Loimologia: Or, an Historical Account of the Plague in London in 1665 Part 2

_FOURTHLY_, A due Stay of this _Seminium_; of all which distinctly.

THE Quant.i.ty of Necessaries daily taken in for Refreshment does evidently demonstrate, that insensible Perspiration is much larger than all other Evacuations together: But where a Pestilence invades, a yet much greater Wast is made that Way than in a Time of Health, by the intestine Colluctation and Struggle of opposite Principles in the animal Fluids; this is confirmed by the Observation of _Sanctorius_, who tells us, that Persons taken with a pestilential Contagion, immediately become much lighter, the _Effluvia_ of their Bodies breaking through on all Sides with Rapidity; for such is the Energy of the pestilential Taint, that it immediately subtilizes more thick Substances, and gives them such a Sharpness, as to cut their Way like so many Needles, or Wedges, and very often carry along with them those natural Spirits which should be a Preservative to the whole Frame: Hence sometimes follow Swoonings and Faintings that are fatal, and Indications of that Wast of Spirits that hath been made by the pestilential Poison.

HENCE moreover it appears, of what a diffused Nature this Contagion may be of, by the great Plenty that transpires from an infected Person; and which Steam alone, as it is sufficient to communicate the Infection, so it is also capable of vast Dilatation and Diffusion; not much unlike the Snuff of a Candle, which not only emits a great deal of Smoak, but carries a considerable Stench along with it into very distant Parts.

_SECONDLY_, A fit _Medium_ is very conducive to the Propagation of the Plague; for according to the Disposition of that, in being more or less open or confined, is the Infection sooner or slower communicated: Nor is there any Doubt, but that the Air is this fit _Medium_, and whose Pores, altho' very minute, are readily filled with it; and therein the noxious _Effluvia_ lodge securely, unless expelled by any external Force.

THE Air is moreover the more convenient Recepticle and Conveyance of this pestilential Poyson, on account of that nitrous Spirit with which it abounds; hence it more easily receives the poisonous _Aura_, and faithfully preserves it as in a proper Conservatory, and on this Account the pernicious Qualities, (unless first destroyed by some uncommon Power) sooner reach any Subject to act upon, and float about in Readiness for Destruction: Sometimes also the pestilential _Miasmata_ may be broke and destroyed by the Occursion of others, without any Perception of either having been in this _Medium_.

HENCE it comes strongly to be conjectured, how the pestilential _Seminium_ comes to be hid so secretly in the Porosities of the Air, so as to be conveyed from one Country to another, and to travel unperceived into very distant Regions. Further, as this _Medium_ is more still, it is so much the more capable to receive the pestilential Infection; whereupon Places that are close, confined, and dark, as Prisons, and Houses in Vallies, are much more liable to Contagion, than Situations upon Eminencies, where the Air is frequently agitated by Winds; for the malignant _Effluvia_ cannot so well fix in an Air so tumultuously hurried about; and they are likewise rendred less hurtful by a continual Mixture of fresh Air with them.

_THIRDLY_, A suitable Disposition of the Subject is very necessary for the Reception of the pestilential Taint; and this Disposition respects either some Fitness in the Pores of the Body, or a long Acc.u.mulation of distempered Humours. The more open the Pores are, and the wider, by so much the more easily will the Infection penetrate into the Body; and the more constringed they are, the better Security is there against it, insomuch that hardly by any other Means can it enter.

A Turgescency of bad Humours greatly facilitates the Plague's Admission into any Person, whether such a morbid Const.i.tution arises from the Suppression of usual Evacuations, or from an erroneous Use of the Non-naturals; and most of all, a Load of bad Humours from an Excess or a Surfeit, leaves so great a Similitude to the pestilential Poison, as greatly to encourage its Admission. But besides these Dispositions of the Subject, it is much to the Purpose to suggest this following Observation, that the Plague is sometimes so much hereditary, and influenced by a seminal Taint, that in a common Contagion it shall much exert it self in some in the same Manner upon Children, as their Parents, as in the _Small-Pox_, and other Affections of like Nature.

