Fracastorius[28], an eminent Italian Physician, tells us, ‘That in the Year 1511, when the Germans were in Possession of Verona, there arose a deadly Disease amongst the Soldiers, from the wearing only of a Coat purchased for a small Value; for it was observed, that every Owner of it soon sickned and died; until at last the Cause of it was so manifestly known from some Infection in the Coat, that it was ordered to be burned.’ Ten thousand Persons, he says, were computed to fall by this Plague before it ceased.
And Kephale, in his Medela Pestilentiæ, printed Anno 1665, acquaints us, That the following Plagues were produced from the following Causes.
That in the Year 1603, the contagious Seeds were brought to England amongst Seamens Clothes in White-Chappel; and in that Year there died of the Plague 30561.
That in the Year 1625, was bred and produced by rotten Mutton at Stepney; of which died 35403 Persons.
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 Marseilles, 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 Phœnicia, 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 Æsculapius, 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.