A Discourse on the Plague Part 5

THIS is the Method in which the _Plague_ must be treated in following the natural Course of the Distemper. But the Patient in most Cases runs so great Hazard in this way, notwithstanding the utmost Care, that it would be of the greatest Service to Mankind under this Calamity, if some artificial Discharge for the corrupted Humours could be found out, not liable to so great Hazard, as the natural Way. To this Purpose _large Bleeding_ and _profuse Sweating_ are recommended to us upon some Experience.

DR. _Sydenham_ tried both these Evacuations with good Success, and has made two very judicious Remarks upon them. The _first_ is, that they ought not to be attempted unless in the Beginning of the Sickness, before the natural Course of the Distemper has long taken Place: because otherwise we can only expect to put all into Confusion without any Advantage. His _other_ Observation is, that we cannot expect any prosperous Event from either of these Evacuations, unless they are very copious: there being no Prospect of surmounting so violent a Malignity without bolder Methods than must be taken in ordinary Cases.

AS for _Bleeding_, by some Accounts from _France_, I have been informed, that some of the Physicians there have carried this Practice so far, as upon the first Day of the Distemper to begin with bleeding about twelve Ounces, and then to take away four or five Ounces every two Hours after.

They pretend to extraordinary Success from this Method, with the a.s.sistance only of cooling _Ptisanes_, and such like Drinks, which they give plentifully at the same Time. Such profuse Bleeding as this may perhaps not suit with our Const.i.tutions so well as with theirs; for in common Cases they use this Practice much more freely than we: Yet we must draw Blood with a more liberal Hand than in any other Case, if we expect Success from it. I shall excuse myself from defining exactly how large a Quant.i.ty of Blood is requisite to be drawn, for want of particular Experience: but I think fit to give this Admonition, that, in so desperate a Case as this, it is more prudent to run some hazard of exceeding, than to let the Patient perish for want of due Evacuation.

AS for _Sweating_, which is the other Method proposed, it ought, no doubt, to be continued without Intermission full twenty-four Hours, as Dr. _Sydenham_ advises. He is so particular in his Directions about it, that I need say little. I shall only add, that _Theriaca_, and the like solid Medicines, being offensive to the Stomach, are not the most proper _Sudorifics_. I should rather commend an Infusion in boiling Water of _Virginia Snake-Root_, or, in want of this, of some other warm _Aromatic_, with the Addition of about a fourth Part of _Aqua Theriacalis_, and a proper Quant.i.ty of Syrup of Lemons to sweeten it.

From which, in Illnesses of the same kind with the _Goal Fever_, which approaches the nearest to the _Pestilence_, I have seen very good Effects.

WHETHER either of these Methods, of _Bleeding_, or of _Sweating_, will answer the Purpose intended by them, must be left to a larger Experience to determine; and the Trial ought by no means to be neglected, especially in those Cases, which promise but little Success from the natural Course of the Disease.

_FINIS._

[Ill.u.s.tration]

Footnotes:

[1] See the Dedication.

[2] _Vide_ Huet. De rebus ad eum pertinentibus, _pag._ 23.

[3] Observations sur la Peste de Ma.r.s.eille, p. 38, 39, 40.

[4] Ibid. _p._ 113.

[5] _Vid._ Philos. Transactions No. 370.

[6] Le Journal des Scavans, 1722. _pag._ 279.

[7] _Vid._ Dissertation sur la Contagion de la Peste. A Toulouse 1724.

[8] _Vid._ Mechanical Account of Poisons, _pag._ 24.

[9] Vid. Philos. Trans. No. 372.

[10] _Vid._ Lettre de Messieurs _Le Moine_ et _Bailly_.

[11] Astruc, Dissertation sur la Contagion de la Peste. A Toulouse, 1724. 8o.

[12] _Diemerbroek_ De Peste, _p._ 120.

[13] In these Words, _Where it can be done_.

[14] _Vid._ the _Gazettes_ of the Years 1665. _and_ 1666.

[15] Celsus de Medic. in Praesat. Morbos ad iram deorum immortalium relatos esse, et ab iisdem opem posci solitam.

[16] Libr. De morbo sacro; et libr. De aere, locis, et aquis.

[17] Observat. et Reflex, touchant la Nature, etc. de la Peste de Ma.r.s.eilles, pag. 47. et suiv.

[18] Journal de la Contagion a Ma.r.s.eilles, pag. 6.

[19] Lib. 2. +Hoti heteros aph' heterou, therapeias anapimplamenoi, hosper ta probata ethneskon; kai ton pleiston phthoron touto enepoiei; eite gar me theloien dediotes allelois prosienai, apollunto eremoi, kai oikiai pollai ekenothesan aporia tou therapeusantos; eite prosioien, diephtheironto, kai malista hoi aretes ti metapoioumenoi.+ The beginning of this Pa.s.sage, as it here stands, though it is found thus in all the Editions of _Thucydides_, is certainly faulty, +therapeias anapimplamenoi+ being no good Sense. The Sentence I shall presently cite from _Aristotle_ shews that this may be rectified only by removing the Comma after +heterou+, and placing it after +therapeias+, for +prosanapimplemi+ in _Aristotle_ absolutely used signifies _to infect_. With this Correction, the Sense of the Place will be as follows: _The People took Infection by their Attendance on each other, dying like Folds of Sheep.

And this Effect of the Disease was the princ.i.p.al Cause of the great Mortality: for either the Sick were left dest.i.tute, their Friends fearing to approach them, by which means Mult.i.tudes of Families perished without a.s.sistance; or they infected those who relieved them, and especially such, whom a Sense of Virtue and Honour obliged most to their Duty._

The Sense here ascribed to the word +anapimplemi+ is confirmed yet more fully by a Pa.s.sage in _Livy_, where he describes the Infection attending a Plague or Camp Fever, which infested the Armies of the _Carthaginians_ and _Romans_ at the Siege of _Syracuse_, in such words, as shew him to have had this Pa.s.sage of _Thucydides_ in view; for he says, _aut neglecti desertique, qui incidissent, morerentur; aut a.s.sidentes curantesque eadem vi morbi repletos sec.u.m traherent_. Lib.

xxv. c. 26.

[20] L. 6. v. 1234.

----nullo cessabant tempore apisci Ex aliis alios avidi contagia morbi.

Et v. 1241.

Qui fuerant autem praesto, Contagibus ibant.

[21] Sect. I. +Dia ti pote ho loimos mone ton noson malista tous plesiazontas tois therapeuomenois prosanapimplesi?+

[22] +Peri diaphoras pyreton, Bib. 1.+

[23] De Peste, c. iv. annot. 6.

[24] Evagrii Histor. Eccles. l. iv. c. 29.

[25] Gastaldi De avertenda et profliganda Peste, p. 117.

[26] Ibid. p. 118.

[27] Ibid. p. 117.

[28] See Bills of Mortality for the Year 1665.

[29] The Sweating Sickness.

[30] Nat. Hist. l. vii. c. 50.

[31] Histor. l. ii.

[32] Histor. Ecclesiast. l. iv. c. 29.

[33] De Bello Persico, l. ii. c. 22.

[34] Vid. Hodges De Peste.