_FOURTHLY_, It is necessary that there should be a continual Lodgment of the pestilential Poison; for if the noxious Steams were blown away as soon as received, there would be but little Mischief done; but those which meet with any glutinous Matter, and a certain _Lentor_ from the Viscidity of the Humours, with which they lie entangled, until they are carried through the larger Vessels with the Blood, begin to fuse and taint all the animal Juices; and thus the pestiferous _Miasmata_ having got Possession, are able to subvert the whole Machine, and bring all into Confusion, without requiring any long Stay to execute their pernicious Effects; for as soon as they once find a viscid and tenacious Substance, they eagerly join with it, and are but with great Difficulty to be extricated. Yet notwithstanding it is generally thus, I have sometimes found Instances of a longer Stay of the pestilential Poison before its Exertion, where the Symptoms of Infection have not appeared until a fit Time of Maturity for Eruption into Action, and for the Confirmation of which several Instances might be produced were it controverted; I have known many go into the Country after Intercourses with the infected, and keep well for a Month or two, when the Enemy that has lay hid so long, rushed out of its Fastnesses, and by its Fury sufficiently compensated its foregoing Delays; and this Eruption sooner might very probably have been hindred, partly by the Viscosity of the Humours entangling the pestilential _Miasmata_, and partly from an over-powerful balsamick Quality, natural to a good Blood, and to a Plenty and Vigour of animal Spirit; but as I would not be tedious upon Things so very obvious, this shall suffice concerning a Contagion.

BESIDES the Causes already recited, there may be others also worth Consideration, _viz._ the eating corrupted, or rotten Flesh; and it is not at all foreign to our Purpose here to take Notice, that on the Year before the late pestilential Sickness, there was a great Mortality amongst the Cattel, from a very wet Autumn, whereby their Carcases were sold amongst the ordinary People at a very mean Price; and a great deal of putrid Humours in all likelihood produced from thence: And this, in the Opinion of many, was the Source of our last Calamities; and many knowing Persons ascribe the Pestilence to this Origin, as the morbid Disposition which such a Feeding must needs subject the People, could not but facilitate both the Infection and Progress of that fatal Destroyer.

TO this I do not deny, but that the common People, who fed upon such a Diet even to Gluttony, might treasure up Matter enough for so deadly an Impression, and with which the Plague might naturally enough go into a Co-operation; but such Provision, although very much corrupt, and liable thereby to excite Symptoms like to those in a Pestilence; yet they were not in Plenty enough to supply the whole Market, and therefore a Cause so private and particular, could not be supposed to extend to so universal an Effect.

HENCE it is further manifest, that a corrupt Diet can do no more in giving a pestilential Impression, than a good one can in removing it; and therefore, not to dwell too long upon this Matter, it is my Opinion that such a Way of Living may raise the Humours to a Degree of Putrefaction, as brings Fevers very malignant, and causes epidemical Diseases, but not a true Pestilence.

AND the Conjecture that a Sickness amongst Cattle is transferable to the humane Species, hath not yet appeared on any good Foundation; but to remove this Difficulty, no one doubts but that a Plague amongst Cattle, from some common Cause, as a Corruption of the aerial Nitre, and which differs from a Plague amongst Men but in Degree, may also be transmitted to the humane Species; that is, a feebler Degree of Poison, and a milder _Aura_, may taint the Herbage, than that which is sufficient to destroy the firmer Const.i.tution of Animals; besides which, from the Diversity in the Pores of Brutes, and their different Const.i.tutions, and the Fort.i.tude in the Spirit of a Man, I cannot be induced to believe that the Pestilence amongst Cattle from a private Cause, can ever obtain any Dominion over Mankind. These Stories therefore have no Weight with me, that a certain Leech, upon opening an Horse, that with a great many others had died of some common Distemper, in Order to know what it was, and finding certain pestilential Tokens upon his Inwards, both the Master and the Family soon died of the Infection; which yet went no further than that Family, but expired with them.

DURING the late Plague likewise at _London_, a Citizen travelling into the Country, found his Horse of a sudden to tire and fall down, whereupon he opened his Mouth to find out if possible the Cause of so sudden a Change; when the good Man, upon Receipt of the Horse's Breath upon him, immediately grew sick, and died in two Days Time.

BUT these and the like Instances certainly tend to prove no more than that there may be Const.i.tutions and malignant Steams, which, by agitating the Ma.s.s of Humours, may excite putrid and irregular o.r.g.a.s.ms, wherein the Juices and Animal Fluids, according to the Quant.i.ty and Prevalency of the Distemperature, and the Variety of the infused Taint, with the Diversity of Putrefaction, goes into Corruption; but the forementioned Transplantation of the Plague does not happen but where there is a suitable Predisposition of Humours to admit it, as its Cause is not general.

