Quarentine, it was to be performed over again; which occasion'd such tedious Confinements of sick and well together, that sometimes caused the Loss of the whole.

BUT what greatly contributed to the Loss of People thus shut up, was the wicked Practices of Nurses (for they are not to be mention'd but in the most bitter Terms): These Wretches, out of Greediness to plunder the Dead, would strangle their Patients, and charge it to the Distemper in their Throats; others would secretly convey the pestilential Taint from Sores of the infected to those who were well; and nothing indeed deterred these abandoned Miscreants from prosecuting their avaritious Purposes by all the Methods their Wickedness could invent; who, although they were without Witnesses to accuse them, yet it is not doubted but divine Vengeance will overtake such wicked Barbarities with due Punishment: Nay, some were remarkably struck from Heaven in the Perpetration of their Crimes, and one particularly amongst many, as she was leaving the House of a Family, all dead, loaded with her Robberies, fell down dead under her Burden in the Streets: And the Case of a worthy Citizen was very remarkable, who being suspected dying by his Nurse, was before-hand stripped by her; but recovering again, he came a second Time into the World naked. And so many were the Artifices of these barbarous Wretches, that it is to be hoped, Posterity will take Warning how they trust them again in like Cases; and that their past Impunities will not be a Means of bringing on us again the like Judgment.

MOREOVER, this shutting up infected Houses, made the Neighbours fly from theirs, who otherwise might have been a Help to them on many Accounts; and I verily believe that many who were lost might have now been alive, had not the tragical Mark upon their Door drove proper a.s.sistances from them.

AND this is confirmed by the Examples of other pestilential Contagions, which have been observed not to cease, until the Doors of the Sick were let open, and they had the Privilege of going Abroad; of the same Authority is the Custom of other Nations, who have due Regard to that Liberty that is necessary for the Comforts both of Body and Mind.

IT now remains that we take Notice of all that is of any Weight on the other Side; as therefore it is not at all deemed cruel to take off a mortify'd Limb to save the whole, by a Parity of Reason is the Conduct of a Community justifyable, who, out of a Regard to the Publick Good, put Hards.h.i.+ps upon particular Persons; in a pestilential Contagion therefore, what can be of more immediate Service than securing those that are well from the Infection? And the more especially in a Disease that reaches not only the Body, but taints the very Breath; for in this Case the infected Breath poisons upon the healthful, and even at the Point of Death endeavours to diffuse that Venom to others that conquer'd them. From this delirious Pleasure arises those Tricks of transplanting the Corruption of a pestilential Tumour to another; not to say any Thing of that Woman, who with her Importunities drew her unhappy Husband into her Embraces, which ended his Life with hers.

AGAIN, to take away all Doubtings in this Case, I am not ignorant of what Moment it is, to shut up the Houses of all those who are infected, according to Custom; for by this means a Contagion may at first be stifled, which otherwise would go beyond any Remedy; and with equal Advantage might Gun-Powder be fired, if too much Time is not wasted in Deliberation, before these Things are put into Practice.

BUT if hereafter again a Plague should break out, (which G.o.d forbid) with Submission to Superiors, I should think it not improper to appoint proper Accommodations out of the City, for such as are yet untouched in infected Families; and who should continue there for a certain Time; the Sick in the mean time to be removed to convenient Apartments provided on Purpose for them: For by this Means, that Practice so abhorrent to Religion and Humanity, even in the Opinion of a _Mahometan_, of shutting up the sick and well together, would be avoided.

BUT to return: The Infection had long doubtfully reign'd, and continued through _May_ and _June_, with more or less Severity; sometimes raging in one Part, and then in another, as in a running sort of Fight; as often as the Number of Funerals decreased, great Hopes were conceived of its Disappearance; then on a sudden again their Increase threw all into Dejection, as if the whole City was soon to be unpeopled; which Uncertainty gave Advantage to the Distemper; because Persons were more remiss in their Provisions against it, during such Fluctuation.

