No good Work carries its own Reward with it so much as this kind of Charity: and therefore, be the Expence what it will, it must never be thought unreasonable. For nothing approaches so near to the first Original of the Plague, as Air pent up, loaded with Damps, and corrupted with the Filthiness, that proceeds from Animal Bodies.
Our common Prisons afford us an Instance of something like this, where very few escape what they call the Goal Fever, which is always attended with a Degree of Malignity in Proportion to the Closeness and Stench of the Place: and it would certainly very well become the Wisdom of the Government, as well with regard to the Health of the Town, as in Compassion to the Prisoners, to take Care, that all Houses of Confinement should be kept as airy and clean, as is consistent with the Use, to which they are designed.
The Black Assise at Oxford, held in the Castle there in the Year 1577, will never be forgot[84]; at which the Judges, Gentry, and almost all that were present, to the Number of three hundred, were killed by a poisonous Steam, thought by some to have broken forth from the Earth; but by a noble and great Philosopher[85] more justly supposed to have been brought by the Prisoners out of the Goal into Court; it being observed, that they alone were not injured by it.
At the same Time, that this Care is taken of Houses, the proper Officers should be strictly charged to see that the Streets be washed and kept clean from Filth, Carrion, and all manner of Nusances; which should be carried away in the Night Time: nor should the Laystalls be suffered to be too near the City. Beggers and idle Persons should be taken up, and such miserable Objects, as are neither fit for the common Hospitals, nor Work-Houses, should be provided for in an Hospital of Incurables.
Orders indeed of this Kind are necessary to be observed at all Times, especially in populous Cities; and therefore I am sorry to take Notice, that in these of London and Westminster there is no good Police established in these Respects: for want of which the Citizens and Gentry are every Day annoyed more ways than one.
If these early Precautions, we have mentioned, prove successful, there will be no need of any Methods for Correcting the Air, Purifying Houses, or of Rules for preserving particular Persons from Infection: to all which, if the Plague get head, so that the Sick are too many to be removed (as they will be when the Disease has raged for a considerable Time) Regard must be had.
As to the first: Fire has been almost universally recommended for this Purpose, both by the Ancients and Moderns; who have advised to make frequent and numerous Fires in the Towns infected. This Precept, I think, is almost entirely founded upon a Tradition, that Hippocrates put a stop to a Plague in Greece by this means. But it is to be observed, that there is no mention made of any Thing like it in the Works of Hippocrates. The best Authority we have for it, is the Testimony of Galen, though it is also mentioned by other Authors. Galen, recommending Theriaca against the Pestilence, has thought fit, it seems, to compare it to Fire; and, upon this Conceit, relates, that Hippocrates cured a Plague, which came from Æthiopia into Greece, by purifying the Air with Fires; into which were thrown sweet-scented Herbs, and Flowers, together with Ointments of the finest Flavour. It is remarkable, that among the Epistles ascribed to Hippocrates, which, though not genuine, yet are older than Galen, there is a Decree said to be made by the Athenians in Honour of this Father of Physicians, which, making mention of the Service he had done his Country in a Plague, says only, that he sent his Scholars into several Parts, with proper Instructions to cure the Disease. By which it should seem, that this Story of the Fires was hardly or not at all known at the Time, when these Letters were compiled. And Soranus may yet more confirm us, that it was framed long after the Death of Hippocrates: for Soranus only says in general, that Hippocrates foretold the coming of the Pestilence, and took care of the Cities of Greece; without any mention of having used this particular Expedient. Plutarch indeed speaks of a Practice like this as commonly approved among Physicians, which he makes use of to illustrate a certain Custom of the Egyptians: of whom he says, that they purify the Air by the Fumes of Resin and Myrrh, as Physicians correct the Foulness, and attenuate the Thickness thereof in Times of Pestilence, by burning Sweet-Woods, Juniper, Cypress[86] &c.
This I take to be the Sum of what can be learned from Antiquity in Relation to this Point; from whence we may see, that Writers have concluded a little too hastily for the use of common Fires in this Case, upon the Authority and Example of Hippocrates, though we should allow the Fact as related by Galen: when it will not from thence appear that Hippocrates himself relied upon them; since he thought it necessary to take in the Assistance of aromatic Fumes. But as this Fact is not grounded upon sufficient Authority, so it is needless to insist long upon it. The Passage I have brought from Plutarch will better explain what was the Sentiment of those Physicians who approved the Practice. It seems they expected from thence to dispel the Thickness and Foulness of the Air. And no doubt but such evil Dispositions of the Air, as proceed from Damps, Exhalations, and the like, may be corrected even by common Fires, and the Predisposition of it from these Causes to receive Infection sometimes removed. But I think this Method, if it be necessary, should be put in Practice before the coming of the Pestilence. For when the Distemper is actually begun, and rages, since it is known to spread and increased by the Heat of the Summer, and on the contrary checked by the Cold in Winter; undoubtedly, whatever increases that Heat, will so far add Force to the Disease: as Mercurialis takes notice, that Smiths, and all those who worked at the Fire were most severely used in the Plague at Venice in his Time[87]. Whether the Service Fires may do by correcting any other ill Qualities of the Air, will counterbalance the Inconvenience upon this Account, Experience only can determine: and the fatal Success of the Trials made here in the last Plague, is more than sufficient to discourage any farther Attempts of this Nature. For Fires being ordered in all the Streets for three Days together, there died in one Night following no less than four thousand (if we may believe Dr. Hodges:) whereas in any single Week before or after, never twice that Number were carried off[88]. And we find that upon making the same Experiment in the last Plague at Marseilles, the Contagion was every Day spread more and more thro’ the City with increas’d Rage and Violence[89].
What has been said of Fires, is likewise to be understood of Firing of Guns, which some have too rashly advised. The proper Correction of the Air would be to make it fresh and cool: Accordingly the Arabians[90], who were best acquainted with the Nature of Pestilences, advise People to keep themselves as airy as possible, and to chuse Dwellings exposed to the Wind, situate high, and refreshed with running Waters.
As for Houses, the first Care ought to be to keep them clean: for as Nastiness is a great Source of Infection, so Cleanliness is the greatest Preservative; which shews us the true Reason, why the Poor are most obnoxious to Contagious Diseases. It is remarked of the Persians, that though their Country is surrounded every Year with the Plague, they seldom or never suffer any Thing by it themselves: and it is likewise known, that they are the most cleanly People of any in the World, and that many among them make it a great Part of their Religion to remove Filthiness and Nusances of every Kind from all Places about their Cities and Dwellings[91].