In 1551 there prevailed in Swabia a disease of the nature of plague, which determined the Duke Christoph, of Würtemburg, to withdraw himself from Stuttgard. It did not spread, and seems to have remained unknown to the rest of Germany[439]. In Spain, too, the plague[440] shewed itself, and if to this be added the influenza of the same year[441], as well as the numerous cases of malignant fevers in Germany and Switzerland, which were spoken of as still existing in the two following years[442], it will again be seen quite evidently that the fifth epidemic Sweating Sickness appeared, accompanied by a group of various epidemic diseases, which might be considered as resulting from general influences. The disease which is the subject of our research thus took its departure from Europe similarly accompanied as when it originally sprang up there, while in the interval it thrice repeated its deadly attacks.
Sect. 5.—John Kaye.
Let us dedicate a few moments to the observer of the fifth sweating pestilence, whose life presents a lively image of the peculiarities and tendencies of his age. He was born at Norwich on the 6th of October, 1510, and received his education at Gonville Hall, Cambridge. He had early evinced by some productions his great knowledge of the Greek language, and his zeal for theological investigations. At a maturer age he went to Italy, at that time the seat of scientific learning, where Baptista Montanus and Vesalius, at Padua, initiated him in the healing art. He took his Doctor’s degree at Bologna, and in 1542 he lectured on Aristotle in conjunction with Realdus Columbus, with great approbation. The following year he travelled throughout Italy, and with much diligence collated manuscripts for the emendation of Galen and Celsus, attended the prælections of Matthæus Curtius at Pisa, and then returned through France and Germany to his own country.
After being admitted as a doctor of medicine at Cambridge, he practised with great distinction at Shrewsbury and Norwich, but was soon summoned by Henry the Eighth to deliver anatomical lectures to the surgeons in London. He was much honoured at the court of Edward the Sixth, and the appointment of body physician, which this monarch bestowed on him, he retained also under Queen Mary and Elizabeth. In 1547, he became a Fellow of the College of Physicians, over which, at a later period, he presided for seven years. He constantly supported the honour of this body with great zeal, compiled its Annals from the period of its foundation by Linacre to the end of his own presidentship, and originated an establishment, the first of the kind in England[443], for annually performing two public dissections of human bodies.
That he was thus established in London before the year 1551 is certain, yet he was present in Shrewsbury, during the Sweating Sickness. His pamphlet[444] upon this disease, the first and last published in England, did not, however, appear before 1552, after all was over. It is written in strong language and a popular style, and with a laudable frankness; for Kaye blames in it, without any reserve, the gross mode of living of his countrymen, and does not fatigue his reader with too much book learning, which neither he nor his contemporaries could refrain from displaying on other occasions. He reserved this for the Latin version of his pamphlet, which was published four years later[445], and although, judged according to a modern standard, it is far from being satisfactory, yet it contains an abundance of valuable matter, and proves its author to be a good observer; and in this we can nowhere mistake that he is an Englishman of the sixteenth century, however numerous the terms he may borrow from Celsus. His doctrines are of the old Greek school throughout, of which the physicians of those times were staunch supporters; hence the term ephemera[446] pestilens, his comparison of the disease with the similar fevers of the ancients[447], and his accurate appreciation of the important doctrine of æthereal spirits, to which he refers its chief causes, and, according to which, the corrupted atmosphere (spiritus corrupti) becomes mixed in the lungs with the spirits of blood, (spiritus sanguinis,) whence it at once appears explicable to him, why many persons may be attacked with the Sweating Sickness at the same time, and even in different places, and why the parts of the body in which, according to the ancient Greek notion, the æthereal spirits developed themselves, were most violently affected with this disease[448]. From the relationship of the infected air to the æthereal spirits in the body, polluted by intemperance, it also appears explicable to him, why foreigners in England, in whom this pollution took place in a less degree, were, only in cases of individual exception, attacked by the Sweating Sickness[449], not to mention other theoretical notions.