IT must not however be omitted, with what Precipitation the trembling Inhabitants left the City, and how they flocked in such Crowds out of Town, as if _London_ had quite gone out of it self, like the Hurry of a sudden Conflagration, all Doors and Pa.s.sages are thronged for Escape: Yet after the chief of the People were fled, and thereby the Nourishment of this cruel Enemy had been in a great Measure taken away, yet it raged still; and although it seemed once to slay as _Parthians_ in their Flight, it soon returned with redoubled Fury, and kill'd not by slow Paces, but almost immediately upon Seizure; not unlike what is often seen in Battle, when after some Skirmishes of Wings, and separate Parties, the main Bodies come to engage; so did this Contagion at first only scatter about its Arrows, but at last covered the whole City with Death.

THUS therefore in the s.p.a.ce of one Week were eighty Persons cut off, and when Things came to Extremity, all Helps were called in; so it began now to be solely the Magistrates Business, how to put a Stop to this cruel Devastation, and save some Part of the City at last from the Grave; first then therefore were appointed a Monthly Fast for Publick Prayers, to deprecate the Anger of Heaven; nor proved it in vain, or were their Supplications altogether fruitless; for if we have any Regard to the Temperature of the Season, the whole Summer was refreshed with moderate Breezes, sufficient to prevent the Air's Stagnation and Corruption, and to carry off the pestilential Steams; the Heat was likewise too mild to encourage such Corruption and Fermentation, as helps to taint the animal Fluids, and pervert them from their natural State.

THE Government however, to the Duty of Publick Prayers, neglected not to add what a.s.sistances might be had from Medicine; to which Purpose his Majesty, with the divine Helps, called in also all that was humane; and by his Royal Authority commanded the College of Physicians of _London_, jointly to write somewhat in _English_ that might be a general Directory in this calamitous Exigence: Nor was it satisfactory to that honoured Society to discharge their Regards for the Publick with that only, but some were chose out of their Number, and appointed particularly to attend the infected on all Occasions; two also out of the Court of Aldermen were required to see this hazardous Task executed; so that encouraged with all proper Means, this Province was chearfully undertaken, and all possible Caution was used fully to answer the Intention; but this Task was too much for four Persons, and wanted rather the Concurrence of the whole Faculty; we were however ashamed to give it up, and used our utmost Application therein; but all our Care and Pains were eluded, for the Disease, like the _Hydra_'s Heads, was no sooner extinguished in one Family, but it broke out in many more with Aggravations; so that in a little Time we found our Task too great, and despaired of putting an entire Stop to the Infection.

NOR was there at this Time wanting the Help of very great and worthy Persons, who voluntarily contributed their a.s.sistances in this dangerous Work; amongst the Number of which, the learned Dr. _Glisson, Regius +Professor at+ Cambridge_, Dr. _Nath. Paget_, Dr. _Wharton_, Dr.

_Berwick_, Dr. _Brookes_, and many others who are yet alive, deserve very honourable Mention; but eight or nine fell in this Work, who were too much loaded with the Spoils of the Enemy; and amongst whom was Dr. _Conyers_, whose Goodness and Humanity claim an honourable Remembrance with all who survive him.

AFTER then all Endeavours to restrain the Contagion proved of no Effect, we applied our selves altogether to the Care of the diseased; and in the Prosecution of which, it may be affirmed without Boasting, no Hazards to our selves were avoided: But it is incredible to think how the Plague raged amongst the common People, insomuch that it came by some to be called the _Poors Plague_; yet although the more opulent had left the Town, and that it was almost left uninhabited, the Commonalty that were left felt little of Want; for their Necessities were relieved with a Profusion of good Things from the Wealthy, and their Poverty was supported with Plenty; a more manifest Cause therefore for such a Devastation amongst them I shall a.s.sign in another Place.

IN the Months of _August_ and _September_, the Contagion chang'd its former slow and languid Pace, and having as it were got Master of all, made a most terrible Slaughter, so that three, four, or five Thousand died in a Week, and once eight Thousand; who can express the Calamities of such Times? The whole _British_ Nation wept for the Miseries of her Metropolis.

