AS soon as this Horror could be said to terminate, for the most commonly a Nauseousness and Reaching succeeded, from whence there was such an excessive Loathing of Food, that even the Mention of it was irksome; a certain and infallible Sign of Seizure.
BESIDES the Nauseousness and Loathing, some were followed by grievous Vomitings, occasioned by the poisonous Quality of the Pestilence irritating and subverting the Stomach; for that, by Means of its nervous Coats, being endowed with an exquisite Sense,
endeavours to throw off any Thing offensive and corrosive with the utmost Efforts, and prevent the saline, pestilential Venom, if possible, from taking Place; insomuch that nothing is more certain, than that the Stomach, by this fine Contrivance of Nature, is ready also to throw off any other Thing disagreeable to it, as well as the Poison we are here speaking of.
SOME endure hereby such a vehement and continued Irritation, that cannot be asswaged by any Remedies, how often soever repeated, and sometimes the Reaching continues after the Strength of the Patient is too far spent to throw any Thing up, whereby the Symptoms aggravate, and the pestilential Venom takes deeper Root in the Constitution.
AFTER the principal Load of Humours at the Stomach are thrown up, a very frothy Bile, fermenting like Yest, follows, that in its Colour is greenish, and sometimes so fetid, that a Person cannot endure the Room without holding his Nose, such is the prodigious Putrefaction and Malignity in some of these Cases.
BUT where the Use of Medicines, otherwise effectual to stop the most obstinate Vomiting, proves ineffectual, and there follows a great Thirst and Heat, it gives strong Suspicion of Carbuncles in the Stomach, and immediate Death, so that the infected as it were vomit up their Souls, which (if we believe Helmont) have their Residence there; but this will be further spoke of in the Prognosticks.
BUT before I proceed any further, the Health of my Country, and the Concern of Posterity, oblige me to take Notice of the pernicious Practice of Empiricks of all Orders, with whom it was a Custom to give Emeticks; for certainly many were destroyed by this Practice, the convulsive Reachings to vomit being carried beyond a Possibility to bear it. And truly the best Deliberation and Thought I was able to take in such Exigencies, where I happened to be called, was but of little Effect, and after Administration of the best Medicines that the Rules of Physick could invent, Things generally grew worse; which made it appear as impossible to rectifie a rash and fatal Error in the Conduct of a violent
Disease, as in the Management of a military Engagement; but of this we shall have Occasion to say more hereafter.
YET to satisfie any inquisitive Person how this primary Affection of the Stomach does arise, and through what Passages the pestilential Poison makes its Entrance, it is to be observed, that nothing is more plain than that the pestilential Miasmata not only enter at the larger Passages, but also through the Pores of the Skin, even to the whole nervous System, from whence they are communicated to all other Parts; for this is peculiar to the Nerves, that they not only convey the first Impression to the Stomach by its general Consent with all Parts, but also when that is after any Manner whatsoever affected, they communicate it to the whole Frame, as in the taking a Vomit.
SOMETIMES the pestilential Aura is mixed with the Food, and swallowed therewith, which after some Delay in the Stomach being digested and dissolved, lets out the imprisoned Venom to vellicate the Fibres into Reachings and convulsive Motions: And to put this altogether out of