ABOUT the Beginning of September, the Disease was at the Height; in the Course of which Month more than twelve Thousand died in a Week: But at length, that nothing might go untried to divert the Contagion, it was ordered by the Governours who were left to superintend those calamitous Affairs, (for the Court was then removed to Oxford) to burn Fires in the Streets for three Days together; yet while this was in Debate, the Physicians concerned were diffident of the Success, as the Air in it self was un-infected; and therefore rendred such a showy and expensive a Project superfluous, and of no Effect; and these Conjectures we supported by the Authority of Antiquity, and Hippocrates himself; notwithstanding which, the Fires were kindled in
all the Streets. But alas! the Controversie was soon decided; for before the three Days were quite expired, the Heavens both mourned so many Funerals, and wept for the fatal Mistake, so as to extinguish even the Fires with their Showers. I shall not determine any other Person’s Conjecture in this Case, whether these Fires may more properly be deemed the ominous Forerunners of the ensuing Conflagration, or the ensuing Funerals; but whether it was from the suffocating Qualities of the Fuel, or the wet Constitution of Air that immediately followed, the most fatal Night ensued, wherein more than four Thousand expired. May Posterity by this Mistake be warned, and not, like Empyricks, apply a Remedy where they are ignorant of the Cause.
THE Reader is by the Way to be advertised, that this Year was luxuriant in most Fruits, especially Cherries and Grapes, which were at so low a Price, that the common People surfeited with them; for this might very much contribute to that Disposition of Body as made the pestilential Taint more easily take Place.
NOR ought we here to pass by the benificent Assistances of the Rich, and the Care of the Magistrates; for the Markets being open as usual, and a greater Plenty of all Provisions, was a great Help to support the Sick; so that there was the Reverse of a Famine, which hath been observed to be so fatal to pestilential Contagions; and in this the Goodness of Heaven is always to be remembred, in alleviating a common Misery by such a Profusion of good Things from the Stores of Nature.
BUT as it were to balance this immediate Help of Providence, nothing was otherwise wanting to aggravate the common Destruction; and to which nothing more contributed than the Practice of Chymists and Quacks, and of whose Audacity and Ignorance it is impossible to be altogether silent; they were indefatigable in spreading their Antidotes; and although equal Strangers to all Learning as well as Physick, they thrust into every Hand some Trash or other under the Disguise of a pompous Title. No Country sure ever abounded with such
wicked Impostors; for all Events contradicted their Pretensions, and hardly a Person escaped that trusted to their Delusions: Their Medicines were more fatal than the Plague, and added to the Numbers of the Dead: But these Blowers of the pestilential Flames were caught in the common Ruin, and by their Death in some Measure excused the Neglect of the Magistracy, in suffering their Practice:
——— Nec Lex est justior ulla
Quàm necis Artifices Arte perire suâ.
ABOUT this Time a Person of Distinction and great Humanity, going to France upon some Affairs of State, heard that some Frenchmen were Masters of an Antipestilential Remedy, and took Care to send some Doses of it over here: By Command of the Government we were ordered to try it with due Caution, which we did with Expectations of uncommon Success, but the Mountain brought forth Death; for the Medicine, which was a Mineral Preparation, threw the Patients into their last Sleep. May it never hereafter be injoined to try Experiments with unknown and foreign Medicines, upon the Lives even
of the meanest Persons! For certainly nothing is more abhorrent to Reason, than to impose a universal Remedy, in Cases whose curative Intentions are different, and sometimes opposite; and the various Indications of a Pestilence require very different Methods of Remedy, as shall hereafter be further demonstrated.
TO this may be added, that many common Medicines were publickly Sold, which by their extraordinary Heat and Disposition to inflame the Blood, could never be fit for every Age, Sex, and Constitution indifferently, and therefore in many Cases must undoubtedly do Harm. On this Account not only the Sacred Art, but the Publick Health also suffered; yet we who were particularly employed in this Affair as Physicians, used all Sollicitations with the Magistracy to restrain such Practices, in Order to stop the Ruin they aggravated. Hence notwithstanding it was made a Question, whether in a Plague, where so many Physicians retire, (not so much for their own Preservation, as the Service of those whom they attend) it is not expedient for every one, according to his Abilities, to do his utmost