In some Houses Carcases lay waiting for Burial, and in others, Persons in their last Agonies; in one Room might be heard dying Groans, in another the Ravings of a Delirium, and not far off Relations and Friends bewailing both their Loss, and the dismal Prospect of their own sudden Departure: Death was the sure Midwife to all Children, and Infants pa.s.sed immediately from the Womb to the Grave; who would not burst with Grief, to see the Stock for a future Generation hang upon the b.r.e.a.s.t.s of a dead Mother? Or the Marriage-Bed changed the first Night into a Sepulchre, and the unhappy Pair meet with Death in their first Embraces? Some of the infected run about staggering like drunken Men, and fall and expire in the Streets; while others lie half-dead and comatous, but never to be waked but by the last Trumpet, some lie vomiting as if they had drunk Poison; and others fall dead in the Market, while they are buying Necessaries for the Support of Life. Not much unlike was it in the following Conflagration; where the Altars themselves became so many Victims, and the finest Churches in the whole World carried up to Heaven Supplications in Flames, while their Marble Pillars wet with Tears melted like Wax; nor were Monuments secure from the inexorable Flames, where many of their venerable Remains pa.s.sed a second Martyrdom; the most august Palaces were soon laid Waste, and the Flames seemed to be in a fatal Engagement to destroy the great Ornament of Commerce; and the Burning of all the Commodities of the World together, seemed a proper Epitome of this Conflagration; neither confederate Crowns, nor the drawn Swords of Kings, could restrain its Phanatick and Rebellious Rage; large Halls, stately Houses, and the Sheds of the Poor, were together reduced to Ashes; the Sun blush'd to see himself set, and envied those Flames the Government of the Night, which had rivalled him so many Days; as the City, I say, was afterwards burnt without any Distinction, in like Manner did this Plague spare no Order, Age, or s.e.x; The Divine was taken in the very Exercise of his priestly Office, to be inrolled amongst the Saints Above; and some Physicians, as before intimated, could not find a.s.sistance in their own Antidotes, but died in the Administration of them to others; and although the Soldiery retreated from the Field of Death, and encamped out of the City, the Contagion followed, and vanquish'd them; many in their old Age, others in their Prime, sunk under its Cruelties; of the Female s.e.x most died; and hardly any Children escaped; and it was not uncommon to see an Inheritance pa.s.s successively to three or four Heirs in as many Days; the Number of s.e.xtons were not sufficient to bury the Dead; the Bells seemed hoa.r.s.e with continual tolling, until at last they quite ceased; the burying Places would not hold the Dead, but they were thrown into large Pits dug in waste Grounds, in Heaps, thirty or forty together; and it often happened that those who attended the Funerals of their Friends one Evening, were carried the next to their own long Home:

-------- _Quis talia fundo Temperet a Lachrymis?_ --------

Even the Relation of this Calamity melts me into Tears, and yet the worst was not certain, although the City was near drained by her Funerals; for the Disease as yet had no Relaxation.

ABOUT the Beginning of _September_, the Disease was at the Height; in the Course of which Month more than twelve Thousand died in a Week: But at length, that nothing might go untried to divert the Contagion, it was ordered by the Governours who were left to superintend those calamitous Affairs, (for the Court was then removed to _Oxford_) to burn Fires in the Streets for three Days together; yet while this was in Debate, the Physicians concerned were diffident of the Success, as the Air in it self was un-infected; and therefore rendred such a showy and expensive a Project superfluous, and of no Effect; and these Conjectures we supported by the Authority of Antiquity, and _Hippocrates_ himself; notwithstanding which, the Fires were kindled in all the Streets. But alas! the Controversie was soon decided; for before the three Days were quite expired, the Heavens both mourned so many Funerals, and wept for the fatal Mistake, so as to extinguish even the Fires with their Showers. I shall not determine any other Person's Conjecture in this Case, whether these Fires may more properly be deemed the ominous Forerunners of the ensuing Conflagration, or the ensuing Funerals; but whether it was from the suffocating Qualities of the Fuel, or the wet Const.i.tution of Air that immediately followed, the most fatal Night ensued, wherein more than four Thousand expired. May Posterity by this Mistake be warned, and not, like Empyricks, apply a Remedy where they are ignorant of the Cause.