MOREOVER, although the Intemperature of the Year, sudden Change of Air, Suppression of usual Evacuation, Diminution of Perspiration, Drunkenness, Venery, and Pa.s.sions of the Mind, especially Anger and Fear, are justly reckoned amongst the remote Causes of a Pestilence; yet they regard rather the Invasion of it, than its Origin; but of this we shall say more hereafter. As to the above-mentioned Pa.s.sions, it is almost incredible how some, at the Height of the Infection, would from a very slight Cause kindle into the utmost Rage, and rave at one another like meer Scolds, until Death parted their Contentions.

NOR does Fear or Sorrow less prepare the Way for the Infection, by deadning the Fancy and Memory, by Suffocating the Spirits, Suppressing the natural Heat, breaking the Const.i.tution, and Promoting Malignity: We have manifold Instances of this kind in Readiness; but if, as some do, we should be prolix in the Enumeration of Things that want not Proof, the Reader would be quite tired with needless Stories.

BUT now it may be convenient to add a few Remarks concerning the Translation of a Pestilence from an hot Country to a cold one; for according to the different Effects of Heat and Cold, the one attenuating and rarefying, the other condensing and constipating, the pestilential Venom is strangely altered, insomuch that in a Thing so obvious, there does not require much to be said: Every Thing of this kind prodigiously spreads in hot Climates, as being more subtile than even the Air it self; tho' the same in the Northern Countries is more restrained, and confined in Fastnesses it cannot escape from; and from hence the Reason is very obvious why there is so much Difference between the Diseases of different Climates, which would be too tedious for us here to go into.

TO come nearer therefore to our Business; the same Affections that in an hot Country heat the Blood and other Juices, so as in a great Measure to put them into Fusion, when translated into the contrary Extream may give contrary Properties to the same Fluids, and _e contra_; and this might be demonstrated by innumerable Experiments, were there any Doubt about it.

IT being then granted, that this Plague first was brought from _Africa_, or _Asia_, to _Holland_, and from thence into _Britain_, every one may easily conjecture, how much Alteration it must undergo in such a Travel, from a hot and dry Climate into a moist and cold one, not so much in its own Nature, as from the Vehicle of Air which conveyed it, and thereby producing different Degrees of Infection, and Series of Symptoms: But this Variation would be most discernable in the Complication of the pestilential _Seminium_, with the particular Diseases of each Country, and those which are as it were peculiar to them: This in our Case is very well worth Notice, for in _Holland_, where the Scurvy extreamly reigns, and therefore, for Reasons before given, most liable to a pestilential Infection, it obtained only as a more aggravated Scurvy, as shall hereafter be further remarked.

AS for that Opinion of the famous _Kircher_, about animated Worms, I must confess I never could come at any such Discovery with the Help of the best Gla.s.ses, nor ever found the same discovered by any other; but perhaps in our cloudy Island we are not so sharp-sighted as in the serene Air of _Italy_; and with Submission to so great a Name, it seems to me very disconsonant to Reason, that such a pestilential _Seminium_, which is both of a nitrous and poisonous Nature, should produce a living Creature.

AS in putrid Fevers, so in a Pestilence, Malignity is a Destroyer of Insects, and frightens them away as it were alive, so far is it from giving Birth to them; indeed in some malignant Ulcers and Cancers, and in the Blood of some People, sometimes _animalcula_ are found; which is rather to be looked upon as the Effect of some Fault in the nutritious Juice, than the Produce of any Poison; and therefore they are not to be accounted amongst the Causes of a Pestilence.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

SECTION III.

_Of the primary Seat of a Pestilence; where, by the Way, is considered the Nature of the Spirits, and their Infection in an humane Body from Poison._

IN Order to put an End to the Controversies about the Seat of a Pestilence, which have from Antiquity even to this Day been warmly maintained, many Authors putting the Heart for the Principle of Life and Death, some the Brain, and others the Stomach, Lungs, or Liver: It will be necessary here to discover the immediate Residence of the pestilential _Seminium_. Since therefore the above-mentioned _Aura_, according to Hypothesis, is very subtile and spirituous, for that Reason there must necessarily be some conformable Property in the Matter which is fit to receive it; as therefore there is not in the whole humane Machine any Subject more apposite, and capable of its Union, than the animal Spirits, we must fix its Residence there. But because I am sensible what Objections this Opinion lies open to, with some Persons, who may not conceive how an immediate Infection of the Spirits is communicable to the Viscera, and all Parts of the Body, it will be necessary to go thro' this Matter in a very particular Manner, by enquiring;

_FIRST_, What are the Spirits concerning which we are here speaking?

