I am fearful indeed of being too prolix in the Enumeration of Remedies under this Class; although I am very sensible that some Simples prudently chosen may singly encounter a Pestilence with Success, as well as some other Diseases: But because this Evil is usually attended with so many Complications, the Contrivances to oppose it should also, in the Opinion of some, be equally and proportionably complicated; and all Forces drawn up in Battle
against it with full Front, in Order to be equal to the Encounter. To this Purpose some of the Sons of Esculapius have invented manifold Compositions; and some of them so prolix, as if they intended a Sacrifice of an Hecatomb to appease the Severity of this tyrannical Destroyer.
IT would be entirely foreign to our Business here, to extract all the Medicines which some Writers abound with for this End; and it is our Business here only to take Notice of those which were made Use of with Success in the late Sickness; and in this Performance both Gratitude and Duty oblige me to begin with such as were ordered by the College, amongst which first occurs their Plague-water.
[a]℞] Radic, tormentillæ, angelicæ, pœoniæ, zedoariæ, glycirrhizæ, helenii ana [a]℥] [a][ss.] sol. Salviæ, Chelidoniæ, rutæ, summitat: rorismarini, absynthii, roris solis, artemisiæ, pimpinellæ, dracunculi, scabiosæ, agrimoniæ, melissæ, cardui, betonicæ, centaurii min. fol. & flor. calendulæ ana M i. (alii addunt flor. papaveris errat: paralys. ana p. iij.) incisa, & contusa infundantur per triduum in lib. viij. vin. alb. opt. dein F. cauta distillatio & liquor usui reservetur: But here it is by
the Way to be taken Notice, that in the Cure of a Pestilence the medicinal Forms are not to be pompously contrived with a long Catalogue of Ingredients, but carefully adapted in every Respect to the Circumstances and Exigencies of the Infected. It is also to be observed, that this Water is by no Means indifferently to be given to all; or to every one in the same Manner; as for Instance, not at all to Women under their menstrual Purgations, least it should provoke them to flow too immoderately; nor is it to be allowed to Women with Child, for Fear of Miscarriage.
MOREOVER the College hath appropriated other Medicines for the same Ends, from which we may extract the following:
[a]℞] Diascordii, vel Mithridatii [a]ʒ] j. vel [a]℥] [a][ss.] fiat dissolutio in lib.[a][ss.] possetalæ alteratæ cum partibus æq. vini albi, & aceti opt. Misce detur hæc potio servefacta, ægro stragulis benè cooperto. Or,
[a]℞] Radic. Angelicæ [a]℥] ij. tormentillæ [a]℥] j. infusis, & decoctis in aq. font. q. s. ad tertiæ p. consumptionem, adde succi limonum [a]℥] iij. vel aceti [a]℥] j. [a][ss.] bibat correptus [a]℥] vij, vel viij. hujus apozematis calefacti: Or,
[a]℞] Sem. pætasitidis [a]℈] j. sem. citri gr. xxvj. cuchianellæ [a]℈] [a][ss.] caphuræ gr. xij. misce, fiat pulvis, ex haustu aq. cardui, calendulæ, vel scordii sumendus. Or,
[a]℞] Expressionem stercoris vaccini recentis in aceto acerrimo infusi ad cochl. vij. vel viij. Or,