THE Reader is by the Way to be advertised, that this Year was luxuriant in most Fruits, especially Cherries and Grapes, which were at so low a Price, that the common People surfeited with them; for this might very much contribute to that Disposition of Body as made the pestilential Taint more easily take Place.

NOR ought we here to pa.s.s by the benificent a.s.sistances of the Rich, and the Care of the Magistrates; for the Markets being open as usual, and a greater Plenty of all Provisions, was a great Help to support the Sick; so that there was the Reverse of a Famine, which hath been observed to be so fatal to pestilential Contagions; and in this the Goodness of Heaven is always to be remembred, in alleviating a common Misery by such a Profusion of good Things from the Stores of Nature.

BUT as it were to balance this immediate Help of Providence, nothing was otherwise wanting to aggravate the common Destruction; and to which nothing more contributed than the Practice of Chymists and Quacks, and of whose Audacity and Ignorance it is impossible to be altogether silent; they were indefatigable in spreading their Antidotes; and although equal Strangers to all Learning as well as Physick, they thrust into every Hand some Trash or other under the Disguise of a pompous t.i.tle. No Country sure ever abounded with such wicked Impostors; for all Events contradicted their Pretensions, and hardly a Person escaped that trusted to their Delusions: Their Medicines were more fatal than the Plague, and added to the Numbers of the Dead: But these Blowers of the pestilential Flames were caught in the common Ruin, and by their Death in some Measure excused the Neglect of the Magistracy, in suffering their Practice:

------ _Nec Lex est justior ulla Quam necis Artifices Arte perire sua._

ABOUT this Time a Person of Distinction and great Humanity, going to _France_ upon some Affairs of State, heard that some _Frenchmen_ were Masters of an Antipestilential Remedy, and took Care to send some Doses of it over here: By Command of the Government we were ordered to try it with due Caution, which we did with Expectations of uncommon Success, but _the Mountain brought forth Death_; for the Medicine, which was a Mineral Preparation, threw the Patients into their last Sleep. May it never hereafter be injoined to try Experiments with unknown and foreign Medicines, upon the Lives even of the meanest Persons! For certainly nothing is more abhorrent to Reason, than to impose a universal Remedy, in Cases whose curative Intentions are different, and sometimes opposite; and the various Indications of a Pestilence require very different Methods of Remedy, as shall hereafter be further demonstrated.

TO this may be added, that many common Medicines were publickly Sold, which by their extraordinary Heat and Disposition to inflame the Blood, could never be fit for every Age, s.e.x, and Const.i.tution indifferently, and therefore in many Cases must undoubtedly do Harm. On this Account not only the _Sacred Art_, but the _Publick Health_ also suffered; yet we who were particularly employed in this Affair as Physicians, used all Sollicitations with the Magistracy to restrain such Practices, in Order to stop the Ruin they aggravated. Hence notwithstanding it was made a Question, whether in a Plague, where so many Physicians retire, (not so much for their own Preservation, as the Service of those whom they attend) it is not expedient for every one, according to his Abilities, to do his utmost in averting the common Ruin? In the same Manner as in a Fire all Hands are required, even of the Croud as well as Workmen, to extinguish it.

BUT in this Case my own Opinion is determined: In the Restauration of Health, a Person must proceed with more Caution and Deliberation than in the supposed Case of a Fire; for there are Difficulties occur in the Practice of Medicine which are insuperable but by the unlearned; and the fine Texture of a humane Body is not to be managed by as clumsie Hands as the Materials of a House; in the former, if a Person makes a Mistake, it is with great Difficulty repaired; and therefore upon a serious Consideration of the whole Affair, I cannot make any Doubt, but that it is much better even to want Physicians in such Calamities, than to have the Sick under the Care and Management of the unlearned; for such Persons, like those who fight blindfold, know not in what Parts to attack the Enemy, nor with what Weapons to do it; besides which, they also are in Hazard of obstructing these Efforts of Nature, which would many Times, without Help, if not thus hindred, get the better of the Distemper.