_SECONDLY_, What is that Disposition of Spirits which makes them fit to receive the pestilential Impression? And,

_THIRDLY_, After what Manner the vitiated Spirits can affect the whole Body with Disorders?

TO this Purpose we must know, that the Spirits are the most thin and subtile Particles of the Aliment and other Juices, raised to the utmost Perfection and Volatility by the innate Heat, and the nitro-aerial Spirit, to serve in the Operations of the Mind, and all the Purposes of the animal OEconomy.

THE Matter whence the Spirits are generated is the Chyle, and their Restauration, Confirmation, and Vigour, from the Recruits of Food, as is their Languor, Prostration, and utter Extinction from the Want of it; so that howsoever they were first generated in the original, they owe their Conservation and Vitality to the Nourishment continually brought in; and although in a State of perfect Health _they_ are never changed by _that_, yet they continually act upon that after various Ways, bringing it from a crude, recrementicious State, into a n.o.ble Juice, or rich spiritual Balsam, retaining its ideal Character: And hence it comes about, that although there is a daily Waste of Spirits, there is no Want, because Nature is continually, while Things are in Health, making more; insomuch that after a due Const.i.tution of Spirits is obtained, they of themselves are the main Efficients in making more, as one Light is kindled by another, and as the Blood it self is the chief Instrument in Sanguification, or making more Blood.

IT is a Matter indeed of much more Difficulty to determine, how Particles from a gross Origin, should be raised to so great Volatility and Fineness; but this is very certain, that when they are elaborated in the most perfect Manner, they exceed even the Light and Activity of the Sun-Beams; and the brighter and more active they are, the better do they perform their Offices in the OEconomy, as from their Efficiency is procured a State of Health and Vigour both in Body and Mind.

IT is of no great Moment to enquire, what Quant.i.ty of Spirit is necessary for the Conservation and Support of an humane Body, so that we do but know they partake of the Source from whence they are generated, insomuch that they are more or less perfect, according to the greater or lesser Degree of Purity in their productive Juices.

BUT I must here acknowledge my self diffident in that Opinion of the Spirits being prepared of a different Nature for particular Parts, for according to the Influences of the Mind, and the Contiguity, Rect.i.tude, or Consent of the Vessels, they are by a voluntary Act determined the same into this or that Limb or Part: Which is manifest enough in the p.r.i.c.k of a Needle, or a venomous Bite, from the great Affluence of Spirits to that Part; I have therefore no Notion of a continued Emanation of Spirits, but that on such Occasions they are called, by the Sensation upon the affected Part, from the nervous Origin where they are elaborated.

_SECONDLY_, It sometimes happens that the Spirits degenerate from their native Purity, as also at others that they prove abortive, in not arriving to their utmost Maturity, whereby they lie more open to foreign Impressions of Distemperature.

BUT when the juices, or common Promptuary from whence the Spirits are generated, is not uniform, genuine, and perfect in kind, it is impossible that Spirits should be made from it in any tolerable Perfection; for one may as well pretend to wash a Brick, or draw clear Water from a foul Spring, as expect pure and natural Spirits from a corrupt and vitiated Chyle; although even when the Chyle is in right Order, there may various Errors happen in the Generation of Spirits, as from too great an Heat agitating the Blood in a preternatural Manner, or from an imperfect or unequal Separation of Particles, or from too much Cold causing an Intermixture of Crudities; and again, although the Spirits are duly elaborated, yet they may run into irregular Motions, and be the Occasion of many Disorders: But what is most to the Purpose, they may sometimes also receive a Taint from external Impressions.

AND this Apt.i.tude, or Propensity of the Spirits to receive a pestilential Taint, is manifest from their fiery, or rather saline Nature, for on Account of that Subtilty which they acquire thereby, do they more naturally attract the contagious _Aura_, than Bodies more gross and heavy: For as these Spirits, as before observed, are nitrous, and inflammable, by their Similitude to a pestilential _Aura_, they not only are fitted to receive, but even attract it, and provoke it into Union; as the Snuff of a Candle just blown out, if it is not too far off, will by an Affinity of Qualities be soon rekindled by another lighted one at some Distance; and how much soever the poisonous Qualities of the pestilential _Effluvia_ may be destructive of the animal Spirits, yet there is nothing more certain, than that their Taint is very easily impressed upon them.