On malaria in general, as he was an observant naturalist, he was enabled to turn to good account his experience in Italy and his knowledge of the ancients, and his estimation of the subordinate causes, with regard to which he takes up the same position as Agricola, who was also a good naturalist, is likewise on the whole worthy of approbation[450]. The immoderate use of beer, amongst the English, was considered by many as the principal reason why the Sweating Sickness was confined to this nation. On this subject he enlarges even to prolixity, with evident English predilection for this beverage which manifestly contributed to the morbid repletion of the people; and he himself acknowledged this as a principal cause of the Sweating Sickness. The injurious quality of salt-fish, as alleged by Erasmus and the German physician Hellwetter[451], he would not altogether have ventured to reject[452], for it caused constant and abundant fetid perspirations, and might thus have contributed to pave the way for the Sweating Sickness. A similar source was to be found in the dirty rush floors in the English houses[453], and other subordinate causes of the disease of which mention has been made in the course of this treatise.
As a zealous advocate of temperance, it were to be wished that he had met with more attention; but the words of a good physician are given to the winds, when they are directed against vices and habits of sensual indulgence; people require from him an infallible preservative, and not a lecture on morality. His precepts on food and beverage are circumstantial, after the manner of the ancients, and he recommends such a variety, that it is difficult to make a choice; while nothing but the greatest simplicity can be of any avail. Purifying fires, which were kindled everywhere in times of plague, are also much lauded by him, and we here learn incidentally, that the smiths and cooks remained free[454] from the Sweating Sickness. Fumigations with odoriferous substances of all kinds, even the most costly Indian spices, were everywhere employed in the houses of the rich, and no one stirred out without having with him some one of the thousand scents recommended from time immemorial during the plague. The medicines which he recommends are those that were then in vogue; among which Theriaca, Armenian Bole, and Pearls, occur in various combinations, yet most of the prophylactics which he advises for obviating any defect in the constitution are not very violent.
Kaye’s treatment of the Sweating Sickness is according to the mild old English plan, which is very judiciously and perspicuously laid down. He kept himself, on the whole, free from the influence of the schools in this instance, and the only remedy which he approved in case of necessity, was a harmless and very favourite preparation of pearls and odoriferous substances, which was called Manus Christi[455], or, in Germany, sugar of pearls. It had its origin in the fifteenth century, and was the invention of Guainerus[456], and there were various receipts for compounding it[457]. He also sometimes prescribed, at the commencement of the attack[458], bole or terra sigillata, for how could a physician of the sixteenth century doubt the antipoisonous effect of this overrated remedy? Restlessness in the patient, debility, a too thick skin, and thick blood, are set forth by him as the chief impediments to the critical sweat, and in order to remove them, he sets to work with great and laudable caution, ordering, according to circumstances, even mulled wine and greater warmth. Sometimes, too, he could not refrain from employing Theriac and Mithridate, but he did not use these remedies to any great extent. For dropsical and rheumatic patients who became the subjects of the Sweating Sickness, he prescribed a beverage of Guaiacum; he also recommended as a sudorific, the China root, which was at that time much in use. When the perspiration broke out, he positively prohibited the urging it beyond the proper point; all medicines were thence laid aside, and he trusted to aromatic vinegar and gentle succussion alone for keeping off the lethargy, without considering, with Damianus, that more severe measures were essential[459].
As a learned patron of the sciences, Kaye ranks amongst the most distinguished men of his country. Through his interest, Gonville Hall was, in the reign of Queen Mary, elevated to the rank of a college, better established, and more richly endowed. To the end of his life, he continued to preside[460] over this his favourite institution, and passed his old age[461] there, not in Monkish contemplation, like Linacre, but zealously devoted to study, as the great number of his writings testifies. He was accused of having changed his faith according to circumstances. This pliability served, it is true, to retain him in favour with sovereigns of very opposite modes of thinking: it is not, however, a sign of elevation of mind, and can only be explained in part by the spirit of the English Reformation. Kaye was a reformer in fact, inasmuch as he was a promoter of instruction, and, perhaps, laid no stress on outward profession. His versatility as a scholar is extraordinary, and would be worthy of the highest admiration, had he entirely avoided the reproach of credulity, had he not been too prolix in subordinate matters, and had he shown more decided signs of genius. At one time he translated and illustrated the writings of Galen; at another, he wrote on philology or the medical art—it must be confessed, without much originality, for he took Galen and Montanus as his patterns[462]. But where could physicians be found at that time who did not follow established doctrines? Some essays on History and English Archæology are found among his writings[463]; and his works on Natural History[464], dedicated to Conrad Gesner, are among the best of his age, because he imparted his observations in them quite plainly and naturally, free from the trammels of any school. He died at Cambridge on the 29th of July, 1573, and ordered for himself the following epitaph-“Fui Caius.”