A Discourse on the Plague

by Richard Mead

BUT I must confess, I find no Reason for any Apprehensions of this kind, from any thing I have advanced. For what extraordinary Danger can there be, in lodging Powers for the proper Management of People under the Plague, with a Council of Health, or other Magistrates, who shall be accountable, like all other Civil Officers, for their just Behaviour in the Execution of them? Though this I must leave to those, who are better skilled in the Nature of Government. But sure I am, that by the Rules here given, both the Sick will be provided for with more Humanity, and the Country more effectually defended against the Progress of the Disease, than by any of the Methods heretofore generally put in Practice, either in our own, or in other Nations.

THE Usage among Us, established by Act of Parliament, of Imprisoning in their Houses every Family the Plague seizes on, without allowing any one to pass in or out, but such as are appointed by Authority, to perform the necessary Offices about the Sick, is certainly the severest Treatment imaginable; as it exposes the whole Family to suffer by the same Disease; and consequently is little less than assigning them over to the cruellest of Deaths: As I have shewn in the Discourse.

THE Methods practised in France are likewise obnoxious to great Objections. Crowding the Sick together in Hospitals can serve to no good Purpose; but instead thereof will promote and spread the Contagion, and besides will expose the Sick to the greatest Hardships. It is no small Part of the Misery, that attends this terrible Enemy of Mankind, that whereas moderate Calamities open the Hearts of Men to Compassion and Tenderness, this greatest of Evils is found to have the contrary Effect. Whether Men of wicked Minds, through Hopes of Impunity, at these Times of Disorder and Confusion, give their evil Disposition full Scope, which ordinarily is restrained by the Fear of Punishment; or whether it be, that a constant View of Calamities and Distress does so pervert the Minds of Men, as to blot out all Sentiments of Humanity; or whatever else be the Cause: certain it is, that at such Times, when it should be expected to see all Men unite in one common Endeavour, to moderate the publick Misery; quite otherwise, they grow regardless of each other, and Barbarities are often practised, unknown at other Times. Accordingly Diemerbroek informs us, that he himself had often seen these Hospitals committed to the Charge of Villains, whose Inhumanity has suffered great Numbers to perish by Neglect, and that sometimes they have even smothered such as have been very weak, or have had nauseous Ulcers difficult to cure. Insomuch, that in many Places the Sick have chose to lay themselves in Fields, in the open Air, under the slightest Coverings, rather than to fall into the barbarous Hands of those who have had the Management of these Hospitals[12].

THE rigorous Restraints observed at their Lines, are attended also with the like Inconveniences. For by absolutely denying a Passage to People from infected Places, they subject to the same common Ruin, both from the Disease, and from the Disorders committed in such Places, those, whom their Fortunes would otherwise furnish with Means of escaping: and this, no doubt, in every free Country, must be looked upon as an unjust Infringement of Liberty, and a Diminution of Mens natural Rights, not to be allowed.

NOW, under all these Difficulties, I cannot but with the greatest Satisfaction observe, that my Precepts are well nigh, nay altogether free from them; and yet a proper Regard is had to the Disease. As soon as ever the Sick are grown numerous, I advise, that they be left in their Houses, without any of those unmerciful Restraints heretofore put upon them and the Families they belonged to. I might, perhaps, have justly directed, that whenever those, who frequent or dwell in an infected House, go abroad, they should be obliged to carry about them a long Stick of some remarkable Colour, or other visible Token, by which People may be warned from holding too free Converse with them: this being the Practice on these Occasions, as I have heard, in some Places. The Removal of the Sick from their Houses, I advise only at the beginning, when it will be attended with none of the forementioned Inconveniences: but is what, for the most Part, those Sick should themselves desire. It has hardly ever been known, when the Disease did not first begin among the Poor. Such therefore only will be subject to this Regulation, whose Habitations by the Closeness of them are in all Respects very incommodious for diseased Persons. So that my Advice chiefly amounts to the giving Relief to the Poor, who shall first be infected, by removing them into more convenient Lodgings than their own, where they shall be better provided for than at home. And the Removal of them will not be attended with that Danger, it is natural for the Unskilful to apprehend in so dreadful a Disease; because it is every Day practised in the Small-Pox, with great Safety. And whereas I have before observed, that People have often suffered in the publick Hospitals by the Inhumanity of their Attendants; in this Case, little or nothing of that kind is to be feared: for I have proposed this Removal of the Sick only, at a Time, when a long Series of Calamities has not yet bred Disorders and Hardness of Heart. Nay, it may be reasonably expected that they should rather be used with the tenderest Care, when every one shall believe the Stopping of the Distemper, and consequently their own Safety to depend upon it. And as this Treatment will be both safe and beneficial to the Sick, so it will be much more evidently for the Advantage of the sound Part of the Family, and of those who live near them. For as the poorer Sort of People subsist by their daily Labour, no sooner shall the Plague have broke out among them, but the sick Families, and all their Neighbours likewise, if not relieved by the Publick, shall be abandoned to perish by Want, unless the Progress of the Distemper put a shorter Period to their Lives.

THIS Observation, that the Plague usually begins among the Poor, was the Reason, why I did not make any Difference in my Directions for removing the Sick, in regard to their different Fortunes, when I first gave my Thoughts upon this Subject: which however, to prevent Cavils, I have at present done; and have shewn what Method ought to be taken, if by some unusual Chance, the Plague should at the beginning enter a wealthy Family. And, in this Case, I have advised nothing, which I would not most readily submit to my self: For I should much rather chuse to be thus removed from my Dwelling, with the Distemper upon me, to save my Family, than they, by being shut up with me, should be all exposed to perish. And as this Way of treating diseased Families is the most compassionate, that can be devised with any regard to the restraining the Progress of the Distemper; so it is still much preferable to what was formerly practised amongst us, on other Accounts. For, according to what I have advised, it is only required, to remove some few Families at the beginning of the Disease: whereas the Method of shutting up Houses was continued through the whole Course of the Sickness. Perhaps the Plague, under this Management, may not reach half a Score Families: I have given Instances, where it has thus been stopt in One.

WHAT relates to the inclosing Infected Places with Lines, I have so regulated, that no body can be subjected to any Degree of Hardship thereby: for I have provided, that free Liberty be given to every one, that pleases, to depart from the Infected Place, without being put to any other Difficulty, than the Performance of a short Quarantaine of about three Weeks, in some Place of Safety. So that no one shall be compelled to continue in the infected Town, whom his own Circumstances will not confine.

THIS part of my Directions is not so general as the rest, because some Places are too great to admit of it: which occasioned my proposing it with a Restriction[13]. But as this is a great Inconvenience to the rest of the Country, so it is far from being any Advantage to the Place thus left unguarded. For when all, who leave an infected Place, carry with them Certificates of their having submitted to such Quarantaine, as may remove all Cause of Suspicion, Travelling will be much more safe and commodious, than otherwise it can be. For want of this, when the Plague was last at London, it was difficult to withdraw from it, while the Country was every where afraid of Strangers, and the Inns on the Roads were unsafe to lodge in for those, who travelled from the City; when it could not be known, but Infection might be received in them by others come from the same Place.

AND from hence it happened that the Plague, when last in England, though much more moderate, and though it continued not above one Year in the City of London, did yet spread it self over a great Part of England, getting into Kent, even as far as Dover; into Sussex, Hampshire, Dorsetshire, Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire, Warwickshire, Derbyshire, and, to mention no more, as far as Newcastle[14].

THUS, as I have examined through the Course of the following Treatise, with all possible Care, into the Agreement of my Precepts with the Nature of the Plague; so I have now considered how far they can conveniently be put in Practice.