AFTER the pestilential Poison is thus received by the Spirits, it is impossible to express the fatal Consequences, and the cruel Havock that is made in the whole OEconomy; for the same Instruments which before were aery, lucid, and like the Rays of the Sun, immediately become vapid, dark, and useless, neither able to invigorate the Const.i.tution, nor defend it against the Contagion.

_THIRDLY_, Having briefly pa.s.sed over these Matters, it remains that we shew by what Steps the humane Frame comes to be disordered by this pestilential Invasion; and in Order to this, I know not a more fatal Circ.u.mstance in Nature than to have the very Guards and tutelary Preservers of Life, turn, as it were, Deserters and Betrayers. For there is nothing more manifest, than that the whole Compage, and its several Parts, run into Decay as soon as the pestilential Taint takes Place; for immediately upon the first Seizure, the whole Effort of Nature, as at _Rome_ when _Hannibal_ was at their Gates, is recollected against the Enemy, as sensible that all is at Stake, but being unequal to the Conflict, they retreat, and are taken Prisoners, leaving the whole Body defenceless. Hence the Infection runs through all the Blood, whereby the Heart and Lungs are princ.i.p.al Sufferers. Hence such a Corruption of the nutritive Fluids, that the whole nervous System is disturbed, the burning Heat of the _Pancreas_ produces the most extream Sickness, and hence follows such a Depravation of the whole Machine, that all the vital Faculties cease to act, and Death closes the fatal Scene.

BUT I do not at all see how such a n.o.ble Part as the Heart, should be first affected by any particular specifick Quality in the Poison of a Plague, to affect that more than any other; as if it was so frightful, as some would have it, to attack the Principles of Life at once; for the Heart seems at first to be affected chiefly from the Multiplicity of Vessels, and the great Crowd of Circulation that Way, giving Opportunity for the Venom sooner to arrive thither; concerning which we shall have Occasion to say more under that Head of Symptoms.

UPON the strong, presumptive Proofs therefore that the pestilential Poison chiefly resides in the Spirits, we cannot but much admire at the Weakness of those, who expect to detect its Nature and Cause from what they can find on the Dissection of morbid Bodies, and such like Circ.u.mstances: For a very noted Person, and one of exquisite Skill in Anatomy, although he himself at last fell in the general Calamity, affirmed, that the Seat of the last Pestilence was in the extream Angles of the _Plexus Choroides_, towards the _Cerebellum_, because he had found a small Vesicle there; others have observed the Lungs to have been marked with the Tokens of Infection; others report the Heart to have been tumefied, and burnt as it were, to a Coal; whereas it is plain, that these Parts are only so many Fields of Battle, where the Spirits and the Infection contend it with each other; Nor will any one, who rightly considers these Things, wonder, that such Marks of Devastation should every where be left by so cruel an Enemy.

THEREFORE, although it should be granted that the most obvious and open Tokens of a Pestilence are from a spiritual and an invisible Cause, and whose Effects may perhaps sometimes be laid open to Sight, yet I have no Intention to discourage anatomical Dissections as a needless Trouble, for by such Light, Medicine is recovered from the Reproach of Conjecture; but when Bodies are opened which have been destroyed by such subtile Agents as here spoke of, there is no Confidence to be given from thence to the Nature of the Disease; and those who have been most knowing in the Nature, Use, and Disorders of the Spirits, very well can direct how to recover those Disorders, and avoid future Inconveniencies by immediate Application thereunto.

AND Lastly, to conclude this Doctrine concerning the Spirits Infection, this irrefragable Argument may be produced from the Intention of Cure; for I have experienced by more than a thousand Instances, that the more cardiack and alexipharmick Medicines are subtile and spirituous, the more certainly do they encounter the pestilential Poison with Success; whereas, on the contrary, those Medicines which are coa.r.s.er and slower of Exertion, do little or no Good. But this we refer to the curative Part hereafter in another Section.

SECTION IV.

_Of the Complication of a Pestilence with other Distempers, and particularly with the Scurvy._

AS the Pestilence is the most powerful of all other Distempers, so it also claims a particular Privilege of joining with all others; so that it does not more excel in its own Contrariety and Antipathy to Nature, than it a.s.serts a Prerogative over all those various Evils which the humane Frame is subjected to, and draws them into its a.s.sistance in exercising its cruel Power over Mankind.