But to return to Damps; he allows they approach the first Original of Contagion, so that if they are not the first, they may very well be the second Original of Contagion; for where there is a first, there is always a second in every Order and Number of Things. Now, as Fires are manifestly useful in the Damps of Coal Pits, and Goals, why not in the raw Damps of Contagion? And if that is a true Experiment, why does Dr. Mead forsake Hippocrates, and the antient Sages of Physick, for an Error that is not new; and, perhaps, not agreeable to Reason? And Ovid tells us, Temporibus Medicina valet. As to the Story of the Black Assize at Oxford, it shall not be carelessly neglected.
The last Member of Novelty mentioned, is the keeping our Houses and Streets clean from Filth, Carrion, and all manner of Nusances; and I hope every Body will readily admit, that this was never done before, neither here at Home, nor Abroad in other Countries; and I’ll swear for him, this Time, that it is highly necessary. His Inference is strong; for if all these new and reasonable Instructions take effect, there will be no need of any Methods, for Correcting the Air, Purifying Houses, or of Rules for Preserving particular Persons from Infection. Yet in this very instant there follows a fresh Contradiction, if I understand him; but least I do not, I shall give you his own Words, in order to be better inform’d. To all which, if the Plague get head, so that the Sick are too many to be removed, Regard must be had. Now, as far as I understand the Doctor, the Plague may get Head against all these infallible Methods, but I cannot for my Life tell, what we are to Regard; but as these Methods are both fallible and infallible, at the same Time, the Doctor has fallen into another gross Contradiction.
But, which is a more melancholy Story, this seems to be the whole of Preventing we have hitherto expected; so that all the Philosophy he brought forth, in the first Part of his Discourse, has only been to make us Constables and Scavengers, to set the Watch, and clean the Streets. A fine Account, indeed, of Preventing.
This Discourse never look’d as if it were to live long, its first Stamina were so rotten, and defective; and any one, with half an Eye, might see it would die of an Apoplexy, or first die and then have an Apoplexy, as the Fashion of Dying has been of late.
When I formerly observed the great Neglect of the Disposition and Aptness of a Subject to receive and cherish the Disease, I was then very much afraid that the celebrated Dr. Mead must suffer, when it was his Business to teach us how to preserve our selves from Infection; which has, at this Time, befallen him with a witness; for now our Security consists in the former. But if the Plague should chance to force his Lines, it is very plain, that we must surrender at Discretion to this most cruel Enemy. Our Generals taught the French, some Years ago, how slender a Defence Lines were; and the Plague has taught them, to their sad Experience, how insufficient they are to restrain its Violence; for it has nor only marched over their Lines in Defiance of their Guards, but even Eastwards and Southwards, to the Contempt of Matthæus Villanus, and our Doctor, his zealous Follower.
But I am, again, afraid that the Case at present is much the same as it was in the beginning of his short Discourse; for he then proposed to treat of Contagion, but he quickly dropp’d it, without so much as telling us what is meant by the Word. Here now we should prevent, but he knows as little of this as he did formerly of Contagion: For when he [[19]]is to consider by what Means particular Persons may best defend themselves against Contagion; he adds, for the effectual doing of which it would be necessary to put the Humors of the Body into such a State, as not to be alterable by the Matter of Infection. What Physician ever said so before Dr. Mead? And if an Impossibility of this Nature was expected from the Faculty of Physick, I hope they would acknowledge and confess their Ignorance. It is the same Thing, as if the Government should expect, that Physicians are to cure the Subjects of any one Disease, so that they should never feel it hereafter; the Curative Part of Physick, in that Sense, must be as impossible as the Preservative. Mankind is more easy, and not only bears with what is not possible, but even with Blunders, that proceed from Ignorance and Stupidity. All that is expected from Physicians, is to have such Rules, whereby our Health may be secured to them, as far as it is consistent with Human Nature, and the known Means: And if Dr. Mead would have communicated some of those wise Rules, that are to be found in Books of Physick, even without deducing them from any Principle of Reason, he then had done them the greatest Good, and what they seem to want and desire.
That we may see, how little Doctor Mead understands the Method of Preventing, and also how practicable it is: We find Hippocrates values himself for being the first that foresaw a Disease; and he tells us, That [[20]]Diseases do not come upon Men of a sudden; but being collected by degrees, shew themselves afterwards in the bulk. And [[21]]Galen says, That all Physicians are agreed, that there must be some Time for breeding a Distemper. Now, if Diseases take a Time before they are bred; then it is an obvious Consequence, that Diseases may be prevented. Surely this is consonant to common Sense; for an Embryo Disease must be far more easily cured, than a Disease after it is formed, and settled upon any Person; and thereby his Strength, or Constitution, destroyed: For however Curative Method, and Preservative, are different Words, they only signify the same Thing at different Times. Curing a nascent Disease is preserving us from being hurt by it; and curing a settled Disease, where the Instruments of Action are hurt, is curing it in the common Acceptation.
And therefore our Doctor seems to have no manner of Notion of these Words, when he would tell us that it is as impossible to prevent the Plague; as to have a Specifick Preservative from the Small Pox; which we find is far from being impossible. But why a Specifick? Must he have a Specifick, because Dr. Anodyne Necklace has one? I cannot find any other Reason, especially, that it now plainly appears, and is evident, that curing a Disease, and preventing it, is the same Action, and may be done with the same Tools, whether they are Common, or Specifick, in the strictest Sense Physicians use those Words. This his Misunderstanding the Doctrine of Physicians is further manifest from the last Paragraph of his Discourse; that his Directions may be of Use towards establishing a better Method of Cure, than Authors have commonly taught, which might be true, if that Doctrine had been drawn from the Nature of Infection or Contagion; but, at present, he knows as little of the grammatical Sense of these Terms, as he does of the Things themselves.
Let us cease, then, to wonder why so great Care is had to keep our Houses cool, at Page 47, and so little for our Persons, at Page 49 of the Discourse; and in Consequence to that, we find more Receipts for a House than for a Man. He mentions Vinegar upon the Authority of Rhazes, which is no more for a Person that affects an Opinion for being learned, than if he had recommended it from Dr Hodges; since Physicians know, how much it has been esteemed by the most antient Physicians of Greece and Italy: But this its Virtue in the Plague of Pestilence is not contrary to what Authors advise, in making Fumes of hot Things on that Occasion. This is very manifest, if the Doctor will consider what the great Celsus has said of it.
But it will not be difficult to give a very probable Conjecture, why our Doctor gives so trifling, and contradictory Account of those Medicines, recommended for preserving us against the Plague; even, when there is not so great a Store for any other Disease, and some of them come well recommended for the Purpose of Preventing; if we remember the common Method of our Author through all this Book; for he constantly tells us, in the end of one Paragraph, what he offers to our Belief in the next. He has all along thrown mighty Contempt upon Physicians, when he would recommend himself; and now he disparages their Medicines; and surely, upon no other Design, but to set up his own. But what in the Name of Wonder are they? In this consists the great Mystery of State. If so, then there is an end of our wondering.