The Doctor is very full on this first Head of Caution, and bestows no fewer than nine Pages about Quarantines, and Lazarettoes; but as there is nothing newer said of them than what has been known, these two hundred Years; I leave that Affair to the Civil Magistrate, whose Care can never exceed, when it’s employed for the Good of the People. But as far as we may depend upon the first, and Philosophical Part of this Discourse, there is no great Occasion for either of them: We live a great way from the South of France, and the Doctor has assured us, that the Plague cannot reach us, by some hundreds of Miles. For, to our Satisfaction be it remember’d, that Air it self is very pure and harmless; nor can it otherwise be infected, than by pestilential Steams issuing out of Bodies, at the end of the Disease; as also, that they cannot travel any length, if there is not a Disposition in the Air, which it only has when supposed. And therefore, we are very little obnoxious to a Plague, and consequently have no great Occasion for Lazarettoes or Quarantines.
I cannot omit, without incurring Displeasure, the pretty Expedient the Doctor recommends, for discovering when the Plague has forsaken a Parcel of Goods; and that because he might foresee a Question might arise, about the Time they should serve their Quarantine; and whether forty Days were sufficient. His Answer is fine! why; we must set little Birds upon the exposed Goods. But, may not the Attempt prove dangerous, and as dangerous as to set a lighted Match to a good large Barrel of Gun-powder. The Reason for this Experiment, is, because it has been observed in times of the Plague, that that Country is forsaken by the Birds; and for this he quotes Diemerbroeck.
How beautifully are such Presages related by Lucretius, Virgil, Ovid, and other Poets; but how insipidly are they misapplied on this Occasion. Physicians have carefully observed and recorded, every thing considerable and extraordinary that preceded the Pestilence; and that in order to provide themselves against it, and to give the Alarm of its first Approaches, that People may provide for their Safety in time. Some of these Presages are taken from the Heavens; some from the Air; others from the Earth; and many from the Waters.
——Sæpe exiguus Mus
Augurium tibi triste dabit.
But as the Consideration of those Presages do not fall properly in my way at this time; we proceed next to consider, how a stop is put to the Plague, in Case, through a Miscarriage in the Publick Care, by the Neglect of Officers, or otherwise, such a Calamity should be suffered to befal us.
And here we must observe, that this Art of Quarantines, and Lazarettoes, is so infallible, that we may blame the Civil Magistrate, and his Officers, if ever the Plague is suffered to come among us. For my part, I cannot think any Government so foolishly malicious to suffer a Plague to come into their Country, if they knew how to avoid it. But that we may not slightly bring an ill Report against Governors; the Physicians are to be blamed, when the Orders of the Civil Magistrate are hurtful; for he always takes Counsel with Physicians in all Matters, relating to Nature and Health: This has been the Practice in all Nations, and in all Times, since Mankind has been govern’d by Law; and if these wrong Measures are owing to the Ignorance of the true Nature of Contagion, surely it’s none of the Magistrate’s Business to discover it.
The Magistrate may contradict his former Orders, for any Thing that is better, at least not so pernicious, as those whereunto he was led by Physicians. But the Physicians in London might not have advised the shutting up of Houses, if they had remember’d the fatal Experiments of it in other Countries, recorded in Books of Physick. Mercurialis tells us, how the Houses were shut up in Milan on this Occasion, but that the Magistrates found their Mistake in a Week, and set them open again, very much to the Comfort of the Healthy, and Relief of the Sick. The same learned Author informs us, that burning infected Goods was found to do great Mischief in a Plague in Padua, and what then shall we think of our celebrated Physician, who [[15]]recommends this Method of Burning? [[16]]Quapropter, says the famous Mercurialis, non possum commendare eos, qui hisce temporibus infectas supellectiles in urbibus cremant, propterea quod, &c. We may surely say, that this Error is not only owing to his Ignorance of the true Nature of Contagion, but even of his Ignorance of what Physicians do Abroad.
I think the Doctor has made a little too free with the Civil Magistrate, and his Brethren of the Faculty; especially, that he has no where told us any Thing of the Nature of Contagion; not so much as what we may read in many Books of Physick. And therefore his further inveighing against Physick and Physicians, is the most surprizing, unaccountable Indiscretion that Man ever was guilty of: A Man that has done nothing, but to corrupt it: For thus he puts an End to a great deal of rambling Stuff, about shutting up Houses. [[17]]The Management in former Times neither answers the Purpose of discovering the beginning of the Infection, nor of putting a stop to it when discovered; other Measures are certainly to be taken, which I think should be of this Nature.
Here begins an Account of Things to be done in a new Manner, and what will be found agreeable to Reason. Imprimis, Then, instead of ignorant old Women, we ought to have understanding and diligent Men. There is nothing New in this, nor very Unreasonable; but as the Doctor has enhansed the whole Knowledge of Physick in his own Person, and made old Women of his Brethren, I hope he will allow these Officers of Health to consist of discarded Physicians. Secondly, When the sick Families are gone (whether?) all the Goods of the Houses, in which they were, should be burnt; nay, the Houses themselves, if that can conveniently be done. A very good Advice, and, I hope, the City of London will erect another Monument for the Doctor, after they have burned their City, upon so reasonable Advice. But as this Advice has been found hurtful in Experience, so neither is it New, because it has been practised Two Hundred Years ago; as I lately observed. He has now the late Fire of London in view, and recommends another general Conflagration of our City, from the great Good, he fancies, accrued thereby: But the Reason he brings is admirable. For nothing approaches so near to the first Original of Contagion, as Air pent up, loaded with Damps. This is the very Reason, why Hippocrates, and all other Physicians after him, have advised making Fires for preventing the Plague; neither spared they any Expence in Scents, sweet and aromatick Woods; and even they put sacred Things to that very Use. Yet, according to Custom, the Doctor [[18]]contradicts himself, on this Article, at the small distance of four Pages; where Fires again are condemned as pernicious. The Reason alledged for this later Experiment is absolutely false; for Dr. Hodges assures us, that the Weather was not Hot in that Summer. But, I believe, the true Reason of the Contradiction is, that the Doctor will, at any Time, venture being found in a Contradiction, three Doors off, as well as four Pages off, to save his Bacon, or for a merry Conceit. But there is, even in this, nothing New, for there was one Raymundus, who is noted for this Singularity by other Authors, whose Words our Doctor seems to translate. Pestilentes Febres, says Raymundus, Ardentes sunt, & idcirco ab aere fervido, & calente augentur. I must beg leave to crowd in another Conclusion, because I follow the Doctor; that as Fires are thus hurtful, so, and for that Reason, is the firing of Guns. The Word Fire is common in both Expressions, but it was never the Heat of great Guns, but their Noise that was recommended, and that is a sort of Wind, so much recommended formerly, by Dr. Mead; but what some have too rashly advised. Mira vis verbis.